my journey contines

one by one… they get blogs!!! woot woot. joe and mary got a blog and i’ve updated my list on the side of blogs that i read to include that. i know joe from grad school and got to know mary as well. btw (i miss you guys!!!). it’s been a little difficult to connect but it’s great to know that they now have a blog, so please check it out: http://www.josephandmaryb.blogspot.com/

a few of you are still left to get blogs: jeremiah, dawn, brian, hemen, and i REALLY doubt matt will start blogging anytime soon haha. rosa - get yours up and running again! hehe

thanks for reading!
Shannon

wendy wendy wendy….

we had a farewell surprise party for Wendy tonight, thanks again Megan for hosting and setting that all up and all your hard work! Wendy got a new job back at home and so she is leaving us tonight/tomorrow (middle of the night-ish). while we are all very excited for Wendy, we are also sad that she’s leaving.

that’s one thing that’s hard about working abroad as such… people come and people go. but friendship is stronger than distance, and with communications these days it’s much easier. so we know you won’t be with us at Chaman, or Los Idolos, or MetroCentro, or Gallerias, etc. BUT we will keep in touch.

we’ll miss you, Wendy!!

thanks for reading,
shannon

me & wendy

all of us!

so in Nicaragua they do not only celebrate love on Valentine’s Day, they also celebrate friendship. what a wonderful concept, because we all have friends (although we might not all have a special someone *sniff sniff* hahaha) anywhooo with red balloons in the coffee shops and cut-out hearts on the windows of the stores, today is recognized for all types of relationships - platonic and romantic.

asides from the repeated statement that nicaraguan men have hearts so big that they have room enough to love 3 women each… and that the ratio is somewhere like 3:1 for women to men… there are some beautiful people here and i’ve made some wonderful friends. took me a little while to adjust to some of the cultural differences, and i’m probably STILL adjusting. some friends i’ve made just recently, having met in Matagalpa last weekend… or at work today. jajaja… it’s nice to meet new people

another friend i’ve made while being here is Kiki, my housemate. and today just happens to also be her birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kiki. She told me that she has red hair because she was born on Valentine’s Day, and the good news is that if you don’t have a Valentine you can love her for Valentine’s Day

and since my other housemates birthday is tomorrow, we had a little party at our house to celebrate both of them. i will upload pics tomorrow

happy valentine’s day

thanks for reading
shannon

friday finally came Wendy picked us up (Kiki and me) around 1:30 and we headed on our way - destination: matagalpa. after a delayed stop in PriceSmart (similar to Costco) we were off… one more stop at On The Run for lunch and we were off again…

about 45 mins. into the drive Wendy noticed that the engine light had gone on… now Wendy has had problems with said car on and off, although it’s been a blessing to us all! however, we weren’t sure. usually she just uses it driving around Managua… anyways, next thing she noticed the temperature gauge was in the red…. and smoke was coming out of the hood. thankfully there was another car stopped at the side of the road with a young girl (maybe 23) and two young boys and their grandmother, changing their tire. they had the orange triangles we are required to use when stopped on the road here… so we stopped behind them. after checking it out for a min, they walked over and the girl quickly took charge pouring water into where coolant should be. it quickly became apparent that we apparently had none in the car… as the water was spouting out and the car was having serious issues. the girl then flagged down a 4×4 and a bunch of guys jumped out. she asked them if they had rope and promptly tied a 8ft. piece of rope doubled between the two cars. she then proceeded to pull our car - TOW the car, down the high way. see said video.

after stopping once to re-attach the rope, we stopped in a little town (i’ll have to check for the name with Kiki). we were being watched with somewhat strange reactions as three “chellas” jumped out of this car being towed and gathered around it. one guy came over and said he was a mechanic, and after calling somebody in the office to check it out, we found it was okay to leave the car with this mechanic and continue on our way to Matagalpa. how you ask? on a bus. yes, a bus. one of the experiences that until this day i had not experienced. today was the day.

Bus photo - Copyright 2008. Kiki Tegelberg (click to see more photography)
This bus is unusually uncrowded, but gives you an idea…. It is not the bus we took up north.

This is a photo I snapped while driving back from Chinandega… it gives a better idea of just how crowded these buses are. Craziness…

And this is Wendy gracefully posing for a photo in the bus on our way to Matagalpa. Notice all of the passengers also either staring at me or posing for the photo. haha…

very nice and asked about where I was from, what I was doing, etc. She was on the bus with her three children heading back to where they live in Matagalpa… she told me about a non-profit organization she had started that reached out to care for those in need: orphans, street kids, young mothers, etc. and we talked about a friend she had in Canada, etc. later she asked if we would like to get off at their stop, in about 10 mins., andAbout 15 mins. into the ride, the lady in front of me (I was standing the whole time) started talking. She was catch a ride to Matagalpa with their friend. SURE! Sure enough 10 mins later we jumped off the bus which barely stops at the stops (sometimes people jump off when it’s still kinda rolling) and walked to the truck. we got into the back of the pick up truck, after assuring the woman that it was okay and would further enrich our adventure! haha… it was so dark you could see all the stars. it was beautiful!!!

Kiki shares a little about it here…

Part II — A little hard/impossible to see but the rest of the audio haha.

in matagalpa we went for dinner at a local cafe and then heard some local talent play in another restaurant. it was really fun!!

but what an adventure. and really not anything i would do back in Toronto… haha

thanks for reading,
Shannon

today we woke up early and Marshall, Noel and I went to a hotel to pick up the car that we rented for the day. we headed first to Masaya, but after all the confusing one way streets decided to continue to Mombacho. (volcano) there was no transportation going up when we got there, and we would’ve had to wait for a while. so the men working offered to take us up in their truck. there are moments where the trail is almost vertical - what a ride!!

when we got to the top unfortunately there were too many clouds to see anything. hence, we named it officially the end of the world. (see below)

Then after hanging out for a bit, we left and headed to Granada. Don’t quote me, but I heard it was one of the oldest cities in Central America? They have beautiful colonial buildings and it’s just a great place to visit. we got some dinner, were joined by one of the most lively little girls I’ve ever met (it was quite entertaining) and then headed back for the night.

Noel has to leave at 3:30am tonight because he has a long bus ride back to Honduras. (Noel — thanks for coming to visit!!)

It was a good day, although we didn’t get to do everything we’d hoped. It was fun though!

Thanks for reading,
Shannon

P.S. I ate muslitos de pollo - which as you can see on the menu below is “chicken things” lol… just thought it was funny so captured a pic to share.

wasn’t feeling so good today so i slept in for a while and didn’t go to work. maybe still getting over being sick from when i was home in addition to the tiredness from travelling.

noel and i walked around a bit, went and got his ticket all figured out to go back to honduras, and Brenda drove us to the airport to pick up my suitcase which arrived (YAY!!!). liptons chicken noodle soup, crystal light flavour, and kraft dinner. i’m set now. haha…

we were going to go to Mercado Oriental, but with all the advice of everybody to not go alone, without a local, we had to opt out. instead, we came back and walked around to see the neighbourhood. also, we went for fritanga (typical Nicaraguan food) — delicious.

tomorrow we’re planning on going to Laguna de Apollo, Mombacho (volcano), and Granada (the oldest city in Central America?)…

thanks for reading
Shannon

p.s. this a pic of noel as we were driving around Managua.

another friend celebrates a birthday today…

day #1.
still not a morning person, but training went well. good to learn about the organization and to learn more about my country and job and what i’ll be doing, etc. very exciting.

although i’m tired. just having flown in from philadelphia and then being up early yesterday morning and driving here… next week more training elsewhere. it’s just crazy busy. and still feel like i have so much to unwind from school. p.s. i still miss you guys. lol.

but i am watching the first season of Grey’s Anatomy (thanks Melissa and Janell!!! haha) and just vegging out tonight.

thanks for reading!
Shannon

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS ROSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhh

… no i’m not really in denial. i’m so excited for the next chapter of my life! i can’t believe this Philly portion has gone by so fast though. again, sorry i haven’t blogged lately — no, wait i’m not sorry (i apologize too much :P) haha… but ya, it’s been so busy and i haven’t been getting tons of sleep, etc.

also, I talked to the two people that are going to be working as interns in nicaragua as well on skype this week. still figuring out housing… got an e-mail about possible housing options so that will probably get figured out this week — exciting!

and ALSO, i got a call today from rafael which was nice. another great friend from back home and I hadn’t talked to him in ages… although I might not have been so alert having gone to bed at some ridiculous hour — it was great to hear from you, rafael. i appreciate your interest in my journey and am excited to hear about all God’s doing in your life. remember He has a plan for you!! (and you, all you other readers!!!)

this coming Friday is my commencement. i can’t believe it. this has been wonderful. and my family is coming!! i’m so excited! mom, dad, andrew, grandma and andrew’s girlfriend, jess.

1 month today i fly to nicaragua. crazy!

well that was kind of a quick update, i’ll try to get back on track. really appreciate your reading and following along. still love the comments, keep ‘em coming!

shannon