Experiencing Nicaraguan Life, Climbing Volcano and Getting Sick

Wow it’s been a whole week already! Its feels actually a lot longer! I’ll give you a tentative schedule of my life down here. Mondays are free for the most part. Tuesdays there is children’s church at 4 at the church.  Wednesday we clean the church and at 6 we have church. Thursday we have church at the Leon church. Fridays are free as well. Saturdays we clean the church more thoroughly and Sundays well obviously we have church. I absolutely love it down here! The girls I am staying with are off the chain awesome and they make it feel like home for me. I am learning how to do things Nicaraguan style: cooking, shopping, talking! My Spanish is improving a little bit. I still feel very behind. It is kind of hard communicating but I manage with my interpreters and my limited Spanish. Hmm let me talk about some of my adventures in the last week.
Adventure #1 Experiencing Town. I enjoy walking through the little town of Malpiasillo. It’s very quant with little shops all over that have interesting array of items for sale. I bought myself a Spanish bible or should I say Krista helped me buy a Spanish bible. I am still a lil shy around the Hispanic adults. But no matter where we go eyes follow us like crazy. Everyone is curious about these Gringos (white people). The church in which here has been here for less than a year so they are still sort of new to the area. The guys enjoy making kissy faces at you as you walk by. That got old fast. Random fact. Their sidewalks are so cool! It seems like every so feet it changes type, height, color etc. And also driving through the streets always are bike taxis. I have yet to ride on one but they look kind of fun.

Adventure #2 Trying to remember all these Hispanic names!

Adventure #3 Riding in the back of the truck :) I love this! I don’t know why buts crazy bumpy and can kind of hurt sometimes and def messes up your hair but it is so fun! Both of the mission’s trucks have a frame built on the back and a tarp over top so it is like a little cave back there.

Adventure #4 Telica! Ok I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to come along for this adventure. Hiking a volcano.  We woke up at 5:30 Monday morning and drove and met up with the Leon group and continued together to the volcano. Of course the ride there wouldn’t have been complete without a few wrong turns. We finally arrived at a small town at the foot of Telica. There we met up with our guides. A 12yo boy and then also a 22yo man and they were both really great guides. We also rented three horses. Brandon, (who has actually been sick for the past week or so. Prayers appreciated. I think he is starting to feel better though) Amber and I mounted up. I was a little nervous since I have not rode a horse in a very long time but it did not take long before we realized that these horses have one speed and that is ssslloooww, no matter how often you clicked your tongue or nudged their sides or hit their rump. I have a new impression of horses. My horse was actually only 3 years old but looked way older! On the way up the mountain we all traded on and off the horses. Actually most of the time the group had to stop and wait for the horses to catch up. At one point I was so far behind the group that I decided to be a lil silly so I pulled out my phone and was listening to a lil music and playing Subway Surfer just to see if I could and I could! :) It was kind of easy actually. The scenery going up was beautiful as we got higher and higher we could see farther and farther. But most of the time we were hiking in the woods. At one point Andrea and I were on the slowest horses and we got pretty far behind the group and came to a crossroads and had no idea which way they went. That was a little nerve racking. I was very relieved to see Jason come jogging up over the hill looking for us. We all stuck together a little better after that. About ¾ of the way up we found a rope swing and Jason and Aaron were swinging on it and when Jason swung he swung out over the gate and on the way back BAM he collided with the gate and actually broke it. It was very amusing to watch actually. I happened to be videoing at the time so I got that on video. It’s on fb. We finally made it to where you can see the volcano and that was the hardest part because it was all rock and it was not stationary rock. You would step on the rocks to climb and they would move. I was so afraid I was gonna twist my ankle or that someone would and it was steep too! It took me a little bit to get up to the very top. But once I did, it was so worth it! Magnificent! You could look right down Telica! Telica is an active volcano by the way. You could smell the sulfur. One girl made the comment can you imagine what Hell is gonna smell like in comparison to this because we were coughing over the smell here. Aaron, Brandon and Keith were having fun lugging huge rocks to the edge of the volcano and throwing them over to watch them crumble as they fell. After a bit we headed down to a little green plain to rest and eat lunch. After an hour or so we headed back down. You had to be major careful or the rocks would just shoot out from beneath your foot. Going down was worse that way then going up. We finally got down to where we had left the horses. I rode for a little way on the way down. The guide was leading mine so it was going a little faster so that was very nice. I am positive that going down uses different muscles than going up. All I know is I am gonna be sore all around tomorrow: Saddle sore and walking sore. About halfway down my stomach started feeling a little weird but I paid no mind waiting for it to pass and after a little bit took some pills. The trip up took us a lil over 3 hours and the trip took about the same I believe although it seemed to go much faster. We finally got within sight of the town and my stomach flared up again and I was at the front of the group and I thought maybe I’ll just sit down for a lil at the side of the road and wait and then walk with the people who were lagging behind with the horses. Well I sat down and didn’t get back up. Once I sat down it hit full force. It hurt so bad and it was so frustrating because the town was in sight but I was not in good shape. I tried walking and couldn’t and I tried riding Krista’s house and couldn’t. Finally Krista ran ahead and told them to bring the truck back and pick me up. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be feeling so bad you really don’t care about how you look or act. Well I def found out. I was filthy n covered in dirt. Looking back I am a little embarrassed. Jason pulled up in the truck and I flopped in the back seat and stayed there till we got back to the house. I must say I haven’t prayed that hard in a while and I was also praising God that it didn’t happen when I was at the top of the volcano or I don’t know what I would have done. God is awesome is all I can say! I was at least able to talk and stuff by the end of the night and when I woke up the next morning I felt fine. PRAISE THE LORD! My stomach still feels weird every now and then but overall I’m mostly better. :)