Let's start by recapping our 2011 build in La Gallina, Nicaragua.  La Gallina is a small community in rural Nicaragua not far from the ocean. After meeting up with the team in Managua, we travelled by bus (sketchy and CROWDED) to our hotel just outside of Masachapa.  I shared a room with Morgan that was so small I had to turn sideways to get to the bathroom, but it was clean and cozy. (even with the critters crawling up the walls at all hours).  Not only that, but the bathroom had swinging doors like an old fashioned saloon.  Felt like I was hitting the wild west watering hole every time I brushed my teeth.
The ocean was steps from our door...guess I didn't mention that.  It didn't matter that our room had rock hard beds and pillows; that was forgotten when I listened to the waves kiss the shore each night.

Twas the night before the sweat of the build.
Broken Spanish, wine poured, stories told.
Nicaragua. My heart stolen.  My soul rejuvenated.
¡hasta mañana.


Etched forever in my heart are the families that we worked side by side with last year in La Gallina.  Kind and warm and so gracious.  But for anyone who knows me, they know it was the kids that stole my heart from first glance.  I have always considered myself to be a bit of a pied piper of children, no doubt because I have never really grown up myself.  I love to be surrounded by the innocence, the playfulness, the giggles and the hugs.
The children on my build were Franci, Anderson, Fernando, Ashley and Faviola.  It was love at first sight.They taught me more than I could have ever thought possible. You know, practical things...important things.
Like...say...how to kill a scorpion with a the end of a machete instead of screaming "scorpion, scorpion, scorpion' like some lunatic on rewind. Or how to use a machete.  Nothing like a 7 year old girl teaching me the intricacies of the cut.