Nicaragua is beautiful!!! I’m sitting on the back balcony. Yes, I said balcony. Much to our surprise, we have our own 2 story mission house JUST for the missionaries who come to help the orphanage! I am officially a missionary! My dream come true! There is electricity and the cottage is way more modern than I would’ve ever imagined. The showers and sinks only drip water, so I am glad I came prepared with lots of wipes and wisps (toothbrushes that don’t need water)! We have beds and sheets and fans if we get hot (but last night it was freezing!). We are staying at the new orphanage for the older kids, not at the one Kaley stayed at when she came here before. We are actually really really fortunate. So far, so great!
On the car ride to Diriamba last night, I saw WAY more things right off the bat than I was prepared for. It was dark so I couldn’t see much, but what I did see was tragic. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, next to Haiti. And not much better. I can definitely see why. Merchants were selling their products out of literal torn down shacks. Small shoeless girls would beg us for money as soon as we got off the plane. Later, Julia, the administrator of Hogar Belen, told us that they were going to take the money we gave them and give it to their pimps; the money wasn’t for them. Apparently this is really common in Nicaragua. Slumdog Millionaire to the Max. It’s going to take me a little while to get over this. But in the meantime, we are going to church, so I have to go!
We went to a Catholic mass in Spanish that reminded me of the Spanish old school Lutheran church I used to go to. The songs were really similar, the kneeling was similar and the even the priest looked similar!! There was incense and the priest didn’t know we wanted to go up there for a blessing, not the communion. The priest tried shoving communion into Hillary’s mouth, but all we wanted was a blessing. So we crossed our hands across our chest, bowed, and walked away shamefully. Embarrassing! Haha. After mass we put minutes on the Go phone so we could call Will’s mom so she could email all of our parents in the states and let them know we got there safely. Afterward, we played in a 500 year old park, or was it 150 years old? Something was definitely lost in translation! I need to work on my Spanish because when Julia isn’t around to translate for us, Sabrina always has to be front and center and ready to translate… No pressure.
My biggest dream is to be in a foreign country where they play music in the streets. Guess what was happening when we got back to orphanage??? MUSICA EN LA CALLE!! For those that didn’t catch on: they were playing music in the streets!! A dream come true! Music, dancing, yard sale, blistering heat, and sweat dripping down my back, PERFECT!
We met the kids for the first time tonight. It was really hard, I’m not even going to lie. I liked them, but what is love at first sight? Hardly. Some drooled, some peed on themselves…and on you. Some vomited on you, unintentionally of course, and some BIT to show affection. Not something you fall in love with right away, but I pray that the Lord captivates my heart and that my perception of beauty, love and cleanliness would become completely changed. We will see tomorrow. It’s the first day on the job and we will be painting the administrative office!
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