So I know it's been a while since I've had any contact with you all - even email contact - so I think it's time I catch you up on just a few of the highlights / headlines from last week.
One of the reasons we haven't been able to contact ya'll is that we've had incredibly cool weather lately; no solar power. We haven't had a lot of rain, but it's been overcast in the day and slightly chilly at night. We all broke out our sweatshirts for the first time! It's been so nice just to feel like I don't NEED to shower every night and not feel sticky all the time. Unfortunately, along with our cooler temperatures, our shower water temperature has nose-dived to the point where I think I might emerge from the shower with a mild case of hypothermia.
Also, ya'll might have seen pictures of guys' haircuts. Much to all the girls' dismay, the boys have not only decided to grow their beards out for the extent of our mission here, but now they also got into a macho-man mood and on a testosterone whim, they decided to shave their heads. I feel like they look more like hardcore motorcycle dudes or missionary skin-heads instead of missionary boys. . .
On Monday, Jerrica, Kaileen and I were working away in the MINSA clinic when suddenly we heard a crowd start to form outside and a huge wave of people came in the door shouting "Emergencia! Emergencia!" Behind them two guys walked in the door with their hands wrapped in bloody, dirty clothes. I guess they'd been working on their plantation and somehow cut themselves pretty badly with machetes. We worked on the guy who looked the most serious first and gingerly peeled back his dressing. He had stuffed a bunch of grass and leaves in his wound to use as a pressure dressing. Highly unsanitary, but effective. The guy bled pretty bad. While we were stitching him up blood actually started shooting out from the artery. Craziness! We got them all stitched up and it looks like the healing process is going pretty well now.
Oh, in other news, we got a pet tarantula. Yes.... I never thought it would come to this but, yes... We tried to feed him grasshoppers and geckos and cockroaches, but our tarantula didn't seem to be in a killing mood even after 3 days. Finally, Mgee got a little angry at him for not fulfilling his expectations of a "hunt and kill" tarantula and his fate ended up the same as all the other tarantulas we find. We machete murdered him.
On Sabbath morning, we were met with a wave of fire ants washing towards our mission. I have no idea what they were doing coming in a huge swarm like that but I kinda felt like I was in the McGyver Episode where they combat the killer ants... Only our case was a little less extreme - we all survived.
The twin's and my "get-in-shape plan" is a work in progress. Every time we go running through the village, people STILL stare at us. One time this kid decided to make us his goal net and continually kicked his soccer ball at us every time we jogged by. Chickens cluck and flutter up in front of us. And all the kids yell continually: "Mereki! Mereki!" ("American!") and announce our obvious presence to the entire village.
We have a village "ugly duckling" in the form of a chicken. Honestly, we have some of the ugliest, malnourished animals I've ever seen here, but this chicken takes the cake. She has patchy feathers and her red, leathery neck is completely void of feathers and fluff. The rest of her is very mangy looking and all her feathers poof out in all directions. We call her "feather-duster".
Oh, something else... definitely not a highlight, but something worth noting. There is a never-ending plague of bugs here: albino-looking ladybugs, horseflies, knats, fleas, bed bugs, blood-sucking beetles, mosquitoes, grass lice... and many others I'm sure I have yet to discover. In the meantime, I'm pretty much one big itch. I am the essence of the word "itch." I think I'm destined to spend the rest of my time here in Nicaragua covered in a combination of bug-spray and constantly be scratching myself like a dog ridden with fleas.
Other notable things that happened last week... Uh... we cleaned the outhouse. (Believe me, that was a notable experience.); Mgee went bowling with rotten coconuts; and I definitely moved up a level in the school of "killing tarantulas." Two just met their fate by ME stomping on them. Yes, That's right. I was pretty proud of myself too.
We definitely killed another snake a few days back. Unfortunately for us girls, the village children have discovered our acute phobia of poisonous snakes. They realized that using sticks to pick up dead snakes and chase us with them elicits shrieks of terror and mad dashes to the safety of the mission. Of course, like any other slight activity that goes on in the village, everyone came out of their huts to see the commotion. They just roared with laughter as they saw us gringas bolting for the hill being chased by a crowd of half-naked village kids.
So there's a little snippet of our life here in Francia Sirpi. Not always the best, but usually entertaining, at least in retrospect. The mission is changing a lot right now as we are beginning to come up with new ideas and new projects are materializing. It's such a blessing to have such a large and strong group here because we actually can expand our ministries instead of just maintaining them. I'll have to tell you more about it later. I'm kinda getting bored with my own writing and, since you're still reading this, I'll grant you a little mercy and wrap it up.
Just so ya'll know, I keep you in my prayers. I hope you're all safe and doing well. I love you!
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