¨Puppies with a Side of Fungus, Please!¨ and ¨Our Quest for a New Home¨

PUPPIES WITH A SIDE OF FUNGUS, PLEASE!

No, the Nicaraguan cuisine does not include dishes made with dog flesh. (Full disclosure: I once ate dog tacos by mistake in Mexico, and they really weren’t too bad, but I would never knowingly eat a puppy nowadays!)

I am referring to our poor little doggies. Although Marlene and I love Nicaragua and are thrilled to be in this preaching paradise, our puppies do not share the sentiment. We can tell that the new environment has been quite a jolt to them, and what is worse, they came down with a serious case of fungus.

It started a few months ago. We saw what looked to be many bite-marks on their bellies. We then bought a whole mess of Raid and killed a thousand ants in our house. (I mean that almost literally. There were nests, I think, in the roof and when I sprayed up there, they started coming down and dying on the floor. I once counted 120 in less than 10 minutes, and there were many, many more.)

After a while, however, these bite-marks started looking like rashes. This was when we knew it was time to call in a veterinarian. Thankfully, they make house-calls.

We asked Silvia and Everet about it, and they recommended a veterinarian who has been treating their dogs for years. I placed a call, and about a week later he showed up at our door. But he looked nothing like a veterinarian.

Now, I know I’m biased because I have lived in the U.S. all my life. But when I picture a veterinarian, I picture a tall, middle-aged blond woman with pulled-up hair and very serious looking glasses, chewing on the tip of a pencil as she looks at a dog with her head turned to the side and her eyes in a concentrated squint. This veterinarian looked like a farmhand who’d just trudged through cow manure and tar on his way out to the road, hoping to catch a ride in someone’s pickup. But, Everet said he was good, so we invited him in. (After he left, Marlene had to pick up the cow manure his boots had left on our floor, but oh well.)

What alarmed me, however, was that he didn’t want to actually touch the dogs. He just looked down for a few seconds when I rolled them over to show their bellies, and he said, “Yes, they have ‘Chichen Itza.’”

Now, I know he didn’t actually say “Chichen Itza”, but that’s what it sounded like and I don’t remember what it actually was, but it was a type of fungus.

Anyway, he sat down and told me, “Look, I’ve got dogs dying all over the place from this thing. The hair will fall out and then she will die.” After mildly alarming me (and I say mildly because I wasn’t convinced he knew what he was talking about), I asked him how we could fix her.

He then explained to me that he would have to come by every day for the next 4 days for a series of injections, powders, and creams, and then they would be okay. At this, Marlene said, “No way they’re getting injected!” and shook her head furiously.

Now, at this point I must explain something. You see, a couple of months ago a very sad thing happened. One of Everet’s dogs, Spanky 1, received what was thought to be a routine injection for parasites. Unfortunately, the injection killed him. We aren’t sure exactly what happened, it has something to do with either the wrong medication being given, or it was given in the wrong dosage. Either way, this event made us pretty apprehensive about injecting anything into anybody. (This veterinarian wasn’t the one who gave Spanky the shot.)

(And I say “Spanky 1” because they have since bought a new puppy. They included us in their brainstorming session about what to name the pup, and unfortunately our favorite names “Snickers” and “Obi Wan Kenobi” were not chosen. Since no one agreed and the discussion became a bit heated and voices were raised, Everet finally stopped the proceedings and decided to call him Spanky 2, “Spanky” for short.)

After seeing our apprehension, the veterinarian, whose name is Henry, told us that we have to be willing to trust him 100%, and that we also needed to “trust in God”. He especially emphasized this last point, and he said that if something went wrong, then it would be in God’s hands.

In other words, if he screwed up and our dogs died, well, it’s God’s fault!

I suppose we looked like we thought he was crazy, because then he said, “Look, I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’ve never had a dog die from an injection.”

After a bit more conversation I finally gave in and said fine. So the next day, he comes back with some medicine, and I ask him what exactly is he going to inject into the dogs (both of them had Chichen Itza). He then proceeds to tell me, “This is called (I don’t remember what it was called), and this is the one you need to be worried about. You put one more milligram than what you’re supposed to, and this dog is dead!”

I frowned at this and just stared at him for a long moment.

Finally he said “But don’t worry, I measured it out very exactly.”

“Well, how do you know how much to measure out?” I asked.

“It’s by weight,” he replied. “You need to do it by weight. Otherwise the dog will die.”

“But how do you know how much she weighs? You haven’t even picked her up, and you don’t have a scale.” I said.

He just kind of squinted at her and said, “She weighs 12 pounds max. Don’t worry.”

In retrospect, as I write this, I am shaking my head at my utter stupidity. How could I have let him continue? But I did.

Plus, I knew Savannah actually weighs closer to 22 pounds (she likes pizza and chicken wings just like her daddy, what can I say?), so I knew he was measuring it out too short. Which was safer than measuring out too much. So I didn’t say anything.

Savannah took the shot like a pro. The vet watched her for a few minutes “in case she starts acting crazy”, but she was fine.

Over the next few days he came back and finished the procedures on both doggies, which in the end didn’t do too much. He came back after a few weeks and saw that their paws were still really irritated and raw.

And what did “Dr. Do Little” say?

“Oh, they must have the beginnings of arthritis!”

He then went on to explain that when a dog gets arthritis, the inflammation in the joints makes the skin stretch and itch.

I had to call him on this one. “They are 3 years old and different breeds. You’re telling me that they suddenly got arthritis at the same time?”

After he saw I didn’t believe a single word he was saying, he shut up.

“Look,” I said. “They obviously have dry skin. See?” I showed him a paw. “Don’t you have anything for that?”

However, he was afraid to get near the paws because of the possibility he might get bitten. A veterinarian who is deathly afraid of getting bitten is like a pilot being afraid of heights. It just doesn’t make sense.

He then proceeded to come back every few days to continue a procedure of some kind. Basically he had us rub antibiotics on their paws while he gave them more shots. We’ve had to put socks on the poor things so that they won’t lick off the antibiotics. The puppies are now seemingly doing better, I suppose.



But I doubt we use Henry again. Although in reality, “human” doctors aren’t much better from what I hear. It’s mostly hit-or-miss guesswork. Remember the couple I told you about a while back, the owners of the bakery across the street? Anyway, his daughter, who was 35 years old and healthy, got pneumonia. The doctors misdiagnosed her, unfortunately, and when they figured out what it was, it was too late and they just called her father and told him she had died.

I don’t know anyone who has died from pneumonia. But here it happens quite frequently. They just take a guess at what you have and shovel all these pills and injections into you, and quite often they’re wrong. I tell Marlene that if I get anything worse than a cold we’re flying back to the U.S. and getting treated there.

Oh well. The key is prevention.



TURN UP THE MUSIC, BABY, BECAUSE IT’S NOT LOUD ENOUGH!

Remember what I told you about the disco/bar next door, where it’s Saturday Night Fever practically every night? Well, when we first arrived to Santa Teresa, there was just nothing available. The only house was the one next to this noisy awful place, and we just took our lumps and tried to do our best. We had a small ray of hope, however, because the word around town was that they were closing down in a few months, since no one ever went there and they weren’t making any money. So there was a small light at the end of the tunnel.

However, instead of the owner closing the doors and taking this business failure as a lesson to be learned, he has decided to EXPAND. He is building a second floor to the place. They closed down for a few weeks while they do the construction. He told me that once they opened back up it would be better “because we can add more speakers now!”

Wonderful! So instead of having the walls vibrate with noise, we can have the roof shake above us, too. The owner actually gave me a huge smile, expecting me to be proud of his genius business savvy. Whatever.

We were sorely disappointed. We don’t get as much sleep as we’d like because it is so loud. We once went into their restaurant to take a look, and our house is literally in the middle of their dance floor, with speakers right up against our wall. Most nights I pop a movie into the portable DVD player and try to ride it out, my earphones blasting to drown out the noise. Marlene tries to bury her head in the pillow and get some sleep. The music usually doesn’t shut off until about 1 in the morning, and then it’s another hour of all the drunks laughing and yelling in the street out front.

But, there is wonderful news! Very soon we are going to have a momentous change in our lives which will fix this problem quite nicely.

Before we get to that, however, I’d like to share an experience from the ministry that was interesting.



AH, EUPHORIA! OH WAIT, NEVER MIND . . . .


One evening not too long ago, we had Luis and Jessi, a couple from the congregation, over for dinner. I went out to get some ice cream for everyone, and on my way back home a man popped his head out of his door and said, “Hey, come here a second!”

Since ice cream doesn’t last long in this heat, I just smiled and said, “Sorry, I’m in a hurry!” and kept walking.

After a bit, though, my conscience started irritating me. What about if this guy knew I was one of Jehovah’s witnesses and had a question about the Bible? So I backtracked and asked him what he needed. And sure enough, as soon as we exchanged pleasantries, he just asked me, “Why did God tell Moses that his name was “I am that I am”? Why did he change his name?”

As soon as he said that, I knew he was an evangelical. 95% of the people I’ve met from this religion read their Bibles, but they pounce on these strange, superficial issues that are easily cleared up by just reading the context of the scripture.

“What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Why does God permit so much suffering? What happens when we die?”

No, they can’t be bothered with that.

“What was the fruit that Eve ate? Where was the Garden of Eden located? You’re going to burn in Hell if you don’t submit to God!”

Yes, those are more up their alley.

I told him I would be more than happy to share a thought from the Bible the following Sunday after our meeting, and I went on my way.

The following Sunday I kept my word. I showed up and he invited me in. He immediately went to the “I am that I am” question. I showed him how just one verse later, in Exodus 3:15, God told Moses to say that he had been sent forth from “Jehovah”. So, he never changed his name. “I am what I am”, in our translation, reads “I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be”, which is a more accurate translation based on the original Hebrew text. It means that Jehovah was promising to become whatever was needed for the nation to escape from Egypt. He proved to be a Military Commander, a Miracle Worker, a Provider of food, etc. until they made it safely to the promised land.

He seemed to accept this and then went on to another subject. He wanted to know what Jehovah’s witnesses thought of worshiping idols and statues. I read to him 1 John 5:21, which says, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols”, and Exodus 20:4-6, where Jehovah very plainly states that he hates idol worship.

The man nodded his head enthusiastically and said, “Yeah, those Catholics are all going to hell!”

I didn’t agree with his condemnation, but I saw the door open for a good conversation about hell. I showed him a few scriptures that show how God doesn’t punish people in hell when they die (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Psalm 146:4; Ezekiel 18:4), but unfortunately he disagreed with what the Bible said.

I then just asked him point-blank, “What do you think? If the Bible says something that contradicts what we believe, should we change our belief or continue to ignore what God says on the matter?”

He just shook his head and said that he respected Jehovah’s witnesses but that he was an evangelical. I told him that he hadn’t answered my question, but he ignored that and changed the subject.

I could quickly see we weren’t getting anywhere, so I decided to ask him about the Evangelical religion and what had made him become a member.

Evangelicals do not believe in idol worship, and that is basically what he said drew him to them. But then he said something very interesting, which forms the basis for the title of this subheading.

He said that when you become an evangelical, there are 2 phases.

The first phase is called the “Euphoric State”. When you learn a few things about the Bible you start feeling so happy and excited and you think you have finally found the truth. You start giving a lot of your money to the church, go to their “revivals” and day-trips to different places of worship, and you’re a pretty happy person. You also start feeling “holy spirit” at their meetings. Their meetings are very, very loud, with chanting and falling on the floor and shaking, and speaking in “tongues”, which is really just gibberish that no one can understand. Very soon, however, you go into the second phase.

The second phase is called “The Cooling-Off State”. You basically get sick of it. You don’t go to the “revivals” anymore, you stop feeling the “holy spirit” or speaking in tongues, and your worship now just consists of giving your monthly tithe (10% of your monthly salary) and going to meetings.

I found this to be very interesting since I had never heard of this before. I then asked him, “Do you think that Jesus and his apostles went through this 2-Stage process?”

He told me that every true Christian goes through it. That you cool off and others take your place, and that way the preaching continues.

I then opened up the Bible to Revelation 2:4, 5 where Jesus was actually rebuking a congregation of true Christians because they had “cooled off” in their love for God and Jesus! Then I showed him how the book of Revelation was written by the apostle John from an inspired vision, and that John had written this approximately 70 years after he had first become a Christian.

“Do you think John had cooled off?” I asked him.

He quickly grew uncomfortable with where this was heading, and changed the subject again. At this, I politely told him that I needed to leave. He unfortunately refused to accept even one single scripture that disproved what he was saying, and it was just becoming a total waste of time.

Also, one thing I noticed with him and with literally every other evangelical I’ve talked to, is that they seem to be very angry people. They believe that everyone should burn for eternity in hell. Literally. They want people to feel like they are on fire, with their skin burning off and their eyes popping out, forever. And when you show them from the Bible that Jehovah is a God of Love and that he just won’t sink to that level, they get mad and just push and push their beliefs, ignoring what the Bible says. On a few occasions I’ve actually been afraid that they would become physically violent. It’s very strange, but there are a lot of similarities between them and Muslim extremists, as in terrorists. They are just angry and bitter all the time and if you don’t submit to them, they want to just rip your head off. Many of the brothers in Nicaragua feel that a a few of those who are especially active in the Evangelical religion are under demon influence, and seeing some of it up close, I have to agree.

(However, there have been some good results in preaching to them. There is a young unbaptized publisher in our congregation named Karen. Karen used to be an active evangelical, and Marlene asked her about it one day recently. She said that their pastor used to encourage them to go out and preach twice a year. They would go to someone’s house in a door-to-door campaign, would read a scripture or two, and then thank the householder for listening and then they would be on their way. Karen, at first, liked this because she believed that Jesus’ followers have the responsibility to preach. When she got acquainted with Jehovah’s witnesses and saw that we actually teach people and help them to have a real relationship with Jehovah, she was immediately drawn to the organization and is progressing rather rapidly.)

Anyway, he then offered me a cup of pineapple juice before I left. I told him that I really couldn’t stay, but he insisted and said that he had prepared it especially for me.

Now, this sort of sounded like he had poisoned it, but I said okay anyway. I don’t really know why. I just felt bad for him. He seemed to be a very lonely person and was just grateful for the company, I think.

So he went outside, dunked a glass in a bucket of water to “wash” it, and then came back with another bucket of yellow liquid. He poured it into the cup and offered it to me.

“Aren’t you going to have a cup?” I asked him.

“No, no”, he said, and just smiled.

Stupid idiot that I am, I drank it down pretty fast and then left. I was expecting a storm in my stomach and possible death, but thankfully it didn’t happen.


But Marlene and I had words when I told her what I drank that afternoon.


AH, ROCKY ROAD, MY FAVORITE!

We recently were invited to a party at the home of one of the families in the congregation. It was a very pleasant occasion, although we got there a bit late because of some studies that we had. When we arrived, and after some association with the friends, Emily came up to me and asked me to borrow the brother’s horse because she wanted to ride it. I told her that it probably wasn’t a good idea, but she said that all the kids had done it before the party, except for her, and she really wanted to. Plus, she was really embarrassed about asking so she wanted me to ask him.

Of course, I gave in after a little bit, and we walked back up to the main part of the house to see if we could borrow it. The brother was very nice about it and said that I could ride it (it was a big, white horse) but not Emily, because the horse is a little bit crazy and it would certainly throw her off. For some reason it doesn’t like children.

I nodded and said thank you, not planning on riding it because I just didn’t feel like it then and I didn’t want to ride on a “crazy” horse. But Emily started grabbing my arm and begging me to ride it, and maybe she could get on behind me. I just smiled at the brother and he said, “Sure, why not? If you’re both on it, the horse won’t be too bad.”

I looked at the horse and felt pretty bad for it, but I got on and I extended my hand to pull Emily up behind me, but she couldn’t quite get her foot in the stirrup, and started trying to climb up the poor horse’s leg. He swung his head over towards Emily, and I saw those nice pearly whites starting to chomp up and down, getting ready to grab a piece of her arm, so I pulled him straight again and told Emily, “Listen, let me walk him over to that broken down ox-cart over there and you can hop on from there.”

She said, “Okay, Luis!” and climbed up the cart. I walked the horse over, but Emily still couldn’t quite make it. She flung a leg over, and the horse just wouldn’t have it. He was getting kind of riled up, snorting and all that, so I told Emily to forget it and put the horse back and tied him back up. She was pretty disappointed, but she later got on by herself and Marlene walked alongside her in case she got thrown off, but she didn’t.

Anyway, at the end of the party, I asked Lau if we could ride with them back home, since it’s pretty far from Santa Teresa. He said sure, no problem.

Unfortunately, his wife had already made arrangements to take two older sisters home, too, so there wasn’t any room in the car. However, as they were leaving Everet told me, “Well, there’s room for Marlene if Emily sits on her lap, and you can ride in the trunk, if you want.”

At first I thought he was joking, but then he started clearing away space in the trunk.

“You’re serious?” I asked him, cocking my head to the side and peering at him suspiciously.

“Yeah, it’s no big deal,” he said. “Look, you just sit in the trunk with your legs dangling out the back, and hold the lid open with one of your hands, and you’ll be fine.”

I just shrugged and said, “Okay.”

So I got in, and Silvia took a picture of me and just laughed.



We soon departed. At first, Everet took care to go slow, since he probably was worried that I would bounce out onto the road if he hit a pothole or something. After a short while, however, he either forgot I was back there or he gained a lot of confidence in my ability to hold on, because we were soon cruising at a quick pace. It wasn’t too bad, except I kept spitting out dust and squinting my eyes to keep out the sand. (Most of the way back was on rocky, dirt roads, hence the title of this section.)

When we got into Teresa and dropped off the two sisters, Silvia got out of the car to tell me that there was room in the front, and when she saw me she started laughing hysterically. I was a bit confused, and Marlene got out to see what was going on, and she and Emily started gasping and laughing as well. I looked down at my pants and saw that there was a fine layer of dust on it, so I shook it off and said, “I’m a little bit dusty.”

Silvia took a picture of me, and when I looked in the mirror when I got home, I was pretty shocked as well!



HOME IS WHERE . . . .?

As you’ll recall, I mentioned a short while ago that we would have a momentous change in our lives which would get rid of the pesky problem of Saturday Night Fever 7 days a week. Well, the momentous event is that we are moving!

No, not back to the United States. We are moving to a different area of Nicaragua.

When we first arrived, the brothers at Bethel told us to go to Santa Teresa for 6 months, since there were quite a few foreigners there (15), regular pioneers (18), and it was close to Managua. It would be a good place to get acclimated to the country, not too isolated, and not too difficult an assignment.

Well, we are very happy they assigned us here. The preaching is wonderful, the friends are warm, and we’ve been able to go to Managua and other “touristy” areas whenever we started getting stir-crazy.

The 6 months, however, are up at the end of March and we’ve known for a good while now that we were going to move to someplace else at that time. Not that we aren’t happy here, because we are. But we’d like to go somewhere that has a greater need, somewhere that doesn’t have as many pioneers or foreigners in the congregation. On the other hand, we don’t feel that we are ready yet for a totally isolated group with no foreigners, no pioneers, and no elders. There are plenty of those places available, too, but there is only so much we can handle right now.

So, about a month ago I spoke with Everet and told him of our plans. He just smiled and confided to me that his family, too, was planning on moving away, and for very similar reasons.

They are planning on going to the States in the middle of April for a month and a half, and then when they return they are moving to Santo Tomás, a small town in the state of Chontales. They have a need for pretty much everything. They are also taking care of a group which has 15 publishers in it, but they need more help to give it a good boost.

Everet asked me where we thought we would move to. I told him that we were very interested in Jinotega, a large city up north in the mountains. He told me that he, too, liked the idea of Jinotega, although he had never been there.

He then told me that his family was going up to Chontales to look for homes in the area, to get the ball rolling. He invited us to come along, and we accepted. We didn’t look at it as a place we would move to, since we were really set on Jinotega, but we went along because it was a nice change of pace and we always like to look around at other places in the country.

CHONTALES

So, on a Monday morning at about 6 o’clock, we piled into Everet’s car and were on our way. It was a long drive, about 3 hours, but it was very nice. The dry, dusty landscape gradually gave way to green, rolling hills and very large mountains.





Chontales is the dairy capital of Nicaragua. There is a saying about it that says it’s a place “where the rivers run with milk and the stones are made of cheese.” And it really looked the part. We saw vast tracts of land that were dotted with cows and farms. The road wound its way higher and higher, through hills and past deep valleys. We passed a very large lake with farms all around it.

Finally we arrived at Juigalpa, the capitol of Chontales, which is a sleepy place. It’s larger than a town, but not quite a city. The center of it is flat, but the edges rise up dramatically into the hills surrounding it. We stopped for a leisurely breakfast and were soon on our way again.

After about a half hour on the road, we made it to Santo Tomás. It was quite small like Santa Teresa from what I could tell, but that was the only thing the two towns had in common. We were impressed with how clean and quiet it was. Especially for a Monday morning. In Teresa on Monday mornings, you will see quite a few drunks sleeping the weekend’s entertainment off on one of the sidewalks, in the gutter, or just sprawled out in the middle of the street. The rest of the week, when they are conscious, they spend their free time sitting on the corner leering at women and asking for change. But we didn’t see any drunks in Tomás. We were also pleasantly surprised at the lack of those annoying sound cars blaring at everyone that they can have a watermelon for 20 córdobas or that so-and-so has died and is now “in the presence of the Lord”.



We stopped by a small store, and Silvia went in while Everet called a local brother on the phone. She asked the store owner what the town was like and what the water/electricity situation was. This is very important, since in some towns you get the utilities almost 24/7, while in others it is more like 1 day every 2 weeks.

Silvia was disappointed as the lady told her that they get water only 2 days per week, and nothing for 5 days. The electricity, however, is constantly available.

After asking around and looking at different houses, however, we saw that the people of Tomás have been smart about the water situation. In almost every house, there is a gigantic tank that sits somewhat high above ground. On the 2 days that water is available, the tank fills up to the brim. When the water is shut off the rest of the week, you simply flip a valve on the tank. The tank is connected to the house’s plumbing and you have water just like normal, for your dishwashing, showers, bathroom business, etc. The tank lasts until the water turns on again, and the cycle starts all over again. So the water problem isn’t so much a problem after all.

The town was also very clean. I looked and I didn’t see much trash at all, not even in the gutters. It must have a pretty good cleaning crew working the streets.

The climate was very similar to Teresa, maybe a bit cooler, and the geography was very pleasant. On the northern outskirts of the town you could see valleys and rolling hills stretching away for miles and miles without another town or city in sight.

Anyway, so after Everet made the call to the local brother, who is one of the elders there, he arrived to show Lau’s the town and the homes that were available. Everet and his family had passed through the place once or twice before, but weren’t very familiar with it. It had seemed nice to them, and the circuit overseer had told Everet that they had a lot of need and that they should move there.

We were able to see the Kingdom Hall, which was very nice, and we met an elderly couple of Witnesses who lived on the same street as the hall. They were very kind and told us a bit about Santo Tomás. It had seen some very vicious fighting during the war in the 80's but now it was very quiet and peaceful. The territory is very productive, especially in Villa Sandino, which is where the group is. (Villa Sandino, which is assigned to the congregation in Tomás, is actually on a list recently sent out to all the congregations of urgent-need places. The list encouraged pioneers to help out in these areas for an assigned period of time.)

Soon after that we went to see some homes, and one of the first ones appealed to the Lau’s. It’s very nice-looking, kind of like a gingerbread house, and it has a good sized yard for their two doggies and a place to store the car securely. It has a high fence around it with barbed wire, which is pretty much the standard everywhere you go, and the inside was very spacious and open. It is not too far from the Kingdom Hall, but then again, nothing really is.

Although they really liked the house, Everet and his family wanted to keep looking to see if there was anything else. Some were a little nicer but much more expensive, and others were cheaper but not as nice. So they ended up deciding on that first house.

Marlene and I really liked the last house we looked at. It is much bigger than our shoe box in Teresa, and it literally sits on a cliff on the northern edge of town, with a nice view of the beautiful valley below. This is the view from the front porch:



It was pretty open inside, with a nice-sized kitchen and 3 really nice bedrooms with actual closets, which we don’t have in Teresa.



It had 3 bathrooms and these things attached to the showerheads to make the water hot as it comes out. They are often referred to as “suicide showers” because the things have electric coils inside, like what you have on an electric stove, and there are wires involved. But it’s actually pretty safe.

The house is about a block away from where the elderly Witness couple lives and is also about a block away from where the town bakery is. It happens to also be about a 5 minute walk from the Kingdom Hall.

We really liked the town, and especially the house, but Marlene and I were set on Jinotega.

After looking at the homes we started out on our way back home and stopped in Juigalpa for a quick lunch at Tip Top, a pretty good fried chicken place, and on the way back Marlene and I talked about Jinotega. Everet told me again that they had always been interested in Jinotega as well, and that one of the elders there had encouraged Everet to check it out. After I mentioned that Marlene and I wanted to visit it soon, Everet offered to take us up there the following week, since they wanted to cover all of their options before settling on Tomás.

So we set the date for Saturday and bided our time for the rest of the week, which passed by rather slowly, since Marlene and I were now excited about going up north.


JINOTEGA


The day finally arrived and we again piled into the car very early in the morning and set out north. This drive lasted about the same as the one to Tomás, but eventually led to very beautiful mountains with pine forests. It was really breathtaking. We could sense that we were pretty high, and we eventually made it to about 5,000 feet, which is what we are used to in New Mexico.

We stopped in Matagalpa, a nearby city of about 100,000 people, for breakfast. It was a very nice city, with steep streets reminiscent of San Francisco. One funny thing we noticed, though, is that there were foreigners everywhere. The restaurant we ate at looked like you were back in the States. The city has a very nice climate as well.

After a nice breakfast we hit the road again for another 10 miles or so. We finally came upon the city of Jinotega, which sits in a valley surrounded by tons of mountains.



When we arrived at the house of a local Witness family, we immediately felt how cold it was. I really liked it, but the rest were a little put off by it.

The sister who lived there actually was wearing a sweater and a jacket. I didn’t think it was really warranted, but she told us that it was quite cold and that it would get much colder, especially in the months ahead when the rainy season starts.

We made plans to return to her house for lunch and her husband took us to see the Kingdom Hall. He told us about the area, which is a very large city that has only 2 congregations. In the North congregation there is only 1 elder, and he is the brother who told Everet to come up and take a look. This brother is a substitute circuit overseer and is also a special pioneer, so his plate is pretty full.

We kind of wandered around the town, which was pretty nice. Not as clean or quiet as Tomás, but that was to be expected since it has about 90,000 people while Tomás has about 7,000. It was also sprawled out pretty wide.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many homes available. We were taken to one house but it was already rented out, and we found another house and that was rented out already as well. Also, after asking the brothers and some of the local people, we found out that the average rent of a house in Jinotega is about $250 to $300 per month. That’s triple what we are used to and way too big a chunk out of our monthly budget. We have no idea how the local brothers do it.

We suspect that the rent is so high because nearby Matagalpa is flooded with foreigners, which makes the rent go up. Maybe that has just spilled over into Jinotega.

So we were kind of disappointed that the reality didn’t really live up to our expectations of Jinotega, but we had such a nice lunch with the local brothers. We got to know David and Esther Moore, a couple in the circuit work, and we were delighted to find out that we knew the same people back in the States.

So after lunch we said our good-byes and returned home.

On the way, Everet hit a really deep pothole and blew out one tire and severely flattened another. He hitch-hiked back to a small town we had passed to get them repaired. I stayed back with the girls and we each took out a handy weapon from the trunk, in case anyone pulled over to murder and/or rob us. As we were just starting to get the hang of it by practicing our swipes and slashes with our sledge hammers and tire irons, Everet returned and we eventually made it back to Teresa without further incident.

Upon our arrival we realized that there was no power in town. At least we would get a quiet night’s sleep, we thought! Those hopes were dashed, however, when we saw that the disco bar next door had plugged into a generator and were soon blasting their fun into the night. We just sighed and silently thanked the disco people for the encouragement we needed to get out of town.



A NEW HOME AWAITS


When Marlene and I got back home we discussed our plans and put everything in prayer. We soon decided that Tomás would be a good fit for us. As I mentioned before, the town is actually on a list of urgent-need places that the branch recently sent out to all the congregations, asking for pioneers to go to Santo Tomás, among other places, to help out in the territory. (Of course, we asked Bethel what they thought of our idea to go to Tomás and they were fine with it.) It is a very peaceful place and the brothers seemed very nice. But the group is what really sold us. We would love to be a part of helping a group grow into a congregation. We also have that opportunity in La Conquista, which is assigned to Teresa, but Teresa has quite a lot of pioneers working on it and an elder and his wife recently arrived and moved to La Conquista to help out. So they are in good shape. Our focus in Tomás will be the group.

A few days later, Everet and I called the respective owners of the houses we liked and were happy to find out that they were still available. We made plans to go once more to Tomás to seal the deal with the houses. Also, Marlene and I wanted another look at the town, since we had not looked at it as a possible place to move to until the very end of our last visit.

The Lau’s were very happy that we were going to move there, too, and so were we. We like the idea of having a little “support group” in place already. Sometimes you need to kind of vent or bounce things off of someone else, and you can’t really do that with local brothers. I’m not saying that we should have closer friendships with foreigners than with anyone else. That is definitely not the case. I’m just saying that sometimes you need to share things with others who are going through the same thing you are, and that can be very encouraging and it helps keep you going in spite of the challenges. So that is a major plus.

So we struck out for Tomás for the second time on a Wednesday. This time it didn’t take as long. We just stopped and checked out the local supermarkets, which seemed well stocked with some favorites, although we would have to go to nearby Juigalpa once in a while to shop for other things that aren’t available in Tomás. We also had second looks at the houses we liked and walked through them once more. After that we met with the owners and worked out the arrangements for the rent and move-in dates.

We are going to move in the week after the Memorial, around April 15. We wouldn’t miss the Memorial in Teresa for anything in the world, and then on April 12, a Sunday, we have our special day assembly. The good thing is that we don’t have to do much more with the new house other than just spray for possible bugs. When we moved to Teresa, we were out of commission for a couple of weeks because of painting, putting up screens, etc. The house in Tomás is very much “move-in ready”.

Another cool thing is that the same week we arrive in Tomás, they have the circuit overseer’s visit. So it will be a very enjoyable week.


The Lau’s are going to the States during the same week we move, and they will arrive in Tomás at the end of May.

The price of the rent is a little higher than we would like, but when we compare the total cost of living with what we have now, it’s not too different. One of the reasons is because we are getting robbed, jacked really, on a bunch of things. The water bill we have in Santa Teresa is 3 times what everyone else pays, for some reason. But one thing, and it really infuriated me when I saw it, is the electricity bill. Since we moved in, our electricity has been about 700 cords or more a month. Which is roughly around $35 to $40. Everyone I’ve told about this just drops their mouth open and says, “That’s way too much! What are you doing in that house?”

At first we thought maybe we were running the A/C too much, so we stopped, but it had no effect whatsoever.

The last bill, however, shed some light on the situation. Without any explanation, the bill was 300 cords! And, it just so happened to coincide with the fact that the restaurant/disco bar next door has been closed for the past month as they build their precious second floor. It all suddenly made sense. We have no change in our habits whatsoever, but the place next door stops using power and our bill goes down by more than half? It was very obvious that the disco next door has been stealing electricity from us for the last 6 months.

But, there isn’t much I can do. I can complain to the landlady that they are stealing our electricity, but she won’t give me the money we’ve spent. (I will tell her anyway, so she is aware of the problem, but I’m not expecting anything from her.)

And the restaurant owner will never give me back that money, of course. So we just have to bide our time until we are free free free! Taking all of that into consideration, a bit more for rent in a different place but paying what’s fair for water and electric, seems to be acceptable at this point.


FRIENDS ARE WELCOME!

Some good news is that we are looking forward to a visit from Briana, a friend from Chicago, at the end of the month. She is bringing three other sisters with her, and they really want to get a taste of the preaching work here. We will be very happy to accommodate that. Of course, we will have to take a day to go to the beach, and we are planning on other little excursions to show them around. There is a resort not too far from here that we were wanting to try, so we will probably go there.

Also, we are hoping to see Joseph and Paola, from back home in New Mexico, at some point. We aren’t too sure when that is happening, but hopefully it will be this summer. We really hope we can see them soon. We have a very special friendship with those two. They arrived in our congregation in New Mexico only a few months before we left, but after only a very short time, we felt like we have known them for years and years! Marlene and I often talk about them and how our Nicaragua adventure would be so much better if they were here with us, since we know that they would really enjoy it.

And any of you who want to come down and check out the place, you are more than welcome and you will always have a place to stay!

So, that is it for now. We are looking forward to the Memorial invitation campaign, and the quick succession of wonderful theocratic events which will quickly follow. After that, we’re moving to Santo Tomás. So a ton will be happening in the next 4 weeks or so. I will write again very soon after our move.

Please keep us in your prayers, and we will do the same.

Bye for now!