so i finally just found the supermarket, pali. well, i wouldn´t call it all that "super", but mostly convenient, it is.
along the way back, we passed a group of boys playing a game - checkers, but using soda lids as markers. blue vs white, 2 lids on top of each other make a king.
in the regular market, where stalls and stalls of everything a nican could want are all under the same thatch roof, the girls ask, "¿que busca?" - what are you looking for? nada, i say, just looking. thanks.
they drop the "s" off the end of words, so it´s "adio", not adios. and "gracia", not gracias. it works for a lazy tongue like mine.
a normal sight: a donkey cart loaded to the hilt with packages of paper towels and toilet paper. it has to be tied down to stay on the cart.
most of the people i´ve met are solo travelers. there are far more women than men traveling. most are crossing a huge chunk of central america, such as belize to panama, panama to LA, or even NYC to panama. of these travelers, the americans travel the shortest trips, 40 days being the shortest i´ve heard so far. the europeans, such it´s such a far way for them, usually take at least 3 months. i´m amazed that i speak the most spanish of them. but then again, spanish is touted as the easiest to learn in schools in america, and it´s certainly more prevalent in some areas than it is in virginia beach.
i mentioned to one of these longer-term travelers today at lunch that i´m impressed that they are taking such long trips. he replied that he was more impressed with people who are in nicaragua (or any place, really) for a specific purpose, such as to learn spanish or do social work (like my missions trip would be considered). the grass is greener, i suppose.
then again, there doesn´t seem to be heaps more to do around here. i just created things to do today, and i dno´t know what i´ll do tomorrow. i´ve been to mombacho volcano, where my canopy tour was. i went to the masaya volcano with the group on saturday. i went to the masaya market then, too, and as much as i´d like to go back, i don´t have the budget for it.
i had planned to go kayaking at las isletas today, but the other 2 backed out. one of the islands is "monkey island", and they heard that the monkeys living there were caught in the jungle adn sent there to live in exile so that their owners can make money selling tourists bags of crackers to feed the monkeys. they weren´t down with that, so they decided not to go. i have no idea of ths validity of this argument, but i´ve got a decent sunburn, so i´m not sure i would have wanted to go, anyway.
yesterday i went to laguna de apoyo, a crater lake. it was beautiful there, and i enjoyed lounging and swimming and reading, adn i did take a short kayak trip there, too.
around town, i went up in the bell tower of one of the churches, walked around teh sensory overloading market, been for a swim in the hostel pool, and hung out around the central park a bit. the only thing i still want to do is go to mi museo, which i´ve heard is small and won´t take long.
if i had longer here in nicaragua, i wouldhave gonesouth to san juan del sur, a surf town, to lay on the beach a bit and go down to the national park where teh turtles lay their eggs. i also would have gone north to the highlands to see a coffee plantation and perhaps "volcano board" down the slopes of a volcano near leon. but that´s about it. so i think i´m glad i´m not backpacking teh length of central america, i think i would get bored quickly. in accordance with this, bookstores cateringto backpackers adn book exchanges are in great supply. one guy i´m hanging out with the most just lounges around the hostel most of the day. i can´t imagine spending 40 days doing teh same thing in a different hostel.
anyway, i´m glad to be coming home. i don´t want to feel like i´ve wasted my last 5 days here, and i don´t, but it´s borderline. i´m very thankful for the first part of my trip wheni was legitimately doing something productive, and i had a better look at the culture. maybe it´s just that i picked the most gringo-filled town in all of nicaragua, and no where else is like this.
thanks, friends, for reading more of my ramblings!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
611 spam emails later....
ok, so here i am in nicaragua! i doubt many of you will even read this, but i thought i´d share, anyway.
the trip with the team was awesome. God really did a lot in and thru us. it is amazing to me the team unity that formed, especially with the costa ricans.
i´m slightly out of sorts right now... the american team left last nite, the ticos left this morning, and shortly after that, i said goodbye to alan and susan and hopped a microbus to granada, where i am now. i got here, found a hostel, locked up my bag, read a bit of the postings around here (and made a reservation for teh shuttle ride to their sister hostel on the edge of a lagoon for tuesday), and started to check email. lots of emails, including 611 spam messages, and I´ve just traveled the world.
this hostel reminds me of cairns, australia and verona, italy. it´s gorgeous. a pool in teh courtyard, hammocks lining another courtyard with a huge (50ft x 15 ft) mural on the wall. amazing. not to mention the town. it reminds me both of antigua guatemala and el cercado, mexico, where i lived for 5 weeks with my mexican host family. i received emails from friends heading for china, describing small-town kansas with clarity, traveling in india, traveling in western china, the housing coordinator in california, and more. i´m sitting next to a german, i hear english at the other end of the computers, and, of course, i´m actually in nicaragua. really? am i?
my spanish, thankfully, has come back to me, at least when people speak slowly. i have learned a bit more and grown more confident in what i am remembering.
on the drive from managua to granada, we passed a gate to a home with a banner over it, flapping in the (delicious) breeze: "here lives doña maria, the best mother in the world."
a woman took the seat next to me who had a huge platter of nicragua peanut brittle and 3 other treats that she sells and carries on her head.
2 men got on the bus carrying roses - one a bouqet of 6 colors, the other an arrangement to lay flat somewhere. considering all the smells i´ve encountered in many places, i could not ask for anything better!
children, maybe 8 and 10, shovel dirt into the many potholes, then beg for change from passing cars. alan keeps a jar of coins (tican, nican and gringan) for such ingenuity and hard work.
susan told me this morning of a 12 year old girl she prayed for a few weeks ago. she was in an abusive situation, and social services came that day to place her with her aunt and uncle. she also received Christ in her heart and left with a huge grin on her face. it was the first time susan had seen such a visible transformation from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, both spiritually and physically. she cried as she told me.
i had planned to go to selvanegra, a coffee plantation and organic farm in the highlands, where it´s cooler, but then decided to come down here to granada. tamara must have been praying for me.
i went shopping for most of my souvenirs yesterday and was able to send them home with tamara, so my bag is teh smallest it has ever been. i had to devise a new way to tie it all down so that there wasn´t a lot of extra room in it as i traveled. it actually fit between my legs in the microbus, with my day pack on my lap. and i still had room to wiggle my toes.
cattle and horses graze anywhere and everywhere. if they find a green patch, they´re there. on the island, pigs did the same. in the country side, add goats to the mix.
the plants here are amazingly beautiful. tall palm trees, fruits i´ve never seen or heard of. simply amazing.
dave gave me one of the biggest compliments: "you enjoy this sort of thing, don´t you? traveling, the lifestyle here? it doesn´t seem to bother you mush. it seems like you were cut out for a life like this."
by the end, i grew tired of the arrogance of our american selves. but all in all, i was very impressed by the team and how well they all seemed to go with it. our 2 first-timers were some of the best on the trip! they did great!
i got to stay with tamara in both hotel istiam and the orphanage. she makes a great roommate. i think we kept each other both sane and silly.
susan let me read one of her books, the end of poverty. interesting stuff. i only got maybe 1/5 the way thru it. i find myself thinking more and more in terms of economic development. i bought a whole bunch of jewelry from the orphanage, made by the kids, to give as gifts. why not support places that i know that the money will go to a good cause and won´t be squandered?
there are 7 active volcanoes here in nicaragua. one of them, volcan concepcion, is the northern half of the island where we were for a week. the first half of the week we stayed on the isthmus between the inactive and active volcanoes, with a great view of both. the second half of the week, we were on the edge of the active one, but with so much foliage, i didn´t ever get a good look at it except for the ferry ride to and from the island. one of the other active volcanoes, masaya, we went to yesterday. both masaya and concepcion constantly spew gases that cause some awesome cumulus clouds.
a few times (very rarely) i have smelled people burning their trash (the best way to get rid of it on the island). when i did smell it, it reminded me of the fires back home and how thankful i am not to have dealt with them these last 10 days. when i was in VA, smelling the smoke, it reminded me of people burning trash in mexico. full circle, in a way.
i´m kind of surprised at how rich this country seems. not really rich, but better off, at least. there are a fair share of luxury vehicles and haciendas tucked into hillsides, but i´m just surprised that i don´t see many slums or any extreme poverty, really. i´ve seen worse in other countries, places that officially aren´t as poor as nicaragua (the 2nd poorest in the western hemisphere).
i expected mostly beans and rice for every meal. we usually got beans and rice, but we also got so much more, i was so thankful for it! some of the best chicken and beef i´ve tasted. and fried platanos that ended up like french fries. just add salsa de tomate!
THANK YOU for your prayers. they were so needed and i know accomplished so much. keep me in your prayers as i travel these last 5 days, and the teams as they debrief. and me, as i debreif alone.
even so, come Lord Jesus!
the trip with the team was awesome. God really did a lot in and thru us. it is amazing to me the team unity that formed, especially with the costa ricans.
i´m slightly out of sorts right now... the american team left last nite, the ticos left this morning, and shortly after that, i said goodbye to alan and susan and hopped a microbus to granada, where i am now. i got here, found a hostel, locked up my bag, read a bit of the postings around here (and made a reservation for teh shuttle ride to their sister hostel on the edge of a lagoon for tuesday), and started to check email. lots of emails, including 611 spam messages, and I´ve just traveled the world.
this hostel reminds me of cairns, australia and verona, italy. it´s gorgeous. a pool in teh courtyard, hammocks lining another courtyard with a huge (50ft x 15 ft) mural on the wall. amazing. not to mention the town. it reminds me both of antigua guatemala and el cercado, mexico, where i lived for 5 weeks with my mexican host family. i received emails from friends heading for china, describing small-town kansas with clarity, traveling in india, traveling in western china, the housing coordinator in california, and more. i´m sitting next to a german, i hear english at the other end of the computers, and, of course, i´m actually in nicaragua. really? am i?
my spanish, thankfully, has come back to me, at least when people speak slowly. i have learned a bit more and grown more confident in what i am remembering.
on the drive from managua to granada, we passed a gate to a home with a banner over it, flapping in the (delicious) breeze: "here lives doña maria, the best mother in the world."
a woman took the seat next to me who had a huge platter of nicragua peanut brittle and 3 other treats that she sells and carries on her head.
2 men got on the bus carrying roses - one a bouqet of 6 colors, the other an arrangement to lay flat somewhere. considering all the smells i´ve encountered in many places, i could not ask for anything better!
children, maybe 8 and 10, shovel dirt into the many potholes, then beg for change from passing cars. alan keeps a jar of coins (tican, nican and gringan) for such ingenuity and hard work.
susan told me this morning of a 12 year old girl she prayed for a few weeks ago. she was in an abusive situation, and social services came that day to place her with her aunt and uncle. she also received Christ in her heart and left with a huge grin on her face. it was the first time susan had seen such a visible transformation from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, both spiritually and physically. she cried as she told me.
i had planned to go to selvanegra, a coffee plantation and organic farm in the highlands, where it´s cooler, but then decided to come down here to granada. tamara must have been praying for me.
i went shopping for most of my souvenirs yesterday and was able to send them home with tamara, so my bag is teh smallest it has ever been. i had to devise a new way to tie it all down so that there wasn´t a lot of extra room in it as i traveled. it actually fit between my legs in the microbus, with my day pack on my lap. and i still had room to wiggle my toes.
cattle and horses graze anywhere and everywhere. if they find a green patch, they´re there. on the island, pigs did the same. in the country side, add goats to the mix.
the plants here are amazingly beautiful. tall palm trees, fruits i´ve never seen or heard of. simply amazing.
dave gave me one of the biggest compliments: "you enjoy this sort of thing, don´t you? traveling, the lifestyle here? it doesn´t seem to bother you mush. it seems like you were cut out for a life like this."
by the end, i grew tired of the arrogance of our american selves. but all in all, i was very impressed by the team and how well they all seemed to go with it. our 2 first-timers were some of the best on the trip! they did great!
i got to stay with tamara in both hotel istiam and the orphanage. she makes a great roommate. i think we kept each other both sane and silly.
susan let me read one of her books, the end of poverty. interesting stuff. i only got maybe 1/5 the way thru it. i find myself thinking more and more in terms of economic development. i bought a whole bunch of jewelry from the orphanage, made by the kids, to give as gifts. why not support places that i know that the money will go to a good cause and won´t be squandered?
there are 7 active volcanoes here in nicaragua. one of them, volcan concepcion, is the northern half of the island where we were for a week. the first half of the week we stayed on the isthmus between the inactive and active volcanoes, with a great view of both. the second half of the week, we were on the edge of the active one, but with so much foliage, i didn´t ever get a good look at it except for the ferry ride to and from the island. one of the other active volcanoes, masaya, we went to yesterday. both masaya and concepcion constantly spew gases that cause some awesome cumulus clouds.
a few times (very rarely) i have smelled people burning their trash (the best way to get rid of it on the island). when i did smell it, it reminded me of the fires back home and how thankful i am not to have dealt with them these last 10 days. when i was in VA, smelling the smoke, it reminded me of people burning trash in mexico. full circle, in a way.
i´m kind of surprised at how rich this country seems. not really rich, but better off, at least. there are a fair share of luxury vehicles and haciendas tucked into hillsides, but i´m just surprised that i don´t see many slums or any extreme poverty, really. i´ve seen worse in other countries, places that officially aren´t as poor as nicaragua (the 2nd poorest in the western hemisphere).
i expected mostly beans and rice for every meal. we usually got beans and rice, but we also got so much more, i was so thankful for it! some of the best chicken and beef i´ve tasted. and fried platanos that ended up like french fries. just add salsa de tomate!
THANK YOU for your prayers. they were so needed and i know accomplished so much. keep me in your prayers as i travel these last 5 days, and the teams as they debrief. and me, as i debreif alone.
even so, come Lord Jesus!
Monday, June 16, 2008
the times they are a-changin'!
ok, so when i was in middle school, i would go to early church with my parents, stay for 2nd service, walk to wendy's to eat lunch with my friends, then have youth choir practice. my mom would give me $3 for lunch. that's all i needed. wow.
10 years ago this summer, my family drove across the country. we spent a month on the road, making a big loop, hitting up our family and the major national parks all along the way. SO, the whole trip, california was the only place we paid more than a dollar a gallon for gas. true story.
ok, so i just saw the beginning of a television show with an indian character. whose parents live in india, and they talk on the webcam. so one of the scenes is him carrying his laptop around, showing his parents his friend's apartment. wow. talk about technology. and a big advancement to have a south asian character in the show at all. it's just funny and amazing to me.
10 years ago this summer, my family drove across the country. we spent a month on the road, making a big loop, hitting up our family and the major national parks all along the way. SO, the whole trip, california was the only place we paid more than a dollar a gallon for gas. true story.
ok, so i just saw the beginning of a television show with an indian character. whose parents live in india, and they talk on the webcam. so one of the scenes is him carrying his laptop around, showing his parents his friend's apartment. wow. talk about technology. and a big advancement to have a south asian character in the show at all. it's just funny and amazing to me.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
7 or 8 years later...
a friend of mine asked last nite about what my high school friends are up to these days. of the group i hung out with most, 2 graduated in 2000, the other 4 of us in 2001. so here's the breakdown, out of 6:
3 have master's degrees, 1 still in med school (almost there!), and i'm starting in the fall
4 have lived overseas for at least a 5-month stretch, another for 1 month, and the last for 2 weeks.
2 are married, 1 engaged, and 1 pregnant with her first
4 are closely using their degrees, and 1 used her degree for a few years but is now home to raise a family (and i ran from my degree!)
1 joined the army (to pay for med school)
1 (at least) has her dream job
collectively, we've traveled in at least 30 countries since high school (and incidentally, we became close because of high school mission trips to mexico!)
so there you have it: a relatively successful and fulfilled group of people! tho i have little professional ambition, i am thankful to have traveled so widely!
so, while i'm here (it's been a while, sorry), i'll add a bit more.
i'm still working on extending my nicaragua trip. there are a few more wrinkles on that one to iron out. and it's a bit more complicated since i'm not the one making travel plans for the whole group. but i'm trying!!
work is going pretty well. i've settled in fairly well to being a shift supervisor, and i like it! i'm certainly not bored! opening shifts go by so quickly, i feel like i don't have enough time to get everything done. and i don't close very much, so i am afraid i'll forget a lot the next time i do close, which isn't anytime soon! there have been a few frustrations, mostly dealing with lack of communication, but i'm learning to relax and not expect so much from people, and that helps. :-P
house church at scott's is awesome. i love it. it has become my "home church", pun not intended! it's the one event in my week i try my hardest not to miss. i love the people there: scott and michele (the hosts and leaders) and their 2 high school kids, another woman (in her 40s or 50s) with 2 adopted kids (11 and 12), a couple in their 30's who act like their 20's with a 2 year old, a couple in their 20's with a baby, a family of 12 with kids from 18 mos to college, and me! it has been SO fun to get to know them all, to have the kids running around and chasing the dog, and of course, great food every week! i'm the token single girl, but the oldest 2 of the big family are great girls, too, so we get along well. the wife of the couple in their 30's is also a good friend of mine (she saved my life in turkey in 2002), so it's great to get to know her husband, too. the conversation every week is so fun and inspiring, and i learn so much! this will probably be the group that i miss the most when i move to california!
so CA: i have a roommate!!! i'm so excited! a friend of mine from undergrad officially is accepted and wants to live with me! yay for courtney!! it's really funny: i wanted to live with courtney in college, but she had already made plans to live with audrey. then i met amanda, so i got to live with her. audrey and i graduated and went to "boot camp" at hgm, where we were roommates. courtney and amanda still had another year of school, so courtney took my place in the apt with amanda. now amanda is married and audrey will be this weekend, so now courtney and i are moving in together in california! how's that for a turn of events! woohoo!!
i'm very excited to be doing this program in CA. it's officially in MA in crosscultural studies at fuller theological seminary. there are some basic Bible classes i have to take (old testament survey, new testament survey, etc), some "core classes" (culture and transformation, church in mission, teamwork and leadership, communicating and serving cross-culturally, global evangelical movement, and spirituality and mission), a couple elective classes and concentration classes that i get to choose. it's these i'm most excited about. classes like poverty and development; children at risk; relief, refugees and conflict; incarnation and mission among the world's urban poor; immigration, religion and the american church; and advocating social justice. wow! talk about some options!! i'm so excited!!
3 have master's degrees, 1 still in med school (almost there!), and i'm starting in the fall
4 have lived overseas for at least a 5-month stretch, another for 1 month, and the last for 2 weeks.
2 are married, 1 engaged, and 1 pregnant with her first
4 are closely using their degrees, and 1 used her degree for a few years but is now home to raise a family (and i ran from my degree!)
1 joined the army (to pay for med school)
1 (at least) has her dream job
collectively, we've traveled in at least 30 countries since high school (and incidentally, we became close because of high school mission trips to mexico!)
so there you have it: a relatively successful and fulfilled group of people! tho i have little professional ambition, i am thankful to have traveled so widely!
so, while i'm here (it's been a while, sorry), i'll add a bit more.
i'm still working on extending my nicaragua trip. there are a few more wrinkles on that one to iron out. and it's a bit more complicated since i'm not the one making travel plans for the whole group. but i'm trying!!
work is going pretty well. i've settled in fairly well to being a shift supervisor, and i like it! i'm certainly not bored! opening shifts go by so quickly, i feel like i don't have enough time to get everything done. and i don't close very much, so i am afraid i'll forget a lot the next time i do close, which isn't anytime soon! there have been a few frustrations, mostly dealing with lack of communication, but i'm learning to relax and not expect so much from people, and that helps. :-P
house church at scott's is awesome. i love it. it has become my "home church", pun not intended! it's the one event in my week i try my hardest not to miss. i love the people there: scott and michele (the hosts and leaders) and their 2 high school kids, another woman (in her 40s or 50s) with 2 adopted kids (11 and 12), a couple in their 30's who act like their 20's with a 2 year old, a couple in their 20's with a baby, a family of 12 with kids from 18 mos to college, and me! it has been SO fun to get to know them all, to have the kids running around and chasing the dog, and of course, great food every week! i'm the token single girl, but the oldest 2 of the big family are great girls, too, so we get along well. the wife of the couple in their 30's is also a good friend of mine (she saved my life in turkey in 2002), so it's great to get to know her husband, too. the conversation every week is so fun and inspiring, and i learn so much! this will probably be the group that i miss the most when i move to california!
so CA: i have a roommate!!! i'm so excited! a friend of mine from undergrad officially is accepted and wants to live with me! yay for courtney!! it's really funny: i wanted to live with courtney in college, but she had already made plans to live with audrey. then i met amanda, so i got to live with her. audrey and i graduated and went to "boot camp" at hgm, where we were roommates. courtney and amanda still had another year of school, so courtney took my place in the apt with amanda. now amanda is married and audrey will be this weekend, so now courtney and i are moving in together in california! how's that for a turn of events! woohoo!!
i'm very excited to be doing this program in CA. it's officially in MA in crosscultural studies at fuller theological seminary. there are some basic Bible classes i have to take (old testament survey, new testament survey, etc), some "core classes" (culture and transformation, church in mission, teamwork and leadership, communicating and serving cross-culturally, global evangelical movement, and spirituality and mission), a couple elective classes and concentration classes that i get to choose. it's these i'm most excited about. classes like poverty and development; children at risk; relief, refugees and conflict; incarnation and mission among the world's urban poor; immigration, religion and the american church; and advocating social justice. wow! talk about some options!! i'm so excited!!
Monday, May 05, 2008
frustrated...
sounds like the title of a lot of my posts... it's kinda interesting, this emotion of frustration. i'm realizing that i haven't really been that frustrated for a while. i wonder if i've actually grown in having patience, or if i've been more humbled by at at peace with my circumstances, or if my circumstances have just changed enough that i'm happy with them? i don't know. but it is interesting that this feeling is almost foreign to me, as opposed to being almost constant!
so right now, i'm so frustrated that i feel it in my gut. i wanted someone to do something for me, and they didn't do it. they just did it the way they wanted to do it. i asked them to do it for me, they said ok, and when it didn't work as easily as they thought it would, they just did it their way. they could have called me, or just asked me to do it in the first place, or they could have checked into it 4 days before it had to be done to double check it and then called me, or... yeah, it could have been different. i know that i don't understand how complicated it is on their side, and yes, they have a lot of other things going on, too, not just this one issue, but it will now cost me $300 extra to go fix it. when it should have been no charge at all. so yeah, i'm pretty frustrated. (and they waited until i called to ask about something else to tell me about it, instead of calling me right after it happened.)
this feeling sits in my gut, just below my rib cage, and it's like i can't get a full breath of air. it actually does help, physically to yell and kind of discharge some of the pressure built up. i wonder if other people physically feel frustration the way i do.
and now, because i'm already frustrated, little things that i would normally have patience for are very irritating. i know i still have the choice to let it go and not be irritated, but it's so much easier to be irritated than not when i'm already frustrated. (things like my computer being slow, a netflix dvd that my parents watched not being sent back right after they watched it - normal life stuff that shouldn't bother me this much.)
ok, it helps to process and i'm not quite as frustrated anymore. :-P
so right now, i'm so frustrated that i feel it in my gut. i wanted someone to do something for me, and they didn't do it. they just did it the way they wanted to do it. i asked them to do it for me, they said ok, and when it didn't work as easily as they thought it would, they just did it their way. they could have called me, or just asked me to do it in the first place, or they could have checked into it 4 days before it had to be done to double check it and then called me, or... yeah, it could have been different. i know that i don't understand how complicated it is on their side, and yes, they have a lot of other things going on, too, not just this one issue, but it will now cost me $300 extra to go fix it. when it should have been no charge at all. so yeah, i'm pretty frustrated. (and they waited until i called to ask about something else to tell me about it, instead of calling me right after it happened.)
this feeling sits in my gut, just below my rib cage, and it's like i can't get a full breath of air. it actually does help, physically to yell and kind of discharge some of the pressure built up. i wonder if other people physically feel frustration the way i do.
and now, because i'm already frustrated, little things that i would normally have patience for are very irritating. i know i still have the choice to let it go and not be irritated, but it's so much easier to be irritated than not when i'm already frustrated. (things like my computer being slow, a netflix dvd that my parents watched not being sent back right after they watched it - normal life stuff that shouldn't bother me this much.)
ok, it helps to process and i'm not quite as frustrated anymore. :-P
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