I can blog from Nicaragua!

Ok, that sounded goofy, but I just found out, thanks to Evan Oberholster the magnificent (you´re awesome, buddy), that I can send emails to my blog and it will post them. So I don´t have to wait till we go to town to blog--i can email short blog posts from where i live via Ham radio. I´m happy about that. :)

Right now I´m still in Managua, at the Adventist academy COVANIC, using internet at the director´s house. We will fly to Puerto Cabezas on Sunday and then go to Francia Sirpi, our final destination. Because our tickets were already reserved for Sunday and the flight bookings are so tight, it was impossible for me to fly out early to take care of Dawn Zimmerman. (For those who didn´t get my email: Dawn is one of the permanent missionaries at Francia. She was in a motorcycle accident earlier this week and got badly burned. There was talk of flying me out earlier than Sunday to help take care of her, but it didn´t materialize for the above reason. They got a local nurse to take care of her, and I think she´s probably better off with someone fully trained.)

This week we´ve been at the Managua Adventist academy, COVANIC. We were supposed to have ¨teacher orientation¨ here, mostly for the SM´s who will be teaching in the school, but also for us clinic workers who will give health classes. Unfortunately, the people at the school didn´t have a good idea of what Christina Vargas wanted for us. They asked us what kind of work we would be doing and what we needed, and we had no idea. The teacher SMs don´t even have a curriculum. :( So the director´s wife showed us the basics of how to make a lesson plan on Wednesday, and then Thursday and today we sat in classes and observed. (That helped us get to know the kids better). Other than that, this has been free time for us. We´ve talked to each other, practiced our Spanish and a little Miskito with the kids and teachers, helped in the kitchen with dishes and food, and excercised. :) (Crazy American girls, running all over campus).

I think it´s been good for us to have this time to adjust and get to know each other. Last night we started having worships together, and we want to continue all nine months. And we´ll continue running. Christina is really gung-ho about excercise, and i´m wanting to be too. We´re getting the other girls into it. :)

Here´s who we SMs are:

Mindy from Southern: She´ll work in the clinic with me--she´s pre-physician´s assistant and a CNA.
Jeremy from Southern: He´ll also work in the clinic--he just finished a biochemistry degree and is going to medical school next year. He´s a CNA.
Jenny from Southern--health sciences major. She´ll help in the clinic, but she´s not a CNA.
Christina from Southern--used to be occupational therapy major, but now she´s undecided. She´ll teach high school English.
Tekoa from Southern--Social work major, will teach elementary school.
Ruth from Walla Walla--she´s going to teach science. She just finished the physical therapy pre-reqs.
Bridget from Walla Walla--just finished a two-year business degree and might go back for elementary ed. She´ĺl also teach English.

And me, the only one from Union. Feeling a little out of it, but I keep singing the school song to cheer myself up. :)

I miss you all! pray for me.

Katie