We have become a bit braver in trying to speak with people…and for the most part, we can make ourselves understood – thanks to their graciousness, patience and love of charades. The problem comes when they try to speak back! So far, our brains don’t work nearly as quickly as sound travels. When these foreign utterances hit our ears and we begin to try to mentally translate each word, we have discovered that these speaker’s tongues are flying ninety-to-nothing and we’re creeping along, still trying to assess the meaning of the initial sentence. A frustrating experience for both sides, I’m sure…it certainly is for us.
Towards the end of this week, Jim and I both were becoming very discouraged and wondering how on earth we were ever going to manage here…we are tired and we feel such an urgency to learn it all “now”. An unrealistic expectation, at the least. You know how scripture speaks of God’s people crying out to Him? Been there. Am there. And He has been faithful to answer in the most unexpected way… a little dog. “Who am I that you are mindful of me? That you hear me when I call?...God Almighty, Lord of Glory, You have called me friend.”
Susanna left for the States Thursday night to attend a conference on tropical medicine and asked if we would keep her dog, Pixie. She will be gone a little over 2 weeks. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity. Susanna does so much for us and this seemed like such a small th
ing to offer in return…plus, we love her silly little dog! So, we can’t even say it’s a sacrifice…it’s a pleasure. But, Pixie is an inside-outside dog and we don’t have a way to contain her outside when we’re not here so naturally, when Pixie comes to our house, she becomes an inside dog. Without going in to all that means, I will just say that having Pixie here for two weeks necessitates we be home for two weeks or take her with us when we go. So, to get to the point, we are taking a two week hiatus from school. Have I said we LOVE that little dog?!?
ing to offer in return…plus, we love her silly little dog! So, we can’t even say it’s a sacrifice…it’s a pleasure. But, Pixie is an inside-outside dog and we don’t have a way to contain her outside when we’re not here so naturally, when Pixie comes to our house, she becomes an inside dog. Without going in to all that means, I will just say that having Pixie here for two weeks necessitates we be home for two weeks or take her with us when we go. So, to get to the point, we are taking a two week hiatus from school. Have I said we LOVE that little dog?!? This time of “rest” will actually be a time of reviewing and re-committing to memory the lessons from the last three weeks but at our own pace and without the pressure that the daily class requires. It’s a good thing and for us a necessary thing and of course, most welcome. It also is giving us time to take care of some chores around the house which we’ve just not had time to address, such as Jim caulking around the trim in the ceiling of our bedroom so that the bat “goo” doesn’t run down the wall…yuk…gives me the shivers writing it, let alone looking at it. It also is giving me time to get three loads of laundry done in one day (the sun is shining today). It’s been over 3 weeks since I’ve had all the laundry done in one day!
The rainy season obviously brings a whole new set of challenges than the ones we faced when we first arrived. Not only does it keep clothes from drying, it accelerates mold and mildew on every surface…including the inside of our shoes. I don’t know the real fix for that but I have discovered that rubbing Germ-X on the soles of my Birkenstocks and then setting them out in the sun seems to take care of it. Another shiver just ran up my spine…these are things I just never gave any thought to having to deal with when we moved her. Boy, am I learning a new way of life!
The rains also drive every kind of insect imaginable indoors. The mosquitoes and ants are always a problem but there seem to be even more of them now than before. And there is something just plain wrong with seeing a slug crawling up the wall here in the study. The last few days have brought a new, flying insect of some sort which seems to prefer the damp environment of our bathroom, not a welcome sight when pulling back the shower curtain to get out to dry off. And although the temperatures drop when it’s actually raining, they don’t stay down. Once the rain has passed, it leaves behind a steamy day and often, an uncomfortable night. Believe me, we are extremely thankful for our “ventiladors” (fans) and the fact our electricity has been staying on pretty consistently lately so that we can run them.
So back to taking a couple of weeks off…it would have been wonderful to have slept in yesterday and to have just bummed around all day. But, God has said we can have two weeks break from school, not two weeks break from the work He has put before us. So, we were up at 5:00 to get ready for the monthly medical clinic at Jinotepe. This time, we took a young man whom we met last Saturday at a day-long conference we attended for new missionaries to the country. It was entitled Orientation to Cross-Cultural Ministry in Nicaragua and was well worth our time. We not only were presented with pertinent information to our work here under the current political situation but also such topics were covered as transitioning to a new culture, cross-cultural relationships, etc. And it also afforded us all an opportunity to “network” with other folks and to hear a little of their stories and about their ministries. 
“Networking”…what a buzz word that is and actually not one of my favorite ones. It’s too sterile and too business-like. I prefer to think of it as simply meeting other people and beginning the process of developing relationships. Maybe that’s one reason why Jim and I sti
ck out so much from so many of the other missionaries we’ve met. Most are young, very well-educated and seem to have a well-constructed map to get them through the desert to their Promised Land. They all seem to “network” very well. We’re obviously not young, we both regret not furthering our formal education when younger and the only map we have is a well-creased, much-used and slightly grungy very basic map of the major roads of Managua. I just like visiting with people one on one and getting to know their hearts.
ck out so much from so many of the other missionaries we’ve met. Most are young, very well-educated and seem to have a well-constructed map to get them through the desert to their Promised Land. They all seem to “network” very well. We’re obviously not young, we both regret not furthering our formal education when younger and the only map we have is a well-creased, much-used and slightly grungy very basic map of the major roads of Managua. I just like visiting with people one on one and getting to know their hearts. Through that desire to hear people’s stories at the conference, we met a young man named John Andrew (Andrew is his middle name…not his last). He just was graduated from college this past 
spring and will be starting med school next year. He wanted to take a year off before starting back in to school and felt God was bringing him to Nicaragua for that time. He has been here a month and is teaching English to 3rd graders and high school students at a rural school. The family he is staying with lives quite a ways off the beaten path. He is without transportation and has not had the chance to make friends. As a result, he has not had an opportunity to see much of Managua, let alone anywhere else. So, a few days before we were to do the clinic, I called him and asked if he would like to go with us. John Andrew jumped at the opportunity…to get out of the house, to spend a day with people who speak fluent English, to go see new sights and to do it all in his field of interest!
spring and will be starting med school next year. He wanted to take a year off before starting back in to school and felt God was bringing him to Nicaragua for that time. He has been here a month and is teaching English to 3rd graders and high school students at a rural school. The family he is staying with lives quite a ways off the beaten path. He is without transportation and has not had the chance to make friends. As a result, he has not had an opportunity to see much of Managua, let alone anywhere else. So, a few days before we were to do the clinic, I called him and asked if he would like to go with us. John Andrew jumped at the opportunity…to get out of the house, to spend a day with people who speak fluent English, to go see new sights and to do it all in his field of interest! Jinotepe is at a higher elevation than Managua and has received much more rain. This translated to a soupy, sometimes axle-deep, what would have appeared to be an impassable road. But thanks to God’s faithfulness, Jim gleefully put our 4-Runner in to 4WD and we managed to go through even the deepest, muckiest stuff without any problems. Roger, the
missionary we work with at Jinotepe, is using Susanna’s car (a white 1998 4-Runner) while she’s gone. His van could never have made it through some of the areas we had to traverse. Although I was disappointed the pictures don’t adequately show the road conditions, in this picture, you can see Roger had his own opportunities to slip-slide his way to the clinic. I couldn’t help but smile thinking that God must be smiling at Jim and Roger finding such joy at playing in the mud! I know Jim was grinning ear to ear and almost seemed a little disappointed when we finally arrived at the school where the medical clinic is held.
The clinic was held without incidence but the numbers were way down due to the weather. Even though those who come do not do so by car, the mud, which was knee-deep in some places, was enough of a deterrent to most of the folks who have come to depend on this monthly clinic. Only those who were the most determined or could get there in spite of the weather, came. Still, there were a steady stream of patients. Francisco, is 75 years old and he gets his much needed monthly meds through this clinic. I wondered if we would see him. Sure enough, he was one of the first. Boots and pant-legs covered with mud, but he was there. Since Susanna was not there, Rhonda took the blood pressure and weights of every patient. ..with the exception of one gentleman who came towards the end of our day there. Rhonda was in with the doctors and so I was given the task of taking his blood pressure. Thankfully, Susanna had showed me how to use her electronic bp cuff but it was still with great trepidation that I slipped it on his arm and began pumping the hand pump to increase the pressure in the cuff. Sometimes the machine doesn’t get a good reading and it’s necessary to start over and to pump to a higher pressure. I prayed that I wouldn’t pump it so high that I would hurt the man and I am very pleased and grateful to say that I got a successful reading without exploding either his hand or his head. I'm sure he felt the same way.
John Andrew got a taste of “filling the ‘scripts” and also got to sit in with the doctors some. He struggled along with the rest of us to read the doctor’s handwriting on the prescriptions. Hopefully, one day in the future when he’s writing his own prescriptions, he will reflect back on that day and remember how difficult it was to decipher the hieroglyphics that were presented to us on little squares of scratch paper…and perhaps he will print, neatly and legibly, for whoever the pharmacist is that happens to be given the task of filling that order. Hopefully.
It was a hot day, even though overcast and thunder rumbled in the distance. At one point, it was quiet and we were without any people in our area. I looked over and saw one tired, worn out John Andrew catching 40 winks. These days can be long and draining but they a
re always so rewarding and we have never gone home feeling like it was a wasted day. How could it be? What could be better than to be with brothers and sisters in Christ who are ministering to the hurting of the world? Jim and I always are so thankful we are blessed to be able to participate in this monthly clinic. It seems like in reality, we’re the patients and God treats us with the perfect medicines…the smiles and hugs from such sweet and humble people, little boys blowing bubbles and big boys 4-wheeling through the mud. It was a good day.
It was a hot day, even though overcast and thunder rumbled in the distance. At one point, it was quiet and we were without any people in our area. I looked over and saw one tired, worn out John Andrew catching 40 winks. These days can be long and draining but they a
re always so rewarding and we have never gone home feeling like it was a wasted day. How could it be? What could be better than to be with brothers and sisters in Christ who are ministering to the hurting of the world? Jim and I always are so thankful we are blessed to be able to participate in this monthly clinic. It seems like in reality, we’re the patients and God treats us with the perfect medicines…the smiles and hugs from such sweet and humble people, little boys blowing bubbles and big boys 4-wheeling through the mud. It was a good day.
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