days 5 and 6: breakout sessions, ruins, and fiestas
saturday morning started bright and early with a series of 15 minute breakout sessions to learn about all the manna programs. basically, it was a chance to be humbled by how amazing all the programs are— and now, we have to choose only a few classes to focus on. imposible, as they say down here. after the programs we hung out near el farito and met some kiddos and started walking towards the land for a soccer game that manna guys were playing in… but it got cancelled due to rain. so we booked it back to the house until dinner, when we went over to arlene and marlin’s house for some amazing dinner and frienship. i got to see one of my favorite nican children, jefferson (who is deaf), and we played shadow puppets for a while. and after all that mischief, we went out for dancing and laura’s birthday. i can’t remember the name of the place, but it was SO sweet. open air dance club with lots of tables and great snacks. it started with an M. hmmm….
sunday: church, lunch, and then a tour of the city. i got a very in depth and hands on tour of the extremely run down city of managua, complete with visiting the sandista monuments and the ruins that have survived the past few earthquakes. we stopped by the market, and then hit up subway and the ice cream store (like ben &jerry’s) on the way back. i’m super proud of myself for being able to order a decent sandwhich in spanish, considering i haven’t thought about food in spanish for five years. and the ice cream—POPS— was awesome. when we got back to the house, it was nap time and then fiesta con nicayuda!! nicayuda is a NGO that formed as a result of manna. it’s nica run and for nican preschool programs, engaging teachers and students so everyone does a better job. the guys and gals of nicayuda are incredible and i look forward to spending time with them over the next few weeks. we had pizza (domino’s… so what if we’re not in america? it’s still dang good!) and soda and cake for laura’s birthday, and then had a dance party/karaoke session at our pool house. a mix of spanish and english songs were played, and everyone had a blast.
i gotta go to bed— gotta wake up in twelve hours! haha but seriously, more like 6 with the sunrise (but i’ll try to sleep in… unless the dogs have their way)
**nica fun fact** pinatas are swung at blindfolded while music is playing. but in nica, you hit the pinata as you are dancing away. often the nicans would hold back the pinata and say “baila! baila!” and not allow you to swing until you’ve made a decent fool of yourself.
paz,
