Things I've Seen

The days are very full and very long--but I thought I'd share a few just to give you a little flavor of this place. Here are some things I've seen this month:

• a pigeon and a rat fighting over a feather
• a girl who didn't know she should blow the bubbles we gave her instead of drink them
• a 12 year old boy so crippled by arthritis that his parents have to carry him to school each day
• a dog being healed of seizures with orange juice squeezed on its protruding eye
• men cutting tin for a school roof with only a piece of wire
• ## US mission trippers working alongside the Nicaraguan crew

Mofeta!

It's been about a month now that Jonathan and I have been apart. One way I've decided to deal with this is celebrate the things that are great about living alone again. I can turn the TV up as loud as I want, I can change all the radio presets to NPR, nobody leaves little crumpled up balls of napkin anywhere in the house. But focus on the positive all you can--there are still sometimes you just need backup.

For example, tonight when I got home the dogs were throwing a fit in the back yard. We have two dachsunds, which added together are hardly tall enough to be a real dog, yet they were jumping an easy 4 feet up on the chain link fence of the dog run. Of course it's only after  I let them out that I see the skunk.

Now for any of you who have tried to wrestle two dogs away from a cornered skunk with only a push broom--you know that I was in need of an extra pair of hands. Can you just see it? I'd get one dog to a safe zone, try to pick it up while holding the other off with the broom. Just as I'm making progress moving the dog and skunk apart the one I'm holding would jump down and the whole dance would repeat.

Remarkably, neither I nor the dogs ended up wearing au de skunk parfume. Our little woodland friend wandered away and everything turned out hunky-dory. But in these kinds of moments being boss of the remote is small satisfaction.

Jonathan's Day Off

Any of you who've spent much time with Jonathan know that he absorbs his superpowers from kids he gets to play with. This week he finally got to take a break from the management and communication duties to take a crowd to the park just to play. You could certainly hear a differnece in his voice after this reinvigorating adventure.

The group played together in the downtown park, and stopped for a snack.(whaddya think of those nifty drink containers?) The emotion in his voice as he described how excited the kids were by this simple outing was definitely moving. He shared how blessed he felt to be the witness to their deep gratitude.

While you may not be in Nicaragua today playing in the park with a pack of kids--you are a part of this. The money you share, the prayers you lift up, the support and encouragement you provide reserve your spot in this photo as well.

So from all the kids on Jonathan's day off--thank you!

Monkey!

Yep! We have monkeys! Here's the picture Jonathan sent. He took it on the highway driving up to the school that is currently being built in Chimborazo. I looked Chimborazo, Nicaragua up on Google Earth and it was a big blob of green. Jonathan said it looks very much the same from his perspective. But with more rain. He described one point today standing in a ravine between two groups of howler monkeys calling to one another. Who knew they play that "We've-got-spirit-yes-we-do" game? I wonder if folks in Chimborazo would be as giggly excited about deer in the drive way as I am about monkeys on the highway?

The Road to Signal

As I look back on about two full weeks in Nicaragua, I've already seen some astonishing things. I understand why some call it "developing" and am beginning to seeing why some just call it "home."

My adventures this week have included a trip back to the school in Chimborazo I mentioned in an earlier post. While there, the need to use the phone arose. This is when I decided I had met the definition of developing country smack in the face. "No reception here. You have to go over there." said Miguel, my interpreter.  I walked about 50 paces and saw that "No Signal" still registered on my borrowed cell phone. "Sigue mis hijos," (follow my sons) directed one of the locals.

That's when it began.

I watched as the young men almost hurdled a barbed-wire fence, knowing that my attempt would be neither graceful nor quick, but took comfort in the fact that I'd had a tetanus shot recently enough to throw caution to the wind and follow. The two teens led me down a muddy pass--through water that had certainly just passed through the urinary tract of the bovines that greeted me as I entered their pasture. As the mystery mud oozed between my toes and over the ankle tops of my socks I tried not to think about its contents. At the bottom of the downside of the trail I realized what had to come next - its slicker, slimier upside. I climbed--grasping branches, thick grass and rocks in hopes that when I inevitably face-planted in the mud that perhaps I'd be spared the nastier of the diseases known to take harbor in cattle bladders.

Finally reaching the peak of the slippery slope, (and incredibly winded as you would expect an overweight, out-of-shape, asthmatic with bad knees to be) I paused expecting vistas of grandeur and cellular bliss.

But I was wrong.

Ahead of me: two acres of potatoes and my teenage guides already half-way across. Wondering what other obstacles lay between me and this mythical land of "Signal"--I wheezed my way across the crops in hopes that the boys would stay far enough in front of me not to see me drop to my knees just prior to certain death, or at least long enough for me to catch my breath. I watched as they continued to walk, and walk. And walk. They got smaller as they crossed a small fence and continued their trek. Finally, they stopped walking.

Half an acre behind them, (beans this time), I realized one of the boys was pointing up into the sky. As I got closer I realized he was holding his phone, searching for "Signal." Arriving in the small clearing where they were standing I began fiddling with the phone in an official-looking manner,(while actually just trying to allow time for my breath to catch up to me), I realized I still had no signal.

Had all of this been for nothing? Oh, spare me the injustice!

"What?" I thought to myself as the older of the two animatedly pointed at a rock, then finally stepped up on it and held his phone as if to say, "Like this you dumb gringo!" Following his example, I hopped up on the rock and held my phone high as if to say, "Signal, don't fail me now."

And it didn't. I was immediately connected with the city-folk in Jinotega and was left marveling at this scrap of a very modern world hidden on a rock, nestled in the high mountains of Nicaragua. I  had survived the road to "Signal." 

Week 1

Hello, all!

To say I have been busier than a one-armed paperhanger in a room full of rocking chairs would be an understatement. I have hit the ground running. This is a busy place and I am getting to know those with whom I am working and what it is they do. The people are amazing and I am blessed that God has sent me here.

I have been pleasantly surprised at the size of our apartment, especially the kitchen. We have a range (it doesn't heat) and a refrigerator (it doesn't cool) and some day soon we hope they will serve their designated purposes. 

My Spanish, although showing some improvement, remains "for entertainment purposes only." 

Yesterday I did what we Texans would call off-roading and mudding in an area of the state called Chimborazo. The locals call it "driving to Chimborazo." We are building a school there. School begins here Monday and it looks like we will miss the deadline. So goes construction. We have the roof to complete. We have had rain everyday since I have been here which is unusual as this is the dry season. I will send pictures as soon as missing elements of technology being shipped catch up to me and as soon as I figure out what in the world I am doing here! :-) 

I miss you, look forward to a brief visit in April and am hopeless at counting how blessed I am to have your support, whether it is through encouragement of kind words, financial and/or, most importantly, prayer.

God bless you all,

Jonathan