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.