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.