Days 3 + 4 -- RICH AND FULL

If I had to describe the past two days in two words I would use RICH and FULL. Our team has gone hard, had a blast, done some really cool things, and have run harder jumped higher and splashed more than I thought possible with all of their Nicaraguan friends.

Yesterday (Saturday) started with a 9:30am trip to the pool with 50 kids from Nueva Vida. The sun was out, it was beautiful and the kids loved the pool. After the pool we took all 50 kids to a pizza place, the little girl next to me had only had pizza once before, and it was most likely not in an air conditioned pizza restaurant. The staff from the pizza place were so great and had the room set, plenty of pizza and drinks ready, and the whole outing was smooth and so fun. After pizza we went back to Nueva Vida with the kids, hung out for a bit, then went and set up a movie night for the kids from two churches in Nueva Vida. Movie night was fun, a little hectic (passing out pop corn and cotton candy to 250 nicaragua children is recipe for a little craziness), but the night ended perfectly with the sun down and every child wearing a glow stick bracelet. Smiles were had all around. At this point we’d been on the go for 10 hours and our team was hungry and ready for a break. We decided to treat them to a fun night out on the “Nicaraguan town” and we went to a local fast food restaurant for Fried Chicken and then ended our night with a trip to POPS –the ice cream shop. We arrived back to the team center 13 hours after we left, a very RICH and FULL day.

This morning we woke up, had an early breakfast, loaded the bus and went straight back to Nueva Vida for church – when we showed up a lot of the kids and all the staff were proudly rocking their new Kingdom Rock Palooza t-shirts. We then spent all day in Nueva Vida with the kids. Again our team went hard and came home exhausted and full. After church, where our team was thanked over and over again for being there, we treated the church staff and their families to a nice lunch. Then we had some down time full of crafts, dancing, and lots of pictures. The kids have learned if we take their picture, there’s a chance we will send a copy back down to them. To end the day, and hopefully get the kids excited about our Nicaragua Palooza tomorrow, we had a Brinka Brinka (Jump Jump – Bounce House) more popcorn and cotton candy to have our Nicaraguan fiesta to gain excitement in the community for the Palooza we start tomorrow. I’m trying my best to take it easy on these long days, so I set up a chair on the side of the church and just took in all of the joy and chaos. As I sat in my chair and looked down the road I saw more and more kids come out of the wood work for the fiesta. Our hope of gaining excitement for tomorrow was a success. We knew the team was wiped so we made sure to get back to the team center with a little time to spare before dinner. Then after dinner some of the team went over to the orphanage to celebrate the July birthdays with games and cake, then we planned out the palooza for tomorrow and had a great porch time lead by recent graduates, Bailey Kreiser and Lindsay Gould. RICH and Full. That is what we all feel right now. Tomorrow we will begin the palooza at two churches and visit a new EL Faro, a new sewing initiative to employ women who live in La Churreca (the dump of Managua). So for now, Buenos Noches from Nicaragua. - Natalia

Day 2 - Nueva Vida and Mural Painting

Today's post comes from one of our team members, Ian Viera! ENJOY! Below is the mural he and his sister painted at Hogar De Fe!

Day 2 Another successful day in the books! Today was another beautiful day in Nicaragua, a beautiful but long day. We started our morning off with a tasty breakfast from the Casa Bernabe cooks and then immediately hopped on to the bus to head off to our first day in Nueva Vida (New Life). We were first greeted by pastor Guillermo with a warm hug and a huge smile. It didn’t take long for us to jump into our first project of picking up trash with some of the kids. Throughout the couple of hours we were there more and more kids came out to hang with the team. Every direction you looked there were kids smiling and laughing. We then helped hand out meals for the kids lunch and I got to experience my first feeding center. It was an easy adios knowing we would see them tomorrow so we hopped on the bus and we were off to our next destination. We made a quick stop at a church called Verbo Nuava Vida where we ate lunch and toured the facility. After our tour we headed back to Hogar de Fe to finish up the murals. It was pretty cool seeing the kids that we just saw the day before run up to our team ready to play! The project that we were working on was to paint encouraging murals for the kids to look at each day. Some of the team painted while the others played with the beautiful kids. Their energy is motivating! Knowing what they have been through and to see them this happy is just proof to Gods love. Saying adios to this group of kids was sad knowing that we won’t be visiting them again but we all know that there are many other kids that deserve to be shown love. It is off to bed now, another awesome day in Nicaragua is just hours away! -Ian

Day 1 -

We are here. We are tired. We are thankful. Day one has been long and fabulous, starting with our 3:45AM meet time at the Norfolk airport to ending with our first porch time of the week at 9:30pm (11:30 home time). After easy safe travel we landed in Managua, loaded up the bus with all of our luggage and went straight to the Nicaragua ORPHANetwork office. We unloaded 17 bags of donations at the office for the ONet staff to distribute (they were so thankful), and then went on our way to Hogar de Fe (one of the children homes/orphanages). We will be at Hogar de Fe two days with the mission of painting murals on the walls and playing with all the beautiful children. I was 100% impressed with our team when we arrived at Hogar de Fe, they were tired, hungry, but couldn’t wait to engage. After lunch we split into two teams: the painting team and the play with children team. The painters drew and painted beautiful inspiring murals on the walls and the kid entertainers went hard. There was running, jump roping, rides on shoulders, basketball, soccer, drawing, sidewalk chalking, paper airplanes, dancing, and so much play to be had. It was a blast to sit back and watch the team engage in so many fun ways with the kids. Tomorrow we will finish the mural project and say good bye to Hogar de Fe kids (alraedy hard after just two days with them) and begin the next leg of our trip, serving in Nueva Vida (the community established after Hurricane Mitch in 1997). Well the final 4 of our team from the late Delta flight just arrived so we are officially all here and ready to continue our week! So I’m going to sign off and head to bed! Good night all and thank you for your prayers and for reading about the week! Adios – Natalie.