Despedida and a little thing called retreat

First of all, we apologize for the lack of updates from our beautiful country. It has been a time of transition here in Nicaragua and now that we've found our way back to Blogger we'd love to let you know what has been happening!

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We concluded our Spring Break season here on March 24 when our Worcester State team returned to the US. We were thankful for all our SB team's enthusiasm and energy as they served here in Nicaragua with us. Just after Spring Break finished up, we were all on vacation for Semana Santa with travels that took us to Connecticut, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Maryland, east coast Nica, and some that stayed right here in our community. Everyone found their way back to the Manna house at the beginning of April to enter our last several months here in Nica as PDs. 

A little over a week ago our Manna team packed up and headed south to Playa Gigante near San Juan Del Sur for our third retreat. We were excited to have this time away as a family as we celebrated the arrival of our new 3-month PD, Morgan Loughery, and enjoyed our last weekend with Jen (our fearless media coordinator, hence the lack of updates). Besides enjoying some family bonding (our favorite!), we were excited to have some time away to continue our work in developing Manna's programs here in Nicaragua. We had groups laying out our goals in education, health, and livelihoods, and were excited to see how our programs link to Manna's larger goals as an organization in Latin America.

We are sad to say that our house has lost one of its voices. Jen Metzger has said farewell to Nica as she embarks on new adventures like grad school and marriage! We are so appreciative of the dedication and love that Jen poured into her programs here in Nicaragua over the past 10 months! She contributed selflessly to our English programs, feeding program, Sexual and Reproductive Health class, girls' sport programs, and our organization as the house media coordinator. She will be missed by her students, her friends here in Nica, and this Manna family. We wish her the best of luck as she continues her journey!


Check back soon for updates from our new PD Morgan, as well as our USF Med Student team that has been working hard in Nica over the past several weeks!