Reunión is the spanish word for “meeting”, but I am using the word in its English context too of “meeting again” to describe today. Two days ago when we were walking back from lunch, somebody called out “Brian” – I looked up and there was Alvaro – one of Kristine’s ESL students from 6 years ago. He was on his way somewhere else but after a short exchange, he told us he would stop by our hotel to catch up today (Friday) morning. I knew Alvaro from playing baseball with him and his friend Manuel who was also in Kristine’s ESL class. This morning I met up with Alvaro after Kristine left to take the kids to preschool where Kristine and Abigail helped organize a really cool craft for the kids that was a big hit.

I then went for what I thought would be a 2 hour bike ride, but in reality turned into a 3 hour epic, to the Casitas Memorial. This was a first for me to visit the memorial – Kristine had been there before so I was in awe of the impact of the mudslide on the land still plainly visible more than 10 years later. Its impact on the people is still evident by a meeting to come later in the day.

When I finally made it back, I headed down to Nuevas Esperanzas and met Kristine and Abigail as they were starting to walk back to the hotel. I escorted everyone except Kristine, back to the hotel for afternoon naptime while Kristine went back to get ready for the Friday afternoon tea where Kristine would be sharing during the reflective part of her observations of the changes at Palmerita given the 6 year time lapse since we were last here. Jorge then led a devotion/oracion (prayer)/reflective time of singing and praying. It was a much needed time for processing for Kristine as well as hopefully an encouragement to the Nuevas Esperanzas staff.

Then we headed back to our hotel, called up Enrique our favorite taxi driver, and headed out to Villa Soberana to try to connect with the girls (now young women) that Kristine was discipling when she was here with Mercy Ships. We went from house to house asking if people knew where the girls were, but it turns out we were on the wrong street. Once we made it to the right street, one of the first people Kristine asked was actually one of the girls in her study! It was a tearful reunion and she led us to two of the other girls (Marjorie and Kenya). Josiah was not content to stay still while we talked so I took him outside and looked to find the interesting tracks in th dirt – horse, pig, dog, chicken, bicycle tires, car tires, shoe prints were all fascinating to him (and me). I’ll let Kristine write more, but I know this was a good time for her to reconnect and see what God has done in these girls.

Finally, after we put the kids to bed leaving Abigail in charge, we walked down to Jane and Andrew’s to meet them to go out on a kid-free double date! We went to a nice place with a great atmosphere and ate and talked for several hours – in the process learning that there is so much more we need to learn about the Nicaraguan culture, as well as tracing the history of Nuevas Esperanzas, the origins of the current work, and a bit of the direction for the future — as well as a relaxing time to enjoy a nice dinner with friends!

Ok, I am fading fast now so I’ll end with the pictures … enjoy!

A main street in Gracias a Dios

Looking back at the village of La Palmerita

We visited two villages today that Nuevas Esperanzas is working with. The first, Gracias a Dios (“thanks to God”), is a village on the side of the main highway located on the pass between two volcanos. Nuevas Esperanzas worked with members of the community to build a rainwater harvesting tank for nearly every house in the village. Arturo, Enrique, and Andrew drove all of us in the chevy blazer out to the community where we turned off the highway at a spot which you could tell rarely had automobile traffic, but was plenty wide enough for bicycles, horses, wagons, etc… When we stopped, the kids got out of the car and ran over to a trough that was filled with water and I snapped this picture – it was a little out of focus so I dry brushed it, but to me it speaks volumes of the experience the kids are having here – curiosity and delight all wrapped into one moment as they stared into a large basin full of water:

Josiah and Analise stare with curiosity at a large basin of water

We walked around the village and stopped at several people’s houses. The first woman we met welcomed us enthusiastically into her yard. Andrew, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah all climbed on top of her rainwater tank to inspect how much water it had. We admired the fruit (papaya and grapefruit) growing in trees in her yard – as well as her chickens and pig. We then went to several other houses to compare the design used to construct the rainwater tank.

After leaving Gracias a Dios, we drove on down into the “Central Valley” of Nicaragua – a large flat area of land behind the line of volcanos near the west coast and west of the mountains dividing the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the country. We turned right at the small town of Malpaisillo and then began our journey on a rough dirt/rock road that used to have large vehicle-sized holes and ruts. The road has been improved a bit and grated mostly smooth. After turning off this main road to take the road to La Palmerita, it began to narrow eventually during into basically a narrow double track road through the fields.

I will let Kristine write up her thoughts on today, but the basic summary is that we met with several of the ladies that participated in a series of community health classes that she taught. We met a child named Anna Cristina born shortly after Kristine and her sister Anna who was here at the time left Nicaragua. Andrew, Arturo, and Enrique completed their survey work and we got to drive the entire boundary as Andrew recorded the information on his GPS device to establish a rough border of the property. They will be doing a traditional survey to establish the exact boundary in the coming weeks.

We left and made the long drive home, stopping at On-The-Run (a gas station) and enjoying the first real cappacinno (for $1) I have had since I have been here while the kids ate ice cream – we had already eaten lunch in the car. Then Andrew dropped Kristine, Josiah, and I off at the hotel so we could get a little bit cleaned up and I could grab the girl’s play dress-up clothes for a short play date. Josiah and I walked the few blocks down to Andrew and Jane’s house with Josiah dragging Analise’s pink backpack full of clothes the entire way!

Finally, we ate dinner at Pizza Roma – the restaurant that Kristine and I used to have our Nicaraguan dates before we were married!

Ok, just as I sent a mass email to check in here, Brian falls asleep instead of resizing and posting pictures like he’s planned.  In his defense, it was a long, hot day, and I did have a nap with the kids while he worked in the office.  I’ll just post a quick update, and warn you that my “e” key is NOT working, so imagine it if it’s missing!

Today we traveled with our friends Mike & Maria Saeli who work with Food for the Hungry International to a village called El Limonal where they were having a bi-weekly gathering of a children’s health program. El Limonal is said to be in the “death triangle”, between the dump, the water treatment plant and the cemetery. It’s very poor, and the kids are a great risk for malnutrition. If a family is in the program, the children are weighed and the weight is tracked, and they are required to keep a small garden. If they meet the attendance and garden requirements, the mothers are given a packet of food. Mike taught about integrity and honesty in our relationships with others and God before the weigh-in. It was a great glimpse of daily life in the community, as well as seeing a good example of the best way to intervene and grow a community… through teaching, requirements for assistance rather than handouts, and reaching both the physical and spiritual side of families and the community.  Our kiddos were amazing today, and they had lots of fun playing with their new Nicaraguan friends.  Everyone loves my blonde-haird blue-eyed boy!  He definitely stands out in a crowd 🙂

This afternoon, I also had a wonderful time of reconnecting with a dear friend of mine, Xiomara Perez, a beautiful young woman here who is directing a preschool, among many other things. She’s grown so much in grace and confidence since I was last here, and it was just what my heart need to sit and chat and pray together.

Tomorrow, we’re all going with Andrew of Nuevas Esperanzas to La Palmerita, a village of coffee refugees that I spent a lot of time at. I taught a community health class there in 2002, and I’m very excited to see all the developments since I was last there. It’s kind of a long trip, and it will be a hot, dusty day for the whole family. We’d love your prayers for grace and that God would direct our day. I look forward to updating you tomorrow… and I won’t let Brian fall asleep before posting photos 🙂

This is our third posting with pictures, but before I get to the pictures – let me give a brief rundown of the day

5:15AM – Josiah wakes up unexpectedly and pretty wide awake, but we manage to convince him to lay back down and sleep a little longer.

5:45AM – Josiah is up for good at about the time Analise comes trotting over to our room.

6:30AM – We wake up after letting the kids watch the Spanish version of Playhouse Disney for 45 minutes while we get a few much needed minutes of sleep.

7:20AM – We make our way to the patio area downstairs where our breakfast of toast, jelly, and a small fruit plate is prepared. Everyone gathers around the small table and enjoy the breakfast.

7:45AM – Kristine and Abigail take the kids to the Nicaraguan preschool where they will be leading a craft today. (The craft was a hit, and the kids had fun today. Josiah played most of the time with a little Nicaraguan boy who was maybe just a little bit older than him).

8:00AM – I leave for a bike ride towards Chinandega to get close-up pictures of Vulcan Casitas and Vulcan San Cristobal.

10:15AM – I arrive back from a longer than expected ride a bit sun-burned in the face but exhilirated at having been able to do a 35 mile ride and getting good pictures (see below).

10:30AM – I arrive at Nuevas Esperanzas to work in the office today on the website. I work on getting a demo site up to show Andrew the capabilities of WordPress and find out if it is something he wants to switch to for the management of the Nuevas Esperanzas website.

12:00PM – Kristine and Abigail arrive with the kids who are happy to show off their craft and eat lunch.

1:15PM – I walk everyone back to the hotel for the kids naptime during the afternoon siesta and then head back to Nuevas Esperanzas via “La Union” – the local supermercardo owned by Walmart Centroamerica and the coffee shop to get a few groceries and a $1 Americano espresso drink.

3:45PM – Kristine arrives back at Nuevas Esperanzas with the kids for an afternoon playdate with Anna and Emily. We get a picture of them playing dress-up with the princess clothes that we brought.

4:45PM – I finish my website work for the day and begin working on a broken laptop which has intermittent display problem where the screen remains entirely blank from boot-up. We pretty much completely disassemble the laptop to remove the part necessary to access the video cable connector between the motherboard and the display. We disconnect and reconnect it in the hope that this fixes the problem. After reassembling everything, we boot up the laptop and it works perfectly – but because the problem is intermittent, this is no guarantee that the problem is actually fixed. Let’s cross our fingers!

6:00PM – I head over to “Pizza Hot” complete with motorcycle delivery vehicles and join Kristine, Abigail, and the kids for dinner (they had left early). The restaurant is very cool in that it has an outdoor playground in the back  part of the restaurant next to covered patio seating. The kids eat a little bit and then play with other kids already there.

7:00PM – Bucket baths for Analise and Josiah – we have a shower but with really low water pressure the kids are better off climbing into the buckets provided and filling up the bucket with water. Analise just has to stand in it, but Josiah can squat down so that only his head is above the water — which is cold water too – the hot water that we have is heated by an electrical mechanism in the shower head (I bet that sounds pretty safe, huh) and it would take too long to fill up the bucket with it so we use cold water from the lower spicket.

8:00PM – I sit down to write this blog – as a gecko just runs by my computer!!!

Ok – that was our day – here are the pictures!

We’re doing well here in Nicaragua.  It’s quite an adventure experiencing this place that’s so dear to my heart with the little ones.  Actually, it’s hard and very different.  But it is so wonderful to be here, and we’ve had some great experiences so far, and I know there are many more to come this next week.

Friday, we traveled with Andrew and Jane Longley and their 2 kids the same age as ours, the directors of Nuevas Esperanzas, up the main well-paved road, onto a dirt road, then onto a road that I’d barely consider a road with our 4 wheel drive.  Then we reached a rural farm where we parked the car I was driving.  We piled into the Land Cruiser truck, 3 in the front, and 3 adults/3 kids in the back to drive up a barely passable rocky ravine, that is actually called a road to take us further up the side of the volcano Telica.  Nuevas Esperanzas has worked with a small primitive rural village up on the volcano to help them build rainwater collection tanks, because they don’t have access to drinking water on top of the volcano.  These people normally travel 2 hours down the rocky “road” on horseback to fill 2-30gallon jugs and bring them back for their water use, or the women trek down the mountain to do their laundry in the springs.  Amazing.
We bumped and bounced up the “road” that Nuevas Esperanzas is helping them “pave”, which means hand-mixing cement (after hauling up huge bags of cement and sand on horseback) to put between the big rocks of the road.  It’s already made a huge difference for these people in being able to get the beans and avocados they grow down to the main road to be taken somewhere to sell.  They used to joked that they grew avocados, but by the time they reached the bottom they were guacamole!   They’ve done several sections of road already, but they are hoping to find the funding to do several more in the future.

When got as far as we could go (though Andrew said he could drive the rest of the way, but we’d never make it in the back!), we piled out of the truck and hiked 1.5 miles up the volcano to see the village and have lunch in the school.  It was quite a huge undertaking with the kids, but they did really well.  The people are so wonderful, and it’s amazing to see the tank and to know what a difference it’s made.  Nuevas Esperanzas is hoping to find the funding to do many more smaller tanks at various houses, letting the locals do the construction themselves now that they’ve completed the large one at the school themselves.  It’s amazing what we take for granted when we turn on the faucet to rinse an apple or brush our teeth.

Ok, enough chatter.  The kiddos are getting restless with their movie, so I’d better sign off.  Please keep us in your prayers, especially for grace and patience with each other and the kids as we try to dive in and experience this beautiful place.  Thank you so much for sharing in our journey back here!

Why Nicaragua?
That’s a long story.  Back in 1999, I (Kristine) came to Nicaragua with Mercy Ships to do relief work after Hurricane Mitch devastated the area.  There had been a huge mudslide on the side of the volcano Casitas that wiped out many villages, killed more than 1,000, and left thousands more homeless.  It was a life-changing experience for me, and I left after 5 months determined to come back and work here long-term.  In Sept. 2001, I returned to work with Mercy Ships  again.  This time, I worked as an admin asst for our team, discipled a group of young girls, taught English, developed a community health education course that I taught, among many other things.  We worked extensively with a group of “refugees” from the coffee crisis (when the coffee prices worldwide plummeted, many workers in the coffee plantations worked and worked for the promise of pay but never received it) who had settled on a piece of land the government had promised them called La Palmerita.  They were in desperate, miserable circumstances when we found them.  It was a long, hard process to help them go from stick coverings to plastic houses, and to get them basic things like food, water, and sanitation.  Brian came to visit me several times while we were dating, and he grew to love Nicaragua as much as I.  I loved my time in Nicaragua, and when I left in 2003 to get married, both Brian and I looked forward to when we could come back.

Where is it and what is it like?
Nicaragua is in Central America, actually due south of Alabama, between Costa Rica and Hondruas.  It’s “summer” here, which means its the dry season.  It won’t rain more than a few sparse showers for several months.  It’s hot, dry and dusty.  The landscape is dramatic, though, with a line of 9 volcanos stretching the length of the country.

Volcanos?!?  Are they active?  Aren’t you worried they will erupt?
Yes, they are actually mostly active, and you can see clouds of smoke/steam above many of them.  I’m not too worried that they’ll erupt because none did during the 2 years I was here.  If any do erupt, it would most likely be ash and smoke, and it’s more of a nuisance than a danger.

Where are you staying and what will it be like?
Our hotel, the Hotel San Juan de Leon is very comfortable.  Brian and I have one room with Josiah in a portable crib we borrowed from the Longleys.  Analise and Abigail are sharing another room.  We’ve both got a bathroom with hot water (though in the heat here, hot showers aren’t a necessity).  Interestingly, the water is heated in the shower head.  Another odd note, you can throw toilet paper in the toilet here because it could clog the systems.  It took a couple times to the bathroom to remember that!

We’ve got air conditioners (well, we do now… we just switched rooms yesterday because ours hadn’t been working) and industrial strength fans that keep us pretty cool.  There’s internet in our hotel (though there wasn’t the first couple days, and the wireless isn’t working much to our frustration.  This, though, is not surprising in Nicaragua.)

We get a nice simple breakfast of fresh fruit (watermelon, papaya, pineapple and banana), fresh juice, toast with butter and jam, coffee and milk.  Then we’re on our own for lunch.  We’ve just found a great little cafeteria with delicous Nicaragua food for about $2 a plate that will be our frequent choice.  There are other options, including Tip-Top, a fast-food chicken place, that the kids and I will do today for lunch.  There’s also a well-stocked grocery store nearby, and we can use the kitchen here, if we need to.

The streets are busy, the sidewalks are narrow and crowded with little stands selling all variety of things.  Bikes, mopeds, trucks and taxis go cruising by and fly around the corners, so you’ve got to be alert.  We’re walking nearly everywhere here in town, and we’ve learned how to navigate our little stroller over the potholes in the sidewalk, up and down the steep curbs and over the cobble stones.  If we need to take a taxi, it’s 75cents each person here in town, so that’s an easy, cheap option if we need it.

What will you be doing there?
Well, when we conceived this trip, we had lots of things we wanted to do and be a part of. But as we progressed with the planning, we really just felt God leading us to lay down our expectations and come to be used in whatever way He wanted to use us.  We’ve got to be especially flexible since we’ve got the kids with us.  We want to visit old friends, see the work of Nuevas Esperanzas, just be open to whatever might come together for us to do.  Brian’s already helping out with computers, we’re going to be visiting a well-child clinic with friends of ours who work for Food for the Hungry International, and the kids and I are looking forward to visiting Anna and Emily Longley’s preschool this next week.  It can be a little tricky to find people here, so I’m praying God would really direct our connections this next week.

Why are you taking the kids?
Honestly, we never even considered NOT taking the kids.  They are a part of who we are.  We want missions and God’s great big world to be something our kids grow up knowing firsthand.  Yes, they are young, and I’m not sure how much they’ll remember, but it is an experience we wanted them to be a part of.  Now that we’re here, it is hard at times.  Whatever the challenges of dealing with kids in your own comfortable surroundings, they are multiplied in the heat, dust, crowds, foreign language, bumpy roads, small hotel rooms, etc.  They have done really well, though, and it’s so fun to share this place with them.  Analise is learning little bits of functional spanish, and Josiah is so cute pointing things out.  “Wook!  A Mic-a-wog-wa dump truck!”  (A Nicaragua dump truck)

I’ll let the pictures tell the story with just a few short captions — hopefully either I or Kristine can update this with more details tomorrow!

This is just a quick post with a very quick summary of our trip so far. We flew into Managua on Monday, met Jane, Andrew, Anna, and Emily at the airport, rented a car, and drove through Managua making a quick stop at a grocery store and then dinner overlooking Laguna de Masaya – the southern end of a large active volcano. Then we made it down to Laguna de Apoyo where we spent the first two nights hanging out and catching up with Jane and Andrew.

Yesterday, we returned our rental car (quite an adventure) and met our taxi driver, Enrique, that Jane arranged for us to take us from Managua to Leon. We had a great drive and talk with Enrique who was in one of the villages affected by Hurricane Mitch – his whole village was wiped out during the hurricane but amazingly everyone in his family survived. When Kristine was first here in 1998, she worked in medical clinics assisting people from the very same villages – possibly even Enrique or his family!

Arriving in Leon we made it to our hotel – Hotel San Juan (see my previous post), got settled into our place, found out the wireless internet wasn’t working, wandered down to the Big Foot hostel with free wireless, and then got ready for the amazing fiesta that is New Year’s Eve in Nicaragua. Fireworks, food, and dancing done – we made it back to our hotel and a good (albeit short) night’s sleep later marked the end of our first day in Leon.

Tomorrow we head to the village of El Ojochal near San Jacinto high up on Vulcan (Volcano) Telica. We may need to hike about 2km to make it there. I’ll update later with pictures!