Intercambio

Our team continues to change and grow. This time the new members are all through the one year exchange (intercambio) programs YAMEN! and SALT. It has been fun trying to get them oriented to Nicaragua the last couple weeks. This picture was taken at our first team meeting all together at Selva Negra, near Matagalpa.

Rachelle Francey (front left in the cream-colored shirt) will be working at Hogar Belen, a home for abandoned children with special needs.

Maritza Masavi (center, brown t-shirt) came from Bolivia through YAMEN! to work in the Christian School for the Deaf as a classroom assistant and social worker.

Greta Tom (front right with yellow shirt) is working at the Cultural Center in Batahola Norte

Matt Boyts (back second from right) will be working at an educational center in Nagarote.

Not pictured: Nathaniel Forry, the littlest member of the team (about to turn 2) and Kayon Watson.
Rachelle, Matt, and Greta pose for a picture at the SALT/YAMEN!/IVEP orientation in Pennsylvania with Violeta Castro. Violeta, who is Nicaraguan, is now in Virginia with IVEP. She is serving for a year as a conversation partner in Spanish at Eastern Mennonite University.

Sugey Arce (left), is with IVEP in Elmira, Ontario. Ana Julia Lopez (right) will be traveling soon to Mexico City through the YAMEN! program.

SALT: Serving And Learning Together

YAMEN!: Young Anabaptist-Mennonite Exchange Network

IVEP: International Volunteer Exchange Program

Baptism

This past Sunday our local BIC church welcomed through baptism 7 young adults into the Christian community. About 70 of us loaded into a rented bus to travel the 2.5 hours to San Jorge, a small port town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua (see our map below). Practically the whole church waded out to sing and celebrate around the group. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the lake water and chatting around packed lunches.

Thrush Family Visit

From August 9-16 the entire Thrush family came to visit us in Nicaragua. It was the first time in 2 and a half years since all of us had been together. We had a great time relaxing, laughing, praying, and seeing the Nicaraguan sites together. Here are a few photos from the week. From top to bottom: part of the family in front of the MCC Nicaragua office; the family at the Masaya volcano; visiting a friend in a rural community; the Thrush men (plus our driver Salvador) at a lake in rural Nicaragua); waiting at the hospital for Beth's 4-month check-up; sitting in the rocking chairs at the Quina Shalom, the Mennonite guest house where we stayed.

Family News

We're going to have a baby! The Claassen Thrush family will be expanding from 2 to 3 sometime in early February 2009. Beth just finished her 16th week, and both mom and baby seem to be doing well these days.

The photos are from our recent time with the Thrush family. Grandma Thrush to-be brought some baby clothes and diapers for us, making it seem a bit more real.

Check back for updates as the months progress.

Day of the Revolution

Today, July 19, is a big holiday in Nicaragua, celebrating the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. We are using this day off to update our blog (thus the blitz of posts) and saying goodbye to our one-year SALT volunteers. In the background as we write this, there are lots of fireworks, loud medleys of revolutionary music, and honking as the buses all make their way to the central plaza for a celebration (led by President Daniel Ortega, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and a few representatives from Cuba).

There are lots of ways to view this situation, and this year it is being used heavily for political purposes; that is, gaining support for the policies of the current FSLN-controlled (Sandinista Front for National Liberation) government. These are a couple examples of murals depicting aspects of the revolution.

This is one depiction of the revolutionary ideal. The partial-statue is what was left of the statue of Somoza when the Sandinista revolutionaries tore it down. The masks of hypocrisy are set aside, and the children play with their Nicaraguan flag kite in the land of lakes and volcanoes.

Fruits and Vegetables

Several times people have asked us the very good question, “What kinds of fruits and vegetables do you have there?” Nicaragua, while exporting primarily coffee and tourism, is home to fertile, volcanic soil that produces a variety of food for export and domestic consumption. The most commonly eaten vegetables are onions and peppers (used in most dishes). Second tier are carrots, beets, tomatoes, and cabbage. Squashes are also commonly used (a pumpkin-like one called ayote, chayote, and pipian). Some of our favorite fruits in season now are mangos, mamones (like large grapes with peels and big pits), and pitahaya (dragon fruit). There are also all kinds of citrus fruits, bananas, and plantains. Alan and Peter (Beth’s brother--here with us for the summer), have been making delicious fruit smoothies every morning with papaya, banana, and orange.

Dancing and painting and stuff

I love this picture because it expresses how I often feel here. Everyone around me is dancing. I like it, and I want to be involved, but I know I don't quite fit in and sometimes I'm a little unsure. So I smile and join in the best I can. As Andy is doing in this picture. :)

This is the group of young people from various cities in Nicaragua together with youth from the New Guilford Brethren in Christ church in Pennsylvania. We learned (dancing, new languages, how to make tortillas, Nicaraguan history/culture, new ways of worship, etc.) and worked (painting and fixing roofs) together. We saw beautiful ways that the churches here are reaching out in their communities, and were inspired to follow this example. For more photos, click here.