It’s been a good day. It was overcast and sprinkly this morning, but not a downpour of rain. I didn’t walk since it wasn’t clear enough, so I fixed some oatmeal and then sat on the veranda in my rocker doing my Bible study.
The Husley’s got here before 10am and Manuel and I had our 5 minute meeting/play time together. Then I got my shower and we all went to run errands and have lunch. We had some items to take back to the old Team House in Poneloya. They accidentally got moved here when the people relocated us. So we loaded up the van and headed for the old place. The drive seemed so long now that we don’t have to do it all the time. I’m so thankful to live in town!
While in the Poneloya and Las Peñitas area, we stopped at Suyapa restaurant to have lunch. It was yummy as always. We saw Wilbur and his young protégé standing outside the open dining area ready to sell necklaces to the tourists. Of course, there weren’t many, and there were only about 6 tables set up in the entire dining room. It’s not exactly tourist season and we certainly didn’t want to buy anything. Wilbur waved a sad hello. His poor business is probably at an all time low. The wind was very strong and the beach has eroded so much. It is sad to see it that way. I’m glad we don’t live at the beach house any longer.
After lunch, we headed to La Unión for some groceries. Sherry had picked up a flat package that holds 2 dozen eggs. She had accidentally broken one egg on the edge of the package. I told her I would go back and exchange it for another package. While I was bending over carefully getting a new package, my backpack slipped and made me drop the whole package upside down on the floor. Oh man!!! And we were worried about ONE broken egg! I was excited to see that the store had added another flavor of soup, cream of mushroom, so I got a couple of cans to add to my menu. I got a small can of mushrooms, which in the states costs about 50 cents, and here costs over a dollar, but I like to have a lot of mushrooms in my soup. I also got a lot of potatoes to keep baking in the microwave. Love that microwave!
The Hulsey’s dropped me off at the Mission House about 2pm. I got ready for class and decided to try walking, even though it looked like rain any minute. It did sprinkle on me a few times, but not much. I went ahead and walked the whole way instead of getting a taxi. I enjoyed the exercise. On the way, I was greeted by one of the ladies from the Sewer Pond community that we minister to. I never can remember her name, even though she always remembers me and Mary. She gave me a big hug and asked when we were coming to her neighborhood. I told her that Mary would be here in a few weeks and that I didn’t know exactly when we were coming to her place, but it would be in the next few months. It was so fun to see her!
Class today was GREAT! Jonathan and Salvador were there again and Mario joined us. They are taking an accelerated version of the class and are doing wonderful learning English. I was to bring a topic to discuss with them and I chose to do Holidays. We went month by month and talked about holidays and customs in the US and also for Nicaragua. We have many of the same holiday themes, even though they may be in a different month. It was very informative. We all took notes on what the other was telling. Juan, the teacher, had to step out of the room to meet with someone and when he came back we were all the way to November. He couldn’t believe how much material we covered. I talked about the major holidays, but skipped some of the less cultural ones. But I did share with them how I had tried to explain Groundhog Day to some friends from Mexico and that I realized how silly that holiday sounds. We had lots of laughs together.
The class lasts for 2 hours (usually more) and we even got on the topic of Federal and State Laws, jails and prisons, capital punishment, etc. I told you these guys were accelerated in English! They were asking if people in the US get arrested for copying DVDs like it says on the warning of movies. I also told them about the ‘Do Not Remove This Tag Under Penalty of Law’ tags on mattresses. They thought that was very weird. They also thought that Juvenile Detention Centers were surprising. We also talked about the meaning of the American flag, the use of nicknames, the differences in marriage ceremonies, why homosexuals are called ‘happy’ (gay), the fact that here you make a distinction between poultry that is from a male or female, that if you get the chicken (or turkey) drunk before killing it the meat will be more tender, etc. When talking about eating foods for good luck on New Years Day, they didn’t know that Black-eyed Peas are a food, they thought it was just a band. I really enjoy this class. They always thank me profusely for coming and sharing with them. As much as I want to practice speaking Spanish with them, I know how much they appreciate speaking in English, so I’m glad to do that with them. We are mutually blessed.
I grabbed a taxi home and Alberto meets me at the door to escort me inside. I give him a call when we turn on our street. I don’t think the taxi driver appreciated that our street is so full of deep potholes and not well lit, but he got paid well, so it’s all good.
Saturnino and Alberto got a lot of work done around the Mission House today. They should be starting on my shelves by Saturday or next week. That will be awesome. I may do some sewing on Saturday unless we go to Managua for the day. Either way is fine with me.
I called and spoke with Deanna last night. I’m trying to stay in touch with people back in the states more. It’s easier now that I’m ‘living’ here and more settled than just living out of my suitcase. I think it’s all in my head, but I do feel very at peace and acclimated to being here.
I saw a neat link on someone’s facebook status today. It was for a project where they take plastic bottles, fill them with filtered water, cut holes in the tin roofs of small dark homes (mostly in 3rd world countries) and seal the bottles into the roofs. These become ‘light bulbs’ that let the sun in and brighten the rooms. I showed the link to Mike and we think that it is a great idea for the neighborhoods we minister to. Some of them are one room homes with tin roofs and either plastic or cardboard walls outside. Having these ‘light bulbs’ in the roof would make the dark places so much brighter! And there is an abundance of plastic bottles here. It’s a project that a team could take on to do for a neighborhood. I usually don’t click on links on facebook, but this was a God thing, for sure. I’m excited.
I usually see many things during the day that I want to write about, but when I sit down at night, I don’t remember half of them. There are so many unique sights and thoughts. Being in a different culture than the US really helps one to see how big and diverse God’s world is. I’m glad that I get to ‘expand my horizons’.
I get to see Juan & Ana every week for classes at the English Academy, Leslie every week for translating the women’s Bible studies, and Oscar is going to work with us sometimes to do some videoing and translating for us. Usually we don’t see the translators much unless we have teams here.
Joe and Marcela want to have me over to their house for dinner one evening. That will be fun. Jaasiel and I will go shopping one of these days. Jeremy and Kelly have a little store that I would love to visit. Chico wants me to visit their family. And I haven’t even gotten to talk with everyone yet. I hope to see Hixel and Iris soon. I did get to see Francisco for a few minutes the other night, but he is working 6 days a week on another project for us. I’ve talked to Rydder on the phone once. Some of these guys will come to our weekly Bible studies, so I’ll get to see them more regularly. I can’t wait to spend time with them. I’ve asked Joanna (German’s wife) to teach me to cook some Nicaraguan meals. That will be fun! So much life to live! And I love it all!
I hope Mary enjoys being here when it’s quiet, too. I think that the sewing machine will make her happy and give her things to do. Only another 5 weeks or so and our next team comes down. That will be fun!
Until then, I’ll try to take advantage of all the experiences that God allows. I’m so blessed to be here and so thankful.
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