Ahhhh. Sitting on my bed with the laptop and fans. Thank You Lord for electricity!
It's been a good day.
German called early this morning and said that the van was fixed and he would come and get us for working in the afternoon. We didn't have anything scheduled for today since we didn't think we would have wheels, so we opted for him to pick us up at 1:30 and we would go in to town for a change of scenery and some groceries. We were so excited to see him pull up in the van! Before German called, we had told Saturnino (the guard) to go home for the day and come back at 6pm. When German pulled up to the gate and tooted the horn for Saturnino to open the gate, he was surprised to see me doing it. The look on his face was so funny.
German is so thankful for the van being fixed. I know it is a load off of his shoulders! We jumped in and headed to León. We were almost giddy! When we got close to town he asked where we wanted to go. Mary and I looked at each other and said we didn't care, just take us to town. ha ha! We opted to park at La Unión and told German that we would call him when we were ready to leave. We walked around to some stores and explored a little within a few blocks of the van. We slipped in to Tip Top for some chicken for a late lunch/early dinner and then headed to La Unión to pick up a few groceries for the next few days.
While we were walking around we saw many cyber cafés. They were pretty much the same. Most establishments here just have their doors (or front walls) wide open to the street. (a lot of restaurants in NYC were like that, too) The cyber cafés had 4-6 little desks/tables with computers on each. For a fee you can get on there and surf the web, check your emails, get facebook, etc.
We also saw a healthfood restaurant called "Pure Earth Café". I was excited. Later I asked German if it is okay to get food from there. He said yes, so I'm going to get some fresh juices there next time I can! I miss my fresh squeezed carrot/orange/ginger juice! Mary said it was too healthy for her taste.
We also saw a massage place called "Seeing Hands Blind Massage". Hmmmm... this conjures up all kinds of ideas in our heads. And if you know me and Mary, you won't ask...
We stopped in at a Payless Shoesource store. I used to manage a couple of Payless stores in Fayetteville and Rogers back home, so I wanted to see what it was like here. The store looked a lot like the ones in the states. The aisles were tiny! The shoes were nice, but were much higher than you would get them in the states.
We saw a lot of hostels, too. It was fun walking around. There were different kinds of stores. Some were actually rather upscale. Some sold the usual clothes and gifts. Some sold used clothing.
While in an open shopping area, we were asked by a couple of kids who are learning English, if they could interview us. They videoed it on their camera. They had questions written on a piece of paper and did a pretty good job of speaking English to ask us questions about what we feel that Christmas means, if it is very different in the states, if we think it's too commercial, what the true meaning of Christmas is, if we encourage kids to believe in Santa. When they asked us if we believe in Santa, Mary said, of course! If you don't believe in him, you don't get presents!!! When they were done they took our picture and we took theirs. It was fun.
When we came out of La Unión with our groceries, German was waiting in the van and visiting with his sister. Mary had met her before, but I hadn't. She was very nice. Then we climbed in the van and ran some errands. We found a bookstore and bought some writing tablets. German had to make a couple of stops and we went along for the ride. We stopped at Eskimo for our usual cono jumbo (double dip cone). It was quite tasty.
We made it back home and brought our groceries in. German and Saturnino ran down to the little store on the corner and picked up some large bottles of water for the water cooler. We're trying to conserve on buying water, so we cook with tap water that is boiled to within an inch of its life. :) We still need the bottled water for drinking, vegetable cleaning and teeth brushing.
We got back about 5pm, so it was too late to walk on the beach, since it gets dark before 6pm. So we sent Saturnino home for his dinner and we settled in for the night.
Mary had washed a load of tennis shoes today. My old ones survived the wash and I can't wait to wear them again. They have been pretty sad looking this year here in Nic. My black canvas Rocket Dogs survived the wash, too, although they look a little curled up at the toes. Shoes can get very nasty here.
I forgot to mention that the other night, after our walk on the beach, at dusk, we heard a sound and determined it was a horseback rider galloping down the beach. I grabbed my camera and quickly put it in video mode. The image is pretty good. It was kind of cool to catch it. We see cows on the beach at the north end a lot and horses are always walking down the road and in grassy areas. Nothing is too surprising here.
I downloaded a bunch of pictures to facebook today. It took hours. The internet here is slow, but I'm so thankful for it! I've taken over 500 pictures and 24 short videos so far. It will take a while to download all that from here, so I may have to choose a few favs to post here and do the rest when I get home.
Better get off of here for now. We are planning on getting up early and taking the bus into León in the morning. We're going to attend English classes that our friend (and VOH translator) provides at his school. He said that his students would like for us to visit and listen to them practice their English. I'm so excited!!! We'll catch the bus close to the house and then walk about 7 blocks in town to the school. Just like NYC, sort of...
I'm so thankful to our wonderful God for His peace, wisdom, direction, love, forgiveness, patience and grace. I'm so unworthy, but humbled. I am blessed.
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