There’s something I keep forgetting to tell you guys (my fans)… everyday in Nicaragua the electricity (la luz) of the entire country goes out. Every day. This week it has been scheduled from 7-10 pm every night, but the weeks past that I’ve been here it was usually unpredictable. It’s really frustrating for an American. Not that we have A/C here to begin with (we dont), but to be reading, eating dinner, or doing homework, and then to have the lights go out is tough to get used to. At home in Texas when the power goes out for half an hour I get pretty pissed, and it’s kind of funny to think about that now.

It has to do with the government, which I’ve been trying to learn about but my spanish isn’t really good enough to get into details with the locals. I know a little though so if you are interested ask me about it.

Played some ball yesterday with my spanish teacher at one of the courts in Granada. I loved it. It’s always fun to find a court with no one you know, and just ball. It’s even cooler when no one speaks your language… and you just know they are talking crap about you.

This morning three of my good friends from school (Terry, Marissa, and John) left town. The rest of my friends are out of town for the weekend. I enjoy all of the stuff we get to do together, but I’m glad to have a slow weekend where I can spend some alone time too. Semi alone. If you didn’t already know, that’s my main reason for this trip. To get away and spend some time with Jesus. There’s a lot of noise in Texas, I needed somewhere quiet to get away, so I came down here.

I don’t have many stories from this week to tell, but this week was a great one. Not because of any excursion we went on though. This week was great because of it’s stillness. And in the stillness, I have had more time to read. I need to watch my diet better. Not talking about the 3 meals a day food. I’m fine there, in fact I’m a glutton when it comes to loving myself, my body. But I have a poor diet when it comes to Bread… I still neglect my Spirit. “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6) I love that Jesus spoke parables aloud to us, even though He created the world chalk full of them. Life on earth requires bread and water. In the same way Eternal Life rests on the Living Water: of the Spirit, and the bread: the words of God. And I’m both the ungrateful son of my parents who give me food, and the undeserving Son of my Father who freely gives me Redemption.

All glory and thanks be to the One who died for this wretch

click read more down below for some more pics

nicaraguan girl, sunset in san juan del sur

dan’s on the right. if you know henry fortinberry, you know dan. they are exactly alike

<—from the left: sarah, dan, me, laura

Today was one of the best days of this trip so far. I have been on a zipline before…but nothing like this. It took us about 45 minutes to drive up the mountain. We drove up a “road” that scared this one student so bad it made her cry. It felt like our wheels were squares, and the driver thought we were in the Indy 500 or something. Bumpy road, it was pretty crazy. But anyways, once we got to the top we talked with some of the children that lived in a little village up there… I will try to post some pictures up here once my friends put them on facebook and I can steal them.

The best part about this volcano is the “Canopy Tour”, which is this enormous zipline down the mountainside. Its not all one zipline, its made up of like 14 different ziplines or something like that. We climbed a ladder up a huge tree, and then zipped down a ways, then climbed up another, and zipped some more. Everyone kept saying that it felt like we were in Jurassic Park. It looked exactly like it, with the deep forest and all the sounds. The trees we were on had Tiger Ants (close to an inch long each) crawling all over them, and all over us too. We were wearing thick gloves (to use as brakes on the line) so it was kind of difficult to take pictures… which reminds me…We were at one of the highest points of the Tour when I whip my camera out to take a picture, and the battery flies out of it and falls about 65 feet down into the woods. Son of a bitch. I dont know if Ill find another battery or not my camera is hard to find stuff for, but I will just post other peoples pictures on here from now on I guess. At the end of the Tour, we repelled down the side of a tree. I think i heard the drop was 65 feet. The tree we were in was probably 100 feet tall though, it was a Sabor Tree or something. There were only four of us students at Casa Xalteva that went but we partied up with like 10 others. Most of them there were Christians, I noticed this one dudes shirt said Young Life Mauai on it and we struck up a convo. He started a business down here in Nicaragua to fund a school that they run on the east coast. Its a school for some tribes that he said are third world and “fourth world”. I can only imagine… but what he is doing is sort of similar to part of what I might be doing with my life, so it was cool. He said that he knows the guy in Hawaii that makes Conoa Coffee or something, I forgot the name but something like that. Anyways he says that they blind folded themselves once and tasted three types of coffee, his from nicaragua, the other dudes Conoa Coffee, and another, and they all three picked his as the best tasting. And he said that when he talked with the producer, they were currently selling it for .80 cents a pound, as compared to close to 26 bucks a pound for starbucks and Canoa coffee or something ridiculous. He uses all the profits to run schools and outreach to the Mosquito tribe in east nicaragua (I think thats their name). Jesus… what a conversation starter. Its even better than when I meet another aggie, but thats up there too hahaha. Got some free coffee grown on the side of Volano Mambacho, ask me for some when I get home and well have some.

to all my fans- te amo

I haven’t written much about the family that I’m staying with, but I really am enjoying this place. My family is probably one of the poorer home-stay families, but they’re great. This family has a good spirit. I’m starting to understand enough Spanish to be able to talk with them. The youngest girl is 21, and she is the most patient with me so we talk a lot. They are funny though… I haven’t finished a meal yet without being asked “do you like the food of my house?” And they keep giving me new Spanish words to describe how good their food is. There is Carla (oldest daughter), Catilla (21), Rina (young girl, like 9), and there’s another girl that’s always here making out with guys on the furniture but I don’t know if she’s related or not. It’s an incredibly different culture and place here… it’s hard to explain.

And I think I should write a little about the people I have met. Dalila, pronounced “Die-lee-la” is a Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro. She is in the same class as Sarah and I at Casa Xalteva. She’s one of my better friends here. Laura from Colorado is another older lady like Jennie’s age that has traveled around the world and back and has great stories. The only other dude is Dan from Michigan. He’s like 27 years old and has the exact personality and voice of Henry Fortinberry. Identical. He speaks Spanish fluently though so he does all the talk when we go places. There is also Terry, from Iowa, who is a laid back girl that reminds me a lot of my sister Amy. Really nice girl. It’s nice to have some balance with Terry because she’s not as crazy as some of the others.

We have gone to Carita Feliz twice this past week, and plan on going again a few times this next week. I want to have some afternoons where all I do is chill though. I didn’t plan on being so busy while I was here, but it’s cool to have stuff to do. The first time we went to CF the children were real shy, but Thursday we were welcomed with the kid’s spanish-accented voices: “We waiting for you!”

The Spanish school that I’m at is awesome. The students are all cool and we hang out and get along well. It’s also nice to have some friends that speak Spanish fluently and English. This weekend we went to a place called San Juan del Sur. It’s the hub of Nicaraguan beaches (on the west coast). It’s about 3-3.5 hours by bus from Granada, because you have to transit through another town called Rivas. We stayed in hands down the nicest resort I’ve ever been too. It makes it easy when I’ve been to maybe one resort in my life… but anyways this place was legit. The beach that we went to was called Cocoa Beach. It wasn’t anything real special, but I’m used to Galveston beaches so it was great for me. The others were disappointed. I came back tonight with one of the others because I’m feeling a little enfermo, but not too bad. I just didn’t feel like dragging everyone else down with me when they wanted to go out dancing and stuff.

There are a ton of pictures in this post. You just have to click Read More down below to see all of them. I tried to give an idea of what the pictures are but if you are curious you can just comment and ask or something.

family in the project that we went to…

Wow…

Its only been 3 days here in Nic, unbelievable. I expected to be spending all my time alone, but so far Ive really only had a couple hours solomente. Looking forward to some quiet afternoons during the school week. Speaking of the week, we (as in Jennie and I, oh Jennie is a Canadian friend and most importantly, a great source of Christian fellowship…) found a place called Calita Feliz. Its a school for the poor children in this community. I cant explain how great the place is. When I was there on Friday I wanted to call home and just tell everyone I know to send money. They are really doing some great things there. I am going to teach english, and futbol y beisbol. Soccer and baseball.

Juan (our Nicaraguan friend/ translator) is pretty freakin crazy. He lives to party, and he insists on taking us to local places and tries to get me drunk. Juan, Sarah (another Canadian friend), Jennie, and I went to a local place last night and tried to learn a little salsa y merengua. The chicas here all dance and want to teach you how, but when Enrique Iglesias (thats my spanish name here) stepped onto the floor, I became the teacher. Not really, Im actually unbelievably bad at dancing. The Nicaraguan people are a lot of fun though. Today we went to Misa (mass) with Juans mother, and I will tell you about that in a minute. But after church we went to this Lagoon called Laguna Apollo or something like that. It has to be the most perfect “chill” place on earth. We sat under grass huts and drank lemonada until we couldnt drink nada mas. I hope we go back.

But this morning, we went to mass with Juans mother. It was one of the coolest feelings that I have experienced. I dont understand much spanish yet, but language is no barrier for the Lord. I felt the same encouragement from the holy spirit in the church here as I do any sunday at home. It almost caught me off guard. But the spirit lives in the hearts of the people here. I couldnt stop thinking about the verse in Revelations 9 that says “and there I saw a great multitude of people from every nation, tribe and tongue, standing before the throne of the Lamb…” and I dont remember the next part, but they are all worshipping God as One. I felt a little taste of that today. I didnt quite pick up the songs that we were singing, but we did join hands in one of the easy songs and sing “gloria al padre” or something. If you want to hear more about this stuff ask me but I dont want to drag on and on.

Jennie brought 250 lbs of cosas, things, for the needy here in Granada. Her husband is coming the last week we are here also and bringing more. She has been able to give some of the clothing to a lady that works in the homestay family she is staying with (Juans family). I got to go with her to the ladys house, which is a project about the size of the bird house that you and I built dad (ok, I know I built most of it, but you DID help). its probably 3 times the size of it, but not the same quality. there are three families staying in this project. her family is large, too. the outer walls were made of plywood, the inner walls of cardboard, and the cieling was a staggered (?) tin roof. dirt floors. absent of the normal furniture im used to, only a bed in their room that im sure the entire family squeezes into every night. Jennie gave them two blankets, and some clothes, it was humbling to see the gratefulness that this family expressed to her knowing that I have so much more and I am so much less grateful. there are many people here with beautiful hearts.

tomorrow i start classes at 8 in the morning until 12. im really looking forward to four solid weeks of studying. and i need some quiet afternoons. thats really the reason that i decided to come here, if you did not already know.

bish if youre reading this… Granada is almost identical to Antigua bro its got the church on the same side of the central square as antigua, and the banco is on the same side, the hotels and everything. its crazy. thought you should know.

ill post some pictures on here once i get them from jennie

forrest

Its saturday evening here in Nic. I have already found a couple Canadian friends that were on the same plane as I was from Houston to Managua, Nicaragua. We have all made friends with a local named Juan who translates for us. He lived in Miami for 8 years so he speaks fluent english. Huge help. No pics yet…. soon

forrest