It's Not Your Turn: 3 Feb 2014

!Hola Familia y Amigos!

I ate Chinese food this week! We went out to eat with Roger and his lovely girlfriend, Patricia (Whom we are teaching!!! Aaahh! Huge news because she has been agnostic for years and was super angry about Roger getting baptized . . . at first. Then she met us and now she loves us. Boom. Success.), and I can now say I have eaten the Nicaraguan version of Chinese food. It wasn't bad, but definitely not the best I've ever had.  Our waiter tried to talk us out of what we decided on ordering and was kind of rude about it, and it reminded me of the Chinese food incident my family and I had in Ireland.

Mountain Climbing: 27 January 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

I woke up this morning thinking about how amazing the women are here with balancing things on their heads. Huge baskets laden with bread, fish, tortillas, tamales packaged in banana leaves...how do they do it? I've seen women get on the bus with their giant baskets on their heads and nothing happens. I tried walking around the apartment with my journal on my head and it fell after 30 seconds. Sad.  You should try it and let me know if you have more luck than I did.

Wal-Mart: January 20, 2014

!Hola familia y amigos!

You know I honestly have no idea what I'm going to write about in this email, so bear with me if I'm all over the place.

Firstly, Hna. G really wants to learn English and I've been having so much fun teaching her. I can teach her anything I want! The power is almost too much.  So, naturally, I taught her how to say, "He's a jerk," "just kidding," and the usage of the words "random" and "awkward," because there aren't direct translations for those phrases in Spanish.  Her English is probably about as entertaining as my Spanish was at the beginning. She asked me today, "Can you borrow me?" haha "Um... no thank you, hermana."

I'm a MOM! Jan. 13, 2014

¡Hola familia ya amigos!

Note to self: don't leave two giant knives in your backpack. You'll try to get our your journal and slice your hand open.

Anyway. Did ya miss me? 

I didn't have the opportunity to even check email last week, let alone write, because my entire life was flipped upside down. So, my apologies.  I received a call at 8:30 pm Sunday night that I would be packing up and staying in Managua for the next two days to prepare to be a TRAINER.  In other words, I'm psychic.  I'm the only gringa who has been here for only 3 months who was called to be a trainer, and it might be a good thing that you didn't get an email from me....because I was so overwhelmed it was unreal. But, I'm fine now and life is good.

Sandwishes: Dec. 31, 2013.

!Hola familia y amigos!

Allow me to say a belated Feliz Navidad, Prospero año y Felicidad.

They made all of the missionaries in my zone put on stupid little elf hats and sunglasses and sing that to the entire stake of Leon, and whomever was supposed to turn off the music after "Feliz Navidad" played three times forgot.  So, we ended up singing it SEVEN times (yes. I'm being serious), and by the end of it I couldn't even sing because I was laughing so hard.   We just really, really, really wanted everyone to have a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our hearts.

Dr. Meow: 20 December 2013

(Sorry this is two days late--we have had problems with internet as well as meetings in Managua that have switched around our schedules. I wrote this Monday but am sending it today. With permission, Dad. No worries. )

Hola familia y amigos!

Rutas + billowy skirts = bad combination.  Let's just say Nicaragua saw a whole other side of me today. And I wish I was joking.

I Used My Bugspray as Perfume: 9 December 2013

 ¡Hola familia y amigos!

I used my bugspray as perfume today because our supposedly clean laundry smells like death this week. And if you were wondering, I hate the smell of bugspray. Oh well. I have decided I just don't care anymore, haha.

First of all, I promised I would describe the market scene in my last email, so I'll do that now.  The market closest to the Central is the coolest--tons of huge umbrellas in primary colors blocking out the sun for each of the many vendors set up in their little shacks and tents. There are little sections blocked off for each vendor, some shelves bearing nothing but tons of ripe pineapples, huge woven baskets filled with yellow/green oranges (Green oranges. It's a thing.), limes, platanos (Plantains, which I eat every single day here in various forms. Boiled, fried, mashed, cut into strips and dried like potato chips . . . you name it.), bananas, sugar cane, coconuts, fish, crabs crawling around in buckets, gigantic papaya (which I don't really like that much. The outside is yellow tinged with green, and the inside is a deep orange color. The taste is bland. It is, however, good in smoothies), giant bags propped up in rows filled with uncooked rice and various types of beans and spices, and everwhere, everywhere, little bolsitas (little bags) filled with various things. I've seen bolsitas strung up filled with ketchup and mustard and mayonaise, with water, various juices, flour, salt, bike parts, you name it.  There's something kind of fun about ducking in and out of the umbrellas, side-stepping rutas and horses and cars and motorcycles and taxis and triculos (a man riding a bike with a two or three person bench behind him on wheels and covered by a little canopy) and other people.  You don't wait to cross the road, you just go for it and assume they'll move for you--which they almost always do, but I've had a few close encounters that got my heart racing.