My good friend asked me to update the blog- so here I am. This place has become home. I'm blessed daily with great company and family, and have been given an upgraded name from "Intern" to "Daughtern." Booooooo ya!
Over the past 10 days we have been enjoying the presence of a group of 8 all the way from Menlow Park, California. It's been a busy week of work and play. The team worked on new walkways, murals, de-branching and picking up trash. Halle let me use the chainsaw- YIKES! We also did the typical tour of Managua, zipline, volcano visit, market-shopping, Catarina, and San Juan Del Sur visit.
My favorite part of the week was going over to El Farito, just a few miles away. El Farito is a preschool that Kathy started when the August's first moved over here. The land was the first property they bought. Today it serves as a preschool and a feeding center. A few times a week, lunch is served to the neighborhood kids. Not only does this place give meals that some kids might not ordinarily get, but it teaches them how to wait in line, wash their hands, volunteer for dish-duty, pray before meals, and sit respectfully in their seats while having fun with their friends. This last week and next all the public schools are on vacation so we didn't get as many kids as we might get on a typical day. What made this day stand out was seeing Kathy in her element. Watching her lead, organize and interact with the kids, cooks and volunteers gave me a model to look at when planning programs like this in my future.
I also saw a few kids, Joel and Eric, that actually remembered me... 3 years later. Joel is still a chunk. So precious and wonderful. There was another boy who used to live in the neighborhood and come to the feeding program named Gerald that was close to my heart last time I was down here. Three years ago we did a VBS type program with elementary aged boys from the El Farito neighborhood. We ended our visit with a movie night where I got to sit with Gerald plopped in my lap, holding my hands. One of the sweetest moments I have experienced to this day. Since then, and especially the year after my last visit, I have been praying for Gerald and his brothers. I knew they had good relatives, but I also knew his mom was unstable and all the boys had different dads. Gerald and his brothers lived with their grandma or aunts, and went from aunt to aunt's houses for different meals. (One of their Aunts is Fermina, our cook- I'm very close with her family). Basically, they had no stable source of food or shelter. When I got here this summer, I asked Kathy if she knew anything about where Gerald was. Ladies and gents, God is faithful. These boys were taken in by an American couple- put in nicer schools and given food, shelter and most importantly, stable love. I was at Fermina's house a few days ago and played soccer with a much different (attitude wise) little boy. God answers prayers.
Well, life is really great here, I mean it. My Spanish is getting better, I'm making friends, living with amazing people, only have 1 boy writing me spanish love notes, aaaand I'm actually getting a bit of a tan. Beerlieve me!
I will update this again soon, hopefully. Sorry to all those who I have not written back in emails or via facebook- it's been CA-RAY-Z! In two days we have a new team of 2o coming from Virginia. Here we go!!!
xoxo
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