Nic of time

Arrived safely in Nicaragua and am having a great time with 19 other Americans and a handful of Nicaraguans.

And I managed to learn all their names in record time. Very unlike me, I must add. And I am still having a hard time with one name I can´t pronounce properly, but I know who she is.

My name, of course, is hard for everyone to remember. Thanks, Mother.

We´re finally somewhat acclimated to here and very bruised. One of our first things to do was unload a truck filled with 30 pound boxes of rice for the feeding program. The group feeds 10k people a day and we unloaded two months worth of food. It was about 1,400 boxes.

Assembly line fashion works best, but for some reason, the locals don´t catch on to that. But we knocked it out pretty quick.

Leon, where we are in Nicaragua, is far more developed that I expected. I guess I was thinking of small town Morocco, but this is pretty cool. There is widespread poverty, though, but you´d never know it. Everyone´s all smiles and happy to see us.

Our soccer team, which is made up of mostly college players, is getting used to playing in the heat and on the less than austere fields. (Sorry, Nicaraguan keyboard. I can´t find the dash.) We also only have one sub, which, in 100 degree heat, is a little rough.

So we´re down one game but have three more. We´re also doing Vacation Bible School with the little kids who come to watch, and I´m blue in the face from blowing bubbles.

Today, we´re off to church, and one of the players is speaking. After that, we´ve got another game and it´ll be the hottest one because it´s at 3. No one in this country should be moving around at 3.

That´s all the time I have on the computer now. A more thorough update will happen when I get back.