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!