Originally, when we arrived Katia, the leader of the church organized for Bridgette and I to stay in separate houses. Not because they wanted to separate us but because they thought this would be a more comfortable sleeping arrangement. For my sister who has never been outside of the United States, let alone to a third world country, to be separated from me was terrifying. I cannot even begin to describe the look on her face when she heard this. I, however, was not phased because in my mind being separated was absolutely not an option and I let Katia know this immediately. I was ready to just go pay for a hotel before I was separated from my sister. This was a little disappointing because I wanted Bridgette to live with the people and have the real authentic experience but we had to do what we had to do. Once I told Katia that we absolutely had to be together, they quickly organized solution for us to stay together at Ravine's house. Win win! Authentic experience and we stay together! This really worked out perfectly. Ravine and his mother were wonderful hosts. 
The house was a typical Nicaraguan house. Concrete structure including a bathroom and living room and rooms added on with scraps of metal. It's amazing how little you really need to live. We have huge comfy beds, TVs, AC, and countless other comforts. What do you really need? A cot, a friend, and maybe a fan :-) How much better spent would your time be if you had fun with friends, building quality relationships based on mutual care for each other rather than watching TV or playing on the computer. It's almost comical that we spend our time doing such meaningless activities. I'm a huge culprit myself, I love my computer and Facebook and all of that. It's good to have a refresher like this from time to time to remind myself what the Pura Vida is. 
Anyways, Bridgette was awesome. Not being used to this type of living conditions, she really responded well. She didn't mind the shower, beds, or any of the situation. The only thing that caught her by surprise was the amount of stray cats that walked across everyone's roofs. Since Ravine's house was elevated above the houses that backed up to it on the next street over there were many cats walking across the roof right in front of us! It was only scary when one would jump down out of nowhere haha! Every time I come to Nicaragua I experience something a little different and this was definitely a surprise for me on this trip. I've seen cars with megaphones blaring commercials and music rolling up and down neighborhood streets, roosters that begin crowing at 3 in the morning, skinny horses with ribs showing and ferrel dogs everywhere. Cats is a new one for me.
I'm so proud of my sister :-)
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