*NOTE...I hadn`t meant to publish this post half finished so if you read part of it I added more.*

Since I last wrote I found the comments, which were a joy to read! A lot more has happened since then, which may be why I haven´t written in a while.

I had my first Nicaraguan style birthday. In the morning, I woke up to a hug from my host mom, then they put on a birthday CD, some Spanish, some English. I went to work as usual and when I got back we listened to the CD again. We had dinner, celebrated with delicious cake, then did some dancing. I was trying to imitate the tradition dance here. The girls wear big skirts and hold them out to the side or the front as they do a bit of a step. I taught my host sister some swing dance, but the music wasn´t quite right for it.

The next day, November 5th, was a day to honor the dead. I accompanied my siblings to the graves of the graves of their dead relatives to place flowers on the tomb stones. The cemetary was crowded with people and full of fresh flowers on each grave. There was sharing time at the back where most people were congregating. Unfortunately a favoured path was right across my family´s grandmas grave and when people passed on it upset my host sister. We tried to block it a little and ask people to walk around.

In turn, we are planning on visiting all the centres for each SALT or Yamen participant in Nicaragua (there are 4 of us). We visited two since last week: Matt and Maritzas. Matt works in Nagarote, a town about an hour out of Managua, as an english teacher. Since they were doing construction on the building when we came, classes didn´t run as usual and so we explored the town a little. Compared to Managua, the air is fresher, the streets quieter, but it´s a lot hotter! Lots of people were riding bikes and taking three wheeled carts around. Including us!
We went to the school for the deaf, where Martiza works, on their last day of classes for the year (which was monday the 17th of November). They were celebrating birthdays and Christmas and so had cake and icecream, yum. The founders were there and we were able to talk to them. The school is less than 10 years old and has grown each year. Now there are over 90 students who attend. One of the boys I teach at Hogar Belen used to attend that school but was suspended for behavioural problems. We talked about him a bit and was informed they have sign language classes at the school every Saturday beginning again in Febuary after break. I hope to attend some of them.

I don´t know if Nicaraguan news is big in Canada at the moment but there has been a unsettled atmosphere after the political campains on Nov 8th. It is affecting the economic situation in the country as the tourism industry suffers. If you would like to pray for this, please pray for peaceful decisionmaking. Also for less division of the country.