As we promised in our most recent newsletter, here is our story about turtles.For nearly 20 years, MCC Nicaragua has had a turtle. No one knows where he/she came from. It's just always lived in the back yard. Previous generations of MCCers have provided various levels of care for 'Amaranta' (the source & meaning of the name are also unknown), from fruits and veggies to bread and milk. Amaranta happily crawls around the yard, wallows in the mud, and tries to get in the office. We actually think the latter is 'her' main life objective. If one of the two back doors are left open even a crack, one is likely to see Amaranta making a maddeningly slow dash inside to the refridgerator.
The amusing thing is that Angela, our MCC country representative who also lives in the house portion of the office, doesn't like turtles. You can't hear the turtle coming, and suddenly you've got a thing brushing up against your foot. It can be startling.
So, our main objective as an MCC team is to keep Amaranta out of the office. It almost becomes a game. She comes in; we take her out; she tries to come back it; we take her back out. One day she was actually running from me, trying to make it under the couch before I could pick her up. Fortunately, she's not that fast.
Here is Amaranta, along with the two of us posing for a photo. --Alan
2 comments:
Hey,
Amaranta got her name from the Epp family. Before they left the youngest daughter, Brenna, started a naming contest and Mark put in the winning name. I am not sure how the selection process went, but that is where the name came from. I believe that Mark read the name Amaranta in a book and liked it.
Katherine Schulz
Hi Alan and Beth -- I worked in Teustepe with MCC a number of years ago. There is a book in the office that I have tried to track down (Jamie M. once said that he would) and I am wondering if you could tell me the title. I believe it was green, paperback and was used by the Sandinistas for English instruction -- a lot of Nicaraguan poetry, stories etc. Nathan
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