One Day

I awake this morning to the wonderful sound of rain. I woke up for morning prayer at 5am, and surprisingly, I wasn't tired at all, which I'm assuming is because of my excitement at getting to actually meet all the kids. I'm a big fan of morning prayer being so early. It forces us to pray so early that we're doing it before pretty much anything else, like brushing our teeth, changing out of our pajamas, etc.

After prayer, everyone left the living room to get the day started, but considering it was my first day, I didn't really have any actual assigned tasks. I sat on the couch checking my email, when not five minutes later, a little five year old boy (who I now know as Frankie) walked out of a bedroom attached to the Iiving room. He immediately invited me inside and gave me a piece of gum...so we were pretty much instant friends. Within about ten minutes, the other five year old boy was up, we were playing hide and seek, and they were climbing all over me. They also kept pulling up my shirt and giving me raspberries, which I guess is just their thing...

After about 30 minutes of all of that, we sat in the couches in the living room as I read them a few books, which was just perfect. I went back to my room to change out of my pajamas and then ate with the two five year olds and the other younger orphans for breakfast. We had cream mixed with baked beans, which was a little different because I'm pretty sure that I had never had baked beans before today...but they weren't too bad, and I'm pretty sure that it would be impossible to have a bad breakfast while eating with those kids. 

After breakfast, the kids went off to preschool, and I went to the primary school to help Josh, the other summer volunteer, teach English to some 5th graders. The students are all great, and they are so influential in helping me get back into speaking Spanish...I'm obviously a lot more comfortable speaking Spanish in front of 5th graders in contrast with adults. 

Class went by pretty fast, and the next period was recess so I decided to play basketball with the 5th graders...I had some time before I had to help Josh teach English 1 for the secondary school. I'm pretty sure that playing basketball with the kids got me on their good side (sadly, school is closed for the next two days for Nicaraguan-wide teacher conferences, so I won't see them again until Monday!).

The secondary class wasn't as much fun...the kids aren't as excited to learn it, but I have high hopes for the coming months. In Nicaragua, we are right in the heart of the school season, so the kids wil be in school the entire time that I am down here. 

After secondary school, we went to go eat lunch with the people at the orphanage, including the preschoolers that I met earlier in the morning. Although there a 13 orphans, there are only seven of them in the preschool...the others attend the primary or secondary school. All seven of them are absolutely wonderful, loving, funny, and of course, a little mischievous. After lunch, we had nap time, and that took a while to get the kids down, but after they were sleeping, it was nice to have some time to relax.

After naps, school was over, and it was pretty much just hang out and play time for the rest of the night. I hung out a lot with Frankie, who is in love with his cars, and as soon as he saw that I had an iPad, he wanted to take a bunch of pictures. 

Eventually, the other kids came out to play, and we went all around the soccer field playing "crocodile hunting", which pretty much means that everyone grasps on to me for "protection" as we hunt for the crocodiles...until one of them suddenly turns into a crocodile. When this happens, they all turn into crocodiles, except me of course, and then I just get tackled to the ground by five kids...

We went inside to hang out for a little while longer until dinner was ready...I don't know what we ate, but it was delicious...looked kind of like a friend taco? Haha I don't know my food names, and I'm more concerned with how it tastes than with what it is actually called. :)

After dinner, we all hung out in the living room, singing worship songs, having a small devotional, and just messing around...

We ended the night by having the teenagers teach us more Spanish, which they do an amazing job at, followed by us watching August Rush. I went back to my room (Josh and I are switching off the weeks that we sleep with Frankie and Leito, the two boys...this week, I'm sleeping in our room while Josh sleeps with them) in the lightly pouring rain, realizing how truly blessed I am to be at this place.

I have gotten such a insight into the terrible stories if many of these kids' pasts...pasts that have been washed away and replaced by loving and loving-love kids. I'm surprised by how long the day has been...in a good way. And mostly, I'm shocked by how well I'm picking up Spanish again.

And I've only been here for one day...