27 dresses

We were delighted to receive an invitation from a young couple we know to attend their wedding. As we arrived, we noticed a large group of people gathered outside the church. We hurried over and saw a lovely young lady in a wedding dress. But it wasn't our friend. Then we saw another, also not our friend. It turns out, there were not one, not two, but 27 couples getting married in the church today. 27 dresses, 27 weddings, 3.5 hours. A wedding marathon if there ever was one.

Getting Ready

December is a month of preparations. We have been experiencing this in a number of ways.

On our MCC team . . .
We enjoyed baking Christmas foods and then inviting some friends over for an advent service.

In our neighborhood . . .

Everyone has been working together to paint the streets, put up banners and balloons, and clean up to prepare for La Purisima (today and tomorrow). Earlier this week, we had an early morning visit from the traveling Virgin and her parade. For more on La Purisima, see December 2007 of this blog.

In our house . . . We have been decorating for Christmas and enjoying the mixture of old and new cultural traditions. We also just bought a lovely used crib from one of our neighbors! It became quite the neighborhood affair installing it in our house (the process included cutting out part of one of our doorframes). So now we are ready for this little one coming in 2 months.

Morning Routine (and thoughts about water)

Just thought we'd give you a glimpse into our day to day routine. We are generally "early to bed, early to rise" because it gets hot after 5:30 or 6 in the morning. Often, Beth does a little laundry, washing it on our cement washing block and hanging it on the line. We try to stay with an excercise routine--in the past this included an aerobic latin dance video called Zumba. Now Alan has an excercise regimen that includes various push-ups and sit-ups. Beth does some pre-natal yoga.

We then shower and refill the storage buckets before our water is turned off. This generally happens around 8am each day. It usually comes back in the evening, though recently we have been a couple days in a row with no water. While we are tempted to complain, we have at least one teammate who has not had water for 4 months! One of the ironies is that Nicaragua has plenty of fresh water between 2 large freshwater lakes, a large network of lagoons and rivers, and a high water table. However, contamination and deforestation are quickly drying up and infecting much of this natural resource. Additionally, problems in the national budget and infrastructure often make distribution of existing water a challenge. Anyway, for us it is a good discipline to use water less wastefully. For example, we use leftover water from clothes or dishes to flush toilets, and we are learning to never allow the water to run unnecessarily while washing or showering.

Thanksgiving & gift exchange

This is the last week of classes for the 2008 academic year at the Baptist Seminary. Yesterday we had a special year-end celebration, a kind of Thanksgiving service and secret Santa all in one. We shared reasons for being thankful - good health was mine. Then we passed out gifts for the secret Santa exchange. The event was topped off with a delicious pot-luck "Thanksgiving" lunch. We ate several dishes from Nicaragua's atlantic coast: rondón, a soup of beef, yucca, platanos, and quiquisque (kind of like sweet potato) in a coconut milk broth, and patí, an indigenous empanada-type pastry filled with ground beef. We also at chicken, beans, tortillas, rice, bread, and chocolate chip cookies (baked by me). The cookies were a big hit - they were gone in about 5 minutes. Here are some photos from the event.

Acción de Gracias/Thanksgiving

We´ve now been here in Nicaragua for more than 2 years, and I think it´s about time to make a list of some things we have been thankful for here:

-delicious fruit and fruit juices
-neighbors who look out for us and invite us into their families
-2 jobs that we really enjoy
-hammock chairs and rocking chairs
-that satisfied feeling after doing a bunch of laundry
-energetic young people
-other volunteers (MCC team members, Food for the Hungry, AKF, etc.)
-our patio where we can have a little garden, see the planes fly over, and watch the sun set
-breezes or rain that give the occasional respite from the heat
-pigs and other funny animals
-good books and the people who send or bring them to us
-visiting different churches and hearing from God
-playing piano and singing at the conservatory next to the seminary where Alan works
-fried cheese and plantain chips
-visits from family
-Bolivian food (carne, sopa de mani, etc.)-kind and/or interesting taxi drivers
-excellent care in the hospital
-when someone tells a really funny joke or story that we understand
-lunches at the MCC office
-kids who are really excited that they have learned to read
-beaches-mountains
-learning about prayer
-fans
-feeling the baby move around

US Elections - a Nicaraguan perspective

Many of you have probably already read/heard about the international reaction to Barak Obama's victory in the US presidential elections of last week. We witnessed similar interest here in Nicaragua. Lots of people were curious about our votes - who we voted for, how we sent in our ballots, etc. Many Nicaraguans have family members living in the US, so we also heard lots of comments like, "My cousin really likes Obama," or "My aunt is nervous about the elections because she doesn't like either candidates' policies on immigration."
The day after the elections we received congratulations from colleagues, neighbors, and friends on our new president. The two primary Nicaraguan newspapers were also congratulatory, with Obama making front-page headlines. La Prensa says, "President Obama: Historic Elections Conclude in the US" while El Nuevo Diario announces, "Obama Makes History".
For more election commentary and opinion, send us a personal email or a facebook note. :-)

Las elecciones

"¿Van a votar dos?" "Are you going to vote two?" This was the question of the day yesterday from our neighbor kids. The Nicaraguan elections are on Sunday, and last night (Wednesday) was the last day of campaigning before the three days of "silence" that always precede elections here. We explained to the kids that we can't vote in Nicaragua because we aren't citizens. (And we don't give opinions because we try to stay out of local politics as much as possible in countries where we are not citizens). It is perplexing to them to talk to an adult who is not voting because voter turn-out in Nicaragua is among the highest in democracies in the world.

These elections, which will take place all over Nicaragua, are municipal. However, they feel like national elections because they reflect strongly on the balance of power of the political parties in the country generally. "Vote 2" is a common phrase here in Managua and it refers to voting for the FSLN (Sandinista party--those currently in power) mayoral candidate. The other candidate in Managua is from the Liberal party.

We see and hear much more about "voting 2" because of the very heavy campaign efforts by the current government. For the last number of months, they have been paying people to stand at all major intersections in the city all day, waving party flags and wearing shirts that say "Love is stronger than hate." The large posters read "prayer against hate." The party's traditional revolutionary colors of red and black intermingle with their new peaceful colors of pink and yellow. The photo above is from today's newspaper (La Prensa), which is criticizing the continued use of government vehicles, property, and money to campaign. This political cartoon (we love following political cartoons here--Nicaraguans are brilliant with word play and satire) from today depicts two men in "Love is stronger than hate" t-shirts silencing the opposition. There has been some violence on the part of both sides leading up to these elections, but the irony is more clear when the perpetrators are wearing pink and yellow shirts with this message.