Escribo Palabras en Español Cuando No Tengo un Buen Título

Well, it looks like it's that time again. What time, you ask? Time for me to get everyone mad at me by going off to a Latin American country for several months at a time, of course! DEAL WITH IT! I decided to do an internship in Nicaragua with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD), an organization that works to combat poverty/malnutrition/pretty much everything else that's bad in third world countries. The difference, though, is that they're all about sustainable solutions. We tend to think as Americans that to beat poverty we can just give money or spend a week feeding some poor children or something. Please don't get me wrong, I really think that those are wonderful things and I support them, but we can't be naïve and think that it will always be that simple (although sometimes it is). Poverty is a complex issue, and sometimes immediate aid and relief is needed, and sometimes longer-term work needs to be done to bring about development. It's basically like the whole give a man a fish vs. teaching him to fish idea. Again, I think that giving people fish is AWESOME, but we can't trick ourselves into thinking that nothing else is needed. So FSD works with grassroots organizations in the third-world countries to do work that will continue after the interns have left. They focus on empowering local residents rather than just giving quick fixes (although a quick fix can be what is necessary sometimes, e.g. the story of the good Samaritan [can you tell that I'm really trying not to offend people?]).

Ok so now that I've given that nice ole introduction to my introduction, I'll get on to the good stuff. I arrived in Nicaragua last Saturday and waited around in the airport for twenty minutes thinking I was going to be stranded alone in a foreign country because my ride was late (on-time is a pretty loose concept in Nicaragua). However, I got picked up eventually and was taken a food court to eat some comida nicaragüense (warning: you might want to have Google Translate open when you read my blog posts [second warning: I use parentheses way too often]). I had some tajadas (plantain chips) along with some rice, fried chicken, and cheese. After that, we went to the FSD office in the municipality I'm living in, Ciudad Sandino. Here's some documentation of my travels:

There was some time for an orientation, and then I was taken to my host family. I've gotta say, they're pretty rad. It's made up of three generations of family members, so I get the joys of playing games with Alexander (5 years old), hearing life talks from my abuelita, and receiving translations from Spanish to more understandable Spanish done by the adult children when I have no idea what my abuelita is saying! Here are my livin' quarters:

One warning about pictures though: I probably won't have many, at least not at first, because I'm trying not to make myself any more of a target for petty theft than I have to by taking out my fancy digital camera and snapping pictures of everything. That is all.

I've been here for almost a week now, and I'm starting to get settled in. I was assigned to work with an organization called Fundación Fénix. Their website is www.fundacionfenixnicaragua.com if you want to check it out. They do several different programs:
- agricultural projects with children and teens
- drug prevention campaigns
- human trafficking awareness campaigns
- loans and business training for women running micro-empresas
- and much, much more!

So far what it looks like I'll be doing is teaching English to some teenagers and possibly some police as well, going around with the directoras of the organization to help with and learn about micro-enterprise stuff (providing loans at a smaller scale than banks are able to and offering assistance and training in the community), teaching guitar lessons(?), and possibly helping them get the qualifications to get some encurtidos (a topping for food that is made up of various things in vinegar; encurtido literally means "pickled") that the teenagers have produced onto the shelves of a major supermarket.

That's pretty much it for now as far as my activities and such. I do want to say before I get into any Jesus-y stuff that I've got a real problem with caring too much about what people think about me, and that applies with this blog as well. Part of me wants to post things that make people think I'm supa spiritual or wise or whatever, but that's not really good motivation. I'm going to try to be as honest as I can and avoid trying to make myself look good to you folk or exaggerating the impact certain things have had on me just for the sake of having a "God section" in each blog post. Please pray for me about that. Please also be praying that God would help me to fight distraction and actively remember why I'm here (and exist in general), which is to love and glorify Him. It's been very easy for me to get caught up in the busyness of being thrown into a new country with new places and new faces and new responsibilities and blah blah blah so much so that I lose focus on the basics. Ok that's all I feel like writing right now because I've got some gallo pinto and plátanos fritos calling my name in the dining room. ¡Adiós!