Im trying to write a little more regularly so they dont get as long as the last one:

We met Manuel Satuday afternoon in the market. He was walking around sellng small ¨flowers¨ he made out of pine leaves for one cordoba (about a nickle). We were just about to order something to drink at a café and invited him to sit with us and eat. His face lit up when we invited him to sit down and started asking him questions about his life. We talked about his family, sports, food, and played jokes on him while he ate. He, as you´ll se in our pictures, is missing most of his teeth and the sándwich was huge so it took him forever to eat. When he was done we asked him if we could meet his mom and he lead us running through the crowded market to meet her.
Alejandra, his mom, is an incredible woman. She greeted us with warm smiles and thank you´s and was ¨honored¨ to meet us. She has two other children. Alejandro, ten, has a severe mental and physical disability and is confined to a Wheelchair. HIs sister, Mercedes, has been deaf at birth and therefore is uneable to speak. I told her that we would love to get to know her and her family and that we would be honored to take them out to dinner the next day. Manuel started jumping around for joy and his sister, after her mom told her what happened in signs, gave us huge hugs and signed to her mom that eric and i were very ¨guapo.¨
When eric and i showed up at the market last night for dinner, the whole family was outside waiting, and they alongside some other street boys, came running towards us. We asked them where they wanted to go and manuel started jumping up and down yelling ¨pollo tip-top!¨ During the long walk to the restaurant, Eric and Manuel ran across the street jumping over the curb on and off the sidewalk and down any steps they could find. I walked behind with mercedes (who is adorable) and Alejandra as she pushed her son in the Wheel chair.
Alejandra told me that the father of all three of her children packed up after manuel was born and moved to costa rica with another woman. By ¨the grace of God¨alejandra is now supporting her three children by the CD´s she sells for about a dollar in the market and any extra change Manuel makes from his flowers. I kept offering to let her rest and push around the Wheel chair but she did not want us to work.
After about 20 muinutes walk, ¨Pollo tip-top¨came into view and the kids started laughing and jumping with excitement. When i joked with Alejandra about how good the food must be she said they had never been before but had always wanted to. It is basically the NIcaraguan equivalent of a KFC with a playground. The kids were so excited they ran into the playground immediately and would come out every couple minutes sweating just to tell us how much fun they were having. After eating a family combo fried chicken meal which most of them saved for later, we walked home with them to meet the rest of their extended family. We were quickly warmly received with chairs and drinks and coversation. Alejandra refused to let us walk home alone at night so she and the kids walked us the 15 minutes all the way back to our hotel door to make sure we were safe.
Today, we waited for Alejandra at the market to take us to her kids school and she arrived late because she had been at the hospital. Both mercedes and Alejandro had gotten sick, which she said happens a lot, and were in the hospital. We got to minister to her and pray with her and offered to go to the hospital to visit them. Other people in the market saw this and it opened a chance to talk with a woman about why we were here.
The past couple days have been incredible. To wake up in the morning in a country we dont know and say God we have no plans but your plans has been awesome. We have ventured to the barrios outside Masaya and gotten to get to know more of the local culture here. We played pick-up basketball yesterday in a poor barrio (dominated of course) and walked through the streets saying hi to everyone we saw and stopping at small, local restaurants to eat and drink. We went out with our nicaraguan friends the other night for beers again before they left and last night had a great time hanging out with a couple swedish medical students staying at our hostel. Today we walked down to the ¨laguna de Masaya¨which you will see in our pictures and we are planning on renting kayaks and hanging out at ¨laguna de apoyo¨ tomorrow. Pray that God continue to keep us safe, bless the weather, give us time in his Word and in prayer, and have us see Nicaragua the way that he does.

We met brian, in the red shirt in the above pictures, in the market yesterday when we arrived to pick up manuel and his family. Brian walked with us to the grocery store where we could buy something pay with american cash and get córdobas in Exchange. Eric and i did not need anything so we offered to buy up whatever he wanted. We looked at fruit drinks, soda, cookies, candy and he said he didnt want it. Finally he asked us if we wouldnt mind buying some rice for him to take home to his grandma brothers. He ended up going with us to get food and had a great time. We are hoping to meet up with him and his friends this evening to play soccer. God is good and he is working.