Relaxation

This past week we had our mid-semester break. We went on a wonderfully relaxing Caribbean vacation. The 6 of us flew to the Corn Islands, off the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Because it was the hurricane season, there were very few people there, which was also very nice.

We spent the week swimming, laying on the beach, and reading books. We played a few card games, drove around the island (which is 12km around) in a golf cart (which died twice), and watched some movies. Basically, we relaxed. It was amazing.

One of our favorite activities was to go snorkeling! Twice we tried to go but it was too windy and the waves were too big. On our last full day there, it was finally calm enough to go. We looked at a sunken steamship and a reef. We were out there for a long time, but it was so cool and lots of fun. Our guide kept diving down to pick up shells and things to show us. He even picked up a sea cucumber and we all got to hold it. It was definitely a good experience.

Overall, we relaxed and had lots of fun. It was definitely worth it to take the trip out there, and we all felt relaxed afterward. We came home to a lot of rain and much cooler weather. Apparently it rained the whole time we were gone, and it has been raining since. It definitely cooled off, Cara and I even wore sweatshirts one day. It was a nice change.

Yesterday we jumped right back into classes by leaving for Managua at 6am. We had 2 classes and got back to Leon at about 5:30. Now we're all continuing on with our electives, which we will take for the next 3 weeks. After that we start our service learning. We all got our placements finalized this past week. I will be helping teach English in one of the schools in our area. I am very excited and can't wait to be in the classroom again! It'll be a good experience.

Thoughts

We have had a very busy couple of weeks here. But it has definitely been fun.

We went on another class trip to rural Nicaragua. We helped a group of farmers there. They are a part of a land bank. These farmers own their own land, which is atypical here in Nicaragua. We stayed with a family that had only been on their land for 16 days. They started building their house 16 days before we visited, and they hosted 8 of us at their house. The work probably wasn't considered very hard to them, and technically it wasn't very hard for us either, but we aren't used to it, and it was hot. We had fun talking to the farmers and their families though. It was really interesting to hear about their experiences and how happy they were despite having so little. It really made me think a lot about poverty and how differently people view it. I don't feel as though I truly understood poverty until going on our class trips and seeing it. Learning about it in school and talking about it in church and classes is not the same and seeing it. It was definitely a thought provoking trip.

This past week we started a new round of classes. We are going to Managua for our History and Worldview classes every Monday, then we have our elective courses Tuesday through Thursday. Friday we have our Culture class in Leon. Mondays are long days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are long mornings (Megan, Lisa and I have 4 hour Spanish classes those days). Fridays are only 2 hours of class, and it's fun. It was also really exciting this past Friday because we all got to see each other for the first time all week. We're used to seeing each other every day, so it was weird to all be doing different things all week.

Today we left Leon at 4am for our mid-semester break! We are on the Corn Islands in the Carribbean, still a part of Nicaragua. It's gorgeous. We're definitely hoping to have a wonderful week to relax and just spend time together. It's crazy that we're already in the middle of our semester, it's going by really fast. But it's also good, because that means we're all having fun and enjoying ourselves. Hopefully the 2nd half of the semester is as awesome as the first half has been!