Saturday, December 10, 2011

Friday, December 9, 2011 NICARAGUA

Fun morning. NOT. Woke up and started moving things around that I had sat on the floor last night when I cleared off my bed to go to sleep. While moving the items, a sort of big, very hairy, black spider scampered across the floor. I didn’t shriek, but I did do a Nica two-step. It found refuge under my mini fridge. It was decided that our rooms would be sprayed this morning, since we saw a rather huge, very hairy, black spider outside on the wall and one near the kitchen already. As I was moving stuff out of my room, another sort of big, very hairy, black spider was spotted and scared Josselin very much. My room was pretty much emptied, sprayed by Alberto and then I sprayed again with an aerosol can of bug spray that seems to kill very quickly. Hopefully, (and prayerfully) the hairy things will be long gone. I love God’s creatures, but that doesn’t mean that I want to room with them…

I had some oatmeal for breakfast and then pinned some sewing pieces outside under the rancho while talking with Megan and Josselin. Mary and Sherry and Talon went to the grocery store to buy food for tonight’s Christmas meals for the staff. I hemmed some pants for Josselin and finished the handwork on a dress for Sherry. I was trying to find the things that I could do away from my room for a little bit.

I worked on sewing Bible bags when I could get back into my room. I’m making good progress on them. I’m not feeling stressed (yet) on getting them done by the time the team gets here.

We got the place ready for the dinner. Juver and Leslie put up balloons. Josselin and Megan helped blow them up. Since I can’t stand balloons, I didn’t offer to help. Mike and German met with Pastor Marvin for a while. Mike also spoke with the leader of next week’s team about the construction on the church.

We had a great lunch of grilled chicken, rice, beans and cucumber/tomato salad, and tortillas. I worked more on sewing and everyone had their own things to do. Sherry was cooking all afternoon, which is her love. Talon made some Hello Dollies (bar cookies) and needed shredded cocoanut. Alberto and Juver got a couple of cocoanuts from our trees. It was a pleasant afternoon.

We got ready for Bible study and left about 3:40pm. Megan went with us and was going to talk a little bit about Priscilla. Mary decided to wait until next week to present her next part of Evangelism training, but she did have 3 ladies share their testimonies and it was great. I didn’t have to do anything but enjoy the moment. It was a nice break from teaching for me. Since it’s the holiday month and also the day of many graduations, there were few ladies at the study. It started out with very few and then about 12 showed up in total. It was good to see them. I’ll be glad when our numbers get back up to near 30 again.

We got back to the Mission House about 5pm and helped get everything ready for our guests. People arrived slowly. We had 40+ people for dinner, which included our workers and their many kids. It was fun.

Sherry had made spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken alfredo, 7 layer salad, garlic cheese biscuits and brownies. We also had Talon’s Hello Dollies and ice cream. Everyone got full and had a great time.

Sherry had bought gifts for all the kids. The adults got their Christmas bonuses. (it’s called the 13th month and everyone gets an extra month’s salary in December). Lydia’s son and daughter (around 10 and 11 years old, I think) dressed up and danced to a Nica folk song. It was nice. I tried to video it on my camera, but it may be a little dark. They were precious and the dance was their gift to Sherry and Mike.

The North Americans served the Nicas and it was fun. Lydia and Aracelys kept trying to help and we wouldn’t let them. Lydia even came in the kitchen after the meal and tried to take over washing the dishes. We had to throw her out of the kitchen! I think they finally got used to being served, even though it was a strange position for them to be in.

Everyone went home, mostly by Mike taking them in the van. It took 3 trips to get everyone delivered, including the Hulsey’s. Juver and Alberto tore down the plastic tables and locked them and the chairs up so that the people setting up for the birthday party tomorrow would have open access to the place. Juver, Megan, Josselin and I talked for a while (in Spanish) under the rancho. I was keeping up really well. I guess I’m improving afterall! I did say something very funny, though. I mean to ask Juver how old his parents are and was using the word for ‘couple’ which in Spanish closely sounds like the word for ‘birds’. Yep, I asked how old his birds are. Which was very funny, because in the context of the conversation, everyone knew I meant parents. We all laughed a lot. It was fun talking, though.

I went to my room and ended up talking with Megan until after 11pm. Then it was time to go to sleep.

It’s been a good day. Many blessings. Can’t believe we’ll be leaving in a few weeks. I hope our Nica workers know how much we consider them as family. I especially do.

No comments:

Post a Comment