So it looks like the video in the last blog post didn't show up in the email that went out to those of you who are subscribed to our blog. You can either go to www.indybrits.com to read the post and the video is there in the post just below this one. Or you can click the following link Marimba Video
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
What a welcome!
Our wonderful congregation put on a welcome party for us this past weekend. They had been waiting for the other couple to arrive to organize it. As it turned out it was a welcome for us and a goodbye of sorts for them since they're moving to the other congregation.
So, I knew they had some kind of performance arranged but it was way more extravagant that I had expected. They had live music and a ton of beautiful outfits and dances organized. Here is a video compilation of the dancing, and then there are a ton of photos below too. To the untrained eye (including mine) the dances all look about the same, but I guess each one is slightly different. It's called Marimba and it's traditional to Nicaragua.
I also taught them some Scottish dances which I don't have a video of unfortunately, and we taught them the Cha Cha Slide too! They love to dance so we danced the night away and had just a generally great time!
They made us sit in special chairs that looked a bit like thrones! Charley asked where his crown was! And while everyone else ate rice and bread, we were served a big plate of gallo pinto (beans and rice mixed together), tostones (fried green plantains), cabbage/carrot salad and big chunks of meat. I felt really guilty about eating that especially since everyone could see that we had something different! But that's just the love of the brothers down here. They're so very generous with the little that they have, and really wanted to show us their appreciation. It was a very moving display of love from our dear new friends.
Here are some pictures from the evening too.
So, I knew they had some kind of performance arranged but it was way more extravagant that I had expected. They had live music and a ton of beautiful outfits and dances organized. Here is a video compilation of the dancing, and then there are a ton of photos below too. To the untrained eye (including mine) the dances all look about the same, but I guess each one is slightly different. It's called Marimba and it's traditional to Nicaragua.
I also taught them some Scottish dances which I don't have a video of unfortunately, and we taught them the Cha Cha Slide too! They love to dance so we danced the night away and had just a generally great time!
They made us sit in special chairs that looked a bit like thrones! Charley asked where his crown was! And while everyone else ate rice and bread, we were served a big plate of gallo pinto (beans and rice mixed together), tostones (fried green plantains), cabbage/carrot salad and big chunks of meat. I felt really guilty about eating that especially since everyone could see that we had something different! But that's just the love of the brothers down here. They're so very generous with the little that they have, and really wanted to show us their appreciation. It was a very moving display of love from our dear new friends.
Here are some pictures from the evening too.
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| Our gorgeous Evelyn |
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| And our hilarious little Esban |
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| Some of our dear, faithful older sisters |
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| Our "son" Pedro - he won't go home from the meetings with his mam anymore. He has to wait for us! |
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| Brenda & Caleb |
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| I didn't notice that this sign (most of it) was in English until someone told me! |
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| Everyone ready for the performances |
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| Our very own Hilary & Edward |
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| Josue & Jennifer |
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| Dilan & Javiera |
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| Noelia & Emanuel (can you believe she's only 13!) |
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| Jorge & Escarlet |
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| Junior & Jayme |
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| Francisco & Tania |
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| The Marimba band |
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| They were the clowns of the show! |
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| I can't wait to show you a video of this one! |
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| The girls |
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| The whole group |
Thursday, November 22, 2012
They're letting us stay!
Just wanted to share the good news that they're letting us stay another 90 days in Nicaragua! Not that we thought they wouldn't let us, but it's still nice to have that behind us.
We went to the Metrocentro mall to the Immigration office, stood in line for an hour or so, filled out a form, handed over a pile of money, and received a fresh new stamp in our passports that will keep us here until February 20th. So we're legal until Februrary when we'll have to go to Costa Rica and back across the border into Nicaragua to get the next 90 days. We're willing to make the sacrifice of a vacation to Costa Rica!
So, it felt exciting to be in the mall today, for a little while. Then the novelty wore off and we left. I got myself a manicure and haircut after that so I'm all ready for Saturday's welcome party!
They announced to the congregation tonight that our new couple are moving to the neighboring congregation so everyone was sad to hear that, but the part from the Yearbook reminded us of the importance of being willing to serve wherever the most need is.
Well, it's really late. The only reason I'm even still up is because we're staying home tomorrow morning! I just wanted to share the news real quick.
We went to the Metrocentro mall to the Immigration office, stood in line for an hour or so, filled out a form, handed over a pile of money, and received a fresh new stamp in our passports that will keep us here until February 20th. So we're legal until Februrary when we'll have to go to Costa Rica and back across the border into Nicaragua to get the next 90 days. We're willing to make the sacrifice of a vacation to Costa Rica!
So, it felt exciting to be in the mall today, for a little while. Then the novelty wore off and we left. I got myself a manicure and haircut after that so I'm all ready for Saturday's welcome party!
They announced to the congregation tonight that our new couple are moving to the neighboring congregation so everyone was sad to hear that, but the part from the Yearbook reminded us of the importance of being willing to serve wherever the most need is.
Well, it's really late. The only reason I'm even still up is because we're staying home tomorrow morning! I just wanted to share the news real quick.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Just daily life really
I'm not really sure what to blog about anymore since it seems like we've just been living our usual daily life lately and nothing too exciting has happened. After a rather productive morning though (see photo below) I decided to sit and try to type a little of our latest experiences and activities.
We had a couple of fun Thursdays (our other day off besides Monday) with a young mom in our congregation and her little girl. She came to learn how to bake. One week I taught her to make banana bread and oatmeal raisin cookies, the next week Charley taught her to make bread, and I made a cinnamon swirl coffee cake with her. She also did a load of laundry in exchange the second week! Here are some pictures from our baking lessons!
So, the rest of our time has been spent being busy in the ministry. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the calls and bible studies now. If someone isn't home when we arrange, they've pretty much just missed out until the next week because I don't have space left to fit them in some other day!
Charley and I started a study with a couple, Luis & Cecilia, who have the cutest, chubbiest little twin boys. I need to take my camera next time to get pictures of them. We don't have any Bible Teach books in at the minute, so we've just been sharing ours with them. We did the first five paragraphs and when we finished Charley showed him what we'd do next time. He asked if Charley could write down the scriptures that we would be considering next time so that he could look them up and that way be prepared for the study! Unfortunately they had to go out this past Saturday so we didn't see them, but it was just really cool to have someone that eager to prepare, even though they don't have their own book yet.
Another good study I have is with a lady named Mirna and her cousin Yuliana. They have lots of good questions and last week the subject of blood transfusions came up. So on Friday we watched the video about all the alternatives. Yuliana is a doctor so she was especially interested in it. She wants a copy of the video so that she can watch the other two programs that are on there, since we only had time to watch one with them that day.
Charley has a good study with a guy called Richard who lives just a couple of doors from the Kingdom Hall. He's a hair stylist, and I guess he speaks pretty good English. Charley ordered him an English bible. He also has a Spanish NWT from years ago. One that doesn't have the cross references in it - that's how old it is! But he's switched him from the Good News brochure to the Teach book now. I haven't been with him lately since I have a study at the same time, but it sounds like it's going well.
It's fun having a small territory partly because we never have to walk huge distances, but also because you start recognizing people. It seems like we say Hello to people we know on the street all the time now! And I'm sure once people have seen us once they remember us! Actually, we don't say Hello, we say Adios. That's what everyone here says when they walk past each other, even if they don't know each other. Adios, adios. It's funny to me, since we've never said Hi, but we're saying Goodbye already!
We're really looking forward to this Saturday since the congregation is having a Welcome party for us and the other couple that arrived. Although, it turns out that it will be a Goodbye party for the other couple! I didn't think we'd be allowed to have four elders for long. It's like against the law down here to have more than 3 in one congregation! But our sister congregation, Sur (South) just had an elder move, so now they only have two. So the new couple are going to be moving there, and the day of the welcome party is their last day in our congregation! We're really going to miss their support, but they live close to our territory so we'll see them still no doubt. But this Welcome party will be a blog post in itself I think. I get the impression there's a lot gone into the preparation of it. They usually perform local dances and stuff, in local costume, so it'll be fun to see what they've put together.
We have to go to the immigration office this week, probably on Thursday, to get our 90-day visa extension. It's hard to believe that this Saturday we'll have been here 90 days already. So for $62 each we get another 90 days. Then when that 90 days is over we'll be off to Costa Rica for a little vacation to get our passport freshly stamped.
There was a reference in the Watchtower study this past weekend to an article about what missionary life is like. It mentioned about their bus trip, and how they packed people on and it made me think about what happened to us last Wednesday.
To save money we've been trying to get the bus at least a couple of days a week to our territory. They told us the last bus home was at 5:30, so I met Charley at the bus stop at 5pm, only to discover after a few minutes waiting that all the buses arriving were not going back out again. So we had to walk about 20 minutes as fast as we could to another bus stop. We caught a microbus which is a small 12 seat passenger van basically. But they get more than 12 people on them of course! Charley got on, and as I was getting on I asked the guy if it was 10 cordobas (about 40 cents) to get home and he said 15. So I argued about that and he insisted it was 15. Trouble is we didn't know if we'd get another bus, and it was getting dark already, otherwise I would have got off! So, we had to pay 15 cordobas for the "privilege" of sitting on the "shelf" that is behind the driver. Neither of us could sit up straight, and I had to sit at an angle. And after that they still squished two more people on who were standing bent double. I had the cobrador (the guy who collects the money) with his face up in mine, and the lady in front had long hair and it kept blowing into my face and mouth. And I was muttering the whole time about having pay 15, and how the 10 cordoba bus was much bigger and more comfortable and always had seats available!
By the time we got to our stop I couldn't feel my right foot or hand, and my back was killing me. I was so mad at that cobrador that I got off the bus and walked away without even looking to see if Charley needed any help. He was a bit further in than me, and he had our cooler bag which is kind of awkward! Poor Charley! He managed though.
So, that's my bus story for this week!! I haven't seen the bus drivers of the route we normally take yet to tell them off for not having a 5:30 bus last Wednesday. I guess tomorrow I'll see them and ask them about that! So, this Wednesday, we'll have to be at he bus stop about 4:45 to be able to get home!
Well, I figured if I sat here for a few minutes I'd manage to think of things to talk about! Hope you're all doing well. Wear a hat or scarf for me some day. I'm missing my winter attire terribly. I love the cold weather. But we're getting used to the weather here. At least now the dry season is starting it's not as humid, so although the sun is hot, there's always a nice breeze and it feels pretty good in the shade. Dry heat is a lot easier to handle. Not so much sweating! Well, looks like my laundry is ready to be brought in. I love how quickly it dries here. Our carbon footprint is definitely smaller here!
We had a couple of fun Thursdays (our other day off besides Monday) with a young mom in our congregation and her little girl. She came to learn how to bake. One week I taught her to make banana bread and oatmeal raisin cookies, the next week Charley taught her to make bread, and I made a cinnamon swirl coffee cake with her. She also did a load of laundry in exchange the second week! Here are some pictures from our baking lessons!
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| Loida and her daughter Kitlis mixing |
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| Cookies almost ready to bake |
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| Pinneaple filled bread triangles - don't know what they're called! |
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| A nice view of Kitlis' teeth! |
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| Her mam wants an 8x10 of this one! |
Charley and I started a study with a couple, Luis & Cecilia, who have the cutest, chubbiest little twin boys. I need to take my camera next time to get pictures of them. We don't have any Bible Teach books in at the minute, so we've just been sharing ours with them. We did the first five paragraphs and when we finished Charley showed him what we'd do next time. He asked if Charley could write down the scriptures that we would be considering next time so that he could look them up and that way be prepared for the study! Unfortunately they had to go out this past Saturday so we didn't see them, but it was just really cool to have someone that eager to prepare, even though they don't have their own book yet.
Another good study I have is with a lady named Mirna and her cousin Yuliana. They have lots of good questions and last week the subject of blood transfusions came up. So on Friday we watched the video about all the alternatives. Yuliana is a doctor so she was especially interested in it. She wants a copy of the video so that she can watch the other two programs that are on there, since we only had time to watch one with them that day.
Charley has a good study with a guy called Richard who lives just a couple of doors from the Kingdom Hall. He's a hair stylist, and I guess he speaks pretty good English. Charley ordered him an English bible. He also has a Spanish NWT from years ago. One that doesn't have the cross references in it - that's how old it is! But he's switched him from the Good News brochure to the Teach book now. I haven't been with him lately since I have a study at the same time, but it sounds like it's going well.
It's fun having a small territory partly because we never have to walk huge distances, but also because you start recognizing people. It seems like we say Hello to people we know on the street all the time now! And I'm sure once people have seen us once they remember us! Actually, we don't say Hello, we say Adios. That's what everyone here says when they walk past each other, even if they don't know each other. Adios, adios. It's funny to me, since we've never said Hi, but we're saying Goodbye already!
We're really looking forward to this Saturday since the congregation is having a Welcome party for us and the other couple that arrived. Although, it turns out that it will be a Goodbye party for the other couple! I didn't think we'd be allowed to have four elders for long. It's like against the law down here to have more than 3 in one congregation! But our sister congregation, Sur (South) just had an elder move, so now they only have two. So the new couple are going to be moving there, and the day of the welcome party is their last day in our congregation! We're really going to miss their support, but they live close to our territory so we'll see them still no doubt. But this Welcome party will be a blog post in itself I think. I get the impression there's a lot gone into the preparation of it. They usually perform local dances and stuff, in local costume, so it'll be fun to see what they've put together.
We have to go to the immigration office this week, probably on Thursday, to get our 90-day visa extension. It's hard to believe that this Saturday we'll have been here 90 days already. So for $62 each we get another 90 days. Then when that 90 days is over we'll be off to Costa Rica for a little vacation to get our passport freshly stamped.
There was a reference in the Watchtower study this past weekend to an article about what missionary life is like. It mentioned about their bus trip, and how they packed people on and it made me think about what happened to us last Wednesday.
To save money we've been trying to get the bus at least a couple of days a week to our territory. They told us the last bus home was at 5:30, so I met Charley at the bus stop at 5pm, only to discover after a few minutes waiting that all the buses arriving were not going back out again. So we had to walk about 20 minutes as fast as we could to another bus stop. We caught a microbus which is a small 12 seat passenger van basically. But they get more than 12 people on them of course! Charley got on, and as I was getting on I asked the guy if it was 10 cordobas (about 40 cents) to get home and he said 15. So I argued about that and he insisted it was 15. Trouble is we didn't know if we'd get another bus, and it was getting dark already, otherwise I would have got off! So, we had to pay 15 cordobas for the "privilege" of sitting on the "shelf" that is behind the driver. Neither of us could sit up straight, and I had to sit at an angle. And after that they still squished two more people on who were standing bent double. I had the cobrador (the guy who collects the money) with his face up in mine, and the lady in front had long hair and it kept blowing into my face and mouth. And I was muttering the whole time about having pay 15, and how the 10 cordoba bus was much bigger and more comfortable and always had seats available!
By the time we got to our stop I couldn't feel my right foot or hand, and my back was killing me. I was so mad at that cobrador that I got off the bus and walked away without even looking to see if Charley needed any help. He was a bit further in than me, and he had our cooler bag which is kind of awkward! Poor Charley! He managed though.
So, that's my bus story for this week!! I haven't seen the bus drivers of the route we normally take yet to tell them off for not having a 5:30 bus last Wednesday. I guess tomorrow I'll see them and ask them about that! So, this Wednesday, we'll have to be at he bus stop about 4:45 to be able to get home!
Well, I figured if I sat here for a few minutes I'd manage to think of things to talk about! Hope you're all doing well. Wear a hat or scarf for me some day. I'm missing my winter attire terribly. I love the cold weather. But we're getting used to the weather here. At least now the dry season is starting it's not as humid, so although the sun is hot, there's always a nice breeze and it feels pretty good in the shade. Dry heat is a lot easier to handle. Not so much sweating! Well, looks like my laundry is ready to be brought in. I love how quickly it dries here. Our carbon footprint is definitely smaller here!
Monday, November 5, 2012
The "short" version of a long story
Well, it's been a hectic couple of weeks, therefore the silence on the blog front. But we're still alive and doing well.
I said I had a story for next time so here it is. It's probably not that exciting, but I was happy about it. During our CO visit week, I had mentioned to the CO's wife and the wife of the CO-in-training that they'd be welcome to come for dinner any day after the convention since they pass our house on their way home. They said Ok, thanks, but I got the impression they wouldn't be taking me up on my offer. Well, on Saturday night the CO's wife calls me to say that they want to come Sunday after the convention to visit us! However, our original beach plans were to leave Sunday morning and come back Monday afternoon! When I told her she was like, oh ok, that's fine, some other time, don't worry, enjoy your trip, etc. So after I hung up, I was really upset about this opportunity we were about to miss out on. What a privilege to have them over, and not just one couple but two! I managed to finally get a hold of the hotel we had made a reservation at, and change it to a Monday arrival and called the CO's wife back about 9:30 pm to tell them to come over the next day!
So, the next day we had them over for dinner. I got ripped off buying tomatoes from the grumpy old lady that I don't like to buy from. But she was the only one open so I had to pay her price! So we had spaghetti (my usual for guests since it's easy!) and I made an apple crisp for the first time which came out pretty well! And about 45 minutes before they got here we realized we'd forgotten to make any bread. But Charley, the wonder-baker, had two beautiful loaves ready by the time dinner was done!!! We had a great time with them, and it was just so nice to be with couples in special full-time service hearing their stories and stuff. Good times! The couple in training will be in Guatemala by now and starting their first congregation visit tomorrow. She emailed me that same night to thank us for dinner. I'll have to get in touch to hear their experiences from their new assignment.
Last time I blogged I think it was our anniversary. We did end up taking our trip to the beach but it turned into quite the adventure. Although we saw a lot of the beach, we didn't really end up swimming in the ocean or enjoying the scenery!
We left on a Monday but around noon that day our troubles began! We got lost to start off with. We were using our GPS but didn't realize that the cigarette lighter in the truck wasn't working, so our GPS soon died on us. So we got turned around. Then to make a very, very long story, very short, we had trouble with the truck and ended up broken down in a somewhat isolated area. Maybe one day I'll share all the absurd details of that disaster!
But anyway, it was stressful, but faith strengthening to see how Jehovah took care of us. Complete strangers did all they could to help, bringing us dinner and breakfast since we ended up sleeping that night in the truck at the beach! Then the next day, Tuesday, they brought a mechanic who turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness. He worked on the truck all day and got it somewhat running, but not enough to really take it very far. But he took us to his house and we had lunch and dinner there, and then they kicked their son out of his bedroom and we spent the night there too! They were the only Witnesses in this small town, and the only house with running water so we really lived it up there. I even got to watch my hometown team, Newcastle United, play football on TV!
On Wednesday, they had a guy come with a computer to connect it to the truck to find out where the problem was. The brother hid us because he said if the mechanic saw us he'd probably want to overcharge us! But in the end we met him, since it turned out that his dad who is also a mechanic and came with him, is also a Witness! So he charged us a very reasonable rate. But we still ended up staying the night, but by now at least the truck was parked at the brother's house. On Thursday he spent some more time working on it, and got the battery charged since the alternator wasn't working.
I prayed A LOT over those few days, and managed to keep pretty calm really. I felt the calming effect of Jehovah's holy spirit for sure. It's funny because I'd been praying to Jehovah to help me work on patience over these last few weeks and had made a conscious effort to improve, and had made quite a bit of progress. It's just as well that I did, since I don't know if I'd have survived this experience otherwise!!
The other somewhat stressful part was that we were supposed to be picking up a couple arriving from the States on Thursday night, and as of 4pm Thursday we were still in this little town almost 2 hours away from the airport with a truck that wasn't really running properly! We managed to get a hold of some friends down here near the house and they said they could go pick them up. Of course, since they were staying with us, we still needed to get back to the house to let them in! As it turned out, the truck was running enough to get us to El Crucero about an hour away from where we were. And from there we borrowed our friend's car who lives there, and drove straight to the airport, just in time to receive the couple waiting on us!
The next day the brother who had just arrived went with Charley back to El Crucero to take the brother his car back. They had to charge the battery again on the truck, drive back to the beach to pay the brother who did all the work on the truck, and then come back home. The next day we took it to the mechanic to get it worked on and get some parts replaced.
So, that's the short version (I know, it doesn't seem short!) of what happened on our trip to the beach. We did see the ocean, enough to take some pictures, but didn't exactly spend time at the beach. Our two-day relaxing beach trip, turned into a four-day adventure. Although we did get plenty of rest. I got about halfway through the Proclaimers book over those few days since there wasn't anything to do in that small town we were in. But it really was wonderful to see how Jehovah took care of us, how he provided us a place to stay, food to eat, and how united our worldwide brotherhood is. We also learned an important lesson, when in trouble, no matter how isolated of a place you're in, ask if there are any Witnesses in the area. If we'd done that on Monday, we may have been home sooner than we were! But we made some new friends who we've promised to go visit again under better circumstances! Maybe we'll just get the bus there next time!
Just to make this post even longer, here some pictures from our "vacation". Definitely the most memorable anniversary so far, and hopefully we'll never have another one quite so adventurous!
We had a great week with the new couple that arrived. This is their first time in Nicaragua and they hope to be here for a year. So, together we learned how to get the bus from the house to our territory. It turns out that it's cheaper than we had been told it was, and really rather easy. We're going to try and get the bus more often since it's cheaper than the gas we use getting there, and there is a bus that takes us right into a street in our territory.
We found the new couple (I'm not using their names since they prefer to remain anonymous on the worldwide web) a cute little house to rent. They have the sweetest landlady ever. She furnished the place completely in like three days, and she comes every day to have someone make another improvement or addition to the house. So they're right close to the territory of the congregation we're at, and are serving with us in the same congregation. They seem to be settling in well, and we're really enjoying having them.
Their landlady also put a futon in their living room, which we have already made use of! We got the truck fixed, but then it needed a couple of other things doing, so it's back at the mechanic again. So to save trying to get home at night on Saturday after the meeting, we just went to their house and slept on their futon. It's noisier living in the city but we slept well. Until the dogs started barking outside the door at about 5am! It made me realize how quiet it is where we live!! But I imagine we'll be spending quite a bit of time at their place. They're very hospitable, and it appears we'll be taking advantage of that!!!!
Our ministry is keeping us really busy although we missed almost a whole week when we went on our little adventure! But I have about 11 Bible Studies going now, and a couple more in the works. It's really easy to start conversations, and start studies, so our service days are getting longer and busier. We started a new evening arrangement on Friday and had a really good time. There's almost always someone at home during the day, but you find a different group of people in the evening who perhaps don't talk to us as often. I have two people to call back on next week, actually the only two people I talked to that evening. One of them has a question she wants to me to answer, the other I'm going to demonstrate the study in the Teach book, so we'll see what comes of those.
A funny little story from the other day. The new couple that came, he also has blonde hair and blue eyes, so he stands out around here too like I do. His wife could almost pass for being from here, but he definitely never will! So, we were on our way to their house to eat lunch, but we weren't with them. We stopped to buy some tortillas on the way near their house, and I asked them first if the other chelito (they call white guys chele or chelito, and white girls chela o chelita) had been by getting tortillas already. They said he hadn't. But really, they're not the only place that sells them, so who knows if he'd gone to a different one. So we bought 10 tortillas. By the time they came to the house we'd already made and eaten our lunch (they gave us a key!) but they arrived just with some bananas. I said to him, Oh good, you didn't get any tortillas. Turns out he was going to buy some, but the lady at the tortilla stand he went to told him that the other chelita had already bought some!!!! We thought that was pretty funny!!!! Or at least I did. So being easy to identify has it's advantages sometimes!
Well, that's the gist of what we've been up to. Feels like we've hardly been in the house this last couple of weeks, I guess because we haven't really! Hopefully this week will prove to be a little calmer! Today has gone well so far. Maybe next time I'll tell you all about the eggs that were more chicken than eggs and that completely ruined my desire to bake that day. Or maybe you don't really want to read about that!
I said I had a story for next time so here it is. It's probably not that exciting, but I was happy about it. During our CO visit week, I had mentioned to the CO's wife and the wife of the CO-in-training that they'd be welcome to come for dinner any day after the convention since they pass our house on their way home. They said Ok, thanks, but I got the impression they wouldn't be taking me up on my offer. Well, on Saturday night the CO's wife calls me to say that they want to come Sunday after the convention to visit us! However, our original beach plans were to leave Sunday morning and come back Monday afternoon! When I told her she was like, oh ok, that's fine, some other time, don't worry, enjoy your trip, etc. So after I hung up, I was really upset about this opportunity we were about to miss out on. What a privilege to have them over, and not just one couple but two! I managed to finally get a hold of the hotel we had made a reservation at, and change it to a Monday arrival and called the CO's wife back about 9:30 pm to tell them to come over the next day!
So, the next day we had them over for dinner. I got ripped off buying tomatoes from the grumpy old lady that I don't like to buy from. But she was the only one open so I had to pay her price! So we had spaghetti (my usual for guests since it's easy!) and I made an apple crisp for the first time which came out pretty well! And about 45 minutes before they got here we realized we'd forgotten to make any bread. But Charley, the wonder-baker, had two beautiful loaves ready by the time dinner was done!!! We had a great time with them, and it was just so nice to be with couples in special full-time service hearing their stories and stuff. Good times! The couple in training will be in Guatemala by now and starting their first congregation visit tomorrow. She emailed me that same night to thank us for dinner. I'll have to get in touch to hear their experiences from their new assignment.
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| The apple crisp I made |
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| With the CO & his wife, and the CO in training & his wife. |
Last time I blogged I think it was our anniversary. We did end up taking our trip to the beach but it turned into quite the adventure. Although we saw a lot of the beach, we didn't really end up swimming in the ocean or enjoying the scenery!
We left on a Monday but around noon that day our troubles began! We got lost to start off with. We were using our GPS but didn't realize that the cigarette lighter in the truck wasn't working, so our GPS soon died on us. So we got turned around. Then to make a very, very long story, very short, we had trouble with the truck and ended up broken down in a somewhat isolated area. Maybe one day I'll share all the absurd details of that disaster!
But anyway, it was stressful, but faith strengthening to see how Jehovah took care of us. Complete strangers did all they could to help, bringing us dinner and breakfast since we ended up sleeping that night in the truck at the beach! Then the next day, Tuesday, they brought a mechanic who turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness. He worked on the truck all day and got it somewhat running, but not enough to really take it very far. But he took us to his house and we had lunch and dinner there, and then they kicked their son out of his bedroom and we spent the night there too! They were the only Witnesses in this small town, and the only house with running water so we really lived it up there. I even got to watch my hometown team, Newcastle United, play football on TV!
On Wednesday, they had a guy come with a computer to connect it to the truck to find out where the problem was. The brother hid us because he said if the mechanic saw us he'd probably want to overcharge us! But in the end we met him, since it turned out that his dad who is also a mechanic and came with him, is also a Witness! So he charged us a very reasonable rate. But we still ended up staying the night, but by now at least the truck was parked at the brother's house. On Thursday he spent some more time working on it, and got the battery charged since the alternator wasn't working.
I prayed A LOT over those few days, and managed to keep pretty calm really. I felt the calming effect of Jehovah's holy spirit for sure. It's funny because I'd been praying to Jehovah to help me work on patience over these last few weeks and had made a conscious effort to improve, and had made quite a bit of progress. It's just as well that I did, since I don't know if I'd have survived this experience otherwise!!
The other somewhat stressful part was that we were supposed to be picking up a couple arriving from the States on Thursday night, and as of 4pm Thursday we were still in this little town almost 2 hours away from the airport with a truck that wasn't really running properly! We managed to get a hold of some friends down here near the house and they said they could go pick them up. Of course, since they were staying with us, we still needed to get back to the house to let them in! As it turned out, the truck was running enough to get us to El Crucero about an hour away from where we were. And from there we borrowed our friend's car who lives there, and drove straight to the airport, just in time to receive the couple waiting on us!
The next day the brother who had just arrived went with Charley back to El Crucero to take the brother his car back. They had to charge the battery again on the truck, drive back to the beach to pay the brother who did all the work on the truck, and then come back home. The next day we took it to the mechanic to get it worked on and get some parts replaced.
So, that's the short version (I know, it doesn't seem short!) of what happened on our trip to the beach. We did see the ocean, enough to take some pictures, but didn't exactly spend time at the beach. Our two-day relaxing beach trip, turned into a four-day adventure. Although we did get plenty of rest. I got about halfway through the Proclaimers book over those few days since there wasn't anything to do in that small town we were in. But it really was wonderful to see how Jehovah took care of us, how he provided us a place to stay, food to eat, and how united our worldwide brotherhood is. We also learned an important lesson, when in trouble, no matter how isolated of a place you're in, ask if there are any Witnesses in the area. If we'd done that on Monday, we may have been home sooner than we were! But we made some new friends who we've promised to go visit again under better circumstances! Maybe we'll just get the bus there next time!
Just to make this post even longer, here some pictures from our "vacation". Definitely the most memorable anniversary so far, and hopefully we'll never have another one quite so adventurous!
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| The middle-of-nowhere town we ended up vacationing in! |
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| Our generous hosts (you can tell which is the mechanic!), with some other family members. |
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| The chickens running around the brother's workshop |
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| Their dog, Esperanza |
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| Their hilarious little grandson |
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| Their son drives a mototaxi. There are a lot of these down here. |
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| I think that's the starter he has in his hand, part of it anyway! |
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| Their pigs were hilarious. I swear they were posing! |
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| And there cute cats who were our best friends at meal times! |
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| Their chickens lay tomatoes - strange, eh?! HAHAHA!!! |
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| Our mosquito protected bed |
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| The beach. I thought the clouds really stood out that night. |
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| Sunset at the beach |
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| One of the tons of crabs that suddenly came out of their holes |
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| More sunset - obviously |
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| Another crab, unsure whether to keep coming out of his hole or not! |
We had a great week with the new couple that arrived. This is their first time in Nicaragua and they hope to be here for a year. So, together we learned how to get the bus from the house to our territory. It turns out that it's cheaper than we had been told it was, and really rather easy. We're going to try and get the bus more often since it's cheaper than the gas we use getting there, and there is a bus that takes us right into a street in our territory.
We found the new couple (I'm not using their names since they prefer to remain anonymous on the worldwide web) a cute little house to rent. They have the sweetest landlady ever. She furnished the place completely in like three days, and she comes every day to have someone make another improvement or addition to the house. So they're right close to the territory of the congregation we're at, and are serving with us in the same congregation. They seem to be settling in well, and we're really enjoying having them.
Their landlady also put a futon in their living room, which we have already made use of! We got the truck fixed, but then it needed a couple of other things doing, so it's back at the mechanic again. So to save trying to get home at night on Saturday after the meeting, we just went to their house and slept on their futon. It's noisier living in the city but we slept well. Until the dogs started barking outside the door at about 5am! It made me realize how quiet it is where we live!! But I imagine we'll be spending quite a bit of time at their place. They're very hospitable, and it appears we'll be taking advantage of that!!!!
Our ministry is keeping us really busy although we missed almost a whole week when we went on our little adventure! But I have about 11 Bible Studies going now, and a couple more in the works. It's really easy to start conversations, and start studies, so our service days are getting longer and busier. We started a new evening arrangement on Friday and had a really good time. There's almost always someone at home during the day, but you find a different group of people in the evening who perhaps don't talk to us as often. I have two people to call back on next week, actually the only two people I talked to that evening. One of them has a question she wants to me to answer, the other I'm going to demonstrate the study in the Teach book, so we'll see what comes of those.
A funny little story from the other day. The new couple that came, he also has blonde hair and blue eyes, so he stands out around here too like I do. His wife could almost pass for being from here, but he definitely never will! So, we were on our way to their house to eat lunch, but we weren't with them. We stopped to buy some tortillas on the way near their house, and I asked them first if the other chelito (they call white guys chele or chelito, and white girls chela o chelita) had been by getting tortillas already. They said he hadn't. But really, they're not the only place that sells them, so who knows if he'd gone to a different one. So we bought 10 tortillas. By the time they came to the house we'd already made and eaten our lunch (they gave us a key!) but they arrived just with some bananas. I said to him, Oh good, you didn't get any tortillas. Turns out he was going to buy some, but the lady at the tortilla stand he went to told him that the other chelita had already bought some!!!! We thought that was pretty funny!!!! Or at least I did. So being easy to identify has it's advantages sometimes!
Well, that's the gist of what we've been up to. Feels like we've hardly been in the house this last couple of weeks, I guess because we haven't really! Hopefully this week will prove to be a little calmer! Today has gone well so far. Maybe next time I'll tell you all about the eggs that were more chicken than eggs and that completely ruined my desire to bake that day. Or maybe you don't really want to read about that!
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