We seem to be getting quite well known in the town already, people come up to us on the street to ask if we're the Spanish/English girls, rather than "gringas", but today we really outdid ourselves and managed to entertain the whole town. On our way back from food shopping, rather than getting a taxi we decided to take a “caponera”, which is a kind of seat attached to the front of a bicycle. The only one available seemed very small and fragile, and was pedalled by a thin, weak-looking man who insisted that he could manage all 3 of us and our shopping - sin problema - all for the grand sum of 1$! The locals stare at us anyway, white alien beings, but the sight of 3 white girls squashed precariously onto a rickety seat while the man pedalled away behind over the bumpy streets really did stop traffic. People stopped and stared, gaping and pointing and then laughed hysterically, kids went running to tell their friends. If we do nothing else while we're here, at least we made the people smile and gave them something to remember!

Aside from the cong. we're in, we have also been asked to support a little group out in the countryside. The group has only 20 publishers with 3 pioneers but they have an exceptionally receptive territory which they have trouble covering, so we are planning to spend one day a week preaching with them. David and Esther Moore, the local C.O. And wife took us with them on their visit to the group last week to introduce us. There isn't really a village as such, it's more a scattered collection of houses, but it's in a beautiful area with lots of shady trees and pretty rivers, almost like preaching in paradise!

Just in case you thought it was all work and no play over here, today we went to the beach for the first time. We are about ¾ hour by bus away from the beach, so it's not too far really, but that is ¾ hour on a battered old school bus originally designed for 40 people but actually carrying about 100, plus various animals, sacks of grain and buckets of evil-smelling stuff. If you value your personal space, then you really won't enjoy a Nicaraguan bus, you get up very close and personal with all kinds of people/chickens or goats.
We'd been invited to spend the day with a family who have a house right on the beach – yes, it is a hard life. Unlike us crazy foreigners, Nicaraguans fear the sun and do their utmost not to get burnt, so swimming and sunbathing was not on the menu until after 4pm. Before then it was time for the most important activity of the day – lunch. The brother had caught a few fish and they cooked it over the fire. They then announced that the next course would be fish soup......The last time I had fish soup here, I was put off somewhat by the eyeballs floating in it......... and this one was no exception, but it wasn't just the eyes on their own staring back at me, but whole fish heads. YUM!

Queens of Leon (copyright to Phil Damaa!)

The first thing everyone said when they heard we'd been assigned to Leon, was -“ Alli hace mucho calor!”, “Its very hot there.” I don't think we really took them seriously at first, but they were right!Apparently it is the 2nd hottest part of the country. Temperature-wise it hasn't yet got any hotter than Spain during the summer, but unlike Spain, there is no escape from the heat. No nice air-conditioned cars, houses and restaurants, here you are exposed to the heat all day and all night, apart from about 5 o'clock in the morning when you just might want to pull a sheet over you in bed.

Leon is quite a nice town, in the old Spanish colonial style. It's most famous building is the Cathedral, but that was built here by mistake! We've been told that the plans were drawn up for a Cathedral in Argentina but a quick-thinking priest nicked the drawings and had it built here in Nicaragua instead. There are a few beautiful colonial houses with lovely courtyards and cooling fountains that I gaze at longingly when I call on them in the ministry, but the majority of the housing is much the same as the rest of the country; bare brick walls and tin roofs. The usual Nicaraguan system of directions is used, but based on the location of the many churches. If you ever want to go anywhere by taxi you first have to know which is the nearest church to your destination and then how many blocks from the church. Of course, just to mix things up a little, rather than using left or right, it is either North, South.... and no – I know you are thinking East and West, but that would be too simple, its North, South, Up or Down. Where we are staying at the moment is 1 block south of the San Felipe church and 2 blocks down. Because of my total lack of an inbuilt compass this does make life a bit difficult for me, but at least I get to explore parts of the town I wouldn't have otherwise seen! So far Melissa is the best at finding her way around, so I just stick with her!

We have been assigned to the North Congregation. We are the first foreigners they have ever had so they are really making us feel welcome – last night we had the famous gallo pinto (rice and beans) with the P.O. and his wife – and some of her homemade wine! There are a few other foreigners in the town, 2 or 3 missionary couples and also 5 Japanese sisters. We have struggled to learn their names, but they also struggle with ours, especially mine – I am known as Crowy now :)

Our first meeting for field service was hilarious. An elderly brother with an extremely strong local accent as well as some kind of lisp took the group, we only understood 1 word in 20, but he seemed to be happy as long as we smiled and nodded. He got very confused with our names and managed to get the name Melissa confused with something very different, which made Julia and I laugh! For any Spanish-speakers who read this, it was along the lines of maric..a. Very few actually turn up to the ministry arrangement, but somehow, magically, they know where the territory will be and so gradually throughout the morning brothers and sisters will turn up until there is quite a sizeable group of us.

Meetings are also great fun, in the same way as with ministry arrangements, at the start of the meeting about 25 people are in their seats, but by the end there will usually be the full complement of about 60 pubs plus studies. Our cong. is very enthusiastic in singing the songs, but so far they haven't yet managed to get the notes in the right order. We try our best to sing in tune as loudly as we possibly can, but we are outnumbered and overwhelmed! This usually means Julia and I getting inappropriate fits of giggles!

The ministry is of course wonderful. We have only been here a few days, but we have all managed to start a few studies. One lady I started a study with has depression, her husband died and she struggles to manage her shop without him. She told me that she frequently asks why all these bad things happen to her when she tries to worship God as best she can, but then she feels guilty for doubting God. This was the perfect opening for Chapter 11 of the Bible Teach book. It's not all that easy tho, I met an evangelical lady yesterday who insisted that the Bible described the righteous as being separated into groups and while some were ruling up in heaven, the rest remained on earth, then they would change places, so that all get a chance of being in heaven at one time or another. I tried to say that so far I had never seen this in the Bible and that just the thought of all that going up and down to heaven and back again made me feel dizzy, but she wasn't having any of it!

When we first arrived in Leon, the C.O arranged for us to stay with a local sister – Indira, until we found a place of our own. Indira is lovely and so hospitable and welcoming to us. She is in the sign- language congregation. However, she herself said that her house was basic. It doesn't really have windows, apart from a couple of holes in the wall, which together with the tin roof turn it into a very dark oven. Melissa is coping very well as there the electric light in her room only works intermittently, you have to kick the wooden wall to make the wires connect -thank goodness we brought torches! It was a bit difficult to start with but we are all used to it now, and it's really helped us to get to know the local brothers.

It is amazing how J. always provides exactly what you need. We had been searching all over town for places to let and we had seen some truly horrendous places that the owners would try to charge extortionate amounts for as soon as they saw we were foreigners. It's quite noticeable really, even with our recent tans we are still bright shining beacons of whiteness, we almost glow in the dark!
We'd started to almost give up hope when we suddenly found a nice house at a fairly reasonable rate, but the only snag was that it was very far away from our territory and totally unfurnished. As it was the best of a bad lot we were considering taking it, but then, the next day we found another beautiful house right in our territory and close to the K.H. It was semi-furnished but the owner was asking quite a high price for it. We decided to take a chance and ask her to lower the price by 50$ and to throw in a fridge and a cooker. Amazingly she agreed!!!! It can only have been Jehovah helping us. The roof is currently being repaired, so that it will hopefully withstand the rainy season, but we will be in by next week, to live in a house that does have windows and not 1 but 2 flushing toilets!!!!