March 23rd 2019

Well we finished our move up higher into the mountains, but then found out the situation was quite different than what we had been told. Without going into detail we had to move again in a hurry into an empty house and buy furniture so as not to be sleeping on the floor. Its been a bit of a chaotic few months but things are going well overall and we have had lots of fun. We're still in the same town we had planned on moving to, and serving in a newly formed Spanish language group.

Our three month tourist visa expired so we had to do a visa run, for Jean this was the first time. Because she is Nicaraguan while we were there only I had to leave the country to renew my visa, but in this country since both of us are foreigners we both had to leave the country together. I never appreciated before how easy we Canadians have it. For Nicaraguans everywhere we want to go, Jean needs to fill out forms and sometimes go for an interview in order to get a visa to enter another country. Some countries make it utterly impossible or very expensive so its not even viable for a visa run. We decided on Mexico as there was no fee for the visa, but it was still quite a bit of paperwork.

Thankfully, the visa was approved and we were able to travel together to Mexico. Some old friends of ours that had been serving in Bluefields Nicaragua who were forced to leave Nicaragua for very similar reasons to us are now in Chiapas and they offered us a place to stay and hospitality when we needed it the most. Jean and I got to explore another new country, city, food, and culture together which is an experience I'll never get tired of. We ate so many tacos, drank horchata and micheladas, and even went to a party.

I've come to a new philosophy on street food and being careful with sickness in other countries. When I first left Canada I was told by nearly everyone not to eat street food or drink the local water. I think this was bad advice for several reasons. One being that you miss out on some really amazing things, another is that you will offend the local people. Countless times I've found I was the only foreigner invited to some event because "well Matthew eats cabbage salad so we can invite him too".
No matter what country you go to, the people there are also human beings. If it doesn't kill them, it won't kill you either. It may have "different" bacteria to what your immune system is used to, but once you've been though a few belly aches you won't get sick anymore. I've been eating a lot of street food and I can't remember the last time I got ill from eating something.

The trip to Mexico was refreshing and felt like the vacation we needed. Just as we were leaving we got word back from the Canadian immigration. They are ready for Jean's medical and police certificates which means we won't be waiting much longer. Provided we can get all the documents. The Nicaraguan embassy is not being very helpful with the documents they are supposed to provide, but that isn't new. We ask them for a document that we need from them, and their go-to answer is "no that doesn't exist", when actually it does they just don't feel like doing it.

Just a few more steps though, after this is in all that's left is to wait.

December 31st, 2018

Its been a few weeks now since we sent our application for Canadian residency, now we just have to wait. Meanwhile we are moving again. This time a little higher up in the mountains. It is getting a bit tiring moving all the time but circumstances are just that way. The place were moving to will make things a bit easier for us while we wait for an answer from the government, as well be able to save a bit of money and also be able to avoid a bit of the problems in the place were currently living, nothing too big just minor inconveniences.

Were looking forward to getting out of the city. We will be helping to look after a place that belongs to some brothers as they will be out of the country for a bit. it is just on the outskirts of another city, and part way up a mountain. I'm not sure of the exact elevation but its somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 meters. We've definitely adapted to the altitude by now in these 3 months here so the change should be barely noticeable. It will be a bit colder but the house has a wood burning stove for heat. We're looking forward to enjoying the more natural environment as its surrounded by pine forests.

We really are hoping to become more permanent somewhere as soon as our circumstances allow for it. One thing we've found challenging is that each place we go we are forced to leave for one reason or another, and we leave before we ever start to feel at home. The last place we really felt at home (as a couple) was Corn Island, we had a lot of friends there and felt like we could be ourselves as we were in our own culture so to speak. I even had other foreigners around so I didn't feel isolated.

I never really thought that living outside of my culture would be such a challenge. I'm always surprised by how many things are different that I didn't expect to be different. Its really hard to explain what I mean by that exactly... But if you've spent a good amount of time in a foreign country, and more importantly among people that don't speak your language you may understand what I mean. Our mother tongue affects the way we think, the way we process information and how we react to situations and behavior on a very deep level. People do things here that to me are so incredibly rude, or completely wrong, and I'm more than certain they think the same thing about us. When I started traveling I thought "I won't let that bother me, I'll just adapt and try to be as much like them as possible". Well that doesn't work. It takes years to really become comfortable with things that deep inside you feel are wrong.

My family no longer lives in Alberta, they've all moved over to the maritimes and are in Nova Scotia now, so when we go to Canada thats where we will be going as well. It will be a completely new environment for both of us. I've never been to the maritime provinces and until recently I couldn't even name them all or place them on the map. We will have to learn a new culture again, but this time our hope will be to stay for a long time in the town where my parents live until we really feel home there. At least there no one can make us leave. We won't need any more visas or to ask permission to stay longer every three months, not knowing what we would do if they say no. I'll be able to look for a job that lets me work in the day so I can finally get a good night's sleep.

Mek wi get fahn here

It is now June 3rd, 2018 and we no longer live in Tola. We spent one entire year there, and it was time to move on. It was definitely worthwhile to spend the time in a Spanish congregation and become much more comfortable with the language. After a while though we started to feel like it was time to go back to the Atlantic coast.

There isn't a congregation in Nicaragua that doesn't need more brothers, but Jean has relatives in Pearl Lagoon, and my family are no longer in Nicaragua. If they do come back it won't be to the Pacific. So after weighing our options we decided to move back to Pearl Lagoon.

We had left Pearl Lagoon initially for a variety of reasons, one being that we were newly married and wanted space. Another being the need for online work. Taking Jean back to Canada requires jumping through endless and seemingly impossible hoops. Thus, since I am unwilling to live away from Jean for months at a time we must support ourselves as other "digital nomads" do, by making our living off of the internet.

A few years ago, you could forget about getting a stable internet connection in Pearl Lagoon. Or even stable electricity for that matter. Things have changed a bit. A few new telecom companies have made their way into Nicaragua and brought some stiff competition for the existing internet providers. This has encouraged the well established ones to provide better services in more remote areas. The result being that one can now get a DSL broadband connection in Pearl Lagoon. It isn't cheap, but it works. This gave us the opportunity to go back "home" to the place we first met, and where both of us had spent most of our time in Nicaragua.

There were some snags in our move. We had some things we wanted to take with. We had bought our own furniture in Tola and didn't like the idea of losing on all of that. So we looked into hiring a truck to drive us there with all our furniture, now that the road is much better as well. We also didn't want to make the cats endure a 10 hour bus ride in the heat and in a tiny carrier.

The truck ended up being too expensive, so we considered renting a truck and hiring someone to drive it for us. I can legally drive in Nicaragua with a Canadian licence, but I wasn't comfortable doing this because of how foreigners are seen by police.

Then a couple interested in visiting Pearl Lagoon offered to drive us and our things in their own truck. This was by far the best option, but the plan was "mashed up" when Nicaragua was hit with a wave of political unrest. Although we haven't been affected by the protests that are going on right now directly, there are roadblocks on the major roads from time to time and this would add some major delays to a cross-country roadtrip. After having delayed our trip for an entire month we decided it was simply time to go. We had found everything we needed in Pearl lagoon: A house to rent, an internet connection, and even furniture. So we sold everything and bought a plane ticket.

We hired a taxi, driven by a local brother from Rivas (who by the way was a fantastic driver, well done Jose). Who managed to sneak by every single roadblock by going down back roads and through small towns on the way to Managua. We skirted around Granada and popped out near Tipitapa, bringing us to the Managua Airport without coming across any trouble or entering Managua itself.

Nicaraguan cat carrier

We spent that night in a nearby hotel and the next morning flew to Bluefields. The cats absolutely hated the trip. It was hard to find nice carriers for them, will definitely try to find something better by the next time we travel. Also the tranquilizer was too small of a dose and didn't do anything. They seemed to prefer the backpack we carried them in to Managua more than the airline approved carriers we got from the vet in Managua.

Just in case our trip sounded too easy, our panga from Bluefields broke down twice for a combined period of half an hour. The words "throw the anchor" are not words you want to hear when you're tired and eager to get home.

Everything we own

Whiskey in "his" hotel room

Roadblocks? Where we're going we don't need roads!

A surprise layover in Paradise

Our first meeting back home in Lagoon

The new building used as a Kingdom Hall in Pearl Lagoon

But in the end, we made it and its good to be home! We found a place to rent that was furnished with all the things we had to leave behind, and our cats Whiskey and Brandy are settling in well.

Whiskey helping me get back into blogging.

Tola

On may first we successfully made the move to Tola. It was a great help that my Brother in law was able to come with his truck and we could pile everything in there so as not to move all our belongings using the chicken bus, which would have been challenging to say the least.

Our apartment in Jinotepe was fully furnished, so one adjustment has been moving into an empty house. We had to get chairs, various appliances, and somehow find a place to store our clothes and other things. We still have our metal grid that snaps together that we got as a wedding gift, so that worked for the clothes. Right now we're working on getting some concrete blocks and planks to make other furniture such as a counter top and a bench/couch. I may post pictures later on, depending how good (or bad) it looks when I'm done. We may also try with palates, although apparently in Nicaragua used palates are not cheap since they are so sought after that no one gives them away for free.

So far we are enjoying our new town. We are close to the street so we have some traffic noise at busy hours but otherwise its a very quiet town. Going in service is amazing, as we have mostly rural territory, and since we are a now in a Spanish congregation we don't need to do search work. This means long walks through the jungle going to farms and plantations, and also witnessing to staff members at beach side restaurants.

Getting internet here was not too difficult either. We tried with CooTel first, which is a new company in Nicaragua. They offered a wireless router with speeds up to 1.5 mbps upload and download unlimited for $20 a month. This is pretty great, since upload is the one that really matters for teaching online. We had a $50 per month deal with Claro in Jinotepe which gave us 3 mbps download, but only 0.3 to 0.5 upload (we were paying for 1 mbs upload which is the fastest they offer). Unfortunately the signal did not reach our house and we had to take it back. I asked very clearly several times and made them confirm that if it didn't work I would get my money back. Imagine my surprise when we took it back and they said they would not offer a refund. So now I am the proud owner of a useless orange box with an antenna on it.

Reluctantly, we went to the Claro office to see about getting a contract for internet, having in mind all the horrible customer service experiences from the past, and the constant, sometimes month long service outages of the Atlantic coast. Happily though, they surprised me this time. Apparently the company is under different management in each department, and the Rivas department of Claro runs a very different kind of business. We filled out the papers in Jean's name (I could have done it in my name, but they wanted a larger deposit for a foreigner than for a local). On the way home we stopped for Ice cream, and then continued walking. We were passed by a small white van with a ladder on top and we started joking that it was Claro on the way to our house to set up the internet. When does a cable company ever come the same day, right?

Well the van pulled over next to our house and then Jean's phone rang. Guess who?

Within about an hour we were set up with the fastest Internet I have ever had in Nicaragua. We are paying for 4 mbs down and 1.5 mbs up, we get about 5 and 3 mbs, regardless of the time of day. Along with that package we get cable TV... if only we had a TV. So next to our router there is a lovely coil of black cable waiting for a TV to appear so it can fulfill its life purpose.