Saturday Drive

On Saturday we had the opportunity to take a trip to Bromadero, one of the towns we will be working in. The community (with the help of MCC and ASO-FENIX, the organization we will be working with) completed a solar powered water pump to provide water for the community for the first time. Before this point, the women had to walk 45 min. one way during the dry season to get water. We will be coming in after this to help them learn to make the best of the new water they have with health techniques (hand washing, cleaning food), community gardens, and reforestation (many of the trees around the communities have been cut down for firewood, leaving the hills largely barren). Bromadero is only 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Teustepe, but because of the roads it took us 45 min (think of real bad forest service roads in the states). Believe it or there is a bus (old US yellow school bus) that goes up and down the road each day, I couldn't imagine the road during the rainy season. We were very excited to meet some of the people we will be working with, and the Bromadero is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than Managua. It looks like we will get a house in Teustepe, but will have the option to spend some of the week nights in the MCC house in Bromadero. Which will save us the trip, which will be especially nice when I have to start work at 5am, oh the life of a farmer.

A Day in the Life

Life here in Nicaragua is passing by and things are going well, 3 weeks already. Every week day we go to the MCC office in the mornings to spend 2 hours with a tutor, which is a person the attends on of the Mennonite Churches in the area and receives a scholarship to attend University in partial exchange for their service. Then we go back to our host family for lunch. After a delicious meal (some times hot soup) we take the bus to our spanish school and have private lessons for 2 hours. We are both progressing very well in spanish and enjoy it most days. After that we head back to the office for some orientation and study time. Around 5 or so we head home and have a great dinner and spend time getting to know our host family better. Than being the studious people we are we usually study until we go to bed. So that is about what an average day looks like here in Nicaragua the land of lakes and volcanoes. And yes, Thanksgiving was just another Thursday down here ;(

God is in the Church

Today was our second time going to the local Mennonite Church. Although a different language is spoken from the pulpit, a different language is sung, and a different culture is present there are still many things that we have in common. This became very evident today. At the end of the service communion was served, and they invited us to come share with them. It was very nice because after we had finished everyone went around and greeted each other and shook hands. During the communion and talking with people we really felt that the God was there, and that He was helping us bridge the cultural and language gap by sharing that experience.

The Bible through different eyes....

While talking with my Spanish tutor I learned something very interesting about the state of mind of some of the Nicaraguan Christians. My tutor was talking about a sermon in her church about Solomon, specifically when God told Solomon that he could have anything he wanted. Well we all know that Solomon picked wisdom over all other earthly things. My tutor went on to explain that in Nicaragua there is not much food, money, or other earthly things, but as Christians they can be like Solomon and pick wisdom. They pray that God will grant them that, and as we see in Solomon´s case it was the wise choice.

So what does this mean to me (us) as a North American. I do not know exactly, but I do realize that it is easier to pick the right choice when you have fewer choices, but being an American I do enjoy my ¨right¨ to choose. I also realize that I do not always ask God for the thing I really need, the thing that will help me bring glory and honor to Him.

We made it!

We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua safely. We will be staying with a host family while learning language. We are living with Josefina and several of her daughters. She is a very nice grandmother type and we have enjoyed starting to get to know her and her daughters. We will be spending the first month learning spanish at a school in Managua. We will than spend about 3 weeks near the area we will be serving with Lydell, the current MCC volunteer in the area. After Christmas we will come back to Managua to do another month of language training, and than off to the campo (the country).

Time to become Snowbirds!!!

On Saturday we will be leaving for Nicaragua. We have really enjoyed our time here at MCC and feel very excited to serve with MCC. The organization really seems to fit our beliefs and we are excited to start meeting people and learning about the Nicaraguan culture. We are not sure when we will be able to add more to our blog, but it should be soon. Some MCC workers just returned from a tour of Nicaragua and went to the Teustepe. The pictures our up on our photo site, we will add our own soon.