Miraflor

Last week, we took a trip to Miraflor, which is the rural territory of Esteli.  It's about a one and a half hour bus ride up into the mountains.  The bus leaves at 6am ... so it's easy to miss if you don't get up early enough ...

To sum it up short, it was a hiking-preaching adventure and we went through trails that were literally in people's backyards... very cool.  A pair of us would do a house and after talking about the good news, we would ask them the best way to the next finca (or farm), and that's what we did pretty much until we hopped on the last bus out which was around 3:30pm or something.

Here's a whole bunch of pics...
(By the way, if you click on any of the pictures, they come up much larger...)

After the bus ride, we hopped in the back of a pick-up to take us farther up the road and to the territory.  From left to right you've got: Ajah, Meagan, Bridget, Phil, Jordan, and Bismark.

There was this farm that serves good breakfast that we were heading to first off, but in order to get there we had to pass through this little obstacle course.  The old pieces of wood were no where near stable, so could have been easy to have fallen in, none of us did though...

It was common to see people on horse-back... their main method of transport in the mountains...

 Finally got to the breakfast place, and had to take a picture... typical Nica-breakfast includes, eggs, beans, tortilla, black coffee, and guajada, not sure how to spell that, but it's just a Nicaraguan-made cheese thing...

Jordan and Phil coming back from the first door of the day...

As you can see we walked the trails through people's farms

Felipe y Bismark Rojas

Here's Bismark posing, but it was mainly to give you an idea of what a home might look like out in the mountains

From house to house...

A farm growing cabbage I believe... all the produce being grown out in miraflor included: potatoes, cabbage, coffee, beans, all kinds of fruits, and corn.... to name a few.

Fruits such as bananas and plantains...

This was a neat scene... the group traveling caravan style through the fields past a couple horses

There was a lot of walking...

A real lot of walking.... but it was a blast

Just a random scene of someone's house... it was the only one with a pond like that

Along the way, had the opportunity to take pics of some great views ...

I took a pic of this little pigster that was tied to a tree... It kind of makes you want one as a pet until you realize what a monstrosity they grow up into...

And lastly, a nice pic of our group for the day.  From left to right: Arturo, Ajah, Meagan, Bismark, Jordan, Phil.... Bridget and another sister, Michelle, weren't with us for the majority of the day because they did studies while we took the trails and did house to house.  This pic was taken on this dude's lookout which had a great view.  He let us have lunch there and rest for a little while... until he had the brilliant idea to charge us 5 cords each ('bout 25 cents) for the service of being on his lookout.  

That's about all I have to say about that... 

So...people we met in Miraflor were always welcoming to listen to some good news from the bible...  If they weren't working, we were usually invited inside to sit and talk for a while...  and after a warm, friendly conversation, they were happy to give us directions to the next place.

Although wiped out by the end of the day and basically passed out on that bus ride home, it was an incredible experience to see and preach the good news in the Nicaraguan country-side.

Enjoy

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 8: It's A Wonderful Life

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?q5vf90d2f2j9l2v
To download the mp3 ... if you would like...

Hey,

So this part of the balcony covers series is a song called, "It's A Wonderful Life," by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution.  Now that the bees are gone, this one was actually recorded on the balcony. 

Finca Fidencio

Finally got to experience the gorgeous Central-Nicaraguan countryside.  It was a great escape from the dense city in central Esteli.  Fidencio, from our hall, invited us to check out this farm hes got up in the mountains.  Here are some pictures from our little trip.

A fifteen to twenty minute drive up into the mountains brought us to this awesome view...

The mountain and I

Taboada

The big man Jordan Gomez saying, "Someday, all of this will be yours."

Interestingly, the wilderness in the mountains reminded me a lot of home with the pine trees and all... except for those aloe-looking plants

After the sight-seeing, Fidencio drove us to his farm

He had a whole variety of things he was growing, such as: Figs, Avocado, Coffee, Banana, and more...

It was really cool to see the source of where all this fresh Nicaraguan coffee comes from.  This is a coffee plant.  The best coffee comes from all these farms way up in the mountains.

The farm starts low, and you walk up a pathway all the way to the top.  

And at the end of the day, we sat down and had some coffee, while Fidencio was asking us bible questions

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 7: We Will Fall Together

http://www.mediafire.com/?dj4e8ye4hdaut40

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

Here's another one from Streetlight Manifesto... it's "We Will Fall Together," from their second album, Somewhere in the Between... now that our bee problem is over, I'll be recording songs from the balcony once again...

 Disfruta

Bikes, Bees, Baseball, and Black Coffee

Hey there all my wonderful, freezing friends... it's ok I feel your pain, it drops to like 65 at night here... so cold  :)

I've got a few lil' things to write about and some pics to post...

Bikes: our main method of transportation here in Esteli... we bought some used ones back in October for about 40-50 dollars each... way better than walking, which we do anyway out in service because our territory is all within walking distance in the center of the city... but we live a bit more south of that so it's still some what of a walk to the hall... anyway...

We keep them in the garage... O and please excuse the pile of garbage... don't worry we took it out

Jordan's bike: he's the only one who decided to "pimp out" his bike by spray-painting it black...

Mr. Taboada's bike......that's it

And my bike... invested in a bike lock... for obvious reasons

Moving on...

So good news.... our plague of bees has finally come to an end, and the balcony is appealing once again... how did we get rid of this nuisance? .... one word: Flamethrowers

Jordan was excellent with the flamethrower... o and if you're wondering what's actually taking place, well it's two lighters in one hand, and an axe deodorant spray with the other... please don't try it...

After the hive caught on fire, the air started smelling sweet... like honey

Finally the hive dropped, and all the smoke and burning made all those bees drop... and then Jordan finished the job as fast as he could, and no one got stung... success 

Figured I would throw this up... this was the first attempt at destroying the hive, Jordan got all suited up... but the final time Jordan went in with the flamethrower only wearing a T-shirt... what a trooper...

Nicaraguans love baseball... so out in service, some kids were playing ball in the street we were working on.  Here are some pics with Arturo throwing a couple pitches... good stuff

We were invited over for breakfast the other day, one awesome brother, Fidencio Escoto's house... and there I had my first experience with Nicaraguan coffee... amazing stuff... seems like the traditional Nica style here is just black coffee with sugar.... that with gallo pinto and eggs is a genius combo of deliciousness...

Anyway, I've been sort of obsessed with making a good cup of coffee... we have a french press at our place now, so each morning we've been making it... cool thing is, the coffee is grown locally right here up in the mountains... ultra-fresh...

Now my goal (an unrealistic one) is to be the next Aldo... and if you don't know who Aldo is, well, he's like the Einstein of coffee, who runs a shop in Greenport.... he's pretty much my hero

We are now sophisticated coffee drinkers...on the quest for the best quality Nicaraguan coffee

To see someone who rather dislikes coffee and tasting new things, enjoying a fresh brew from that little cup, while staring off into the distance, is a beautiful thing

And lastly:

Finished a thing of toothpaste the other week... and in my crazy little mind that was shocking to me, because it was my first time using a whole thing of toothpaste while away from home... that's how you know you've been away somewhere for a long time... ha ... so next time you ask someone how long have they been somewhere just ask them instead, "So how much toothpaste did you use?" ... that is unless they are dirty and don't brush their teeth, which in that case, everything I just said is rubbish...

Ciao

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 6: Megaman

http://www.mediafire.com/?xkz4nziue01oxmy

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

 So, to prove to all of you that I'm a hipster-doofus-nerd, I recorded one of my favorite themes from the Mega Man 2 video game.  This recording is just an acoustic guitar instrumental... and from start to finish, features my favorite thing to record... guitar harmonies.

 Not much else to say here... so enjoy

"What you are about to see, is considered safe."

That's a quote from an awesome 2006 movie called, "The Prestige," which is said right before Angier, one of the rival magicians, is about to perform his version of the "Transported Man."  I saw it a couple weeks ago and thought to myself, that was one good movie...

Anyway, what that quote is referring to is one aspect of our daily hygienic lives:

Don't want to scare anyone, but this is what they call, the "Suicide Shower." And we consider it safe, or fool ourselves in believing it's completely ok to stand under, so we can get our hot water.

This is how you know you're not home on Long Island, when you reach up to adjust the shower head, for any reason whatsoever, even if it's just a reflex, and you get a nice, healthy ZAP!

Our "advanced" shower heads we have here, deliver our hot water and make it bearable to take showers in the morning without getting hypothermia.... but I've learned as long as you never touch the shower head or anything near it, you can take a shower electrocution-free...

O, and ironically, when he does the "Transported Man" trick from that movie, lightning bolts come out of the machine, so it looks like he gets shocked..... ha


Anyway there's a story...interesting or not... it's the reel deel... believe it.