Traveling Excitement

Well we are officially back in Nicaragua after a month in the states. I know some of you are thinking, your previous blog entry said we would be in the states for three weeks, what happened? Well...

Our trip started out with us missing our connecting flight from Miami to Denver, so we had to stay the night in Miami. Actually the plane left 55 minutes early, our flight from Managua got in 15 minutes late, our luggage was not checked all the way through and when we got to the United check in counter it was closed because the last flight of the day left. We had no US cell phone, no US change to make a call and the pay phone would not let me charge a collect call to the number I was dialing. Luckily, we got the 1-800 number for United reservations and were able to use the pay phone. So Seth spent an hour on the phone trying to get our flight schedule for the next day.

Meanwhile, I was using the internet trying to find a hotel nearby that had a free shuttle to the airport. This task was not difficult, but I had to pay $5 to use the airports wireless internet for 30 minutes...which is a rude awakening when you only make $70 a month. After Seth confirmed our flight to Denver he decided to check on our return flight. Yet again there was another change in our flights. The airline had canceled half of our flight, so we had to reschedule. The airlines must not fly as much as they used to because everything was booked up until June 29. We were supposed to return to Nicaragua the 23 of June, so we were able to stay an extra week. We were not upset since that meant an extra week with our families, but it meant we missed out on the Nicaragua MCC team spiritual retreat.

Because we´re leaving on a jet plane...

We will be heading to the states on Friday for three weeks to visit family. We are very excited to see our families since we have not seen some of them for a year and half and two that we have never seen (nephew and niece). We are grateful and thank God for the opportunity to travel back to see our families. Family is a an important part of the culture here and everyone we know in the villages are excited for us to be able to see our families.

We probably won´t be updating our blog while we are gone because we will be too busy hanging out with family and playing with the nephews and niece, but we leave you with something to keep your mind off of not having our wonderful blog entries :)

MCC´s magazine, The Common Place, did a feature on Nicaragua, but specifically on our partner and the projects we are doing. Check out this website to see an interview of our Partner, Jaime Muñoz, and subscirbe to recieve The Common Place for free to read the entire feature.

http://mcc.org/acp/2009/05_06/

Check out this website to see photos.

http://mcc.org/gallery/09_05/

Ecology Capacitation

Seth gave a capacitation to the 3-6 grade kids in Son Zapote, a community we finished a water project in recently and have been doing capacitations. The area is highly deforested and the kids think every animal (birds, rabbits, lizards, geckos, spiders, insects, etc.) will hurt them, so they need to kill them. Knowing this we thought it would be a good idea to help them see how everything in nature is interrelated and if we kill off or get rid of one species it effects the entire ecosystem. Seth had them think about how their community looked 400 years ago and then draw it and then draw what it looks like now. The differences where there were more trees, animals and water before and now more livestock animals, homes, wells, and less trees. Then Seth had the kids get into groups to make webs as a way to show how everything is interrelated. For the most part the kids where able to see how things related and understand that ecology is the relationship between living and non-living things.

MCC Girls' Night

I organized another MCC girl's night two weekends ago. We did pedicures and manicures, while enjoying the chit chat with other MCC gals. We also beaded, making necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Rachel and Issela were in charge of dinner, so we had pizza, fruit and carrot cake...yummy. Normally no boys are allowed, but we made the exception for Simon, Beth's 3 month old son. We all took turns holding him. It was a great time of pampering and fellowship with other women.

A Mountain of Faith

Ricardo, a pastor we know, lives in a community called Asiento Viejo (old seat) in the Teustepe area. He is one of the most amazing men we have met in Nicaragua and admire him a lot. He truly lives what he believes...

Ricardo had a vision from God that he would find water on the corner section of his land, and so he and his two sons began the search for water. There are no machines for digging wells, it is all done by hand. These men are not just digging through dirt, but rock as you can see in the pictures. They use a chisel to break through the rock and then use a bucket to haul the rock out of the hole. They have dug 50 feet deep and are now removing soft rocks meaning they are closer to water. Ricardo and his sons have been digging for 3 months believing God will provide. Seth and I have heard people say, "I don´t believe he will find water, it is not possible", but this has not discouraged him. Hebrews 10:23 states, "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promises". Ricardo is holding tight to the hope God gave him of finding water on his land and knows God does keep his promises. So, although to many it seems like a useless endeavour, Ricardo pursues to dig because of his faith. What if you were Ricardo, would you still have hope and believe God will keep his promise?