Jinotega

Hello to all!

Jess and I arrived safely to Jinotega, the city where we will be doing most of our work. Rodney was very kind and brought us up here when our ride couldn't come get us.

On Thursday, Rodney gave us a history lesson about the country, which was very informative and interesting. It really helped me understand more about the country, the politics, and the reason the country is in the state that it is in. After the history lesson, Rodney took us to see Somozo's palace. It was destroyed when he went out of power, and all that is left is the foundations of his palace (where the basement was). In the basement, he kept a zoo of exotic animals and also political prisoners. It was kind of eerie to see it. After that, Rodney took us to old Managua. Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua and on a major fault line. Back in 1972, a massive earthquake destroyed around 90% of the city. While driving through old Managua, we could still see some of the damage. The people have not rebuilt a lot of the city. We stopped and took pictures of an old cathedral that is still standing. It is a hollowed out shell and no one is allowed in for fear that it will collapse, but it is set up as a monument at the moment. Here is a photo of the cathedral:


After our excursion into the city we went back to Rodney's house and he made us this really easy mango cobbler which was fantastic. I'm hoping to make it back in the states for some of you.

Friday, we got up and went with Rodney to Immigration. He has been trying to become a resident of Nicaragua for about a year now, but the politics and all of the paper work has been a huge mess. We waited with him for about an hour at the Immigration place and yesterday he was finally able to get his residency. So there is a praise right there.

We than headed to Jinotega. It's about a three hour drive from Managua to Jinotega, and wow...in those three hours, things change drastically. The weather is a good 10-15 degrees cooler up here if not more. Jess and I almost were crying tears of joy over that. :-) We got to the Hotel and it was kind of awkward because we assumed that they knew we were coming, or that Miguel had at least told them...but nope. No one knew we were coming down today and it was kind of awkward. But everything finally got worked out and they put us in a room that is a maze of hallways. Honestly--I've almost gotten lost like three times just coming from the front door to here. Rodney and Gio left and it was kind of sad. We've gotten to know them these past few days and I, for one, felt a little lost when they drove away. We were excited about being here but also a bit terrified. It was like when your parents drop you off for camp and you're so ready to be there but at the same time don't want them to leave. Jess and I unpacked and are set up in the room and the internet comes and goes, but we do have a fairly stable connection and over the next few days we'll start getting into a schedule of sorts hopefully and be able to talk with some of you.

Our room is pretty nice and we have a bathroom of our own obviously. Right now we are in that awkward first day/week position of not really knowing people and having a bunch of questions still. We were going to ask our host Teresita at breakfast but she didn't come. Today our goals are to go to the Pali (the local grocery store which actually is owned by Wal-Mart--but is absolutely nothing like Wal-Mart) and to just get our bearings around here. It's kind of awkward and nervous at the same time.

Victory from yesterday: We arrived safely in Jinotega!
Priority for today: Get to know the city and the people in the hotel
Stuck: Nothing at the moment.
Prayer Request: For my nerves to go away and just trust God and His hand in my life. It's scary coming to a new place and not really knowing people and still not having a 100% grasp on the language.

Here are two photos of our room. We don't have any bookcases, and so we made bookcases out of our suitcases. Below are photos from when we went to the volcano.