Nicaragua Day 4!

This time I was ready for 6:45. Too ready. LOL. I woke up this morning at 6:00am ready to go. You would think that a solid 8 hours would be necessary to function but I am getting a good 5 hours a night and feeling great! We came down to breakfast at 7am, did our breakfast prayer, song, and dance, and were so happy to see that for breakfast this morning we had…. EGGS! No joke… ham and eggs (yessssss!) … still served with beans, of course, but in a crazy turn of events, I’m starting to enjoy the beans. I can’t help but wonder… “Am I going bean crazy?” or “Are these beans actually delicious once you get used to them?” It’s like the center of a lollipop… “The world will never know…”

We actually ended up having a long conversation about beans at breakfast this morning with our German friends, Rebekkah and Judith. Fe y Esperanze has a

sister church in Germany that is very involved with the church. They have 2 volunteers living down here at all times working for the church (for about 1-2 years at a time). We were talking about how often we would eat beans if they were normally served at home. Then we talked about how often we eat beans in reality, to which I said, “The last time I had beans………. was the last time I was in Nicaragua.” haha. Another funny part of our conversation was Judith having trouble with english so we were sitting as an American and German speaking in spanish to communicate. It was very funny.

After breakfast we had the devotional… it’s fun to see the girls getting more familiar and more comfortable with singing the songs. Everything is more animated here in Nicaragua so

there is a lot of opportunity to get goofy and fun in almost every activity we do! It is also incredible to see the faith of this community and such a blessing to be a part of it.

Once the devotional came to an end, we went back to my

room to practice our talent for the talent show! Everyone in camp must present a talent by the end of the week but this is not the sort of talent show you are thinking of. Some people do some real singing but almost the entire camp does something fun or funny. Yesterday a group of guys did a skit and dressed one of the guys up with a wig, dress, and make up- haha. So, we have something special planned for this evening that we think everyone will love! Once we felt comfortable with our presentation we got dressed and ready for our morning work out! This morning was awesome

because Lenny joined us and did the entire work out… a big step up from his work out yesterday. Alexander and Maria also joined in with a few more people from the church for a modified work out and Enmanuel also joined us! We had 4 stations… box jumps (30-onto this high wall), 3 sprints up the
hill, 3 x 200yd shuttles, and 30 lunges… Repeat for 3 rounds. It was so tough but so enjoyable having everyone participate! After the exercises we did some soccer drills which was very fun! Everyone really wanted to learn some new moves and practice skills. There is not very much organized activity in Nicaragua so the entire morning work out was a very fun experience for everyone. Many smiles, with a few scattered pained-looks.

We finished just in time for lunch- chicken, rice and beans. haha. Every time I write it into

the blog it makes me laugh. After lunch we showered up and got ready for the soccer tournament! Today there was an awesome buzz in the air. Everyone was so excited to play, spirits were way up, and
the positive vibes were flowing. Rabin came into camp for today and tomorrow. I could not be more excited. Rabin just has such an incredibly amazing positive energy. As we started playing the games I said to the girls, “Do you hear that person singing funny opera music on the mic in the main hall? That’s Rabin.” Rabin joined one of the teams for the tournament and came in with his usual competitiveness. He was the first and only person yellow carded so far… and he just got here lol. All in good fun, nothing too serious.

Rabin :-)

The games went great today, both Jordy and Enmanuel’s team did well and Cesar’s team won one and lost one. Not

too long after we started we had a short downpour for about 15 minutes. The boys just kept on playing while the girls screamed and ran for cover haha. Oddly enough, once the rain stopped the girls court was completely dry while the boys court was soaking wet. Almost as if a single cloud rained just over the boys side like a cartoon. Once the rain stopped and the sun came out the temperature was absolutely perfect. Nice breeze, not too hot, just awesome weather to play soccer in! Tons of smiles, tons of
laughing, and fun competition today. A fantastic day of soccer. I don’t really know what more to say

about it other than everyone just had such an amazing time, everyone was so happy and enjoying themselves, all of the games

were so fun and so much fun to watch. I could not be happier with how everything went.

After the tournament was over we showered up quickly once again and came straight down

for dinner. Hmmmm…. let me guess……. rice and beans…… yes, rice and beans and a hamburger patty smothered in some kind of delicious sauce. During dinner the girls started doing that cup song from “Pitch Perfect” and believe it or not, some of the Nicaraguans knew how to do it! Before we knew it, Amy, Rebekkah, Jordy, and Rabin were all doing the cup song thing (I don’t know what else to call it). Of course this led to a ton of other campers trying to learn how to do it. It was a ton of fun to watch and a great way to kill time while we waited for all of the King and Camp contestants to get ready for the competition! After we finished with the cups we formed a circle and started some more organized activities to keep us busy. Rabin put some music on and had some of the campers show off their dance skills. When Juan came onto the dance floor (and he is, by far, the camp clown) everyone was really exciting and enjoying his positive energy. As he danced around the middle of the room he periodically pulled a girl up to dance with him. I waited for him to start looking for another gir

l and then I yelled, “Juan!” He looked over and thinking that I had to tell him something he stopped dancing and came jogging towards me. As he got close, I got up and started to pull out some Shakira moves. That’s right, my hips don’t lie. Everyone started cheering super loud, not expecting this to happen! It was so fun and I loved being able to show off my inner-Latina. ;-)
After the dancing we had a short ceremony. The girls and I were brought up and given a nice gift of a t-shirt and cross as appreciation for sharing this week with the camp. A few of the campers, including Juan, were also given gifts for being great positive influence in camp. One of the boys players who is much younger and smaller than everyone else, had a smile on his face for his entire games. I told Katia about this and she selected him for a special reward!

The King and Queen of camp has 3 rounds: Sports, PJs, and Formal wear. Ariel went to get ready with her date from Carazo. The music came on and the contestants strolled in. Ariel was such a champ, doing a great job of strutting her stuff around the floor! When the sports round was over, while the contestants went to change, they let us know that this was the time that we were going to do our Talent Show presentation. YESSSS! We were so excited! We had practiced multiple times today! haha. I plugged in my phone and started “Cotton-Eyed Joe”, we broke into dance and after we went through the routine a few times we started pulling Nicaraguans up from the crowd to join us! haha. It was awesome. We had half the camp doing the “Cotton-Eyed Joe” dance with us! What a blast! 

Afterwards, Ariel ran back to her room to get ready for the PJs round…. and so the competition continued. Next Ariel came out in a Little Mermaid nighttime shirt (with Ariel the mermaid on front) looking absolutely fabulous! Her and her date strutted across the floor and then once all of the contestants had come through, they went back and changed for the Formal round of the competition. While they went back to change, we had a small 

After the awards, the music came back on! As the contestants were announced they entered the room one by one in their most formal outfit. Ariel looked beautiful, of course! I didn’t they they had a chance to win the competition because usually everyone at camp votes for their friends in their community but I found out that Enmanuel had been lobbying

for Ramon and Ariel to win and recruited all of the central church votes! Oh boy! I voted for Ariel and Guillermo and the girls voted for Ramon and Ariel because they wanted to support Enmanuel’s community. I immediately started taunting them that I was going to tell Guillermo that they didn’t vote for him! They said, “No, please don’t tell him!” So I told them I would use it for blackmale… “I’m going to say… Trade me your drumstick for my beans and rice and I won’t tell Guillermo” and Amy responded, “No way, my drumstick is worth so much more!” haha

I went up with my fellow judges (the church leaders) to tally all of the votes and after it was all tallied I kept my back turned toward the audience and smiled soooo big and said “YESSSSSS!” … but I couldn’t let anyone see. When I composed myself I returned to my seat and the girls immediately asked, “Did Ariel win? Did she win?” and I said “you’ll have to wait a few seconds to find out!” All of the contestants filed back in. The runner up and King were announced and then, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for, “Miss Campamento 2015… Arrrrrriel Barbosa!” How exciting! Ariel was crowned (literally), her and the king took a

victory lap around the circle and then the party began! The last night is the most fun of the week. There are snacks, drinks, and great music provided by DJ Sergio. We were dancing all over the place and the girls were in high demand! We had a great time dancing until about 12:00 and then we decided to hit the sack. I was so excited to be showered and ready for bed and had no idea I was about to sweat it out that much on the dance floor! haha.

We have a big day of camp tomorrow that includes the semifinals and finals of the tournament but I just can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day of the youth camp. It is soooo said to say goodbye to everyone. Luckily, we don’t have to say goodbye to our

friends from the central church quite yet. We still have more soccer to do with them on Thursday and Friday!

Tomorrow, we are going to go do something that is incredibly awesome after camp is over. I’ve never done anything like it before and I can’t wait to tell you all what it was like! But…. I’m going to leave it there, as a cliff-hanger… sorry! Trust me, it’ll be worth it ;-)

Good night from Nicaragua! Thank you for following the blog!