Birthday and week prior

March 7-14, 2009
This past week has been CRAZY! But before the craziness inundated me and I had to surf the wave of homework and projects, we took a Saturday trip to the Volcano Mombacho as well as the city of Granada with the provost of Trinity Christian College and her husband and another important figure from Dordt College. We took a ride in the back of a big tourist truck up the volcano and at the top is a little ranger station that we stopped at and bought some snacks and coffee because it was COLD up there! I was in jeans and a short-sleeved shirt but it was legitimately cold to me! Maybe that’s because I’ve gotten used to it being so hot but still. It was REALLY foggy up there and we couldn’t see ANYTHING at the lookout points and were quite disappointed. We chose a couple hikes that we wanted to go on and then headed out. We trekked through the foliage, flora and fauna of the Nicaraguan forest and jungle until we came to a beautiful lookout over the entire city of Granada that lies beside a large lake with TONS of islands…like literally. We had moved down in altitude, the fog had lifted and it was also warmer…a wonderful series of events. We saw one of the many vents of the volcano that guarantee the pressure won’t build up and create another explosion, the first of which created all the islands in the lake. We then headed back to the station to catch out ride to our awaiting canopy tour of zip lining through the forest/jungle. The zip lining was a lot of fun and even the provost, her husband and the other man from Dordt did the zip lining. For the first time I did the “superman” which is where you are attached to the zip line by your back and go with one of the guides soaring through the air like superman. Then I did it upside down! We failed to see some foliage that I could hit because of my lanky body and I barely escaped a face full of brush. Then we descended into Granada for lunch and watched a good game of soccer on TV while eating. I got the Chales burger that had an egg on it with some fries and a fake orange juice. It was great except for the orange juice. We then headed towards the islets to take a tour amongst them. What an amazing experience! We saw so many islands and many had a house on them! I thought of you Dan, wanting to get your own private island…ahem. There were many for sale too! For like $50,000 or so. We visited a small but old Spanish fort on one of the islands and then went to Monkey Island! It’s a very small island with 3-4 monkeys on it that a professor put there and all the boat tours go to it so the monkeys get PLENTY of food and attention. I took lots of pictures of this and one of the monkeys came right on our boat and we had a hard time getting it to leave…and the girls with us couldn’t have been happier when we did. We headed back through Granada and on to Managua after a great day! On the car ride back we saw a Quinceañera of a girl who had reached her 15th birthday. At first we passed the church at which it would take place and a little further down the road we saw the procession of girls and family members as they walked from her house to the church. Here the Quinceañera is almost bigger than the wedding of the girl depending on how she lives her life after her 15th birthday (if she keeps herself pure or is loose). On the bus back to my house in Acahualinca, I saw a fight between two men on the side of the road as we stopped at a red light. One was stuffing his back pack up his shirt as if to protect it and was quite upset with the other man who seemed like he was trying to calmly get past the other man. The Backpack Man would have none of that and I wondered if the other man had tried to take something out of the back pack or the bag itself. I don’t know how it ended as we drove away but the whole bus was busy watching as long as they could.
Ok, so I told you about the rabbit incident, but here’s an even better one. We came home from church on Sunday and Henry hadn’t even been at church and he’s the pastor so I asked Jacqueline where Henry, Pilar and Sarai were and they had gone to León for a pastor’s convention or something to do with the Nehemiah Center. When they came back they brought a little surprise back…an iguana! I think they must have found it or something or maybe they bought but Doña Pilar tied its front legs so it couldn’t run off and then the next day Don Henry grabbed the iguana by its tail…which came off but of course was still wiggling around……I don’t know what happened to that Iguana…I haven’t seen it for a while. I can’t remember if I said this before but I seem to have quite the animal population in my room. The little geckos called “perros son popo” chirp at night, the ants crawl on the walls and ceiling in their little trails, the mouse that scurries across my floor and I can’t catch it yet and then the other day a toadly looking frog hopped across my floor…which I caught and offered to Jacqueline. She didn’t like it at all. That same Sunday while Henry, Pilar and Sarai were gone, one of the women from the congregation who was actually from Panama preached a great sermon from what I could understand. She held back no punches as she talked about how we as the body of Christ have a HUGE responsibility because each of our personal actions affects the body! She had read the passage in the Old Testament about Achan and his sin of taking what was forbidden and it affected ALL of Israel and caused many deaths in the camp. She addressed the modesty problem of Latin American women that is quite evident even within the church because it is such a part of their culture. But she gave no excuses as she addressed both men and women and how they should dress and react to those dressed like that. I was saying “Amen sister! Preach it!” Then we had a time of prayer at the end that the Holy Spirit would fill us and probably a lot of other stuff I didn’t catch. She went around and was praying over a few people and I just felt like she really needed to pray over me and asked God that she would. At first she went by me and prayed for someone else but then looked at me and came and prayed over me as well. I don’t know all that she said because she was a REALLY fast talker but she said “Holy Spirit” a lot and afterwards I felt a peace in my heart as I reflected on a difficult past month and looked ahead to the next few weeks.
One night early in the week, Shalom brought me a brown/grey bag. She wanted to know what it was and what you do with it. I found that quite interesting as it was something quite normal and familiar to North American culture. It was a bag of instant oatmeal! I explained that you put it in hot water or milk and they understood that but still didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t find the Spanish word for oatmeal so I couldn’t explain what it was! Oh well, I wonder what they will do with it.
This week’s workload has been heavy and hard with a teach back lesson for video class where I had to watch Memento and then break down the structure of the film and teach it to the class for 10-15 minutes. Then I had a huge load of Spanish homework this week and I still have 2 video projects to shoot and edit before this upcoming Thursday and then I had a presentation of Liberation Theology in Nicaraguan History that had to be 30 minutes to an hour. More specifically it was about the Sandinista revolution and how Liberation Theology played a role in it and how it applies to today and what churches and Christians are doing with it today. I stayed up until 4 AM the night before it was due to finish it because I had no time to work on it earlier in the week which was EXTREMELY late because I usually go to bed at 10…and the earlier the better. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough material for the time allotted but ended up going for an hour and five minutes! The teachers seemed impressed and told me I did a great job so that was a relief! I seriously started the PowerPoint and writing it all out the previous night.
Then yesterday on Friday the 13th during a break between history presentations I got a big birthday surprise which is usually very hard to do. But I didn’t think many people knew it was my birthday and even if they did it’d not like I’m great friends with anyone here. So for some reason we took our break in the Ranchón where we eat lunch during the week and I was greeted with a Spanish happy birthday song that I hadn’t heard before with a Spanish guitar and a tambourine! They brought out a cake that read “Feliz Cumpleaños Stephen!” and Dan pointed out to me that there was a HUGE tweety bird piñata awaiting me. So they blindfolded me, spun me around and made a fool of me as a 6’7” man swung blindly at a big yellow bird. Don Juan who is a hilarious short older man held the rope and I think was having more fun than anyone making me miss the piñata. I gave it several good cracks and whenever candy fell out, grown men and women would rush in to get the candy. It was seriously a mass return to childhood. It was so much fun and a complete surprise…even with Jeff standing there with his camera telling us to go out to the Ranchón. In fact I wasn’t sure if it was for me when I first saw them but then thought “Who else would a birthday celebration be for?” I got to talk with my Mom, Dad and Katie after class which was great because they have a webcam now! I love seeing their faces and did get to see Jonathan the day previous. On the way home, I rode with Doña Mercedes is a lovely 54 year old woman who is one of the cooks at the Nehemiah Center for the teams that come through. She also was the one who ran all over town looking for the biggest piñata she could find for me! So anyway, on the ride home I sat with her and talked a little bit. I asked what she was doing that night and she said she was going to church with some friends of hers. I was about to turn and ask her where she lives when she pulls a parrot fledgling out of her purse! I started laughing and pet the little guy and THEN asked her where she lived. She explained it but I couldn’t keep up so I just smiled and nodded. Then she told me she wanted to have me over to her house at some time to which I agreed would be great! Then I just chilled at home for the night…tranquilo! I slept in this morning until 8:09 which was much needed. And….I’ve done nothing else but write this post, tidy up my room and miss my family and friends back home. Maybe something will happen tonight. Jacqueline and Shalom have both wished me a Happy Birthday and tried to get Belen to do so as well but she is still scared of me or shy or something.