Scroll down and stay a while...

Scroll down and stay a while...

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Fish and Chicken

We thought we'd share some interesting quotes from our local church here in Managua. Here's just a sampling:

"We all have fish, and the only way to receive salvation is to ask the Lord to forgive our fish."

"This afternoon we will have a talent show to benefit the youth. They need a chicken for trips and other activities."

Oh, the joys of learning a language. You can imagine our confusion as we tried to figure out the great theological meaning of fish. Turns out that the Spanish word for fish, 'pescado,' is quite close to the Spanish word for sin, 'pecado.' We're glad the the Lord is forgiving our sins, rather than forgiving our fish.

And why do the youth need a chicken?
'Necesitan a pollo para excursiones y otras actividades,' is what we heard.
'Necesitan apoyo para excursiones y otras actividades,' is what the pastor actually said. The two underlined portions are pronounced the same, at least to our ears, but the second one means 'support.' The kids don't need a chicken to travel; they need money so they can go places.

Our days are filled with moments like these. Food vendors ask which we would like: chicken, pork, or cheese, and we answer 'Yes.' Our teachers ask us, 'How was your weekend?' and we answer 'Oh, not too much.' Someone gives us directions, and we look at each other to see if the other one understood. Then we say in broken Spanish, 'Sorry, I did no understands. Cans you tell another time?' Lauren says we're not quite as bad as that, but Mitch thinks it feels like an accurate representation of our interactions.

Regardless of the mistakes, we truly enjoy learning another language. It's difficult, and it can be frustrating if you aren't willing to laugh it off. It takes time, 4 hours of classes each day and a fair bit of homework each evening. And once you learn a topic, you can't speak it fluently until you've practiced, practiced, practiced. It's been said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a professional. Don't know if that's accurate, but it feels right :) Yet we're finding joy in it.

Where's the joy in all that time and difficulty? When we can understand the simplest things outside of our house. We took Emre on a walk and a man who met us said 'Qué bonito pastor alemán!' And without asking him to repeat himself, we knew he was saying Emre was a 'pretty German Shepherd!' That's a big deal for us. We get off the buses and can understand what the vendors are selling, without looking at their wares! That's pretty big, too. When people use a word we don't know, they can explain what it means in Spanish, and we understand!

Today was the most exciting. We sat through church and actually understood the bulk of the message! Definitely not all the words, but the main points. Afterward, one of the children asked if we understood the message, and we give an outline! First time for that, no question! So we know we're making progress.

Plus, the children and staff at CINAFE are incredibly gracious and patient. That doesn't mean they always refrain from laughing at us, but we all have fun with it together. And it seems like we're developing strong bonds with everyone there, which is the primary reason we decided to move here. God has it all under control.

He has been providing us with great ways of interacting with CINAFE outside of teaching English. It's nice to be a part of the daily life, and not just guest teachers from the U.S. On Friday, one of the girls cut Mitch's hair. It was her first time doing it, and it didn't go perfectly! So we stopped by and made her fix it on Saturday! We showed up and left as we liked, and we felt like it was natural to simply drop by for something we needed. It was fun to do something like that which didn't involve teaching or anything aside from being together. 

Also, last Sunday there was a talent show [which did not involve chickens], and the kids wanted to do a play for it. They needed someone to play God, so they asked Mitch. And they won the drama category! They were pretty excited, and we were happy they thought of us when they needed extra people. Plus, Elmer [house parent of CINAFE] wanted to rap a little in Spanish, so Mitch said he would accompany him with the guitar. Then Elmer asked him to sing the chorus, so Mitch had to perform a song in Spanish at the talent show! It wasn't the easiest thing, but Elmer rocked the mic, and they ended up winning the song category! So we all went back to CINAFE and celebrated with chips and pop. Just another time when we were extremely grateful for the way God has placed opportunities in front of us to connect with the people.

That's the news from down south. May the Lord always forgive us our fishes, as we forgive those who fish against us. Make it a great day,

Mitch and Lauren

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Here's a link to part of the Spanish rapping extravaganza. Start watching around 20 seconds; the mic wasn't on at the beginning.



Thursday, November 13, 2014

Let's talk about food

The good:

     For starters, you'd better like rice if you move to Nicaragua, and it's good that we do. Almost every lunch and dinner we've been served at Cinafe, Fortress of Hope, or out at a restaurant, is served with rice. It's a good, inexpensive filler and goes with basically anything you put alongside it. For example - black beans, scrambled eggs, red beans, cooked potatoes & carrots, chicken, beef - we've had all of these things multiple times with our rice. We know it's only been a month and we've got many more meals to go, but for now, we're still really enjoying eating a ton of rice and whatever comes with it. 

     As we've said in previous posts, we've been enjoying going out to eat different times throughout the week because the local food is very inexpensive here, that is; if you go to a small open-air restaurant beside the road. The other week at our Spanish school, we saw one of our teachers leave around lunchtime and come back about 10 minutes later with a huge Styrofoam to-go container filled to the brim with what looked like an awesome meal. We asked her about it and she told us that she got her food from a woman down the road who makes food in her house to sell. [It's very common here for families to make food in their homes and sell it for very little.] She told us where to go, so we did the next day. We walked down the road from school, turned the corner, and went into a house. It didn't look at all like a place to get food, no sign on the outside or anything of the sort, and if it had been just the 2 of us walking, I don't think we would have found it nor would we have had the confidence to just walk in someone's home. However, we actually started walking right behind 2 other teachers from our school and we followed them right into the house. The lady there gave us her selections for the day and we each left with a tray full of shredded beef, lots of rice, a small side of black beans, a tangy coleslaw salad, and a madura (ripe banana cooked to perfection with a very sweet taste). All this for only 50 cordobas a person, which is equivalent to $2.00US. Lauren was explaining how a meal this large in the states would easily cost between $8-10.00 at a restaurant. All that said, it's hard not to stop by local places and take advantage of a well cooked, Nicaraguan meal. Especially since they even cook the rice differently here and we don't where to start. We've heard about the specific way to make rice but until we learn, we'll enjoy buying it locally.
*Picture below of our meal


The bad:

     It's hard to say "the bad" about the food here in Nicaragua. We really love it all. Obviously, there's one thing or two that's not our favorite, but we'll eat it anyway. So instead of "The bad", we're going to call it "The different". We really are enjoying the change in diet here. The only things that we miss, or shall we say that Lauren has observed, is the availability of good, green vegetables. Nicaraguan meals generally don't have many vegetables. We're not sure if you'd ever find a side of broccoli here. We'll keep looking. Lauren just WISHES we could at least buy some green beans at the store, steam them in water with a dash of salt and pepper, and a little bit of butter. But we can't. So for now, Lauren will settle for telling her wishes to anyone who is reading this and we'll call it good. As for food in general, we've been able to find almost everything we want and need at the local grocery store, La Union, similar to one you might find in the states

. It has lots of familiar brands, which is nice as we're adjusting to many not-so-familiar things.

     However, the other day we tried making pizza at home here for the first time, like we often did in Virginia. Lauren thought she bought all of the correct ingredients like flour, cheese, meat, onion, peppers, sauce, etc., but when we went to make pizza for dinner on Sunday, we found that the flour we bought to make the dough was corn flour, only meant to make tortillas and other traditional breads. We used it anyway. We found that our package of plain, ground up sausage we were planning to cook was actually chorizo, a different type of sausage with some tangy seasonings. We used it anyway. We opened our package of "mozzarella" cheese, smelled it and gave a taste test, only to find that it actually tasted a lot like a different local cheese we didn't care much for. We used it anyway. Our pizza actually turned out to be edible but nothing like the homemade pizza we'd come to master back in Virginia. Like any new place, there are things to learn and new things to try. Got a hankering for some Nica rice? Come on down to Managua.

Until then, make it a great day,
Lauren & Mitch

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Same-yet-different Sunday

On Tuesday we passed the 4 week mark! It's encouraging know that we've been here a month without major troubles. God has blessed us richly, and we're excited to see what else he has in store for us.

This past Sunday was full of same-yet-different feelings. We realized as our day progressed that we were doing many of the same activities we would have been doing if we were living in the U.S., but it felt quite a bit different in a different culture and climate.

In a nutshell, we went to church, ate lunch with friends and family, then relaxed in the evening while getting ready for the week. Sounds very much like many of our lazy Sundays in Virginia!

First was church, just like other Sundays. But, we went to church on a crowded bus. Church consisted of very loud, electronic music for worship, a troupe of dancers in the aisles, and an hour-long sermon. We arrived at church around 8:15 and left around 10:30. We only understood about 7% of what was said during the service.

Then we ate lunch with friends/family. But, we took a bus home from church. We ate a piece of chicken over a plate of rice with a fruit drink that I can't describe. Plus, we ate outside in short sleeves on November 2nd. And we were still sweating!

Then we relaxed and spent time with friends. But, Lauren was running around with our puppy and a gaggle of kids who live in a children's protection home in Managua. Mitch was playing guitar so that the house papa, Elmer, could rap in Spanish. Mitch was also trying to sing in Spanish.

Then we went home and got ready for the week. But, our preparation consisted of doing Spanish homework and preparing to teach English. We also had to figure out how to get a new bus card since Mitch lost his. And we did all this work in our house in Managua!

It's interesting that a couple can move to a completely new country and culture and find that certain routines don't change. Obviously there are differences, but once you can see past those, there are as many similarities as differences. And this is encouraging: to know that people share many things across languages, locations, and cultures. Clearly, a Sunday routine doesn't fully sum up the relationship between two cultures. However, it was something that gave us a taste of home when home is far away. At the same time, we're starting to feel like home is here in Managua!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We feel so blessed to be here and experiencing life in a different country.

Make it a great day,


Mitch and Lauren