El Ultimo...... until next time.

Well I have not been on the blog very much these past couple of months or since Beau left but now that the time has come for me to return to the 'homeland' I find myself sitting through around 50 hours of travel time, board out of my brains. Time to write has been scarce  between English meetings and Field service Spanish meetings and field service and preparation for them there has barely been time to create intricate puzzles for the Japanese to render 'for three and under' let alone write a concise and 'interesante' blog. So I think now is a good time to do that -the blog not the Japanese puzzle.

Ojo De Agua - Congregación de Español

Territory in Ojo

I first started going to these meetings with the hope of exploring the culture here more and improving in my Spanish.  Not only did I discover this but much much more, it turned out like one of those infomercials, where if you invest in a steam mop you will get free steak knives and if you pay by credit card you will get not one but 2 steam mops! I'm not sure how the credit card bit would apply but the benefits were amazing. The brothers and sisters were like steak knives....-hear me out ok - they were a blessing I was not expecting, very encouraging welcoming and hospitable even with me speaking Spanish like a 2 year old Nicaraüense parrot. It is a beautiful congregation with heaps of potential. 

CO visit

Territory

There territory is vast and the people are ready and willing to hear the good news, even young children are excited to look at the pictures and take time to appreciate Jehovah. Despite the poverty they are hospitable and kind. I was given the  privilege of doing the bible highlights one week there and even though my Spanish is terrible and I could barely understand some of the comments, afterwards they were all very encouraging.

Omotepe, Matigalpa, Jinogega

Well for a while, along with Beau we had my good friend Jayde here with us, a brother also from Qld Australia. Although he was sick a fair bit I think he still enjoyed it here. In any case we planned a trip the weekend before he left to Omotepe. This is an island in the middle of the biggest lake in Nicaragua, made up of 2 large volcanoes. So Ed, Beau and I headed of there, sadly without Jayde the master of sickness.

It was an interesting trip with some interesting characters along the way, ill let the photos and videos do the talking for this one though.

The little blue dodgy thing was our ride there..

Ed soaking up the overcast day

Rented bikes on the Island

Trucks on the ferry

A boat (in case you were wondering)

Por que sos tan triste!

Being in English

Normal day in FS

The English congregation has been amazing so good and willing brothers and they have all been really good to me. Not just in witnessing and meeting, but in recreational activities as well. Some great people and great friends forever.

Mi carta favorito, from my party:P

Where to next Jefe?

  

 The English District Convention in El Salvador.

Exercising patience..... 

Wow! This one we were waiting for, for months. As the time crept closer everyone's keenness increased, as did mine. We had a 10 hr bus ride from Chinandega all the way up through Honduras and into San Salvador, El Salvador. The entire English congregation hired a bus along with an English cong from San Juan Del Sur.

The planned departure time 5am - the reality 11am. The bus company had it booked 1 day later than the brothers organized, but after much hard work from the brothers we were still able to leave that morning. On getting to the border of Honduras we all got out and I notice a brother, Josh, having some difficulties with the border officials. 'Poor fella ay hope everything is ok'. Turned out his visa had expired and they gave him 5 days to leave the countries in the CA4 (these bordering countries have an arrangement where locals can go between only with their ID, however for foreigners it means that you cannot renew hour visa at these borders, it like you leave a country without leaving the country) anyway I digress. So i'm thinking i'm fine, nek minut... life fail i'm in the same boat. My visa expires on the Saturday of the convention and after both Josh and I go to the immigration office on the Thursday after a full day of option exploring and thinking like crazy scientists we discover that the only thing we both can do is fly out of El Salvador straight to the States, which turned out to be Miami.

Sight seeing in El Salvador

This put a little dampener on thing as we both missed the Sunday of the convention. But after the first day of quality talks and moving interviews I was glad to be there for the two days, it was defiantly worth it. 

Ed and my Part at the DC

Los Chavalos

Miami

So Josh and initially expected to leave Sunday and fly back to Nicaragua on Tuesday. So we stayed with a brother and sister that are in a sign language congregation. They were amazingly hospitable and kind. That day we went out with another brother to have some pizza and play some pool, after-which he gave us a car to use!! So driving in Miami was epic and we went to the beach saw some sites ate some food, acted like proper job tourists. Tuesday we headed to the airport where it started to get interesting again.... We arrived the lady says 'there aint no flight to Nicaragua today' we were like

'hold the phone! Wat did u just say' - acting all like we knew what we was doin 'no no no no, look here at the itinerary....'

Josh feeling like a Boss

She says 'look holdon it says there thats for the 17' two weeks away.....

EPIC FAIL. But they were really helpful and cut allot of what we should have paid, so we flew the following Thursday. So two more days in Miami, so we got to go out witnessing and get to an epic sized mall. After that we got back to Nica fine. Then was the rush to pack for my flight home 4 days later.

Miami South Beach

Amazing couple that looked after us in Miami

Nos Vemos Nica

My Shoe Shining Man

So this is where i'm at at about to land shortly in LA, i'm starving! American Airlines wont let you pay cash and I had no time in Miami to eat. Another story behind that, after being reasonably late for the flight due to various things I get to the airport check-in at Managua. Look around, nobody in sight that has anything to do with AA. So i'm like hmmm, oh random dude 'disculpe señor, hay aguin aqui para American Airline' and then he is like 'what flight' and im like 'to miami at 7:30' and he is like 'its gone'.

Neighbors I used to Play Soccer with in the street

After that there was a blury 5 min spanglish conversation I had with an actual AA employee telling me there was no way i could get on the flight. However 40min later was the soloution, they changed my flights and I got a flight 4 hours later. So i get on my first flight of the day, nek minut lightening strikes and we hear deafening thunder. It seem as if the left wing got struck before we even left the runway ( I suppose thats better than being stuck in the air) in any-case we got delayed another hour. So now we are landing and i'm thinking what else can go wrong. We shall see,we shall see..... but nothing did it all went smoothly and i'm now back in Auz readjusting and getting back into it again. Overall an excellent life changing experience, that despite the many mishaps I will never regret.

Jorge - A study and his Family