El Domingo, 7 de Octubre

Dylan has already blogged about today’s (Monday’s) activities, so I suppose it’s about time that I catch up and write about our Sunday adventures…

Sunday was a delightful day. I still can’t seem to sleep past the 5:30 hour, so I woke up and went for a swim in our pool. I am guessing that the pool does not see much action, as our security guard gave me a strange look the entire time I was swimming. After my morning swim Dylan and I had a breakfast of cold cereal (our gas was still empty at this time…) and then took a taxi down to a coffee shop closer into town. The coffee shop, quite surprisingly, could have been any ol’ Starbucks back home. The air conditioning was blasting, there are cozy leather sofas, every type of tea and coffee beverage you can imagine – and, best of all, free wireless. So, Dylan and I spent some time catching up on emails before we met up with Brad and Esmir to go to Iglesias Verbo (church).

While Dylan, Brad, Esmir and I were waiting for the autobus on the side of the road, the bus from the Casa Bernabe Orphanage (the orphanage we worked with over spring break) drove past us and stopped to pick us up, seeing as they were on their way to church as well. When we got on the bus, all of the children were singing together. The bus just had such a joyous and heart-warming feeling. It’s amazing how these children, who you would imagine have so little, have so much to offer. Every time we spend time with them (even just a bus ride to church) I feel like they have so much to teach me and that I walk away having learned so much from them.

Church in Nicaragua is always an experience. On Sunday, the music was wonderful and everyone’s spirit was very contagious. The service was two hours long, and after struggling with my limited Spanish to understand the first 40 minutes or so of the service, I found my spirits draining very quickly. It takes so much to concentrate on what is being said, that I find that I cannot focus for such a long period of time. I am anxiously awaiting the day that I will be able to understand a full service…

After church Dylan and I headed back home to make lunch – again, cold foods only as we had no gas. After lunch I’m not really sure what else we did…We each spent quite a bit of time finishing up our Spanish homework and preparing for this week’s lessons and we both managed to go for a run around the neighborhood and check out our surroundings. So far we have discovered a Nicaraguan version of Chuck-E-Cheeses down the street, a museum/gallery of some variety, and some sort of private gated park/fountain/something that has to do with cats. Very weird. But, all in all, our neighborhood is really wonderful and we are enjoying our new home immensely.

Despite our lack of a functioning stove and/or oven, Dylan managed to prepare a delicious meal of rice, vegetables and chicken for dinner. It was a delightful feast, and a wonderful change of pace – both from Doña Mara’s meals as well as our usual cold cereal or yogurt.

After dinner, Brad came over to watch some football with Dylan and I spent some time reading on the balcony and finishing up my Spanish vocab. All in all, a successful day.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!

Much love,

Lauren