Free time will soon end

Hello once again blog readers.  It's a quiet Sunday here, and I am trying to enjoy it as much as possible, mostly because I know the quiet will soon end.  Tomorrow the schedule gets full again as Keri and I begin visiting students at their service locations.  Monday and Tuesday we will take day trips into Managua to visit students placed there.  Tuesday afternoon will also include some time to see some friends from home who have been in Nicaragua for the last 10 days scouting out a future medical trip. 

On Wednesday the 27th we begin our 7 day, 6 night trip to more northern locations - Leon, Matagalpa, and Jinotega, visiting 11 students during this time.  I am really looking forward to seeing the students again, and especially hearing how their service experience is going.  Unfortunately, we have heard from four of them in the last four days we have been sick.  There seems to be another round of bacterial infection or something.  Keri and I figured out that 2/3 of our students have been sick at least once.  Not something we wanted to have happen at all! 

In the last two weeks we have been finalizing all the details for our visits and working on options for our final retreat.  I also have had enough free time to read/finish four books:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Unfinished Revolution: Daniel Ortega & Nicaragua's Struggle for Liberation by Kenneth Morris
• Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate
• Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea by Sergio Ramirez (Nica author)

Here are a few more pictures from the last few weeks.

Keri and I went to Granada for an overnight in a hotel after the students left for service.  This is the funky faucet in our hotel room.  I wonder if Penny could do something like this for me at home. 

Pool at the Granada hotel, right as it started raining. 

The tiled roofs of Granada, with Volcan Mombacho in the background. 

relaxing in the hammock

We stopped in to drop off some books for a student who lives down this road. 

a flower in the backyard

homemade pizza!