Back to Reality? Not so fast!

So, I guess getting settled in here means keeping ourselves busy beyond blogs and that sort of stuff. I figured we’re long overdue for this update. 

While we everyone in the US is getting used to the routines of school and the smell of autumn in the air, the baseball pennant race is heating up and football is getting started. I’ve been surprisingly connected in to both sports since leaving. Considering I’ve watched approximately five Bills games on network TV since moving to Maryland, imagine my surprise when the CBS affiliate we get here in Managua (Miami’s WSEE) was showing the Bills/Jets game. After watching, I kind of wish they hadn’t. But, hey, I’m a Bills fan – I’m used to those sorts of beatings. And it always helps when the Yankees crush a team that’s battling them for first place in the division, like they did today.

Meanwhile, the weather here is still hot and humid with rain almost every night. School has been in session for over a month, and American football is an afterthought at best. Earthquakes and volcano eruptions have been the talk of the past week. Even as the US mourns one of its darkest days this week, Nicaragua is preparing to celebrate its Independence as a nation.

Huembes Market

Despite these differences, it’s easy to feel strangely connected to home through experiences like watching sports and posting on Facebook, even though we are thousands of miles away and living in a completely different culture. That contrast was really apparent on days like today. Since we’re two hours behind the US East coast, the Bills game finished around 2PM. I sat on the couch watching the game and, for a time, seemed to forget where I was. But within an hour after the game, Erinn, Nate, Wendy, Caeli, and I hit the Huembes market in Managua to find traditional clothes for the kids for Nicaragua Christian Academy’s Independence Day celebration. The market is a mixed collection of shops and vendors; selling everything from tourist friendly t-shirts to hand-made crafts to food items like meats and baked goods.  Back in the US, the only shopping I could remember doing on a Sunday after the football game would have been at Target or Safeway.

Target

 So the illusion of where am I? seems to hit every once in a while until reality sets in. The first time I can remember experiencing this was when we went to go see The Dark Knight Rises at the Cine Galerias a few weeks ago.  Everything about going to the movies feels American, even here – the tickets, the popcorn, the mall setting…but once inside, the movie is in English (with Spanish subtitles), the air conditioning is set to “arctic”, and in the dark, watching Bane and Batman duke it out, I forget. And then I snap back to the reality that I won’t be walking out of the Regal Theater in Abingdon and taking Rt. 24, Wheel Rd. and Rt. 543 back to my townhouse for the evening. I’ll be crossing the brick and stone paved streets of Managua, through commercial districts and barrios. And that’s more than okay!

Erinn and I have grown to love it here. While Sammy is going through school and adjustments of his own, we are starting to find places to fit in and serve. Erinn recently started to teach AP Calculus at NCA each morning. Julia is playing on NCA’s volleyball team. Nate is playing drums on the worship team at church. Julia, Nate, and I go to a Bible study and feeding program in Granada at least once every other week, to serve people and with people that we met on a short-term trip a couple of years ago. We’ve also been going to a kids program and feeding center on Friday mornings near the dump in Managua. The longer we are here, the more we are finding ways that God wants to use us and situations that God wants to use to help mold us.

Nate's Jammin'

As we continue this chapter of our lives we realize it's not going to be easy. Freelance work is not coming as often as we had hoped, so finances are always tentative. Sam has had some bouts of homesickness that occasionally cause him to ignore the fun he's having with the new friends he has and the fun adventures he experiences daily. But we have faith that we are where God wants us. We are experiencing a life right now that is fun, tough, odd, risky, joyful, unorthodox, and fulfilling. What it definitely is not is boring. And aren't all of those things how following God's commands should feel?

So, even though we go through momentary lapses where we don’t remember where we are, it doesn’t mean that we would rather be anywhere else.