I went to the Managua Zoo a few weeks ago, which was fun/interesting/sad. First of all, it was super hot (nothing new...), and lots of the animals looked like they were about to keel over from the heat. Most of them didn't have a great living space, especially the big animals like the gorilla, cheetahs, and lions, so it was kinda sad seeing such majestic creatures all caged up.
Kate's little sister Olivia is a senior in high school and plays on her school's volleyball team. They made it to the championship game! So I skipped class and went to watch. They ended up losing, but still got a trophy, played pretty well at least part of the time, and were excited to have made it that far. Here's a picture of Livy (number 04) and her team with their trophy:
A couple of weeks ago I went with a group of youth from my church to spend the morning at an orphanage in a poorer part of Managua. The orphanage is called Hogar Agape (hogar=home, agape="a selfless love, a love that was passionately committed to the well-being of the other"--CS Lewis' definition), and there are about 20-25 children that live there, ranging from age 3 to 15 or 16. We played games with them, sang some songs, did a piñata, played soccer, and basically just spent a few hours loving them and having fun. It was a beautiful thing!
Some of the people from church that I'm closest to here:
Yader, Debora, me, and Carlos (left to right)
Me and the little girl who ended up clinging to me and eventually falling asleep in my lap:
While we were all eating lunch, Carlos and I were talking, and the director came up to us (presumably because she already knows Carlos) and asked us, "Some of the boys really want to learn how to play guitar and piano. We have a guitar and a keyboard here, we just don't have anyone to teach them. Do you know of anyone?" I looked at him, sort of chuckled, and responded, "Well, I play piano...and Carlos plays guitar!" So we've started teaching lessons to some boys once or twice a week. I think we're going to keep it at once a week, on Sundays after church. It's really fun meeting with them and seeing their enthusiasm for learning to play, and while I'm excited to be able to teach them, teaching is not my gift and I sometimes feel incredibly overwhelmed and incompetent. I have no clue where to start!! Anyone have suggestions or helpful tips?!
Last week I went to Isla de Ometepe, which is a big island in the middle of a big lake here in Nicaragua. The island is basically two volcanoes connected to each other, and is a major landmark here. It was a beautiful day, and I got to see the island, got a cool picture of a flower/butterfly/spider all in one shot, and found a place called Hotel Aly!!
Tomorrow is the one-month mark of the countdown until I come home, and I can't believe it's already mid-November! It will be very strange to not be at home for Thanksgiving, although the Greenways (Kate's family) have invited me to join them and the Sharpes, another Young Life family here, for their T-day celebration. Then Friday or Saturday I'm going to try to make a Thanksgiving-ish meal, or at least apple pie, for my host family to share a little bit of American culture. A different kind of homesickness has set in now...it's not the kind that makes me feel miserably longing to be at home, wishing I was there instead of here. Instead, it's a sort of abiding feeling that it will be SO great to get home in a month and I'm completely and absolutely so very much looking forward to it, but right now, I am content and happy here and there will definitely be people and things I will miss dearly when I leave Nicaragua. It's a good state of mind.
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