A Weekend in Nicaragua

Well, After a chill afternoon yesterday (some free time after we finished the work project in the morning), we began our weekend in Nicaragua.

Friday night, time to hang with the older kids from the orphanage. The older girls came out with the girls from the team for some dinner at a Pizza place and a trip to the Circus! Yes, thats right I said the Circus. We as a group got to go to the Mexican Circus in Nicaragua. Priceless. Just to give you some of the highlights, imagine elephants, tigers, a clown on a trampoline, and so much more. The girls had a blast. My favorite was when I looked back up and saw our team inter mixed with the kids from the orphanage all laughing at the same things (even when we gringos couldn't understand a word). At the end of the night I asked all of the girls what their favorite part was and they said "Todo" (All/Everything). It was a wonderful evening out, a lot of girly laughter all around. While we were living it up at the circus the guys took the older boys to a soccer field to play a few games. They split up into 4 teams of 7 and played the night away. After a lot of running around they went to a classic Nicaraguan buffet for dinner. During our porch time last night (the time of night where we sit around as a team discussing our favorite parts of the day, most of the team expressed how they enjoyed connecting with the kids who are mostly their same ages. It really set in that we are all truely the same, even when we live in completely separate worlds.

Well, to keep the crazy weekend going we woke up early this morning and hopped on a bus to go to the River for the day! We were the first team ever to take a trip to the river, so needless to say we were all pretty excited to see what the place would look like (I was praying the whole way there that everyone would have fun). Well, I had no reason to worry. We arrived to find a big watering hole, that was perfect for all of the little kids to swim in. There was also a waterfall and area that was perfect for jumping in and trying flips (parents, no worries all were safe in Nicaragua ;-)). Our trip host may have said it was the craziest place he has been to all summer, so I'm sure you can imagine that all had fun. At the end of the day, the River Trip was a success.

With only two days left we are all just trying to take it in and truly be present with the kids, and make some great memories along the way. In store for us tomorrow is church with the kids in the morning, some activities at the orphanage tomorrow afternoon, and a large group time with the older kids tomorrow night!

(Andrew says, Hi mom!)