Los Poldens: Preaching in the Jungle - Rocky Point, Nicaragua

tOur territory for preaching here in Pearl Lagoon is very diverse. We have areas where we actually preach door to door and the houses are close together, we have territories that can only be reached by boat and then we have an area that is considered "jungle" in the true sense of the word. In order to reach as many people as possible for the Memorial campaign it was decided that we would spend a day in Rocky Point - for a number of us this was the first time that we had visited this area.

Edward

In order for us to get an early start we were up at 4:30 a.m. to catch the 5:30 bus that heads to El Rama. Since the territory is widespread those publishers that had bicycles brought them and they were put on top of the bus for the trip. The ride on the bus took about an hour because it had to stop quite often to pick up passengers - most of whom were carrying items that needed to be stowed on the top of the bus. When we arrived in Rocky Point we were met by our "guide" for the day - Edward - who is a bible student that lives in Rocky Point during the week and only comes into Pearl Lagoon for meetings. Edward is a true man of the jungle because he never goes anywhere without his machete - even in service!

The first stop of the morning was Edward's family home in order for us to eat our breakfast and to get ready for the trek into the jungle. His home is about a 10 minute walk from the road and you see many coconut, cinnamon, banana and other fruit trees.

Walking from the road to Edward's family home

The house is very basic and we were surprised to see that there were solar panels installed for lighting.

a view of the kitchen

Even though the hour was early everyone was already up and the children were already hard at work grating the coconut getting it ready to extract the coconut oil - a product that they sell to make money.

grating coconuts

our group having breakfast

Edward's family is very hospitable - we were given some "fresh off the tree" bananas as well as some delicious cinnamon tea or instant coffee. It was a nice start to the morning.

fresh bananas from the farm

Once breakfast was over we headed out to our first call. Along the way we passed under a troop of Howler monkeys.

Howler monkey

Our time in service actually became more like a "nature walk". We saw so many interesting sights.

hanging nest of a yellow tailed bird

inside of the nest

the nest is very strong and tightly woven

Honorio with some bark off the Cinnamon tree

picking some fresh limes

walking through the farm

fresh breadfruit

checking out the baby cow

poor dog couldn't have a moment to herself

A lot of the people who live back on these farms in the jungle speak Spanish. They were all very friendly and we were often given a refreshing drink of coconut water to help keep us hydrated. It wasn't long before the heat and humidity took it's toll and those of us who didn't have bicycles hopped on the 10:30 bus to return to Pearl Lagoon. If we missed this bus we would have to wait until about 3 pm for the next one - or walk back into town which none of us were prepared to do.....

The bicycle riders - Byron, Honorio and Camille - remained in the territory visiting a few more homes after we left.

Everyone enjoyed the morning spent in the "jungle" and we look forward to returning.

Camille took some great fotos too: