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.

Day 8

I've been in Nicaragua for a week now and i'm finally used to the way of life here. The college is a lot of fun.  I seem to be very popular at night when all the students learning english are editing their homework for the next day.  I still don't have my bag, the guy from continental told me that they would contact me within the next 30 days.  It's weird being without a camera.  I have my point and shoot but the battery was low when i got here.  I'm hoping i can find a place to get a charger of maybe someone from the states will have one.  I planned on constantly posting photos so that you can keep up with what's going on but my uploader is in my bag as well.  This weekend was great.  I went to managua twice to see a movie.  Hancock which was great until about 3/4 of the way through and Wall-e, which i really enjoyed.  I spent a lot of time in Diriamba, which was great.  It was pretty cool taking the bus from san marcos to diriamba.  It's crazy that in a place where gas is more expensive, i can take a taxi 10 miles for about thirty five cents.

Day 5

The day's coming to an end here in the city of San Marcos Nicaragua.  My second day of classes were much more productive than yesterday.  I'm starting to get the hang of past tense even though the professor hasn't really touched it much.  She doesn't speak english very well so i'm getting a lot of practice listening and understanding spanish.  The only problem is when i have a question she sometimes doesn't understand exactly what i'm asking.  She's a very nice lady though and think i'm going to learn a lot from her.  So far i've met three gringos in San Marcos.  One is a student at Ave Maria named Gary from Arkansas.  He's on summer vacation but he decided to stay in Nicaragua.  I talked SEC football with him for awhile and touched on politics.  He seems like a nice guy and i'm sure i'll see him again.  Another is an english professor at the school. The third, Maggie, is doing mission work in san marcos through her school.  I can tell she has become very passionate about this area and I can tell we're going to get along.  I decided to walk around and see the city a little bit during lunch today and i saw something a little disturbing in the park.  There was a man of about forty, sitting on a bench, making inhumanely, growling noises at everyone who walked by.  It was loud enough to fill the town square and creepy enough to catch more than my attention.  When there was no one near he made this clicking noise that was just as loud and just as haunting.  I suddenly had images of Jesus sending the twelve off to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and cast out demons.  Not that i was planning on yelling "in Jesus name" at this guy and sending it into a street dog, but it still made me think.  A lady on the street told me that he wasn't like that before the drugs.  It makes me wonder what kind of faith the disciples must have had.  To go into a strange city and walk up to the town crazies and lay their hands on them is more than i could handle.  I have a feeling it had something to do with being in the constant presence of Christ.  Jesus said that we have the power, through the Father, to do everything that He(the Son) did and more.  We are our only limits in changing the world.  This schooling is fun but i can't wait to get back with the baltodanos and start working with the people of Diriamba again.  Maybe when i've mastered spanish i'll try and at least talk with this man. 

Arrived

I have been in Nicaragua for three days and have finally set up a blog so that everyone at home, who cares to, can keep up with what's going on here.  

I left Baton Rouge around three thirty Saturday.  The landing sucked but other than that, things were quite uneventful.  I got a lunch full of vegetables in Houston because i knew that they would be very scarce while i'm here.  There were a few church groups in the Baton Rouge airport and a lot of them in the Houston airport.  One flew into Managua but they were in the front of the plane so i didn't get a chance to talk to any of them.  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Robert Terrell for never making us wear group t-shirts when we went to the airport.

*pause so that i can say a freaking monk just walked by.  I'm talking full beard, shaved head, long, brown robe, and Jesus sandals.*

  I got into the country quickly but had to sit for about thirty minutes waiting on the luggage because one of my two bags was missing.   I'm still waiting for it to get to managua. Unfortunately my new Nikon D80 was in this bag so i'm praying they find it.

I stayed at a place in Diriamba(evelyn's house) for two nights.  We went to La Boquita, a local beach close by Saturday afternoon.  In years past, it usually took about an hour to drive to La Boquita.  However, they have repaved most of the highway so now it's about a thirty minute drive.  There we ate sea turtle eggs and the seafood platter which feeds six and contains the catch of the day(both fried and grilled), lobster, plantains, and rice.

I arrived at Ave Maria yesterday and have been enjoying myself.  They have good food, a gym, ping pong and pool tables, wi-fi, a big courtyard, hot water showers with plenty of water pressure, a tennis court that i haven't used yet, and lots of people my age who are currently learning english.  I've made a good number of friends and have been invited to go to Managua Thursday night where we may see a movie or visit a discoteca.  

Today my classes were easy.  It was pretty much a review of what I know but i have a feeling it will get harder.

*the monk just walked by again.  He looks American and about 25.  I'm going to try to talk to him if i see him again*

I'm on my break right now. At four i'm going on a bike ride with mi profesora to get to know the city of san marcos and practice spanish in "every day life"