"Home"

This is my house. It is the place I will call home for the next six months.

I live on the outskirts of town. Managua is a very spead out city to begin with, it doesn't have much of an urban feel to it at all - people describe it as more of a sprawling village (though it is home to 1.6 million people). The outskirts are even more like this. The road I live on and all the roads around it are dirt roads. My street has houses of varying size and wealth. There are two which are two story and surrounded by tall iron gates. There are three or four that are small two or three room shacks. There are also a couple of make shift accomodations, put together with various pieces of plastic, wood, cardboard, and metal. Ours is among the nicer, but not nice enough to need a gate. My host parents both come from extremely poor backgrounds. They worked their way through school, and each have jobs (my host dad has 3) besides being full time pastors. Sunday is their "free day" - which means that between Sunday morning Sunday school, and the 6:00 church service (followed by visiting with families in the community) they have a four hour span of time to rest.
My host family is really wonderful. They have a lot to teach me, and I feel priveledged to be learning from them.