Sunday, January 27, 2008
Chez is here!
I forgot to mention something very important. Yesterday my good friend Chez, who first invited me to Nicaragua back in March of 2006, arrived in Managua! I had no idea what time she'd arrive, and had thought that she'd be in another part of town, but I ran into her yesterday close to my house as i was on my way home! I saw a group of gringoes, and almost paid no attention, but then I looked again and there she was! It turns out she's in a hotel for a couple days just a few blocks from my house! She's busy with a group orientation, but it was good to see her and welcome her. Hopefully I'll be able to hang out with her soon.
This Friday I was on the cover of the paper's "Aqui Entre Nos" section, which is an insert in Friday's issue. My friend Tammy, a journalist for La Prensa, was doing an article on my work in La Chureca, but I had no idea it was going to be a feature story! I was in the coffee shop with Esmir, my roommate, and people started staring at me. I looked at the paper and saw my picture on the cover of the insert and Esmir and I almost laughed out loud. It was a little awkward but a fun story. The article wasn't that great but i got a lot of flack from the church youth group. "Teacher" Brad in his "renegade motorcycle." It made for a few laughs.
I've been passing by my buddies in the traffic light. They're a fun group of kids, but quite overdramatic. They should be starting school very soon with the program that my friend Dylan set up. He's found a way to support nine children, enabling them to purchase uniforms, backpacks, notebooks, and everything that they need to go to school. I may check in on the program to help from time to time and see how they're doing.
A group of people from La Prensa, the newspaper, called me on Friday to see if they could do a lunch on Sunday (today) in La Chureca. I told them I could help them do it, but didn't know what I was getting into. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work out because I wasn't able to get permission to use a building or anything as far as organization. I tried calling the people back, but didn't get an answer. This afternoon, just before the lunch was scheduled, I simply prayed that it would go extremely better than expected--and it did! There was food for only about 50 or 60 children, which was my first concern, because there are about 350 children there. I thought for sure we'd be flooded with crowds, but it was very much the opposite. I escorted the group in, which consisted of about 8 people (including the woman who set it up, her mother, and daughter), and we went straight to the school. The school was locked up, but there was a nice area of shade where we parked and already had about 20 kids with us. Slowly but surely about 40 kids came, and after a while enough came to finish up all the food. There were a few stragglers that showed up too late, but it was not 300 going without like I had thought might happen. The group was very friendly and was much more serious about it than i had thought. I had pictured that they wanted to do a lunch, take pictures, and tell everyone about what a good thing they did. It turns out that they really just wanted to share with the people, on a personal, low-key level, and they did a great job. The woman's daughter, of about 8 years, did a great job of playing with the kids of the dump, and everybody interacted well with one another. I spent a little time with a new friend of mine named Norland, who is always high on glue, but has a good spirit. I think that he wants to leave the glue addiction, but it's really hard for him. Hopefully I'll get some more time with him.
Last night I went to Granada to celebrate with the church youth group. Here the youth groups consist of kids from 16 to 25, and are pretty crazy. We were celebrating January's birthdays, which were five, and we went and had dinner in the central park of Granada. It was a blast, and afterwards we took a tour on a "tractor-train" booming to reggaeton and taking lots of pictures. We had a lot of fun, and i'm fitting in great with the group. They kept teasing me about the article, and wanted to take pictures with "the important person," and "the renegade." I met a new guy in the group named Carlos who played American Football with his university. He's going to talk to the team and see if I can start practicing and playing with them. That's something i'm getting excited about too. He says the seasons are short since there are only 5 teams in the country, but that it's a lot of fun and that his team's generally in the top three. The best team here is apparently the best in Central America, so we'll see if i'm even able to make the team...
Till next time,
brad
P.S. you can visit my facebook page to look at photos. on the blog it's difficult to upload, so i have everything on facebook. also, you can comment on the blog posts or write me to say hello. love to hear from anybody. I've already met a number of people through the blog, so keep reading and responding!
I've been passing by my buddies in the traffic light. They're a fun group of kids, but quite overdramatic. They should be starting school very soon with the program that my friend Dylan set up. He's found a way to support nine children, enabling them to purchase uniforms, backpacks, notebooks, and everything that they need to go to school. I may check in on the program to help from time to time and see how they're doing.
A group of people from La Prensa, the newspaper, called me on Friday to see if they could do a lunch on Sunday (today) in La Chureca. I told them I could help them do it, but didn't know what I was getting into. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work out because I wasn't able to get permission to use a building or anything as far as organization. I tried calling the people back, but didn't get an answer. This afternoon, just before the lunch was scheduled, I simply prayed that it would go extremely better than expected--and it did! There was food for only about 50 or 60 children, which was my first concern, because there are about 350 children there. I thought for sure we'd be flooded with crowds, but it was very much the opposite. I escorted the group in, which consisted of about 8 people (including the woman who set it up, her mother, and daughter), and we went straight to the school. The school was locked up, but there was a nice area of shade where we parked and already had about 20 kids with us. Slowly but surely about 40 kids came, and after a while enough came to finish up all the food. There were a few stragglers that showed up too late, but it was not 300 going without like I had thought might happen. The group was very friendly and was much more serious about it than i had thought. I had pictured that they wanted to do a lunch, take pictures, and tell everyone about what a good thing they did. It turns out that they really just wanted to share with the people, on a personal, low-key level, and they did a great job. The woman's daughter, of about 8 years, did a great job of playing with the kids of the dump, and everybody interacted well with one another. I spent a little time with a new friend of mine named Norland, who is always high on glue, but has a good spirit. I think that he wants to leave the glue addiction, but it's really hard for him. Hopefully I'll get some more time with him.
Last night I went to Granada to celebrate with the church youth group. Here the youth groups consist of kids from 16 to 25, and are pretty crazy. We were celebrating January's birthdays, which were five, and we went and had dinner in the central park of Granada. It was a blast, and afterwards we took a tour on a "tractor-train" booming to reggaeton and taking lots of pictures. We had a lot of fun, and i'm fitting in great with the group. They kept teasing me about the article, and wanted to take pictures with "the important person," and "the renegade." I met a new guy in the group named Carlos who played American Football with his university. He's going to talk to the team and see if I can start practicing and playing with them. That's something i'm getting excited about too. He says the seasons are short since there are only 5 teams in the country, but that it's a lot of fun and that his team's generally in the top three. The best team here is apparently the best in Central America, so we'll see if i'm even able to make the team...
Till next time,
brad
P.S. you can visit my facebook page to look at photos. on the blog it's difficult to upload, so i have everything on facebook. also, you can comment on the blog posts or write me to say hello. love to hear from anybody. I've already met a number of people through the blog, so keep reading and responding!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
It's been a while
Hey everybody, sorry about the long break. I was with my family and then had a busy week and finally have some time. The family trip was a huge success. It did have a few trademark Nicaraguan curveballs, but everybody enjoyed it and took a lot away from it. I was very thankful for a time with my family, and for an excuse to get out of Managua and see the country. Most of the places we went were my first time as well. We started the trip off with a trip to Granada, the first and oldest city in Latin America. Granada borders Lake Nicaragua, which is home to the only freshwater sharks in the world. Not only that, but it also has 365 tiny islands scattered about it, which we explored by boat on the first day. Many of the islands are owned by wealthy businesspeople and serve as vacation homes with elaborate stonework and elegant houses. It was a beautiful first adventure.
The next day we went to the Masaya Volcano, one of the most accessible volcanoes in the world, with a paved road right up to the crater. We did the night tour, in which you can look down deep into the crater and see the glowing red of the magma through thick clouds of sulfuric gas. We also went caving and saw a ton of bats leaving for the night. We later visited the Masaya markets and got a gorgeous view of lake Apoyo, which is a huge crater lake, the deepest in all of Central America.
I took everybody to church on sunday, and treated them to my favorite treats, churros with fruit salad drinks. Everybody ignored the no drinking water rule to enjoy a good gulp or two of the best fruit drink in the world. On Monday we went to La Chureca, and I introduced my family to some of my better friends there. La Chureca was a pretty powerful experience for everybody, and made my family think about getting back into missions. My parents were missionary teachers for the first half of my life, and never got to go overseas to serve. Nicaragua, La Chureca specifically, got them thinking about it again.
We then went to San Juan del Sur to try to get some beach action, but instead heard about a canopy tour there and did that. It was a blast. 17 zip lines stationed high up in the trees over a cloud forest. We enjoyed that, as well as the cozy town of San Juan. After that we made it to our final destination, Ometepe. Ometepe is a volcano island, actually consisting of two big volcanoes, situated in Lake Nicaragua. It's probably one of the coolest idea's God's had, and was a great place to spend a couple days. We hiked up the smaller volcano to see a 56-meter tall waterfall, which was a little dry due to the lack of rain this time of year, but nonetheless gorgeous. We had a 10-minute photoshoot and hiked back down. On the way down we met a youth group from a church started from a man from Arizona named Jared. We were able to get a ride with him and the group to another part of the Island, called Santo Domingo. We stayed there the night with the group and had a great time playing water basketball with them.
After everyone went home, I had a meeting with Jared about stepping on as a member and leader of the youth group. I'm going to talk with him again tonight actually to confirm things and get a better idea of what it would be, but I'll be part of TEAM, the mission that he is with, and I'll hopefully be taking seminary classes with a couple other guys in the group. I'm really excited about that turn of events, and I really love seeing how God works. The only reason we met them was because we ran out of money and had to find a way back, but it turned out we could pay at their hotel with a credit card. It turns out that God actually is pretty good at what he does.
One thing that I'm really stoked about is that the youth group is excited to visit La Chureca with me. Jared's church is mostly composed of wealthy Nicaraguans, almost half of which are college aged. None of them haver seen La Chureca, and it could be a really cool thing to get them involved in something there. I will also be getting to work with a guy named Arnold, who goes to one of the nicer universities here to talk to the students about Jesus. I'm excited about doing that as well.
On another note, I've still been performing with High School Musical. I am quitting in less than two weeks for good, but might have a performance or two left in me. They actually started paying pretty well, but I just really don't feel like God has me there. I have too many other things going on, all of which are more important to me. None pay, but that's in God's hands too.
I have to go, I'm supposed to meet a little girl today. One of my friends, Aura, who washes cars at a stoplight near my house, called me at 5:30 this morning to tell me that she loves me and misses me. I'm going to meet her and her family at 11. Talk to you soon!
The next day we went to the Masaya Volcano, one of the most accessible volcanoes in the world, with a paved road right up to the crater. We did the night tour, in which you can look down deep into the crater and see the glowing red of the magma through thick clouds of sulfuric gas. We also went caving and saw a ton of bats leaving for the night. We later visited the Masaya markets and got a gorgeous view of lake Apoyo, which is a huge crater lake, the deepest in all of Central America.
I took everybody to church on sunday, and treated them to my favorite treats, churros with fruit salad drinks. Everybody ignored the no drinking water rule to enjoy a good gulp or two of the best fruit drink in the world. On Monday we went to La Chureca, and I introduced my family to some of my better friends there. La Chureca was a pretty powerful experience for everybody, and made my family think about getting back into missions. My parents were missionary teachers for the first half of my life, and never got to go overseas to serve. Nicaragua, La Chureca specifically, got them thinking about it again.
We then went to San Juan del Sur to try to get some beach action, but instead heard about a canopy tour there and did that. It was a blast. 17 zip lines stationed high up in the trees over a cloud forest. We enjoyed that, as well as the cozy town of San Juan. After that we made it to our final destination, Ometepe. Ometepe is a volcano island, actually consisting of two big volcanoes, situated in Lake Nicaragua. It's probably one of the coolest idea's God's had, and was a great place to spend a couple days. We hiked up the smaller volcano to see a 56-meter tall waterfall, which was a little dry due to the lack of rain this time of year, but nonetheless gorgeous. We had a 10-minute photoshoot and hiked back down. On the way down we met a youth group from a church started from a man from Arizona named Jared. We were able to get a ride with him and the group to another part of the Island, called Santo Domingo. We stayed there the night with the group and had a great time playing water basketball with them.
After everyone went home, I had a meeting with Jared about stepping on as a member and leader of the youth group. I'm going to talk with him again tonight actually to confirm things and get a better idea of what it would be, but I'll be part of TEAM, the mission that he is with, and I'll hopefully be taking seminary classes with a couple other guys in the group. I'm really excited about that turn of events, and I really love seeing how God works. The only reason we met them was because we ran out of money and had to find a way back, but it turned out we could pay at their hotel with a credit card. It turns out that God actually is pretty good at what he does.
One thing that I'm really stoked about is that the youth group is excited to visit La Chureca with me. Jared's church is mostly composed of wealthy Nicaraguans, almost half of which are college aged. None of them haver seen La Chureca, and it could be a really cool thing to get them involved in something there. I will also be getting to work with a guy named Arnold, who goes to one of the nicer universities here to talk to the students about Jesus. I'm excited about doing that as well.
On another note, I've still been performing with High School Musical. I am quitting in less than two weeks for good, but might have a performance or two left in me. They actually started paying pretty well, but I just really don't feel like God has me there. I have too many other things going on, all of which are more important to me. None pay, but that's in God's hands too.
I have to go, I'm supposed to meet a little girl today. One of my friends, Aura, who washes cars at a stoplight near my house, called me at 5:30 this morning to tell me that she loves me and misses me. I'm going to meet her and her family at 11. Talk to you soon!
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