3 1/2 weeks to go

Just 24 more days and I will be in Nicaragua! I can't wait! I wish I was there now, of course. I just talked on the phone yesterday with Ivonne, my best friend. She's pretty bummed out right now 'cause she's got chicken pox :( That worries me because I know it's way more serious and a lot more painful to have chicken pox as an adult. But she says she's feeling better. She still can't work or be around the kids and she's not able to go out on the outings with the missions groups that are down there, so I know that's disappointing for her :( But despite being so sick, she told me she is sending me some paintings she made with my friend Summer who is down there now, when she comes back, and she had our friend Aby, who also works at the orphanage, get all the kids to write letters to me which she is also going to send back with Summer for me. That's just so incredible, here she is so sick but she still wants to make sure she sends me letters and her paintings, which are reallu awesome. I already have four of them framed and hanging on the wall in my living room, and that's where the others are also going to go when I get them.
But that's the thing about the people in Nicaragua. No matter how bad their situation is or how little they have, they are always so generous and so selfless and they always want to share whatever they have, even if they don't have very much. When I was there in May, Ivonne's mom, Rosa, wanted to make lunch for me one day, so she made Bahoo, which is a traditional Nicaraguan meal. She spent at least 4 or 5 hours preparing and cooking this meal for me and it just really moved me because I know it was a great cost for her, and that they don't even normally eat meals like that. It definitely makes me realize how good I have it here and how often I can be so selfish. I wish I could be more like Ivonne and Rosa and the other people in Nicaragua like them that I have met.