Somewhere over the rainbow

It rained really hard yesterday. The wind was blowing like crazy, blowing in some of our windows even though they were closed!

But this is what we enjoyed afterwards. If only I had a wider angle lens. I just couldn't quite get the whole thing in. It's a long time since I've seen a full one like that. Noah and his family must have been just in awe when they saw a rainbow for the first time.

Charley's surfing video - take two!

I just realized I included a link to a photo of the video of Charley surfing, and not the video itself in the last blog post!

So click here to see Charley catching a wave!

Back to Costa Rica again!

So, I'm going back in time again on the blog. Back to our Costa Rica trip since I still had a few more pictures to share. It seems like such a long time ago now that I can't even remember if I have any stories to share!

Charley and I took the TicaBus down there. It was a long trip, about 9 hours. We left Nicaragua on the 91st day of our visa (visa lasts 90 days!) so that cost us an extra $12 each and is perhaps why we were at the border quite a while! We finally got to San Jose, Costa Rica and got a taxi to the hotel. It was a really nice place. A two bedroom apartment with a kitchen, full hot breakfast every morning, and a pool. 

About 5am I heard the door and it was Blake & Madalyne arriving from the airport. So, that day they slept a while, we lounged around, then went to see downtown San Jose. It was a lot cooler down there, so I had to borrow a sweater from Madalyne - I didn't go very well prepared. And I never got in the pool because it was never warm enough in the morning or evening that we were actually at the hotel. Blake & Madalyne did get in one evening - here is Blake walking on water:

The next day we took a trip to a national park, and toured a private property that has an aerial tram that takes you across the top of the rainforest. Madalyne was expecting to see all kinds of animals, so it was a bit of a disappointment since all we saw were trees mostly! Our tour guide was pretty good, but he talked a bit too much. While we were on the aerial tram he kept talking about how wonderful the silence of the rainforest is, how quiet it is, listen to how quiet it is, quiet, quiet, quiet, blah, blaaahhhh blahhhhh - needless to say we didn't ever enjoy any silence with him in the car.

The aerial tram

They made us sit in a certain order to even out the weight. Heavier people towards the front I think!!!!

Looking down over the rainforest.

The bus system in Costa Rica is really impressive. The buses are really comfortable, and once the seats are full it's considered full, not like Nicaragua where it's empty if there aren't at least 40 people standing in the aisles. And there's no guy hanging out of the window shouting to people at bus stops and trying to persuade them to get on. And you pay the driver, not some guy wandering around charging whatever he likes. It rained on the way home that day, so we got a bit more than wet getting home on the buses that evening.

Nice and drenched!

 The next day we decided to take a bus trip to the beach. The nearest beach was about 1 1/2 hours away. We got a taxi to the bus station and got there about 10 minutes before the bus was leaving, ran to the little office to buy tickets, ran to the bathroom, hopped on the bus, and off we went. We arrived in Jaco around 10:30 and decided to have breakfast. After breakfast it started to rain - great way to start the day at the beach! Eventually we made it down to the beach. It was the beginning of rainy season so not peak time. But the beach was pretty empty, and there were no chairs available to rent, and not much shade anywhere. It took us a while to set up, but we did eventually. I don't think any of us were really that impressed with the beach. It was dark sand, but Madalyne got to see the Macaws that she didn't see in the rainforest so that made her day! And Blake rented a surf board, which Charley got to try out for the first time too. I got some good shots of that adventure!

Blake off to surf - taken by Madalyne

Charley learning to ride the waves

Doesn't he look cool?

If you look really closely you can see Charley's toes at the end of that surf board cord!!!! Talk about having the camera in your hand and just the right time!

There were about half a dozen flying back and forth to this tree

It rained on the way home from that trip too, so we got wet again! But we had a good day. We actually got drenched getting to the bus stop. We walked past three bus stops to get to the main bus stop for the bus back home, and it was pouring at the time. But we weren't sure that the bus would stop at those other stops. It did of course!! Better to be safe than sorry though!

Charley's little friend he found on the beach. He walked like a little cartoon crab!

And we enjoyed a delicious dinner in Jaco with free freshly made smoothies!

This is on the bus - for those who read Spanish I thought you might like it.

So, that was our brief trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. Probably our only trip, unless we have reason to go to the airport or be near it again to receive friends or something. The trip home took all day but it went smoothly. The young taxi driver in Masaya when we got back that tried to charge us 300 cordobas ($12) lost our business. He took us for clueless foreigners. I said "300 cordobas!!! Last time it cost me 150 for four people from here". As I said that, some other taxi driver was coming by and he's like yeah, 150, let's go! The young guy learned a lesson from it maybe!

To close, I leave you with a video of Charley catching a wave! Click here to see it.

Next time I'll blog our Ometepe stories - there are PLENTY of those!!

Endless pictures

Here are some pictures from our trip to Ometepe Island. We drove about an hour or so South from where we live, drove the truck on to a surprisingly small ferry, and took an hour's crossing to the island. It's an beautiful island in Lake Nicaragua made up of two volcanoes - Concepcion & Maderas. It's only 171 square miles, but it has lots to see and also four congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I have quite a lot of pictures so here are some to look at today. More will follow complete with stories in a future post.

Ready to leave Masaya. Blake is in the back outside. We also took Francis & Veronica from our congregation.

I was surprised to see this was ferry that we'd be taking the truck on!

Small runway on the island

Runway with Concepcion Volcano in the background

Beach at Punta Jesus Maria

Looking back as we walked down the Punta, a long thin piece of land that goes about 1km out into the lake

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About halfway down the punta

We finally got to the end.

Lunch time!

Our hotel room - more stories about that later!

Chillin' at the hotel

Concepcion Volcano - this is the view from the hotel restaurant

Playing Pass the  Pigs in our room - good times!

This is one of the stories!!

They had lovely gardens around the hotel grounds

Stay tuned for more...

Welcome to Pancasan!

Just a quick little post about our little evening of theocratic history in Masaya, Nicaragua - sounds very dramatic doesn't it?!

The Pancasan congregation had it's first meeting this evening and it was a success. The congregation is made up mostly of publishers from Bulevar & Monte Fresco congregations, and then 11 of us were moved from Real Monimbo. 

So, there's a big group from Bulevar who all already know each other, and a big group from Monte Fresco - and then there's us, with 100 names to learn! The congregation officially has about 70 publishers but we had 116 at the meeting! It felt huge since we've been used to attendance of about 80 in Real Monimbo. And it was a lot harder to get a comment in, which is good, since the participation was very good indeed.

I don't have any pictures yet, but there is the cutest old brother ever in the congregation. His name is Ramon Teleno and he's 85 years old. He's a ministerial servant and has been in the truth for 55 years!!! He has these little round glasses, and his tie was tucked into his trousers, and he was just so cute! I'll have to get a picture of him soon. I talked to him for a little bit and look forward to hearing his stories of being in the truth so early on in the history of Nicaragua's witnesses.

We were there pretty late this evening, while Charley and Wilber (the other elder) got some things organized. We have 6 ministerial servants and 5 pioneers, 3 of whom came from Real Monimbo, one from Bulevar and one from Monte Fresco I think.

So, all in all it was very nice. I was a little sore at the meeting since it had rained earlier in the afternoon and the water came in a bit under the front door at home. As I walked that way I slipped and before I knew it I was on the floor and moaning from the pain in my lower back and legs! After a cried a little, I laughed a little, and then had to reject Charley's assistance to get me up, since it hurt to sit up. So I had to roll over on to my knees and then stand up!! I have a green/purple elbow, and I'll probably be really stiff tomorrow, but I'm ok! No more flip flops in rainy season I guess, not even in the house!

Our friends that are visiting are spending a few days in Granada with the English congregation. I think they're really enjoying being able to communicate fluently! There's also another new congregation in Masaya, El Parque, and our friends Brenda & Caleb have been assigned to it. That's their third congregation down here in just 7 months!!

Well, if I don't blog again for a while it's because we got lost in our new territory and haven't found our way home. I promise I'll have stories and photos from all our travelling soon. I was just excited about our new congregation and wanted to share.

And wasn't that a GREAT Watchtower study article today? Loved it. So much to work on!

Oh, and since I don't like to blog without some kind of photograph, here's the Pioneer School picture that we took the other day for the class that is currently in session. Brenda's in the second row, in the purple dress.

We're still alive!

Just a quick little post to let you all know that we're still here and doing well!

We've been busy, busy and done quite a bit of travelling lately so I just don't seem to have had a minute to post anything. We have friends here from England right now and we're having a great time with them. We've spent some time in Costa Rica, and got to know Ometepe Island here in Nicaragua. I have a ton of pictures to sort through and stories to tell about those trips, but that will have to wait until another day.

Another thing that is keeping us busy is the formation of a new congregation. So tonight is our last meeting with our current congregation (who had a name change and is now called Real Monimbo) and Sunday is our first meeting with the newly created Pancasan congregation. It's made up of publishers from three congregations and Charley will be one of the two elders in it. So, the next few weeks are going to be interesting. Our schedule will no doubt be changing somewhat and now we have to learn a completely new territory, so I should have lots of getting lost stories soon!

Pioneer schools are also in full swing now. The first one started on Monday and I had the always nerve-racking privilege of taking the class photograph yesterday. Charley will be in the second class that starts mid-July. And we've been going to rehearsals for the circuit pioneer meeting which is coming up in about a month.

So, more later. Hope you're all doing well wherever you are. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures. I haven't even copied half of my pictures from my camera to my computer yet but these are a few from our Costa Rica trip.

Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica - just across the street from our lovely hotel/apartment

Tree we walked by in downtown San Jose

Inside the San Jose theater

Charley with our visitors, Blake & Madalyne (from England) outside one of the museums

Hot Lips in the rainforest

Hot Lips closeup

Orchids in the rainforest in Costa Rica

Another orchid

Mr Cactus Hands

Hanging out on Jaco Beach in Costa Rica. Last photo of Charley's swimming shorts - pair number three left behind!

Basket-case! Too much sunshine does things to your brain!