1. The church we live in is also inhabited by lizards. They look innocent enough, but they make all kinds of noises in the middle of the night. Loud noises that you wouldn’t think them capable of making. I consider them my friends though because they eat the nasty bugs that fly into the church at night. Nasty moths.
2. In our first week here, we saw a rattlesnake (it was unhappy fella too), a beetle the size of my fist, a scorpion (I know, you see those at home but still…), & tarantula (which was under Luke’s backpack).
3. On the public buses people play their music out loud. For everyone to hear. It makes for an interesting ride.
4. On almost every corner there is a Tienda (store) in the front room of people’s house.
5. When walking down the street, you sometimes walk right into a cloud of pot smoke. Apparently a lot of people smoke it here.
6. Most everyone rides bikes around here. If they don’t have a bike, they ride a horse. If they don’t have a horse, they ride a donkey. If they don’t have a donkey, then they walk.
7. Palacaguina has some beautiful mountains & rivers, but make sure you don’t drink the river water. Apparently when we went swimming with the youth group, we somehow ingested river water. Very Bad idea. Within 2 days, our leader was struck down with Traveler’s Diarrhea & the rest of us soon followed. Boldly Awoken has 7 members, & all 7 members came down with this miserable sickness. For the first 24 hours, every 1-2 hours around the clock we were running to the bathrooms. It was terrible. If you are ever in Nicaragua, do NOT allow river water anywhere near your mouth.
8. The animals free range on the streets. Walking down the street it’s normal to see a pig lying in the middle of the road. Or to have scrawny chickens running in front of you.
9. Night is not a quiet time. There are dogs barking, lizards calling (? what do you call a lizard sound?), birds squawking, people laughing, donkeys braying, roosters crowing all.night.long. I do not kid. It will be 2 O’clock in the morning & you’ll suddenly hear a rooster sounding his wake up call. This causes all the other roosters in the neighborhood to think that’s time to crow. Thank you, Lord for earplugs.
10. While walking down the street someone shouts at you: “I love you!”
11. When our group was walking in a park, we were suddenly surrounded by a group of Jehovah Witnesses that were trying to evangelize us. Missionaries trying to convert missionaries. (They didn’t convert us)
