We made it! Danny came over this morning, and he showed us around for a few hours. We went to the grocery store today, (quite the experience) and currently have no internet but we can use our neighbor’s until we work it out. We drove over to a place and had dinner tonight as a family and found our way home just fine. The kids swam all afternoon. ( see picture below)
A little culture shock on Ella’s part but she’s ok. They notice there are guards at each location we visit. This morning we were greeted by Katia, wanting rent. It was a big reminder of how bad our Spanish is. We had a hard time b/c we could NOT remember the word for “paid.” (among other words and she knew NO English) Rent had already been paid and got worked out fine. But now I’m carrying the Spanish/English dictionary. 🙂 Later today, Marcia showed up and proceeded to clean our house, start laundry and was still here cleaning when we got back from the store, helped us put up our groceries and sliced up our mangos and pineapple for us and put them in the refrigerator. She works for the Normans but we are so glad she’s still coming and we’ll see her 3X a week while we’re here. She joined us for lunch, (sandwiches) and she is helping us with our Spanish already.
We were greeted at the airport by Danny Sharpe last night. He showed us homes on the way back to the Norman’s that the government builds for teachers and other public servants (police, etc.) and they can live there for free. He talked about how it’s an honor, but difficult b/c they leave their neighborhoods and friends to come there. Ella was a bit reserved, unsure of the no seat belts and bumpy roads. Beck and Libby said that the fact that there are no seat belts and the fact that we went for pizza at 10 p.m. make Nicaragua awesome.
The house is really great, great yard, a pool, & the loudest frogs I’ve ever heard. At night it sounds just like we’re in the middle of a jungle. Only one close call when Libby rinsed her cup out with bad water to put clean water in it without remembering water here might make her sick. But thanks to Ella she got a clean cup. One of the dogs came out dressed in Libby’s clothes so we put a stop to that, as well. 🙂 Ella is journaling a lot and capturing each minute. The guards shoot guns to communicate with each other which may take some getting used to and then when we hear them blowing whistles, apparently that means everything is all right.
We made friends today with our neighbors, the Havlins and Vincents. Both families have kids and everyone got along great today. Of all 4 houses around us, all are missionary families and we look forward to learning more about them and what they do. We also discussed a specific orphanage today that we’ll visit soon with our kids, and a Nicaraguan Christian Academy we’ll visit too, where our neighbors’ kids go to school.
Another day here and we’ll head to Costa Rica on Sunday morning to do things with Young Life there. God is keeping us calm and giving us the ability to laugh as little things come up, and is providing people and solutions for everything we need. As I finish typing, there’s a giant thunderstorm rolling in. In a house where all the windows are open (with screens) that’s pretty wonderful.
It’s humbling to be here. Spiritually humbling, and I think that’s why it’s so uncomfortable at first and then you start to settle into it. Here, we need lots of help and and hopefully we offer help too. But it’s two ways, and no one gets to pretend that everything is fine without each other. I love that about being here. And as we pray as a family and ask God to reveal his will each day, I pray we’ll know his voice enough to do whatever is needed and trust he’ll bring us whatever we need too.
Thankful for each of you…
Jeannie
