Day Six: February 7th, 2012

Dear Internet,

At the Look-Out

We strayed from our schedule on Day Six, and I'm SO glad we did. We had originally planned to go to the feeding center only once, but for reasons I'm not aware of we changed the plan. We got to visit the same feeding center again today (Day Six).

After breakfast, we all climbed on the bus (only one today). We made a few stops before we got to Nueva Vida, though.

Our first stop was to a mountain "look-out" thing. We had a great view of Managua all around us. We all acted like the American tourists that we were and took several photos of the scenery and each other. While we were there Christina and Emily (not my team member, she was in training to do Christina's job) went to a grocery store and bought fruit and bread to bring to the feeding center.

Emily and I

Once we had all explored and taken enough pictures, Jose asked if we wanted to go look at the prison museum beneath us. That completely surprised me. I had no idea there was ANYTHING beneath us. Ok, I guess I take that back, I think I saw the stairs. My team members thought that sounded fun, so we went down to take a look.

Come to find out it wasn't just an old prison, they used to torture people there. How nice. I didn't really understand what had gone on there and didn't really want to. All of the signs were in Spanish. Jose did try to translate some of it, but it was kind of graphic. Fortunately, the photos weren't.

The Eagle Brook Team
(plus the Casa Kids)

We finished with the "Nights of Torture" (that was the name of the museum thing) and went across the street to look at the other side of the scenery. We discovered that there was a zip-line service there. :) Quite a few of my team members wanted to try it out. I informed them that I would stay here and take pictures of them, thank you very much. :) It was pretty funny to listen to them come up with ways to persuade Christina to let them go. It didn't work. We had the Casa kids with again, and from what I understood if they weren't there she probably would have let us. :)

We then got back on the bus and went to Nueva Vida! It was more fun arriving the second time, as we recognized the roads in Nueva Vida a bit more. We got there earlier than the day before, so there weren't very many kids there yet. It was neat to watch them all come!

Jaci and I

I had two things that I wish I had done the day before, and you can be sure I did them today! :) One was ask the little girl who stole my heart what her name was. I was so mad at my self for not asking her. I can't even tell you how many kids I said "como te llamas" to, but not her. I stood a little ways from the gate to make sure I was right there when she came. I was so excited to see her and her three little ones walk up the steps! I said hello, gave her a big hug, and promptly asked her what her name was. :) I didn't waste much time. She said her name was Jaci.

The second was that I didn't participate in giving the kids their food, I just photographed. I made sure I was standing next to Jaci's family when we prayed before they ate. I was so excited to take two of their plates with me and give them food!!

The rest of our experience was much like Day Five, with the exception of the food we had brought with. When the volunteers gave the kids their meal, they got a piece of bread too. Once they were done eating, we went around and gave the kids a piece of fruit (a banana or an orange). It was so fun to watch them eat the fruit! One little girl gave me a section of her orange! It was so sweet. I do confess to giving it away once she turned her back. :)

We had a few different activities for the kids too, although we did face painting again. I was swarmed with little kids! The day before we had had a piece of paper with the different things they could choose from for the face painting, but today we didn't have it. So all of the kids asked us for random things for us to paint, which was fun and overwhelming all at the same time. One little boy wanted me to paint him a cow. No kidding. This Wisconsinite was very excited. A different boy wanted a big house. And my favorite just might be the little girl who asked for a princess! One of my favorite stories from the face painting experience was when a little boy came up to Lexi and asked for a tiger. Josh (one of our wonderful interpreters) told him that was too hard and to pick something else. His second choice was an elephant! I painted a lot of "corazón"s (hearts) and "flor"s (flowers).

It was sad to tell these kids goodbye!

I actually fell asleep on the bus on the way back to Casa. I can count on one hand the times I've fallen asleep in a moving vehicle. It is totally not like me. I was SO emotionally and physically spent I could keep my eyes open. When I opened my eyes 45 minutes later, we were in Vera Cruz! :)

We had something else planned for the afternoon, but Christina wisely rescheduled it for the next day. We were all exhausted, and so were the kids. I worked on printing more pictures for the next day. The plan was for the kids to put them on construction paper and decorate it. Most of us took showers, and then some of us went up to Casa and hung out with the kids.

After we ate, the kids all came down to the Team Center. And I do mean ALL. All fifty or so of them. We watched Toy Story 3. The kids thought it was funny when Buzz gets switched to Spanish mode. :) We watched it in English with Spanish subtitles, so it was easier to follow. I sat in between Emily (who had Yolanda on her lap) and Jose. It was funny to hear his reactions to how they translated the movie into subtitles.

I didn't notice, because they were behind me, but some of the older kids had started a few different games of cards with the team. When the movie ended, we all kind of went "ok, what now?" We had to make sure none of the kids left (it was now dark out, which made that harder), and some did (but we brought them back).

Jose giving instructions

Jose had all of us put the chairs in to a GIGANTIC circle. He then had us all sit down and announced that we would be playing "the fruit game." The only fruit game I could think of was from Drama Club. For those of you who don't know what that fruit game entails, the person in the middle has to tap a person's knees with a rolled up newspaper when he or she says the wrong fruit. I didn't think giving these kids permission to "tap" each other with, essentially, a stick was a good plan. Rest assured, it was not the same fruit game. But it was no less lethal!

The kids (and us) were split into four groups and each group was given a fruit name (ie apple). When the person in the middle said your fruit, you had to get up and run to a different chair. These kids are very competitive to say the least. The game was very loud, and very fun to watch. At one point, my fruit was called and I dodged flying children to get to a different chair. Shawn and I ended up trying to go for the same chair, but I slid into the chair first. Except the chair slid with me, and I slowly toppled onto the cement floor. I even broke the chair! In my defense this happened again to Emily, and she broke a chair too. :)

We tried a different game after the fruit game became a little too violent, but it was met with mixed reviews. We (the Eagle Brook Team) were very relieved to see the caretakers pull up to the Team Center. They said they had a good time. :)

In all, it was a great day!

In Christ,
Laura