Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 2: No One's Gonna Love You

http://www.mediafire.com/?zo3zpwnnx6122a5 

to download the mp3 ... if you would like...

For the second edition of the Esteli Balcony Covers Series: No One's Gonna Love You, by Band of Horses from Cease to Begin... this song is one of my favorites from that album... It's an acoustic version, obviously....

The Nicaraguan background noise in this recording was the best yet.  I may be more interested in all the crazy sounds that get picked up than the song itself... ha... So, while I was recording this song earlier, it started raining, but not like a downpour, just the perfect amount to not overpower the guitar... also, being on the balcony, there are plenty of motorcycle sounds, cars passing by, and people working and talking, making all kinds of noise... I don't know, I'm just intrigued by these sounds behind the songs....

-jason

of Bethel......!!!

Hey there...
We took a little trip from Esteli to go visit and take a tour of the Nicaragua Bethel Branch, which is just a little bit south of the capital of Managua, at a place called Ticuantepe.

There's a bunch of stuff I wanna talk about... lets get started...

The fact that we got the opportunity to be able to take a tour and stay overnight at Bethel was an amazing privilege. The Nicaragua Branch is closing down this next week and we were actually their last overnight visitors they were gonna have. It was an awesome experience and sort of sad because the branch is closing down all operations and moving everything to Mexico. This is also the case with the other Central American countries as well.

We were invited by Dani and Ruth San Nicolas, a bethelite couple, who have been friends with the Gomez's for a while.  They actually came to visit on Long Island back in September.  So, this time we were with them here in Bethel Nicaragua.

This is just a picture I took of a painting I found on the wall in Dani's office.  It just gives you an overhead view of the Bethel grounds...

I'm gonna post the pics in succession of what we saw on the tour, there were a lot of interesting things from the tour worth checking out...

Here's the well... this supplies the water for the Bethel grounds...................cool.....
And that's the sister that took us on the tour... haha... what was her name? ...... sorry

.... walking to the main lobby... the property is maintained so well, it's definitely the most gorgeous place I've seen in Nicaragua... Definitely doesn't feel like you're in a 3rd world country.

Past the main lobby area was the courtyard, which was this beautiful garden walkway.  Super peaceful...

This is Dani and Jordan in his office.  Dani's the head of maintenance at the branch. 

Here we are at the library... Ha, Jordan's holding this psychedelic-looking book from the 60's for some reason...

As mentioned earlier, the grounds here are kept beyond pristine... and this is in the central part of Bethel... this is only part of the field, but it's a huge open pasture.... awesome..

Here's another pic of the scenery and one of the buildings... O and don't ask me why Phil is in the pictures looking off into the distance like that... 'cuz I totally didn't tell him to go there...............

This was their museum here at Bethel... it had a lot of very interesting information about how the truth was reached to people in Nicaragua back in the 60's through the 80's.  These were very difficult times for the Nicaraguans... this was during the Nicaraguan Revolution, which was a time of war, and the Sandinista vs the Contras up until the 90's... so there were a lot of information pertaining to the hardships of the brothers during the time of war, and many who were in prison, refusing to fight for either side.

This was just one of the interesting stories.... of a brother who was put in prison for refusing to fight for either sides during the war, and still made a witness by writing all he could remember from the live forever book on toilet paper and what he could remember from the song book.  With this, he was able to conduct meetings and keep the bible truths alive with all of his fellow prisoners.

Here we have the dining room... we were able to enjoy lunch and dinner on our first day there, and then breakfast and morning worship the next day which was really nice.

 O, and we were privileged to be a part of their last Watchtower Study they were going to have before all operations shut down next week.  Also very nice, but sad at the same time.

This is the pic we took right before we left... that's us with Dani and Ruth, the friends who invited us to Bethel.

Lastly, this is a hysterical pic of El Jefe... Jordan looks like a boss, the big man in charge.  Just look at the way he's kickin' back on the chair, the big grin, and the beastly desk... He's truly felt like the man at that moment...

So that's about it for our Bethel experience... it was really amazing to be able to see it before it moves operation to Mexico and then they get it ready to be sold... o well....

thanks for reading,

enjoy

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 1: The Big Sleep

http://www.mediafire.com/?70o90godsu8srxw 

to download the mp3 ... if you would like...

Two things I made sure to bring to Nicaragua:

1. Acoustic Guitar
2. Tascam Portable Recording Studio

A few days ago I recorded a song on our balcony.  I like recording on the balcony because it picks up not only the guitar and vocals, but all the natural Nicaraguan background noise (people washing cars, people hitting stuff with various objects, wind, motorcycle repair shop, and whatever else).

Part 1 for the Esteli Balcony Covers Series is: The Big Sleep, by Streetlight Manifesto, which is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands.

first two weeks: The Ministry

and.... for part 3 of the "first two weeks" series is: The Ministry

Service here is amazing.  Most people are more than willing to listen and to talk and learn about spiritual things.  So, the appreciation for the preaching work is an instant standout.  Also, people are pretty much always home, so definitely room for a lot of productivity each day.  Not knowing how to speak Spanish well is a challenge, especially with more in-depth conversations.  But the ministry is vital for speaking and practicing the language, so it helps everyone out.


The way we work the territory is neat.  The city of Esteli is based on squares of buildings, called cuadras, or manzanas.  We work one of these squares at a time and go around each side, one group will go one way and the other go the opposite way until we meet up on the other side of the square.  Funny story... I was wondering why they were saying manzana all the time, because I was looking around, and there weren't any apples (manzana is apple).  But in nicaragua, they call these squares, manzanas.  So that's that.

 This is actually an overhead view of Central Esteli.  The park is directly in the middle.  And you can see how everything is divided up into the squares that I was talking about.  So, you get an idea.

Here's some other various pics:

Here's what a typical street looks like.  This is more in the outskirts of town... Central Esteli has a bit less dirt road...

In this pic, I was trying to take a photo of another street we were working out in the ministry, but my buddy Asahel Vaquedano made his way in there.  He's the son of the local elder in our hall, he's a cool kid.

This was out in the ministry the other day.  This is me, Asahel, and a visiting brother named Kyle from Wisconsin. 

I took a quick pic while out in the ministry to show everyone.  That's Hermano Vaquedano and one of the Wisconsin brothers at the door there.  And right in front of me is a sister heading to a door.

Lastly, here is an exciting pic of Bigote(mustache) Jordan.  We went on a couple of return visits and then it started pouring so we chilled out for a bit.  Jordan doesn't like to be in the pictures, I do it anyway.

That's it right now... not sure what else to talk about ... hope this was informative...... enjoy

-jason

first two weeks: Esteli Central Congregation

Our assigned congregation is called Esteli Central, one of five congregations in the city.
Two congregations meet at our hall, Central and Centenario (not sure how to spell it).

You know who those goons are...

So here are some pics of the hall.  The last pic gives you and idea of the street it's on and the surrounding scenery.  Jehovah's house is always a beautiful standout, but you can definitely appreciate it here in a third world city (not the cleanest place).

Esteli Central Congregation is made up of about 70 publishers.  There's one local elder, Hermano Vaquedano and the missionary couple, Ajah and Arturo.  They've been in their assignment here in Esteli for about a year and a half and they're really cool.  Arturo's really excited we came and I'm really looking forward to working with and learning from the missionaries.

Anyway, it'll be nice to help with the various responsibilities in the hall and help out however we can.  There's actually one responsibility Arturo was telling us about where you're stationed at the hall for a certain amount of time and watch over it.  It's pretty much to make sure the hall is always being watched and cared for.

O and by the way, in that last pic, it looks like Phil and Jordan are trying to get in... It's because they are.  We got bikes and rode them to the group, but left them at the hall.  And yea, they got locked in the hall.  That's about it, not too exciting...

first two weeks: The Place...

So before we even got here, Jordan found a great place for us to live during the 8 months... 

That white door there is the entrance to our apartment... which is upstairs by the way. If you look up you can see a white kid sitting up on the balcony...
But so far, the place is safe and comfortable.
It has 3 bedrooms, each has its own bathroom, fully furnished, cable and TV, kitchen and living room, and that balcony... so its got more than enough.  Very awesome.

Here's some pics of the inside so you get an idea:

Here's the common area and the kitchen.  My room is the first door on the right and Phil's is the last door on the left.  I'm glad we have a table... table's are nice.  I'm only saying that because my last time in Nica, Jordan decided to use his lap to eat and I ended up making a table out of a door... but now it's a different situation... a way better one.

This is the living room. It has couches.  It has TV's.  It has Wifi's......yay

This is the balcony.  It's a nice place to relax and play guitar... only problem is that a motorcycle repair shop is right across the street and they can get pretty loud, but they're cool...
One day I was playing guitar and harmonica on the balcony and the guys started singing the Beatles song "Yesterday" out of nowhere after listening to my guitar... it was pretty hysterical.  So I'm gonna learn some Beatles one of these days and play them on the balcony. 

Another thing I noticed after being on the balcony is that people here never ever look up.  It the funniest thing.  I guess 'cuz there's not a lot of second story buildings here, but you can creep on people below forever and never be seen it's amazing... well, until I start playing the harmonica/guitar, then people drop everything they're doing and just stare for uncomfortably long periods of time.  Very cool, but very creepy. 

In conclusion, I like our balcony...

And lastly, here's just a quick glimpse at my bedroom. 

Items of interest:

1. The two beds, one for night-time, one for siestas.
2. The fan
3. The guitar
4. The closet
5. Nick's oil painting

For other uninteresting pics, I'm setting up a link on Picasa Web Albums, but it's taking forever so I'll post the link later.

Also, stay tuned for the next couple posts about the congregation and the ministry. 

Enjoy


-jason

about Esteli...

hello friends,

Yea so this is Nicaragua... actually, this is the street I live on.  It's one road over from the Pan American Highway in the city of Esteli. 

And here's a little map I stole from Google images to show you where we are in relation with the rest of the country.  Here's some info about Esteli:

1. We don't have the ocean...
2. We are at a higher elevation and mountains surrounding us, so the climate is pretty comfortable.  And it actually gets pretty cool at night.
3. About 2 hours north of the capital city of Managua
4. Someone said it's the second largest city in Nicaragua, I don't know if that's true or not, but compared to towns back home, it's comparable to Quogue or something, just for a rough estimate.  So for Nicaragua it's a big town, but it's really not that big.