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.

TOP HITS

What's on the radio here? Check this song out by Mana feat. Prince Royce. It's really beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-I64yyrsCc

And here's a catchy one by some Brazilian guy. Hopefully it's clean because frankly, I don't know what he's saying...it's Portugese. It's EVERYWHERE here though!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm55lU9knw

Jennifer Lopez sampled from this original Brazilian song (also in Portugese) from the '80s. I never knew it either! Warning, the video features the ORIGINAL Lambada dance which I know some might find offensive, so if you feel funny, just listen to the song which is BEAUTIFUL. I never knew I could like an accordion so much :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mz9uOvFQA

SUMMER FRUITS

Now that it's summer here there's all kinds of new fruits and vegetables to discover one of which is pictured above. Do you know what that is? It's nispero. Don't worry, I've never heard of it either. It looks like a kiwi but without the fur and inside it tastes like honey if honey had a solid form. I can imagine it would be good in a batido with milk. Carmen is eating an open one. You just slice it and scrape the inside out with your teeth. No seeds or anything. I got to try it because I was preaching to an older guy a couple weeks ago and mentioned I'd never seen the fruit on his tree. He told me what they were and gave me a few to try. They're delicious!

It's also mango season now. I...LOVE...MANGOES!!! They are my favorite fruit and I'm soooo excited to be in a place where they're so plentiful now. And there are so many types of mangoes. I never knew! The most common here is the mango criollo or mango indio. It's a wild mango that's yellow on the outside. It's really sweet but stringier than what I'm used to. My favorite is a type called Santa Rosa. It's like the ones at home...green and pink. You can buy a dozen of them here for a dollar or....get a return visit with a tree. Ahem, my new Bible student, Lanis, has four, count them, FOUR trees in her yard :)