And I thought my blonde hair stuck out in Managua

Charity and I have officially arrived in Waspam!

After a thankfully uneventful plane ride, we are here! The flight in total was about an hour and a half. We flew about an hour, stopped in Bonanza dropped off a couple people, then flew another half an hour to get here to our final destination. I'm still not sure how much I love flying in an airplane that is only made to carry 12 people, but hey, it got us here safely, and in far less time than it would take to drive, or come by bus. There is also something very exotic about landing on a dirt runway and not needing to walk through any building; just landing, getting your bags as you get off, and going. There were luckily men with wheel barrel type things that were there to carry our bags as we walked to our hotel though.

So wait, why are we here??? All the kids in the home are miskito indians who were born in Waspam. New Hope Children's Foundation not only has the home that I have been serving in in El Crucero, but also a home here in Waspam. Among other things, goals of this trip are to take two kids that are already in the home here back with us to El Crucero, and to find any other kids in the area that need a home.

So far, this is what I have realized: if I thought I as a gringa with my blonde haired, and white skin stood out in Managua, and El Crucero, I was terribly mistaken. Walking down the streets of Waspam I now understand what it feels like to stand out. Here there is a completely different level of culture shock that goes on. In some ways it is not all that different from El Crucero, but in others, it is a whole other world. I figured out as we were walking through town, that its as if you have just gone back in time. I dont really have words to describe it other than, a third world country/city with an 1800s feel. Those of you who have been there, may have different ways to describe it, but at least with my initial scan, that is what I have decided. The language barrier is also a different obstacle. Here in Waspam, the main language spoken is Miskito. . . While I have learned few phrases in this language, neither Charity nor I have nearly enough knowledge to actually carry on full conversations. Fortunately, a fair number of people in the city speak spanish as well, so hopefully we will be able to get help translating whenever needed!

We have lots of work ahead of us, in order to get everything done we need to in the next week! Please keep us in your prayer as we work at hiring someone to take care of the kids in the home here, and as we try to carry out the work of the ministry, rescuing more of God's children.

My Beautiful Children

Today, to the delight of most of the kids, was the last day of school!!! Nicaragua school schedule goes from February through November, so other than graduation, they are done with school stuff for the next two months :) In El Crucero the weather has begun to turn "cold" at least according to their standards, meaning in the morning and evenings it gets down to mid to lower 70s, but is still in the 80s when the sun is out during the day. To someone from the midwest, its gorgeous early fall weather. 

I am currently here sitting in the dentist office waiting on one of our girls who is getting work done on her teeth. Because her teeth were in such bad shape, they put her to sleep so that they could get everything done they need too. So I'm just praying she's not in too much pain when she gets up!

Here are some pictures of the babies playing outside!

Frankie and Leito relaxing on top of a pile of towels on the trampoline

 Yelka and Ofelia just enjoying outside

Emily yelling at me because I stopped following her to take a picture :)

And some others just for fun.

 Leito is learning to give some pretty great besos,

 especially when they are followed by "I wuv woo mama!"

 Yelka is still not so sure about cameras, Ofelia on the other hand would have you take her picture all day long!

And we can't leave out Luviana, who also LOVES having her picture taken, then holding the camera right up close against her eye so that she can see that the picture was actually taken, and that she is in it!

Here are Debonney and Joely, the oldest two girls in the home, Debonney on the left is 12, and Joely is 15. Both are amazing with their help in caring for all the little ones!

Candle making

Earlier this week I got to spend some good time with the little girls making candles! Their teacher did not come to school (a not so uncommon thing unfortunately) so they were sent home. Instead of going straight to playing we decided to do something somewhat educational first! Using one of those chemistry kits, we learned about solids, liquids and gases by taking solid wax, and crayons, melting it to make a liquid, dipping a string and making it solid again, then burning it to form a gas! Yay! Anyways, we had fun with it, and it was nice to spend some time with just them and no distractions from the babies, or big kids :)

The equipment:

The girls:

Costa Rica!

This last weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to take a mini vacation! With 'babysitters' in place we took off for five days of rest and rejuvenation! Here are highlights of this extended weekend vacation!

1. Crossing the border! This was my first experience crossing a border in anything other than airplane. Needless to say the process is a little more tedious, but an adventure nonetheless. And to make it all the better I got six stamps in my passport between going from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and back!

2. I received my first marriage proposal since coming down (no need to worry, I said 'no'). I was from the first Costa Rican I interacted with once across the border haha! He didn't even know if I spoke spanish when he asked. 

3. Our condo was gorgeous! The first thing that stood out to us was that it was clean! It was a great little oasis in Playas del Coco, Costa Rica. And its most used feature. . . the infinity pool! Especially because the majority of the time we had it completely to ourselves!

4. One beautiful night we went out and floated in the pool looking up and the glorious sky full of stars. It was so peaceful and relaxing, a great way to go stargazing! 

5. Notre Dame Football! I watched my first ND football game of the season (at least the second half) while we were in Costa Rica :) Although it was a sad, yet close loss, it was still great to be able to be a part of Notre Dame again!

6. World Series! It just so happened that while I was in Costa Rica, the giants won the world series! Despite my american league allegiance, congrats!

7. The dryer. Our condo was also the home of a washing machine and dryer! Using a dryer for the first time in two months definitely feels awesome. 

8. Scrabble in the candlelight. In case you were wondering, the electricity can still go out, even if you are on vacation :) Fortunately it was only for a couple hours one evening, so we made the most of it, and played scrabble, seeing with the candles that our only neighbor let us borrow! Scrabble really is a great game. 

9. Sleeping. Sleeping was one of the best benefits of this trip :) I didn't set an alarm, and wasn't worried about babies waking up for the entire trip. 

10. Africa Mia. Who knew you could go to Africa while in Costa Rica?!?! Africa Mia is this zoo that you can ride through and feed the animals as if you are on an African Safari! We fed giraffe and deer among other animals :)