We're Finally Here!!!!
We have been here for two days, but it seems like it's been a lot longer, because we have just done SOOO many things already!
First, we drove 14 hours from New Mexico to Houston over night on Wednesday. Other than some hallucinations due to severe lack of sleep, I got us there okay. We were worried sick over our luggage and the doggies, and with reason! We ended up paying through the nose because EVERY SINGLE ONE of our bags was overweight by about 10 pounds. Hmm, for some reason we didn't think our countertop stove, rice cooker, toaster oven, silverware, and assorted power tools that Marlene is really attached to would be that heavy, but we were wrong!
So after getting out a second mortgage on our house, we finished paying for our luggage and then made our way down to the doggie check-in place. Savannah went through fine, but Molly's kennel was way too small. As we were haggling over having to pay another $100 for one of "their" kennels, another poor soul walked in with his German Shepherd in, wouldn't you know it, a too-small kennel for his dog. We ended up paying him $50 for his huge kennel, stuffed the dog into it, and went to stage 3, Security.
For some reason, Marlene's bag got "flagged" after seeing a "suspicious" item resembling a BLADE in her carry-on. Since I'm an extremely law-abiding citizen, I looked at Marlene in shock and horror over her possible terrorist affiliations. I went over to check out what was going on, and the baggage handler pulled out a cast-iron lemon squeezer (which is ESSENTIAL for Central American living, or so Marlene tells me), and about 7 knives. "Oops", she says. "I forgot I put those in there." The baggage handler laughs and PUTS THEM BACK and starts zipping up her bag again, as I stand there shocked. Marlene's fluttering eyelashes have won her yet another battle! Or so it seems.....his laugh turns to a frown as he pulls something else out of her bag and says, "I'm sorry, but we can't allow this on the airplane." The offending terror weapon? A 12 oz. bottle of Diet Coke. Go figure.
So we get on the plane and I gamely try to read an e-book I brought along, but since I hadn't slept in about 30 hours, that doesn't last more than about 4 minutes. I wake up from time to time from my dazed sleep, drooling on Marlene's hair, and before I know it we are descending to Nicaragua. Then it hits me: We are here! Finally, a year of planning and we are here!
The airport customs process was surprisingly easy, and getting the dogs through was even easier. They didn't even bother to check the papers that we spent a few hundred dollars getting in order to satisfy their stringent rules.
We get to the hotel (Bethel had invited us to stay a few nights, but since we had the doggies, we didn't want to impose) and fall asleep pretty soon after.
The next morning, we have a 10:00 appointment at Bethel. Probably the most important meeting of our lives at this point, right? And not a very good time to get closely acquainted with Nicaraguan, uh, idiosyncrasies. So, we are told that Bethel is about 20 minutes away. I want to play it safe, so we go the car rental place at 8am. We are told that the car will be ready in 30 minutes. "Great", we think. "We have time to get some breakfast!" We go back to the hotel, have a delicious, leisurely breakfast, and walk back to the car rental place at roughly 8:45. "Sorry," we're told. "It's not quite here yet, but it will be in about 10 minutes". That's okay. We have time. Then the clock ticks by and still no car. At 9:15 I ask, "What's happening?" "Oh," she says, "it should be here soon". At 9:45 I figure we're not going to make it on time and I'm starting to get a little upset, but I don't want to make a scene. She comes over to us and says, "Sorry, but he was in such a hurry to get here that he got stopped by the police".
Oh, that's fine, I say, smiling while thinking of how nice it would be to strangle her. I use her phone to call Bethel and tell the brother we're meeting with that we might not get there until 10:30, and I'm SO SORRY! "It's okay, we'll see you at 10:30" he says. Finally, at 10:15, we get the car. I practically shove Marlene into the car and take off. Traffic is smooth, no problem, until a few blocks down the road, when it starts backing up inexplicably. When we get nearer to the obstacle that's holding up traffic, we see that there is a huge Pro-Life demonstration going on with about 200 women wearing shirts saying "Let us have abortions!" and holding up signs of very pregnant looking women saying something along the lines of "Please Please let me have an abortion, you oppressive dictatorship!" As all this is going on, half the city is being diverted onto a dirt 2 lane road. Wonderful.
We finally get on the road we're supposed to be on, and I'm cruising along at 100km per hour, which is what, like 45 mph? And I pass this little group of blue uniformed cops that blow their whistle and wave at me, pointing to the curb. Marlene thinks they were trying to pull me over, but I personally think they were asking me for help in finding some lost car keys that may have fallen into the drainage ditch. I just didn't have the time, as we were late for Bethel, so I just shrugged. Maybe next time, Mr. Policemen!
So we finally make it to Bethel and apologize profusely. When I explain what happened with the rental car and the demonstration, the brother just laughs and says, "That's Nicaragua!"
So, after a brief introduction, it's time for lunch and we were graciously invited to eat with the Bethel family and afterward we were invited to a couple's room for some Italian espresso and some African red cacao tea, which Marlene loved.
Afterwards, we resume our meeting with brother Martinez at the branch. After a nice orientation as far as pointers dealing with security issues, culture, etc., we get to the part we've been waiting for! Where are we going to serve???
After going through some points about differences between areas, he asks us if we have anywhere in mind. I promised a few brothers that I would mention Santa Teresa and Matagalpa, but I assured him we would go anywhere else they thought we might be a good fit. He immediately suggested that Santa Teresa would be a wonderful place to start in, saying that they had very few publishers and a VERY big territory. We later found out that their territory includes about 6 towns all the way to the sea!
So, we got our assignment and we were thrilled. We got about 15 letters with information sent out to the need-greaters in the country over the last two years, and also a letter of introduction to our new PO and circuit overseer.
That night, we called the congregation and made arrangements to go out in service with them today, which went wonderfully. The brothers also found us a couple of homes to look at for rent. One was literally a one-room concrete cell with a stone outhouse outside and a door that opened up into a pool-hall next door, and the other was a very charming, small home across the street from a bakery that makes fresh "pan dulce" every morning, as well as bagels and donuts! All this for a whopping $100 per month.
We will post more pictures of it later next week, after we've painted and cleaned it well from the inside. We're going to leave the outside alone. Marlene thinks it looks like a dollhouse and she loves it. And no, living in a Barbie house does not threaten my manliness whatsoever.
Later we were invited to a pleasant lunch with one of the local families. They were very sweet. We studied our Watchtowers and then headed out to a meeting for a group that our congregation sponsors in a small town called La Conquista. This picture is the meeting place for the group. It was VERY hot in there, but the brothers who gave the talk and conducted the Watchtower were very animated and hilarious so it went by pretty quickly.
This picture is of the group. All of them except for three or four also go to our congregation in Santa Teresa. The Japanese brother next to me is one of two elders in the congregation named Sumi and his wife, Akiko, is the one in the blue top and white skirt. They are extremely loving and have offered to let us stay in their home while we get our house painted and settled. 
This picture is of what I think will be a typical day in service. The pigs are just a sampling of the zoo we are living in, which also includes horses, oxen, many dogs, and donkeys.
And this picture is of a common obstacle in the road. 
So, that's that for now. We are having a blast and will post more in a few days, to share with you our adventures in settling in and our experiences in field service. We love you all a ton and will keep in touch, primarily by e-mail.
Ciao!
(our new Kingdom Hall...we can't wait to see the inside of it tomorrow!!)
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