Fruit of the day: Nancites

These are nancites.
I try really hard to write positively about the interesting things I encounter here in Nicaragua.
Hmm...what positive things can I say about nancites?
They are very economical. Two bags this size are around a buck.
They are almost a pretty color of yellow.
Hmmm.....they are...small, so eating one is over quickly?

O.K. I give up. I hate hate hate them. They are awful. And believe me, I have tried. I have a running game with one of the ladies who works here: every morning she's been bringing a bag of them and eating them for breakfast. I try to eat as many as I can without spitting anything out. It's been a week and a half, and my all time record is 2. They are awful.

They have a very powerful and bright fragrance. (You know, like something rotten.)
They texture is soft, creamy and custard-y. (You know, like something rotten.)
They taste--well, like something rotten. The rounded sourness of spoiled milk, with just a hint of the acidity and burn of bad meat.

Yumm.
I tried for this blog post to beat my record of 2 whole nancites consumed.
I was not successful.

Easy to share! Yeah, that's it. Nancites are made  for sharing. Come on down. You can have all of mine.

June update

Hello all:

The summer seems to be rolling past in a hurry. Seems like just yesterday I was writing the May update. Maybe that is because I was so late in getting it to you. We have just come off a very full week with 49 visiting workers. We immediately prepared and begin yesterday with 75 guests in-house and I am excited about the possibilities of completing several projects, and the doors that will be opened to our evangelists by this effort.

The work during this time has been challenging as more people means more personalities, more preparations, more individualized thought on how things should work. Everyone is exhausted, but we continue to plug on as we still have several full weeks of guests on the horizon. The idea of thinking outside the box has risen to levels that we feel we are incapable (or unworthy) of reaching. We know this is only made possible by God who eventually zaps the right synapse in the creativity sector of our brains for us see it.

The photo below is of the board that I use to set which projects are used, how many American workers there are at each location, who is the translator, who is the driver, which intern, which Nicaragua leader is in charge, which vehicle they take and which venue works for that project. I set this in the middle of the week prior to a group coming in. Half of the activities change locations at mid-day. Many of the small rectangles change based on who shows up for work, who can drive which vehicles and which days school is in session. It's like a constant game of giant Sudoku, but with few numbers that remain constant. At the end of the day we start checking supplies for the next day.

yes, a graduate level course is required to decipher the thing

God has provided us with the opportunity to examine 840 pairs of eyes (most people had two) at the mid-way point of 2013. Of those we examined we fitted 579 pair, and referred 34 children. This is a direct result of your spiritual and financial support.

Please join us in our current prayer list:

• Peace about the work here
• Clarity for God's Will
• New opportunities in the development of a new program
• Consistently good health
• Acquisition of a new piece of eye exam equipment and the peripherals that accompany it.
• Dan and Marsha Swenson
• Residency and Adoption processes

Finally, on a lighter note, Sheila's distraction by the mice that have been running wild in the apartment has been greatly reduced. After months of trying traps, poisons and loud noises, the installation of a new feline-based rodent abatement system seems to be doing the trick - at least as far as we can tell. I don't know if the fear (smell) of the system is a deterrent to the rodents or the system is actually catching them.  So far we have only seen shoe laces suffering from her wrath. Nevertheless, we haven't seen many of the tiny monsters around lately. Ikaia (ee-KAI-yah) is a great name for a cat. But it is more than just a great name, because in the Miskito language it means assassin. Self-fulfilling prophecy? We'll see.

This picture does not need a thousand words to invoke fear...

God bless you and we miss you. Thank you again for all you do. We'd love to hear form you.

Grace, peace and Mercy...but mostly Mercy,

"Coach" Jonathan L. Holland,

Fruit of the day: pera

not actually a pear

I have been waiting for this one to come in season, as I remembered it from when I first got here, then never saw it again. People around here say you only get pera once a year, so enjoy it. (Nope, I have no idea why.)

I can see why it is called "pera" (you guessed it--that means pear) even though the internet says it is a rose apple (also pomarosa). It looks like a pear--and kind of has a pear-ish taste. If a pear were softer and had less flavor. 

The skin is very waxy and onion-skin thin. In fact, of the 4 pera I bought the skin was split on all but this one. What looks like a pit is kind of a nugget of fuzzy stuff. Weird. I threw that right out. The flesh feels lighter than a pear or an apple would--and it looks like it's going to be very dry--but is surprisingly juicy. The flesh is mealy, grainy, and almost melts away as you chew it. The texture is closer to watermelon than apple.

The internet will tell you that it has a flavor of roses--but I think that's crazy. It mostly has the flavor of nothing. But if you close your eyes and concentrate you can almost convince yourself it is a very mild pear. And since you are not going to find any pears while you are in Nicaragua, you can enjoy it very much!

Fruits of the day: guava and guaba

If you have spent much time with Spanish speakers, you may have noticed that the "v" and "b" sounds are often used interchangeably. That is not the case with these two fruits. That one almost imperceptible sound is the difference between a somewhat familiar round crunchy fruit, and something more suitable to Saturday morning cartoons!

this is a guava

this is a guaba

 Guava is a firm textured fruit, vaguely like a pear without much flavor. I have heard people say the taste is like pear with a hint of strawberry. I disagree. I don't know if that is because the guavas I ate were not at the right stage of ripeness, or because those people have only tasted those gigantic flavor-less, pithy strawberries that are so hardy and ship-able. (Oh, Oregon strawberries, how I miss you!) I found the guavas I have eaten to be unobjectionable, but mostly flavorless. They are big, cheap, plentiful, and easy to manage. They can fill you up, but were a bit cardboard-y.

inside a guava is kinda boring--like the taste. you can eat the seeds if you want.

Guaba is this weird, giant, alien, bean pod. I have heard that it is sometimes called "ice cream plant" because the stuff inside reminds people of vanilla ice cream flavored cotton candy.

who would expect something sweet from inside this?

The pod is very (and I mean VERY) tough and fibrous. You can open it without a knife, buy your fingernails will wish you had used a knife. Once you rip open the guaba you will see a row of bean-like seeds. Most of mine were sprouting. Surrounding each bean is a white furry coating. That seed coat is the only part that is edible. 

It kinda goes against all my food-safety instincts to purposely eat something furry. I guess that's why travelers often describe it as "cotton-candy-like" to help people take the plunge and eat that furry stuff. But the texture is nothing like cotton candy. I think people describe it that way because they think it sounds better than saying, "caterpillar-skin".  But trust me, my description is far more accurate. Of course, I suppose, to a lot of people that might sound bad. But these "caterpillar skins" are delicious!

The furry skin thing is smooth on the side that touches the bean, and slips off of the bean easily. I thought it would be dry and chewy, or cottony, but it is quite juicy. I didn't really get the vanilla ice cream taste that was described to me--but it was certainly as sweet as ice cream. Incredibly sweet, and very mild. As I tried to pin down the flavor one furry caterpillar skin after another,  I was reminded of eating jelly beans. The sugar-y taste often overpowers the mildly familiar flavor and you are reading the back of the package to figure out what the pink ones are supposed to be.

From the whole gi-normous pod, you end up with just a tiny bit of food. This is not a fruit to pack as your lunch, but it is a delightfully sweet treat. And inside the beans are some beautiful little surprises!

May-ish Report

Greetings all:

Let me start by apologizing for being so tardy with this update. The guest missionary season has officially begun and with the large groups, 50+/- this past week, we have been running long hours with little time for our usual pursuits.

We were blessed this past month to deliver tooth brushes and toothpaste sent by Dr. Ryan Roberson, DDS, to a school who desperately needed them and who asked for them some time ago. Ryan answered the request promptly but the container was very slow in getting here. Thanks, Ryan.

We were blessed by the visit of Paula Vercher for about a week. She jumped in and went along with whatever craziness there was in store as we traveled all over, showed her the work we do here and had  her help us prepare for the upcoming groups. It was special for us in that she is the first non-group friend to come and visit us here in Nicaragua.

We also had a bit of a reversal from what we normally see here as three women made a commitment to Christ through water baptism. We see quite a few baptisms around here, but they are usually Nicaraguans. We were blessed to be a part of a spiritual renewal of these ladies from Castle Rock, CO who were here helping us serve the Nicaraguans. Praise God!

We continue to hold eye glass clinics and have competed vision screening of city employees at the Jinotega City Hall, the National Police station in Jinotega, and a home for children who live in Jinotega during the week to attend the deaf education program here. We were visited recently by a family SIGHT has been helping. Their daughter is a six-year-old who has had three eye surgeries to correct cataracts and glaucoma. She will receive her new glasses this week, and although they carry a heavy prescription, she will be able to see clearly. Misión Para Cristo and SIGHT were the tools God used through your generosity to restore this child's sight.

We are working on procuring some specialized eye exam equipment that is designed to travel. Our old table top equipment is taking a beating, but is better than nothing. If you have contacts with any service organizations, especially Lions International, we would like help making contact with them.

We hosted a very unique children's day here in Jinotega. We have many schools that do not have any area to play. For instance, Santa Inés is built between a deep ravine and a highway. The children literally have only feet to play and that area is dangerous. So we bused in about 100 children from three different schools and entertained them with Bible stories and provided activities as part of the national Children's Day holiday. It was a blast and the visitors from Highway Church in Judsonia, AR and Fort Worth Christian High School made it a success.

Thanks to Lori Esch, a PE teacher at Georgetown's Mitchell Elementary, and Narce Flores from Kaufman ISD who have gathered end-of-year school supplies to send to us. Lori has offered to haul these supplies to Abilene for the next container this month or next. If you have items to send please contact her at eschl3314@gmail.com.  Thank you all for this special kind of support for the students of our schools here.

This week we welcome medical students from Texas Tech, along with Olive Branch Ministries, also based in Lubbock, who will work in six communities in the form of mobile medical brigades. There will be about 45 visitors. Additionally, we will have 24 or so translators, 10-to-12 MPC staff members and about 15 preachers who will help in this effort. That means moving, feeding and placing about 100 people daily. It is a truly awesome opportunity to touch the lives of many and impact their physical and spiritual health.

The residency and adoption process continues. We have all the documents in place with the exception of one and are hoping and praying that we can get it accomplished without an expensive trip back to the United States. Please pray for the resolution of this final document issue and the prompt progress of these processes.

While you are praying, MPC is looking at a new opportunity that would include a program for children of direct, specific and specialized support in the developmental areas of spiritual, physical, socio-emotional and mental. This is a project of which I would be asked to take the direct leadership. Those of you who know me know this is near and dear to heart.

Finally, Sheila and I have been taking turns battling minor flu and stomach maladies the last couple weeks. Nothing major or really anything that is taking us out of the game, but not dealing with it would be far better. Pray for health.

Finally, we are allowed to be here doing what we do because of you. That is not something we take lightly, nor forget. We think of you often and praise God that we have you on our side and as a prayer warrior, financial supporter, or both. We anxiously await the opportunity for some of you to visit with us soon and see what it is we are doing here in person.

Until then,

Jonathan and Sheila

Fruit of the day: granadilla

I found this one in an actual grocery store in a near-by town. I have not found granadilla in our market in Jinotega, but I have been offered fruit drinks that included granadilla. After I tasted it, I understood why it was part of a mixed fruit drink.

It is big, and the outside is oddly sponge-y. It had almost no smell at all, and I wasn't really sure what part of it to eat--but decided I could figure out.

so very sqeazable! you can see all my finger indentations--it felt just like a damp sponge

Once I cut into it, I did not need a wikipdeia entry to let me know this is related to passion fruit and maracuya. Something I never would have guessed, as maracuya has such a tough, smooth and leathery skin.  But there is just no mistaking the family resemblance with that weird frog-spawn-seed-filled-goo that is so characteristic of maracuya. 

I knew just what to do. I grabbed a handful of the slimy seed filled sacks and popped them in my mouth.  I was expecting them to be as similar in taste to passion fruit as in appearance. But I was wrong. Their was very little taste at all. The seeds themselves were tangy and sour but the flesh surrounding them was just sort of wet and present. I can see why it is typically used to "fill out" another drink.

more info here

Fruit of the day: zapote

The rains have begun and the land is changing fast. So are the things we find in the market. Today Marina brought in some zapote.

It has a very leathery skin that looks like the bark of a tree.



Inside you find a bright orange flesh and a large smooth central pit.

It is smooth and creamy--custardy rather than crunchy or fibrous and reminded me a bit of the flavor of cantaloupe. It had almost no smell at all.  It was mildly sweet and had a slightly dusty flavor--although not in an unpleasant way.

The ladies here explained that this particular fruit is native to Nicaragua, but is also beginning to be cultivated for sale further south of us. Rumor has it that the seeds are made into something intoxicating...but don't worry, we just ate the fruit.