Colegio Cristiano en Nicaragua: http://www.nicaraguachristian.org/

Our email: bracken@nicaraguachristian.org

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A new day

Nicaragua trivia: Did you know that…. Nicaragua has the only fresh water sharks in the world.  Did you know… that Nicaragua is a huge producer of peanuts, but a jar of peanut butter is a rare and expensive item.

Where to begin… another week has passed and the adventures continue. The gas man finally came, not only once but twice. He finally set us up with a very large gas tank (100 lbs) This should have lasted us for several months. However his expert skills left us with a leaky valve. What was to last several months only lasted a week. Thankfully he did come shortly after the tank was empty and fixed it. At the top of the adventure list is the 5.4 earthquake that I was unaware of. I was apparently driving when it hit and you cannot feel earthquakes while driving (at least not on Nicaragua roads.) Kim and Jaden were excited to feel the tremors. Upon talking with our good friend and occasional translator (ok, ok …. All the time translator) Nicaragua can have several earthquakes every year. Many more earthquake adventures await us. Also this week we made a trip to see another good friend and local preacher “El Doctor” (relax Mom and Dad nothing to get excited about) Our son Jaden got too much play time with a local dog and picked up a skin parasite. The treatment worked, however, the medicine to stop the itching(which was diaper rash cream) ended up creating a very itchy rash. Leaving Jaden more itchy than before. Prior to this incident our children were determined to save all the dogs in Nicaragua from starvation. I was concerned that I might be stuck setting up a hotel for dogs. Now every dog is a leper and if they approach Jaden or Kora it will be at risk of life or limb. Kora is now obsessed that every red spot, bump or possible freckle is now a growing parasite in need of immediate medical attention. I can’t complain too much, the doctor visit plus the cost of the medicine all came to a whopping $5.00. Yes, you read that correctly; medicine, tube of ointment cream, and physician visit was a total of five dollars. This also included a follow up house visit!!

I admit that we still need our translator on a regular basis, but we have completed our first level of Spanish classes and we are now able to thoroughly and completely understand every word of a 1 year old (that may be an overstatement) We are now starting our second level and expect to be left more confused after that. We were told that we will be able to understand most of our conversations after about six months. We will see about that.

I have been running here and there, waiting for hours in lines while I try to complete this form or that form for license plates, truck registration, and now for a Bank account. Local friends have had an extraordinary impact. It would have taken me months to get everything worked out. A large number of thanks to everyone here that has helped us. Kim and the kids have been spending the last week helping at the school. As you know how fluent Kim is in Spanish (as seen by our results from our 1st level of Spanish) it is interesting to imagine how she communicates with the kids at school. I don’t think you will want to challenge her to a game of charades any time soon. She will smoke you. Teaching the kids games like “Red Rover”, “Duck, duck, goose” and “Red light, green light” without the use of words demonstrates her mad skills.

We also had fun playing a new game called “break in to your house.” Kora came up with the game. This game is for 1-8 players and suitable for ages 5 and up. First, you make sure that all the keys are left in the house. Note: It helps if your doors don’t have a knob and lock immediately upon closing. Then when everyone is out, close the door and see if you can get in using only what you can find outside. This was a lot of fun and something the whole family can play. Good times, good times.

We are preparing for our first visitors from the states, and looking forward to our time with them. We hope and expect many more visitors in the coming months. We offer an open invitation to all, but must warn you that Nicaragua requires upon entry into their country a jar of peanut butter or obscure item that is hard to find that is deliverable to the person you are staying with. Just call or email us and we will let you know what new item Nicaragua is requiring for entry. Give to us and we will be sure to get it to the proper authorities.


1 comment:

  1. James...you are getting the hang of this "blog" thing. Thanks for the update! Stay well...avoid dogs. :)

    ReplyDelete