Nicaragua Part 2

Once again it has been awhile since I have written, sorry. Here is a summery of the last month or so.

Home

Home life is good. I get along with my host mother really well. She loves to talk and explain things to me.  I often don’t get much of a chance to respond but that is ok. She enjoys showing me new things and gets a kick out of my reactions to thing that are common place, like going to the market or finding a mouse on the counter in the kitchen. My little brothers and I also get along well. I think we have bonded the most over cooking. My host mother does not cook AT ALL. She has not cooked a single meal since I have been here. Dona Ava (the house keeper), either cooks or we go to my aunt’s house, eat out or cereal as a last resort. For this reason my host brothers have been fascinated with my cooking skills. To date we have made breakfast for dinner, including bacon, ham, diced potatoes, and toast with the jelly my mom (real Mom) and I made this fall. We also made cupcakes, pancakes, French toast, and tacos. They told me I needed to start a restaurant called Karli’s, The Best Breakfast in the World. I enjoyed their confidence in my humble cooking abilities. I don’t do a lot with my host father but we have had some good conversations and we get along just fine.

  Internships
          Last time I expressed some frustrations with my Internship at the laboratory. It has been a good growing experience and lesson in patience. I am still a bit bummed with my placement, especially when I hear of what the other three health science students are doing in their internships like taking blood, learning how to do ultrasounds, e.k.gs, and watching amputations if toes, but I have come to terms with it. I am getting to help with more labs. Actually doing things and not just watching all day has helped the situation a lot. I am not observing a lot about the health care system in general so I have to go out of my way to find information and ask people questions, but that has also been a good lesson on how to take initiative and control over my education as well as my experience. The lab is still painfully slow some days but that means I get to do homework or we do each other’s hair, nails, or make-up, make lemonade, go get a hair cut or run labs on each other. I found out I have A+ blood and that I don’t have anemia, just for kicks and giggles. The school has been going really well though. I have been working primarily with the English teacher, Lenny. Each week I get to teach a class a lesson, which is fun and challenging, it also makes me feel like I have a purpose and that I am helping in someway. He is excited about my being her and loves it when I help him with his English. He has the most adorable accent I feel bad correcting it, even thought he clearly says Jell-O when he is trying to say Yellow. I went to his second job with him one week. He works in the afternoons at a public high school in a rural community about twenty minutes outside the city. He introduced me to his students as his teacher, which made me smile. It was a really cool opportunity and I am glad he was willing to take me. I am going to go back again with him this week. Two weeks ago I also gave a lecture to the teachers on emergency response. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love taking in front of people (I say sarcastically.) It went pretty well thought. I don’t think my hour lecture on common classroom emergencies will prepare all of them. I was however, able to correct a couple hazardous ideas they had and some of them almost seemed interested which made it nearly worth all the stress I put into the presentation. The kids are still excited to see me every day and I leave each day with a few dozen stickers plastered all over my skin and my clothes and my bag. They can be exhausting at times but they are more commonly a constant source of joy. If you want specific examples ask me some time about the cookie kid in the pre-school class or the sixth graders.

San Juan Del Sur

            About three weekends ago I took a trip south with two of my friends to San Juan Del Sur. It took me about eight hours to get there from Chinandega. I took a microbus to Managua and then a taxi from one market where buses leave from to the other main market. There I met up with Emily and Rachael and we took a chicken bus the rest of the way. It was the first time we had seen each other in five weeks and it was really good to talk to them. We found a cheep little hotel and dropped our stuff off before going to explore. We took surfing lessons Saturday!! It was harder than I thought it would be but incredibly fun at the same time. Sunday morning we got up and hiked to the top of a hill where there is a giant statue of Christ. It has a really beautiful view of the bay and it was good exercise (my co-worker told me yesterday I am getting fat so I should probably work out more). We also ate ice-cream about twice a day (which is probably why I am getting fat), and spent the rest of the time walking around and exploring the town. While we were there we ran into Simon, who was Emily’s host brother in Guatemala from Switzerland. He is taking two months to travel around Central America. He attended the same language school as us in Guatemala and lived with Emily’s host family with her for two weeks. We had no idea he was there or even in Guatemala for that matter. She just saw him walking down the street, so that was kind of cool. The trip overall was incredible. It was awesome to be able to travel all the way down there by ourselves and find our way using the little bit of info we had from the internet but mainly just talking to people and asking for directions.

Granada

            This last week was spring break for Whitworth back in the U.S, so our professor came down to visit us. Our other professor was not able to come because her son had an emergency appendectomy and then spent the next two weeks in the hospital because of infections. He is home now but prayers are still needed for a quick and complete recovery. The entire group met at a hotel in the more touristy town of Granada on lake Managua in the south. We spent the entire week there together. It was a good time to be together but kind of shocking at the same time after so much time apart. We had classes for a few hours each day and then some times an activity, other days we had free time, which we mainly spent in the pool. Emily, Morgan and I ended up in the suite by accident, which was fun. There were two levels and a nice little kitchen. We ended up eating dinner in there five times to save on money. I took control of dinner every night except one and that was really good for my soul. I miss cooking like that. The last night we ended up having guests and we made breakfast for dinner for twenty-six people in our little suite. It was crazy considering we had just two pans and a tiny half stove but every one got fed and it was refreshing for me to be able to put on some music and enjoy being in control of something for the first time in about three months. The other fun things we did were, renting bikes and going for a ride down the lake, walking around the town a lot, which was filled with people all the time, watching the happenings of all Saints Week, which was educational, and on Thursday renting kayaks and going out on the lake for a couple of hours. The week was good, but by the time I got back to Chinandega Saturday night, I was happy to be home. My little brothers saw me coming and ran the last block to me to give me a hug. There really is no place like home. It does feel like home now. I still miss Guatemala but I feel comfortable here finally. While I was in Granada I got to talk to my Guatemalan family on Skype. It was good to see them and my host mother reminded me that their home would always be my home and that I had better come back in the future.

Those are the highlights of the last month or so. The time here in Nicaragua has gone by so much more quickly than my time in Guatemala, which is ok. I will be home in a just about a month which seems crazy. There are still several things I want to do before I return but I think when the time comes, I will be ready, not quite yet but in a month maybe. Anyway that is all I have for now. God Bless (Dios te bendiga).

Karli 

I am sorry for the delay of this long awaited blog post.  I am going to start with what is new here, in Nicaragua and work backwards to my last weeks in Guatemala.

NICARAGUA

HOME

I am living in the city of Chinanadega, three hours north of Managua, the capital. I am staying with the Chavez family. My host mother, Anne, and my host father, Taylor, are pastors at an evangelical church. I honestly could not tell you the exact denomination. I believe the closest denomination to it in the U.S would be Baptist. I have two host brothers, Taylor and Mateo, 11 and 8. They are very excited about me being here and very full of energy. We have been playing a lot of the card Speed during the last week and a half I have been here. They also enjoy beating me at their soccer video game, but I am getting better and I hope to one day make a comeback. I have seen lots of my extended host family as well. I have two uncles, David and Tony. They live close by and we often go over to their house for dinner, or they are over at my house hanging out. I have a host cousin named Fernanda who is 14 and we have been getting along really well. This weekend we all went to the beach early in the morning. To get to the beach only takes about 15 minutes. At eight in the morning eleven of us all pilled into the pickup and then stopped at a roadside stand that sells watermelon. We spent the next 4 hours rolling in the waves and eating giant quarter slices of watermelon that left our entire faces sticky with the juice. It was a really good day. My host mother also took me to the market last week to buy fruit because I told her it was my favorite. It is crazy and fabulous. I loved every second of it. I have been to a couple of markets in the last month and a half and I find them fascinating. They can be a bit overwhelming but  We bought, watermelon, melons, pineapples, oranges, tangerines, bananas, and mamonchinos. I had never seen a mamonchino before. They are super weird looking. If you have never heard of one either, you should Google a picture. They are sweet like a strawberry with the texture of a grape.

INTERNSHIPS

During the week I work at my internships arranged for me by the school. Monday through Wednesday I am at a “Health Clinic.” I say “Health Clinic,” because really I am working in a laboratory, inside a “clinic” that only houses a dentist office. The work is not exactly what I was expecting. The last two weeks have been painfully slow in the lab. Schools just started here and so people are a bit short on cash to get labs run. My supervisor and co-worker are overwhelmingly nice thought. Yessica is my supervisor and she has taken it upon herself to show me the city and make sure that I have everything I need. The first day she gave me a tour on her motorcycle and showed me central park. When I told her on Monday that I was sad I had finished my book I was reading, she took me to three different school supply stores to find books. Sad fact: there are no bookstores here. Like no stores, at all, with books! We asked five people were we could buy books and they all said the school supplies stores, which only sell schoolbooks. So now I am reading Homers, The Odyssey, in Spanish. My only other co-worker is Thelma. She is also really nice but I think she thinks I don’t understand anything. The vocab of the lab is hard because it is essentially a bio/chem class in Spanish, with vocab that I often don’t know in English. She was talking to another girl on Wednesday and told her that I probably only understood about 30% of what she said. I interjected and said, “ I think I can understand more than just 30%.” The other girls said, “woops, she understood that.” Dang right I understood. I was so mad. I have only been here a week women, give me a break.

 I don’t know if I am disappointed in my placement or not. If nothing else I think I am a bit bummed. I am not getting any patient contact hours and it is just not what I had in mind. When we have nothing to do they send me over to the dentist office to observe. I don’t actually have authority to do anything here so really I can only just observe. I finally told them this week that I really have to desire to be a dentist and they finally let me stay in the lab. Dana, our TA here in Nicaragua is coming to check in on Friday and I am going to talk to him about possibly changing but I don’t know if it is an option.

            My other internship is at a Christian school. I am there Thursday and Friday. I have only been there two days so far but it was super fun. At the school, students stay in their classroom all day and teachers rotate to them, essentially the opposite of the typical high school in the U.S. I stayed in the 6^th grade class all day, both days. Subjects here are different and I wanted to observe them all first. From now on I am going to be changing between the math and the English teachers. The kids of the 6^th grade are now all my little buddies, and have helped me more with my Spanish than anyone else here in Nicaragua. They are not shy about correcting me and laughing at me when I am wrong. Karli is an awfully hard name to say in Spanish apparently. Here, everyone has two first names and they use them interchangeably. The students think that Dee is my second name and have been using it because it is easier. The English teach, Lenny is also excited to have me. The first day we played games with the class and then he had me help them correct their homework. The other teachers just had me sit and watch, so I am excited to follow him around next week and be able to participate more. The director has also enlisted me to help them make first aid and emergency response protocols, because I took a class last year and am certified. I am excited that I have something different to bring to the picture and that I can use it to help them. Also I am officially on the birthday list, so I am now legitimately part of the staff. 

GUATEMALA

Saying goodbye to Guatemala was shockingly difficult. I still long for my home in Quetzaltenango, even though I left it almost three weeks ago. My Guatemalan family is incredible. They were just as sad to see us go, as we were to leave. We were their first host kids and I feel so proud to have that title. I hope they continue to host students as they made such an impact in my life and on my time in Guatemala and I hope other students also have the opportunity to be changed by this family. At the same time, I hope they will never forget their first host kids and the incredible two weeks we had with them, I know that I never will.  During our last week in Guatemala we did not have formal classes of Spanish at the language school. Every day we had a lecture with our professor there with us in Guatemala, and we also had guest speakers almost every day. In the afternoon we still had activities. One day we had a four-hour long cooking class; another day we climbed a volcano, smaller this time: and another day we went to the house of youth immigrants that had been deported from Mexico and are sent to stay at this house until their family can come pick them up. I was unable to go because my roommate was really sick and I was busy getting her doctors appointments and medicine, but talking to my friend about it was really interesting and heartbreaking. As I mentioned before we went to the Quinceñera with my host family and had an incredible time. All the women wore traditional dress including the birthday girl and all the men work tuxes, including my host brothers. After 3 house of ceremony, and hour of eating a traditional meal reserved for special occasions, and cake, and then watching a slideshow of pictures of the birthday girl, we danced. We danced for nearly three house non-stop to traditional music with all of my host family. During our last week we also went to the fiftieth birthday of our uncle, layer on the roof and watched the stares, went to mass and played more rounds of spoons. I was on cultural experience overload. I was exhausted all the time but it was worth it and now I miss it dearly. I like Nicaragua, but I love Guatemala. 

THE PLUNGE

We left Quetzaltenango at 8 in the morning on Saturday the 30^th of January, with tearfully goodbyes and long hugs and began a long-standing CASP tradition known as The Plunge. On that morning we were given enveloples with the names of our team members, the name of a town, a list of things to do, three rules, and a pile of cash. We were told to find the town, complete the list of tasks, try to spend as little of the money as possible and arrive in Antigua by Monday afternoon. My group was Rachael, Katy, and Camina and we were sent to the town of San Lucas Tolimans on lake Atitlan. We took chicken busses to Panahachel and then a microbus to San Lucas. The microbus was not the cheapest way to go but it was the fastest. We arrived around three in the afternoon on Saturday and found a cheep hotel to spend the night at. The gal who ran the inn was really nice and like a host mother for the weekend. When we were in our rooms we left the doors open and she would stop by and talk to us. Her granddaughters were always running around and would also stop by to say hi. We spent Sunday completing the list of errands, which included talking to a priest, talking to four people about their life story, finding out what there is to do in San Lucas, and buying a souvenir.  As it turns out there is nothing to do in the small town of San Lucas. Of the dozen people we asked the most popular answers were “the lake” or “nothing.” We talked to a cute old man who told us about growing up and working in the fields during a time when all men wore traditional clothing. We also met a baker who almost drowned crossing the boarder into the United States with a coyote when he was fifteen. He lived there for fifteen years until he was deported. We took five chicken busses and a truck tax to get to Antigua on Monday. When we arrived at the bus station in Antigua, on of the girls found her bag had been cut and her wallet was gone. She was able to cancel her debit card when we got to the hotel, other than that she only lost about ten bucks. It was just a really weird feeling of being really vulnerable. But we made it. We took a tax to the hotel and we heard our professor’s voice and I think it was the sweetest sound I have ever heard. We spend the rest of the week in Antigua. We had classes and toured a convent and did a bunch of other, kind of random things. It is a beautiful city but more touristy and it was a bit ruined after our eventful introduction. We flew out for Nicaragua at three in the morning on Friday.  After two days at a hotel, our host families came to retrieve us.

Sorry again that this post took so long. Over all I am doing well. I am happy and having fun experiencing all that Nicaragua has to offer, despite my slight boredom at my internship. I have limited access to Internet here but I will try to keep in touch and keep this blog bit more updated. Now that I am here and have fewer activities during the day, I hope to have more time to write. I am going to try to upload photos soon, but they take time that I don't have right now. I hope life is good back home and that all are well and health. God Bless, love you all

            Karli

WEEK NUMBER TWO
The plan was to write every weekend but that did not really happen this last weekend. So will start were I left off which I think was right after I climbed the volcano Santa María.
SCHOOL
Last week we did a lot of really fun things in class. On Monday we went to the store and bought ingredients to make the tortillas and cake that I mentioned last time. The cake was delicious and the tortillas were very fun and difficult to make. The dough likes to stick to your hand when try to form them making it both very funny and frustrating. That was all around a really fun day and it produced one of my favorite quotes of trip so far. When I asked Emily how they made the "Masa," she responded "you put half el bag de this en el bowl." She did not even know what she had said and I cried I was laughing so hard.

 

The next day we went to the cemetery. That does not sound like it would be interesting but it was. People here have a different perspective on death and their responsibility to their dead family and friends. These differences are apparent as you walk through this very large and beautiful cemetery. Our professors had lots of stories and little facts of history that they shared as we walked around. The next day we went to a shop where people make chocolate. Once again I was shocked at the hospitality and warmth of this culture. Our professors told the couple working that we were students from the U.S and that we wanted to learn about how chocolate was made and they welcomed us in to their shop and country. They got us chairs and began explaining what they were doing and when they had make the final product they gave us all a sample for nothing in return. We ended up buying a bar to make hot chocolate the next day in class. Thursday we "played" Apples to Apples in English but first we read through ALL the green cards in the box and then explained they to our professors in spanish. It was a bit long but also good practice of explaining a concept in Spanish as well as entertaining at times to hear our professors be confused or mispronounce "sheets" as "shits" then have to explain to them why "suck it" was inappropriate among other amusing conversations. By the time we got done reading through all the cards, we had about twenty minutes to actually play the game. I honestly can't remember what we did Friday. I will have to ask Emily.
ACTIVITIES
Monday we went to the house of a local woman who makes chocolate. We got to see the whole process, from breaking open a cocoa bean, to cooking and pealing the seeds then crushing them, and adding sugar, before heating it so that it can be formed into bars. Tuesday we had a lecture from one of the teachers at the school about the new president, who was inaugurated Friday. Parts of it were really interesting but other parts were hard to follow, and I felt I was missing some background knowledge that helped his ideas to make more sense. Wednesday we went to an after school program for grade school aged kids called La Pedrera, that is run by the language school I am attending. The building is at the top of a giant hill which was shocking to climb during the hottest time of the day. The kids were super excited to see us. We played Duck Duck Goose, and Red light Green light. My favorite little girl was probably only four years old and she just wanted to cuddle with me. At one point she got up and started walking back to the school. I followed her to a circle of older kids playing Simon Says and watched her give her a big sister before walking back to me and saying she was ready to return to the game and would I carry her back because she was tired. I think my heart melted a little it was so dang cute. Thursday night we went to a local café that showed movie interpretations of the story of a young woman named Vanushka. Her story is smiler to Romeo and Julie. The legend goes that she fell in love with the mayors son and when his father disapproved and sent him off to marry someone else and she died of a broken heart. The plays were honestly just plain strange. I really can not put it any other way. There were several moments that more uncomfortable.
THE WEEKENDS ACTIVITIES
This weekend the two groups split up again and we went to a town on Lake Atitlan called Panajachel. On the way there we stopped at a small farm/garden that grows plants to make all natural medicines. I was a little skeptical at first but it turned out to be quite fascinating and made me think more about practical solutions to lack of access to medical care in developing countries. Panajachel is quite a bit warmer than Quetzaltenango because it is at a lower altitude and while we were in the field learning about the remedies of all the plants they grow, we had not one, but two students faint from the heat! When the first girl dropped the man that works there yelling "AJO" and went sprinting across the field to get garlic, which he then broke in front of the her nose to wake her up. After the second girl fell down our guide suggested that we head back inside and keep looking at us like we were all going to drop dead at any second. Panajachel is more touristy that Quetzaltenango but it was till fun to visit. We went to dinner and then had a talk with a Whitworth graduate that now lives in Guatemala and is married to an indigenous women. We had this talk in English and I think it was the most thought provoking talk for me so far. He brought up a lot of good questions about religion as well as explained the source of recent disturbances in the area. The next day the group went across the lake to another town where Steven (the Whitworth grad.) teaches to talk to some of his students. I ended up getting really sick that night, I don't know if it was something I ate or if it was simply my turn to be sick, but I sayed behind and slept which I was really bumbed about, but I know it was necessary. We retuned to Quetzaltenango Sunday night and had pizza for dinner in as a group.

MY FAMILY
So at the beginning of the week my roommate and I talked to our professor about some concerns we had about our host family. We hardly ever saw our host mom, our host father was only home on weekends, when we were normally gone, our host brother was scared of us, and the house keeper did not really talk to us but really only served us. They were really nice to us when they were around but that was not that often. The family coordinator at the school called our host mom on Tuesday and explained our concerns to her, and told us to give it two more days to see if things changes. The first night our host mother ate dinner with the first time in a week but the next day she went to Guatemala City and we did not she her for over twenty four hours again. On Thursday we told Patty we wanted to change families and we did Sunday night. We did to see our host mom again. I think Thursday was the last we saw her and she was not home when we left. The house keeper María would hardly look at us and I felt really bad. That is made even more awkward by the fact we now pass her ever morning when we walk to school and she is walking our host brother to school. :/ Watcha gunna do?
NEW FAMILY
Our new family is AMAZING. Words to not describe how grateful I am to be living with this family. Our mother's name is Elvia, she wears traditional cloths, works part time at a shoe store and worries about us constantly. She frets about where we are at and how much we are eating. We have six host siblings, one sister and five brothers. Our host brothers are Alex, Roberto, Cesar, Randy and Josué, in order from oldest to youngest. Both Alex and our host sister, Pamala, are married and don't live at home, but the rest do. They have all been so incredibly kind to us. We have only been here four days now and already we have, played cards, spoons, speed and solitaire, danced until midnight to country music, gone to eat street food, meet their extended family, and talked for I don't know how many hours. We are the first students they have hosted and so they think it hilarious when we make mistakes and are unbelievably patient when we ask questions or don't know a word. The four boys that live at the house are almost always at home for lunch and dinner. Sometimes they are there in the morning for breakfast if they are not still sleeping. They love to tease us about everything and we spend most of the time laughing about one thing or another. I have been having so much fun getting to know them all and I wish I had more than just a week left here to get to know them all better. This weekend we are going to a Quinceañera birthday party for on of their friends and I am so excited. It is going to be a very cool experience.

Well I think that is all of last weeks news with a bit from this week thrown in. I will try to write again this weekend.

   God Bless,
             love Karli

The First Week

THE TRIP
Well we landed in Guatemala city around eleven in the morning  and we arrived in Quetzaltenango, around eight at night after 37 hours of travel, 4 hours of waiting for lost luggage and an hour of waiting in the middle of the road while they fixed our bus that spewed gas from its engine before stopping all together in the middle of the road. But it was all part of the adventure and people were in a good mood so it helped us bond to sit in customs for almost three hours, talk and play card games. It was a shocking welcome to the realm of world traveling. 
MY FAMILY
When we got to the school on Sunday night we pretty much meet our families and went home. We did not do much talking the first night, but pretty much said hi and went to bed. My host mom's name is Karla, and she has a son who is eleven named Juan. They have a house keeper named María. I only meet my host father briefly that first night not knowing that he works as a judge six hours away and leaves early monday morning and does not return until Friday night or Saturday morning, so I don't know much about him. Karla is super nice and patient with our spanish, but really my roommate and I have not been doing too bad in understanding her. Juan does not talk to us much, he is pretty shy. I also think that they have students living with them a lot. One of the last students to live with them was here for a year. So while I really like my family and they have been very kind to us so far, I understand that it is not quite as exciting for them as it is for me and my roommate. 
THE SCHOOL
During the weekdays school starts at eight in the morning. We only live like two and a half blocks from the school. In pairs, we work with a professor from eight until ten thirty. My partner is Jessica and we are at a very similar spanish level so it has been working out well so far. Our professor is Rosio and she is very nice and patient also. This week we did a lot of reviewing of verbs and vocabulary and other fun things like that. Next week we are going to go to the market to buy food to make one of Rosio's favorite cakes as well as "papusas" which is kind of like a hand-made tortilla made from a sticky dough, and then cooked with cheese and veggies inside. At ten thirty we have a break to drink coffee and tea. There is also pan dulce, which are various types of sweet bread and that is my favorite part of the day. We then return to our classes for another two hours until 1. At 1 we have any quick announcements and then we go back home for lunch.
ACTIVITIES
Every day after class, at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon we have a activity of some sort. Monday we had a tour of the city. We did not go very far but we got to see the central park and some of the buildings that surround it. Tuesday we went to a shop called Trama Textiles. It is an organization of widows from the civil war who make and sell traditional weavings. By making and selling them at their store, they can make more money than if they had to sell them to a vender. We got an overview of how their organization started and what they hope to do going forward in the future. Wednesday we went to a small town close to Xela (another name for Queltzaltenango). We visited a church there that practices catholicism by it has also incorporated customs from the mayan religions. After that we walked to the top of the city to see a really incredible view of the city.

 Thursday we had talked with a man named Henry, who is a catholic priest and was active during the civil war, fighing with the people. He talked about liberation theology, and what it really is verses misconceptions that many people have about it. Finally, Friday we talked with a group called Interchange, that works to help street kids, women and those in prison. Their goal is to help them make good decisions to change their lives and hope they will come to know God in the process. 
THE WEEKEND
There are two groups to our large group of students here in Guatemala. One group is just here for the month of January and will return to the United States in another three weeks. I think there are 19 students on the janterm trip. The other group is my group, CASP, and there are 14 of us. About half the time our activities are together and for the other half we separate. This weekend, the jan-term group left for the weekend for a trip that CASP will do next weekend. I could not tell you exactly what that is. Today the CASP group climbed a volcano called Santa María. We left at three in the morning and it took us four hours to climb it. I am so glad I decided to do it because we had the option to climb a smaller volcano and I almost did. It took us 8 hours all together to climb it, hang out for awhile and then climb back down. It is definitely one of the cooled things I have every done in my life and I am glad to say that I did it, and I was with the group of four GIRLs that make it to the top first! You have no idea how happy I am that I was not last. 

SUMMARY
Well that is my first week in a very brief nutshell. I will keep you posted, probably about once a week and I thank you for read and checking up on my Central American adventure. God bless
                Love Karli.