Day 37

1. For those of you who have been worried, i'm fine. It's been difficult to post because i'm computerless now and my internet time is very much restricted. I was a little broken the day of the robbery because i had just lost everything except my clothes and my phone but it's hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are surrounded by such poverty. The kids that we feed daily return to their seven square foot homes with no electricity or running water where I get to come home to my car, my schooling, and family(my gringo family) in less than two weeks. Don't waste your time feeling sorry for me for the robbery, i'll have a new passport by the 11th of August and my mom wired me some cash to get me through the rest of the trip.
   
2. I'm super excited because Claudia told me that we are going to try and let me attempt to surf next weekend. I really can't wait to give it a go. There is also a chance that i could be relocating next week to a city about an hour out of Managua called Chinadalga To work with a youth group from the states that Evelyn and Claudia will be translating for. I really hope this works out because there isn't a thing for me to do this week during the day and I'm out of books to read. Another plus to this is that i haven't seen enough of Evelyn and Claudia this trip and I'll be spending the week with them if it works out
   

Day 30

Last night we were robbed. At around two thirty a tall, skinny man, wearing a bandanna on his head, broke the lock on our front door. In the span of about thirty seconds he grabbed my new macbook pro, my booksack with all of my money, passport, and travelers checks, and a broken dvd player. Luckily for the other members of the house Martin, Evelyns fiance, was sleeping on the couch and was awoken immediately. The man ran outside, grabbed what we presume was a knife, and then tried to force his way back in. Moises grabbed his machete and fought the man back while his partner ran away with the loot. In less than a month, my new Nikon D80 and my new Macbook pro have both been stolen. I wish I wasnt such a heavy sleeper so i couldve chased the bastard.

Day 29

I've had a great week.  The group from Denham Springs was here doing VBS and a lot of shopping.  I forgot how much i loved the school and all of the kids that attend it.  It's a little sad because a lot of the kids my friends are graduating this year and won't be back next year.  I've gotten a lot of practice with my spanish this week and i can tell it's getting better. We went to the beach, then held a wedding shower for Evelyn and Martin, last night.  Evelyn is the ingles teacher at the school but next week she has to work with a group in Managua so i'm going to be the substitute for all of next week.  This will be interesting because i won't have a translator and i'll be teaching all ages from 5-20.  

I got a call from continental and they said that they were pretty sure the bag is gone forever. 

Day 22

It's my first day back in Diriamba.  I finished my classes yesterday, ending with a ten minute speech on a topic that was a secret to me until fifteen minutes before.  The topic was "my time in nicaragua" so it really wasn't very hard.  I finally visited the friars convent this thursday and it was a really cool experience.  It's a group of four men from the states and one from Jinotepe who have given up everything to live in absolute poverty.  The freedom that they find by renouncing everything this world holds valuable is incredible.  I'll write more later because it's quite late and i need to be getting to sleep 

Day 18

I only have three days left at the college and I'm pretty excited about moving back to Diriamba.  I've had fun here and i've learned a lot, but i'm ready to spend time in the city I love.  A youth group from north Louisiana got in on Saturday and i've really enjoyed hanging out with them over the past few days.  I've been going to my classes until three, then taking a bus over to Diriamba every day.  

I didn't go to Leon last Friday, the cell phone connections suck so there was a bit of a miss communication.  I did, however, visit Granada and saw two photography exhibits.  One was showcasing the work of a photographer from Nicaragua and the other was an exhibit put on by lens of vision and expression or LOVE.  LOVE is a non-profit organization that provides digital cameras to children living in poverty and trains them in photography.  This exhibit showcased the work of nine children and teens living in La Chureca (the dump in Managua).  The photographs were incredible and are for sale.  The profits go toward the well being a schooling of the photographers.  I'm pretty sure that next week i will visit La Chureca and meet the kids before choosing which photograph i'm going to buy.

Day 13

Tomorrow I'm going to Grenada, a city that was the original capital of Nicaragua, with my professor.  There is an exhibit in a museum about a program that gave dslr's (the kind of camera i use) and photography lessons to street kids from here in Nicaragua. (http://lensofvisionexpression.org)  Every who knows me, and i'm guessing that's all of you reading this, knows that i'm going to love seeing this.

Today i finally talked to the monk.  It turns out he's actually a friar, not a monk.  I asked if i could come check out his compound sometime and he gave me directions.  It's made up of Americans who have moved her.  I'll know more about their way of life after i go talk to them later on in the next two weeks. 

The University is having a taking a trip to Managua tomorrow for a "Mall trip."  I was going to do that but I got a call from Maggie(http://maggienicaragua.blogspot.com) today saying that she found four puppies that needed rescuing and wanted to know if i would like to accompany her in this wild goose chase that, the connection was bad so i'm not too sure, will bring us to Leon(a city on the other side of Managua[i think]).  I'm not here to go shopping, I love dogs, and i've never seen Leon so i'm hoping I get back from Grenada in time tomorrow to go save some puppies.

day 11

It amazes me that a multi billion dollar airline company refuses to pay two thousand, five hundred dollars to replace the things that were "lost" by their employees.  I went to managua today, missing my classes, just to be told that they were not liable for any electronics lost.  Lucky for them, they "lost" my electronics bag and not my bag with my clothes in it.  This means i have to replace my own sonicare toothbrush, self cleaning razor, and retainer.  This isn't that big of a deal.  My camera bag is another story.  I have about $1400-$1700 worth of equipment in there, not to mention that i'm a photographer for The Legacy.  Without a camera it's going to be hard to keep my job.  But i understand.  With terrorism and gas prices continental can't be expected to watch out for their costumers.  Especially when they only charge $800 dollars for a two hour flight.  With prices that low, they can't be expected to actually have our best intrest in mind.  

They did offer me a $150 dollar voucher for any continental flight but I told them that it's worthless to me because i'll never fly continental again.