I have a surprise snippet of internet time today before heading into the jungle tomorrow, so I will quickly share some of my memories from Nicaragua. Later when I have the chance to upload photos, I will add them, but for now, here´s the text. Thank you for ALL the prayers…I feel truly blessed and it IS making a huge difference. God bless you today!
- Walking 30 minutes to internet through dung filled, muddy paths and crossing cows, horses, pigs, bulls, chickens along the way. Nearly having a stand off a couple of times with the cows/bulls. Walking back to the light of my headlamp a couple of times.
- Hitchhiking in multiple pick up trucks-some with people, some with water bottles, some with all kinds of other stuff, going over speed bumps at mock 13 and hanging on for dear life, having limbs go numb from sitting in crazy positions to get down the road
- Natural Springs near the volcano with all the children as a treat from an American missionary heading back to the states after a year of service to the Children´s Home
- Heading out in a boat on Lake Nicaragua with teenage boys and some of the tias (aunts) and trying to stay in the boat the boys wanted to almost capsize. Diving into the waters that are technically shark infested in certain parts (not so much where we were). Some of the boys “showered” by using a bar of soap and diving into the water. At least it´s an attempt at cleanliness.
- Barbed wire clothes lines=no need for clothes pins
- Hungry dogs=no need for a garbage disposal
- Bats, tarantulas, snakes, lizards, hornets, beetles, ticks and assorted other critters coming out to visit us all hours of the day and night. Those lizards sure do like to chat it up about 4 AM. Good grief!
- Asking one of the locals in my excellent Spanish “Necessita muerte, por favor” while pointing to a tarantula. Did I mention he had on cheap flip-flops while I had on hiking shoes? Well…I figured he knew what to do and could do it effectively and quickly. As it turns out, the spider was already dead. Oh well. Go on and brush your teeth in peace, Oswaldo…hehe.
- Finding a Canadian homeopathic doctor willing to sell me all her tampons (which evidently are NOT sold anywhere I went in town…and I went to a lot of shops and asked plenty of people) for a single beer. Bartering at it´s finest…love it.
- Having THE single best piece of chocolate cake I´ve ever had in my life no less than 3 times. Divine.
- The day I stopped drinking coffee=the day I saw the coffee filter, where it hung and what it looked like. I have a less than totally rugged ability to handle kitchen cleanliness information. Needless to say, I didn´t help with food prep too much. I trust God will help work it all out (along with the occasional Cipro), but I´ve found I do best being less aware of the process.
- Having lots of “dates” consisting of walking 3 or 4 miles round trip, sharing a couple of cokes and Ritz con Queso. We had some fun times and great adventures getting to know each other as teammates and squadmates.
- Napping in hammocks.
- AMAZING sunsets.
- Laughing with the kids and family members at the Deaf school when they blindfolded the kids and let them at the pinata. How do you let them know when to stop? Someone has to duck and risk running in to stop them. I´m sure you can imagine! Especially when they would pop open the pinata for the candy to fall out and the other kids rushed in for it….oh boy.
- Ziplining through the canopy in Grenada…15 platforms…2 hours…going through Super Chica style, upside down and bouncing on the last one. It was a riot!
- Sharing Thanksgiving with 80+ Nicaraguans….TRULY a great delight and undertaking! There were 56 pounds of chicken carried from the grocery store in trash bags inside a wheeled bag of luggage via ferry (along with 40 pounds of potatoes, and TONS of other stuff-check out Matt Williams´blog about it all).
- Attempting to go with one other person into town to buy all the softdrinks for said Thanksgiving feast along with some laundry supplies and communion materials…we probably had 40+ pounds each to wrestle with via backpacks, grocery sacks, and when those burst-our sweaty arms. ¿What on earth were we thinking?
- Enjoying Spanglish laughs with the kids…I learned a lot more vocabulary this month.
- Feeling God´s provision and direction in our times of worship, the ministries He called us to (including a couple not on our original list-like the Deaf school), in our times of prayer for and with the children.
- Seeing the emotion of teenagers burning their cares and burdens (written on paper) before God in a time of surrender.
- Being in the garden of Eden-things grow SO quickly and well there-the garden provided great, nutritious meals for us. Things we helped plant the first days there were nearly ready for harvest at the end of the month.
Side note…even though the keyboard I am using appears to be English, the keys have been converted to Spanish. So not everything is easy to find, and even though the apostrophe appears correct in this blog text, it somehow does not when I hit post. Sorry. Will fix that one day…not top of the priority list though…please overlook with grace…thanks!
