I’ve always wanted to live on an island but I never thought I’d actually get the opportunity to. When I found out we’d be living in an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, I was thrilled! I pictured the TV show, Lost, and pictured myself running around the jungle like the main character, Kate, with adventures at every corner. Well, not to say that parts of the island don’t look like the setting of Los, (because it’s absolutely GORGEOUS here, but island life is definitely not fast paced or adventurous…atleast the island of Ometepe. Things move slower here and everything is done the simple way.
I have never missed my washing machine and dryer more than I do here. If you need to wash clothes you walk down near the water and scrub them in the “pila” which is a huge stone basin filled with lake water, which is considered very clean. After soaking the clothes in a bucket and scrubbing them each separately with soap against the stone wash board, we brush each stain out with by hand. I have found that this particular process is very bad for the clothes and causes them to fade and ruin faster. We have to rinse them out three or four times to keep them from staying soapy and making us itch. After that process we hang the clothes not on a regular clothes line, but barbed wire. Unfortunately the barbed wire is not good for the clothes and I now have a lot of holes in everything and rust from the metal staining my things.
As far as the food, we literally grow everything at the orphanage: animals and plants. There are goats here for the milk and cheese, chickens for the meat and eggs, cows for milk and meat, and acres and acres of land that is filled with herbs, vegetables and fruits. I’ve never lived anywhere that’s so organically sustained and self-reliant. The vegetables that I planted earlier in the month are now sprouting and will soon be ready to eat. The beans that I picked in the garden today, I later cooked and served to everyone for lunch. The baby chicks that we moved have been growing at a rapid pace and will soon be ready to kill (which still breaks my heart, since I’m not used to eating animals I play with).
In regards to the daily activities, other than the kids going to school while the missionaries work in the garden or help with construction, we all spend our time together at the “rancho” which is a palm tree-covered patio with ten hammocks, or watching the Disney channel in the TV room. All the girls call me “Hannah Montana” because I remind them of her (especially the long hair and the comedic personality). I have gotten used to responding to “Hannah!!” when the girls are calling me or asking me questions. No one ever judges anyone else for taking a “siesta” in the middle of the day or “staying in” on a Friday night (we stay in every Friday night playing games and watching movies).
Living on an island is not what I expected, but the simple and slow paced lifestyle is definitely the way to live. It reminds me of a hippie commune, but instead of drugs and sex and nudity, it’s a Christian environment where we’re supportive and loving for one another and pray a lot. I have never been so relaxed doing ministry in my life and I am really going to soak this month of the Race up before going back to nine months more of chaos. There is a lot of time for prayer, reading Scripture, meditation and worship and it’s bringing me so much restoration and rejuvenation. I am so glad I still have 20 more days of “island life” but I do wish that laundry didn’t take half the day to do.
From left to right: Rachel, me, Angela Grit and Alana watching the sunset.
Angela Grit and I making lunch…we marinated fish (yes, the whole fish) in seasonings and wrapped them in banana leaves and boiled them.
Sarah (closest to the camera), Haile (in purple) and me (in the blue) washing our clothes.
