Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

It’s 6:45 AM and I’m sitting outside at the team center sitting in one of my favorite rocking chairs just taking in Nicaragua. It’s a beautiful morning. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it makes my heart happy to be here.

OK, so let me tell you about our day yesterday. Our flights were easy and we made it Nicaragua without any trouble. Everyone made it through customs and it was time to get our bags. We slowly but surely started to find most of our 30+ bags, but the bags were starting to slim and we were still missing about 10 bags. I decided it was time to go talk to the baggage claim desk, so I took all 10 of the kids who were missing a bag (only Haley was missing her personal, the rest were donation bags), and as soon as we walked up to the desk the lady said (in English, which was a huge blessing), “You from Norfolk?”. I was relieved at that point and said “YES!”. She proceeded to tell us our bags didn’t make it, but they would be on a flight down later tonight. Wow, problem averted. So our bags are now at the air port and will hopefully be delivered later today.

Well after we sorted the baggage problem out, we loaded up the bus for the 45 min ride to the Orphanage. Most of the team took in the sights and sounds of Nicaragua as we drove. We made it to Casa (the orphanage), ate some much needed lunch, and then it was time. It was time to finally reunite or meet for the first time all of the Casa kids that have become so close to many of our hearts.

The next two hours were just amazing. The students jumped right in saying “hola” to many of the kids they met last year or the kids they were meeting for the first time. There were lots of hugs, high fives, and then the fun began. You should have seen it. The kids were running around, playing soccer, riding bikes, throwing sticks at trees to get some fruit down, everyone just playing together. The funniest thing for me to watch was when the little boys were trying to put cockroach shells down the shirts of Catherine and Alex Garcia. Hilarious to watch unfold. Ultimately the team was great, they didn’t hold back anything. The hang time ended with a group of about 20 of us making friendship bracelets. The kids loved it.

I have to say Day 1 was a huge success and everyone is loving being here.

Our schedule for today is Breakfast at 8, a walking tour of Vera Cruz (the town around the orphanage), a bus tour of historic Managua, lunch, a trip to the pool, dinner, and we will end the day as we do every day sitting in a circle for “porch time”. It is going to be a great day.

I will leave you with this, thoughts shared from Jordan Wray during porch time last night. “When we saw all the kids and some of them remembered who we were, I realized that coming down here and building relationships with these kids is really making a difference.” (not an exact quote, but you get the idea). Lives are being changed this week, doesn’t get much better then this. Thanks for reading and keep us in your prayers today!