Esteli/Somoto

From the famous sleepover. Sorry if Claira's not being really modest, she's 3 so get over it. It was pretty funny though.

Also, one of my videos of Claira dancing (since Mehlanie finally told me how to get videos up THANK YOU):

She wanted the outline to be in pink.


Also, the video of me dancing with the women of the Montefresco branch... you can tell I'm really embarrassed by the look on my face.


So the good news is I'm feeling better. The bad news is I took some medicine that could have knocked out a horse. It was definitely illegal in the U.S. So memories of Sunday are kind of a blur... I'll start from the beginning.
We went to Esteli on Saturday, and because I'm such a space cadet (and was asleep when Annie told me we were going), I didn't get my camera. I'll get pictures off of Annie and Wes' camera, because it was very pretty. When we got there, we had no idea where we were going to eat and/or sleep. Normally that would worry me, but Wes thought we were fine. We ended up eating at this place called "White House Pizza", which had a clown and no toilet paper. We finally got 2 rooms next to each other at a pretty nice place, and that's when I took my first dose of that LSD or whatever was disguised as cough syrup. I kept waking up in the middle of the night with my legs shaking, I thought it was just my fever going away. Sunday we woke up and were getting ready to go to a little branch, and I couldn't really walk very far in one shot. It was quite the trip. We got to church an hour late (accidentally forgot what time it started), and walked right into Gospel Doctrine. One of the elders was a gringo, named "Elder Istwud". Annie was talking to him, and asked him where he was from. He said, "Oh, Salt Lake. And my last name is Eastwood, like Clint. But nobody down here could pronounce it, so I changed the spelling."
After we went to church, we drove out to Somoto, a canyon near the Honduran border. We were probably 20 kilometers from Honduras, which is pretty awesome. Even though i couldn't see Honduras.
This week was a good one. The computer's not letting me (or anyone else) upload pictures, so I can't show you. But we dropped off the fabric at Hermana Maria's on Monday after getting home from Esteli, and driving down her street was an experience for me. There were many members of the Montefresco branch that live on that street. They all live in such poverty, and are good members of the Church and try to do a lot for each other. There were some things there that I wished I hadn't seen, but it's always good to realize how much we really have.
I have some way cute pictures from my last day at preschool. I took a picture with my class, and they all said "Hasta Pronto!" It made me really sad, because I was going to miss them a lot. Piera cried. When I upload the picture, she's the one that's sitting in my lap. I just hope they do well in life, because they've definitely got the odds against them.
Tuesday afternoon Annie and I went to the market (i don't know how to spell the name... Juembe's?), and I bought myself a few things. A hammock, for one. A bowl, I'm not quite sure what it will hold yet. A little jar for Mom, it's way cute. A clay turtle for me, for no other reason than it was so cute. A T-Shirt that says "Gallopinto" (The dirty rice that people eat at breakfast all the time here, it's actually pretty good) and a picture of a rooster (a gallo) on the back. Some bells for my room, and a little candle holder that's shaped like a house. Those people are REALLY pushy. The lady who wanted me to buy her candle holder dropped the price 20 cordobas in about 30 seconds to get me to buy it. When the price was only 70 to start with, it was a pretty good deal.
Other news? We were supposed to go to Rio San Juan today, but didn't get to the plane in time. There were only 12 seats available on the plane (it's called a puddlejumper) and we were standby. We were expecting more than half the people to not show up. So I made snickerdoodles (twice) with Claira, and we sat outside by the pool in our swimsuits and ate popsicles. Not a bad day overall. Tomorrow I WILL figure out how to upload pictures and videos, because we're sledding down a volcano. Safe? Well, they're giving us a bunch of gear for it. So hopefully. Pictures coming soon!