Day 60 March 29, 2009 (Sun)

I just uploaded some photos on facebook:

Vida Joven Uno: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017480&id=119300697&l=0cb764b3fe

Vida Joven Dos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017487&id=119300697&l=93c29d4d8d

Day 58 March 27, 2009 (Fri)

"Solo Soy Un Lapiz en Mano de Dios" (I am only a pen in the hand of God)

-Vida Joven Nicaragua-

Boy do I hate good-byes. Today I was just saying how it felt like a lifetime had passed since last weekend when we arrived and yet time has flown by. It's very odd how that works. So I had to say good-bye to my friends from Matagalpa. That was really sad for me because they are all such awesome people and it felt like family, brothers and sisters. I do go back to Matagalpa next week though so maybe I can link up with some of them again. I also had to say goodbye to my new friends from Tennessee. I will miss all of you and I hope to see you again as well. As you read my blog, remember that you have impacted my life with your kindness and I will never forget any of you. David I won't forget that amazingly beautiful voice and I look forward to you being #1 on American Idol someday :-). Rob I won't forget your J. Crew ad face and style. Keep swinging piks and someday you'll be just like Walter as we all hope to be. Tyler I won't forget your randomness which I treasure. To all the John Hinkels, I won't forget your uniqueness in 3 generations. Keep singing "Aisha" Tripp. Eric keep working hard on that S.Q.U.A.T. team. haha To all the doctors and nurses, thank you for your time here making a difference. David Sevier - keep enjoying life, it can certainly be a bear but it's worth it! Mr. Richard - thanks for bringing the New York Times for me to read and tell your wife I send my greetings. To Lexi - Try to stay awake and Mr. Perkins - Thanks for the snacks you've made my days really sweet. Michelle - Keep getting those kids outta trouble, there will be a big reward in your future for your patience. To Alexandra -Thanks for the picture, it hangs in my room just like I promised.

To my Matagalpa friends - You have made my life rich. Te extranare! I love you all

"Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts (2 Timotheo 2:22)" -Thanks Juanillo

Day 57 March 26, 2009 (Thurs)

"I hope I can see with Christ's eyes and feel with Christ's heart."


At midnight, early this Thursday morning, Rosibel, Kate, Byron, Miguel, Arnoldo, Juanillo and myself woke from our sweet sleep and surprised Luis Carlos with "Happy Birthday" wishes in song. Even though I could barely open my eyes, it was fun tradition. I will be really sad to leave my friends tomorrow. I just think it's been such a great week and these people will be good friends in my life for years to come. Knowing people all over the world is something I want in my life but not just anybody, quality people. My North American friends and Nicaraguan friends from Matagalpa will forever be in my heart. We have all grown closer during this week and though it will be tough to let go tomorrow, hopefully it will not be goodbye forever.

Tonight during devotions, we meditated on Matthew Chapter 6. It's about giving to the needy without trying to receive public recognition for it, the importance of prayer & fasting in private vs public and lastly about making sure not to store up treasure on earth where it won't do you much good and worrying that doesn't make life easier. All good things to remember and practice. Muy importante para mi vida. I must say that during this semester, I have felt myself worrying less and less about things that used to seem like such a big deal. It's a blessing to feel at peace and this week has brought a lot of that together.

I have been listening to a lot of Spanish worship songs that Miguel got me hooked on. It's amazing how many different ways God can be experienced. I now want to travel the world after this trip because I want to see more faces that will make up the Kingdom of God. I hope God does "Bless America" but every where else needs just as much. In every language and every barrio all over the world, we need more of God. Just like the quote I heard from Arnoldo during his testimony, "I hope I can see with Christ's eyes and feel with Christ's heart."

Day 56 March 25, 2009 (Wed)

I love working hard. I do not love freezing cold showers. Cold has taken on a new dimension here. Mountain water that makes you just want to stay dirty all week long but that's gross entonces I will suck it up and shower quick just like if I were in the military. I love the freshness of this air though. There are so many trees and much more untainted oxygen. If I could spend a few weeks living in Matagalpa or something, I would be delighted.

So yesterday morning, I was cold and wore a hoodie I got from my track days in high school. On the back of that hoodie is my middle name "Aisha". Little did I know, that would be the only name people would remember me by this week. Haha. My Nica friends Byron and Juanillo started calling me Aisha and now it's caught on like wildfire for everybody else. One person says it then everybody else yells "Aisha." Oh good times. They worked in the coffee fields across camp while I was working on the road and every once in a while they would just scream out AISHA! No one even knows who Dilaun is. It's solely Aisha now

Last memory of the day: Byron taught me, David and Tyler a worship song called "La Unica Razon" which means "The Only Reason" and part of the chorus says, "Eres Todo Poderoso" which means "You are all-powerful". We sang it about seventy million times yesterday during work but Tyler, my buddy who I miss a ton, kept singing "Mi Esposa...plus other random words" which means "My Wife...plus other random or made-up words." I am not making fun of you Tyler but I will expect that when I see you again in this life or the next, that the first thing out of your mouth will be the correct lyrics to this song. One Love to Tennessee!!

Day 55 March 24, 2009 (Tues)

"I am amazed by the ability of the human brain to learn another language."

So today, we began our work for the week. Basically in the morning there were three groups, one group would help build a road for the camp, another group would pick coffee and the last group was for the clinic. The primary purpose for this group of people was to help at the clinic and see patients all day. I believe there were 2 doctors and 2 or 3 nurses that came from Tennessee to assist in this project. That's really awesome because so many people are without proper healthcare here. So many things go undectected, undiscovered and undiagnosed. You did a good thing here.

I decided to be on the road building crew. Actually, Juanillo handed me a shovel and told me that I had to work with him and Byron. Ha, oh this will be a lot of fun! A group of about 11 of us did road crew. Our translator was this guy from TN named Robert. He has done a lot of traveling, written books and is really interesting. He also has autism which made it challenging at times for the group because he would wander off or get really focused on something and be zoned into that thing. The intriguing thing to me was that he knew more Spanish than anybody else in their group. He goes to live in Mexico for a month or two every year. He works when he needs to and goes where he wants to. I want courage like that.

In the afternoon, we would do Vacation Bible School for the kids in the community. They came into camp and would get divided by age into different activity areas. Everyday, the number of kids just grew and grew. It was a lot of work haha but fun.

I must say that I really love it here. Since I've been hanging out with Kate and my new Nica friends from Matagalpa: Rosibel, Arnoldo, Luis Carlos, Juanillo, Miguel and Byron, I have just enjoyed myself more and more. I am learning so much more Spanish and I am having a lot of fun doing it. These people help me relax and I know in a couple days, I will never want to leave.

Day 54 March 23, 2009 (Mon)

So I've heard that water and electricity don't mix and yet those two things often go hand-in-hand inside of this country and many others. There is this device attached to the top of many showerheads that sends an electric current to the water so it is heated up before it hits your body. You can see the wires right above your head and although the water is good and warm or even hot, I find it especially terrifying that if my hand accidentally touches the shower head, I will feel electric shocks in my body. I love warm showers at times but life seems like an awfully large sacrifice for such a thing! haha okay I'm kidding a little, it is not that dangerous but still...

Today, we spent some time in the morning with the Vida Joven staff learning how to make corn tortillas. It was pretty cool. I took some time to talk to more people from the team and tell them about myself. Most people are just trying to figure out what I am doing so far from home...I guess my courage to uproot from what's comfortable and move here to Nicaragua is pretty confusing.

Later, we got on the Vida Joven school bus and took the ride up to the camp. On the way, we picked up a few Nicaraguan leaders for Vida Joven: Juanillo, Byron, Rosibel, Arnoldo and Luis. Luis I had met the night before at dinner and if the rest of these people are as chill as he is, it's going to be a great week. The ride up to camp was absolutely beautiful. The mountains line the horizon in every direction. Camp is much colder than even Matagalpa was but it was still beautiful. A lot of land and plenty to do. No television and no internet for us was probably the best thing that could have happened. That's the best thing about team trips, even in as little as a week, you can develop friends for life.

Day 53 March 22, 2009 (Sun)

On Sunday we went to the airport after church to pick up the group from the states. It was kind of wierd for me because I haven't been back to the airport since I arrived here over 2 months ago. So we picked up the team and I must say that it felt odd to be on the other side of a mission trip. Here I was welcoming people to help me help a country that's not even my own. Everybody was so excited and energetic though so I looked forward to the week to come. The group came from Murfreesboro, TN. On our way there, we drove part of the way on the Pan American Highway. I think that's pretty cool so I figured it would be important to add to the blog. It's one of those well-known things in the world like Route 66 or something.

When we got to Matagalpa, it was much more tranquil and relaxed than Managua. I really liked it. It was basically a small town and Kate used to live there so she knew a few people when we would just walk along the street. We went out for dinner with a couple of her friends and though I didn't understand most of the conversation, it was fun. Oh, by the way Kate is basically fluent so it's good because she challenges me to learn and practice more.

At night, we went to Vida Joven which is Young Life for Central America. It was a lot of fun. They sang for us and did skits just to show us what they normally do during "club" which is a weekly gathering for young people in the community. The way it was explained to me, it's basically a christian group for non-christians. It's a really neat concept and is doing wonders all over the world as far as I know.

I'm excited for what's to come when we go to camp tomorrow.

Day 52 March 21, 2009 (Sat)

Spring Break!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes friends, it's finally here. My last spring break ever!! ... well unless I decide to become a teacher which I'm not expecting to happen....sorry Mr. BC. Anyways, another thing I will never have to do, at least not for a while is class. I have officially completed my last formal classes and finals. I aced everything and I am so happy I'm done. Whoo-hoo! Graduation is slowly but surely becoming reality.

In the past 3 days, I have taken three major Spanish exams. Pretty brutal but it's done. The funny thing is for spring break I'll be spending time in the mountains with my friend Kate, possibly doing a bit of Spanish to English translating for a missions team that's coming from Tennessee. I can honestly say I never thought this day would happen.

Last night, we went to a movie at this huge mall called Galerias. It's basically the American version of a mall aqui (here) in Nicaragua. We went to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." I'm still undecided whether I liked it or not. The movie was pretty trippy and super long but I think I liked it but then again I don't know. I gotta digest it a bit more. I don't know if it's still at the theater in the States but if you decide to see it, let me know what you think. An awesome thing though, for 6 of us to see a movie, it was about $20. That's only a ticket and a half back home. Crazy! After the movie, we went to a Mexican restuarant in the mall and the food was delicious. I had something called Pechuga de Pollo and it was chicken cut into smaller pieces and covered with melted mozzerrella cheese. It came with these tortillas and a bean dip. It was quite phenomenal.

Like I said, spring break has begun and I'm very excited for the week to come. By the time I return, you'll hear more stories but the next few weeks will be incredibly busy. After I come back at the end of the week from spring break, I move very rapidly into the second section of the semester which is my internships. I will be doing 3 projects in 6 weeks. Very crazy busy but I will let you guys know more details as they come along.

It's almost April! Yikes, how dare time more so fast. I'm also in the middle of job searching among everything else. If everybody can be on the lookout for me, I would appreciate it very much. It's challenging but I'm persistent and determined! I have a resume ready to send to anyone who would like to check up on what I've done. I want to work in the Health care industry doing public relations. That is my passion..to merge what I know about media and communication with my desire to work with people who are both making a difference and looking to have a difference made on their behalf. I think a hospital is a great place to mix both the needs of an institution with the heart and needs of a people. Public relations is the bridge connecting the two. So if you know of any open opportunities or connections to people I can contact on my own, please email me at dilaunwhite@gmail.com Or if you just want to drop me a line to say hello, I welcome all and I would love to hear from you. I am also on Skype and my username is dilaun518.

Also I keep hearing that more and more people are reading my blog and I thank you for taking the time to hear about my adventures. For those who are not on Facebook and have not yet seen my photos, I'm going to post the public links to the facebook albums I've made so far in Central America:

"Hable Despacio, Por Favor" (Speak Slowly, Please): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016764&id=119300697&l=9ab0eba082

"God of This City": http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016845&id=119300697&l=b847657533

"Santa Maria y Leon": http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016981&id=119300697&l=0fb888c088

"Entiende mas y mas" (You understand more and more): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016943&id=119300697&l=14afd1c51a

"La Playa" (The Beach) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017043&id=119300697&l=fecdc4279d

"Costa Rica - Viva La Vida" (Costa Rica- Live the Life): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017089&id=119300697&l=7f7d063d82

"Entonces..." (So...): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017091&id=119300697&l=c649413c4c

"Es muy caliente" (It's very hot): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017127&id=119300697&l=e049525236

"No hay falla" (No worries): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017197&id=119300697&l=c901b45e4f

Okay that's it!! For now....

Nos Vemos (See you Later)!

Day 48 March 17, 2009 (Tues)

Somebody brought up a good point today and I miss green grass and house carpeting. There's not much of either in Nicaragua.

Day 47 March 16, 2009 (Mon)

I had a great weekend. On Friday night, I just chilled out at home. It was really relaxing.

On Saturday, I went out with Alex, Maria and my friend Kate to the neighborhood we had visited before for Youth ministry. I think they've become something to look forward to because as we pulled down this long and dusty road, the kids started pouring out of the surrounding houses. We sat them all down then sang some songs and Maria used a couple kids to act out a bible story. Then we fed them a little snack of cookies and milk. Right before we left, Maria gathered them all in a circle, everybody held hands and she prayed. It was a cool day.

On Sunday, I got up really early in the morning to go with my friend Evelyn and her husband Reynaldo. Evelyn has been taking English classes but the day was still difficult at times when we all would try to understand each other. Anyways, they took me up to their farm. The ride to get there was terrifying. There are all these curvy roads going up and down mountains. Evelyn told me that lots of people get into accidents, she probably should have told her husband that because he was driving like a maniac. On the way home, we both got sick with headaches.

The farm was very tranquilo. They used to have a bunch of chickens but then they started eating all of them. They have a ton of fruit trees though. I saw bananas. We ate mangos and this other little green fruit that was really sour so we had to put salt on everything. I ate some other pretty exotic things that day. For breakfast, Evelyn bought me this cup of "cream" she called it and a tortilla. So you're supposed to put salt into the cup and mix it around then drink it and eat the tortilla. Well, turns out, the "drink" is kind of like milk but it's sour so they call it "sour milk." Gross. It tasted fine but I could only handle a little bit. I don't think regular milk is supposed to have chunks in it. I did remember to pray both before and after meals though.

Right before we left, we took a little adventure hike down to the river. It was so beautiful. I really wish I had taken photos. It was tucked behind all these trees and there are big rocks to sit on all over the place. There were some little boys playing down a little ways. It was just peaceful and oh so beautiful.

For lunch, we actually went to the mall and ate at a food court which was awesome. I got Quizno's Subs because I miss it from back home. It sure did not compare but it was pretty good. I also couldn't resist getting some breadsticks from Pizza Hut even though I was already full.

Sunday night of course, we had church at our house and Alex and Maria are into this new thing where they make me sing acapella before sermons for church because I told them I'm not a singer. I don't understand why either.

Day 40 March 9, 2009 (Mon)

Almost 40 days and 40 nights! Wow! This past weekend has been great. Last Wednesday or Thursday, a few faculty members from Trinity and Dordt came for a visit. One of the first nights they were here, everybody came to my house for dinner. It was cool and amazing food.

On Saturday, we took a trip to Granada. In the morning we walked on another volcano. I can't believe it either ma! It's Volcano Mombacho. The ride up was kind of scary because it was basically driving vertically up the side of a volcano in a truck with no roof and no seat belts. We managed to make it though. I uploaded a few photos of this whole day on my facebook page. The view from the top of the volcano was beautiful. We could see Granada down below and some islands that were created when the volcano erupted years ago.

After the volcano, we went out for lunch and got hamburgers. It was a delicious treat. I got a bacon cheeseburger, my favorite.

In the afternoon we went on this boat tour of the little islands created from the volcano eruptions. At first it was cool, really peaceful and there were some amazing houses. Everybody had their own island. One piece of land that we saw was only about $150,000 to own the entire island. You can't beat that. It's less than buying just a house in the states. I say "at first it was cool" because then we got to Monkey Island. I thought I was going to lose my mind. It is exactly what the name says it is. Apparently some German professor or something put monkeys on this island and left. They can't swim so they have to stay there but people come by on these boat tours and feed them or whatever. So we pull close to these trees and there are monkeys swinging on branches all over. I'm thinking "Okay, we'll get a couple pictures from here, we're pretty close." Then all of a sudden this monkey leaps off the branch and lands right on the front of our boat. It was like a bad foreshadowing scene from a scary movie. I almost flipped out. The monkey starts walking through the boat aisle like a little kid, looking at us. It was the most intense out-of-body experience I've ever had in my life. The boys are feeding it cashews and it's sitting on people's laps. I took photos but I refused to touch or be touched by it. I got nothing against animals but I'm not that kind of person that enjoys them in the wild so much. It's a little too "Animal Planet Extreme" for me. The monkey was nice though from what I observed. Really friendly and stuff.

And THAT was my weekend.

Day 31 February 28, 2009 (Sat)

"Getting to Know the Past, Strengthens our Identity."

Saturday morning at about 9:15 am, I was walking on a volcano. It's been dormant a few years but still nerve-wracking. It was really cool. We were like 3500 feet above sea level. I took a lot of pictures of the volcano and the clouds which were below us. Right after we left UNELA in the morning, we picked up this guy named Robert. He got in the van and didn't speak or anything but just listened to his iPOD. We all assumed he only spoke Spanish. The girls who can speak started talking to him about his hoodie that said Niagara Falls. It turned out that he either lived in the states a long time or something but he speaks better English than I do. So after that, we all became cool and had a great time getting to know our new friend Robert. He's from Peru and only got to Costa Rica a few days before we did. He travels all over the United States for work and even lives in Miami sometimes. The world is so small I tell you.

After our adventures at the volcano, we went to the old capital of Costa Rica called "Paseo". We went to a cathedral there and I saw two things I've never seen before. Inside the church it was packed so I sat down near the center aisle and I look over to my right to see all these people crawling on their knees from the back of the church all the way to the front. I assume to get blessed by a priest or something but I'd never seen that before and it sure didn't look comfortable on the kneecaps. Then we went outside and there was this wall that had water coming out of spouts at the bottom. People were buying jugs and filling up water bottles with this water because apparently if you drink it, you will become healed. To each his own. It totally reminded me though of an episode of MONK when Adrian Monk goes to investigate at a church where people were getting miraculously healed from drinking water out of a special fountain. Oh yeah, ma I watch Monk almost every day during the school week. It comes on at 6 pm and it's in English with Spanish subtitles so I learn different phrases too.

When we left the capital, we went to a town called La Carpio. La Carpio is basically a little Nicaragua city on the outskirts of San Jose. It's about 1 sq mile and has over 35,000 people living in one room shacks. We went there because almost 100% of the people there are Nicaraguans that have migrated to Costa Rica in search for a better life. Since the economic situation is not as stagnant, people can find work and make more money in Costa Rica. Often times, they are left to do the work no one else would want to but they are willing to make those sacrifices in order to survive. Some come legally with papers but many come illegally. There is a tough clash with the Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans in Costa Rica. CRs feel like Nicas come into their land and bring violence. Most CRs refuse to go into Carpio because they think all Nicas do is kill there. It is a very harsh attitude toward these people. They feel like Nicas come into their land of opportunity and steal their jobs and make life worse for them. There are some areas of Carpio that police refuse to go into. There are some places in Carpio that fire trucks and ambulances refuse to go into without police escort. Many people who judge this place have never even been there. It's sad to think of what judging people does to the spirit. It's also sad to realize that this is not just a problem down here with these two groups but this happens in the United States of America all the time with every kind of group. We're always afraid of what we don't know and that keeps us from trying to understand it so we stand back and judge. Those judgments become prejuidice and once prejuidice or racism sets in there is nothing "those people" can do right and there is nothing "your people" can do wrong. Ay, when will learn?

As soon as we were on our way, it became very obvious we were entering a world very different from the rest of Costa Rica. There was trash lining both sides of the streets. The roads became very narrow and the houses were stacked right on top of each other, mostly tin. People screaming out what they're selling. The staring. Yup, back in Nicaragua is what it feels like. Well, we met a couple families and visited a home of this guy named Alex. It was a dangerous path to get there and I have no idea how he could do it in the dark if he does. Not dangerous with people necessarily but it was like walking on unstable cement down a really steep slope. You had to lean backwards in order to not topple over and be lost forever. They live right on the edge of a hill and if there's ever any bad weather, strong wind or mudslide, everything they had would be gone. Right out of the back of the house was a big drop. One thing I noticed when we went to his house was the fact that he was so proud of it. He works in construction and recently became the manager so he's right under the big boss which is great. He showed us a mirror he built and a bed frame which were both really great. They didn't have much to offer us but if we had needed anything, they would have made sure we got it. The whole family came out and we started taking pictures. Somebody from the states gave him a nice digital camera that had a touch screen. I was very jealous.

It was a great trip and I learned a lot. It was in all those moments that God touched my heart and I hope that I can never really be the same.

Day 30 February 27, 2009 (Fri)

After a 10 hour long bus ride, we finally made it into San Jose, Costa Rica thursday evening. On Friday morning, we got up really early and began a long day of trips around the city. We stayed in a university called UNELA. It was pretty nice and they had dorms even though usually only visitors stay in the rooms. On Friday morning, we met with a couple people representing Defensoria de los Habitantes de Costa Rica which is basically a human rights office for all inhabitants of Costa Rica. They say that for those who come legally or illegally, they at least deserve the basic human rights so they work to protect those. It was a government office and very different from anything I've seen in Nicaragua. Actually most things I saw in San Jose were extremely different from Nicaragua.

For starters, it is much more of a tourist city so many more people spoke English. They have taller buildings and just a lot more official businesses. There are not many street vendors but a few. They have a lot of shoe stores and clothing stores with name brands like you'd find in the states. There are not people in your face everywhere you go which I really liked. It was a lot less forceful in my opinion. People wanted you to come into the store but we never had anybody screaming out what they were selling or harrassing us (yeah that's a good word-harrass). It's much more advanced than Nicaragua and reminded me a bit of Miami, not exactly but there were plenty of similarities. It has more of a downtown business people feel to it. Everybody's moving and going somewhere, unlike Managua where tons of people often sit around all day doing absolutely nothing. People stood in line at bus stops and when the bus came only the amount that could fit were allowed on so there are never overcrowded buses I'd imagine. Unlike this morning (Monday March 2) when I rode a bus with standing room only and at every stop we just kept picking people up so by the time I needed to get off, I had to climb over like 6 grown men. Very awkward and I was at the front standing by the door. So there was tons that I liked about Nicaragua just from observations. It is also a much more diverse culture. I saw people from all over the world mixed in on the streets. I really enjoyed that part. One thing I didn't care for was the currency difference. Costa Rica uses colones and it's like 560 colones to 1 US dollar unlike Nicaragua 20 Cordobas to 1 US dollar so prices come out to be more like the states in San Jose which is the capital city I stayed in by the way.

Okay now back to the schedule of my day. After going to that government office, we went to a Costa Rican History Museum. It was pretty cool just showing different items collected from pre-colonian times to recent. There was also a butterfly garden which seems random but was pretty cool. We ate lunch at some restuarant that was a lot like going to Friday's or something. For the five of us to each, our bill came to almost $70. In Managua, all five of us could have had a full meal for about $20 total. After lunch, we went to a Gold Museum and I took some pictures that are all on Facebook of course. This was most of what went on Friday.