I am still in love with this place. I walk down the streets, and I fall in love with Nicaragua; it doesn't matter if its blazing hot or a sudden downpour turns the streets into mini rivers of soap and dirt and litter.
The only thing I am not loving about Nicaragua is garbage day. Garbage comes early in the morning, so we put the bag out the night before. Dogs of all sizes are left loose in the streets at all times, so the garbage is never safe from them. To keep them from making a disgusting mess, we hang the garbage bags up high on the bars that protect our windows. Here is the problem: People come at unmentionable hours of the night, lift the bags down, tear them open, dig through them looking for bottles, spread them around and leave the rest for the dogs! And I sleep in
la sala, right beside the front door! This means that during the night I wake up to drunk bums tearing through our trash five feet from my bed and have to scare them away from digging in our garbage. If anyone has any creative ideas to make it seem to them that
digging in our garbage is a bad idea, you have my attention.
The other pieces of my Nicaraguan life are very happy. There is a service group Tuesday to Saturday at 8:30, and we spend about 2 hours in the territory. Not-at-homes are rare, and everyone wants to talk and accepts literature and shows promise for return calls. The service group on Sunday is a little later, but it a very good day to find men at home (not very high on my list of priorities for a good service day, but the brothers make good use of this time). Aside from that, my time is filled with studies and return visits. I study with a young girl named Francela. The first time I studied with this 8 year old, she asked me questions like "Is Mary in heaven? Or will she be resurrected to earth? If she is going to heaven, how do we know she is there already, not sleeping, still waiting to be resurrected to heaven?" Soon followed by "Do you go to church?" "Yes, we have a meeting tonight" "Good, can I come?" Seeing people who love spiritual things really re-motivates me to do all I can to help them learn the truth. She let me take some pictures of her after our last study.
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| Francela and her lamb |
When we first arrived in Esteli, the whole area was undergoing some major flooding problems. This is the highway on our way up.
Very soon after that the days got hotter and windy and dusty. Our service group meets in this neighborhood several days out of the week. While we waited for the brothers to organize the morning as they saw fit, this tree provided welcome shade from the 8 am sun.
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| Jason and Asahel |
La Casita is a relaxing place south of town with a funky vibe... Organic and friendly, with a bit of an oddly-placed Indian flavor - its probably the only place in Nicaragua to buy hand mixed Garam Masala or buy potted herbs. I got a kick out of the sign shown below. It reads:
Young people in love:
This park was created healthy family recreation
- and especially for little ones. We expect
your conduct to be worthy of the trust you have been given.
What a world we live in!
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| No funny business in the gardens of La Casita |
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| Double bloom Hibiscus |
I was loving this bridge. The bend in the walkway is where is becomes painfully obvious that it is not a bridge, rather two semi-connected docks that can move independent of each other. Rickety and sloshy, and only very small people could walk across without it dipping down to submerge your feet in the river.
La Casita was, in short, a very ecologically conscious garden/park area with a playground and restaurant and all the plants you could imagine. I would however recommend avoiding "Managua Mondays" when the young of the capital descend on the little finca-style establishment resplendent in too tight bright falsie tops (shirts and vests and lace-up-corset over t-shirt style clothes), dip dyed skinny jeans, gladiator sandals that would have made Goliath proud, bright jewel patent platforms and glittering, costume-jewelery-bling covered stillettos.
Entonces, until the next time, I remain your friend in Nicaragua and your friend in love with Nicaragua. Take care all!
~ Mina
