Hello everyone!

We hope that your new year is off to a great start. It's hard to believe we're already getting close to February. These past few weeks have been so busy for us that we have not taken the time to sit down and write a new blog post, but we're finally making it happen. We already know how much we enjoy getting out our thoughts, feelings, and updates on this blog, and we're thankful that our close family and friends enjoy reading our updates. Thanks again for your support. It means a lot to us. With that said, here's what has made us so busy:

Mitch's parents came here for a long weekend on 3rd of January with the board of Fortress of Hope (CINAFE) to have their yearly meetings. We were so thankful to see family and to spend time with them just as the new year started. We enjoyed listening in on board meetings and giving just a taste of our Nicaraguan life to Mitch's parents. Our time with them went too quickly, but it always does when you're with family! Once his parents left on Wednesday, the 7th, we flew to Pennsylvania the next day, the 8th, for a quick trip home.

Back in November, we bought our plane tickets with the hope of seeing Lauren's family, and her sister Steph's baby! Knowing her due date was on the 8th, we knew we were taking a risk that Steph might not even have the baby while we were home in PA. THANKFULLY the Lord knew just how badly Lauren wanted to see her  niece as a newborn, rather than when she was a year old or so. Steph had her baby on Saturday morning, little Emily Grace Wilson. We got to spend lots of time with the family and enjoy holding our new little niece before we came back to Managua the following Wednesday, the 14th. (We know we've only been in Nicaragua for 3 months now, but it still felt strange to notice the differences between here and the states. And the cold weather is one of those differences. Oh, how we loved to sit by the warm fires Lauren's dad made for us and pull out our winter boots and coats to go outside! Lauren's mom also made so many of the great meals we had been missing. It was such a great time at home!)

Just this past weekend, the 17th, Mitch's aunt and uncle Gene & Gloria came to visit us, too! They are spending a couple of weeks down in Costa Rica and made the long trip up to see us. We enjoyed a short amount of time together, really just one full day, but it was so great to see them! They came at just the right time because we started our teacher workdays at NCA Nejapa yesterday. Their being here was a great distraction from thinking about all of the unknowns of starting a new job, at a new school, with a new language, and a completely new setting.

For those of you who don't know, Mitch will be the English coordinator at our school and Lauren will be a Kindergarten assistant. We're both so excited to learn a lot this year and help where we can. Right now, after only 2 days of listening to everything in Spanish - Spanish devotions, lectures, and conversations - it's safe to say we're already feeling a little tired. We'll be writing again soon to let you know how it's going once we know a little more :)

That's pretty much it from down here. Enjoy the new year and all it holds!

Make it a great day,
Lauren and Mitch

And a New Year arrives...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and everything else that comes at this time of year. We haven't written anything for a while, but that doesn't mean we've been bored! We're glad to have a few days to relax and unwind as the new year is fast-approaching. Here's a quick run-down of what's been happening here in Nicaragua.

- Finished language classes. We might go back for a refresher before we start working, but for now we've learned all the grammar and skills we can. Now we have to practice, practice, practice. We start teaching in a month!

- Visited the city of Matagalpa. We didn't do much except enjoy the cooler weather. It was nice to get out of the heat of Managua.

- Finished teaching English classes at CINAFE. Hopefully we can continue those in January or February, but we'll have to see how full our schedules are once we begin teaching.

- Participated in the CINAFE Christmas party. It was great to see the children happy and loved, and the staff as well. The staff members told the kids how much they loved them, everyone opened presents, and then we ate a great meal. We are feeling blessed to be a part of the group. Sadly, we also said goodbye to a family of four who have lived at CINAFE for the last 6 years. They are now living with their mother again, and we are praying that everything works out well for them.

- Spent 3 days on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Lauren was hoping to see some freshwater sharks, but those live at the south of the lake so we missed out. We did manage to stay in a room right on the edge of the lake, and it was mighty pleasant to sleep with the waves crashing. Christmas was very different on the beach, especially since we didn't feel so great. Because..

- Contracted the Chikungunya virus! Thanks to our mosquito friends, we had solid fevers and chills for a day, then bone and joint pain, and now we just have some sweet itchy rashes across every square inch of skin. Truth be told, we are almost perfectly fine. It should run its course pretty soon. We are lucky we haven't had many commitments.

- Cared for a girl from Fortress of Hope for two days. The staff had meetings for two days this week and asked if we could care for one of the girls during the day. She stayed with us from 8 to 5 both days, and we got to visit the park, make brownies, color pictures, buy groceries, and dance and sing the songs from "Frozen," all in Spanish. We are so glad that the staff trusts us in that way and that we are capable of doing something like that.

And now, we are waiting for 2015! We can't wait to see what this year holds. There will be family visiting us here, trips to visit family and friends in the US, new jobs beginning, and nobody knows what else. We're sure God has things in store for us that will help us grow, and we're sure He has the same for you.

Make it a great day,

Mitch and Lauren

Sledding

Happy holidays! While you all are enjoying the cold, snowy weather [most of you, anyway], we've been basking in the sun. Although, basking makes it sound downright enjoyable. More accurate phrases might be 'sweltering in the sun,' or 'suffocating in the heat.' Now that's probably an exaggeration. Suffice it to say, we miss the comfort of a warm house when it's cold outside. Our James Taylor Christmas album doesn't sound the same at 90 degrees! When we heard about the early snowstorms and saw pictures of children and animals frolicking in the snow, we decided we needed to do something about this lack of winter activities in our lives. So we went sledding. Here in Nicaragua. More on that later.

We're continuing to learn Spanish every day. Right now we need practice, practice, practice. One way we've been practicing is by taking advantage of our flexibility and traveling! It's been nice to get out of Managua and see some of the other cities. Taking a bus is very inexpensive, so we're able to move easily through Nicaragua, and we're hoping to continue traveling as much as possible before our jobs begin!

After spending Thanksgiving with other North Americans who understood the holiday, the next day we caught a bus to León, an old city to the northwest of Managua. We stayed for two nights, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Lauren now has a favorite city in Nicaragua :) The city has a much different feel than Managua, and it was nice to walk the streets comfortably after dark without much fear. There were many families, tourists, and students taking in the sights. One of the coolest parts of the city is the cathedrals. We went touring on Sunday morning and attended 4 different masses [a portion of each]. It was pretty cool to be in buildings that were so incredibly old, yet still filled with people seeking the Lord.

But the most unique part of the weekend was our Saturday morning activity, volcano boarding. Much to Mitch's surprise, Lauren wanted to sled down a volcano. So we signed up and joined a group that took us to Cerro Negro, a volcano 30 minutes from León. We hiked to the top, battling some serious winds while holding our boards, which acted like extremely heavy kites. After turning the corner on one of the switchbacks, Mitch's sunglasses were blown right off his face and down into the crater! Managing the boards and traversing a narrow path with steep drops on either side caused a few moments of angst for Lauren, but no harm befell us.

When we reached the top, our guide told us to sweep aside the top layer of sand and feel the ground underneath. It was extremely hot! Cerro Negro is an active volcano, and there was clearly action under the surface. After catching our breath and calming Lauren's nerves, we prepared to slip over the edge. There's no denying that the hill was steep, and quite a few people were feeling less than brave. The guide showed us how to ride the boards and how to control our speed. Knowing she could slow herself down if she wanted made Lauren feel much better about the whole situation.

Finally people started the descent on two separate tracks. The boards zipped right over the volcanic sand and kicked plenty up of dust. Mitch waited at the top until Lauren went so she had a little extra moral support. After she started, Mitch took off on the second track. Even though Lauren had a 30 second headstart, Mitch arrived at the bottom and had time to take quite a few pictures and a couple of videos of her descent. Let's just say she didn't break any speed records.

Nevertheless, it was an exciting ride down, though once was enough for Lauren. We got the chance to go a second time, and Lauren chose to run down while Mitch boarded. Doubt we'll ever do it again as a couple, but if you're looking for something to do while you're here, Mitch would gladly go with you!

That's the most recent news from us. We'll probably post something soon about how we're fitting in to a daily rhythm, but we wanted to share our trip to León because it was a great time for us to get out of Managua and relax for a bit. If you do come visit, León would be a good candidate for us all to explore together! Below you'll find a few pictures of our sledding adventure, plus a video of Lauren tearing up the mountainside. Below that is a sampling of the beautiful cathedrals we visited. If you're sitting in the snow and cold, enjoy the sun in our pictures! We'd gladly trade a little bit of sun for a little bit of cold :)

Make it a great day,

Mitch and Lauren

Before making the climb

At the top with our gear

Lauren blazing down the mountainside

At the bottom, feeling joy at our safe arrival

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.

https://vimeo.com/112646459

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

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

New house! Dog! Tons of pictures!

Many of you said we needed to show you pictures of our house and dog once we arrived and got settled in. Here they are! If you want to see any picture closer, just click on it.

First, the house.

From the front entrance

Inside the front door - living area

Kitchen at the back of the house

Bathroom

Bedroom

Bedroom - other side

Spare room, full of Liverpool and music

Back patio - Emre's home during the day

And now, we present to you: Emre.

He's a wonderful little Germand Shepherd. About six weeks old right now. Just took him for a checkup Saturday, and the vet says he looks great. We're having quite a bit of fun together.

He likes to play and sleep right now, and that's pretty much it. Here's his sleeping posture:

Lauren likes to cradle him like this:

 He doesn't always love it. Mitch likes to read with him like this:

Pup never knows what's going on in the story. Finally, here's the most recent picture. You can see he's growing. His ears are losing their floppiness and starting to stick up. He figured out how to escape from his patio today, so hopefully he'll continue on the path of intellectual excellence. Say hi to Emre, and if you ever want to meet him in person, you can just come on down to Managua!

Make it a great day,

Mitch and Lauren