Where To Start?! - Wed & Thurs, October 27-28, 2010

Not much else to say about Wednesday but I wanted to put this picture up. We saw this cute little guy when we went to do Wanda's study, who didn't end up studying. 

That was about it for Wednesday. Charley had a nice day out in service doing territory and going on studies with the locals.


Now, today, Thursday. I don't even know where to start! Let me start by saying that I thought I might pass out halfway through the day, but that in the end it was the BEST day ever!!


I woke up feeling WAY better, with a bit of energy even. So we met at the hall at 8:30 - I was late despite the fact that I live 50 feet from the Kingdom Hall!! But it was a last minute dash to make sure we had everything we could possibly need for the day.


22 people came, including quite a few kids. They seem to have a lot of random days off school around here. Or they just don't go. I'm not sure which! So, off we went, walking. And we walked, and walked, and walked.........

I don't even know how far we walked. But we started by witnessing at a few nearby houses right at 9am. Then we walked up and down hills, on dirt paths full of holes. And we'd stop and talked at the houses and with the people we passed along the way. 


According to my custom since I got here, I needed to use the "servicios" as they say here, so at the first house someone stopped at I went and used the outhouse-type toilet. Every time I ask here, they say "but it's a latrina" - they don't think I'll want to use such a bathroom being as foreign-looking as I am! But it doesn't bother me. Later I'll tell you about my second trip!


So, here are pictures of Nora & Liset, and Maria and Magda (well, their feet) at some of the first houses that we stopped at along the way. Everyone was very nice and paid attention.

At one point I thought I was going to throw up, so I sat in the shade while Liset talked to a young lady for quite a while. That helped. I was just still not 100% from the cold and upset stomach the days before. But I was ok. I drank some Peptobismol and felt better!


So, that's pretty much what the day consisted off. Walking and preaching along the way. Some of the houses were pretty far back off the beaten path. It has been six months since they've been out and worked this territory. Some of the group recognized people they'd previously talked to. Everyone takes hats and umbrellas since it was way hotter down there than it is in El Crucero. It was probably well into the 80's by mid afternoon. I wore my folding fan/hat for a while, but couldn't keep it on, so another sister wore it. It looked so cute on her! Here she is.

They kept telling us about this crazy, steep hill we had to go down, and then an even crazier hill on the other side we'd have to climb up. So, when we got to it, I knew it was the one. I got just a little panic-stricken when I first got to the really step decline. Those of you who know me, know I don't have an entirely successful past when it comes to going down hills! Anyway, I just decided to worry about the step right in front, without looking at what lay ahead. And in no time I was at the bottom wondering what I had got so stressed out about! I am SO glad that I decided to wear my hiking shoes though. They helped boost my confidence a lot!


Here we are at the bottom, and you can see some of the hill behind us. What you see is probably not even one sixth of what we had to climb up. But I used the same, "just look at the step in front" procedure and it went well. We were all panting when we got to the top, but relieved because that meant lunch time!

At rock bottom!

So, we sat around in this somewhat abandoned looking village and ate lunch. I had to force myself to eat one sandwich. I just didn't feel like eating. But by then I was dying to use the servicios again. So, Alexandra, one of the pioneer sisters, came with me to ask to use a bathroom at this house. They said there was no water, and we couldn't convince them that it didn't matter. So, Sergio (Alexandra's hubby) pointed me in the direction of a building where nobody can see behind. Well, they could if they were passing by that way, but nobody did! So Alexandra and I, with two umbrellas, set up camp and I took care of what I had to take care of! It was the most interesting trip to the "bathroom" so far!! But you do whatcha gotta do, right?!


After a break of 30 minutes or so, we continued on the way. But not before gathering for a picture. Here we are with the exception of the sister who took the picture.

The major hiking was over now, and we went to a pretty well populated area. One of the young brothers (Mariano) with us has diabetes, and he'd already had his sugar drop really low. By then he wasn't feeling too great, so I sat and rested with him and some of the other young boys. It was a long rest, and the rest of the group finished the territory. Mariano really wasn't feeling good though, so we just sat and watched the local boys ride their bikes fearlessly down a dirt road full of holes and up over a pile of dirt. I don't have pictures because I'd almost run out of battery.


Then a sister's husband arrived in his truck to take us all home. We would have passed out on the way if we'd had to walk back again!! It was about 4pm by then and we'd been out since 9am in the sun and up and down hills. But we had a fantastic time and had lots of really nice conversations.


Here we all are ready to set off again! Poor truck - not sure how it made it up all the hills it took to get home. But it was a proper road so we didn't have any holes to battle with. Well, not once we got out on to the highway we didn't. It was a bumpy ride before that! As you can see there were no seats. It was a fun ride home!!! Nice breeze too.

So, there ended the most adventurous day we've ever had out in service. Perhaps it won't be the last! We'll see if we can get up and walk tomorrow to go out again! But tomorrow will just be locally, no big hiking trips probably for the rest of our stay. We wouldn't have missed this day for anything though. 


If you'd like to see a few, very short videos from today go to http://fotosbyrachel.shutterfly.com/videos

Eventually I'll try and have all my videos uploaded to that webpage. Mario just reminded me today that you can upload video on Shutterfly, and I already had a page set up on there.


Oh, and I added all my latest pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/poet879/NicaraguaOctNov2010# including the one I mentioned in a blog a couple of days ago of the amazing view from one of Patricia's bible study's house.


Well, it's 9pm and I'm exhausted! I'm sure it'll be a good night's sleep.