It feels like I never left

Hey Everyone! I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to let you know how I’m doing! Although it has only been about 2 days, it has been so amazing!

I want to say thanks to everyone who donated materials!  there is so much and I am so excited to see what God has in store for it!

We left Saturday morning with a beautiful send-off snow. We met up, packed the cars and off to the airport! It was a blessing to be able to travel with the team going to Granada. With Roy and Charlie, it felt like I was traveling with teenagers, but it was a blessing all the same.

We were greeted by Doug, Lindsay, Narlly and Julieta. Lots of hugs and excitement, but we loaded up the cars and said our goodbyes. Off to Dario! Narlly briefed me with the changes since the summer on the way, and we talked until 1 ‘o clock Nica time (Which means 2′o clock Pennsylvania time).

Abi and Josias had been asleep by the time they picked me up from the airport the night before. So when I woke up the next morning and sat down next to Abi, she stared at me without saying a word and without a smile. I figured she had just woken up and probably needed a little time. Josias and I were buddies when I was there in the summer, but when he almost started crying after I said hello to him that morning, I guessed that he might need a little more time than Abi. We went to church, and it was so good to see everyone! I was really not ready for full-blown spanish, but I caught bits and pieces of things as the new pastor spoke.

Because it has only been two weeks since he moved into Dario, they needed to have a meeting after church. It ran from about 1130 to 3 .. yeah. I was asked to help with the kids, but since I couldn’t even formulate english sentences properly, I wasn’t much help. My friends I had made over the summer were so excited to see me, and I was so glad to see them! After an hour or two of having a couple of them persistently encourage me to continue fumbling over spanish words I was able to hold a pretty good conversation with my one friend Kenya and it was so awesome!

Josias continued to be afraid of me the entire day. It was so sad, because other people would be tired of holding him and they would try to hand him off to me, but he would start crying! He was terrified the one time he fell, not because of the fall, but because I leaned down without a second thought to pick him up. He started screaming!

Despite that, it is so good to be here. Honestly I wonder sometimes where the past four months went. It feels like I never left from my summer trip!

Narlly had meetings today to prepare for the upcoming school year, so I spent time with some of the kids that were hanging around. After passing a soccer ball around in the heat of the day, I sat down with my 10 year-old friend Wendel and asked him every question imaginable. He thought it was funny and it was good practice! When Narlly was done, we went to a nearby town called Sébaco to run some errands and when we came home, I fell asleep. I woke up to Julieta and Abi knocking on my door. Abi looks and me and says, ‘What are we going to play?’ I asked her what she wanted to play and she said she wanted to make art. So, we spent the night painting while Narlly and Julio were at the marriage group at church. Then gallo pinto y ensalada for dinner.

The most exciting thing though was that when I smiled at Josias tonight, he smiled back. He is adorable and I hope we become friends soon!

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