Today is the Day

It's a strange thing, being in a different country. I feel like I should always be conscious of the fact that I'm in Nicaragua. Maybe I'm just getting used to being here, and not everything is a new experience. The crazy traffic, the food, hearing the language, the different smells, sights; they're kind of feeling normal, and not getting quite the "Oh My!" response. I think the feeling that I expect should be there is what would be felt if I was just visiting a new place, not actually living here. But I like it, and I guess that I'm just adapting.

This week at Tesoros we celebrated Hippicas. It's a festival in Managua where they parade around on their horses and... yeah that's pretty much all I know about it. But it lasts for about 10 days, and they're doing it to commemorate Santo Domingo. So we had a little celebration with our horses. We did a celebration for each of the groups that came in, so it was quite busy. We had a little presentation on horse therapy, we presented the horses and girls riding the horses in their traditional Nicaraguan clothes, we played some games, and we did a dramatization which I was a part of. I just had one line to say, and it was only until after we had finished the dramatizations for the week did I actually figure out what the little skit was about. It was definitely a fun week, it was good to change things up. We had music playing all day long of course, and all week the staff was trying to get me to dance, so on Friday I was given lessons from Fatima and Patricia, and it was pretty entertaining... at least for those watching.

It's kind of crazy how different this trip is from what I expected. I had some idea what I thought it was going to be like, what I was going to be doing, the difficulties and the things I enjoy, but once I actually got here all of that went out the window. Which isn't such a bad thing. What Tesoros is like, and what I'm doing there is different than what I thought. For example, on a number of occasions, I've had to translate for different groups that have come in. We have a family here helping us for a couple of weeks that I had to go with to translate. 3 months ago if you asked me if I was going to be doing that here I would have thought you were crazy. I also expected it to be more a formal physical therapy setting, but with the kids they're working with, its not so much like they get a half our time slot for therapy, and then they move on to the next kid. They do therapy every day, but it's definitely adapted to these kids. They do things with music, they do specific crafts that cause the kids to use their different senses more, as well as exercises, and it works very well. Although what I thought it was going to be like is different, I'm loving having the chance to work here with these kids. They're so much fun to work with.

There's a little girl that comes in the afternoon whose name is Melissa. She has a little trouble walking, but she always is smiling and giving people hugs. So one day, I was helping out in the education room, and they were checking to see if everyone had been keeping up on their cleaning. So the teachers check their ears, their mouth and then look at their hair. Then a couple kids get chosen to check the teachers. Well, the day that I was in the room, Melissa was chosen to check me. So I bend over, and she grabs my head, and checks my mouth, and my ears, and then pulls my head down so she can look through my hair, gives it a quick look, and then smacks me on the head, as a joke. And she thought she was hilarious! All the professors and kids were laughing pretty hard. It was really funny. So I found out that Melissa likes to joke around, but I think right then and there we became friends. So now she'll give me a high five or a hug whenever I see her.

Vaya con Dios,

Derek