Adventures in the truck & Charley’s silent role!

Well, I finally got a few minutes to sit down and write an update. It’s been a really busy week.

Tuesday, as you saw in the photograph of the last post, we went and picked up the truck. We tried to get the plates for it, but you need about 100 pieces of paper so Cesar (the truck’s owner’s brother) said we’d have to wait a day or two. Good thing is you can drive it for 72 hours before you have to have the paperwork sorted out. So we drove it home, went and did some grocery shopping, gave the truck a good cleaning, and then got ready for the meeting.

It’s the Circuit Overseer’s visit this week so there was a meeting Tuesday night. We arranged to pick up Milena and her son Moises who live on the road between where we live and the main highway. So I managed to get behind the passenger seat, which technically isn’t a seat, but it works! And the sister got in the front, and her son sat in the bed of the truck. So there were four of us. By the time we got to the Kingdom Hall there were 13 of us in the truck!!!! Everyone but a few people walks to the meeting, so we picked people up along the way! It’s nice to be able to help them out like that. They appreciate the ride.  Reminds me how much we take for granted though, just getting in our cars and driving to the hall. So easy.

I didn’t take my camera Tuesday night and I regret it immensely! As soon as we walked into the hall the CO grabbed Charley and vanished with him into a back room where I could see a couple of sisters who looked like they were practicing a demo or something. If I’d had my camera I could have recorded Charley’s first part. It was a silent one – just the kind he likes! The CO’s talk was the one that’s been given everywhere about impartiality. But this CO did it differently to ours. He had these little skits in it! So two sisters were on one side of the stage out in service, and they saw a brother dressed as a doctor, and decided he wouldn’t listen to the message. Then Charley came up on the phone, and they were like, oh, he’s a foreigner, he’ll never listen, those foreigners think they’re so much better than us, etc. It was really funny!!!!  I get mad even now thinking about the fact that I couldn’t record it because my camera was at home!

So, we’ve spent the week going out in service morning and afternoon with the CO and his wife, Luis & Gema Balladares. They’re amazing! He’s a fantastic speaker. Great sense of humor too. He’s 44 and she’s 38. She started regular pioneering when she was 13, and was appointed a special pioneer at 17. He’s been in the circuit work 17 years (if you do the math he started really young) and they’ve been married 14 years. So she was in circuit work at 23. And they served six years as District Overseer too! He also went to MTS before he started in the circuit work. I got to work with her on Thursday morning and found out all that and more. Wonderful couple!

We also got to attend the pioneer meeting with the local pioneers. That was a real treat. We’d already been to that meeting with our CO but it was enjoyable to see how this brother presented the information. Here’s a picture of the group of regular pioneers. One of them just filled out her form this week, but the CO told her to stay for the whole meeting, so now we’ll just be waiting for the announcement!

Standing, L-R - Leonardo Garcia, Lester Perez, Lucia Pavon, Rachel, Charley & Luis Balladares(CO)
Sitting down, L-R - Ada Garcia, Rosa Rivera, Katya Mena & Gema Balladares (CO's wife)

Charley missed an entire day out in service on Thursday because he had to go with Cesar to get the truck’s paperwork sorted out. They left here at 8am, and got home about 5:30pm! And after all that we didn’t even get the permanent plates because they’d run out of them! So we have temporary ones for a month, and hopefully when we go back it won’t take long to get the permanent ones! The CO and his wife picked me up that morning since they were driving right past of the entrance of where we live. And in the afternoon I got really brave and walked to the bus stop, and then got the bus by myself to the hall. I was very proud of myself!!

It’s great having the truck though. Makes it much easier to get around. We met for service on Friday in a neighborhood called El Raizon where one of the elders lives. They told us it was a bad road, but I had no idea what they meant! We took the truck down there – what an adventure that was. I thought we were never going to get there or that the truck would fall apart. But it’s a good strong truck with four wheel drive too.  Again I didn’t have the camera otherwise I would have taken a little video of the trip. Good times!

Friday afternoon four of us went to do return visits in the truck. The sister with us, Lucia, and I sat in the bed of the truck. That was fun!! I enjoyed the breeze – keeps you cool. But then it started to rain, so we got the umbrellas out, but I was wearing a white skirt – it wasn’t white by the time we got home! I found one call home, and two calls we couldn’t even find the houses!!

Friday night we had the meeting. During the opening prayer the power went out so we all sat in the dark for about 10 minutes until they got the auxiliary lights going. Then about 15 minutes into the meeting, the regular lights came back on! It was fun while it lasted but we’re glad it didn’t last long!!

This morning we had about 40 out, so more than half the congregation. Everyone piled into the truck, and the other two vehicles in the congregation, and a couple more on motorbikes and off we went to the territory. We had a good morning and I accidentally found one of the return visits whose house I couldn’t find Friday afternoon!

It’s pretty much rained on and off all afternoon and evening. It’s raining pretty hard right now actually. People celebrate Christmas starting at midnight tonight, so I hope we can sleep. They set off a lot of fireworks so it can get pretty rowdy so we’re told. But we’re in a pretty calm neighborhood so I think we’ll be alright.

So tomorrow Charley has asked to be chairman. He didn’t bring a suit, because last time nobody used them, but now it’s starting to become a bit more standard over here to use one for the meeting, if you’re on the platform. Well, nobody was using them until this week that we had the CO! So he’s going to be borrowing a suit from one of the elder’s sons who appears to wear the same size as him. Hopefully that will work out! And we’re having the CO and his wife over for dinner after the meeting so we’re excited about that. The house got a good cleaning today! And Gema said they like pasta and don’t get served it very often here, so I have a homemade sauce bubbling on the stove right now that I’ll heat up tomorrow. And we have salad, bread, and I plan on cutting up fruit tomorrow for a fruit salad. We bought a papaya to include in it, and some star fruit which I need to look online and see how on earth you cut/serve the stuff! And a pineapple that I hope is ripe!

So, that’s the latest news from our end. We’re really enjoying the ministry here and getting to know the congregation. We have some good return visits that will hopefully become Bible studies before too long. We hope you’re all doing well and that the weather has been kind.

At Last!

Probably not so many bus stories to tell now!

Has it really been five days already?!

I can’t believe how quickly the days seem to fly by now that we’re settling into our life over here. Here’s a good test of my memory of what we did over the last few days.

Before I forget to tell everyone, if you hadn’t noticed, I posted some more pictures. Even on days that I don’t blog, I often post a couple of pictures from the day in the same album as always. Most come with a little explanation too.

So, I blogged on Wednesday. Well, Thursday, more of the same – field service in the morning. I vaguely remember that we met at the entrance to the Masaya Volcano and worked along the highway from there, then down an old road with lots of little, simple houses on it. We had some nice chats, and then one really great conversation at the end of the morning with a young guy called Jose Luis. He had a lot of good questions, and we had a really enjoyable discussion with him. We haven’t been back yet, but hopefully we’ll figure out how to find his house again! It’s hard when we get back into these little back streets that all look the same and have little way of identifying them!!

Friday we were both going to go out, but then Charley ate some bad yoghurt that apparently had been in the fridge too long, so when Wilder arrived to accompany us, it was just me that went! Poor Charley – he got better by the afternoon though. He didn’t really get terribly sick, but enough to need to take the day off. So, that morning Wilder and I got on a bus that was only about 5 feet tall from floor to ceiling, and there were no seats left. Keep in mind that I am 5 foot 9 and you can imagine what I looked like!! My head was resting on the bar that you usually just hang on to with your hand! I laughed all the way and watched the scenery go by sideways! And although the bus was full after we got on, they still stopped and picked up more people along the way. I love riding the bus here – it’s an absolute riot!!

Friday night we went to the meeting. We got to the bus stop about 6pm, but forgot that someone told us that the buses are packed from 6pm onwards. So a bunch of buses went by where people were hanging out of the doors and windows before one with some space came. When I say space I mean, a space to kneel down on the floor on. It was what they call a micro bus, it’s like a 15 passenger van, but it transports about 25 people at a time! And the guy tried to charge us twice the rate. When he gave us change, I said, erm you owe me 10 more back, and he was like, oh yeah that’s right. You have to know how much it is around here otherwise they’ll rip you off!! Like we were going to pay 80 cents each instead of 40 cents for the privilege of riding on our knees in our meeting clothes. What a nerve!

Saturday we went out in service. This was our first Saturday out. Our first full week in the ministry – yay!!! We worked the same territory that we did earlier in the week, but someone different seems to appear at just about every house anyway! And I got to do four return visits along the way. I managed to actually find the houses again without help! And they were all home. Well, the first four were. The last two weren’t. My favorite one was with an old man called Luis, Don Luis, who is in a wheelchair. He had a leg amputated 3 months ago due to diabetes. He can’t see to read because he needs new glasses, but his mind is very active. We had a good half an hour chat with him on a variety of subjects.

Most of Saturday's service group, including the adorable twins!

In the afternoon there was cleaning and painting to do at the hall. We had a good time. We sanded down the front doors, then Charley painted them, while I helped paint the bars that are in front of the windows. There are pictures of the hall, pre-painting, in the album. There is a resident dog there since there are couples living in the two apartments there. Her name is Sina and as you can see she likes to fall asleep on her back!! She’s very loving, and just wants to be constantly coddled and cared for!! Once you start it’s hard to get away!!

Sina, fast asleep!!

Sunday we went out in service in the morning. We didn’t understand that the meeting for field service would be at the place we got up to in the territory last Sunday, not at the brother’s house again, so they had already started working the territory by the time we got there! Charley got to do a couple of return visits too so that was nice. At least you get started in the territory right away. You meet at 8am at the corner you finished at last time, so by 8:15 we’re already at the first door. I was going to say “knocking” at the first door but you don’t knock here, unless they have a big wall and gate. You just stand somewhere between the edge of the yard and the front door and yell “Buenas” or “Buenos Dias” until someone appears. It’s a tried and tested method that gives good results! Plus it helps avoid being bitten by dogs!

The meeting here is at 3:30 so it’s a nice chance to go home and rest a little after service. The meeting was enjoyable. Very good talk by a young ministerial servant from another congregation. I guess nothing too extraordinary to relate. We did discover something though. By the time you walk to the hall your shoes get pretty dusty. And this week we realized that people bring a rag in a bag, and there’s a tap outside, so you clean your shoes off before you go in. Note to self: there is no longer any excuse for wearing our dusty shoes into the hall! 

The bus ride home on Sunday was probably the most riotous one we’ve had so far. It was an old school bus, all seats full with three people down one side and two down the other. And then every square inch of standing space is full. So we get on, and the guy that collects the money keeps telling me to move further down. I guess he was seeing space I wasn’t seeing. But he kept insisting, so I kept squeezing between all the people who were already standing until I could squeeze no more. Then when five more people got on, he said “Move on down into that space, princess”. Then he remembered I was getting off at the next stop and finally quit making me work my way down the bus. That was definitely the funniest bus ride home yet!!! It’s hard to find words to describe how many people were on that bus, and how little space I was squeezing through. But it’s impossible to get a camera out to take a picture, so words will have to suffice!!

Today, we went out in service in the morning – imagine that! Had a nice group out and got to chat to people. You always get to chat to people actually. And we got to see where the meeting for field service will be tomorrow. It’s actually at someone’s house, well probably outside their house I suppose. Then from Wednesday to Sunday it’s at people’s houses because it’s CO visit so they don’t just meet on street corners when he’s here I guess! I was out with little Alondra again for a time this morning. I’ll have to figure out how to record her when she talks to people – she’s an amazing little thing!

So, that’s the latest and greatest, although it’s probably more just late than great. Seems like I had a funny story for the blog but I can’t remember what it was. I did get a little caught up getting off the bus this morning! My backpack field service bag that a sister put together for me also has a long shoulder strap. I was getting off the bus just as usual when all of a sudden I felt myself going in the wrong direction! The guy who stands there and helps you get off was like WOAH before I realized what was happening! My shoulder strap had hooked on to something in the bus and although I was trying to get out, my bag wanted to stay!! Slightly embarrassing but I’ll never see those people on the bus again. Or if I do, I won’t recognize them. Chances are they’ll recognize me. We seem to stand out just a little around here!

And last but by no means least, I just got done having Claudia's second study - yay!! And, her dad just came home (fleshly brother to the brother who owns this house we're living in) and he said they gave him the truck today and he wants Charley to go with him tomorrow to pick it up, and get the plates and insurance for it!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!!! 

Wow, well, that was a long post. Hopefully it wasn’t too mundane! Maybe I’ll learn to make a long story short one of these days. In the meantime, thank you for your attention!!

Field Service, Siesta, Field Service, Siesta, Field Service!!

The title of this post pretty much sums up what we’ve been up to over the last few days and probably the next couple of months!!! 

They meet for service every day so we’ve been out daily. We meet at 8am and walk the territory doing door to door until about 11am. By then you’re too sweaty and exhausted to do much more! I did my first return visit yesterday on a girl I met on Sunday. It went pretty well. And I did another today. We had a brief, but good conversation about what the Bible really teaches about the condition of the dead. So we’re getting to know the local brothers and learning the territory a bit. We’re getting the hang of riding the bus. It’s actually super convenient, and is only 20 cents to get from the house to wherever we meet for service that day. Whenever we do finally get the truck I don’t know if we’ll use it for much other than grocery shopping, getting to the meeting, and going to visit other congregations. Apart from that, the bus is probably easier since there aren’t too many safe places to park a vehicle in the territory.

We also had a nice surprise after the meeting on Sunday. They had the annual pioneer meeting with the local elders, and since we’d taken our letter of introduction, they let us attend too!! There are five pioneers, plus us two. One has been pioneering 15 years, another 11, another 6, another 2 and the last one I didn’t get to ask. They served us some soda (which they call gaseaosa here, which is appropriate I guess!!) and some sweet bread. And then it was dark by then so one of the elders took us home in his van which was nice of him.

I have to take a moment to talk about the young ones here too. Last time we came I was impressed with how spiritually advanced a lot of the young ones seem to be here in the congregation, and the young ones in this congregation where we are now are no exception. Here is a picture of the group we were out with on Monday.

The young girl in the front is Alondra, she’s seven, is a publisher and has given her first part in the school – not as householder, as the one giving the part. And this girl can preach!! She has a presentation complete with scripture and questions. And even when she didn’t use that presentation, she just talks to people and reads scriptures like an adult. I wish I could have somehow recorded her talking. It was beautiful. And the young one on the end near Charley, that’s Wilder. He’s 15 and been baptized a year now. His grandfather was in the truth but he died in 2008. He has some family of his grandfather in the congregation, but his mam, dad, and brothers  – none of them are Witnesses. Just him. And he can hold down a good conversation in the ministry, and is also very good at conversing with people of all ages in the congregation. I got to work with him this morning and it was an honor. The whole morning talking with him between the doors, and listening to him talk to people, was so encouraging. And although you can’t see it in the photo, he has the most contagious smile on his face all the time – except for when he poses for a picture apparently!!

Not in the picture, but I will get one of them soon, are a set of 2 1/2 year old twins in the congregation called Lauren Andrea & Lauren Raquel (not sure why they have the same first name, but that’s how it is) and they are ADORABLE!!! They’re SUPER active too!!! With really loud voices!! But they are very well trained. Their mam is a regular pioneer and this morning I got to hear some of the results of her hard work with them. Keep in mind that they aren’t 3 yet. They can quote Genesis 1:1, Psalms 83:18, and Ephesians 6:1 word for word, they know the names of the first five books of the Bible, and Jehovah’s four principal qualities. I hope to get them on video doing all that to share with everyone back in Indy. I was VERY impressed!!

So, we spend our mornings out in service, do a return visit or two on the way home from the territory, then eat lunch, Charley takes a long siesta and I read or blog or something. Then we study some, eat dinner, watch a DVD or just sit about and chat. By about 8:30 we’re exhausted and off to bed, wake up again at 6, and do it all again. We’re LOVING the schedule. LOVE IT!!!!

Out in service AT LAST!!

Well, hello everyone. Hope you all had a nice weekend. We spent a quiet Thursday in the house. It was a holiday here so stores were closed, not much to be done. I can’t remember what we did, but passed the day here cleaning I think, reading, preparing for the meeting, etc. Friday I can’t remember again what we did during the day! Luis came to work on the garden and fix the lock on the gate. We just pottered around the house. I’ve done a lot of reading lately, caught up on the latest magazines and finished reading Persuasion and read a new ebook that my dad sent me online. Thanks dad - it was great!! Read it all already!

Anyway, so Friday night was the meeting at Piedra Quemada. That’s the first hall we tried to go to our first week here but we went the wrong night and didn’t want to go back with the rental car because it was a really rough road. So, we still don’t have the truck – tomorrow maybe!!! Anyway, so we decided we needed the exercise so off we went walking! It was about 3 KM, altogether. We got to the hall sweaty but content! I made the mistake of wearing sandals. See below for the result!!

So we really enjoyed the meeting. Everyone was really friendly. Since it’s the closest hall and we don’t have transport and they only have two elders and about 75 publishers I think we’ve decided that’s the congregation we’re going to stay in. We didn’t know how we were going to get home since walking along the main highway in the dark at night was probably a bad idea! But Jehovah blessed our efforts of getting there and we found a sister, Milena and her son Moises, who live just outside the entrance of the houses we live in so she knew what time to get the bus. So we had to leave as soon as it finished to catch the bus, but at least we had someone to guide us home. Plus we didn’t get ripped off on the price of the bus because she was with us!! They are new to this congregation so weren’t familiar with where the group would be meeting for service on Saturday (they change the place weekly so you have to look at the board) but we made arrangements for her son to show us where to meet on Sunday, this morning. So that’s what we did.

Saturday was another day at home but we did walk to the nearest supermarket which is about a km or so down the road. It was an emergency though because we'd run out of coffee, and well, Charley is a Matthews, so we needed coffee!! We also got some basic groceries, mostly veggies and came home and read some more! I also washed some clothes which is a lot of work doing it by hand. And then we had our first house guests in the evening!!! Our friend Mario Robleto Jr and his older brother Philip. Philip gave the talk in Ticuantepe near here, and since it’s a two hour bus ride home, they came here for dinner and spent the night. It was lovely to see Philip again. His wife Louisa didn’t come because bus rides here are quite a rough experience, which maybe we’ll get to experience before too long! But the two of them came and we had a nice dinner, and breakfast with them this morning and off they went because Philip had to go home and give the talk at his hall this morning!

So, the best part, we went out in service this morning. AT LAST!!!!! It feels so good to have been out. They meet at 8am – yes, you read that right, 8:00 in the morning!! But you get up earlier here because the sun is out early, so that’s fine. Plus it gets hot to be out there later on! We had a good group out at a brother’s house. I worked with a sister called Paula who has a daughter my age, who was also out. It was great. We did a bit giant circle working the territory, and all of it walking of course. The house we met at was a very humble place with a tin roof and it looks like they do their cooking outside. They are a lovely family. So we had a great morning. Did three hours, all of it walking, but we got to sit down at one house for a while. 

People here are very open to listen and not in a hurry. Everyone was home, and they let you talk, read a few scriptures, express their opinions, and readily accept the literature. So by the end of the morning Charley and I have 6 Return Visits to go on, 2 his, 2 mine, and 2 guys that the sister I was with talked to. We got home about 11:15 sweaty and tired, but happy!! 

I think we’ll be taking two or three showers a day here which is fine – I enjoy my LUKEWARM showers now!! So, we ate lunch and took a nap, and the meeting is at 3:30. We’re meeting Milena at 3pm so that we can see how to get to the hall on the bus instead of walking!

We made arrangements for tomorrow for service already so we’re finally getting a schedule going. They meet for service every day so we’ll be out daily once we figure out how to get to the meeting place! And we should have time to talk to the elders after the meeting today to formally introduce ourselves, given them our letter of recommendation, and see if they’ll let us stay!!!  

Well, I think it’s time for that shower now! Hope you’re all well and sorry that most of you probably aren’t sweating where you are!

Now it all makes sense!

It’s Wednesday and we’re still just here in the house today! We don’t have the truck yet. We went to see it yesterday because we passed by the customs place where it is on the way to the airport. They said they have all the documents now, so hopefully today we’ll be able to get it. Heard that one before though so we’ll see!!! It’s all good though.

Leyla called this morning. Her journey home was pretty smooth. Much better than the journey here! It was pretty warm here this morning, at least in the sun out the front of the house it was. Luis was still here working on the gardening. The lawn is all in and will look good once it grows, which shouldn’t take long in the climate. He got one tree down yesterday and the other one down today. Hard work getting a tree out of the ground with an axe!! People work really hard here – not a lot of power tools around. You can hardly tell there were trees there now. The one he took out today had some massive roots which had already broken the sidewalk. He got it out though! A few guys with a horse and cart came and took the pieces away. I think tomorrow the brother who is taking care of it will be planting the new trees that are sitting out back.

Giant Roots of the tree out front

Taking the last bits of tree away

We moved into the master bedroom today  which has its own bathroom and slept very well in there. And I discovered something this morning. It all makes sense now why Leyla was calling the water lukewarm and how nice it was. I turned the shower on and out came the cold water, but then a few seconds later it started coming out WARM!!!!!! So now I understand! The master bathroom is the only one connected to the hot water heater, so the water comes out warm. Lukewarm – my idea of lukewarm! It was LOVELY!!!!!

So all in all it was a quiet day. I mainly just blogged because I wanted to tell the story about the warm shower!! We had Family Worship this morning, and just did this and that around the house, cooked lunch, ate dinner, etc. It’s about 6pm here now and we’ve heard nothing about the truck so probably another day at home tomorrow unless we figure out the public transport. The nearest congregation doesn’t have a meeting until Friday, so if all else fails we’ll get a mototaxi there on Friday evening and find out where they meet for service and when at the weekend. It’s a religious holiday here today and tomorrow from what we understand. So we’ve been told to expect non-stop, loud fireworks coming from every direction all night long!

Oh, and I cooked my first platanos maduros (ripe plantains) yesterday. They were delish if I do say so myself. And yesterday I made a potato soup, and found an unidentified green vegetable looking thing in the fridge so I put that in too. I confirmed online later one that it was a chayote. It’s in the squash family. So we had a tasty dinner yesterday as you can see. That's the chayote making the potato soup green!

That’s all then. Hope you’re all doing well. I won’t go on too much about how warm and sunny it is here all the time since most of you reading this are in a cold climate now!!! It was about the same temperature in Celsius here today that it was in Fahrenheit in Indianapolis……….ok, ok, I’m done on that subject! I see you’re turning a bit green with envy....like my soup!

What exactly is the definition of lukewarm?!

So, today is Monday already. How time flies! I finally got a bit of quiet time to write another post. The hard part is remembering what exactly we did and when! Just for reference when I talk about Leyla in this blog, she is the sister whose house we’re staying in down there. Just so you can follow my stories!!

Friday – hmmm…………I can’t separate one day from the next. I think Friday Leyla’s niece Claudia arrived to stay with her dad who lives two doors down from us. She lives with her mam the rest of the time about 20 minutes from here. So, she’s been with us since then. I think we just went grocery shopping, upacked, bought hangers to hang stuff up. Oh yeah, that was a funny thing that happened. Well, I thought it was. Before we came I asked Leyla if she had “ganchos” in the house – hangers, at least that’s what I learned to call them. So she said they did so I didn’t need to bring any. So on Friday I asked Charley to ask Leyla for the ganchos. So off he went downstairs and came bag with a bag of clothes pins that you use to hang your clothes on the line to dry! I said “What are we supposed to do with those” and Charley just laughed, shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t really know!! Well, turns out that for Leyla ganchos are clothes pins and I forget the word she uses for hangers. So, once we established what kind of ganchos I wanted, it turned out there aren’t any extra in the house!!! So we had to go buy some. Except here they call them perchas – like a perch a bird sits on I guess! Spanish is just like English – each country has its own words for certain things which can cause humorous confusion sometimes!!

Saturday, Charley took Leyla and Claudia to get their nails done, and then Leyla went to the dentist – her nephews wife is a dentist so she went there. Got a cleaning done for like $40 – I think I’ll go before we come back to the US too. Cheaper here than back home. So while they were all out I stayed home and learned how to wash clothes from Eda, the lady who comes here to clean. So now I know how. I have the red knuckles to prove that I did some of it myself!!

I washed those shorts and tops by hand all by myself!

Saturday evening we went back to the same congregation we went to on Thursday just because it was easier to get to in the rental car and the time worked well with our schedule this week. It was a lovely meeting. We got there a few minutes before it started and had to sit in the very front row. Had to look up to the speaker! He was from Spain, well originally. He didn’t travel from Spain to give the talk! It was excellent. And the WT study was good. Enjoyed it and met a few more of the congregation, and got a phone number to call if we want to go out in service with them this week since we haven’t settled anywhere yet, at least we could get ourselves out until we find a congregation and know their schedule for field service.

Sunday we went to Granada. It’s a nice, touristy town. We went out on Lake Managua in a boat for a tour of the islands in the lake. Charley and I did the same tour last year, but this time the water was a little choppy and I got a bit seasick! Not much, just enough to be glad when the tour was over and we were back on dry land! I got some good pictures of the monkeys on isla de los monos (Monkey Island). I have some from last year too, but maybe got a couple of better ones this time. I didn’t take a lot of pictures though because I was low on battery, but mostly because I just needed to sit still and look straight ahead so as not to get sick! Once back on dry land we had lunch, shopped a little, then came home via the mall. While in the mall we saw a cheap HP printer so we decided to buy it. It was about $35 including the initial ink cartridges, so now we can print stuff out. Charley forgot to bring his talk outlines, so the printer will come in handy so that he can print them out again!

Today we’re just running errands mostly. Nothing too exciting. I say that like everything else I’ve blogged about so far has been exciting!!! We were supposed to be getting the truck today, but now it’ll be tomorrow they said. Mañana, Mañana, Mañana, that’s what they always say. So who knows when we’ll get it. Mañana hopefully!!!

So, one piece of rather exciting news is that I have my first bible study already!!!! Leyla’s niece, Claudia. She’s spent the last few days with us, and Leyla has been talking to her and encouraging her to study. She came to the meeting with us on Saturday too. I tried to suggest I show her how the study works the other day but she looked the other way and started talking to someone else!! But last night she asked me if we’d be going to the meeting again on Saturday so that she could come with us!!! She said it totally out of the blue too! I think she’s starting to feel more comfortable with me. So then Leyla came in and said that Claudia’s dad said he’d bring her to the house once a week to have her study because she can't have it at her mam's house. So, this morning I printed out Chapter One of the Teach book because I didn’t have an extra one, and we did the first five paragraphs and I showed her to underline and make notes on the scriptures. She expressed herself well, and freely, and understood it all. I really enjoyed it. We just studied for about half an hour because then everyone was ready to go out. So I left her the homework of preparing, gave her the WT study article for the weekend, and there you have it!!! And she’s coming to Indianapolis with Leyla at the end of February so I’ll be able to continue her study once we’re back in Indy!!!!

My First Bible Study here - Claudia

Hmmmm….what else? Oh yeah, there’s a brother outside right now working on the garden. He’s going to put a lawn down and trees and make it look all nice and pretty. They’ve hired him to maintain the house. He’s from El Crucero where we visited last time so we already knew him. He’s a hard worker. Brought another guy with him and they’re out there hacking up the ugly grass so they can put the pretty lawn down. It’s going to look lovely when they’re all done.

So, you’re probably wondering, or perhaps you forgot by now, why the title of this blog is “What exactly is the definition of lukewarm?”, right?!?! Well, according to the dictionary lukewarm means mildly warm, tepid. That’s the temperature that everyone says the water in the house is. Welll…………………maybe my idea of mildly warm is a little off, but to me the water that comes out of the showerhead is COLD!!! So I’m slowly getting used to cold, I mean lukewarm, showers!!! It’s not too bad. I guess the water isn’t icy cold, but it kinda feels like it when you first get under it!!! But I’ve discovered that it is possible to adapt, so I’m adapting, slowly! It still takes me a few seconds of staring at the water and putting my foot under it, to then stand completely under it, but poco a poco as they say in Spanish! At least it doesn’t take my breath away anymore like it did the first day. Well, I don’t think that story was as entertaining as I thought it would be. Oh well, good enough!

That’s about it then. Leyla leaves tomorrow, the rental car goes back, and hopefully we’ll get the truck. If not, we’ll figure out another way to get to the meetings and field service until it does arrive. The bus would be an adventure in itself!!

I think I’m going to turn the computer off for a while now. It’s making my eyes sting! Take care and keep in touch everyone! Oh and I just keep adding pictures to the same album so click on the Slideshow on the blog page www.indybrits.com and you can see new pictures that we’ve added. 

Pictures!!

Here are some pictures that I've taken so far.

Click this link https://picasaweb.google.com/poet879/Nicaragua201112?authuser=0&feat=directlink

You can click on the Slideshow at the right at any time and see more pictures that I've added too.

We're Finally Here!!!

Before you start reading, prepare yourself, it's ridiculously long. I don't know how to make a long story short! Ok, here goes....

Well, it’s about 5pm Indianapolis time (9 hours after we left the house) and guess where we are……..Chicago!!! We arrived at the Indianapolis airport this morning at about 8:30am. But weather was bad in Chicago, so we couldn’t take off. We got on our plane about 11:30am, then we sat on the tarmac for a while, then we finally took off at 1:30pm. We got to Chicago at 1:30 Chicago time (an hour behind Indy) and watched our plane pull away from the gate without us! It was an hour later than it should have been, but we still didn’t make it. But even if we’d been on it, we would have arrived too late to Miami to get our flight to Managua anyway! So, here we are, supposed to be on the 3:10pm flight to Miami, which is now scheduled to leave at 6pm, maybe!! Thankfully the sister we’re travelling with, Leyla, has a sister in Miami so we’ll be spending the night at her house, if we ever get to Miami that is! So then our flight to Managua will be tomorrow, Wednesday, at 10:20am arriving at Managua around noon their time. So at least we have somewhere to sleep other than the airport, and we’ll be arriving to Nicaragua in the daylight instead.

So, that’s been the fun so far. Charley is at the desk right now making sure we’ll be on this flight and finding out where exactly our bags ended up!! We ate some lunch here, drank a coffee, and I was hoping to blog and email but the Wi-Fi here isn’t free – frugal airport!! And I’m too frugal to pay for access! So I’m writing this in Word and will copy and paste it into the blog later!

Stay tuned………..I’ll be back.

Ok, now it is Thursday morning about 9am. We’re at the house just hanging out at the minute, waiting to see who will be available to take us to the airport. “Why do you need to go to the airport?”, I hear you say! Wellllll……………we finally got a flight to Miami on Tuesday, and spent a very comfortable night with Leyla’s very hospitable sister and brother-in-law. Next morning we got up, went to the airport and checked in at the self-service computer. Went through security, and when we got to the gate, they acted like we were on standby and didn’t have seats for a while. But then it turned out that we had seats all along. Charley and I even got to sit in the exit aisle which means double the legroom – yay! The flight left about half an hour late but we arrived without problems…….or so we thought! We had never picked up our luggage because they said it was checked through to Managua. Well, for some reason or other, our luggage didn’t come on the flight we were on, and they sent ours on a later flight, and Leyla’s on an even later flight. So they told us to come back for the 8:30 flight to pick up our bags. So, after we were picked up at the airport we came to the house, then went grocery, internet, and cell phone shopping with Mario Robleto (the family from Indianapolis that live here who we visited last year). They were very patient and generous with us, taking us here there and everywhere and helping get furniture moved around in the house and stuff.

I don’t know if this is time for a new paragraph but that last one just seemed to be getting too long. So, we went back to the airport at 8:30 last night, which was practically empty of staff by then, and they told us that the warehouse where they put the bags was closed, even though that’s the time they told us to come back! ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, our bags were in there, well in theory they are, but there was nobody to open the door! Thankfully we’d packed a few clothes in our carry on, so we have had some clothes to change into. Of course we don’t have any deodorant or soap or shampoo so………well……..you know!!

So, I’ll pause the typing for now and add some more once we’ve been back to the airport and hopefully got our suitcases! Poor Charley is walking around practically blind. He doesn’t have his glasses with him and didn’t have any solution for his contacts, so he’s squinting a lot. But he made some excellent coffee this morning so not all is lost. We have coffee, so that’s all that really matters!

Well, hello, I’m back again. Glad you’re still with me. If you reached this part of the blog I thank you for your attention so far and hope you didn’t fall asleep too many times along the way. It is now Thursday night, 9:30pm. So, where was I earlier. Ok, yeah, so Leyla’s brother-in-law took us to the airport to get our bags around 10:30am. On the way we stopped at a car rental place and got a car for the rest of the time that Leyla is here, then hopefully after that the truck they sent down here will have arrived and be ready to use. Charley is the driver and has done a very nice job of it today, despite the fact that it’s a stick shift and he hasn’t driven one in a REALLY long time! But he hasn’t killed it more than 10 times so far! Don’t tell him I said that. I’m pretty sure he won’t care to read this blog!! Nah but seriously, he’s been a really capable driver. I’m impressed. Especially the driving we did tonight but I’ll get to that in a minute, or ten.

So, we got our bags, no problems, nothing missing, all is good. Then we went to Catarina which is a little town with an amazing lookout on to a laguna that we visited last time we came.  It was lovely up there. I bought the most adorable dress you’ve ever seen for my cousin’s baby girl – can’t wait to see her wear it next summer – it’s so cute!! Then, well, I can’t hardly remember how exactly the day went, but we got home about 5pm. The Robleto’s came by to drop something off, and we got to see Wanda too since we’d only seen Mario Sr. and Mario Jr. yesterday. She’s looking very well and feeling it too, so that’s good. 

Then we decided to go to a meeting, so we got ready and left a little late, but off we went. Now, for those who don’t know, there aren’t really any street names or house numbers in Nicaragua. So, the address of the hall whose territory we’re living  was “de la Pulperia San Antonio km 19, 150m al sur, 25 metros al este”. That is “from the store called San Antonio, which is at the 19^th KM (of the main road we live off), 150 meters south and 25 meters east”. Quite an address right?!?!?! So we passed the Pulperia San Antonio, so we had to drive on a while until we could turn around, then drive to turn around again because the highway has a median you can’t cross in the middle. We stopped at the Pulperia to ask and they just pointed, so we drove down this “street” that I wish I’d remembered to take a video of, but it was rough to say the least. Hopefully the rental car survived the experience – I think it did. Got to the hall after asking a couple more people, and it was all dark and closed. No meeting!! But then as we were driving away a sister who happened to be at the hall for something saw us, and told us that they just changed the meeting to Friday instead of Thursday about 2 weeks ago. But we found out they only have two elders now, so maybe when the truck arrives we’ll attempt to drive back there again, but not in the rental car! 

So, we drove to the hall in Ticuantepe, which we couldn’t find, but we stopped and asked at Bethel. They closed the branch, but there are still people there maintaining the place and taking care of certain things so they directed us. We got there at 7:30pm, just in time for the song…………..the one before the Service Meeting starts! An hour late, but we got there. And it was lovely. Everyone said hello and we met the elders and had a lovely time. That congregation has 120 publishers (in a hall fit for about 80!) and 5 elders, 3 of which are still working at Bethel. Soooo…. I don’t know if that will be the congregation we’ll serve in. They have more elders than any congregation I’ve heard of around here! But it was nice to learn our way around a bit and get to know a little about the congregations in the area.

Well, I think I’ve probably spent way too long telling all these details. I hope you didn’t get too bored. Off to bed soon. Tomorrow, I’m not sure, maybe just trying to unpack and organize now that we have our bags. Since Leyla is only here a week she wants to do things so we’re doing whatever she wants to, which is fine with us. She said she wants to go to the beach, so I think we can work with that!!!!!

So, hopefully during these next few days we’ll figure out which congregation we’ll serve in. Thanks for reading and hope you’re all doing well. My mam told me that a lot of you have asked how we’re getting along, so thank you for thinking of  us. Hope you enjoyed the story of our trip here!!

Should We Be Packing Now?

I can't believe we only have five days left!! Should we have started packing?! Why start today what we can put off until tomorrow, eh?!


We've been really busy since the last blog post. We said our Goodbyes to our studies this week. They've all been left in very capable hands. One study in particular, Leonor, I'm going to miss seeing how her face lights up when she learns something new. The sister who will be studying with her has been given instructions to take pictures of Leonor's little face as she learns something new and email it to me!!


We had an AWESOME time with our friends from England. The second week they were here we took them down to visit Charley's family one day. We went to Oliver Winery along the way - yum! And then on down to have lunch with the family, drive around some of Amish territory down there, and then had a candlelit dinner at my in-laws house (no, we weren't trying to be romantic, the power went out for about an hour!) Here we all are, well, except me because I was behind the camera and who wants to see a picture of me anyway!

Then a couple of days later we took our visitors to Chicago for the day. We had a BLAST up there! Went to Lou Michell's for breakfast, went up the Willis & John Hancock Towers - one by day, one by night. Ate Chicago style pizza, walked the Magnificent Mile, froze our toes off - you know, the usual Chicago in November stuff! Here we are on the Skydeck of the Willis (Sears) tower on the 103rd floor. I'm not afraid of heights but it was a little unnerving at first!

Friday last week we had our circuit pioneer day. It was wonderful, as always. We had 243 in attendance from 23 congregations. An average of 10 per congregation is not bad at all! It was nice to see old friends, and make new ones, and be reminded of everything I need to work on!


Saturday we said a sad goodbye to our visitors from England. We had a wonderful time with them and hope to see them again before too long. In the meantime, there's always Skype!


So, this week, as I said, we said goodbye to our studies. Today I'm enjoying a day off, getting stuff done around here, which so far hasn't included any kind of packing! We have our Circuit Assembly this weekend - woohoooo!!!!! 


Oh, and my amazing field service bag is done. I meant to have a picture ready to put on here but I don't. I'll get to that eventually. I LOVE it! Thanks Yvette - you're the best!!!!


Oh and I had my last day at work on Tuesday. Well, my last day until March 1st that is. It all suddenly seemed so real as I shut down my computer and said goodbye to my coworkers. I'm going to miss everyone at work so much.......................(my boss reads my blog, so I have to say that!). I'm sure they're having a party on Monday to celebrate the start of three Rachel-free months!! Enjoy it while it lasts!


Well, I think that was the latest and greatest. I'm sure I forgot something. Oh yeah I did - I had the best going away gift from a friend in the Sign Language congregation - an hour's massage! It was wonderful. I think I need to pack her in my suitcase!


So I'm going to try and find something productive to do now. Or maybe just watch a movie. I'm fighting off a cold so I need some rest. So far I'm winning, but we'll see who comes out ahead!


Take care everyone and keep in touch!!

Two Weeks Today - Need I Say More?!

Less than three weeks!

Well, three weeks came and went and I didn’t post anything. I know you were all bitterly disappointed about that ;o)

So, what’s new? Well, last weekend we had a lovely dinner with two other couples for our anniversaries. It was good to catch up with them. It’s pretty much the only time we get together with them all each year! We tried to get a free dessert by mentioning our anniversaries but it didn’t work. Maybe next year! Then the next day we went to a wedding rehearsal. I’m doing the video and Charley is MC. Seems like they got everything figured out. The wedding is tomorrow – can’t believe how quickly that came around. And on Sunday we went to Georgetown Spanish. Charley gave a new talk that I hadn’t heard before and he did a great job. Then we went to a friend’s house for dinner. So it was a busy weekend.

With our anniversary buddies.

Monday night/Tuesday morning our friends arrived from England. Yay!!!! It’s great to have them. I didn’t actually see them until I got home from work on Tuesday. We went to the meeting with them in English – it was nice to visit my old hall since we rarely make it back to see everyone. On Wednesday Charley and I spent the day with them. We had a BLAST! Charley made a delicious breakfast at home, then we went duckpin bowling (http://www.fountainsquareindy.com/bowling/index.asp) which was a lot harder than I thought it would be but we had a great time. Then we had a fabulous lunch at Tortas Guicho. For anyone that lives in Indy you’ve got to try this place - http://tortasguicho.com/. Their sandwiches are all named after famous people or countries. I had the “England” and it was really, really good! So, all in all we ate a lot and had a good time hanging out together. In the evening four of us went to see a musical at a local high school. I wasn’t expecting it to be all that great, but WOW, these high school kids over here have some serious talent! Great singing, good acting, and it was only $5!! Thoroughly entertaining.

This is a really boring post isn’t it?! You can just stop reading here if you like, it’s not getting any better in the next paragraph!

So, the most exciting thing that happened last weekend (at least the most exciting thing to me) was that I made some serious progress in my bag search!!! Since I’d blogged about it, a sister in my mam and dad’s congregation read it, and told me to come over because she has tons of bags. When I explained what I was looking for, she’s like, oh well just find a bag you like, and then we’ll add backpack straps to it!!! So I found one that would work, and a backpack, and she took the straps off one bag and is putting them on to the other, so it will have backpack straps and shoulder straps! WOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll post a picture of it when it’s done!

So, tomorrow is the wedding. And Sunday we have hospitality for the visiting speaker. It’s all go! Oh, and in my shopping expedition on Saturday I got almost everything we still needed for our trip and finally found tan ankle socks – you have no idea how excited I was to find those! I’m not even going to try and explain why that’s exciting!!


And this evening we were at my cousin's house. Look how cute their little baby girl is! 

Well, that’s all for now. Hope everyone out there is doing well.

The final countdown - 4 weeks today!

Well, time is really flying by! I can't believe we'll be leaving in just 4 weeks.


All is well here. There's so much going on before we go. We went to the Zone Visit Meeting on Saturday evening - wow, what an amazing treat that was. Wonderful talks. It was so encouraging. Very timely indeed!


And then on Sunday we ended up going to West Washington Spanish (west side of Indy) to give the talk. Well, Charley gave the talk, not "we"!! We had a lovely time and a very nice lunch with a family in that hall. Seems like our COBE is getting the most out of Charley before we leave! He's assigned to give a talk at Georgetown Spanish (also west side of Indy) this coming Sunday, and then in Columbus Spanish (about an hour south of here) on the 20th!! 


I'm on the desperate search now for a good field service bag. I can't find this bag anywhere but on ebay, and I'd rather be able to buy it in a store so that I can see it properly first and have the option of returning it. I want a back-pack, not too big, about the shape & size of the magazines, that also has a shoulder strap. So if any of you see such a thing out there in a store that is nationwide in the US, let me know!!! I wish I knew how to make bags - that would be the easiest solution since this bag I have in my head probably doesn't exist!!


Well, not very exciting was it? I didn't promise this blog would always be interesting! Not much else to report. Had a nice service day yesterday with a couple of studies. So, that's it for now. Hope you're all well wherever in the world you happen to be reading.

It just keeps getting better!!

I thought I should explain why in my comic post this morning I said I was hyper about our trip. Last night, right before the meeting started, the sister whose house we'll be staying in down in Nicaragua came up to me to say Hello. Then she said "We've got you a car down there!". I thought I was going to fall over! They had a Toyota truck here that they'd been meaning to send, so when her husband heard we'd be travelling on the bus he said "Oh no, they can't do that"! And so off went the truck, on it's way to Miami, then Nicaragua!!!! It's amazing how this has all come together. So having a truck also means we'll be able to be more flexible in which congregation we serve, because you can get that so much quicker in a car than on the bus!


The tough part last night was the fact that when I found out, Charley was already on the platform to start the meeting, so I had to wait until the Bible Study was over to tell him when he came back to his seat! My dad said I should have incorporated it into a comment. I wish I'd thought of that - I could have said "Paul and Barnabas had to walk from one end of Cyprus to the other, unlike us in Nicaragua because we'll have a truck to drive, but they didn't, they had to walk everywhere"!!!! That would have been a fun way of telling him!


Anyway, so, that's the latest news on the Nicaragua front!!

I just had to share today's Dilbert!!!!

Maybe it's because I'm hyper about our trip, but this Dilbert comic made me howl with laughter this morning so I felt I just had to share it even if it has nothing to do with our trip to Nicaragua!!

Six weeks today - not very inventive with the titles am I?

It's hard to believe how quickly a week flies by. We had a wonderful weekend enjoying our anniversary. Friday evening we did dinner and a movie with my mam and dad. Then Saturday we went down to Bloomington to stay with Lara & Gannon (Charley's sister and hubby), Sunday went with them to give a talk out, then in the evening went on down to Charley's mam and dad's house and stayed until Monday along with Charley's other sister and her two boys. We had a great time with them all!


So, over the weekend we decided that we were going to take up the offer to stay at the house of a family in our hall who have a house down in Nicaragua. (Did that sentence make any sense?!?!) They asked us a while ago, and we hadn't decided yet where we wanted to serve. But after much prayer and thought and lists of pros and cons we decided that their house would be the best option. So, we hadn't called the family yet to ask if their offer still stood, but on my break at work I prayed about it, asking Jehovah to let us know if this was the right decision. 20 minutes later the sister whose house it is called me out the blue!! She wants to travel from here to Nicaragua with us and spend a few days at her house getting some stuff in order!! So I asked if the offer was still available, she very excitedly said of course it was, so it's all settled!!! It may have been a coincidence that she called right after I prayed about it, but I'll let each of you form your own opinion on that one!!


So, if all works out as planned, she'll travel on the same flights as us, and so we'll have her there to help us settle in. I feel so much calmer about it all now! I was concerned about finding this house that we've never been to, in an area we don't really know yet, so that's taken care of! From her description of the house I think we'll be living it up!!!


Now all that is left is to find out what congregations are in the area and which one needs the most help. Hopefully we can get some contact info and find that out before we go down there.


Well, that's all for now. I've been online today looking for a backpack service bag that also has a shoulder strap at a reasonable price - such a thing doesn't exactly exist but I haven't given up yet! I'm sure it won't be the last time you read about it!

Email Subscription Added

I think I just added an email subscribe option so that you can sign up, and each time I blog, you'll get an email letting you know. I'm mostly posting this post to test it! I hope it works.

Seven weeks and counting!!

Well, we leave seven weeks today!! It's hard to believe how time is flying by so fast.


We've had such a lot going on lately. October 1st I did a festival in an attempt to sell some of my photographs that I've taken on our travels. I got lots of compliments and I was very pleased with how they looked, but people just weren't buying much at this festival, so I sold very little indeed. But it was a good experience and since then I've sold a few pictures to people I know so it wasn't a complete waste of time!


Then this last week we just had CO visit. We still haven't recovered from that yet!! It was a wonderful week though, but tiring! We had really good support for field service, and amazing meeting attendance. We have about 115 publishers right now I think, but we had 250 at the meeting on Sunday!!! The hall was PACKED!! It was wonderful to see so many people there. Our CO and his wife are awesome, so we had a great time with them. 


And on Sunday we had an amazing day out in service. To cut some long stories short we ended up by "coincidence" in a parking lot of a store where all the hispanos shop, and the other sister in the group talked to someone who gave her an address so she could call on her, then the brother in our group got out of the car to talk to someone and it turned out to be a call he'd lost track of so he got his new info. And then a guy approached us to ask for the WT and a Bible Study! He used to study in Florida but hadn't found the witnesses here yet, so we made plans with him! And then we went to my territory, and just "happened" to knock at a door where a guy told us that hispanos lived in the corner house, and we didn't have that address written down, so we went and found a girl who was raised in the truth, lost her way a little, and wants to come back. She cried, and we cried, and made plans to pick her up for the meeting on Thursday! So all in all, it was an amazing day of "coincidences" that left us all on a high!!!


So, that's the latest from Indy. We have a lot of stuff coming up to make time fly even faster! We're spending the weekend with Charley's family this weekend since it's been a disgracefully long time since we saw them all! And it's our 7th anniversary this weekend too. I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing to celebrate!


Well, that's all for now. Hope you're all doing well - all two of you who are reading this blog that is!