Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Very action packed week! Enjoyed our time at the orphanage - went with another student and one of the professors from our school (needed to help translate the rapidly speaking nun in charge). There are 18 girls in the home and it all seems to be really well organized. We worked with a small group who needed help with English. Really had a great time.
On Thursday we went on a great bike ride through some of the villages outside the city - very interesting. So many homes are just pieced together with scraps of metal and wood - such a different way of life.
Saturday was the big wedding! Maria, a friend of my host sisters, married Russ, an American from San Francisco. Started off with the standard Catholic ceremony - long but very beautiful. The reception was fantastic! Great 10-piece band with around 150 people of all ages dancing the entire night. Much later (4am) we joined up with the random tradition of children wandering the streets making lots of noise? Apparently it happens every night for 2 weeks before Christmas to announce Jesus - must have been over a thousand kids and very few adults.
Sunday we went to a celebration for the conception of Maria. Still don't really understand what happened but there were hundreds of families with lots of simple gifts for the kids and it finished up with a huge firework display. The most interesting part was when a man chased the kids around the streets with a small wood bull shooting out fireworks.
Christmas Eve is when most of the celebrations occur. In the morning my family took me to the markets - crazy! So many people and stalls selling everything possible. My mama knew exactly where she needed to go and I did my best to keep up. We bought presents for the neighborhood kids - chocolates, sweets, Happy Meal toys and apples - they go crazy for apples?
Around 6pm, 25 children started to show up and the celebrations began. First my sister read some bible passages then we sang songs (I learned a few lines) followed by presents, pinatas and ice cream! Once the sugar started to kick in all the kids went back home - perfect arrangement! We had a small dinner together and then we headed out to visit friends around town.
Extremely impressed with Nicaragua - definitely want to come back and encourage others to visit.
- comments