Memorial 2013 - Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua

keeping an eye on the time

March 26, 2013 was a hot, dry day in Pearl Lagoon. Rain had swept through the town during the night leaving the morning clear of rain and the streets relatively dust free. Although we had spent a lot of time in preparation on Monday there was still a lot of work to do on Tuesday to get the hall ready for the Memorial.  All of the sound equipment had to be brought over from the Kingdom Hall and set up in the Casa de Culturas as well as extra chairs for seating.

Before we knew it the time had come for the Memorial. Pat and I arrived early - 5:00 pm - with the Memorial scheduled to start at 6:00 pm. Not surprisingly, when 6:00 pm came there were still quite a number of people arriving and so the Memorial started at 6:10. Pat was chairman as well as a server and said a prayer for the wine. Since a number of the attendees only spoke Spanish Brother Blake gave the talk in English as well as Spanish. It was the first time I had heard him speak Spanish and I was surprised at how easy it was to follow what he was saying. His accent is much easier to follow than Spanish speakers on the Pacific side.  This was the first time I have attended a Memorial where they have had to use sisters to pass the emblems because there aren't enough brothers in the congregation. The attendance at the Memorial was 52 (there are 12 publishers in the congregation).

view from the platform

the table is almost ready

opening the bottle of wine with a knife

Honorio pouring the wine

Namisha, Debbie, Jean, Camille, Annette, Debbie C., Nathan and Yadira

An unwanted guest!

Debbie, Pat and Camille

Debbie C., Camille, Yadira and Jean

Pat as chairman

after the Memorial the chairs had to go back to the Kingdom Hall

A group of visitors with Fenelia and Annette

the Blake family

removing the lighting

note the safety violations????

Pat, Debbie and Honorio relaxing after the Memorial