Day 3 January 31, 2009

I do wish I had been told about the "make sure shorts are at least to the knee or below" rule. Nicaraguan men and women are very conservation in their clothing. It produces less attention which makes sense and the women who wear short stuff are usually prostitutes. Not that my clothing choices are ridiculous but I definitely need to go shopping ahaha! I was so glad this morning when I woke up and had a fan going. I'm pretty sure if Maria and Alex didn't buy one for me last night, I would have suffocated. This heat is outrageous. I slept really well and got over the shock of being here. I know that it'll take some inner strength on my part and the support of my loved ones back home but I'm only here a few short months. No more tears since Dom's email yesterday. Last night I read scripture and journaled. I think I'm going to use Proverbs as my book of choice for this trip. I'm reading that in my NIV and James in my Message bible. I'll post verses that stand out from time to time. Me and the kids watched a soccer game and the Latino Disney channel again. It was a movie with that girl from Princess Diaries. This house is sweet. I'm glad I'm here. A perfect fit and if were not for Alex and Maria being so energetic yet chill, Nicaragua coulda put my torch out like Survivor, hung it up, no stallionaire chain like on Real Chance of Love. I might have opted out...gone home. Who knows?

Todo el dia we had an activity around the city of Managua. I'll post some of the photos but it was basically so we could try to get to know the city, the buses and taxis. It was a really long day but it went pretty smooth. We did take the crazy buses I had talked about in previous posts but it didn't seem that wild while I was on it. People keep to themselves...getting on and getting off.  I still gotta keep my head on straight of course but I'm understanding Nicaraguans are people just like I am. We just move to different rhythms. It was a lot of fun today though. We had two guys. One Nicaraguan and one North American who spoke spanish really well and translated for us when Selin our Nica friend couldn't find the right words. We went all over the city, to malls like Metro Centro (an Americanish mall with movie theater and stuff), out to eat, to Mercado Huembes which is like a big flea market, Loma de Tiscapa which is a landmark with a lot of history involving the earthquake that destroyed the city, the wars, the revolution, the Plaza de la Revolucion which has the President's house and Esperanza coffee shop where they have internet hook-ups. It was cool though I don't remember all the buses we take and taxis are interesting. They name a price and you can always get it for less.

At night Alex and Maria had a bible study for children at the house. It was cool and they even did a couple songs in English for me. Later we ate then watched Pirates of the Carribean yet again on the Disney channel.