El Güegüense

Since Mitchell was home this week (as in NOT traveling to the US) we have all been so much happier! Have I mentioned how much we love it here!?! Things are really coming together and we are so happy!

Audrey and Reid set up a beauty salon for me and brushed my hair and even gave me a back massage! I'm a lucky momma!

For the first time since we moved here I got some quiet down time in the afternoon! It was blissful! Audrey made friends with 3 girls in the neighborhood and spent the afternoon at one of their houses painting and playing. Layne took a nap and Redick and Reid watched a movie. I forced myself to forget about sweeping the perpetually dirty floor or washing the dishes in the sink and I started reading a book on my new Kindle! It was a great choice! I'm looking forward to setting up our woven hammock and enjoying many more peaceful afternoons reading in the near future!

When we first got here I thought there were NO neighborhood parks at all! I was really sad about that for a while. It turns out there are parks but they are hidden and you have to look around to find them. This is a new park we checked out this week with some new friends! 

While we were there I learned a fun fact! Fun Fact: Cashews grow on a big huge tree and are actually the little flowery part at the bottom of the "cashew apples" that the tree produces. It is apparently not "Marañón" (the Spanish word for Cashew) season because we didn't see any growing on the trees there. I read that the Marañón fruits taste like mango and green bell pepper. Interesting combo.

Saturday is our Family Outing and Exploration day. We had planned on taking a hike on Saturday but those plans got ousted so we went to the zoo instead. It was a wonderful afternoon and the lions even roared for us!

Later in the afternoon we got a babysitter for the boys and took Audrey downtown to the Rubén Darío National Theater to see a performance of 22 regional Nicaraguan folk dances. It was AMAZING!!

First we had to have some delicious street food! This is roasted corn on the cob and a Nicaraguan style Pupusa. Audrey loved it! Yum!

The national theater was absolutely beautiful! We had awesome seats too!

The pictures are hard to see and don't even come close to communicating the excitement of the music, the costumes, the dances and the Nicaraguan pride! I absolutely loved being a part of the performance. In fact, twice I was brought to tears by the dancers! The feeling of personal pride in being Nicaraguan and honoring their heritage was palpable. Nicaragua is an incredible place with incredible people! We are so SO happy to get to experience this wonderful lifestyle here with them!