un parte de la familia

Madeling Mercedes Arellano Obando is one of my friends at Proyecto Chacocente. She is 16 years old and a daughter of Manuela (so she's like my little sister). We spend a lot of hours working the family store together; so, we spend a lot of time talking. Last week she invited me to accompany her Saturday to visit some of her family who live elsewhere. And of course, I accepted. I had already met the family we were going to visit - and enjoyed them so much; therefore, I was excited for the chance to get together with them.

(Earlier in the week her Aunt and Uncle came to visit the Project. When Manuela was introducing the family to them, as it had been awhile since they'd seen her kids, she introduced me as well and said "Ella es mi hija, también." ("She is my daughter, too.") I don't know how to describe the feeling her words gave me. I felt so loved and accepted, and sort of wanted to cry... so I almost tackled her with a big hug!)

So, on Saturday, I met Madeling at the roadside to catch the bus and off we went to Tipitapa. We arrived at her Tío Marcos' and Tía Conny's house and were welcomed with open arms. Her Great Uncle Marcos' is Manuela's Uncle and he and his wife Conny were so hospitable. They sat us down in rocking chairs and just started talking away.

Then they put a DVD in to watch- El Niño del Oro (The Child of Gold) it was a music video of a 10 year old Nicaraguan boy who sings. They say he has a "voice of gold." He sings Christian songs and preaches, too! After watching it, they gave it to me to keep, along with their phone number and address, and they expect me to keep in touch!

I was also fed so much food! It began with a plate of watermelon... then an hour later a glass of coke and a piece of cake... then maybe an hour and a half later it was time for lunch. We had grilled pork, rice, fried plantains, and a cole-slaw-salad. It was absolutely delicious, as is pretty much all food to me... haha.

In the afternoon Madeling and I went off to Managua to visit another Aunt of hers - Manuela's sister. She lives near La Churreca (the dump) in a neighborhood that is awful, but at least it has clean air and they aren't scavenging through garbage. The house they live in though was two rooms and had black plastic for the inside walls. There wasn't much to it, but they didn't hesitate to find me a seat, give me a glass of soda, and proceed to show me all of the family pictures they had (which were few). Materialistically, they had so little - but they were filled with love and hospitality.