7-15-08

4am
Tica Bus, Nicaragua

I have a lot of writing to catch up on. The last place I wrote about was insane. As I was waiting for my shower, I realized the place was roach infested to the max. I shook as cockroaches surrounded me in the icy cold shower. I stood under the water for nearly fifteen minutes waiting for a roach to get off the faucet so I could turn the shower off and get out. Then I went to the bathroom, a roach was swimming around in the toilet. Lovely.
I wrapped myself up so tight in my sheet that I was stiff the entire night. Erin woke up in the middle of the night and something huge was crawling on her arm. She went to grab it and chuck it and it took up her whole hand. Eww….
Since we didn’t sleep to well, the next day was a challenge, and I had to be the clown. At our last program, the kids were all over me. At the end of the program I picked up one girl and swung her around in circles as I held her tight in my arms and sang to her. When I put her down, there were three other girls waiting to be swung by the clown.
At one point I was holding two six year old girls in my arms, one resting on each hip. I thought my arms were going to fall off. Then, a girl jumped on my back and climbed up on my shoulders. I don’t even know how she got up there so fast or how I managed to keep holding those two girls. Within a matter of seconds, the girl was laughing and yanking my pig-tails out as I screamed for help. I was exhausted. We made a long bus ride back to the church where I puked at two in the morning in the beginning of the week. Oh I remembered it well. The next day was our free day, and it was sweet! We took a four hour drive up to Baldi Hot Springs Resort and Spa. Natural hot spring pools and Jacuzzis with an all you can eat buffet. Yes, a buffet. I finally had the freedom to eat what I wanted, and when I wanted. I had the option of saying no to food. I felt so free.
The place was right next to an amazing active volcano. One side of the volcano was covered in forest life but the other side was pure black and smooth where the lava had flown and will flow next time it erupts. It was awesome.
At the hot springs, the top pool of water was about 105˚F. The water got cooler and cooler as it trickled down into a series of other pools. There were water slides and jets in some and the most amazing sort of flowers I’ve ever seen in my life.
At one point I had an ice cold strawberry smoothie in my hand as I lay next to a water fall in water that was nearly scorching. I’ve never felt so relaxed and pampered in my life. My fingers and toes are finally clean.
After our four hour bus ride back, we went to some of the Triplett’s apartments and ate Papa John’s pizza. I’ve missed pizza so much. I called my mom and crashed out after sorting laundry that they were going to do that night.
We had to get up at three in the morning to get to our Tica Bus on time, and it was the most annoying day ever. Only half of the laundry got done. All my clothes except the pajamas I was wearing were in the laundry pile. A lot of jeans and shirts got washed, but none of mine. I had no clean clothes. Everyone else did but me. I reeked and I was getting a sinus infection. Oh joy.
We got on the Tica Bus from Cost Rica to Nicaragua and my day got worse. I had no snacks for the trip, which sucks. People were passing snacks around and sharing but I always seemed to be the one who never got anything. We finally stopped at the border and we got chicken for lunch. I took a few bites and went to buy some bus snacks. I was finally next in line and people started screaming for me to get on the bus. I went to get the rest of my chicken to take with me but someone had thrown it away. Needless to say, I was cranky and needed some alone time, which is impossible to get on this trip.
We finally got to Nicaragua and ate and went to a house to sleep. There was a pile of stuff in the corner and at first I thought it was the stuff we had left behind when we went to Panama. I’ve only known one other person to wear what I refer to as “Jesus shoes”, and that’s Nikki, a girl from the Global Passions team that I worked with last year and that my friend Tim went with this year. I asked whose stuff it was and it was the Global Passions team’s donations. How awesome! I knew by Nikki’s shoes that the Global Passions team had been here. One of the ladies that had worked with them told me who went. I was excited to hear some familiar names.
On the way to bed, some of the girls and I got into some serious devotion time as we took turns reading awesome scripture. It was great. We got up at three again to catch the next Tica Bus (that I’m currently sitting in) from Nicaragua to Honduras. Then we’re going from there to El Salvador.