Another Matagalpa Bi-Monthly for you.

Hello and greetings to everyone!

It’s been a busy two months since we last wrote. Hope y’all are doing fine. Everyone is well on this end. Even with all that happens, I seemingly still do not know what to write about…=D You’d never believe how quiet life can be in a family of thirteen! Please enjoy…

As a family, we’ve done a fair bit of traveling since our last letter. We took a trip to El Rama to see Pastor Sam and his family and be with the church for their very first missions conference. What a blessing! Also, on our way down to El Rama we stopped in to see another pastor that we support, Pastor Richard, in a little town called Muelles de los Bueyes (please, don’t try to pronounce it). We were there for two days, working alongside him at the church. After, we went on to El Rama where we were with Pastor Sam&Co. for their mission’s conference. It was an enjoyable and productive trip! The reason it deserves a mention in this letter is because it was the first “missions” trip we have taken as a family. Normally, it’s just my dad and one or two or even three of us kids, but this time the whole tribe went! Truly “the more the merrier!” (except when riding in a van for 4+ hours)

One thing that has taken up a lot of our time since the last letter has been the cleaning and fixing up of our house. We moved out of our house (of 3 years) on the 1^st of February.  There was a lot of work to do to make sure the house was in the same condition we received it in – in order to receive our deposit back from the landlord. Nicaraguan landlords are notorious for finding “reasons” (many times illegitimate ones) to not return your deposit. Example: you replaced the sink without my permission, a tile is broken, etc. Anyways, we painted the house inside and out, replaced a boatload of tiles, switched lights, and fixed doors, amongst other things. If I must say so, the house looked quite nice when we were done with it and our landlord was very happy. He gave us back our deposit! Gratefully, no one was hurt or seriously injured in all the work and repairs we did on the house. There was a close shave or two, though. Jacky, our most graceful sister, was painting on top of a tall bar stool when she suddenly toppled over. She had been sternly warned by our painting instructor, Mr. Elliot (more on him later), to not stand on stools, chairs, high chairs, or any of the related species. “Strictly ladders” he said, “up to the third rung and heaven forbid that you dare stand on top.” She came out a little bruised, but okay. Then she climbed right back up and almost fell again. Moral of the story: Learn from your mistakes.

A little more on the aforementioned personage, Mr. Elliot. Mr. Elliot or Tio Elliot as we’ve dubbed him, is the perfect example of a Southern gentleman. Tio Elliot looks like a walking replica of Colonel Sanders, gray beard and all. A literal walking library stuffed with information about anything one would want to know, if there is anything we need to know about nuclear reactors or fossil fuel refining processes or intricate farming methods or large-scale business matters or Napoleon Bonaparte or economics or current politics or literature or music or even painting houses, as seen in the previous paragraph, or stocks. Whatever you want to know, Tio Elliot is your go-to guy. We met Mr. Elliot roughly a year and a half ago. He had recently retired and moved to Nicaragua to live. Over time he informally became our “uncle” and regularly attended the English Sunday School class my dad taught. He often would stop by to visit or have lunch or dinner with us and almost always brought ice cream or jello! Thus his popularity.

Walking down the mountain one fine Sunday morning on their way to church, Jessin, Joy, James, and Jonathan encountered a cow on the side of the road. The cow was wearing a special kind of “brace” to keep it from poking its head through the fence to taste that greener grass on the other side. Joy saw the cow in this predicament and felt sorry for it. “It looked so sad.” she said. So, Joy waved to it and said, “Adios!” (to the cow). That’s ok, right? You’re with family on a (supposedly) deserted mountain road. No one cares; it’s good. But then she turned her head and found that on the other side of the road she had a small audience of smirking campesinos (country folk) watching her talk to the cow. They were probably thinking, “Esa gringa esta loca.” (That white girl is crazy!) All we do to try and maintain a respectable reputation, and then our older sister goes and talks to a cow and blows it…

 

One of our top priorities, being back in the States, was getting driver’s licenses for Joy, Josh, and myself. At 20, 18, and 19 respectively, we were still without any kind of license or driving permit. To say the least, we were a little anxious to get on with it. We wanted to get them while we were still in Florida because a FL license is so much easier to obtain than a WV license. Our plan of action was to take the 4-hour drug and alcohol course, then head to the DMV and take our written test. After passing, we were going to return home and practice for a few days and then go take our driving test, get our license, and get out onto the roads to terrorize the local populace. We took the drug and alcohol course, studied up for the written exam, took it, passed it, and were all set to go home and get some practice before attempting the driving test when the lady at the desk said, “You should just go ahead and take the driving test; it’s easy.” Her famous last words. Just kidding! That brave soul, allowing Josh and I to drive her around. Josh and I were game. Joy, on the other hand, was hesitant and decided to wait. Dad was feeling pretty optimistic and told Joy they could go out and practice a little in the parking lot, and then she would be ready to take the driving test. They went out to the car and got in and Joy’s first question to my dad was, “Now which one is the brake and which one is the accelerator?” Dad decided then that it probably wasn’t a good idea to practice in the parking lot and that she could take her test another day. Wise man. Being the older brother and the guinea pig, I went first for the driving test. I ran the very first stop sign. The instructor asked me, “You don’t normally do that, do you?” “No ma’am, first time,” I assured her. Thankfully, I had a very merciful and understanding instructor and she allowed me to pass! I’ve improved much since then, don’t worry. Josh was next, and he did better than I did. He at least came to a rolling stop at the first sign. She asked Josh (we had told her that we were just in from Nicaragua), “Do they stop at stop signs in Nicaragua?” In spite of our “greenness”, we both were able to get our licenses! Joy waited about a week or so and after much practice went back, took her test, and passed! She is still a work in progress, though.

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything. Till next time!

 

The Stalnaker Bunch