A Long December

We had a busy December, but also had the opportunity to relax the last week. We went to a beach down south in Nicaragua called San Juan del Sur. We spent time reading, swimming, body surfing, searching tide pools and hiking. We had some friends from MCC join us for part of the time, we really enjoyed ourselves. We spent New Year's eve in a town up north called Matagalpa with the other MCC volunteers. There is an MCC family that lives there and we spent time playing games and eating great deserts until we felt sick (a true North American holiday tradition). Another US tradition we did not miss out on was seeing the ball drop on TV.

You may be asking yourself, what does a traditional Nicaraguan Christmas and New Year's look like? I am glad you asked. In Nicaragua it is more common to celebrate Christmas the night of the 24th and although we did not get to celebrate with a nican family, we have been told what is normal. Normally family's get together and eat a lot of food, specifically a food called relleno (chicken, butter, oil, raisins, vegetables, bread, salt). This may not sound good, but we have been told be a North American that it is good. Often gifts are exchanged as in the states, but it depends on the family situation. For New Years it is very common for people to make an effigy of the past year and then burn it New Year's Eve. They take old clothes and stuff it with newspaper and it ends up looking like a person. Unfortunately, we did not actually get to take part in this New Year's tradition, but there is always next year. However, we did get to take part in the another New Year's Eve tradition staying up until midnight and watching all the fireworks being lit. Everyone buys fireworks and waits until midnight to light them and then they go off for 15-30 min, it is impossible to sleep until they are done.

We started back at Viva Spanish School on the 2nd and we will be taking classes the month of January. We will be living with other MCC volunteers in Managua for this month. We will start looking for a house of our own this month in the area we are going to live.

Feliz Navidad

Well...we had a great time over the last two weeks checking out the communities we will be working in and also meeting a lot of great people. During our time, with spent several days with a group of college students from California. We traveled around to several of the project the Aso-Fenix (the organization we will be working with) in many different areas. We were impressed by the differences in the areas of Nicaragua, all with in 40 miles of each other. There were areas with large cliffs and spires, rolling hills, dry areas (where we will be working at) and lush green areas. We also had a time to see some of the projects that the MCC worker we a following has done. It was really awesome to see the affect he has had on the people and the relationships he has built.
Though it was a great two weeks, it was really busy and we are looking forward to relaxing this coming week. Hopefully, in the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean. We miss you all and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bromadero here we come

We has a wonderful time during our MCC retreat in the mountains of Nicaragua. We stayed at a Nicaraguan Young Life Camp, it was very pretty (we have put some pictures on our photo page). We had a business meeting the first day, and than the remaining two were a spiritual retreat. It was a great time to see what God has been doing in our lives and also what he has planned for our future. It was also a good time to get to know the rest of the MCC team and see what God has been doing in their lives. Though it may be hard to believe it was actually quite cool at the camp. During the nights, I imagine it got down in the upper 40s (pretty cold for here). It was very pleasant to be cool and escape the heat of Managua. The camp we stayed at was also a farm and it was very green and beautiful.
On Tuesday we will be leaving for 2 weeks to go to the area we will be working at. We will spend the time with Lydell, the MCC volunteer we will be replacing. We are very excited to see the projects he has been working on and the people he has gotten to know. During this time we will be looking for possible projects for us to work on as well as making contacts with the people in the towns.

December, already?

Well it is hard to believe we have already been here a month. We finished our first month of language training and will be taking the month of December off from language training. We will be going to Matagalpa (a city in the central northern region of Nicaragua) for the first week for a meeting and spiritual retreat with all the Nicaraguan MCC volunteers. After that week we will be going to visit projects in the area we will be working (Boaco region) for two weeks. The volunteer that we are taking over for will be showing us around. We are excited to be able to visit the projects and hope to be able to explore possibilities for our future work. We will have a week off for Christmas, but we are not sure what we will be doing. Then we will return to Managua in January for another month of language training.

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.