Post #1 Luca Peluca and Alex Derulo

Hello everyone! I finally got a chance to sit down after all the kids went to sleep and put together a quick recap on the orphanage laptop. Internet is shoddy but it seems like there is enough of a connection right now to make a post! Today was our second full day in Nicaragua and time is already flying by way too fast. A team from a church in Maryland just left so we were able to cling to their coattails and enjoy some of the activities they have been doing the past two days! First let me preface this post by saying I cant figure out how to use parenthesis so I am using ... in place of them haha.

Day 1

Luca and I flew from Dulles at 5 am on Tuesday... arriving in San Salvador at 7am local time ... we are two hours behind Eastern Standard Time. We had an hour to catch our connecting flight to Managua, but Luca noticed he was at a different gate than I was. We then realized that I was flying into Managua 5 hours before him. Poor Luca had to sit in San Salvador while I got to get to Nica early and hang with the kids. Its okay though ... he arrived around 4 pm and we still had a great day. When I got to El Canyon I had a surprise! Angel, the little boy who left the orphanage two years ago had been brought back for a week to hang out with the team at the orphanage. He ran up to me and knew my name ... it was crazy that he remembered me after 2 years ... and he´s gotten so big as you can probably tell from the picture I posted on facebook! We then went out to dinner with the team that was here ... they like to take the orphanage staff out to dinner so we went to a local Nicaraguan restaurant and had a feast. There were about 30 of us and they brought out 5 massive platters of assorted meats ... sausages, steaks, ribs, etc .. plus gallo pinto of course. We returned to El Canyon for a much needed nights sleep.

Day 2

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. Luca and I woke up late ... 8 am is late here ... and joined everyone for some homework. The team was here all day and we just hung back and tried not to be in their way. I did manage to kick some butt in 500 rummy with Daysis and one of the team members from Maryland. Luca and I went for a 1.5 mile run ... including the massive hill out of the canyon which was brutal before doing some pushups with the kids. Today Carlos came up to me and complained about how sore he was after doing 50 pushups ... hes 10 so that is a lot haha. I worked on a lot of math problems with the girls ... turns out they are really good at complex multiplication and addition ... they were multiplying problems with over 20 numbers ... I tried to challenge them! Last night Luca, Tony and I went out to a bar-restaurant with Paul ... one of the team leaders from Maryland who told us more about their church and the trips they take ... through orphan network but specifically focused on el canyon. He said he would like to start working with JMU NOF on joint fundraising efforts for specific projects at el canyon ... which would be nice to see the money raised go directly to the orphanage. Paul has been coming to El Canyon for 7 years and was able to tell me a lot of cool history about the orphanage. It was a really nice, relaxing experience to get out and have a few drinks and talk about our experiences ... plus it was nice catching up with Tony!

Day 3

Luca and I got up at 7 today so we were able to catch breakfast! Afterwards we played with the kids for a couple hours before heading to the store with Maria Jose to grab what seemed like TONS of meat and bread for the party today ... the team just left after a week and had a big bash to celebrate their time here. Margarita ... the orphanage cook is the best in the world and she and Maria Jose made some of the best steak and chicken I have every had. Probably not the most healthy but certainly the most tasty. After the market Luca and I went with Carlos ... a close friend of the orphanage ... his mom runs the finances ... to take a couple of the sick kids to the emergency room in el Crucero ... about 10 minutes away. They just had slight coughs but there is a free government clinic there and they were given cough and throat medicine. Luca waited with them and Anna, one of the team members, while I left with Carlos to pick up the older kids from their high school, which is located in el crucero. Then Carlos took me to two lookout spots where he went when he was in high school ... kind of lovers corner type of places but a little more innocent in conservative nicaragua i suppose haha. Anyway, El Crucero is on top of a mountain ... the same mountain that el canyon is about halfway up ... and it overlooks Managua. You can literally see for dozens of miles in every direction ... I took a bunch of pictures on my phone that I should be uploading to facebook as soon as I get a wireless connection somewhere!

After Crucero we came back to the orphanage. Luca and I ran 2 miles today ... to the top of the hill at the entrance and back ... 2 times. It is exactly half a mile to the top of the canyon ... so going there and back is a mile ... twice is 2 miles. For those that have been here ... you know how steep and extruciatingly long that hill is ... and we managed to not walk at all ... we are going to try and get up to 3 miles ... aka 3 round trips by the time we leave in 11 days. We tried to hang back a bit today because it was the team´s last day and we didnt want to get in the way ... knowing we will be here for another 11 days. That being said all the kids still came up to us so it was hard to hang back. All the kids are mad at Ryan for not coming ... they literally wont stop telling me how angry they are ... jokingly of course ... except for Tonia who I THINK would punch Ryan as hard as she could in his arm right now if she could! Right before dinner, on my way to the new house where we are staying ... that was built for the older boys ... I almost stepped on a tarantula. It is my first tarantula encounter in my 7 trips here and of course I ran for my camera. I will post those pictures as well. One of the older boys, Moises, captured him in a tuperware jar and released him outside the orphanage. One of the workers said if you get bit by it ... and dont get immediate help ... you likely have to get amputated in that area. The sucker was huge, so while i dont know how true that was, it certainly isnt a stretch to believe. Anyways, thats a ¨quick´ overview of our first few days. There are plenty more stories to tell and pictures to eventually share but I only have so much time right now.

Tomorrow night we are planning on going SOMEWHERE ... where exactly we dont know yet, but will likely be gone for the entire weekend traveling with Tony. First ... Luca and I are waking up at 6 am to go to school with the older kids in Crucero .. something we have never done ... so that should be a lot of fun. Leyla, Nicole, Jordan, Lujan and Jolisa are really excited for us to come. We cant wait but could probably do without the early wakeup call. After we get back, the plan is to wait for Tony to get off work and either go to his friends coffee farm in the north ... or south to Granada for the night before going on to Ometepe for Saturday and Sunday. Ometepe is one of the top eco tourist spots and is an island in Lake Nicaragua with two large volcanoes ... it takes 6 hours to hike the volcano and get to a waterfall ... and that is on the top of our list of things to do! Anyways, hopefully we will have some internet access at hotels along the way so we can post another blog and upload our pictures. Hope everyone is doing well back home! Adios!