A quick update on the last 10 days

It's been 10 days since I last blogged... not from lack of time really... I always had a good excuse not to do it. I hadn't uploaded pictures yet, there was a power outage, Halle and Kathy left for three weeks in the states and we had more responsibilities around the compound, we were leading worship at church and needed to practice, Abbey had a cold, etc etc.

That being said, here's a little overview of what's been going on down here.

Drew had a birthday party:

Abbey is working on learning to walk. She still needs help from mom and dad.



Nick and Drew have been painting and gardening.


Ok, so Nick has been gardening and Drew has been "supervising." :)

I've been going to the preschool and picking up food for the feeding program, as well as taking care of Abbey and getting Drew to do his schoolwork (an almost constant struggle some days).

And there has been time for some board games. Nick and his "military advisor" played a game of Stratego vs. Drew.

Changing a diaper during a power outage.

RAIN!!!

We've been here in Managua for seven weeks and today is the the first time it has rained. We're still in the dry season (the last rain was around Dec 15th). The rainy season won't really start until mid-late May, but it was amazing to watch the storm come in and hear and feel the rain. It was fast and hard and extremely refreshing. So different from Seattle, where it's just wet for months on end and nothing ever dries out and our car starts to smell like mold after a while. I climbed the water tower with Halle to take some pictures and to watch the lightning. The lightning was quite far off, so it was a beautiful sight. Several seconds later we'd hear the thunder.

Drew and Nick did a rain dance (video below!) and got completely soaked... but had a blast!

I wasn't going to blog today, or at least until much later tonight, because we're getting ready for Drew's 7th birthday party today. He'll officially be 7 on Wednesday, but we wanted to have a BBQ before Halle and Kathy leave for the states for three weeks on Tuesday. We also wanted to include Amanda's parents and they head home to the Bay Area tomorrow. There will be pictures and blogging on that fun event later.

Drew's Video Blog: entry 2 - the garden

The library addition and dinner at Jessenia's

Some recent pictures of the library addition. The roof is on and the subfloor is in.



Abbey taking a bath in the utility sink on the back porch. I needed to hang some laundry and didn't know what to do with Abbey, so I stripped her down, had Drew keep and eye on her, and they both had a great time playing in the sink.




Some photos from dinner at Jessenia's house on Friday night.

Watching her cook the Sopa de Queso in the outdoor (and only) kitchen. Drew is climbing the ladder to the platanos in the background.


Jessenia's daughter Jessica getting a platano off the tree.


Jessenia cooking the cheese/corn tortes.


Drew and Nick being silly outside the front of the house. The kitchen is off to the left in the back. The house is a very small two room dwelling. You can see the light coming through the boards on the back wall through the door of the house. The floor is compacted dirt on the inside.

This week has been a lot of fun... minus the fact that we had a sick baby for part of the time. She had a bit of a cold, and has since fully recovered, but there were several days of less sleep than normal due to that. Nick and I got to help lead worship on Easter Sunday... which was awesome. We'd both been itching to play with other people again, so it was great to get a chance to do that. Nick played guitar and sang, and I played drums and sang as well. We'll be more involved in worship later on this month, and during the remainder of our time here. Our church doesn't have a worship leader, but several volunteer teams that rotate through the weeks. I'll be playing this next week as well, with a team, and Nick and I will get to lead on the 25th.

We went to Jessenia's house for dinner again. I love going to her house. She's so welcoming and I always feel like family when we're there. I had to ask Kathy how to word it, but the next time I see her, I'll be able to say, "Quien estoy a su casa, me seinto como familia" :o) yay! She made sopa de queso. First she fried cheese/corn flour tortes in oil (which were pretty tasty on their own) and then made the soup. It's made with a dense, salty cheese, chicken stock, and whatever vegetables are on hand. In this case, we had tomatoes, green chillies, and onion. Once the soup is ready, the deep fried tortes are added to it. It was very good, but I was parched later, due to the super high sodium level in the soup! The cheese and chicken stock combined made for an extremely salty dish. But it was delicious.

I've been trying to get a video of Drew with the garden, giving a tour of the sprouts, etc. But it has been so windy lately, that I can't get a decent video. I'll have to try and find a time of day when the wind has died down, because he gives one heck of a tour and it'd be fun to post here and share with you all. His birthday is coming up in about a week and a half and he can hardly stand the wait. He's been making to-do lists for me. "Mom... you've only got 11 days to make a cake, go to the toy store, get a pinata...." guess I'd better get to work on that list!

How does your garden grow?

I've been seeing many facebook posts from friends about starting their gardens. "It's spring!" they all say. Well, down here, it's always growing season! The ground is warm, the sun bright, and fertile volcanic soil doesn't hurt. Drew and Nick helped Halle clear a plot for a garden this past week and planted on Easter Sunday. They're calling it the Resurrection Garden. I've taken to calling Drew our jardinerito (little gardener). He loves to go out and check on the garden and to water the seeds. I took a video of him giving a tour of the garden plot, but it was too windy and the sound didn't turn out well. We'll have to retry later this week. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of clearing the land and setting up the plot.

Much of the back property where the garden is is covered in weeds and brush. That first had to be cleared before preparing the soil.

Nick works to clear some land.

Drew took most of the pictures of the work, so I took one of him in his garden gear.

The boys... proud of their work!