First week in Nicaragua

First week in Nicaragua

From Westermeyer Portal:

You have probably by now figured out that just as the jest of Kriss posting for the last few weeks has been Belize, mine will in fact be about Nicaragua for the next nine months.? Hmm, the sound of the quantity Nine Months probably brings to you thoughts of something else other then the stay? in a country, and it is this my friends that I wish to announce.? I have discovered now, what my reason for my nine month stay in Nicaragua was for.? It is fact to give birth to the baby of Patience in my life.?? Its conception has already began with o?nly this first week of adventures, and something tells me that the rest of my adventure will indeed feed and care for the development of this being.??

At the end of the day I had succesfully obtained all the signatures and details needed and now needed to wait for a few legal tramites o?n Thursday and then o?n Friday it would all be done. ?????? O?n Thursday I set out to COVANIC to obtain, what I thought would be enlightment about what my mission was in the teaching realm and also guide of how to go about doing this mission. My surprise was however that first of all this adventure followed the pattern of every other adventure enjoyed here, that is it starts about 2 hours after scheduled, and that in fact I knew more about what I was doing then the people who were supposed to tell me.

The teachers at COVANIC however were most helpful in the best way they could. They showed me how to do class plans and had me practice with a few books, then they explained to me a little of the system and asked what else I needed to know. At this point I didnt know what else I needed to know so I said I was good and would call them later if I needed more help. That day was exciting becuase I was finally aloud by the locals to use local transportation. There seems to be this general horror of someone from outside wanting to travel o?n the normal means of transportation, but I was able to convince them that I would truly survive and that in fact I have been o?n many buses before and I would enjoy knowing how to get around independently. A lady by the name of Angela consented to helping me and off we went.

The buses and the stations reminded me of my trips in Bolivia, where every bus is advertized by several young boys who with all their lungs recite every single place where this bus might stop by, and they assure you that YES indeed it DOES go where you want to go, even though they havent yet heard where you want to go. It was a jolly experience though and I was excited to know that now I could go when I wanted to, without having to wait for those unending delays.

The next day we went for my last papers and the lawyer invited me to come spend the weekend with his family in a little town about an hour away from Managua. This seemed like a good option to me because I have now began to realize that the house where I am staying at is not currently inhabitated by any adventist therefore sabbath would end up being rather lonely if I stayed here. So I accepted the invitation, packed a few things up.. quickly, and off I went. After running around doing some more tramites.. ( I feel like I have effectively shadowed a lawyer now) we set out to the little town of Jinotepe. The road out of managua is very pretty. Nicaragua because of all its volcanoes and lakes is known for its variety of Microclimates and I in fact noticed this in o?nly the 50kms or so that we traveled. There was an area that looked like a dessert and I was explained that this was because the lava from the Masaya Volcano sends out gust of acid with such frequency that nothing can grow in that area. A little ways over the sights began to change and suddenly you find yourself immersed in tropical growth with banana trees and mangas and other interesting fruit growing and being sold by the wayside. Everything is lush and alive and the weather has become quite a bit cooler.

Then you come to a place called the crucero where in fact it remains foggy at several times of the day, and the weather there is cool enough to be o?ne of the best places to grow Mandarins.( which I might add, Ive enjoyed greatly) And so we traveled through several little towns, which look a more like what you would expect in a small country. With pebble paved roads that are about the width of a horse buggy. With colorful plazas that are alive with children and people conversing, in front of big Catholic Cathedrals that speak of better days in the area. ??

We arrived at the house of the lawyers parents and I spent a few hours there, beggining my tradition of the weekend of being past the point of fulness because of the kindness of the local people. This family is of very humble begginings however, the parents of the family have decided that they would inherent education to their children and so it is that their five children are well off to better opportunities in life. The eldest is a lawyer, next in line is a sister who has finished Dentistry(odontologia) a son who is finishing music education and who has performed for such people as the ambassodors of japan, the president and others.

Then a daughter who is going in to her 5th year of Medicine and a son who is finishing highschool. There story is a very inspiring o?ne for the people of Nicaragua, many of whom have been taught that because they are poor they cant do anything.

Later that evening we arrived at the lawyers house in Masatepe about 10 minutes away, there we picked up his wife and 1.5 year old son and went to the last night of a campa~na that they were doing in o?ne of the neighboring communities. This was a very exciting night for me. I enjoy seeing the local people so excited about bringing people into the church and I ask myself that why is that so many of us American Adventist have left behind this passion of bringing others to Jesus. The evening went well, with a presentation of the sabbath truth and invitations for people to come to church the next morning.

On sabbath morning, some of the people from the conferences did come to church, some of which were young folks, and because the usual youth leader was in some leadership convention I was asked to lead out the youth sabbath school. This I did, very excited and was mildly able to get a few people as excited as I was about the true meaning and the deep meaning of Christs sacrifice for us. Among those who seemed excited was o?ne of the new kids from the conference, and this made me quite happy. Later o?n during the service I noticed that the pianist was also at the same leadership conference and with some fear and trepadation I offered to play the piano. This I did, and I cant say its best playing theyll ever here, because in fact I messed up a bit, but it did liven up the singing a little ( maybe cause they were happy laughing at my mistakes) The point being I conquered my ever lasting fear of playing piano in public and did it anyways.. who cares if I mess up.. better is something even if its not perfect, then nothing. Or so I think. ????? To be continued

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