Nicaragua, day four

Today we hung around the hostel till we left to meet up with our families. We watched a few of us (maybe 1/3) leave and it was funny to see how we’ve gotten so much closer in the last few days that it was actually really sad to see them go. Anyway, we left to meet the IBC families at the loan place and Trevor kept reminding us to think of Fonzy, which really helped. I think only 2 of all the ladies were smiling when we walked in. We sat through a brief introduction – me praying the whole time that I’d just get along with my family and actually be a blessing and not a burden.
We left in a taxi and then got to the house… Immediately, I was told to sit in a rocking chair while the girl who picked me up started to clean the house. After cleaning the patio area in front of the kitchen (the dirt floor, really), she beckoned me to sit in one of the infamous plastic chairs. I met a bunch of family and just kinda awkwardly sat while they stared and I stared. This went on for another 20 minutes until the next two infamous things – food and refresco. J Having been severely ill the day before, I wasn’t too excited, but it looked relatively harmless – rice, beans, platano and an egg. The drink was a little more suspicious, with unknown objects floating in it. Then I reminded myself that Laura had said we were much more likely to get sick from the food than the water, so I sipped it cautiously. I tried to avoid the bigger pieces, which I figured out later were just ashes from the fire.
After lunch, there was just more sitting and watching the kids play… then watching eminem music videos and then the pictures came out – yes! Finally the first (or maybe really the third or fourth) step to connecting… Showing me pictures of the family, which is HUGE, by the way, must be something important. We chatted a bit and she explained how she lives with her grandparents and her uncle and aunt because she was always close with her grandma and when her grandma’s last child died, the grandma was so sad that the granddaughter decided to live with her to ease the pain. Now the granddaughter seems to do everything around here. I can’t imagine doing that – so easily leaving my parents to help my grandma feel better… to have such wisdom and sacrifice at a young age.
Tonight I met some more family – one man in particular was especially funny – constantly asking me questions. It’s interesting how similar families are, really. There are the jokers and the quiet ones. The servants and the bossy ones. The overlooked and the overspoiled. I started to see those personalities come out tonight. It made me realize that God made families to coexist in all sorts of different ways, but there seems to be unity among our differences.
We ended the night watching a dubbed American film that I didn’t really understand so I eventually fell asleep. I think this is going to be challenging but good…