Well first off, I apologize for the lack of blogging that that has been happening recently. Over the last two weeks I have slept in Guatemala City, Antigua, San Salvador, Jinotepe, and on the island of Ometepe, which is where we are now. With all this moving around it has been difficult to keep in touch with family, much less take the time to blog. I do, however, want to make this a priority because of all the supporters that are taking care of me, so I want to do my best to keep everyone updated.
So the crisis in Honduras put a halt on our travels and “forced us” to spend an extra week in Antigua. I say “forced” because this is a beautiful tourist that has several opportunities for exploration and adventure. I 
still couldn’t help but long for our next stop in Nicaragua. Antigua did provide a great opportunity for community worship with our whole squad and another squad that launched in October, as well as a volcano hike and a chance for a little tourism. All in all, it was a decent week.
When we finally got cleared to pass through Honduras, we started the 3-day journey into Nicaragua. My team along with Team Azariah were blessed with the assignment to go to the Isla de Ometepe, which is an island made up of two active volcanoes and nearly untouched landscapes. We got onto the island on Friday but couldn’t start work with the orphanage we were assigned to until Monday. So we had the weekend to explore and search out any connections we could make. We stayed on the barely untouched side of the island and slept in hammocks for a few nights and just lived very primitively. We had some great conversations those few days and made some connections with people that will last longer than the weekend (thank you Facebook, never thought I’d say that).
Finally it was time to go to the orphanage and we were put to work almost immediately. We have several day-to-day jobs like cleaning the rooms, helping with the meals, and teaching the younger ones why the older kids go to school. However, we have a few big construction projects that we have spent the last 3 days working on fairly non-stop. Our biggest one is paving a road from the entry to the girls’ dorm. We’re paving a road without a concrete mixer or steamroller, and solely with shovels, wheelbarrows, a few big sticks, and some quality manpower. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done physically, but I can’t help but think how big a help this will be for down the road.
