my journey contines

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

on Wednesday night I went to another local church, Impacto, actually close to were I work… it is a Spanish speaking church. the pastor is from the states and I was told I’d find his accent a little easier to understand. I did! I understood most of what he said and I could follow the serman (which was cool).

This is during the part of the morning where we were handing out gifts.

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Later in the day, I came home to rest, but had been invited to go with their group to Granada in the evening to celebrate all of the January birthdays. I believe that this was the youth group that went, but they were up to ages above mine, so I’m not positive. I invited my two friends Gaby and Massiel who also joined us. (I met them through my boss)

Me & Massiel

Me, Gaby, Massiel

Me & Gaby

Group Pic - Impacto Youth Group

Street Picture

i went to Paz Centro again today and met some of the producers who are raising pigs. please see the following video and pictures

This is the view right near my house, I always wanted to snap a picture of the mountains/volcanoes but normally the taxis drive crazy fast…. so here’s a first.

This is a group of the producers of sesame - there was a meeting for some training on the preparation of food for the pigs that these women are raising for additional income.

Re: See Pig. (Andrew? hehe)

Little pigs, piglettes (?), are so cute when they run.

This is the view driving in La Paz Centro. Good thing I have image stabilizer because we were bouncing all around on those crazy roads…

my weekend was pretty full… which is funny because in the beginning i was a little sad about how little i would be doing. i’ve been feeling really lonely lately and i guess that all got to me.

anyways, friday night i took it pretty easy. went to Woody’s with the girls (Wendy, Amira, and Amira’s friend — sorry I’m temporarily drawing a blank on her/your name!)… it was nice, then i just went back home, talked to my parents for a bit, and went to bed early. saturday morning i met with my pastor’s wife of the church i’m attending here in Managua, Claudia and we went to a nearby mall to chat and kinda get to know each other a bit. it was really nice and she’s very encouraging.

then one of my Nicaraguan friends, Gabriela, came over. she’s super nice and we get to practice our English/Spanish. she doesn’t speak much English but she’s starting to study 2 hours 4 days a week in an institute with our other friends Massiel and Evelyn. so we hung out for a while. she told me that she’s going to introduce me to her parents… so i did the same! i called my parents up on Skype, and set up my webcam and made the introductions and did the translating. hehe… so fun. this is a pic of me and Gaby.

in the evening Wendy and her housemate and our friend Megan hosted a boys vs. girls party at their house. a bunch of our friends got together and went for drinks and snacks and games - -and it was so fun! i invited Gabriela and we all had a blast. here’s a video from some of the games hehe…

hey, as promised here is some footage of the storm as seen from up in the air, during my flight to managua.

Ta-da!

Click here.

ok so i’m reposting another link to chris’ blog. he does podcasts/videos and they’re FUNNY. and this is what they did on Sunday night (i was sitting and working on my methodology for my research project. funnnn)

http://cjlewis.blogspot.com/2007/03/sunday-night-movies.html

and he gets comments! maybe if i start making videos then i will stirr you guys up.

or perhaps if i make some radical, thought provoking statements that you disagree with so much that you will with respond.

tell me what will inspire you?

for those of you that don’t know, i’m working on a research project. the main question i’m seeking to answer through the research is, “What elements of cross cultural orientation programs are most valued by first time and short-term cross-cultural missioners?” i am going to be sending out surveys to many of you (and thanks, by the way, for being willing to participate), to get some feedback on your cross-cultural experiences. soo, what happened?

something pretty awesome happened today though, in relation to another class. in that class we’re working on writing a proposal and going through all the steps of creating a program (logical framework, project planning, measurements, evaluation, etc.) in the field of community based disaster preparedness. the area we’re focusing on is near Manila, in the Philippines. matt had a contact there and he’ll be dialoguing with her to be working with real data/stats. so we were brainstorming on what information and where else we could draw from…

well i e-mailed Scott Bessenecker. he is the director of global projects with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and was at Urbana 2006. i first heard about him when i was going to Urbana and enrolled in the Slum Development Track. i picked up his book, “The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor”. (it’s on my to-do list for recreational reading… although as you can imagine with my work load here in grad school i haven’t quite gotten to dip much into that list.) anyways i just e-mailed him to ask about any information or contacts or suggestions that he might have to get information about models… and i got an answer tonight! so that was exciting for me. hopefully we’ll be able to dig up some more information from there.

well thanks for reading.
shannon