Nicaragua Day 4: Tuesday

After a night of rough sleep, I awake wondering if there's any hope for these families in the village to get a "better life."  But then I am convincted; who am I to decide that my life is better than theirs?  Yes, I have clean water and a ton of healthy food to choose from, but does all my "stuff" make my life better?  I realize that the answer is "no".  My God is the same as theirs.  They seem genuinely happy, and find joy in the simple things of life, instead of being distracted by the new big thing.  They also seem to love their families and have a strong sense of community.  I can see how God has been working here long before the Americans arrived, which shows me that He loves and cares for us, regardless of economic status.

 

A nice surprise this morning: pancakes for breakfast!  They were much-needed after the soup the night before.

As we arrive in the village, the kids seem to come out of nowhere.  It's like we put out some kind of invisible radar that alerts them to our presence!

Theresa has the first lesson this morning and realizes her supplies have been forgotten.  She decides to improvise, and it turns out even better than she planned, I think. Her first lesson was on germ transmission; there was much talk of flies and poop.  The kids thought it was hilarious and enjoyed making pipe cleaner "mozquas" (flies).  I actually saw several kids bring their creation to class every day after that.

Seven moms showed up for the classes today.  We're pretty sure the threat of "come to class or we stop drilling" scared them.

After Theresa's lesson, Karen sat with the women for a lesson on diarrhea and oral rehydration.  We played another rousing game of "pato, pato, pollo" to keep the kids occupied.

 Karen finished her lesson at 11, and Scarleth sent the kids home for lunch, telling them to return at 1:30.  Big mistake!  They were done with lunch before we had even started and came to find us at the drill site.  We hated sending them away but felt more awful about eating our abundant lunch in front of them.  Lunch, by the way was tuna, which is so not on my list of "okay" foods.

Obviously, the children couldn't stay away for the full 2 1/2 hours!  They loved having their pictures taken!

Little Eric was famous for this green shirt.  I think he wore it 4 out of 5 days, with the name tag still attached.  He always sported the matching undies too, never pants.

After lunch Theresa reviewed the "poop" lesson.

Then we did Bible stories and crafts.  The kids were so well-behaved on Monday but became more restless today.  The number of them also doubled!  Word must've spread about how fun we were. 

As they became more restless, we decided to get out the toys earlier today.  Surprisingly, they were more excited to see the jump ropes and frisbess again than the soccer balls.  At one point, there were 4 frisbees coming at me from 4 different throwers.  At one point a boy even complimented me on a catch, saying "Muy bonita!"  I'll have to show Reef and Jonas my new skills.

The littlest kids spent the whole time with the bubbles, and we have to start rationing them to make sure we have enough to get through the week!

Kristin and I are exhausted after 2 hours of frisbee-playing!  We talk about feeling guilty because we'd never spend two hours playing frisbee non-stop with our children at home.  I hope to may a bigger effort when I get home.

Here's one of the very few pictures I have of the actual well-digging.  From what we were told, the team made great progress the first couple of days!  We are covering the process in prayer because I know I'd be disappointed if we didn't leave a finished well.

 

The ride home is a rough one; I feel very nauseous, probably from eating a small lunch.  Kristin and Karen took a ride to the store when we got home.  I wanted to go but could NOT stay in that van any longer!  I feel better after a cool shower.  The cold water isn't so bad anymore since we're all so hot after the day's work!

We experience a quick thunderstorm, which I always love.  Dinner is fried chicken, so I was happy!  I skyped briefly with the family, but the boys seemed more interested in looking at themselves on the screen than me!  We had to sign off when Poppy started getting upset. 

The evening is spent preparing crafts for Wednesday.  We are all frustrated when we hear that the copier is out of ink.  It was just another curveball we didn't anticipate.  While it was annoying and we complained a lot, I think those moments when things didn't go quite as planned were important for me.  They reminded me that life in the mission field isn't always easy and probably rarely goes exactly as we plan.  But it always goes according to God's plan.  And, we found out later that Jorge was actually able to make the majority of our copies!

While we're cutting 60 copies of Senor Diente (Mr. Tooth) and pages for the Good Samaritan, Rob comments that while he would've loved for Troy to be on the trip, it's been good to see me without him.  Everyone agrees that I've come out of my shell.  It makes me feel worthwhile, I guess.  Troy (and God who prevented us from finding babysitters) knew that I needed this opportunity to test the waters on my own.  I'm thankful I had the chance to make that happen.

Meanwhile, in San Antonio:

This girl decided to dress herself in an outfit only she would put together.  She's wearing not one, but 2, tutu's (one from her birthday and one from Halloween), with her Christmas tree shirt and pants printed with oranges on them.  You'd wear that out, right?

Reef was hard at work on his schoolwork.  I was happy to see that it was getting done since Troy wasn't too sure it was going to happen.

 For science, they were supposed to make a bird house.

 Reef was very involved.

 The finished product:

 They took Opa to Orange Leaf, and all loved it!