Mam and dad's visit - part 2

So, I managed to tear myself away from the washing machine to come blog a little. I was excited about having it, but since I've started using it this last couple of days, I've realized how AWESOME it is to have one. For some reason I didn't realize what an amazing time saver it would be. The other day, I cooked dinner while I washed clothes. And then I ate dinner while I washed another load. FANTASTIC!!!!

Anyway, so back to mam and dad's visit. Oh well, before that, just to say we went to Costa Rica on Monday to renew our visa and had no problem getting out and back in. So we have another 90 days of visa. We didn't leave the border area, didn't go through the gate to the real world. Just crossed, got all the needed stamps, and came back. We went on the local bus, which is an experience in itself. Imagine an old school bus, kitted out with coach seats. Three on one side, two on the other. Now imagine all the seats full, and another 35 people standing in the aisle from front to back. And then imagine them continuing to let people on, and telling you to move forward. And then imagine a chunky lady with a bucket of food to sell, trying to get past you as she sells to the passengers. At least if you faint, you don't fall over.

Ok, so seriously, now back to mam and dad's visit. Where was I? Saturday, yeah, we drove to Leon and ate with a couple who were serving there in the English but just moved to the Atlantic Coast this week. Here's a link to their blogs if you want to read about their adventures here - http://los-poldens.blogspot.com/ and http://crazyparentsinnicaragua.blogspot.com/

Here we are having pizza with them. Leon is about an hour and a half north of here, and it is a lot more touristy downtown than Masaya.

We stayed that night in a really nice hostel. Mam and dad's room had a bathroom, and our bathroom was next door. But it was really clean and she made us breakfast, just toast, fruit, coffee and juice, but not bad for $20 a night. Here we are at the hostel.

Breakfast on Sunday morning

The view down the hallway. This is the style of a lot of houses here in Nicaragua. They're like pre-made hotels.

The sitting area and it's also the waiting area for the attached dentist's office!

Looking back through the house, rooms on the right.

We went to the Leon English congregation for the meeting Sunday morning and enjoyed meeting friends from around the world who are serving down here. There were brothers and sisters from Canada, US, New Zealand and Sweden as well as local brothers who have learned English. The young brother who gave the talk is serving in Spanish in Chinandega, about an hour north of Leon, and he gave the BEST talk. It was amazing. And he's only 19!! What a speaking ability this young brother has. We got to go out to hospitality with him too. He's been serving down here for a few months now. Here's a link to his blog http://www.stepintonica.blogspot.com/ Just lovely to see such a young brother using his energy to serve in another country. His roommate is from Scotland, and it just so happens that his roommates grandma is in the congregation we were in back in England! Small world, eh?! We didn't get to meet him though.

Leon Kingdom Hall

Couple from MN, and couple from SC I think. They have a 6-year old daughter and 14 year-old son who came too. They've been serving for a couple of months and just loved it.

At hospitality with the Polden's and the young speaker, Sam. We ate at a Mexican place with the slowest service ever, and the tiniest tostadas and tacos I've ever seen. But they were DELICIOUS!

Dad wanted flan, but there wasn't any. The owner felt bad, so she gave him a glass of something that tasted like Peach Schnapps. Yum - the entire table had a little taste!

Then this is how we spent the rest of our Superbowl Sunday!

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon and evening eh?!

We spent the night Sunday too, and Monday morning we wandered around a little to see downtown Leon.

Central Park, Leon

Then from there, we headed to El Crucero to visit the Robleto family. They are the family that we stayed with for a month on our very first visit to Nicaragua back in 2010. They also took us to see a piece of land they bought in a near-by town and we had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. We also saw a Kingdom Hall with the coolest sign ever!

Lunch with Mario Jr, Wanda & Mario Robleto

Some kids next door to the land the Robleto's bought

The grand tour

Doesn't that look like a giraffe?!

Coolest Kingdom Hall sign in Nicaragua!

Inside the hall - I love the red chairs.

And outside with some of the friends arriving for the meeting. Obviously we weren't dressed for the occasion!

Then we came home to no power or water. We chose a good time to be gone. It was out 24 hours, but we got home about an hour before it came back on.

Mam writing her name, Annette, with a flashlight pen during our power outage - backwards obviously!

Tuesday we just hung around the house, did some laundry, studied for the meeting, etc. I was just too tired from all that fun to do much! Then in the evening we visited the Granada English congregation. This is the only photo of that event! Again we met friends from all over the place. The congregation actually has about 13 publishers, but they had a TON of visitors from here and there, so there were about 50 at the meeting. The brother who conducted the Bible study was visiting for two weeks! The one who did the school was down visiting for a month. And a brother on the service meeting was only there visiting too! And a couple who did a demo just arrived a few days before. So they made good use of their visitors!

So, that's enough for part 2. Stay tuned for part 3 to see me feeding a monkey and mam and dad wearing hard hats - those are two unrelated events by the way!