First time: Adiós, Nicaragüita

You have replenished me.

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaragüita

La flor mas linda de mi querer

Abonada con la bendita, Nicaragüita,

Sangre de Diriangen.

Ay Nicaragua sos mas dulcita

Que la mielita de Tamagas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas.

First time: Semana Santa

Semana Santa (Holy Week) = processions through the streets, a trip to the river, and the three-hour Vigilia Pascual complete with fireworks.

First time: Fire

Imagine a fire in this beloved church. At Christmastime in 1996, it burned. And since the town has no fire department, the blaze was fought with buckets of water carried from the river on horseback. The church was destroyed, but rebuilt.  One of the largest churches in Central America, it is called El Santuario Nacional Nuestro Señor de los Milagros (The National Shrine of Our Lord of the Miracles), built to honor the Black Christ of Esquipulas.

First time: Another house

The day after we finished construction on the first house, we began another. 

First time: The gringo in the group

The gringa in the group is the one with the camera

The gringa in the group gets the jobs in the shade

The gringa in the group drinks imported water

The gringa in the group can’t solve a problem without using money

The gringa in the group has a fancy backpack and clothes made of high-tech fabric

The gringa in the group longs for a pedicure

The gringa in the group doesn’t remember what she paid for her water

The gringa in the group doesn’t know what she paid for her plane ticket

The gringa in the group has a visa