¡Viva la Vida!

Valentine's Day

Here's my Valentine's Day present from Greg. He and his friend Oscar had to search high and low for bouquets of rosas for their wives. Isn't it pretty?

How the event went tonight...

Here are a few of the pics from the "Quality Time" section of the five love languages. We put some conversation starter questions on the tables, like "If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you travel?" and "How did you meet your husband?" and "What is your craziest dream for your life?"

Google Earth

Bear with me as I play with our new download of google earth. Here is the Volcan Masaya, which we can see smoking from town...

And here on the right is laguna apoyo, our local swimming hole.

On the left, this is Ometepe. I love this island!

5 Love Languages

Tomorrow we celebrate "Day of Friendship and Love". I prefer this as to the wholly romantic Valentine's Day in the US. This means that we celebrate all sorts of loves in our lives.

In honor of this the women's meeting is providing a place for friends to come and pass some time. We are setting up five stations, based on the five love languages in Gary Chapman's book:

Physical touch will be massages
Acts of Service will be painting nails, washing feet, cutting hair
Quality Time will be puzzles, coffee, snacks
Words of Encouragement will be a place where friends can sit and talk
Gift giving will have gift bags for friends to pick out for each other.

I am excited to see how this all pans out. I will take pictures!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I'm here because I have a messianic complex.

Am I the only one who thinks that Bono is standing next to one of those cardboard cut-outs of Bush like you see on the streets of D.C.?  Well, anyway, Bono was the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast last week and here is a transcript of his speech.  It's worth reading.  Go read it now.  Really.

My favorite line from his speech:  "I’m here because I’ve got a messianic complex."

Mis Quince Años

As teachers, we get the privilege of going to many of our students' Quinceañeras (a party which celebrates a girl's 15th birthday).  This is Saira, one of Greg's students who had a Cinderella-themed Quinceañera last night.  She wore an exact copy of the Disney Cinderella's dress and even gave out glass slippers as parting gifts.  But we were curious to see her glass slippers...so when asked, she pulled her dress up to reveal these:

                       a pair of white Chuck Taylors! ==>

Various views of Laguna Masaya from the Flor de Pochote Ecolodge.

Teacher's Retreat

Our school had a staff retreat which started yesterday afternoon and ended today.  We went to an ecolodge in Masatepe which has an incredible view of Laguna Masaya and the nearby volcanoes.  Part of the retreat was geared toward building up our teaching staff into a unified team.  That meant, among other things, playing some group problem-solving games like this one where we were divided into two teams and had to take one bucket of balls and empty it into another one without entering the circle. 

The objective:  empty one bucket of balls into another without entering the circle or spilling them.   ====>

<== Determination!

Hermana Elda

Meet Elda.... she is 37, has five kids, and is a grandmother of one. She grew up on a farm outside of town, her family worked there as the caretakers. Her mom had twelve children, but five died from malnutrition. Elda wasn't allowed to go to school until she was ten years old. She had to help her mom cut coffee and plant beans on the farm. When she was finally able to go to school, she was so happy, but quite embarrassed to be in first grade at ten years old.

When Elda turned 15 she got pregnant and married Santiago. She quit school to be a mom and wife. Her husband was an alcoholic and womanizer. They separated and she became a Christian. Fortunately for her, Santiago followed suit, and their marriage was restored.

Elda is a businesswoman now, running the snack bar at school. She is also a part of the women's leadership team. She told me that when they asked her to serve in leadership she cried for weeks and weeks, she felt so unworthy. She had to pray and fast two or three days a week just to keep her head on straight and remember that God had made her worthy, not by her works. She never wants to forget from where she came. God has given her beauty for ashes, and turned her mourning into dancing.

Arcoiris

Getting ready for women's meeting last night, we noticed this beautiful rainbow. I don't think I have ever seen one so brilliant. I'm glad that the camera could capture some of it's beauty. It is supposedly dry season, but we have had quite a bit of rain since we have been home. I'm glad to have the plants still green and lush.