Turkey and Turtles!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I went to one of my classes in the morning, then skipped my other two to be with the Greenways.  Kate picked me up in the afternoon, and we headed to the bus stop to pick up her boyfriend Edwin.  He came down from Jinotega, which is about 3 hours away, to spend the weekend.  It was great getting to finally meet him!  We spent the afternoon relaxing then headed over to the Sharpe's house for Thanksgiving feasting (the Sharpes are another Young Life family here in Managua--my good friends the McDonalds are good friends with them too!).

We had a normal American Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, the works.  The only things that were a little different were the cranberry sauce (it was canned...cranberries are hard to come by here I think), and we had a bean dip appetizer.  Of course, we had to throw beans in there somewhere! I mean, come on, we're in Central America!  After dinner we had a really great time of fellowship, talking about what it means to pass on grace and gifts and be truly thankful, recognizing that nothing we have comes from us, but from God.  I got to call my family after dinner...it was weird not being with them on the holiday, but I'm glad I got to talk to them and will be with them for Christmas.

At the last minute, I decided to join the Greenways on their beach trip the next day.  There was a group of people who were biking all the way to the ocean, then staying overnight to watch the baby turtles hatch, then biking back home.  Kate's dad Jeff was one of the bikers, and the rest of us rode along in the car as "support" for them. We spent about 6 hours in the car that day, driving slow to stay with the bikers, and then about half of the road was this awful rutted dirt road that was SO rough the bikers passed us sometimes!  We finally got to the beach, played in the ocean, then that night found some baby turtles hatching. It was really cool to see all of them climbing out of their nest and bookin' it to the ocean!  The next morning we got up early and got on the road again to head back.  It took us a little less time on the way back, but we were exhausted when we finally got to the house. I can't even imagine how tired the bikers must have been!

Here's a picture of the car all loaded up and ready to go

Olivia, me, Kate, and half of Edwin....enjoying the car ride

We played soccer on the beach under this gorgeous sunset

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving and great weekend.  I got home from the weekend and found a sweet note on my desk from my host parents, with a typical Nicaraguan cup made out of the shell of some plant, as well as a pair of black coral earrings  "Happy Thanksgiving Day! Love, Emilio y Carmen".  I fly home two weeks from yesterday so now I'm just trying to soak up everything for these next two weeks, cram in my last bits of school work, and enjoy the little bit of time I have left.  I can't wait to see my family and be home again, but there are some people very dear to me here that I will miss terribly.