Breaking and Entering

Being white (gringo or chele) here in Nicaragua we always have Nicaraguans telling us how dangerous Mangua is and we need to be very careful. Of course we are careful, but we feel for us it is no different then living in any big city in the states...the only difference here is we stand out more. We have always felt safe here in Nicaragua and still do, but have now experienced a piece of the danger everyone has warned us about.

This past weekend we returned to the MCC office after being out in the country side for a couple days to find the office had been broken into. Someone was staying in the office, but had been gone all day. Every house in Managua has bars covering everything, so I figured we were safe...and we were to an extent. Someone had broken in through a bedroom window by prying the bar that covered the window. The person rummaged through the directors room (she is on home leave so we don´t what was stolen from her) and then to our room. We had several things stolen (most of it only had moneterial importance, but a few things had sentimental value). The odd thing about the robbery was that there appeared to be poop smeared on the wall where the person entered and then the bathroom floor was covered in water and there were a pair of pants in the trash. After describing to the police what had happened they were certain who the perpetrator was. The young person has a colostomy bag (now the smeared poop and the pants in the trash make sense) and steals so he can get money for drugs. He was released from jail three days prior.

Once a ¨face¨ was put to the robber, I could not stop thinking about how sad that persons life must be. His life is ruled by his addiction, so much so that he did not even take the precautions to not get caught (the cops knew it was him as soon as we described the smeared poop on the wall). They mentioned he was young, so what hope does he have being an addict? I am sure he will get caught, end up in jail again, but get out and do it again. There is no money or governemental program here to help him to get off drugs or perhaps he does not want to get off. The thought that contiunes in my mind is that only God´s love can rescue him from his life of addiction, so that is my prayer that he will be open to know God´s love and through that God will change his life.

November already?

It is hard to believe that is has been over a month since our last post. What has happened in that time? Well, we celebrated our year anniversary of being in Nicaragua, spent a week in Costa Rica and have been slowly gearing up to start projects in the country side.
We meet up with Seth´s parents in San Jóse, Costa Rica, for a marriage retreat and then spent some time with them. The retreat gave us time to be together without distractions and focus on our relationship with each other and God. We also soaked up some rays and relaxed on the beach on the Northwest coast of Costa Rica.
We have become busier in our work here, preparing to start several renewable energy projects this next month. We have been in the country side a lot more this month doing community surveys and attending community meetings. We will be doing one solar powered water project. The solar panels provide the energy to pump the water from a well to a tank higher than all the houses and then gravity helps to take the water to the houses.
In another project we will be installing solar panels to provide energy to people who don't have any. We will also be doing two micro hydroelectric energy projects, but they don't start until January. Seth and I will be doing capacitations about health, hygiene, agriculture, nutrition, reforestation during the project in every community.
In December we will also be helping to translate for two learning tour groups from the states. The groups are interested in learning more about renewable energy projects and what our partner (Aso Fenix) is doing in Nicaragua. We are excited to get the projects started and see how God will use us.