Political Demonstrations and a Day at the Lake

On Saturday here in Managua the Liberal political party planned a march to protest the re-election of President Daniel Ortega.  At the same time the other party, the Sandinista party planned a march for the same time and route.  Due to this and the potential for violence we decided to cancel our kids and youth services.  I was sad that we weren’t going to have services, but was able to take the opportunity to have some fun with my roommates.

Unfortunately one of my roommates, Mary, is moving back to the states in two weeks, so we’re trying to have as much fun together as possible before she goes.  So when we found out I had Saturday off she invited Alicia and I to go with her and some friends to Laguna de Apoyo, a nice natural lake that’s an extinct volcano.  We were able to leave town and avoid all of the demonstrations and we had a wonderful relaxing day hanging out.  The main difference we saw on our way out of town was that there were about 20 Nicaraguan police officers stationed in front of the US Embassy, but it was very calm and quite around there as we passed mid-morning.

After the lake, we came back home and showered and then decided to walk over to a pizza place that is a couple blocks from our house so we were on the way to a pizza place and a bus was coming down the street, driving a little fast, but nothing real unusual for here.  It passed us going the other way, and we kept walking and then a little while later we saw some sparks and heard a pop. We looked around to see what happened and when we turned around we saw that the bus had run off the street and into a power line.  Then it just backed up and drove away like nothing happened… we’re pretty sure he was drunk.  Thankfully no one was hurt and we were far enough up the road that it didn’t affect us.  It was very strange though.  Pizza was dilicious and we met our friend Beth there, she will be our roomate after Mary moves out.  Then we came home and watched an episode of LOST, the perfect end to a relaxing and fun day.  I was glad we were able to make the most out the day that for many others was probably not as relaxing due to the political marches.  I did hear that they, wisely, changed one of the march times so that both were not going on at the same time.

Squirrels on Crack Re-Visited

Ok, so this should be my last post on the “Squirrels”.  Yesterday morning I was siting at home and heard the birds, thankfully I was already awake, so I decided to take a video to try and help explain the sound to all of you readers out there… you’ll also get to see the most boring video ever of my front porch.

To view the video, click here

Yo Quiero Nicaragua

Since I’ve been back here in Nicaragua after my trip to the States I think I’ve fallen even more in love with the country. In just the past few weeks I think my Spanish has improved quite a bit. I was nervous about coming back down here, nervous that I would have forgotten all of my Spanish, and that I would have to completely re-adjust to the culture again. There was about a week of getting back in the swing of things, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was thinking it could be.

I’ve been able to make some really good friends here and I’m have a fun time getting to know them better. Sometimes it’s hard to hear some of their stories and not be able to help. I have one friend who had saved up about $600 to buy a motorcycle and was scammed out of it! I know that it took a LOT of hard work and time for him to have saved up that much money and then for it to all be gone just like that has got to be discouraging. I have another friend who needs glasses because his eyes are kind of bad, and he had some, but then one time while he was playing at church someone stole them! Now he doesn’t have glasses, nor the money to buy new ones so he always has headaches and his eyes will continue to get worse if he doesn’t get new glasses. Neither of these friends have ever asked for a handout or help in these kinds of situations, and that just makes me wish I could help them out even more. Nevertheless, our God is good and He provides for all our needs, so I know He will bless these two guys in His timing and in His way.

Things in the ministry are going awesome. Chase and Julie are here now and they’ve jumped right into Saturday mornings. Chase played the Chef this week and did a great job… I’m thankful to see that he’s not afraid of making a fool of himself…. when working with kids, and/or with us, you can’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself 😀

Pictures from my October trip to the States

To view the pictures from South Carolina, click here
Discover Church’s career group took a trip to the mountains, I was able to go with them! To view the pictures, click here
To view the pictures from my trip to Minnesota, click here
My parents and I drove over to Georgia to visit Aunt Mary and Uncle Bobby. To view the pictures, click here

Pictures from Jessica’s Baby Shower in Nicaragua

The Friday before I left for the states some women down here threw a baby shower for Jessica…. click here to see the pictures from that night.

2009 October Nicaragua Pictures

To view my misc pictures from October, click here

Newsletter: 2009 September/October

Click to view my September/October Newsletter.

Busy Busy

I’m in the Atlanta airport right now waiting for my flight back to Managua…. My time in the states was amazing, but went by too quickly. Well, it was amazing except for the “Improper Backing” ticket that I got on day 5 of my trip… I guess I should look harder for parked cars in the road before I back up. I have a ton of pictures to upload, I have to get my e-version of my October newsletter posted and sent… and I have a lot of work to do this week to prepare for the services that are coming up… But life is good… I hope to write more about how things are going soon… but for now I think I’m going to go get some food and meander to my gate.