Hola amigos....

Hi America! Or wherever you're reading from...

By the time you're reading this it'll be Wednesday morning and we'll have accomplished 2 whole workdays along with a homestay.

Saturday night & Sunday: We arrived in Managua on Saturday night. Let me tell you, I underestimated the weather. It was humid and so sticky. Thankfully, after a drive out to Esteli (where we're staying the rest of the week) the temperatures cooled down. On Sunday morning/ Easter, we drove 2 hours out to Esteli where we attended a large outdoor (ish) Catholic church. We had our first meal in Nica... chances are I'm the pickiest eater you know which means I was very worried about my eating scenario. I was very pleased when they served french fries at our first meal!!! Little did I know these would become a quite common occurrence. We met our host families and headed out to their homes. Culture shock isn't what I would even call the feelings I experienced. Alexandra and I were in a home together, which I was very thankful for because she is basically fluent in spanish. We rode a packed school bus to the leaders homes. I'm trying to give you a mental image of how crowded this bus was... when you think there is no possible way you can fit another person on a bus with sweating people another person shows up. We were squeezed so tight on that bus that when I went to get off I had to squeeze between 2 fully grown adults with my backpack on. The space to get out was so tiny that someone outside of the bus had to pull me thru a probably 1 foot space. The home stay has been the most interesting part thus far. To fully explain what it was like is nearly impossible. The houses range from simply concrete to more tin. The home we stayed in was 2 bedrooms, tiny multipurpose room with lawn chairs where we ate and hungout, and a kitchen. We didn't use the bathroom at our house once because all we were told was that it was "different". We went to the bathroom at another Young Life leaders house where the situation was nothing compared to an American bathroom. We had to fill a bucket with water in order to force it to flush because there wasn't any water in the tank. 

Monday: On Monday morning, our home stay family took us to see the local school (see picture below). The fully outdoor school had very similar classrooms to those in the states. They were fully equipped with desks, whiteboards, and lots of students. We also noted that all of the students wore uniforms. KR Kids, unis are a thing in Nica too!! We split up for our first work day. All the girls headed to a home where they host YL club and the boys headed the David's house (more manual labor). At the YL club we repainted. When we left for lunch with the group, David (the area director of Esteli) picked us up and we rode in the bed of his truck to have lunch. Since this is illegal in the states, you might not understand what I'm saying. 11 girls were standing up in the back of a pickup truck traveling down dirt roads in the city. Monday was the only day we worked the whole day. The sun rises and it gets light very early here in Esteli which means that we wake up early from all the outside noise. The people in the city rise very early!! The sun sets pretty early too, it is almost dark by 6pm. Monday was an exhausting day, but we spent the evening hanging out as a group and playing some seriously trippy mind games. I was always the last person to figure these things out! It's an awesome feeling to be hanging out with such a different group of students and conversation filled with so much laughter. We have laughed so much.

Tuesday: We spent the morning completing our paint job at the club. We joined up with the rest of the group after a lot of interaction with some of the locals while working. At lunch we had the first member of our team share his testimony. Props to you, Ben for doing this fully in spanish #impressed! We heard our second testimony from a Nica leader. All 19 of us spent the afternoon together along with some Young Life leaders. The girls painted nails and the boys spent the afternoon playing soccer. I also rode a motorcycle!! I was so excited about this. I'm not very adventurous and this seemed so cool to me. My mom wasn't very excited about this especially since I wasn't wearing a helmet. I didn't go very far on it, but super cool!! Once we got back in the afternoon, all of the Americans ventured out to a coffee and ice cream shop. We had a fully American dinner.. chicken tenders... that rocked. We spent the night laughing and playing lots of Mafia. 

My heart is full and I've stepped way out of my comfort zone this week and although I'm put in these uncomfortable situations, I'm so happy to be experiencing this. I continue to ask you for your prayers as we hope to glorify God throughout all of our actions this week. It's so crazy to me that at the time you'll be reading this the week is halfway over. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the week plays out and experience the Lord in more ways.

I hope America is treating you well because Nicaragua sure is treating me well.

Sending all my love,

AK