Greetings from Managua....

I can't believe it's been almost a week since we arrived.   We are all doing well. The kids love the new house and the neighborhood. The plants and trees all around us are incredible. We have papaya, avocado, coconut, lime, banana, mango, and coffee trees/plants all over our neighborhood. Our kids are getting to know the other kids around here already. The missionary community is so welcoming. They all work together and help each other through life here.

I expected it to be uncomfortably hot and humid, but the weather hasn't been bad. We are just outside Managua and at about 1200 feet elevation, so we have a lot of great breezes. Our house has a lot of windows and the air moves through and keeps us cool. Of course, the breezes bring great clouds of black dust and smoke with them to settle on everything, but that is just part of life here. The scenery is amazing. It's very hilly and mountainous and the  Lake Managua is beautiful.

I've been told that April is the hottest month of the year here and then the rainy season begins in May and the climate changes. We are near the end of the dry season now and we have to conserve water. They turn our water on at night and off in the morning, so I try to do a load of laundry every evening and hang it out to dry in the morning. We have a tank to store some water during the day for washing hands, etc...

I've become a morning person now. The sun rises around 5:30am and the birds, lizards, and whatever else outside our windows becomes louder than any alarm clock. It gets dark around 5:30pm and it's nice to have the temperature cool off for the evening. We are finding ourselves completely worn out physically and mentally at the end of these days, and ready for bed so much earlier than usual.

We have been able to buy the rest of the furnishings for our house from a family that is leaving next week. They let us have first picks on their belongings and we were able to get many things we really needed. We bought a bed for each child (which was great because the air mattresses were a little too close to the bugs on the floor), a desk, coffee tables, hammocks, a TV (which is our new computer screen), and a propane dryer to use in the wet season. Gavin and Ella really wanted bikes and I wasn't optimistic about finding them here. This family had two bikes, exactly their size for sale. I love the way God takes care of the little things too.

There are challenges too:

• We threw our suitcases in the back of a pickup truck to come home from the airport and then didn't stop at the red lights all the way here. I was told someone might grab our bags if we stopped for too long. 
• I woke up the first morning and had to rinse the ants off my toothbrush before I could brush my teeth.  There are quite a number of insects and lizards that share our showers, and Amelie was so scared she wouldn't take a shower for the first few days.   
• The younger girls aren't fond of the foods here. The milk and eggs taste different because the animals here eat different things. 
• Everything has to be put in a plastic bag and go in the refrigerator or freezer so the ant and roach army I share my kitchen with will not break into the containers. I'm not sure I can get used to washing my dishes with a chunk of hard soap either. 
• Driving is an extreme sport. My blood pressure is rather high just watching Cory drive around and I haven't even tried it yet. We are trying to get used to the city, so he keeps getting us lost just so we can find our way out again.  
• No one has been sick yet, but we start the day with mosquito spray to keep the bites to a minimum.
• I'm learning patience here. No one is in a hurry and things take much longer to get done. It sounds nice, but it can be frustrating too. 
• Ella has discovered that her name is confusing, since "Ella" means "she". We could call her "Noella", but then it's like saying she isn't a she. 
• Our biggest challenge is the language. We were feeling so smart before we left since we have been studying for the past year and had almost completed the Rosetta Stone course. It's much more challenging to be in conversation with people here every day. There are a not a lot of local people who speak English here so we are forced to practice a lot. We have someone who is coming in to help us and tutor us too. 

I was so curious to know where I would serve while Cory taught at the vocational school. There have been so many opportunities presenting themselves already. I am going to pray about them and see where God would have me to be. I'd like the kids to come along and serve too. There is an orphanage just a few houses down from us and it may be a great place to get started. I'm going to meet with some of the Compassion contacts soon also.

Many of you have been asking for our address. We have one down here if you want to find us on the map, but we can't get mail here. They don't even have postal workers. It will be easier to send anything to  Missionary Ventures, 5144 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32809. If you are curious, our physical address is Kilometro 13 Carretera Sur, 32 Colonia Becklin, Managua, Nicaragua.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=ml

Please pray for us as we continue to adjust to our new home and learn the language. I didn't realize how homesick I was until I read all of the emails waiting in my inbox. I miss all more than I can say!