The first 9 days

There are two seasons here in Nicaragua: rainy,and dry. My roomate Danielle and I arrived here on separate flights on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, right at the commencement of the rainy season. It will pour, and thunder, and flash spontaneously and with reckless abandon for the next 5 months. And we will be in service.

Whether in wet or dry season, it is always humid. It even smells moist here. Riding down the Pan-American highway from Managua to Sébaco, where we are assigned, the varying terrains are either covered with rich green foliage or peppered with lush trees in the middle of tilled fields or tiny towns, reflecting the benefits of the tropical climate. My skin and hair love it. It is always about 85 degrees, and even when the sky is overcast, care still must be taken with the Atlantic sun; for even behind clouds, she does know how to burn brown sugar. ;-)

We live in a cute one-bedroom apartment, next door to two regular pioneer sisters named Fuebi and Chigemi, who have been here for 8 years. They have been invaluable in helping us get settled in. So were our friends Oscar and Jenny. (They are serving in Diriamba, Carazo; about 2 hours from here. Oscar's father lives in San Francisco but has a beautiful home in Managua. Oscar and Jenny were gracious enough to pick us up from the airport, take us shopping for necessities for our place, and let us get a good night of delicious, air-conditioned sleep in Managua before the long trip to Sébaco the next day. They donated to us our first appliance and first piece of furniture; a small stove with two burners that connects to a gas tank, and a queen sized bed, as well as some dinnerware so we could eat that first night. Without Oscar, Jenny, Fuebi, Chigemi, and Shannon and Nelson (other friends from home who serve in nearby Esteli and gave me tons of advice to help me prepare); as well as other friends we have made so quickly in the Sébaco congregation, this week would have been substantially more challenging.

There are 55 publishers in the congregation, and there are 30,000 residents in this town. So that calculates to roughly one publisher to 545 persons. There is A LOT of work to do here. So pioneers have been sent here on rutas ( a temporary service assignment in an area outside of one's local congregation) from Mexico, El Salvador and other parts of Nicaragua. We got to work right away, and when we arrived at the meeting for service, the attendance was standing-room only. At first I thought, there's no need here, there are plenty of workers. But then as I began talking with the the brothers and sisters I learned that those numbers were large mainly because of the visting volunteers. And then, we hit the streets.


Sébaco has relatively nice areas, like the neighborhood where we live. Other than the trash that people are accustomed to carelessly tossing on the ground, many homes are well-built and have electricity. But on the outskirts of the city are many barrrios rurales, or rural neighborhoods, where people live in poorly constructed houses made of materials. As you can imagine, these are our favorite territories. People are humble and willing to listen and learn. So willing, in fact, that the pioneers here all but jumped for joy when they got here, because they could finally take a load off and pass some of this abundance of studies to other teachers. Don't you wish you had that problem?

I'll tell you more about some of my experiences later. But I just wanted you to see a little bit of what Missionary Monday looks like:



That's right, we wash clothes by hand. My whites have never been so white! And we walk to the markets to by groceries. Alot of things here require patience, adaptation, and just plain ingenuity. I'll have to take a picture of the way we were able to rig up a mosquito net over our bed, though we live in a house with a tin roof and no ceiling. But I'm enjoying the simplicity of life and learning so much every day. I'm a little overwhelmed by how much work there is to do, but I know we won't be doing it without the best help available!