.
  
During the month of November I had the privilege of living at an orphanage in Nicaragua. This orphanage is not like the ones we have in the states. Many of the kids do not live there because they do not have a family but because their family members are unable to provide for them.
    
When I first found out I was going to be at an orphanage I thought I would be taking care of kids. My experience could not have been further from that. I did not work with kids at all but rather self sufficient teenagers.  I bonded most with two boys, Jimmy and Darrel. Both full of sass, rebellion and adventure. Our friendship grew most when we were swimming in the lake. We would often times take the row boat and play tag in the water or just try to push each other off the boat. A lot of fun and extremely exhausting, but well worth it. The boys also loved to play card games and would love to make a little dance if they won.  These dances would oftentimes carry over into the next day as a constant reminder that they had won.
A lot of what we ate came from the gardens that we worked in every morning until lunch. I really enjoyed this type of work because I find it to be very relaxing and rewarding. I used a machete for the first time and loved it.
    
Many of the girls loved to hang out with us in the dorms that we were staying in and just have girl time. I absolutely enjoyed being a big sister for a month.
  
The day before we left we were able to hike another volcano with a waterfall in the middle of it. This was a perfect end to the month.