A much needed new motto

A much needed new motto

The challenges have definitely been coming our way. Lately they have seemed non-stop. That's when I realized I needed to adjust my attitude or we weren't going to last living down here. The thing is the challenges will never stop, there will always be something but it is all in how we deal with them when they come. So we are "learning to surf them" and I mean learning cause trust me there are still those days where it feels like I am being pummeled by the waves.

Most of our challenges come from owning a car down here. Having an older car, being a pioneer couple who drives constantly in service and surrounded by dirt roads that are not maintained means lots of breaking down in service. Thank goodness Brian knows some things about cars because somehow we always make it to the mechanic even if it means sputtering in. So our car will be in the shop for awhile now (needs a rebuilt engine) so we have been borrowing some bikes and riding them. So far we just got caught in one rainstorm. By the time we arrived home our service clothes were caked in mud. All we could do was laugh.

 

Riding to meeting

Last Sunday I sent Brian to the store since I was doing hospitality for the speaker. He took the bike along with a long list of groceries. As he was riding there he hit an area before the river crossing which is just huge mud pits. He decided to walk his bike but then his flip flops got stuck in the mud and broke. Now he doesn't have any shoes to where so he continues to ride barefoot into town. He goes grocery shopping barefoot and mud all over his feet. Good thing we live in the country and people probably didn't even look twice at him. He now has a backpackers backpack full of groceries and needs to make the 30 minute bike ride back to our house. He carries his bike thru the river, walks thru the mud pits and gets close to our road when he gets a flat tire. Here I see my husband sweating, covered in mud, no shoes on walking his bike up the driveway. Poor guy!

 

Favorite bug story recently- We get home from meeting and see cockroach in our kitchen. Brian is chasing it around trying to catch it but it is fast. It keeps going under and on top of our table. I am watching from a distance. Brian then can't find where it went. He turns around and I see it on his back. I start yelling "IT IS ON YOU" but all Brian hears is screaming so he assumes that it is coming towards me so he starts coming towards me. About this time the cockroach crawls up his back and touches his neck. At this point Brian starts to jump around and arms are going everywhere. He flings it off his neck and it lands on his pants. He grabs it and gets rid of it. Then we just started busting up laughing.

 

We did our visa trip to Nicaragua. We had a lot of fun. We rode the local buses and went to a couple of the local markets. It always nice when you get to see the local areas. Nicaragua is very poor is certain parts. It was a reminder how fortunate we are but also how much we really need the new system to come.

 

Local Market. Cheese for sale

 

Local Market (they don't refrigerate eggs here)

 

Loved all the doors in Granada

 

Laguna De Apoyo- Lake that formed in a crater of a volcano

 

Drink to go?

Our congregation has had most of its visitors leave. We are down to about 17 people now (We just had 3 move in this week that are staying awhile). I love when the congregation is small. We have formed some great friendships here and we are looking forward to spending even more time with them during the rainy season. Also I got trained to work on territories. So that has been fun to help out in that way. 

 

Here is a few surfing pictures of us girls from over a month ago. Back before rainy season.