Farewell Esteli

Being here since October, and now I'm gonna be thrusted back into the New York life once again... it's a weird feeling. 

My last meeting was on Saturday... always hate saying goodbye.  Esteli Central has been a great congregation, so many great friends.

A recent congregation photo after the last meeting we had for the CO visit.

Before the Pioneer Meeting we had during the CO visit which was in the first week in May... here are all of our Regular and Auxilary Pioneers in Esteli Central Congregation

I wanted to take pictures of more of the friends before my last meeting, but being here and taking tons of pictures for this blog, you kind of get sick of it after a while.

I will certainly miss Esteli Central, my first congregation in Spanish.  Definitely a challenge, learning to speak it everyday, but it has been worth it.  The commitment to need-great in a foreign land has been the best decision I have ever made and gives you experiences you wouldn't be able to do otherwise staying back home in the States.... It has been a fun, exciting and absolutely incredible 8 months... To realize that it has flown by and I haven't been on Long Island since October has been unreal.  I would recommend to anyone to try this at least once in your life...you won't regret serving in a foreign land and as long as Jehovah is put first and everything is put toward Kingdom interests, it will definitely be a successful trip.  

Farewell Esteli... don't know when I'll be coming back to Nicaragua as of now... but an experience like this is something you can't resist for long.   There will most definitely be another trip in the future.

Thank you all for tuning in and following along, this is the final post... hope I was able to teach you guys something interesting about this place through the experiences and the posts... 

 To all friends and family on Long Island... I look forward to seeing you soon

Blog, Done... bye

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 15: A Better Place, A Better Time

http://www.mediafire.com/?42ff822j5tkgh28

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

Welllllllllll.... this is it. My final post for the Esteli Balcony Covers Series.  This is song number fifteen.  I thought it would be appropriate that I started with a streetlight song, and so I would end it with one.  Of course, it's in the same solo guitar, folk fashion as always... "A Better Place, A Better Time," a nice 'emo' song if you want to call it that... but originally made in a ska-punk style, native to Streetlight Manifesto.  

Thank you all for following along for the balcony covers series... it's something I have certainly enjoyed doing these past 8 months to pass the time and try not to get too rusty on the guitar... Hope you've all enjoyed it and if you think the blog would have been better off without these songs, well... I could really care less... so, on that note.....

that's it.  enjoy

Hacienda Iguana

The last half of their time here in Nica, the 3 M's and I, took a little expedish to the beautiful Playa Iguana.  Thanks to the help of Dennis, he set us up with a nice place to stay at Hacienda Iguana to surf and enjoy the beach. 

Dennis let us use his legendary "jeep" for the trip to somewhat remote location at Iguana. 

The 3 M's ready to head for the beach.  I love Matt O's nervous expression here.  At first, driving in Nica can be nerve-wracking, but he got comfortable driving there in no time.

Sunset at Iguana

Epic surf at Iguana... for waves, this is the place to go.  Our original plan was to head to San Juan Del Sur, but thanks to Dennis the trip was much better at this more relaxing and secluded area.  This is a famous break known as Colorado.  

Ultimate beach truck... the racks made easy transport for the surfboards.

During a nice little hike around the edge of the cove to see what was on the other side

Taking a "nature walk" and hiking to the top of this high point to catch the view

A truly inspirational pic... Marvin and the rock. 

Hacienda Iguana is always a fine way to end a trip to Nicaragua... It's a beach that's out of the way, so you need a vehicle, but it's worth it, and in many ways much nicer than San Juan Del Sur.  This was an amazing way to end off a most life-changing and incredible 8 months of need-greating in Nicaragua, and it was fun enjoying this with a few buddies from back home as well...

The Three M's

The 3 M's decided to come and have their own Nicaraguan experience for a couple weeks.

M att O'Keefe

M att McCaffrey

M arvin Carbahol


Their first week, they came to visit my assignment, here in Esteli.

This is a nice photo of the 3 M's at the river leading to the waterfall of Estanzuela, a nice place to sight see relatively close to my place.

 Jokester Matt. M. and his creepy stare

They adapted to their environment well, as you can see... along with their plethora of electronics they brought including, laptops, I-pads, I-pods, droids, gameboys, and tablet pc's...

The 3 M's visiting Esteli Central Congregation.  This photo includes their two favorite people from Esteli they met: Fidencio and Bridget.  You know this is a special picture because it's not often when you see Fidencio smile like that for the camera.

Follow along to the next post about the next half of the visit of the 3 M's...

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 14: This Old City

http://www.mediafire.com/?08xvn90v4l3ns3n

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

Hey, this isn't a cover.  Sorry.  It's some version of this original I made while living here.  It's about the theme of the previous post on some history of Nicaragua...

Some History...

This photo was brought to my attention recently.  After seeing it inspired me to write a brief summary of a bit of the history of Nicaragua.  This photo is of a Sandinista, taken during the height of the Nicaraguan Revolution, in 1979, in the city I'm living in now, Esteli.  Esteli was actually a main area for the fighting that took place in Nicaragua, to overthrow the Somoza Dynasty, a family of dictators that controlled Nicaragua for many years until the uprising of the Sandinistas. 

The country has had a sad history.  This war in the '70's and '80's, famously known as a fight between the Contras and the Sandinistas, was preceded by a devastating earthquake in 1972, that hit the capital of Managua, obliterating 90% of the city.  This led to corruption in the Somoza-run government because of the bad economic situation the country was in, giving fuel for the Sandinista cause to overthrow the Somoza family.

Here is a picture I found of the city of Mangua, pre-earthquake:

Managua, pre-1972, was a bustling economic center.  It was the most prosperous and greatest of all the Central-American countries at the time.  This picture shows that the city once had the qualities of a modern-day city, with tall buildings and whatnot...

 The earthquake ended up fracturing most of the major buildings in the city, forcing 90% of the city to be torn down and rebuilt... Today, much of the city has been rebuilt, but still to this day it hasn't fully recovered.  The central part of the city was re-defined because it was destroyed, and many communities lie on the outskirts of the city, because many took up residence on the outer edges of the city right after the earthquake.


 This reminds me of the museum at the bethel branch we visited last year, which has since ceased operations back in November.  Refer back to the post about bethel about the museum... The brothers endured a lot through the difficult times during the Nicaraguan Revolution, and even though Nicaragua's turbulent history had it's trials for the brothers here, it still didn't stop the good news from reaching the people, and the rest of the world as well.