Day 2 Welcome to Brazos

Due to our flights to Managua arriving late at night, it was best for our team and the Brazos de Amor staff if we spend the night in Managua at the airport hotel. We woke to a morning in the tropics! The hotel property has buildings with rows of rooms separated by beautiful trees – some with huge leaves – several of us had a nice stroll around the property. The hotel serves a delicious Nicaraguan buffet with fruit, eggs, and gallo pinto (rice and beans) which was a very nice way to ease into our time in Nicaragua.

After breakfast, our ride arrived – a yellow school bus which is a very common transport here. On the bus was our translator for the week – Ronnie. Ronnie was raised at Brazos de Amor and now is living in Managua with his wife and son! It was delightful to see him again as we have known him for since our first trip 9 years ago.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the residents, they had made us welcome signs.

Then we were served a yummy lunch. The usual cook was out recovering from surgery, so we had the gift of a delicious lunch prepared by a former Brazos staff who now owns her own catering business. After lunch we had some down time to unpack, organize our team supplies many donations from our community (Thank you!) and prepare for our evening devotions with the Brazos kids.

In the afternoon we had our team orientation from the Director here at Brazos, Ewner. He went over all the important team details and then gave us a tour of the property, introducing the team to each of the three houses. Casa 1 houses the older boys, Casa 2 houses the younger boys, and Casa 3 houses the girls. Some of us also had some time before dinner to hang out with the kids doing some coloring pages, others prepped for evening devotionals, and our guitar team put some new strings on Brazos guitars and practiced some worship songs.

After dinner we split into our three teams and lead devotionals at the houses.

At tonight’s debrief team members shared some of there highlights for the day

palying uno with residents

painting paper mandalas using markers with the residents

playing in the rain deluge – and not worrying about being wet

following huge leaf cutter ants on their march

Tonight we will all rest well. Looking forward to visiting a local church tomorrow morning and having lunch in a local restaurant in town!