Simple Enchantments (and otherwise): Nicaragua! Part Two ~First Days in Matagalpa~

Nicaragua! Part Two ~First Days in Matagalpa ~

After two days of constant travel, we were ready to get going with our work. Wake up time was a little early for me personally, since I am NOT a morning person. At all. Ever. I actually got pretty used to waking up early, and within a couple days it felt totally normal. I really shouldn't of titled my post "First few days in Matagalpa" instead I should of called it 'First few days using Matagalpa as our home base". (But that's too long and drawn out for a title!) Our first destination was the town of Muy Muy, about an hours bus ride from where we were staying. The landscape we passed looked like something out of an animated movie. The mountains looked unrealistic in their unique beauty. After winding (or should I say zooming and falling out of our bus seats) through the countryside, we reached the town. It happened to be Nicaragua's equivalent of Independence Day, and tons of people were out on the streets havin' and good ole time, and lighting off fireworks. (We never did understand the point of lighting off fireworks in broad daylight, and their celebrations got nothin' on 4th of July back home) The roads were very muddy and narrow, but of course our bus driver didn't have any trouble navigating them. Everyone split up into 3 groups: Outreach, Vacation Bible School and Construction. I choose construction. Our first church was a little slow going since most of us didn't know the drill yet, but people caught on pretty quickly. The one-day churches are very simple and easy to construct. It was the rainy season, and torrents of rain would randomly come, but disappear in a few moments. The rain wasn't really a problem, but it made the work site very muddy. By the end of the day, I was a couple inches taller 'cause of all the mud stuck on the bottom of my boots. Little kids would crowd around, and some invited us into their homes. My second day in Muy Muy, I went into this one little girl's home, and sat in there for about 30 minutes with her and her Mom and brother. They didn't know a lick of English, and my Spanish is pretty limited. We still communicated the bare minimum and did a lot of smiling and pantomiming. It was very sweet, because the little girl brought out one of her only toys and tried to give it to me. I didn't take it, but was touched by her generosity, and really saw a glimpse of God in her. I wished I had something to give her, so I left her with one of my bracelets. I came to Nicaragua with an armful of bracelets, and returned with only one. Meanwhile, in these first few days, our group started to become really close. I have to say, I miss all of them (most of them) a ton.