Taking advantage of a free fast Internet connection to load

some new pictures (hope they're all new) since my last blog,

which has been was a while back.

Just want to get pictures downloaded with a fast connection, writing to follow.

The Half Way Mark

A local orchid blooming at a Santo Domingo Beach hotel.

So I have been in Nicaragua for the last six months of my life.  Well most of that time I have spent in Nicaragua but I have made one trip back home, a trip to Costa Rica during the New Year and I am writing now once again from Costa Rica.  Nicaragua is so hot that I had to take a break from the heat.  So I am writing from an Internet cafe in Heredia--which is a few thousand feet above sea level so it is nice and cool.  I think the heat has been the single most difficult challenge for me during my time in Nicaragua.  Looking back I can say I am happy with the results of my work.  I do not mean to attempt to take the credit for what we have been able to accomplish.  When I say ´my work´ I don´t mean single-handedly growing all the produce we have been and continue to harvest.  My work is to organize, plan and coordinate everyone, including myself, to cause the orphanage´s land to produce to it´s maximum capacity in a sustainable manner.

From L to R: Jefferson, Sucre, Me, Jimmy, Darel seated

So now what´s on tap for the next six months? That´s what I´m going to try to figure out during my break up here in the cool highlands of Costa Rica.  I need everyone´s prayers for God´s, not my, desire to be fulfilled.  I do know that I need to focus even more on teaching the kids to become more skilled in being able to take care of the farm-garden independently.  My going away for a break does just that.  I can teach them how to plant seeds and grow the plants to harvest, but I can´t teach them to want to do this on their own.  For this to happen the best I can do is teach them the importance of being able to grow food for themselves so that they will be able to eat better and hopefully grasp that the less money spent on food can go to other items that they don´t see very much of, like milk or more shoes.  A group of three from YWAM Youth With A Mission missions organization just spent a month with us.  They helped us tremendously in the garden.  One evening I felt a strong impression from the Lord to start praying in the morning before we start our work for the day.  The next morning the two women from YWAM asked if we could pray before starting work.  I told them that we are on the same wavelength.  That was what I was about to tell them we were going to do.  The YWAMers also helped me to paint some verses on pieces of wood to place around the garden.  The verses refer to character, ethics, work ethic, God´s words on His creation referring to gardens and plants, and God´s love for all of us, including the kids of CICRIN.  So when I get back I will start focusing on just spending time talking with the kids about what we´re doing, not so much how anymore.  I think they have that down.  The remainder of this year will be spent challenging them to take ownership of the garden and to understand that it is theirs to take care of.  So I guess it means I need to teach them management and cooperative working skills.  SO PLEASE KEEP ME AND THEM IN PRAYER.  WE CAN´T DO IT WITHOUT THE FATHER´S HAND UPON US ALL.  Enough for now.  Please enjoy the pictures I´ve just put up.  Explanations of pictures to come later.

 
 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DUE

I serve a Great God, a Good Father, a Great Provider.  Of course my biggest concern coming into missions was $$$.  Will I have enough?  I knew God will provide, but will He for me?  That was the truest test in my mind whether it was His will for me to go/come.  So here I am for five months and He has provided everyday.  All my physical/material needs are more than adequately met.  God has provided me with ministry partners whose generosity enables me to be in a beautiful place where I am getting to know some amazing kids (and adults too), and I periodically get to meet and work with beautiful members of the family of God who are always a big blessing to me spiritually, socially, and ministerially as they offer their labor in the garden.  My work would be much more taxing on me if I didn't get teams to help carry out pending projects that require significant amounts of manual labor.
So I want to thank all the teams who have come from Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., Texas, Kentucky, New York, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio,and California.
I thank YWAM for Laura from England, Nelta from Haiti/North Carolina, and Adam from Alabama.

I also want to thank my generous sponsors who God has literally brought out of the woodwork and have become major sponsors, one of whom I have yet to meet. I also want to mention some new sponsors that have responded in a big way to help send the kids to a retreat at the end of this month.
Thank you John Wells of Massachusetts
Brian Stuart of Corona
Jerry and Juanita Allen
Gloria Lopez
Tommy and Erin Arzate
Rehel and Valentine Hinojosa
Laura and Alex Guillen
Mary Lou Ruiz
Roy and Sylvia Castro
Armando and Frances Arzate
Reynaldo and Silvia Garcia
Ivette Garcia
Marcelo and Nilsa Juarez
Danny and Marty Carillo
Michael and Leticia Ruiz
Gustavo Gonzalez and Consuelo Anaya
Jose and Mary Martinez and Family
Eric and Adriana Adams
Jeff and Pilar Olave
Alex and Veronica Cornejo Castro
Kitty Fortner
Mac and Eileen Galvan
Templo Calvario
this list will have to be added to, it's late and I need to get some sleep so that I get a good start to a new day.

What a difference a day makes.

What kind of day will you have?  It is up to you, at least if you are an independent adult, what kind of day, what kind of life you will have.  I just reread my last post and was at first a bit embarrassed.  I sounded so negative.  What can I say?  I was having a real tough weekend.  Can't believe how many grammatical errors I made.  You know I had to be off (Mari, I know you were worried. Please pray that it doesn't happen again.)  Anyway, no more rash, just a little but it is mostly gone.  Turns out the banana-flavored Ketotefine, or whatever it's called, must have helped.  I went on-line to see what it is and found out it is used for child asthmatics, but apparently it works great on skin allergies too. I just want to publicly thank God and pharmaceutical companies for good medicines and itch-free skin.
So back to your day.  How is it? How will it go?  Tonight was Family Night at CICRIN.  Hellen, the director is in Costa Rica taking care of personal business so I led the Bible study.  We read from James 4:13-17.  The point of the passage is to not to carelessly plan your life out when you don't even know if you will live to see next week.  We are supposed to seek God's will to be done in our lives as we think about the future.  So I asked the kids, "What would you do if you knew tomorrow was your last day to live?"  Again, for the most part we decide what kind of life we're going to live, what kind of day we're going to have.  Most of the kids said, 'Arrepentirse--repent'.  I was disappointingly surprised.  Why repent when you're already saved, or supposedly saved?  Others answered generally about making amends, visiting family, taking care of business, behaving so God would let them into Heaven (Heaven should be capitalized!)  Again, I was worried about their thinking.  Some made some real thoughtful statements about just enjoying the day because their lives should already be in order and they should not spend their last day scrambling to make it into Heaven.  Doña Dalila said we should live our lives being prepared for our last day of life.  She said we should take advantage of our time to use it wisely to enjoy every aspect of life.  But of course, she emphasized putting God first to do things right.  To the one who said she wanted to live right and be right by others but always couldn't because her good intentions weren't reciprocated I suggested that her behavior and conduct should not be controlled how others behave.  To the one who said he would behave I recommended he spend his last day finding out the truth about how to get into Heaven.  To the one who wanted to make sure she repented because if she had any unrepentant sin remaining at the deadline she would go to hell I explained God was not a callous judge clenching his palms just waiting for the chance to reject unaware Christians that had unknowingly failed His perfect performance evaluation.
In closing I told all of them that if they had all these issues that are apparently pending in their lives, why wait until they think they're going to die to settle them?  Why not do these things tonight, tomorrow?  I explained that they are not truly living a free life if there are people they need to talk to, people they need to apologize to, people they need to forgive.  I explained that until they do they are not living a full life.  To begin the lesson I told them that we are a group of young people, although I definitely an outlier I am still young.  They have their whole lives ahead of them.  Yet, according to the Word all our lives are but brief vapors, like a blade of grass, a flower who is here today and tomorrow leaves no mark of it's previous existence.  So the point is God wants us to make the most of our lives in Him!  And we can't have a great life in relation with Him if we live our lives bound in guilt, bound by pride, unable to humble ourselves and make right with those whom we have offended or hurt, or to confront someone for that matter who has done us wrong, but with the sincerest intention of forgiving and releasing so that both they and the other(s) can be free to walk with God (and live with themselves).  That's true love.  That kind of love is possible with God.  He is Love and He fills us with that love if we ask.  He promises us that whatever we ask, according to His will, He will freely give it.  I know that this is His will.  We cannot walk with Him with any degree of depth if we are filled with hate, anger, bitterness, hardness of heart, sin, selfishness, this list can go on for too long.  Why not just throw all that junk away and instead just make room for love, all the rest of the goodies will be added with just this first ingredient--indeed they are all part of this one ingredient.  So I need to take my own advice and really be careful about what kind of day I am going to have tomorrow.  I will not be negative, impatient, judgmental, cynical, too careful.  I will be more loving, more understanding, more empathetic, more concerned, more patient, more HUMBLE.  Life is amazing, I hope we all live it to the fullest extent that God intended.
EVERY DAY.

I SEE THE LIGHT, DO YOU?

These are the days you know you can't escape.  Being on the mission field is not supposed to be easy by any accounts.  It all started last Saturday.  I have slowly been redeveloping the heat rash I had gotten at the beginning of my stay here in Nicaragua.  Now it's back again.  This time mostly on my legs, particularly around my knees.  There is just no convenient place to get a rash.  As I write this piece my ankles will not stop itching.  It seems like there is hardly anything there but the more I scratch the more it itches.  Hydro-cortisone cream is a joke.  It has never worked for me.  I just stared at the doctor today as she prescribed it for me.  I reminded myself I could not lose my testimony over a tube of cream.  I waited for two hours in the sweltering heat of the waiting room as I watched the intense sunlight of the Nicaraguan sun pouring through the door.  The view of the coconut palm outside in the distance did not provide any sense of being in a tropical paradise.  Two hours later I had prescriptions for hydro-cortisone cream 1%, prednisone 50 mg,  and some banana flavored syrup called ketotifeno.  I already was self-medicating with the first two.   I hope the syrup makes me sleepy like she said.  In fact I know it will.  I tried it when I got home and I crashed in a hammock after dinner.  I hope I can make it last until this rash is gone.  Why didn't she just give me the cortisone I.V. like the last doctor did that I told her about the last time I was there.
Well, to go on with the rest of why these are The Days Like These Would Come.  So back to Saturday, it all started out like normal.  A slightly warm morning that I know will grow into a hot and sunny day.  I, Jimmy, Darel and the YWAM team took the ferry to Rivas to buy paint for art projects around the grounds.  The ferry was packed as if it was evacuating the island.  I looked back at the volcano to be sure we hadn't missed a warning siren.  Nope, no smoke or ash.  So we're out in the lake and I look outside and I see a swarm of gnats hovering over one of the trucks in back. I thought it was an isolated incident.  Later I found out that the annual swarm is on.  By the time we get back to CICRIN there are gnats everywhere.  My room is filled with hundreds of dead gnats and they smell like dead fish.  I mopped and cleaned and it still has a slightly fishy smell.  So my room besides always being hot now smells like a can of cat food.  Back to Rivas.  I don't understand how or why the Spaniards chose to found Rivas where they did.  I guess I would say that about most of the cities here.   What could they do.  It's hot everywhere.  I would have just made it one block wide and clinging to the entire lake shore.  Well, a trip to Rivas is the same as working in the fields all day.  By the time you get back to the island with all your purchases you are dripping with sweat, thirsty, exhausted, deranged, and wanting a shower.  To add to this all the sweating exacerbated my rash and now it's moved to the next level.  I don't want to wear clothes; not an option.  I hardly slept that night.  The electricity keeps going out so the fan stops.   I can't be in my room without a fan so I walk outside in the middle of the night several times.  Needless to say I had little sleep.  In the morning I could not eat breakfast from the heat and lack of sleep.  I changed pants twice to find the coolest ones and for the first time I didn't wear shoes.  I don't care if they judge me or I cause someone to stumble, I wasn't about to put shoes on too.  I wore chanclas.  Probably the first brown-skinned man to do so in that church. I guess it didn't phase anyone.  I also slept through part of the sermon.  I couldn't fight the heat and lack  of sleep.  Back to the orphanage; back to the sayules (gnats) and the heat.  This had to be the hottest evening of the year.  I helped Hellen set up a Pay Pal account in here air-conditioned office.  I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my time in Nicaragua in that office.  I forgot to mention that there were hundreds of sayules in the office.  They were on the computer screen, covering the desk (I kept blowing them off onto the floor) and continually pouring in through the a/c vent--seeking the light too.  There is so much spiritual parallelism going on here that I fail to mention.  The sayules are seeking the light.  They are a pestilence and they swarm in with you whenever you open a door-or a window.  Earlier in the day while I was pacing the rancho trying to find the coolest place with the least amount of sayules I kept thinking, but this is God's creation in action.  These little gnats are glorifying God in a way that I am unable to appreciate.  I see that they demonstrate is power to mass produce life.  They drop dead by the hundreds every minute that they're on the move.  Such an insignificant creature.  Such a successful creature.  God is so good.  I'm told that when the sayules come they stay for a while, a temporada, at least until it rains.  That night it poured.  He does answer my prayers.  I have been praying for the early rains.  You don't know what it meant to me to not have to irrigate that day.  It's not as easy as just turning on the faucet.  We didn't work very long today.  Until this rash goes away I have to try to sweat as little as possible--I know, what a joke.  Still, with the itching and the sweating, and the renewed appearance by the white fly once again attacking our garden I have to say I am greatly blessed.  If my biggest complaint is I itch, I have no problems.  Even though I was seriously contemplating making this a five months on-five months off missionary life just yesterday.  The best part, the sayules are gone.  No gnats in my teeth, covering my white tank top, in my coffee, in my eyes.  I don't know if they will come back, but I don't think so.  I just stepped outside to give Magdaleno, the night watchman a cup of coffee, and the night sky repeatedly lights up from a distant storm.  It is quickly moving towards us.  I hope it pours again tonight.  Insurance that the sayul swarm is over for this year.  I'm told that they are followed by swarms of leaf-cutter ants, the ones you see creating trails of green in the rain forest documentaries, and finally by thousands of frogs once the rains are regular.  Bring them on.  I already know I have the privilege of praising God for being able to witness some of His spectacles of nature, even if they resemble the plagues of Egypt. 
Last night before it rained, I stood outside the first time the electricity went out.  For the first time this year I saw the fireflies signaling each other above the tallest trees.  Again, God shows His symbolic glory through His 'insignificant' creatures.  Their flickering now reminds me that His light will always shine through the darkness.  Their appearance immediately before the first rain storm of the season seems to remind us that His light comes before the storm.  I didn't know it was going to rain last night.  It's a good thing to take notice of His light before the storms hit.

God's creation is so full of amazing blessings to enjoy!

After an initial failure with our red beans, which were decimated by the dreaded white fly,CICRIN is enjoying a bumper crop of delicious produce in our year-round summer garden.  Take a look:

Site of first planting beds with inter-crops of beets/carrots and cilantro/garlic under shade cloth followed  by tomatoes and cabbage, ending with a row of cucumbers.

 

Ayote squash come in different shapes and sizes.

 

Cristian and I smile for the camera while watering and harvesting Pipián squash.

 

CICRIN's first sunflowers and zinnia bed

 

From left to right: Ayote, Pipián, cucumbers, cashew fruit, radishes, beets, yard long beans, and more ayote underneath.

 

I used the ayote to make a delicious ayote bread using Paula Deen's zucchini bread recipe.  I have also learned to make a good thirst-quenching drink using limes and cucumbers.  The boys twist off the seeds at the end of the red and yellow cashew fruits and roast them over fire to eat the cashew inside. We also make a drink from the fresh fruit.  Because it is related to mangoes(and poison oak it does make your throat a little scratchy.  I also made my squash and corn casserole and they all loved it.  They want me to make it again.

It is a great blessing to be able to grow all of the beautiful AND delicious fruits and vegetables God created.  Every time we sit down to eat we should be filled with wonder at the miracle of His glorious creation.

A 6-shower day

It's just as they told me when I got here in November.  Semana Santa is the hottest time of the year.  Yesterday I took four official showers in my room and one with the hose when I was watering seedlings and one at the lavandero when I was washing my clothes.  It's a strange heat.  It's not as hot as it gets in California, but it is an all-consuming heat that seems to cause everything to be the same temperature.  There are no 'cool' spots.  The rancho is the most comfortable place to be because it always seems to have a breeze flowing through it.  But when the wind stops I realize that the heat is always there.  It's not a heat that hits you in the face when you step outside.  It's a slow, building warmth that starts from the inside out.  This land never really experiences cold weather so the soil really never cools off.  Consequently, it acts like a brick in a warm oven that slowly releases the day's heat of the sun in a cycle that has probably gone on since the last ice age.
A couple of nights ago the unthinkable happened.  The electricity went out.  My fan stopped.  Again, the air wasn't hot, or even warm.  But slowly, surely I began to warm.  The collected heat of thousands of years of warm days, one after another, began to build and permeate every object, including me.  Soon my body was covered in a thin layer of sweat.  I left my door unopened to hopefully alleviate the stuffiness, the phantom heat. It helped a little, but I got very little sleep that night. Next time I'm going to hang in a hammock in the rancho--hopefully that night will never come.

PRICELESS VS PRICEY MINISTRY

"I wonder if Hellen would prefer to just have the money rather than have the groups spend the money it takes to come here?"  That's what one of the parent leaders of a group from a high school said to me last night while we were eating ice cream in Moyogalpa.  It cost their group $26,000 to bring 30 kids and chaperons to Nicaragua for a missions trip.  It was a valid question seeing how much work it takes to host a group visiting the orphanage from the United States.  We have had three or four groups here at the same time for the last week.  That means the cooks have been working from before sunrise to well after sundown to make meals for over 90 people a day.  And everyone needs to or wants to talk to Hellen throughout the day.  Keeping over 60 guests working, fed, housed involves countless activities to coordinate, endless water bottles to replace, work details to arrange, bathrooms to keep clean and supplied, and parties to plan.  Needless to say Hellen has had very little rest.  In spite of all this I told him 'no'.  Their presence here provides blessings which cannot be measured in terms of monetary value.  It will never be extinguished, will never suffer inflation, will not reduce in value over time.  The Bible tells us to care for orphans, widows, the poor.  It doesn't say to send money to reduce the overhead costs of ministry.  There are no overhead costs.  All aspects of doing ministry are spiritually valued.  In God's economy our fellowship with Him and each other is what counts.   The desire in their hearts to come to serve orphans is what matters most to God.  He provides the means to get that to happen.  $26,000 can be used to buy a lot of necessary things but it can't minister to these children or to us the way a single person.  God values brotherly love; money means nothing to Him.  He can get all He wants.

Pictures of My Time on Ometepe Island

                                           

 

Unique beauty of the island

  Growing carrots and beets under 

shade to keep the soil as cool as possible

 
pelibuey sheep donated by the American Nicaraguan Foundation


     Beach at Finca Santo Domingo Hotel

  
      Hermanos Keila and Cristian at Playa Taguizapa

  
Saira, Scarleth, Isamar, Luisa, Cristian, Danilo and Hilden
playing gin Nicaraguan style


Hellen leading Wednesday Night's Family Night
                                                                               
 Danilo doiong a fine job of transplanting onions.

                                                      









Félix mulching the beds.


 Darel mulches too, we all mulch, do you?

                         CICRIN'S new wellbeing dug, thanks to the American Nicaraguan Foundation

                        the kids take a picture with the pump about to be placed at the bottom of the well

  
Don Hilario catches an alligator/caiman? in our net.


Big Boss Jefferson helps with the planting.

See I mulch too!

Charco Verde

Darel wanted a picture with me.CICRIN gets ready to start the volcanic eruption evacuation drill, Islanders making their way to the ferry.you can tell we ran for our lives.from left to right, Maren holding Duñia, Lia, Rebecca, me, Beth and Aleida.  a hard-working group from a Lutheran church in DC.  Some groups you wish could stay longer.  Thanks Lia for the Starbuck's Via.

Time is a Strange Thing---El Tiempo Es algo Extraño

Ever since I quit my job to come down to Nicaragua I have felt like I'm living on borrowed time.  I wish it weren't true but my biggest worry is whether or not I will receive the support I need to be able to sustain this work over a period of time.  I look at money in terms of how much time it buys me to be able to be here at the orphanage.  I know from past experience that God has always provided for me in ways unexpected above and beyond my plans and expectations.  So I know that I can trust in Him to continue to do so.  But in my mind, thinking in the natural, I look at how much I have in my missions account and I calculate how long it will last and pray that my supporters will honor their pledges.  So these three short months sometimes felt like an eternity while I was in Nicaragua.  I didn't realize how much I would miss family, friends, home.  And of course I spent much less towards the end than I did in the beginning.  Of course mostly because I bought most of what I needed in the beginning and now I don't need to spend as much--until it's time to plant more trees and expand our growing area.  But now that I'm back in So Cal for a two-week visit I feel like I never left.  Time is a strange thing.  It seems like I have gone through a time machine and time stood still here while I was away from home.  In a way it has.  I have no memories of this place as of November 15, 2009--the day I left.  The lesson I learn from this is to make the best use of the time wherever we are.
Ephesian 5: 15, 16 say 'Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil'.
I am glad I am able to say thank God that He has given me a work to do that is keeping me busy.  I have been focused on planting a bunch of vegetables and that has been done.  I have also gotten to get to know most of the kids on a personal, one-on-one level, beyond what I would have expected at this point.  And I know He has given me influence with them that they will listen to what I have to say about things such as how to treat one another.  It has not been easy, like Paul said, '...the days are evil.'  They sure are.  Discouragement, boredom, loneliness, discourtesy, misunderstanding can ruin a day if you allow them.  But God has an answer to all of them: persistence, perseverance, patience, prayer, la Palabra.  I know God thinks bigger than me so I know that He has more for me to do there than teach kids to grow vegetables.  I don't know what it is yet but I sense it will come about in that amazing way that He always does things.  Thanks for taking the time to hear what I have to say and please keep these things in prayer and I will be praying for you that you will make the most of your time.

I always dreamed of doing this as a boy.
Jimmy's the real expert though.

GREETINGS FROM MANAGUA AIRPORT

Wow, I forgot what a fast Internet connection was like.  Free wifi Internet access at Augusto Sandino International Airport, Managua.  Very nice airport for a poor country.  I'm taking advantage of this fast connection to put up this post.  Again.  It's been a long, long time.  It's so frustrating to use the Internet at the orphanage that I don't even try to post a blog after I keep getting cut off.  Well to let you all know, I'm on my way home for a short two-week visit.  I've been counting down the days until now.  Not only to come home, but also to get everything in the ground.  We've (me and all the kids) have really been hustling.  We've planted zucchini, ayote squash, pipian squash, beets, carrots, cabbage, three kinds of tomatoes, two types of cucumbers, three types of onions, two types of radishes, two types of beans, okra--new to them, garlic everywhere, and flowers everywhere.  I wanted it all under way before my departure.  I want this time at home to drag by slowly but I am excited to see what the garden will look like when I get back.
Now I'm looking forward to feeling some cold air and cold rain.  Right now Nicaragua looks like California in the middle of a hot summer: dry and dusty.  Three more months until the rains come again.  But one good thing is the wind.  Cool winds blow in from the North and make things much more bearable.  Still, we're about 11 degrees from the equator and the sun is mercilessly strong from 11 to 4.  I will water in the morning and by 4 it looks like it's never been watered.  But we have started to use water from our new well, thanks to the American Nicaraguan Foundation, and we're flooding the trenches and now they stay moist for a couple of days.  I'm learning how to adapt to the conditions here.  Narrow and deep trenches, which shade the bottom of the trench, are the key.  Last Wednesday I got to lead our weekly 'Family Night' since the director is in Costa Rica.  It was quite different from what I'm used to at home, but we made it through.  I hope they got something out of the devotional and the game we played about acknowledging each others good qualities. 

Well, I better get to my gate.  Now that I will be at home with a fast connection I will be posting a lot of pictures of what I/we have been doing.  Please check back soon!

THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

The last thing we want to share with anyone is our defeats, but I would be painting a false picture if I only sent home 'feel good' stories about my time here.  So I have to tell you guys that my first planting of red beans has ended in failure.  Soon after they sprouted they were swarmed by white fly--one of the worst crop pests in the world.  I didn't want to spray insecticide hoping they would move on but they didn't, until they left it in ruins.  I finally had relented and had them fumigated but it was too little too late.  I had primarily planted them so I could turn the plants into the ground to improve the soil.  Still I was hoping to be able to harvest some beans before I did that.  Now I will have to incorporate them into the soil while I still have something to work with.  Right next to them I planted a few yardlong beans and those vines are as healthy as can be.  For some reason the white flies didn't like them.  I will plant more of those in the future.  But will the kids like them?  This is the essence of agriculture, experimenting to find out what works on your farm.  However, I didn't come down here to run experiments.  I know there are tried and true vegetables that will succeed and we have all those planted now: local squash varieties-ayote, pipian; local sweet pepper-chiltoma; corn; yuca.  I also saw the entire crop of tomatoes planted by staff before I arrived get destroyed by the white fly while they had little effect on the chiltoma, which are still producing.   So I still expect to succeed. We now have planted in 19 beds onions, beets, cabbage, radish, carrots, cilantro, yuca, cucumber, garlic, lettuce, ayote, pipian, zucchini and flowers.  I also have tomato seedlings ready to be transplanted. I'm leery about the beets and lettuce though with this hot sun but we're giving them a try.  If they don't do well we will just try again in the cooler rainy season.  I've also thought of growing large quantities of crops that I'm told don't get bothered much by insects, such as yuca and taro root.  We could then sell most of it and buy the cooler growing crops that don't do as well here.
That was the bad news.  The good news is I found an organic pesticide made up of the seeds of the neem tree.  Insects ingest the liquid and their hormones get skewered.  They lose their appetite for food, as well their ability to reproduce.  I pray this will do the trick.
This early loss has shown me that this will not be a walk in the park.  I will be on the lookout for potential dangers and act before it is too late.

The first beds are starting to take shape.

Happy New Year!!

I see it's been a long time since I posted my last update.  Christmas and New Year have come and gone and now it's time to get more work done.  As far as what's growing so far we still only have the beans we planted in the first beds.  They are filling in the beds so it's nice to see some progress.  We had an invasion of white fly so we had to spray a pesticide in order to not lose the whole crop.  On Christmas Eve, Don Hilario and I planted yuca in three beds.  It was probably the hottest day since I've been here--not what I wanted for Christmas.  Right after that I called it a day and got ready for our Christmas dinner.  I wanted something sweet of course so I went on line and found Mimi's Cafe carrot-raisin bread recipe.  No molasses so I used pancake syrup.  Not bad.  We ate beef rolled with a chicken vegetable filling with cheese, mashed potatoes, diced carrots and chayote with lots of Numar (Central American fake butter), purple cabbage/apple salad.  It was good but I really missed tamales and turkey.  After dinner we all received our presents in front of the Christmas tree.  I bought the two youngest boys remote control cars and they had a blast racing them.  Then they found out that they can control each others cars.  I wonder how many fights they've had since I left.  Early the next morning I was on my way to Costa Rica.  All the kids leave the orphanage for New Years so I went to stay with my friends.
 I've been in Costa Rica since Christmas day and I'm still trying to get back to the island.  I arrived back in Nicaragua on January 11 but because of the high winds no ferries are crossing the lake to the island.  Meanwhile I'm staying at the home of a missionary couple from South Carolina.  Mike and Joan Vilasi have been in Nicaragua for almost seven years.  They were the first people I met in Nicaragua when I first came four years ago.  I bought over 30 flower and vegetable seed packets from Costa Rica because so few choices are available in Nicaragua.  I also brought over homegrown seeds of squash, frijol de arbol (gandules) and a tuber called papa Chiricano (Chiriqui is a province of Panama), naranjilla  (lulo), and red ginger plants--all hidden in my backpacks.  I prayed that they wouldn't be taken from me by Nicaragua customs.  They didn't even give me a form to fill out or send me to check my bags.  I got my passport stamped, paid to enter the country and jumped in a taxi--home free.
Now I can't wait to get back to the orphanage and get back to work.
I hear things are cold up in the northern hemisphere.  I wish I could feel the cold, but I can't complain.  When I got back to Nicaragua it was the coldest I've ever felt here.  Some of that cold wind is blowing all the way down here.  I hope it stays cool for a while, but if these strong winds keep blowing they will become a problem for growing crops.  Please pray that the winds will calm down.  I will write again soon to show you how things are going.  Thanks for reading all of this.  I won't try to fill in for so much time again.