Los Poldens: Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua

Camille and Pancho

We are continuing to adjust to life here on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. We are finding the climate surprisingly chilly - we must have acclimatized to the heat of León more than we realized. The mosquitoes and sand fleas are also a challenge since we are new meat and they have been eating us alive! We have been fighting back and we are getting less and less bites which is a welcome relief. Although we have put screens up in all our windows we have had to purchase a mosquito net for our bed so that the random mosquitoes that come in through the open doors don't have a continuous nighttime smorgasbord! As for the sand fleas - they seem to be a problem mostly down on the waterfront. When we are going to spend any time in that area we use insect repellent or Pat will make sure he has some socks on that cover his ankles.

We are also adjusting to sharing our house. We had become accustomed to life on our own but are enjoying having a "youngster" in the house again. Camille is fun to have around and we are happy to report that Pancho likes her!

There are far more power and water outages here in Pearl Lagoon than what we experienced in León. It's rather strange the way it will work: the power goes out and may be out for quite a few hours but the water is working. Then, when the power comes back on the water goes out..... It's not unusual for the water to stop about 8 pm and come back on sometime early in the morning. We have a large reserve water barrel in our bathroom for when this happens. As for the lights, we have had a few "romantic" flashlight dinners!

a road in Pearl Lagoon

The ministry here in Pearl Lagoon is a real pleasure. The real challenge is the distances that we have to walk on roads that are less than ideal. The "paved" roads here are nothing more than rocks set into mud..... they are uneven and really dangerous if you aren't paying attention to where you put your feet. A few of the brothers and sisters have bicycles to get around in the territory - we plan to pick some up the next time we are in either Bluefields or El Rama. There are a couple of little Tuk-tuks that run around town and they cost only 10 cords to use as well as a taxi but so far we haven't used them.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks: