We woke up and had breakfast at our hotel in San Juan del Sur.  It was definitely not a typical "American" style breakfast...no cereal and no pancakes!   Instead, it consisted of eggs, rice & beans and toast.  After breakfast, we packed up our bags, loaded the bus and headed on our way to Jinotepe, a town approximately 1.5 hours north of San Juan.  Traveling in Nicaragua is very different and can be a bit scary at times because most of the roads are unpaved and not well marked.   Driving on the Pan American Highway is an experience in istelf.   Once we arrived in Jinotepe we met up with Doug and Julie Effinger who are volunteer missionaries with the Global Orphan Fund in Nicaragua.    They took us to visit an orphanage named the Land of Judah.  Visiting the orphanage was an emotional, but very fun and fulfilling experience for everyone.  Almost everyone had at least one child attached to the during the visit.  I met a little girl named Mariah whom I played with the entire time.  We played on the playground and chased all the other children around.  The children loved taking photos and seeing photos of themselves on our digital cameras.   They were all about taking photos and seeing themselves on camera! After playing on the playground for a few hours, we joined the children for lunch in their cafeteria.    The lunch consisted of rice and chicken.  It was amazing watching the children down their food and leave their plates completely clean.  They are not accustomed to eating meat with their meals, so the lunch we bought them was a treat for them.  After lunch we said our good-byes which was difficult.  I was amazed at how attached I got to the children after such a short period of time with them.   After visiting the orphanage, we returned to tour hotel in Jinotepe to prepare for our afternoon game against the Nicaraguan national team.  Although everyone was exhausted from all our activities and we lost in 3 games, however we still enjoyed playing.   We have one more chance to beat them in our final game in Managua. After the match we returned to our hotel for dinner.  Following dinner, we walked to Eskimo for some ice-cream.  Eskimo has become our new favorite place!

If you want to stay updated or make a donation to the Global Orphan Fund, you can visit the website here on Community ReFund's website: 
http://www.communityrefund.org/projects/global-orphan-fund/