Day 2
March 10th, 2008

After a wonderful night of sleep we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast forllowed by a quiet time to prepare for our long day. I saw a bright green parrot this morning flying between the mango trees in the back yard. After breakfast we drove to Sandino to an area near the church we visited yesterday. In Sandino we spent most of our time today at an orphanage that is run by the church we were at yesterday. The orphanage is a large compound however it does not house many children. This is due to regulations in place by the Nicaraguan government stating that they must have a full time nurse and psycologist in place to house over a certain number of children. The cost of this would be close to $200 per month for each position. This an extremely high cost considering the average income of a Nicaraguan is about $800 a year and the orphanage is run off of offering money from the church. To make this possible the church is building a bakery to help the orphanage and the church have a sustainable income. Pastor Dalgo use to be a bakery manager and has a lot of experience and will run the bakery once it gets up and running. For the first half of the day the team that I was on helped with the bakery construction. The only problem was that the supplies that were needed to do most of the work were en route via donkey wagon and did not make it till late in the day. So my team spent some time hanging out in the shade eating some really good bananas. After a great lunch my group headed down the street to a small community outreach church. We joined up with a group of girls from the church who helped us plan and run a small VBS with some of the local kids. The street the church was on is much different than I had ever seen. Everything was either made of dirt or was covered in it. At the church with the kids we had a chance to talk about the creation story, do some coloring and play some games. They had a lot of interesting games that they showed us and we tried to play along. I did well at Simon says because all I had to do was listen for the words "Simon Dice"and then do what everyone else did. After fun and games at the church we headed back to the orphanage, then headed back to the hostel. We got to spend a few hours relaxing around the hostel compound. Kalen and I went across the street and got some ice cream bars. For dinner we had Pastor Dalgo and his family over and had a chance to talk with them, through our translator, about their lives here in Nicaragua. After that we split up into small evening groups again and shared stories about our lives and what role Christ plays in them. This is a country where everyone has nothing, but seems to have everything. I have a lot to learn from these people. I really wish I can be a lot more like them. Maybe someday I will.

Day 0 - Day 1

Our plane from Spokane to Salt Lake was a real small plane with one 4 seats across. Once in Salt Lake City we had a bit of a layover so we passed the time by riding some wheel chairs around the airport. To add to the big layover the plane was delayed coming in delaying our flight even more. From Salt Lake we stopped over in Atlanta then on to Managua, Nicaragua. On the flight down to Nicaragua the movie was Martian Child. It seemed like a good movie but I ended up moving to an open row of seats and laid down and caught up on some much needed sleep. When landing in Managua we circled around lake Managua. It was really cool to see. The airport in Managua was real small and was used by both commercial and Military planes. Customs was no big deal and I got my first stamp in my new passport. The team loaded up into two vans with luggage piled high and headed to our hostel. The weather in Managua was warm and humid but not overwhelmingly hot. On our drive through Managua to the hostel we stopped and got some food to eat at a restaurant that was similar to KFC. As we continued to drive out of town the housing became progressively worse. People live in tiny one room dirt floor houses. The river beds were all dry because it is the dry season right now but they were still filled with trash. Once we arrived at the hostel we were all very pleasantly surprised at how nice the place is. The compound is very well kept. Everyone who lives here is very friendly. We were fed dinner by the hostel, it was a great meal of beef with beans and rice. After dinner we took showers and got ready for the Sunday evening church service in Sandino. The drive to the church was significantly different than the drive through Managua. Sandino is a very poor community. Most of the roads in Sandino are dirt. A lot of people were out in the town but very few people seems to actually be doing anything. It turns out that over half of the population in Nicaragua in unemployed. The town has a lot of dogs running around that are all extremely skinny. When we got to the church it was just starting to get dark. Not very many people have power in the town so we conversed, or tried to converse with some of the locals before church started. We played a small game of soccer in the street with some kids while we waited. Church started once the pastor got there and the generators powered up. The service started with an intense set of music that we all recognized from English versions we knew from back home. Im sure the talk was great too however I have no idea what was said. After more music that consisted of a mosh pit, lots of flags, and even some crowd surfing (no joke) the 3 hour service was over. We headed back to the hostel for a daily debrief. A few of us hunted some geckos then headed off to bed for the night.