León, Nicaragua - June 5, 2012

The rainy season is in full swing! We have been having amazing thunder and lightning storms - almost daily. They have been starting later in the day - usually after 6 pm. You can see the clouds rolling in and then you start to hear the thunder. The lightning is next and then the rain begins. Sometimes the rain starts off rather gently but then gradually builds and until the rain comes down in buckets. Other times the skies just open up and the downpour is incredible. The streets quickly become rivers and believe me, you don't want to get caught out in one of these storms. You get absolutely soaked to the skin even if you are only steps away from your home! Umbrellas are now part of our attire but sometimes they provide very little protection in the storm.

Karin and Maria Fernanda

We have been very busy getting back into our service routine. Both Frank and Karin had their studies last week and we were able to hold them on the same night rather than stagger them so that someone was home with Maria Fernanda. Since they have moved into their new home they have enough room for me to hold Karin's study in their home and Pat holds Frank's study at our house. It works out very well except when it decides to rain and I have to walk home dodging rivers and trying to stay as dry as possible!

Starting June we will be Auxiliary Pioneering to prepare for September when we plan to go on the Regular Pioneer list. We hope to build up our return visits and studies in the next three months so that the transition to Regular Pioneering should be easier.

Last week we purchased 8.3 yards of mosquito netting and two rolls of duct tape. We decided to use the netting instead of buying screen material because the netting is much easier to apply to our odd shaped window openings. Also, it was a lot less expensive! We just finished applying the covering today and the results have been fantastic. There are hardly any flies or mosquitoes to be seen! Our safety habits have relaxed since we moved to Nicaragua. We weren't able to borrow a ladder and we didn't know where we could rent one so we had to devise our own method of reaching the "hard to reach" spaces. Let's just say that it's a good thing my old Health & Safety Committee didn't see me - they would have fired me on the spot! However, we were very careful and we got the job done with no problems and no scary moments either.

 This past weekend we experienced our first real negative experience here in León, Nicaragua. We were awoken at 3 am with someone in our bedroom - yes - someone had broken in! By the time we woke up the person or persons (we think there was someone waiting on the outside to receive the goods) had already taken our computer and also Pat's wallet. When the man realized we were awake he made a quick get-away. We were in contact with the owners of the house by 7 am and they were able to add a few more security features to the house. In the picture you can see the metal that was added to the top of our door - yes that is the small space that the person squeezed through to get into the house. We knew before we moved to Nicaragua that something like this could possibly happen - although I didn't picture being at home sleeping when it did. Foreigners are often targets for theft but they aren't the only ones. Many Nicaraguans have experienced the same thing - it is a very unfortunate part of this system of things and we look forward to the time when poverty will not drive people to such activities. We have learned some very valuable lessons from this experience and are very grateful that the person that broke in was only interested in taking possessions and had no intention of hurting us.