Cooking Lesson

Today I decided to invite myself into a typical Nicaraguan kitchen to learn how to actually make Gayo Pinto.  I not only learned that but also how to make Fresco, Plantains and Beef. 

Peach Fresco

Boil fruit with sugar and water for 15min.  Let cool, then mix with a wooden masher while the pot is emerged in cold water.  You can’t use the blender while the mixture is hot.  Next blend for 1 full minute.  Strain.  Mix again.  Sit aside and add ice.

Rice

Boil water in a pot.  In another pot heat oil.  Add garlic and red onion.  Brown and then discard.  Add red onion and rice.  Stir constantly.  Add chintoma(sweet pepper).  Stir every few minutes.  After 7min add hot water and bring to a boil. Cover the rice after 5min.  Lower heat and cook until rice is soft.

Beans

Chop ½ white onion.  Add soy oil to pot.  Add onion.  Add cooked beans(were cooked with garlic and salt)  after begins to boil for 7min.  Turn off heat.

Salad

Cucumber, tomatoes, radice, onion, lettuce.  Wash lettuce and inspect for parasites.  Soak in water with bleach.  Dressing: 1 lemon, salt, vinegar and chili.

Plantains

Boil with water for 15min.

Beef

Oil, onion, raisins, sweet pepper, mustard, sofrito, Salsa Inglese(Worchester sauce), garlic, water.  Cook for 2 hours.  Cut up.  Put on stove with water, boil.  Add garlic and butter.

Night Tour Masaya Volcano

Today was jam packed.  First we woke up at 4am so we could drop Bree off to the airport.  Sadly, she has departed Nicaragua and has gone back to the States.  We enjoyed her company here as we explored the country and made new friends.  She will be dearly missed.  After the journey to Managua airport and back, Jamiliah and I slept to regain our strength for the day ahead.  Since it Thursday, as off day for service we decided to visit the market.  It was awesome!  The market has an outdoor as well as indoor section.  Inside, it’s dark and there’s everything under the sun being sold.  Meat on hooks, rice, sugar, cooking utensils, underwear, fruits and veggies, EVERYTHING!  I bought a cooking pan so I could cook the 4 pounds of meat that I bought for $1 USD!  After, we decided to sign up for the night tour of the volcano in Masaya.  It is still active and by going at night we got to see the most awesome sunset I’ve seen in Nicaragua.  The climb up the volcano was treacherous.  But the view was totally worth it.  We then put on gas masks and helmets and explored an underground cave that goes for miles and saw tons of bats.  We even went to a certain area of the volcano where you can see lava at the bottom.  It was beautiful and great physical exercise.

My Last/ Last Service Day

February 9th,

So I decided to devote my last day in Nicaragua to service.
I couldn't think of ending it in a better of a way.

So, Kim and I were finishing up with service in the afternoon with my study around 3. When we arrived to the house my study explained she needed to take her son to the library and asked if we could back around 5pm. Even though we were exhausted we said sure and decided to go ahead and meet the group in territory until 5. When we arrived at 5pm my study wasn't home yet, but her mother let us in. We witnessed to her for about 15 minutes until my study got home and she decided she wants to study the Bible Teach Book in Spanish! (yay)

So when we transitioned to conducting my study it lasted 2 hours! and it could of went longer but I had to wrap it up lol. But I really felt good leaving the house. Thanks to Jehovah, Kim and my study get along really good. Kim is great getting her to focus in on the main points and giving her little homework assignments. I hope with Jehovah's help, she will continue to progress and flourish with all the bible truths she's learning, because she's so hungry for it.

On my way home, I was walking down the Calzada and saw one of the bible studies who has been attending the meeting regularly and has so much zeal, its contagious! I remember, at one of the meetings on the part about what articles do you appreciate for the ministry, he named like 5, and was applying personal application...it's so faith strengthening. But, when I ran into him he was telling me how much courage he draws from the brothers and sisters condemnation and he just loves participating in the meetings. I started to think to myself i'm going to make an effort to have the same type of attitude as him...to be excited to comment not scared. I don't think he has any idea how much he encourages all of us too.

Then in the taxi, I was witnessing some more. I felt so encouraged and spirituality satisfied when I got home.

Then a couple friends came by to say goodbye, which was really sweet.
My last day was really nice.

some friends in service

The Coast

Feburary 2-6th

So in my opinion we really ended my last week here with a bang!
We traveled across the country first stop...Bluefields.

Ok so it took 12 long hours to get to Bluefields but we really wanted to go because we met some friends from there at the assembly. One of our friends Dayanelly (from Managua) is from there and wanted to go back home to visit her family and invited us to come with her...sounded like a great idea to us! So we met up at her house and 10 of her family members sent us off at the bus station at 8pm. And guess what...there were four other witnesses on our bus too; an need greater couple and a special pioneer couple who serve in Pearl Lagoon. Pearl Lagoon is an hour from we were going, but we had plans to go there on Saturday.

 So we piled into a school bus full of people and rode for 6 long hours...then we stopped in Rama, I believe, and waited till around 5:30 am to take the Panga (I have no idea how to spell that), which is a small motor boat to Bluefields. Of course, our panga was over-packed, it started raining, it was super cold and we ran out of gas lol but hey, it was really cool! The scenery was beautiful. It was very tropical. There were a lot of coconut trees and exotic flowers along the way. Once we reached Bluefields, it was very evident that this part of the country is nothing like we have ever seen. The people spoke Nica Creole (which is a combination of Spanish and English). They say things like: how ya day boi?....we reached..etc. The people were very tall and dark skinned. Absolutely beautiful and very nice. Once we arrived we spent the day with Dayanelly's family. We bought fresh fish from the market and fried it whole, had grilled cheese with coconut bread, and I chopped open a coconut with a machete! It was very nice day to relax. But around 8am the next morning we headed off to Pearl Lagoon on the Panga to go to the meeting and do service with our friend Jean for a few days.

Once we arrived to Pearl Lagoon we were immediately greeted by Sr. Kelly, our spiritual mama, for the next few days. She took us to her auntie's pastry shop for breakfast, and let me tell ya, her auntie can cook. I had Pico bread (bread filled with caramel and sugar) and sweet corn bread with coffee. After breakfast, Jean met up with us, and took us to drop our luggage off and walk around the town. The town is so small and everyone knows everyone. It's very evident that Jean makes it known that she is one of Jehovah's Witnesses because everyone refers to her as the "bible lady" but she's like please just call me Jean. One of our stops before the meeting was jumping into the ocean, so random, but the girls had so much fun! Then Jean's mother cooked lunch (chicken, rice, salad with Yucca and other unique vegetables, plantains and watermelon) and we ate guavas that we knocked down from a tree in her backyard!

The meeting was really encouraging. They only have 8 publishers in Pearl Lagoon, so there are plenty of opportunities to comment. And we had a lot of support from the brothers and sisters bible studies in attendance. A sister does the sound, one person does the mikes...its very interesting. The meeting was held in a special pioneer couples house (Heather and Brian).

The next morning we headed out in service...but I started the day out very clumsy. One thing you should know about Pearl Lagoon is that there aren't very many roads. We basically walked through swamps, mud, and fields. So to get to the hall you walked through this very muddy field...and Brian was trying to direct me through it because there are areas that are very deep (like waist deep)...and I fell...like three times! lol But afterwards, service was great! Everyone loves talking about the bible. People took time away from their businesses, set out chairs for you to sit in their home to learn about the truth. It truly was door to door territory; where everyone listens. It's so nice because you really get to work and improve your art of teaching. The special pioneer couple told me that have 23 bible studies! and they have territory that they have barely touched yet!

After service the whole hall had lunch together and went to the beach.
On the way home we took a 12 hour bus ride through a rainforest... muddy roads...down ravines, through the country. It was physically exhausting but breath-taking to see Jehovah's creation on that scale.

Granada Party

January 29th

After the meeting today we had a going away party for Marcelo, Cindy and Pancho.

It was a lot of fun and in true Nica style the lights went out on us. So while we were waiting on the generator we walked around the calzada and took some from friends from out of town to get some local fritonga.
When we got back we danced the night away. I literally could not sit down because the music was so energetic. Even though I didn't know all the words, I had fun dancing with the girls. We were making up crazy dance moves and they also taught me some of the local dances. One of my friends Noelia from Chinnadaga is a dance teacher so she really helped me a lot. That girl has so much energy.

It was nice to enjoy such good association.
I didn't want the night to end.

oh by the way chingaste is the settlement found on the bottom of a cacao drink. So when you drink it you have to shake it up. People here you it to mean all kinds of this things. In this case it means to get up and mingle and get on the dance floor!

Chinnidaga

January 27th-29th

The friends in Chinnidaga are so AWESOME!!!

Ok so this weekend was quite an adventure and no one had faith in us to pull it off but I prayed about it and I had faith we could do it.

So seven of us sisters (representing Granada, Managua, CA , NY, and Canada) met at the KH in Granada @ 10am to embark on our journey. Br. Dexter gave us some words of wisdom and his contact number and we went on our way. We walked to the bus terminal, took a chicken bus to La Uca, took a taxi to the Isreal terminal, and another bus to Chinnadaga, which took about 3 hours. Everyone was telling us oh it's going to take 5 hours...naw. As long as you take the right bus you are ok. It's was just very hot and you don't get to take any stops. Once we got there we seperated into two groups to go the different familie's houses where we would be staying and got dinner and went to the meeting. After the meeting we went across the street and had popusa's for 15 cords (SOOO GOOOD) and went home to sleep.

The next day we went out in service with Chinnadaga english and I met this lady who was very interested in learning the bible and we did the Truth Tract together. Her english was really good and she was like I like learning about the bible. She seemed a little disappointed I was going back to the states (that makes two of us) but I told her my friend would come back.

After service my friends Grethel and Rucio from Chinnidaga and I took a 45 min bus ride to meet my friend Daniel in Leon. Before we met up with him we walked around downtown and hung out and then we met up with him at this Mexican resturaunt for lunch. After lunch, Daniel decided he wanted to go back to Chinidaga with us and hit up the beach in Corintho with the other friends so I got to meet his Nicaraguan Family. They were so sweet and his Nica mama gave me some fruit (I can't remeber the name of it but it looks  like a pink walnut and you eat the inside. It kinda of tastes a like a coconut walnut maybe lol).

Once we got to the beach we met a family from Japan. They were affected by the Tsunami in Japan so they ended up in Nicaragua. The Tsunami was actually a couple days after the couple got married. But they were really sweet and they literally live a 1/2 a block from the beach so they let us use their house to change and everything. I had so much fun at the beach; especially since it was my first time. I tried to stay close to the shore because the waves were really strong and dangerous...i'm not going to lie one knocked me out pretty hard. I just had to hold my breath and let it happen lol. I also got a lot of sea shells to bring home!

One of the sisters that was with us had to go home Sunday and was going to miss a party that she wanted to go to so bad, but couldn't go because it was so far away so the brothers threw here one right there on the spot! They rented out this place where they do dance lessons and we had so much fun!

We made it home just in time for the meeting back home in Granda @ 10am and she was able catch her flight. Chinnadaga was definitely worth the 3 hour trip!

Servicio Espanol

Today was such a nice service day.

We went out in service with spanish in Oeste because Tuesdays and Thursdays are off days for Granada English.. It was about 10 of us out, and we met at a witness couple's home. It was so nice to sit under the pavillion in the shade in our rocking chairs. We started out doing territory in a near by neighborhood and with great success. At first I was working with a sister and her husband who are originally from NY (Kristina and John), then I worked with this sister and her daughter Jesilyn who is so cute. She is such a busy body, and loves to knock on the door and take pictures with my camera lol.

At the very end I met this little girl at the door and at first I wasn't going to talk to her because she said there were no adults in the home, because usually in the states we try not to do that because its not safe. But she looked at me and was like but we don't have a bible here! For some reason I got this feeling that I should talk to her so I walked in the courtyard and up to the window and handed her a tract in spanish. From there she proceeded to tell me that she doesn't speak spanish for real because she is from Miami. She appeared to be around 12 years old and said her parents sent her to live in Nicaragua with her aunt and uncle because her situation in the states wasn't the best. She was so eager to learn about the truth and we made arrangements to study the bible story book in the am before school starts Feburary 13th and then we will study in the afternoon.

I feel like I just adopted a lil daughter. How am I going to be able to leave?!

After service we enjoyed association from the friends from the hall and other friends from Chinnadaga. I have so many contacts now.

The worldwide brotherhood is such a beautiful thing.