March 19

This is Jackie writing. So far, Nicaragua has been beyond incredible. I can´t believe it´s already the eleventh day. The life style here is so different, but I´m falling in love with it. As cliche as it sounds, this has been a life-changing trip and I´m so grateful. I´m afraid it has been passing by so quickly, so we are all trying to make do with the little time we have left.
We have all had to adjust to the life style here. I´m lucky enough to even have a shower head. Many of the kids just have a drum of water and a bowl. We don´t always have water, because the city shuts it off, and when we do have water, it´s always cold. We also cannot flush the toilet paper, if even there is any. One of the most interesting things I´ve seen is how they sell drinks in small plastic bags. You just bite the corner off and enjoy! It´s actually not bad at all. It just makes you realize how often we take things for granted.
Last night, everyone was exhausted and we crashed in the living room. To no surprise, we settled into a game of Chinese poker, the designated card game of the trip. It´s our go-to game just about non stop. Afterwards, at about 7:00, everyone walks home with their host families.
I´ve become so close with my family and they take great care of me. I feel as though they are my second family and we bond more and more each night. They tease me like family, but it´s all in good fun. Last night I had the chance to meet Maria Felix´ (my host sister) cousin, who spoke English pretty well, a nice change of pace.
As for this morning, I was even more tired than usual. We went to our usual classrooms and helped out. In the afternoon, we spent three hours helping create posters and mobiles for a public school (see pictures). It´s been great developing relationships with our kids and every day, they bombard me with gifts. Nothing too crazy happened throughout the rest of the day, but I can say this trip has been amazing as a whole. We have made really close friends despite the language barrier and we´ve become closer as a group, too. I´ve learned things about myself that I didn´t know before and my Spanish has definitely improved. To all the parents, we are doing fine and there is no need to worry. Everyone is taking great care of us and this trip has been an incredible learning experience. Í´m looking forward to the upcoming adventures but I´ll surely never forget the ones in the past.