Nicaragua=Love.

Hola everybody!
I'm back in my home in San Jose, Costa Rica. Got back yesterday from Nicaragua. It was without a doubt the most amazing trip of my life. I cannot possibly do it justice on this blog so I will give some high lights and recommend looking at my pics on facebook. The first two days we were in managua the capital city which is an extremely strange city. It is filled with monuments and government buildings and expensive hotels and at the same time there is a shanty town of farmers who are protesting the government. We went into a big park filled with monuments and it was practically dead. We had some charlas while in Managua. One with a guy who grew up a missionary kid in nicaragua, one with two people who work with MCC a missions org there, and a third with Maria Dora Tellez...a nicaragua political revolutionary who faught in the civil war, has held a 12 day hunger strike, and is currently not allowed in the USA because the Bush administration put her on the terrorist black list. So basically I chatted with a "terrorist" : ) After managua the real adventure started. We left at 4am and road on a bus for about 7 hours. Then we hopped off and waited for about 2 hours for a truck to take us to our host homes. The truck ride was about an hour and then we had a 30 minute horse ride to our host church : ) At the church i met my dad for the week and headed home. I spent the next 6 days living in a house with a dirt floor, wooden walls, an outhouse, and a stream to bathe in. I had 5 brothers and sisters plus my parents. I ate enormous portions of rice and beans and quejada (a really salty cheese that i didnt care for much but ate anyway) and tortillas. I really didn't do much of anything. Played with my 11 month old sister a bunch. Went to church 3 times. Sang in church 3 times. Taught a silly song to the childrens sunday school class and then performed it infront of the church. Taught my family english words. Talked with my host mom about anything and everything. Enjoyed the incredible scenery. Milked a cow. Fell in mud 3 times and had my feet washed for me by my host sister and mom 3 times. Road a horse. Played chibolas (marbles) and kick ball with my siblings and nieces and nephews. Went to bed at 7:30pm when it got dark, woke up at 5:30am when it was light. : ) This blog cant possibly do the experience justice but basically all u need to know is i absolutely loved it and plan to keep my promise to my host mom that i will come back and visit some time. After the host stay we went to granada an old kind of victorian city which was really beautiful and stayed in a really nice hostel which was very strange after coming from the campo. I was sick thursday but just about everybody was, its just our bodies way of saying what the heck did u feed me for the last week. But I'm good now : ) So thursday we just hung out and friday we headed home. left at 7am got home about 6:30 pm. This trip was mind boggeling, amazing, awe-inspiring, difficult and a million other emotions that i'm still processing. I am extremely greatful for this trip and encourage u to check out my pics on facebook to see my experience. If your reading this and dont have facebook, email me your email address (or just email me and then i'll have ur email address wont i : ) and i can send you the pics.
Love you all!
Pura Vida
KT