Dale pue

This past week, October 18, 19, and 20 I interned at Food for the Hungry again in the middle of the week and I got to go out into a few other communities again and help the social workers with whatever tasks they had to do in the specific communities we visited. At one community we went to the school as the kids were getting done with class and got to help kids write their potential sponsors letters telling a little about themselves. That was interesting as a few of the kids weren’t old enough to know how to write very well so I had to basically tell them every single letter to write! Ha, I also got to talk to a bunch of kids that day and one in particular that was very interested in using the English he knew talked to me. He wanted to learn more so I taught him some words and phrases and he was very happy to learn. One sad thing that happened in one of the communities was a 3-month-old baby had died only a few days earlier. We heard from another family as we were walking around that day and so went to visit that family. Rosaline, the social worker I was with at the time knew the family a little so she got to comfort them. It was interesting though that when we got there the casket with the baby in it was right out in the open and people were coming to say their sympathies and view the baby. It was a sad thing but a very communal time for the people to be there for the family in this hard time. Also, on Wednesday I was working with Nancy and Meybelline and as we were riding in the taxi to the community we compared our skin colors and I am tanner than both of them. They are both Nicaraguan and have dark colored hair, but pretty light colored skin. It was just interesting that I as a North American had darker skin than the two Nicaraguans whom are normally pretty moreno, dark skinned. We all found it pretty funny!

Our weekend was pretty chill as we watched a few movies on Friday night then on Saturday for lunch we got to cook with our professor, Zhenia. We went to the store and picked out some food, Zhenia mostly picking out the ingredients and cooking it, with us helping with a few things and watching how it was done. It was a delicious meal and we got to hang out with her for awhile at her house which was super fun as she’s a crazy fun Nicaraguan about 24 years old!

Sunday my family didn’t go to church, but Alejandra, mi mama and I went to a baby shower for one of my host cousins in the afternoon. It was a very fun time, with lots of food, games and laughter. The word for baby shower is the same as in English so that was a fun fact! It was a lot similar to a North American baby shower in the feel of the party but men and kids attended this shower instead of just women.

Another random observation: When you are trying to get someone to be quiet there is a specific sound that you make such as shhhhhhh. Well the type of “shh” we do in the United States is different than in Nicaragua. Here it’s more like a “ssss”. Our sound is like the ‘s’ at the beginning of the word shower, and the Nicaraguan way of saying it is like the beginning of the word sister. It has no different meaning, just a small difference that I thought was interesting to note because it definitely threw me off for a little bit the first time I heard it.

I was reminded of something really cool as I attended a bible study group this Saturday night with mi mama, Alejandra, Christian and only one other person. It was a really simple time where we sang, prayed and talked about a few bible verses. I first thought it was kind of weird as there were only 5 of us there and 4 live in this house, but then I thought about how cool it actually was that we could worship God in what first seemed like such an insignificant way to me, but was actually exactly right. We worshiped God just as we were for His sake not our own, not worrying about external appearances. My family here, and other Nicaraguan Evangelical Christians have impressed me in their strong outward faith. I have seen this present in the politics here, or rather in the abstaining from getting too involved in politics. As the election is the 2^nd week of November, a lot of people are not for one candidate or party because they don’t see any of the leaders being a strong President for this country. It was frustrating at first to hear people explain they didn’t care who won, “Dios es mi Presidente” (God is my President) they would say. It was kind of a depressing thing and at first it was hard to see a lot of people really pessimistic about the future of their country and really not having hope in any of the Presidential candidates. I then saw that this only made their faith in God stronger as they did not trust their country leaders, they knew they could always trust their heavenly King. They praised Him louder as they were unsure, and I was impressed. I think this is a very important thing to learn from these Nicaraguans. North Americans take politics too seriously sometimes, and as it is a very important thing to be a part of, maybe in some ways we could learn from Nicaraguans. To an extent we should have a say in worldly leaders and should care about how our nation is working in regards to politics, but in most ways we should learn to give up the areas that we can’t control to God. He is our ultimate leader, and sometimes I think we forget that, me included. I thought this was a great reminder to me and something very important to constantly remember.


Some pictures..
Alejandra and I played in the rain one day...

 making food with Zhenia, or rather watching her make it, ha...

 so ready for the dessert...

 me making tiste, a very typical Nicaraguan drink...I had to crush the sticks of tiste with my hands to make it into the drink and then we added a whole bunch of sugar, haha...

Cara.