acontecimientos

Friday was moving day for our office—picking up lots of heavy boxes and trying to move things like refrigerators and desks with files still in them really takes a lot out of me, for some reason. But, the hard work is over now, and we have some great new digs slightly closer to our house, and I have an actual office as opposed to the cubicle I resided in for the last 11 months.

On Friday night, one of the Nicaraguan women affiliated with my work here, Darling and her 2 kids came over to spend the night with me and Andrea. We ordered pizza, watched the Princess Bride in Spanish, and hung out on the porch until the mosquitoes drove us indoors.

Saturday morning Darling was up early looking for breakfast options, and quickly noted, “This is a VERY gringa kitchen. Lots of instant food.” She was right, but as I told her, we eat plenty of Nica food (and love it), we just don’t cook much of it ourselves. Nevertheless, we managed to scrape together the ingredients for rice and scrambled eggs with tomato/onions and warmed up some gringo tortillas. The second we were done eating, Darling was putting together the list of ingredients for our lunch—an old staple here known as Indio Viejo. (Basically it’s tender beef mixed with pureed tomato, onion, green pepper, and lime juice and then cooked with ground cornmeal). We spent 3 hours preparing this meal (with D. the ever present teacher), and it was so delicious I am sure I will be making it myself again soon! We also made some lime jello just for kicks...

The kids played internet games while A, D, and I talked about church politics, faith, and family. Then we painted our toenails and got ready to go to a coworker’s birthday party, where we sang happy birthday in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Dutch, and Misquito-the indigenous language of the east coast).

Sunday morning I left early with another coworker to attend a meeting of “negociantes” (small business people participating in one of the NC programs designed to instill Christian business principles and provide concrete tools for microenterprise improvements) in Chinandega, where I heard testimony after testimony of the difference this program has made in attitudes, families, and businesses in the area.

I spent the night at “the pastoral house”, where although my friends Pastor O. and his wife R. were not present, their family gave me a warm welcome and a cool room to sleep in (yes, it was air conditioned! For only the 2nd time in 11 months….) That night we had an awesome prayer and praise meeting in the “tabernacle room”, where the family has an actual replica of the Biblical tabernacle and other decorations that remind me of the OT. I also had a very meaningful discussion with my friend Carlos about Ruben Dario, linguistics, and the warmth and generosity of the Nica people.

This morning I helped sort clothing donations given to the pastor’s ministry with some of the youth from his church, and then visited some of the locations where the church runs “comedores infantiles”, or a free lunch program for children, pregnant women, and the elderly. And after a late lunch, I boarded a microbus (minivan) and headed back to Managua.

And now I am home.