Charley & Rachel in Nicaragua: Teaspoon or tablespoon?!

Hello all!

It’s been a busy week and I just haven’t had the chance to write anything. I hope I can remember some of things that I thought I’d blog about! I would have written them down, but I kept thinking all week that I’d blog, and never did!

Anyway, we’ve had a lovely week out in service with our new congregation. They meet every morning except Monday so we’ve been out every day but one. Monday we went to the market and bought some more things for the house. The market is in Managua, and it’s a bunch of stalls, but it’s all covered. They sell just about everything in there, except what you’re looking for!! Some things are just hard to find around here, which is why we brought some stuff from the US, but then you always think of something else. And some things you can’t bring, like food. We were surprised and disappointed to discover that it’s just about impossible to find rolled oats here, you can only get the instant ones, even at the places that sell it by the pound. We did get some, but a tiny bag that was more than we should have paid!

I decided while in that market, sweat rolling down my neck, back, front, shoulders, legs – you get the idea – that I’d never buy meat there. I can’t imagine what happens to meat when it’s been inside a market for who knows how long, in 90+ temperatures. Yuck!! And the smell – wow, words cannot describe! But after we spent a while wandering around getting what we needed, and getting completely and utterly lost, we finally found our way out. It’s like a maze in there. Maybe I’ll get the nerve to take some pictures of it one day! I argue that I don’t take pictures because I don’t want to look like a tourist – and then Charley reminds me that I’m white, with blond hair and blue eyes, and measure at least 8 inches taller than everyone else – I guess it’s not the camera that makes me look like a tourist eh?!

So, like I said, we spent our mornings out in service. We don’t have many return visits just yet, or any studies, so we don’t have much to do after the group finishes, but we’re getting established. We’ve been lost in Masaya more than once. Charley is usually really good at directions, but Masaya turns him completely around for some reason. At least twice I’m the one that has got us back on the right track, which is very unusual indeed!

We’ve had some nice calls this week. People are mostly willing to listen, sometimes too busy, but for the most part they listen to you. We met a young man this week who was really interested, and his mam wants him to study the Bible with us, with anyone she said! We got him home again today but he was on his way out to college, so we answered the question he asked us last time, and made plans for Tuesday. I think he’ll turn into a regular study. And another young man that we talked to was home again. He already has the Bible Teach book and accepted a study, probably a brief doorstep one, but you have to start somewhere. And today we went back to visit someone I talked to last Sunday and made plans to start a study with him. He’s studied before but seems to want to start up again. So far, I’ve started three studies for Charley and none for me!! But we have some other calls to go back on during the next week so we’ll see what becomes of those conversations.

Charley did the part on the service meeting from the Benefit book this week, and I did the demo, so that was fun to get to participate. Today we had the WT first and then one of the local elders gave the talk. They wanted Charley to, but he didn’t have any outlines with him, and our house is so far away from the hall, so he escaped this time! It rained so hard for the last 10 minutes that we had to lip-read the talk! It was hard for me concentrate without thinking about my lovely dry clothes hanging on the line at home. They did finally get dry today though after a whole night of heavy rain. It feel cooler today though so that was a relief.

We started the invitation campaign for the District Convention today which starts in two weeks. It doesn’t take long to cover the territory here, and we used up all our invitations already this morning, so hopefully they’ll let us have more invitations! We’re looking forward to going to the convention for the third time. And glad we don’t have to wait until October like many do. I’m dying to be able to talk to them about it freely, and make use of the new tools!

One thing that surprised me this week is that I’ve learned not just to endure, but to actually enjoy the cold showers! If you want to read more about my thoughts on cold showers click here to read the blog post from last time we were down here, about the third paragraph down. Anyway, a couple of times this week I’ve enjoyed the cold shower so much that I have lingered!!! That’s very exciting to me - means I’m adjusting.

The heat has been pretty intense these last few days, which may be why the cold showers are getting better! Some days I take three showers during the day, just to cool down. Usually within 10 minutes I’m sweating again, but those 10 minutes of relief are wonderful!

I’ve decided that baking will be my hobby while we’re down here. I’ve made just over 2 dozen banana bread muffins, and I think about 4 banana breads in the last week or so! A lot of it we have shared, but if we start to look chubbier in pictures you’ll know why. I’ve also made a couple of quiches, using a quick recipe I found online last time I was down here. I made one yesterday, and my teaspoon was dirty, so I just decided to use the half teaspoon twice to put a teaspoon of salt in the mixture. I remember thinking at the time that a ½ teaspoon of salt is a lot more than I thought it was. I thought, no wonder when I boil pasta it always needs more salt, I don’t put near enough salt in it. I also chuckled to myself thinking about the story of when my sister-in-law put tablespoons of salt in the lasagna instead of teaspoons and nobody could eat it.

About an hour later, I sat down to eat a piece of quiche, and I thought, man this is salty. Then I started to visualize the moment that I put the salt in, and the thoughts I’d had. Yes, I think you’ve guessed the rest. But we’ve been sweating so much it’s probably good for us to have a little extra salt intake. And I have to mention that Charley has now made two wonderful loaves of bread. Yum. The bread down here isn’t that great, so we’re making our own – well, Charley is!

I talked to my mam and dad today which reminded me that I hadn’t said anything about the earthquake in Costa Rica yet. We were sitting on a sister’s porch getting ready to start the meeting for field service on Wednesday morning when we all suddenly started feeling dizzy. We were feeling a tremor. It lasted for almost a minute. It was a strange feeling, not shaking, just like rocking. It was like being on a boat for a minute, made your head spin a little. So we used that subject out in service a lot this week.

I also heard that a volcano erupted about 90 miles from here. We haven’t felt any effects of it as far as I can tell though. Someone said Managua had tremors yesterday, which is the capital about half an hour from us, but we didn’t feel anything. Constant reminders of the fact that we’re living in the last days.

Well, here are a few pictures to finish up another incredibly long blog post!