Harmonica Serenade

Our internet has been down for the last week or two so I haven't been able to post anything long.  But, it seems that if I sit in the yard here, I am close enough to "borrow" internet from our neighbor.  Don't worry, the neighbor is related to the family with whom I live and she said I could use it .  Any who, I took the bus home from return visits today and this gentleman hopped on to make a few quick pesos.  Consider this my random photo of the day.  Enjoy!

Fire!

It doesn't take much to excite everyone around here lol.  Two nights ago, we heard a huge explosion across the street then all the power went out.  We feared the worse- a truck running off the road into the electric plant.  A few minutes later, everyone was running around yelling, "Fire!!"  The electric plant had indeed caught on fire.  Neighbors ran to get lawn chairs and watch everything play out.  The brother in my house called the fire department.  It took at LEAST 10 minutes for him to explain that it was the electric plant, not our house on fire.  They wanted to know how long it was burning, how big etc. "Are you sure it's the plant and not your house??" Crazy!  I've never actually seen them in action although I have seen them playing games in the fire house plenty of times.  About 20 minutes after the fire started, the sky opened up and it began to pour.  The fire department never showed to even check things out!  I guess they figured their job was done for them! Sorry the photos are a little fuzzy.

The inferno

Everyone paying rapt attention to the story of the huge "boom!"

Look!

You Can Find Me In The A!

Time is really flying!  I promised my family and friends that I would visit home (Atlanta) midway through my journey here in Nicaragua.  I missed the halfway mark 2 months ago but, finally, 8 months in, I headed home for a two week visit.  The intention was to work the whole time I was there either doing some temp work or random house cleaning, dog walking etc. but the economy was rough!  So, I stayed in the ministry and just visited everyone and Jehovah took care of me in the end after all.  Here are some of the photos of friends and family in my beautiful hometown!

My brother took me from the airport and we went straight to the breakfast buffet at Shoney's to start fattening me up!  He took such good care of me cooking and spoiling me the whole time I was at home.

The first few days I was home, the temperature was in the 40s and 50s and my body went through shock all over again.  Several sisters let me borrow warm weather clothes.  I thought I was handling the cold ok but one morning in service a sister "tricked" me by inviting me into her house to grab some tights then saying would continue in service immediately thereafter.  Once in, she practically had to hold me down in front of a heater and give me coffee and warm lunch as she insisted I not go back out because she could tell I was freezing!  Thanks Sis. Wyche!

Bessie with literature in all languages preaching at the train station.

Yvonne and her bible student who works at the train station

Bro. Locklear and I

Ready for Ministry!

Friends I met at another train station

Looks like we are in the woods but it's actually in front of someone's house!

While in Atlanta, I got to see two of my friends get married.  Aren't they cute?!

We were all excited for a chance to get dressed up!

Thanks for letting me go shoe shopping in your closet, Qianna!

Night out with friends

Atlanta is so pretty at night!

Some of my friends had a gathering for me and cooked all the soul food I had been missing: ribs, greens cornbread etc. It was soooooo good!

Lunch with Ellington and Marian (I did alot of eating on this trip!)

Aunt Claire

Aunt Cherrie

My cousin James, me, Uncle Carl, Aunt Debbie and Aunt Claire

Koi pond in my aunt's yard

Last meeting at the Kingdom Hall with Qianna

My mom and I

Nicaraguan Weight Loss Secret

This has got to be the best kept secret for weight loss on the planet!  When I went to the coast several months ago I started dropping weight like crazy.  At first I thought it was the strenuous activity and heat.  But, I knew it had to be more.  Everyday I found myself crazily craving sweets from the local bakery to the point that even the owners jokingly warned me that I was going to gain a ton of weight before I left.  Au contraire!  In fact, once I got back to Granada I kept on losing weight despite still craving tons of sweets and carbs.  Twenty pounds lighter I found out that I that someone had given me one of Nicaragua's best kept weight loss aids.  Guess what it is?!

Parasites!

Not sure what I ate or drank but I finally got em.  I say finally since most people who stay here for any length of time eventually get parasites.  Just one of those things!  All you do is take a couple of pills for a few days and no more worries.  Like I said, I didn't even have any symptoms except the weight loss and sweets/carb cravings....hmmm maybe I should have kept them!  The bad news is, the only reason I found out about the parasites is because I got really sick from eating something else I shouldn't have (hey some of that street vendor food is too tempting to pass up!)  By the time someone dragged me to the doctor kicking and screaming, I had all kinds of infections and other things wrong with me.  I asked the doctor to please just give me all the antibiotics and medicines since I had a flight to Atlanta the next day.  She looked at me like I was crazy and told me there was no way I could fly.  It's true, if I had gone to the airport, people in hazmat suits probably would have grabbed me and thrown me into quarantine cause I was looking kind of crazy at that point.  I was going to push and go once I found out that the fare would be twice as much if I changed to the following week (I barely had enough for the ticket in the first place!)  But, Jehovah had mercy on me.  Since the airline had made an error with my flight to begin with, they agreed to a courtesy change with no change fee and told me not to worry about the fare difference.  I was elated to be able to rest and recuperate for an extra week before heading home for a quick visit.