Sick!

Today the three of us feel sick, which is a bummer. We had planned on doing one of three things: going to Casa Bernabe, going to La Chureca, or House of Hope. None of these worked out because we all woke up with stomach aches (when you're climbing up a ladder and you feel something splatter...well, you should know the rest). So for now we are just taking it easy and trying to get better. We would greatly appreciate it if everyone could pray for our health as it is not fun getting sick in a different country without your mom : (

Oh, almost forgot, we did do something productive today. Keydi has been asking us to straighten her hair since we arrived here. This morning Delanie straightened her very curly hair, it looks great!

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.

xoxo

Priscilla and Delanie

Pictures of the Day...

Delanie straightening Keydi's hair

Keydi with straight hair!

The Mountains of Terrabona

This weekend was spent in the desolate and elevated town of Terrabona. We drove about 3 hours to reach this town where we met up with a few other teams that were heading for the same mission. There were two teams from Nicaragua and one from Omaha, Nebraska. The total number of missionaries for this weekend was 110. The drive up the mountains to reach this village was very rough. We were practically off-roading (which Rip was a pro at). After driving up an extremely rocky road and over some rivers (literally) we arrived at Terrabona.

The people of this town had been praying for rain and boy did those prayers get answered! Because of these circumstances we couldn’t work too much on Saturday. In the evening we went to an enthusiastic and lovely church service. Sunday morning was spent at the park in the middle of town. We held a children’s festival with clowns, music, dancing and all. The kids enjoyed it and they each received a bag of goodies to take home! During this festival, our lovely Delanie cut hair in the corner of the basketball court. She did an amazing job at bringing up the self-esteem of these women by making them feel beautiful. At the end of the day she had cut about 15 peoples hair. She worked very hard and we are extremely proud of her! At one point their was another missionary who was volunteering to cut hair but none of the women wanted her because they loved Delanie’s talent and would only let their hair be touched by Delanie. Margaret and Priscilla were there to translate for her and be her personal assistants. It was great.

While this festival was happening, the other teams were painting curbs in the front of the town, planting trees along the road, painting the houses of the local pastors, and evangelizing to the neighborhood people door to door. Despite the oppositions from the local Catholic church (who actually tried to shut our mission down completely) we worked wonderfully as a large group in Terrabona and completed the work that God set out for us.

We planned on coming home Saturday afternoon but the rain stopped us from doing so. Everybody worried that the drive down the mountain would be a bit too dangerous so we stayed back another night. The three of us ended up having our own little church service that evening in our “hotel” room. We shared our Nicaragua testimony with Margaret and had several amazing God moments with each other. After waiting till 10:30 at night to eat dinner, we finally went to sleep at midnight. Most of the girls from the Nebraska team were sick to their stomachs : ( and we prayed for their health.

The next morning our trip ended when we went back to our room to get our bags to leave. Margaret opened the door and casually walked passed a 5-inch scorpion. It wasn’t until Delanie noticed it that everyone freaked out. Priscilla was too busy taking pictures, fascinated by the little monster. She saved the day by taking the scorpion out with a broom. Yay! We drove back to Managua at around 8:30 a.m. and made it safely back home. It was a pretty exhausting weekend but God totally planned for us to be there. Not to mention, the scenery to and from this town was absolutely breathtaking and majestic (see pictures below!).

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.

xoxo

Priscilla and Delanie

The beautiful scenery

The view from our "hotel" room

Our room

Animals in Terrabona are very common to see walking in the street

The main road in Terrabona

Local children at the festival

Delanie doing what she does best!

The children's festival in the middle of town

Delanie doing her thing

The last friendship we saw in Terrabona. We will truly miss him.

Market Day

Today we decided to take it easy. After going to bed at 2:00 a.m. we were not up to starting the day too early.

We went to the market with Keydi, Isbel (Rip's "adopted" daughter) and her uncle. Isbel's uncle drives taxis for a living and he was our form of transportation for the day. The market we went to was about 30 minutes away but we can't seem to remember what its name is. The usual bargaining took place and Keydi was kind enough to help us out with this. She has really been a blessing to us and is helpful in everything we do. You can say she has become somewhat of a guardian angel.

After spending money frivolously we went back to the grocery store to replenish some needed items. We bought Margaret a cake since tomorrow is her 26th birthday! We sang happy birthday to her (which made us feel like we were back home) and enjoyed some cake. Right after this Margaret and I witnessed a possum (or maybe a rat) walking across our fence and a bat fly right past our faces. It was awesome.

Tomorrow we are going to a location in the middle of Nicaragua and it will take us about 4 hours to get there. We will be staying the night and our return home will be Sunday afternoon/evening. There will be a team of 90 North Americans working there as well. We will have the opportunity to serve in many ways including painting houses, translating, volunteering at a hospital cutting hair (Delanie), and working with a children's ministry. We are all looking forward to this trip and ask for prayers while we are there.

We will not have a computer for the next couple of days so our blogging abilities will be nonexistent : ( But we will tell you all about it when get back on Sunday!

Prayer Requests:

1. Rip found out today that he is still ill and he needs Gods healing hand in this situation.

2. Please pray for our short trip this weekend . We want to be Gods hands and feet as we work on this mission.

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.

xoxo

Priscilla and Delanie

Pictures of the day...

Keydi braiding Margaret's hair

At the market

Margaret's birthday cake!

Happy birthday Margaret!!!

Nicaragua ALWAYS Wins

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. We didn't go to bed until 2:00 a.m. so we didn't get a chance to blog...get over it.

We started off our day by going to the grocery store. It was very Americanized and we found a few comforts of home. We bought the essentials (and maybe a bottle of wine) and decided to go to the market to do a little shopping. Plans didn't exactly go the way we expected...

We have a saying here in Nicaragua that a few of you may already know: Nicaragua always wins. This expression means that no matter how meticulous and organized you plan your day, something unexpected always comes up and you need to be super flexible and go with the flow. We Americans have a hard time accepting this since we live our lives according to strict schedules, agendas, and times. We had planned on going to the market today so that Margaret could have that experience. All of a sudden, Rip got a call from one of his friends and she needed some English speakers to judge an English contest. So off we went to the Masatepe Idol 2010. It was 6 different high school contestants from a town called Masatepe that were competing to be the best English speaking performers. We sat in a somewhat panel of judges and we were to score them on their intonation, creativity, domination, and pronunciation. It was hot, it was sticky, it was extremely sunny, it was gross. Going to the market was NOT in our plans anymore...Nicaragua won this time. But to be honest, I believe God was calling us to help out with this event today and in the end we felt good about it. The winner of the contest was a group of students who enthusiastically sang a Christian song, background dancers and all. The students were all super pumped to show off their English speaking skills and it was great to see that.

In the evening we finally got to go to the market (ha! You didn't totally win, Nicaragua!) and saw a beautiful view of an old volcano that is now a lagoon. It was very romantic, too bad Rip was the only boy around!

Today we are going to take some time to go shopping at the market and go swimming at a pool. We are getting a little emotional and tired so we feel that it is important to take some days to just relax. Our blog tonight won't be too "missionary" based, but that's alright.

Prayer requests:

Please pray for our safety as it has been on our minds a bit.

Please pray for our surrender on this trip and to know that God is in control of everything.

A few interesting tid bits of the day...

1. They use lids on hard plastic restaurant cups when you dine inside of Papa John's (and yes, the pizza tastes the same)

2. Their are workers on every isle at grocery stores that are there to serve you in every way. Totallly not like the U.S.

"Need some assistance reaching that box of cereal, mam?"

3. Putting 5 scoops of coffee and 4 cups of water together makes Priscilla behave in a very frightening manner.

4. Nothing EVER starts or ends on time in Nicaragua.

5. Sadly to say, Nicaragua always wins.

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.

xoxo

Priscilla and Delanie

Pictures of the Day...

Just in case you were wondering what your Depends actually look like before you buy them

On our way to the market....oh wait.....maybe not

Welomc to Masatepe Idol 2010

A group of High School girls who performed at the contest

A group of the High School boys singing to Backstreet Boys

Stomping Grounds

Today was a day of old sounds, sights, and smells. Rip dropped the three of us off at Casa Bernabe. Casa Bernabe is an orphanage located in Vera Cruz. It was about 40 minutes from our house and we were super pumped to go visit our old friends there. Casa houses children from the ages of 2 to 18. Most of these kids have living parents but the government has seen them to be unfit. Because of this, a lot of these "orphans" have been at this location for a large part of their lives.

Delanie and I were most excited to see a few of these kids. For the past three years we have stayed at Casa and have some very close friends there. Two of the teens are our closest buds. Maryuri (or Margie as P calls her) and Isamar are two beautiful girls that we have really bonded with. We were so excited when we finally saw them walking to their dorm where we were waiting for them on a couple of rocking chairs (seems kind of creepy now that I think about it). We embraced each other and told them of our plans to stay in Nicaragua for the summer. We caught up on life, laughed and introduced them to Margaret. It was great to see some familiar faces : )

We also got a chance to see Delanie's three sisters. Freydel, Daroling, and Mileydi were happy to see us and they have already grown since the last time we saw them. We gave them some goodies that Mom (Lynn) sent to them and they were very thankful for that (everything fit well Mil!).

Rip picked us up around 5:30 and we drove home for the day. We stopped at a bakery to buy some hamburger buns and went back to our place to cook (talk about craving American food!). We are beat, but it was a wonderful day and we were blessed to have this experience.

Now here are a few interesting tid bits of the day...
1. Milk comes in a bag
2. Ketchup is super sweet (We miss you, Heinz!)
3. Bug spray does NOT always work
4. Orphans mow the lawn by using giant, sharp machetes

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.
xoxo
Priscilla and Delanie

Pictures of the Day...

Ready for the day : )

The foliage outside of our house (jealous?)

Our crib!

The driveway to our house

Coco-a teen living at Casa Bernabe

Delanie and her sister Freydel

Margaret, Isamar, P, Mileydi (with eyes closed!), and Delanie

P and her old friend Maryuri from Casa Bernabe

Pictures of the Day...

Keydi and her class of 38 monsters!

We love Randy! He was having fun at recess

Margaret "back at work" after two short days off from CPS!

Delanie and students during recess

P and students during recess

Priscilla, Delanie, and Margaret waiting for the bus!

We also want to remind you to pray for Rip as he is not feeling too well today, and to simply bless him for giving us the opportunity to stay at his lovely house. Prayers for our safety, patience, and guidance from God are also appreciated! Thanks!

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.
xoxo
Priscilla and Delanie

Our First Official Day In Nica...

Today was a day filled with children, bus rides, and a sketchy trip to the market.

We started off by visiting the school where our housekeeper Keydi is a teacher of 38 Second Grade students. We helped her out by checking their work, doing some multiplication, and drawing a giant picture of a robot! Keydi says that 50% of her students come from a home with no mother and/or father. They are a wild bunch of kids with nothing but love in their hearts. They welcomed us into their classroom right away and bonded with the three of us the whole time we were there.

We then got to experience what Nicaraguan public transportation is like. One word...rough. I don't think this country has any laws to regulate the amount of people that can fit in one bus! It was crazy to say the least. We were looked at often but for the most part we played it cool. It was a very bumpy, fast, and insane ride.

After lunch at a mall that was eerily similar to an average American mall we took another bus to the market. This market was called Israel, and it is definitely a place that we could never go to alone (thank God for Keydi!). We bought some rice, beans, oil and Corn Flakes. We got a lot of "I love you's" and hand grabs from the locals but don't worry, Keydi quickly told them "!No se permite!", which in English means, "That is NOT permitted!". She has turned out to be a guide, a teacher, a personal guard, and a blessing.

All in all our first official day here in beautiful Nicaragua was amazing and exhausting as well (YOU try riding on one of those bumpy buses all day long in 110 degree weather!). Thanks again to all of our family and friends for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts as we are just beginning this journey. We miss you guys already!

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.
xoxo
Priscilla and Delanie

goofs

Arrival!

Hello all!

Today is day one in Nicaragua. We couldn't have asked for better traveling conditions, everything went smoothly. Margaret is excited to be here for the first time and she has already adapted to the "Nicaraguan way".

The house is beautiful! We are so fortunate to be able to stay in such a great place for the summer. Outside the birds are chirping loudly and inside the geckos are barking through the walls. The familiar smells of Nicaragua bring back a flood of familiarity and memories.

We are extremely tired and want to get some rest before starting all of our exciting adventures. We want to thank everyone sincerely for prayers and support in every way. Soooo...thanks!!! We will try to our best to keep up on this nifty blog that Raf (Ian Simkins) created for us.

I am today what yesterday has made me; tomorrow I shall be changed by today's experiences.
xoxo
Priscilla and Delanie

Hey every buddy!!

Its Lanie, just testing making a post and preparing for Nicaragua. It looks like this is going to be pretty easy. SO thanks to Ian you will all be able to stay up dated with what's happening in Nicaragua.

THANKS PAL!!

thank you all for your support

always,

Lanie