Prelude...

I don’t know where time goes anymore. It seems like each day is coming a bit quicker than the day before. A lot has happened the last 10 days and I wish I would have made the time to write about everything as it occurred. There were a few “big events” these past few weeks punctuated with lots of smaller things. I think that’s life regardless the address. I’ll start with the “little” things.

As I write this, I am being serenaded by lots of loud snapping, crackling and popping going on. It appears as though a third house is going to be built in the woods behind our house. There are 4 men out there using machetes to chop down trees to make a clearing. They are then dragging the smaller branches over to a fire where the moisture in the green leaves explodes in to nature’s amplified version of a bowl of Rice Krispies newly doused with milk.

Right now, Jim is out cleaning the battery cable connections that have corroded to the point the car wouldn’t start this morning. This happens fairly frequently. I think we’re going to break down and buy a new battery tomorrow and hopefully, we will be able to find some new battery connectors at the same time.

We were thinking the next big purchase would be new tires and shocks but I guess the car is going to dictate those priorities. I know I’ve said this before and there hasn’t been anything happen to change my mind…I HATE car problems! Especially, living here. Even in the States, I felt anxious when we had something happen with one of our cars but thankfully, we were always blessed with honest and extremely capable mechanics. Someone needs to give Rick and Millard a hug for us and tell them we miss them tremendously!

Car issues here take on a different hue…for not only is our car our sole mode of transportation, it’s also our mobile sanctuary in many respects. Hopefully, our mechanic will soon return from Canada as the list of items needing attention seems to be growing by the day. The electrical system continues to give us problems and now, I think the motor on Jim’s window is about to quit. That’s important as mine is already fritzy and it’s much safer to transact business through a rolled-down window versus opening the door. It’s surprising how often we need to roll down our windows…paying a window washer, buying a paper, changing money or exchanging a friendly greeting with one of Nicaragua’s finest men in blue. I hope you realize that last was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Right now, although the a/c is working somewhat, it’s still not right. The good news is the radio and c/d player finally worked again for a day which allowed the c/d player to regurgitate my John MacArthur cd that I’ve had stuck in there for weeks. The speedometer doesn’t work, the gas gauge doesn’t work and the gas tank release lever is now acting pretty iffy. And all this is apparently normal for a vehicle here! I guess I shouldn’t have too high of expectation from an eleven year old car that takes a beating just going to the grocery store. When I think about some of the roads we force it to travel, I suppose it’s no wonder that the squeaks, rattles, clanks and clunks have replaced the hard Latin beat that occasionally makes a noisy appearance from the dash. It’s really kind of sad how much we take for granted until it’s either jeopardized or no longer available.

Let’s see what else happened this past week? Jim apparently was bitten by some sort of insect or spider whose venom disagreed with his system. He woke up one morning with his right hand looking like a blown up latex glove. He didn’t have any pain and only very minor itching but it looked horrible. We kept an eye on it to make sure the swelling didn’t climb up his arm and that he didn’t have any tracks appear. Praise God he didn’t have any trouble breathing! We waited a few days and tried some Benadryl but it was pretty unnecessary as he didn’t seem to have itching that needed to be controlled, it just felt tight when he would try to bend it. It took about a week but his hand is looking much more normal this morning. Good thing…I don’t know how well he would have done fussing with the battery with one good hand and the other resembling an attached miniature dirigible!

I’ve been staying pretty healthy up until the last few days. Now, I’ve got a really, nasty head cold and apparently, another visit from my little intestinal friend which likes to stir things up. I’m hoping the cold stays in my head and doesn’t migrate to my chest. As far as the intestinal thing, I think Imodium is about to become part of my day’s routine for the next day or so. I’m not surprised I have this…the same thing has been running rampant through the school along with some other kind of bug. There are so many children that are sick right now. Some with vomiting, severe headaches, diarrhea and high fever and others, coughs replace the vomiting and diarrhea but all have the headaches and fever. Forgive me if this all TMI (too much information) for some of you, but honestly, we’re in a culture now where bodily functions are not always concealed behind a six-paneled hardwood door. More often than not, the walls of an outhouse are black plastic or on the higher end of the scale, old wooden planks or concrete blocks. Privacy tends to be more of a concept than a reality.

Tylenol and a driving desire to get another blog written is the reason I’m sitting here instead of crashing in front of a fan. Thankfully, God has instilled in me a strong will in some areas…Jim would say that it’s pure stubbornness. Right now, I’m praying that God will either strengthen me or rile up that stubbornness enough that I can share at least a couple of events that we were so privileged to experience the last week or so. I will tell you about the first one in the next blog which I will hopefully get posted tonight. Right now, I’m going to eat some soup and crackers so consider this a prelude to the next blog. Talk to you again, soon.