Hello everyone! I apologize for the lack of a blog last week but I am going to try and fill you in on what has been happening lately.

Starting from Monday the 13^th I didn't teach ESL because there wasn't any school that day. Monday was also Thanksgiving in Canada and one of my leaders Jamie lives in Canada. So the four of us who usually teach at Colegio San Antonio went to the supply store and decorated the whole house for a Canadian thanksgiving. For dinner we had cornflake chicken, green beans (a bit undercooked ha ha), garlic potatoes, deviled eggs, and gravy. I didn't eat the gravy it isn't my favorite. When Jamie came over with the boys for dinner he was completely surprised and tickled pink by all of the work we put in to make a special day for him. For dessert we had ice cream with maraschino cherries on top! Then we played games and just had a great time being together.

Tuesday I went to Colegio San Antonio again to teach ESL. However we didn't get to teach because they tried to put us in with the older kids because our ninth graders were in Biology. Senora Donna Avis insisted that we only teach the ninth graders and after an unsuccessful talk with one of the administrators we ended up not teaching again to the dismay of Sarah, Joann, Annie and I. It was hard because we had been preparing our lessons for a whole week and didn't get to use any of it.

Wednesday everyone was feeling really tired and spirits were low all around. We had class in the morning and instead of having lecture we were paired up with someone else from our team and we went off with them and talked for a few hours to get to know them better. I went with Jennifer and had a really great time. We went to the Garden Café and got smoothies (which are divine) and bagels. Then later that afternoon we did trash pick up in front of El Puente which wasn't as exciting as last week. We prayed before picking up the trash to look for community leaders who would be able to keep this ministry going when we leave in may, and just to start relationships with those living on the road there. After dinner that night a few of us ran to Eskimo and got some ice cream and it melted as we ran home for team time. I gave my testimony in front of the group during team time and it was great to get that off of my chest. Having everyone tell their story of how God is working in their lives and how them came to know Christ really lets us get to know people on a deeper level. I am being stretched much further outside of my comfort zone than I ever thought I would be.

Thursday it rained and rained and rained! Since we have class in the afternoon on Thursdays and Fridays we did an ATL in the morning, my group was Amy, Jennifer, Mario, and I. After praying I felt like I needed to pray for Mario and his family because the day before he had accepted Christ! So I prayed for him and then went and gave him my poncho for our ATL because it was still raining. He took us to visit an all girls orphanage. There were 18 girls in the orphanage and they appeared to be taken well care of. The nun told us that their English teacher was leaving on Friday (the next day) and that we could come on Fridays or Saturdays and teach the girls or play with them or do arts and crafts. It looked like a really neat opportunity and we will see if Tana will allow us to invest our Friday mornings there. Then we went to the old fort that was built in the 1500's and was used to fend of pirates and used again in the 70's during the revolution. Mario gave us a history lesson while we sat in the gun towers and looked out over the city of Granada. We prayed over the people of Nicaragua and we were just able to get to know Mario better which was a blessing.

Friday morning we went to the Sisters of Charity and worked in the daycare there. Sylvia, Caleb Austin, Jessica and I were supposed to have done the feeding program at El Colegio San Antonio but it was closed because of the rain again so we went with everyone to Sisters of Charity. Nicas are scarred of the rain and think your crazy if you are out in it, and the joke is that they don't even eat when it rains. At Sylvia and I served food to the homeless in the kitchen at the orphanage instead of playing with the kids. It was fun even though I was butchering my Spanish and some lady thought I wanted to eat the yucca she was cooking. All of the homeless people lined up and brought their own containers and we gave them one two scoops of beans (frijoles), five scoops of rice (arroz), one scoop of salad (ensalada), two pieces of cheese (queso), and one banana (platano). I hope that I get to serve food again. Then we put together all of the bowls of food for the kids in the daycare. They had a cooked egg, rice, beans, and some cheese, they make sure that the meals that the kids are getting are full of protein because this may be the best meal the kids get all week long.

Saturday was my free day as usual and I got to talk to people from home and catch up on the news which was fun. A lot of the time I feel so disconnected from the world. Sunday we had church at El Puente in the morning. The service was really good and at church we always have a group from Hogar Crea which is the rehab program and Sunday is a special day when they are allowed under careful watch by Roberto to come and attend church. I tried to talk to this one man from Hogar Crea and he ignored me so I asked Roberto if they were still on restriction from talking to people outside of the rehab program while at church. Roberto said no and told me that he was going to give one of the guys a pair of new shoes and asked if I would like to come with him. When we walked over to the group of guys Roberto let me do the honors and give the man I had tried to talk to a pair of shoes because his had holes in them and were less than wearable. It was really touching to me that he let me give the man a pair of shoes because the program has no money to give the men things in the rehab program and they come in with no support from family or any possessions. I found out that the reason the man didn't talk to me was because the drugs he had taken had left his mind in the state of a baby's, it is sad to think that once there was a fully functioning adult in what was now someone barely capable of making noise. That afternoon we took a bus to Masaya and then walked to the Mercado there and went shopping and hung out and that was fun. We had a quick team meeting that night where one of my teammates Sylvia told us that she was going home permanently because she felt like Nicaragua wasn't where God was calling her to be and it was really hard to hear that she was leaving our team.

On Monday the 20^th I actually was able to teach ESL at the school. When I went into the classroom I got my kids to get into our circle and I had gained some kids and others weren't there. We studied the numbers one through one hundred. I would say the number and hold up a flashcard and each one of them had to repeat the number and write it down. Then we played a game where I said a number and pointed at someone else and the person I pointed at had to say the next number and then they pointed at someone and so on and so fourth. Most of the kids knew the numbers pretty well and they seemed annoyed that we were spending the entire class on numbers but they were struggling with the "th" sound saying tree instead of three so I kept making them repeat the numbers with three in them.

Tuesday we ran into the same problem as last Tuesday where we were not allowed to teach the ninth graders because they were in Biology class. We ended up going into Donna Avis' office and figured out that the schedule had been switched and she hadn't been able to tell us. So from now on we will start class at 1:30 pm instead of 2:30. Hopefully we are able to teach both days this coming week.

Wednesday Sylvia left at 3am for home and it was weird not having here there when I woke up in the morning. We picked up trash again in front of El Puente in the afternoon and we made it a lot further down the road closer into the Barrios which are the slum areas. We ended up collecting more locals along the way that were helping out and I got to talk to Mario again about some of the poverty in the neighborhood and it was just fun getting to hang out with the kids.

Thursday was a slower day, we were supposed to do the feeding program in the morning but it was shut down again so Jessica, Caleb A, Annie, and I ended up doing an ATL. We walked over to Central Park and before we were even able to pray a man started talking to us named Allen who was a Nicaraguan. We ended up talking to him about his belief and it turns out that he went through Hogar Crea which is the program that the boys are working with on Tuesday nights. We invited him to the men's bible study on Friday morning. Some people went to young life and 6 people accepted Christ that night!

Friday morning we were supposed to do the feeding program in the morning but of course it was closed again. I am beginning to think that we are never going to get to serve food there. We went to the sisters of Charity and played with the kids again and served food. We had class in the afternoon with Charles Kaye. He taught class all this week and he has really been challenging us on our belief and how much we know about the bible. He made the point that other religions such as Islam, Mormonism and Jehovah Witness know their beliefs inside out and when telling others about the gospel we should be confident in what we know and not let our lack of knowledge be a stumbling block in what we believe. It has been some very powerful stuff and we are preparing to go and tell others about Christ and I am very excited!! Allen did not show up the men's bible study but I am praying for him and I am sure I will see him around central park sometime. We also switched up rooms on Friday and I am in the same room but I gained two new roommates Joann and Jennifer. We also got shelving in our rooms which has helped everyone to no longer be living out of their suitcases!

I am excited for this new week and every new opportunity it will bring. It had been a challenging few weeks and I am being stretched more than I ever believed possible. Please be praying for strength for me and just inner peace. It is hard to be so far away from home and never have anytime to yourself. I am learning that community living is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be but I am growing and that is good. I look forward to hearing from you and again I apologize for the lack of a blog last week.

-Melissa