Winter Washout

One week, it's hard to believe that's all there is left to October. It has been an uneventful month in which we've enjoyed the luxuries of living in a modern house complete with tv and internet while the Perkins family has been in the States. But tomorrow, it is back across the street, back to life with out these modern day luxuries. Sigh.

Since October has been a fairly uneventful month we thought we'd let the pictures do the talking for us...demonstrating a little bit of what Nicaragua in October is like.



But before we get to all of that, one exciting development for us has been watching our dear friend Luisa opening her own pulperia (Nica 7-11). Luisa has been a faithful woman in our church, the cook for all our teams, and owner of the consignment clothing store Northshore sends used clothing down regularly. She is a dear woman. A strong woman of faith who has demonstrated an incredible heart and joy even while her family has been hanging on by threads the last few years. Thanks to a micro-loan given out by the economics team in September she was able to start up a pulperia and we have seen a burdened lifted and an even greater smile upon her face.



Our friends Bryden and Trista Russell, from our B.C./Trinity Western days, stopped by Managua for a week as they backpack their way through Central America. It was awesome to have good friends to chill with each evening, playing cards, making dinner, and experiencing the Wii together. We also got to take Bryden to the hospital since he had some crazy intestinal bug attack him...that was probably in the top three most eventful things that happened to us this month...next to the lightening strike that hit the Perkins property frying their power invertor and swimming inside their house due to all the rain.





Finally, we thought we'd show the destructive and awesome power of Nicaraguan rains. The above pictures are a few examples of what we like to call "winter washout." The top pictures are what used to be the road we take to the beach. Now there is a ginormous hole in the road which will most like take them a year or two to fix. The bottom pictures is the road right before getting to the beach. Apparently the waterfalls above the road have a wee-bit more water than usual as it has spilled over the road. Also, we thought we'd share a video of what the road directly in front of the school becomes during all this rain.

October Rains

October is fondly known as the month of rain down here. It is a month of mud, of mosquitoes, of torrential down pours, beautiful sunsets and cooler days. To those from Washington, it is a month that has the sentiments of home. I personally have been relishing the changes. I have worn pants more than shorts and skirts. I have actually worn my hair down a few times instead of in the continuous ponytail I've had since we moved here. While these may seem strange things to find joy in I've missed these small changes. In any case, both of us have enjoyed the cooler weather, the ability to move around and not immediately break into a sweat. And we laugh at ourselves when we feel cold cause the weather has dropped into the low 80s high 70s. So far it has been a good month. A refreshing change of season.

We recently experienced two dramatic examples of the soaking power of Nicaraguan rain. The first came on a trek on which we were helping bring food to a feeding program out to Montfresco, a neighboring community to Los Cedros. There are a series of puddles, or rather lakes, that have gradually increased in size over the past three weeks on the dirt road out to Montefresco. We have learned how to navigate with the skill and savvy of a local and with the help of some sweet 4-wheel drive action.

But on this particular drive our "puddle senses" failed us. We decided to navigate one particular "luddle" (lake/puddle) we knew to have a huge dip that, before the recent heavy rain, was almost past the headlights when driven through. So confident in our idea and in our truck, we passed through the puddle only to quickly discover a horrible rut that managed to high center our truck and render our 4-wheel drive useless. Mistake 1 - stick to what you know when it comes to "luddles". Mistake 2- just cause you have 4-wheel drive doesn't mean you can pass through anything untouched. Mistake 3- always have your camera handy!

Fortunately we had many Nica's come to our rescue, complete with a cowboy and his horse. After a few failed attempts, the cowboy galloping off on his horse to grab a chain, and a quick call for help from Lee Lockridge, we managed to get our truck out of the hole. If only we had had a camera for it was a prime photo opportunity.





Top: Josh and Mateo Bustamante getting the grill ready. Mateo Bustamante waiting for dinner to come.
Middle: MF demonstrating how delicious the BBQ was. Pastora and Pastor Manuel posing so nicely for me!
Bottom: Seattle groupy BBQing after the crazy rain that soaked our house. Halle August (minus his awesome wife), a dear friends who hails from Woodinville.

Our second amazing rain experience happened last Saturday. The thing about rain down here is that you can actually feel when it is coming. The wind picks up, the thunder starts rolling, the lightening starts stricking, the sky is blackened with ominious clouds and there is a heaviness that comes to the air. We noticed all of those changes but did not expect the intensity of water that was about to deluge the Perkins (family across the street who we are housesitting for) house. As the clouds moved over us it was like being hit sideways by a wall of water. Water was streaming in through every window in the house regardless of whether they were closed or not. It also started pouring in through the high windows the Perkins have in their vaulted ceiling. All we could do was laugh at the fact that we could go "swimming" inside, marvel at the crazy force of the rain, and grab some mops to start pushing the water back outside. Needless to say, we've had a nature adventurous last couple of weeks.





Top: Lee Lockridge the handy man working on our new fence. Josh demonstrating just how much these watermelon plants have grown in the past two weeks!
Middle: Our new fence at the entrance to the school. A view of the growing garden!
Bottom: We have success! Our first banana crop!

Beyond the entertainment rain has brought things around the school have been fairly quiet. Pastor has put her foot down so that we are not losing so many days of school to all the thousands of holidays this country has. Instead we've only had one celebration so far this month which, amazingly, didn't cause us to lose a day of school. It was the day of Nicaraguan Food. All of the kids and teachers brough traditional food to school to share amongst ourselves. The students in their classes were required to stand up and explain to the class how their typical food was made, what it consists of , and what makes it traditional. For the most part we've come to enjoy these traditional foods and enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate with our friends.





Top: Plate of typical Nica food (pork, cabbage salad, and yucca), Third graders waiting to present their food to the other classes.
Middle: Fernando one of my sweet 2nd graders proudly showing off his food. Helmon, a 4th grader, giving his food presentation to the class.
Bottom: Josh and Jasmina (2nd grade teacher) displaying some traditional Nica food. MF, Fatima and Cela also showing off some traditional Nica food before our potluck.

Other than that we are starting to wind down. We have 4 weeks left of classes and 8 weeks left in total here. With that comes a mixture of feelings and the beginnings of reflection on our year here. I will end with some verses I have been reflecting on. Psalm 111:3- "Everything He does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails. He causes us to remember His wonderful works." Every face, every life, every experience we've had, every majestic bolt of lightening that shatters and splinters across the sky, every deep and powerful rumble of thunder, every drenching of rain, every cry we've uttered, every moment we've rejoiced have been opportunities to see and know our Creator in a new and deeper way. We rejoice in that. We rejoice in knowing that "we are God's masterpiece" (Ephesians 2:10) just as the sunset below is yet another display of His greatness and glory.

September Fun

September: It was a good month, a full month. September was a month filled with fun events with our students, new challenges, new adventures, and LOTS of family! After all of the school celebrations we mentioned in the last blog, we had an economics team from Northshore come. This team consisted of 5 people, one of which was Tom King (Josh's Dad)! Who would have thought we would have coerced him into coming down twice in one year? Anyway, it was a good week of running around from meeting to meeting discussing potential opportunities and ways to initiate economic development in Los Cedros. In the end, the team decided to provide a micro-loan to Luisa to help her open a "pulperia", which is essentially a small house-front store that supplies basic housing and food goods. Luisa is a wonderful woman who has faithfully made delicious meals these last three years for all the teams and who runs a consignment clothing shop from her home that helps finance the feeding program we run at the school. Needless to say, we are excited to see how she takes off and develops this business dream of hers.

However, the highlight of September for us was getting to meet our 6 month old nephew Jude! Since he was born in March, we have been dying to meet him and see what an incredible gift he is. We were not dissapointed by how cute he is or what a fun personality he has. But, we were not prepared for how much of a chunk he is! We are used to our adopted nephew Isaac Bustamante who is two weeks younger than Jude but weighs 15 pounds, where as Jude weighs 25! Needless to say, we built up some muscle this past week hauling him around!





Top:Our nephew we fondly call "Jabba Jude"- Jude Thomas Stroh
Bottom:Farmer Josh and Farmer Tom prepping the garden for seeds! Uncle Josh and Jude (this was taken shortly after the explosion, see story below)

Josh also had the wonderful experience of being fully initiated into uncle-hood. One day, we stopped to have lunch on our way to the artisan market in Masaya. Josh, being the good uncle he is, offered to carry Jude in to the restaurant so that Casey and Micah could have a break. He gingerly grabbed Jude and held him while we pulled out the stroller and other baby paraphanelia from the car. A few moments later, we noticed what looked like creamy sweet potatoe peanut butter on Josh's wrist. But no, it wasn't peanut-butter, it was Jude butt-er (ha ha). Oh yes, Jude had exploded out the side of his diaper all-over his uncle's shirt! So with exclamations of "Oh that's nasty!" Josh ran down to the nearest street clothing vendor to buy a new shirt, while we changed Jude's entire outfit and diaper in the back of the car. It was pretty hilarious!



Top: Casey and Micah, Josh and MF on our one venture outside our resort walls.

Other than that, we had fun showing Casey and Micah around Los Cedros, having them help in my classes, and helping plant the garden on the school grounds. We also got to spend a glorious weekend with them at the sleepy little fishing village on the coast we love called San Juan del Sur. We stayed at the most amazing resort in Nicaragua called Pelican Eyes, and procceeded to indulge ourselves in the tourist life. In fact, we loved it so much we only did one sunset beach walk as the rest of the time we were indulging in the infinity pools, breath-taking views and amazing food.




Top:Swimming with Jude is so much fun! Jude since we all posed for the sunset picture, it was only right that Jude posed too!
Bottom: Picturesque view from Pelican Eyes. Jude and Josh getting some face time.

Needless to say, these last two weeks of September we have been entirely too spoiled by having our family here. Now we are on to October which, from what we've been told, is the rainiest month of the year. It's hard to believe that we now only have two months left down here and our goal is to dig in and enjoy the last weeks we have down here.

With that said, we have begun the process of looking towards home and with that comes a few specific prayer requests. We are confident of the faithfulness of God to get us home, as he was faithful to bring us down here, but would appreciate support in prayer as well.

*Jobs- At this point, we are still praying for further direction in this area. I (MF) have started looking to ESL teaching opportunties while Josh has started looking into/studying for a career in financial planning. We are praying for wisdom in what lies ahead for us in these areas.

*Car- We are in the process of trying to sell our vehicle we purchased down here, finding a buyer can be difficult so we are praying that the process will go smoothly.

*Perseverance- We are nearing the end of our year here and it would be easy to slip into a detached attitude, but our desire is to continue to be here mentally and emotionally, which is sometimes easier said that done.

September Celebrations

September so far has held a lot of new and now familiar cultural experiences for us. Nicaraguans are known for their tendency for over celebrating both major and minor holidays. It doesn't really matter what the occasion is, it should be celebrated in style with a minimum of two days off and lots of pomp and ceremony. September for Nicaragua, is especially important as September 14th is their national Independence day.

Therefore, the last two weeks at school have been a strange mixture of mid-semester testing and preparation for our grand celebration of Nicaragua's independence. My responsibility in this preparatory phase was to teach 8-10 students how to do puppets. Ha! That was a challenge...how to put on a puppet show with no actual puppet materials? We ended up finding some puppets a team had brought down that were essentially clay heads glued to an over-sized Popsicle stick. The beautiful thing about these puppets was that when the sun came out, they became soft and their little plastic bobble eyes fell off. I had the intention of gluing them all back on, but I turned my back for two seconds and some little kid walked off with all the eyes! So, some of our puppets had one eye, or no eyes at all. Let's just say that in the end our puppet show required A LOT of imagination.



'Congreso is so much fun!- Pre-schoolers....Two of my 1st graders getting ready for the art contest.

Anyways, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this last week we held a "congreso" for the kids, which is basically like an all day school assembly. We had an art contest, a popularity contest in which the students voted for one girl and one boy from each class, soccer games, kickball games, and lunch. It was a lot of work, and challenging to try and keep all of the kids from getting totally out of control.







Top: "Stop cheering...it's so loud!"....racing to put the objects in the circles the fastest.
Middle: Making flags for our parade...and the concentration required to win an art contest!
Bottom: Me and Yaritza...The traditional outfits for Nicaraguan folk dancing.

Finally, on Friday was the last day in which we celebrated Nicaragua's Independence Day (two days early) with a march through Los Cedros and a talent show from the kids. During the march, we were accompanied by the band of one of the public schools. The band consists of two parts. The girls who march and dance in the front and the boys who bang on their drums and dance around with what looks like a large cheese grater they wail on with a metal stick...perhaps it would be better described if you could see/hear it for yourself (i.e. check out the video below). Our kids followed behind the band waving flags and carrying banners and the national flag.






Top: View of the Indpendence Day parade. Josh and me in our "traditional" Nica shirts
Bottom: Mf and all the teachers in our matching shirts. The token male teachers (Josh and Carlos) modeling their matching shirts.

Once we got back to the school, the real ceremony began. Most of the kids were involved with various "talent" performances. We had kids quoting patriotic poetry and doing interpretive dances to their all time favorite worship song "Tomalo" (Take it all), and the highlight of the performances our awesome puppet show (j/k). One of the things I love the most though is seeing the kids participating in the traditional folk dances of Nicaragua. It is so fun to see the girls dressed up in their brightly colored dresses with flowers in their hair participating in part of their cultural heritage.




A few of the elementary girls showing of their folk dancing skills...A proud display of the Nica flag.

Beyond all the fanfare of the last few weeks, life has been pretty steady for us. One interesting change has been that Josh has taken on a new and often frustrating role of being the "Inspector of behavior." One of the frustrating parts of the school has been that there is not a very successful discipline structure at the school. Part of the problem is that, according to Nicaraguan law in the public schools, they are not allowed to give students detention, are not allowed to deny them entrance to classes, or take away recess, or really discipline the students at all. Therefore your classes end up looking like barely managed chaos and your teachers get worn out very very quickly. We, however, are outside of that jurisdiction to some extent since we are a private school. As a result, Josh, David and I have helped institute an actual disciplinary system, and Josh has been elected to enforce it. We will see how it works, but for now the students have the "fear of Josh" in them.


Our recent house guest thanks to all the rain :)

Well, I think we've run out of stories so I will let the pictures and videos do the rest of the writing.