5:15am : Alarm sounds. Wake up in a pool of sweat.
5:20am : Put on stinky/sweaty workout clothes. Chug water. Still sweating.
5:30am : Run.
6:15am : Chug more water. Sweat it all out in .2 seconds.
6:30am : Lay in hammock and read/journal. (With a beautiful view of the lake/volcanos I might add) Still sweating (Get the gist?)
7:30am : 30 minute siesta.
8:00am : Breakfast. (This could be anything from rice and egg and beans to pancakes with peanut butter. ) At breakfast times we’ve been having the best homemade juice. My favorite so far was one that literally tasted like drinking a tall glass of apple pie.
8:45am : Apply wasteful amounts of bug spray and sunscreen. Chug more water. Sweat.
9:00am : Typical work day begins. This could be anything from teaching at the school here to doing various chores around the orphanage. The kids that live at CICRIN attend the school, as well as other kids in the community who can’t afford to go to school. CICRIN provides the kids in the community with uniforms, supplies, and food, as long as their moms volunteer to work in the schools kitchen serving lunch. This week I am working ‘construction’ with the orphanages’ handyman – Hilario.
So far I have: bent metal for building purposes, cut/tied wires for construction poles, shoveled lots of gravel, shoveled lots of dirt and sand, made concrete, poured concrete, dug holes, filled holes, carried heavy things, pulled ridiculous amounts of dirt-filled buckets out of a giant hole by a rope, and sweat, sweat, sweat. (Dad – are you impressed/proud?!)
11:00am : This is about the time I’ve come to expect Hilario does something extremely amazing. Sometimes he picks ‘mamon’ off a nearby tree for us (this are little shelled fruits that taste like grape), or today, he magically found fresh coconuts for us. We each got our own fresh coconut to drink!
12:00pm : Work day comes to an end. Chug lots of water, wipe lots of sweat/bugs off my sticky body, and take a cold shower if there’s time.
12:30pm : Lunch. Guess what?! Rice and beans. Sometimes plantains. We get meat for one meal a day, so sometimes there will be chicken somehow incorporated into this meal. There is usually another glass of juice. Sometimes it’s Tang, but if we’re lucky, it’s the fresh stuff.
1:00pm : Group prayer. This is the time that most of the kids and employees take their ‘siesta’. However, there has been a lot of spiritual warfare with the older boys living at the orphanage. The staff has informed us that they are currently going through a rebellious stage and are very turned off by Christ. Because of this, a group of the staff have been fasting and meeting for prayer for an hour every day. Some of us join them during this time to worship with them and pray for the boys. It’s been a very powerful experience to pray with them and witness how great their love is for these boys. They so genuinely want the very best for all of the kids living here.
2:00pm : Free time. We usually use this time to hang out with the kids, read, do laundry, or have daily team time.
4:00pm : Daily kids ministry. Monday’s we take them to the park, Tuesdays we swim in the lake, Wednesdays we have one-on-one time with one of the kids, Thursday is game day, and Friday is park day again.
5:30pm : Dinner. Yep, rice and beans. We’ve also had pasta and soup. Sometimes (I think it’s happened once) we get a delicious (little) scoop of a veggie salad that has fresh squeezed lime on it. It’s my favorite.
6:00ish pm : Wednesday – Church. Thursday – Youth group night. Friday – Movie night. Otherwise, team time/bible study.
8-10ish pm : Toss and turn in a sweaty mess and hopefully catch some Zzzz’s.
Despite the physical toll that Nicaragua has taken, I’m so thankful to be living at CICRIN this month. I have already learned so much from the staff and children here. When we first arrived at the orphanage, all of the kids were lined up outside waiting to give us hugs and welcome us as we got off the bus. Despite all of the various conditions that they had to survive to get here, they are so full of love and so eager to share it with us, even as complete strangers.
This past Sunday we all loaded up on the bus and went to church with the children. All of the boys had their hair gelled and were wearing their “zapatillos” (nice dress shoes). The girls had on skirts and dresses and looked adorable. I sat behind a little boy, Noel, during the service and was blown away by his passion during the opening worship. At just 5 years old he had his hands raised high in the air, praising the Lord with all his heart!
Please pray that our ministry this month will be fruitful and that the kids would tangibly feel God’s love for them and be filled with hope for their futures. Please pray for the older kids at the orphanage as well, that they would be filled with love for God. We could also use some prayer against all of the bug bites that most of us are covered head to toe in 🙂 It seems that no amount of deet is able to keep them away and no amount of AfterBite stops the itching!
Internet this month will be mostly non-existent 🙂 There is a cafe in town that we can get wifi at, however, it takes a while to get into town and that is only if you’re able to hitch a ride (which typically looks like standing in the back of someones pick up truck….sorry,mom.).
Until next time – hasta luego! For photos, please follow the following link! I’m still not able to upload photos to this blog :/
https://www.facebook.com/jessie.schuett/media_set?set=a.2371717453879.1073741832.1278780365&type=1
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