Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

A new adventure has begun: Nicaragua! I arrived Wednesday at 7.30pm to 92 degree weather. I was picked up at the airport by Rachel, who is an American working with the Lutheran Church in Nicaragua, and their mechanic Arnoldo who promptly drove me through the sprawling urban area that is Managua. Managua has had a rough couple decades with an earthquake that devasted the city center and then 10 years of civil war, and due these events it no longer has a main area. Instead it´s a collection of communities sprawled next to a lake.

Arnoldo and Rachel got me to my hotel two blocks from the church which had a great sign in front that said "Bed and Break Fats." I ended up with a great room and head out the next morning to the church.

The church here in Managua is the reason I´m here...i guess i should explain that. The South Dakota Lutheran Church and the church in Nicaragua have a partnership in which SD helps Nica with projects and sends money and visitors. I´m here to check it out and hopefully discover if the programs are meeting the needs of the people here. So, thursday was my first day with the church and what a day it was! It was the bishop´s birthday and we had two celebratory meals and a church service led by the youth. The thing that stood out the most was the energy (and definitely not tone) of the singing at church. It was a struggle and yelling became the best solution.

Today was World Cup day of course! after squatting around a tiny black and white tv so that the church workers would still be on duty during the game, we finally made a dash before overtime of the argentine and germany game. we ran across teh street to a house turned into a restaurant. they served and sold food from their kitchen and had seating on their veranda. well, the smart nicas i was with got some food and pulled the chairs up to teh window of the house so we could watch the big color tv in their living room! eventually the entire veranda was peering through the windows of the house watching the penalty kicks right alongside the family! Mi casa es su casa i guess.

Tomorrow I´m celebrating National Youth Day by playing games with a bunch of the church youth and Sunday I´ll hit up a service and youth meeting. Then, on Monday I will head down to Granada where I will begin four weeks of spanish class and will live with a family. I wish that i had the language now! I´m doing alright, but i definitely want to have a good handle on spanish before i come back so i can get to know everyone better.

So yeah, nica is good thus far. The one thing that stands out right now is that it reminds me a lot of tanzania. same type of signs, same plastic furniture at restaurants, same pace, a ton of pharmacies, people standing around a lot, and the same heat. I don´t want to be comparing already because i know that it will probably end up being very different, but i´m amazed how much that experience still influences me.

a few other thigns that really stand out: for the low pressure icon on the weather, they have a b...which makes sense in spanish, but it´s funny to see the u.s. map and see a huge B swirling around SD. Also, in my hotel i get ESPN Desportes (spanish espn) and when they show baseball stats, everything is backwards, so instead of going 2-4, joe mauer goes 4-2. that´ll help out the old average!

whew. a lot in a little time...i´ll be updating with more stories less facts as i get settled and begin to get my head around nica. in the meantime, off to have my fifth serving of rice and beans, and I still like it!