Kakabila

December is here... over the past few weeks we have had notably less rain. The waters are getting less murky and the temperatures are rising. This is a beautiful time of year on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, though one must adapt to the heat. That being said I remember Bluefields was much hotter around May and June.

Last week before heading out to Haulover we decided to stop for a quick coffee at the bakery, and it turned out to be our most productive call of the day. We weren't exactly preaching in the bakery but we did meet a couple from a village across the lagoon, which is actually very close if you have access to a boat. The name of the community is Kakabila, which is a Miskito word but I really have no idea what it means. After talking to the man for a while we found that he owned a small boat and could take our group to Kakabila for a very small fee. We arranged to go on Wednesday (Today)

So this morning we all met at the wharf instead of the Kingdom hall for service, there were 8 of us in total.
We were all wondering what kind of boat to expect... Marvin (the boat's owner) had told us he has a "skiff". Now, being that I grew up at least 1,000 km from the nearest ocean nautical terms are a mystery to me in the first place. Confounding this mystery is the fact that in Creole many terms have a completely different meaning. In the dictionary a "skiff" is a boat for one person, but he told us his holds 10...

As it turns out his boat was just the right size for our group, and the ride was very smooth. Although it wasn't a fast one, his 15hp engine got us to Kakabila in about an hours time.

As soon as we got close to Kakabila we could hear the reggae music blasting from a house near the wharf. Some locals approached us as we were getting off the boat, a few even formally welcoming us to Kakabila. As usual around here people were happy to take some time to learn about the bible. One woman saw us coming and answered the door with her bible in hand, and then invited us to come in and sit down. The only exception being a few local ministers that did not appear quite so pleased that Jehovah's Witnesses had found their village. In any case Miskito seems to be the local language but out of everyone we talked to we only encountered one person that did not speak English fluently. Next time we will definitely bring more literature in Miskito.

We worked a strip of houses along the shore, there are of course no streets and hardly even sidewalks. The houses are scattered randomly across a clearing in the otherwise dense jungle, so taking addresses would be an exercise in futility. At the edge of town opposite the wharf, we found a gorgeous beach. Soft sand, palm trees and blue sky, appearing like a perfectly planned rest stop at the end of the day. In fact there was even a building that we were told is some kind of hotel or accommodation. We haven't figured out who owns it but I imagine we will quite likely be staying there in the future to work territory and return visits over a few days.

Honorio (a pioneer brother who was assigned here from Mexico) was aware of this beach, as he had brought a change of clothes and swimming trunks. The rest of us had not brought swimming clothes, but that didn't stop us. Myself and others decided that since we were finished for the day there was no harm in going into the water fully clothed. We dried off fast enough on the boat on the way home. We plan to go back next Wednesday