Nicaragua

On thursday we arrived home from our Nicaragua trip, then right away on friday a group of us headed out to Manuel Antonio foe fall break where we have been enjoying the national park and beaches and zip lining! We have free internet here at the hostel and Nicaragua was the most amazing experience of my time so far, so I guess I should blog about it, even though I dont even know where to start.
Nicaragua is a completely different world than Costa Rica. The people are far more poor (over 70 percent live on less than 2 dollars per day) there country's history is pretty violent, with military dictatorships, violent revolutions, earthquakes and hurracanes that destroyed the country and power hungry corrupt leaders. Nicaraguans are very passionate, especially about thier politics.
For 2 days our group studied some history in politics in the capital of Managua, then we headed out in groups of four to little villages outside of the city. My group traveled about an hour, further and further away from modern conveniences. I didnt know what to expect, but when we saw people legitimately travelling with horse and buggy instead of cars and when we got out of our taxi and began our trek up the dirt road, i knew i was in for a crazy different experience. I live in La Montanita. Our toilet was an outhouse, i showered with a bucket of water and a bowl, all my food was cooked over a fire and there were chickens and other animals everywhere.
I loved my experience so much. My family was so excited to have me. They hosted one other student 2 years ago and they still talk about her all the time like she is one of the family's nearest and dearest friend. They people were asking months in advance when we students would be coming, and i think it was the highlight of the year that we went. I really enjoyed the slow pace of life there. I just sat and was quiet at times, other times i played baseball and cards with the kids. My family always serevd me first and gave me the best food (the boughtfresh cow milk from their neighbor evey morning so that i could have milk in my coffee...woah) They poured traditional nicaraguan gifts on me like hairclips, earrings, a hammock and hand made sandals, even though they were poor and im sure these gifts required sacrafice. I just felt so loved by my family there and in those 6 short days I really fell in love with them too.
Since LASP teamed up with a church denomination called Brothers in Christ to find us our Christian host families, the villages we all visited just assumed we were missionaries, despite us saying we were really just students. They had us sing in front of church, teach kids' sunday school and my friend McCall actually preached in Spansh on Saturday night. We led a special youth group meeting and they had a special food sale and invited a neighboring church on sunday. Church is a very important part of their lives. They have 4 or 5 services a week. There were things i really liked and things I really didnt like about the church. One of the things I didnt like was the pastor's attitude that we could teach them so much and enlighten them with our spiritual ideas just because we were from the U.S. as much as we wanted to live on the same level as the Nicaraguans for the week, they always wanted to draw lines between us and them. We were the rich people they were poor. They thought we had so much to offer them, financially and spiritually, but they didnt realize what they were giving us.
There are a lot of difficult issues my experience in Nicaragua brought up. Many members of the community worked in sweatshops owned by American clothing companies. Often times foreign involvement in Nicaragua involves giving money, while ignoring the economic and political structural problems. Nicaraguans just expect other countries to give them stuff and they are never empowered to be self sufficient. These are things I will struggle to think about, along with many more.
Already I feel i am fogetting some aspects of my trip, as now my mind is filled with this gorgeous ocean view in Manuel Antonio. Tomorrow we go back to classes, I will be starting my literature classes and another round of spanish classes. I am forced to "move on" from nicaragua. But if any of you ask me about my trip when I return, please ask me about this awesome part of it.

prayer request: there are still boy drama issues with my host family here. My mom and sister are both moody and angry with each other. I feel really ackward and sometimes just wish I didnt have to be there so please pray for peace for my family and that I would feel loved and there.