Monday, March 19, 2012

IT'S MALL-TASTIC




Because of all the walking I do here some of my shoes are already shot, and I needed to replace them. Plus I was DYING for fried chicken, don't ask me why. So last Sunday 8 of us piled in the pickup and made the hour drive to Managua to Galerias mall. Yes, there's a mall here. In fact, there are 2 of them both in Managua. They have EVERYTHING...coffee shop, train for kids, food court, movie theatre....it's like being at home which is why I love it.


I NEVER went to the mall at home. I had a phobia about being around all those people, but here I am obsessed with the mall. I had such a good time, and yes, I got 3 pairs of shoes and my fried chicken :)


LOS COCOS














A couple weeks ago we went to do our rural territory. We have 2 rural territories...one called El Guayabo and the other called Los Cocos. We go to each of them once a month. I've written before about walking out to El Guayabo and almost dying, but Los Cocos is a little easier. We had a short meeting for service at 6:30 a.m. at our KH and then took the bus at 7 a.m. out to the territory. We leave 3 groups in different areas of the territory and work towards each other. It's a nice territory that sits on the edge of Lake Granada and is rural in the true sense of the word. Most of the homes are very simple and the people there have a strong respect for the Bible even though they don't read it much.


I included some pix of all of us on the bus, me trying to make friends with some calves, and some sisters preaching to a woman scaling fish out on the lake. There's a also a picture of Fernanda and Pilar holding a mango and mandarin orange. Those are both in season right now and we're eating them like crazy. I haven't had to buy mangos yet because all the friends and my return visits have been really generous with me. You can buy mandarin oranges, though, for 1 cordoba apiece. That works out to 23 for a dollar. Not bad, huh?


I got to see turkeys, peliBuey (a cross between a sheep and a goat), horses, guineas, chocoyos, rabbits, cows, and much more. I had a blast. When we finished, we stopped at a local house to eat our packed lunch, and the kids swam. The owner is a worldly man whose kids at one time or another were Witnesses. Unfortunately, he's usually drunk, calls me jefa (boss), and asks me for money. Overall, though, I had a super fun time.