Camping

One of my favorite pastimes since I was a kid has been camping. Its also probably the number one thing I miss from being in Canada, is going on long camping trips out in the woods, being close to nature and away from all traces of modern society... sitting around a fire and most importantly doing nothing at all.

Occasionally while working our more distant territories we do go "camping" as some of them take nearly a day to reach and it would be impractical to return the same day. Also most of them do not have hotels or hostels to stay at so we are left with the option of camping.

However, for the first time we got to go on a recreational camping trip. Its a bit different than camping in Canada but it was an awesome experience. A family visiting from Germany was kind enough to invite myself, Jean, and another couple on a 3 day camping trip in the Pearl Cays.

The Cays (pronounced Keys) are a group of tiny islands in the Caribbean about a one hour Panga ride from Pearl Lagoon. They vary in size and are completely undeveloped with the exception of some abandoned houses that were never finished constructing. I mention the history of these buildings in a previous post, basically someone started building them illegally and were forced to leave. There are no shops obviously. When you are on these islands you only have what you brought with you and what you can find from nature.

One of the keys is so small it is just one palm tree and a bunch of sand. The one we stayed on was somewhat bigger, Clark key is just about as long as 2 or 3 city blocks... I guess. You can walk from one end to the other in a few minutes, but its big enough that you can go for a walk and not see anyone. We brought all our camping gear and food for 3 days with us and set up camp under some young coconut trees. (we picked a place where the tents were not in danger from falling coconuts, as coconuts kill more people than sharks, you know.)

Hammock Zone

Tent City

Casa Mateo

we had a small campfire as well, we were told not to have a large one by some conservationists (the only other people you will see around here) as it would attract the baby sea-turtles that were hatching in the area. We went to great lengths, walking around at night with red flashlights trying to see baby turtles running for the water, but all we saw were their tracks, we just missed them each time.

We used a typical coal "furnace" to cook our food using wood heat, and also ate what fish we were able to catch in addition to what we had brought with. Our driver picked a dead fish out of the water on the way to the islands which turned out to be delicious.

Jean making Coffee

Camp Kitchen

Its amazing how the daylight changes your schedule when you are not exposed to any artificial light. We usually all went to bed around 7, and got up just in time to see the sunrise at 4:30-5:00 AM. We spent a lot of the time snorkeling and building sand castles, but somehow it didn't feel quite like camping because there were no pine trees. I don't feel like I'm camping without pines, but i suppose that palm trees are an acceptable trade.

Sunrise

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean

July

It is now July, and Pearl Lagoon is in the beginning of the rainy season once again. The congregation is still making regular boat trips up the lagoon, in fact there is another trip to Karawala coming up very soon. This time I plan to bring more camping gear. 

We are also getting a new boat! It was determined that the Mensajero III is not the most suitable class of boat for our territory, as it cannot carry enough people to effectively work our distant territories. So it was approved by the branch to have a new one built! This type of boat is known as a Cayucon (not sure of the spelling) as opposed to a Panga. It is much larger and is often used on the river communities to deliver cargo. The Mensajero III carries 5-7 people at a speed of 12 knots. Our new boat will be able to travel at 13 knots, and carry 20 or possibly more passengers. It will be covered to protect from the rain and also have a closed compartment for literature and supplies to keep them dry.

Mensajero IV, under construction

We have also been informed that new special pioneers have been assigned to Pearl Lagoon. That means that we will have 4 in total. The first couple is working on Miskito and Mayagna translation and also taking the lead in the Miskito language field as they are both fluent in that language. The next couple however have much experience in the Creole language, and will be focusing on that. This is something we really need, as learning Creole is quite difficult for many. Rather than learning a new set of words and grammar, you have to learn how to speak your own mother tongue in a way that you have been taught all your life is wrong. It takes courage to comment in Creole, we have a tendency in the congregation to simply comment in English because we are timid about using Creole. For us foreigners, we are afraid that we will say something wrong and sound silly, whereas the locals are timid to use it because when they were growing up they were taught it was just "bad english" and that they had to speak properly in the kingdom hall.

The best thing, from what I have seen, in combating both of these mentalities is for someone who knows how to do it, to work up the courage and set the example by just commenting in pure creole. Hopefully these new special pioneers who have dealt with all these challenges before will be able to motivate us to progress with our creole.

Oh and one more new detail, I got engaged. My Fiance Jean grew up in Guatemala but is originally from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. We met and have come to know each other while serving here in Pearl Lagoon. As far as I know, ours will be the first wedding in the Pearl Lagoon Kingdom Hall. We actually first met 3 years ago on my first visit to Pearl Lagoon, but didn't start dating until this last year. In fact, i made a post about that visit to pearl lagoon here. she's even there in one of the pictures.

Cooking with wood

Many homes in Nicaragua do not have a gas nor electric stove on which to cook. Some do, but prefer to use a wood stove to cook certain things on, so they have both. Its a common sight, particularly in Miskito communities to see two buildings at each home, one is the main house and the second is the kitchen, where they have a wood fire on which to cook so they don't fill the entire house with smoke.

One reason to have a a wood stove to cook with in addition to a gas one is for cooking beans. Cooking dry beans takes many hours, and would be too expensive and impractical to cook using gas, so many families cook large batches of beans over a fire in order to save on gas. Below are some pictures and step by step instructions for starting and using a cooking fire.

Your stove may look something like this. A wooden stand with a box on top filled with sand (to prevent the fire from spreading to the stand/box) and some concrete bricks to contain the fire and also to set a grill or a large pot on above the fire. Its also important to have airflow and easy access to the fire for adding/removing sticks.

Just like starting any fire, start with a pile of small thin dry sticks or kindling, maybe some bark or paper scraps if you have them. Its a common practice also to burn pieces of plastic to get it going, although you may prefer to stick with tree bark.

Gradually add more until you have a decent flame going, then when ready put in some larger pieces of wood. Its good to use long sticks, so that one end can be burning and you can handle them by the other end to move them around without being burned.

Fan the flames with a lid to get it nice and hot.

And now you're cooking with wood!

Karawala

This past weekend we went on a 4 day trip to work our most distant territories. The Pearl Lagoon congregation technically has territory all the way until it meets up with the boundaries of the puerto cabezas congregations, so they asked us how far north we could realistically work. The answer was that we could reach as far as Karawala in the Rio Grande area, so that is where we went. We left at 5:00 AM and the trip took us about 4 hours to reach the first community. There are many towns here, mostly along the Rio Grande de Matagalpa river. We reached it by going to the top of the Pearl Lagoon, and then through the Top Lock lagoon and into the river. The weather was somewhat favorable but there were enough waves to make sure we were properly rinsed before arrival.

The first community was Kara, of which the primary language is Miskito, however the people also speak Creole and Spanish. We spent the day there, taking turns guarding the boat which we had parked under a tree on the shore. One of the rules that goes with a boat belonging to the branch is that we can never leave it unattended. I took the afternoon shift. Of course the one staying with the boat also gets to preach because people take notice of a new boat in town and come over to make conversation. After we finished for the day, we headed off to Walpa where we planned to spend the night.

Arriving in Walpa

Home

Walpa is another Miskito community, and on a previous visit a family living on the shore showed us great hospitality, and so we parked the boat in their front yard. They gave us the use of their kitchen, and also allowed us to sleep inside an abandoned house that they had been planning to tear down. Actually they offered us a bedroom in their house, but since we had tents the house was just fine. It had no walls but it still had a roof to protect from the rain. For the first day we had all brought our own meals, so I had my second serving of tuna sandwiches on coconut bread for supper. The next morning the brothers assigned to cooking for Satuday had prepared scrambled eggs and rice for breakfast, and rice with sardines for lunch. Luckily I had brough extra ramen noodles and bread, because it was at this point I learned that Nicaraguans generally do not eat supper, so no arrangement for a third meal had been made.

Walpa

Our territory for the second day, in the morning, was Walpa where we had spent the night. Walpa is a very quiet, peaceful town (one reason why we chose to spend the night here). Normally people have electricity, but at the point of our arrival the power had been out for 15 days and it was unknown when it would be back. People in Walpa get their water from wells, which was surprisingly clean. I used a portable filter and iodine drops before drinking it just to be safe though.

Sunset in Walpa

Making the morning coffee

After Walpa we went down the river to Sandy Bay Sirpi, which is a large town that faces the sea. Miskito people seem to have the custom of building their houses far apart from eachother, so all of these communities were well spaced out with fields of flat grass in between. A brother who had been in the Miskito field for a long time commented that they also tend to plant coconut trees everywhere they go, so the coconut palm is almost like a "Miskito Flag". When we reached the side of Sandy Bay facing the ocean it was amazingly beautiful. The area looked not unlike the east side of Corn Island, but a little (a lot) less developed. We finished just before sunset, which gave us time to make it back to Walpa before dark where we spent another night.

Sandy Bay Sirpi

The beach in Sandy Bay

Our next stop the following day was Karawala, the biggest and central community in the area. Karawala is notably clean and the houses although being basic (Board houses on posts, with some concrete) are well maintained. From what we could tell Karawala did not have municipal water, but it did have electricity (but not today, because they had the same problem as Walpa). I was forced to use all the Miskito I knew during this trip, and it was exciting to see the results. One older man told the brother I was working with that he could understand some creole, but could not understand foreigner English (referring to me). I started my presentation in Miskito and his jaw hit the floor. He excitedly accepted literature after I mumbled through my sentences explaining the good news brochure (Gad Sturka Yamni nani ba).

Karawala

Miskito people have a custom similar to what we read about in bible times, that when someone waits in the town square in the evening, people will invite them to stay in their homes. This way, most of our group arranged to stay with a family near the wharf. Me and another brother volunteered to stay with the boat however. Because we were leaving all our supplies and fuel in the boat so that we could leave early in the morning, we wanted to have two people guarding it in the night instead of just one. The sand flies and mosquitos were a bit harsh, however the stars were magnificent. Consider how far out in the jungle we were, no cities within a days travel, and what communities were here had no electricity, and you can get an idea how bright the stars were. One could see without a flashlight even though it was a new moon.

The next morning we left early on to go back to Pearl Lagoon. We were eager to get back to our own beds, but it was a fantastic service experience to witness in these communities.

The Crew

Set Net Point

I finally had the opportunity to go to Set Net point, which is one of our more distant boat territories. It is just south of Tasbapauni. However the town of Set Net is not specifically on the Pearl Lagoon, instead it faces the ocean and has no access to the lagoon. This meant that we got to travel across the beautiful blue water of the Caribbean to reach the territory. The sea was fairly calm so it was a pleasant trip. When we arrived we made a "surf landing" which means that we tied the boat to a buoy when we reached shallow water and waded onto the beach.

Set net is also known for its wildlife, being surrounded by jungle and far from other communities. The area is said to have "tigers", but considering that people here often have different names for animals than we are familiar with it seems that what they call a "tiger" is either a jaguar or panther, which are both known to be in the area. We did see some tracks in the mud but I couldn't say for sure that they were from a big cat and not something else, like a large dog.

The people we spoke to were very friendly and welcoming, nearly all of them spoke Creole English. The insects however were not so friendly. Near the beach especially we encountered a larger version of the sand fly. the swarms were so thick you could clap your hands and kill 100 of them at a time. And yes they bite... Strong repellent is definitely a must.

On the shore of Set Net

Many people were not home because of an event in Tasbapauni that they had gone to. (Tasbapauni can be reached by land from Set Net via the beach) We finished fairly quickly with the memorial invitations, and went for lunch. Since the sand flies were so horrendous we couldn't eat our lunch in set net, so how convenient that the pearl cays are directly in front of set net's shore. It took us about 5 minutes to reach Clark Cay which is completely free of the sand flies.

This was the best time of year to visit the cays as well, the water is crystal clear and warm like a bath tub. So we just had to go for a little swim as well.

Clark Cay

Interior of the Island

Rocky Point

Since coming to Pearl Lagoon more than a year ago I have always heard of the group going in service out in the jungle at Rocky Point, and until now I have always missed the trip, usually by just a few days. Either I was away for a visa run or back in Canada or for some other reason the trip was planned when I was not around, but finally I have had the opportunity to work Rocky Point. It was Thursday night and I was walking home from the meeting when I heard talk that a group was planning to go by bicycle the next morning at 5:00 AM. I will admit that the idea of going so far on a bicycle was intimidating, but i was determined to be included this time.

We refilled our water bottles
with coconut water

4 of us took off the next morning down the rocky road through Haulover and followed the road straight south. We were already feeling the heat even this early as we rode across the open area called the Savannah. After some time we reached the edge of the rain forest, there was a river and a pumping station which was where the municipal water in Pearl Lagoon comes from. The moment we crossed the bridge we hit a wall of cool air. I had never realized this phenomenon existed but apparently the thick vegetation actually cools the air significantly when you are in the jungle. This helped us have the strength to carry on further, a long with how fresh and clean the air smelled.

The ride took us about 45 minutes before we reached the first gate, where we then hiked inside to the house. Most of the people we were visiting this morning spoke Spanish but there also a large number of Creole people in the area. Edward "Daha" Fox who is one of our most recently baptized brothers lead the way as this area was his home. He lead us to each of the farms where we had long conversations with entire families, many offering us food and coconut water.

On call of note was a young man named Choko. He has had a condition since birth, I'm not exactly sure what it is but it seems like some kind of brain damage, he is unable to communicate except for a few words such as "mama" and "papa" however he is able to move around fine and is in good physical health. Choko is intensely cheerful and gets quite excited when visitors come. He cannot read, but for some reason has always loved books. He had little interest in videos on a tablet but with any magazine or book he will sit with it for hours looking at the pictures and pointing out people that look like his family. When I gave him a copy of the brochure "Listen to God and live forever" (the one with all pictures and few words) he got so excited I thought he was going to explode. He started running around the house showing everyone what he had, and was shaking so much from excitement he could hardly hold on to it. He finally sat down and flipped through it shrieking with glee at each page. I have never seen anyone enjoy our literature as much as Choko and I don't think I ever will.

First call

Parking lot

On the way to the door

Going up the driveway

Bacon bits

Cocoa

Run Down with lime

We finished there at around noon and headed back to Pearl Lagoon. We stopped in Haulover at Kati's house where we enjoyed a home cooked meal of fish "run down", a perfect way to finish the day.

Kahkabila and the Black Pearl

But not the black pearl you're thinking of. This Black Pearl is a Panga that seats 20. During our CO's visit we had arranged to work the Miskito community of Kahkabila, the closest of our boat territories. In addition to covering the territory we had planned to hold a meeting at the community center and show a video to any that showed up. Of course, for this trip we wanted to bring the entire congregation, but our boat is not big enough. So we decided to hire two of the commercial Pangas that do the Pearl Lagoon to Bluefields route, one of which is named "The Black Pearl".

Meeting for field service at the wharf

Boarding the Black Pearl

Unfortunately when the time came for us to head out to Kahkabila, only one of the boats we had hired was present. No one was particularly surprised, as this kind of thing is a common occurrence in Pearl Lagoon. It worked out well for the owners of the Pearl, because they got to make two trips and receive the payment agreed upon for the second boat in addition to their own.

Showing the Video

We were able to cover all of Kahkabila before noon, and then met for lunch by the wharf. After makings few return visits we gathered at the community center to show the video. The bright sunlight was a bit of a problem, as no one could see the video from the projector, so the brothers went and borrowed an old TV from someone in the community and set it up to show the video "Warning examples for our day" in English. Miskito people in this area tend to understand English quite well, though I suspect there were a few phrases they would have struggled with. In general the audience seemed to enjoy the video. I'm not sure on the actual attendance but it was somewhere around 64, and I believe that is not including the Pearl Lagoon Congregation.

On the Pearl

The advantage to hiring a larger boat is that with their powerful engine the normally 30 minutes to 1 hour trip only took 10 minutes, unfortunately it was a 10 minutes to remember. I would describe the ride as being somewhere between a rodeo and a roller coaster. We were a little beat up by the end of the day, especially those sitting in the front of the boat, I think mostly because of the lagoon being rough, and partly the madness of the driver. But as always, it was worth it.

San Vicente

 A few weeks ago I had the privilege of being on one of our more interesting boat trips. What was supposed to be a short stop in San Vicente turned into quite the adventure. San Vicente is a very small community on the lagoon, not far from Pearl Lagoon itself, there are maybe 10 houses. It is a quiet and beautiful little town, no roads, no electricity. As far as we could tell people here live off the land.

As we worked the community however some of the locals informed us that there was another community further from the shore, that is, in the middle of the jungle. There was a small path visible through the bush, and some of the locals told us it was roughly an hour walk. The weather was excellent so we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try and reach this community, so we got our things together and started walking.

The brush quickly became thicker and thicker, and soon enough we could no longer see the sky through the canopy of trees. We started putting pieces of toilet paper on branches to mark our path, although the path stayed fairly defined the entire trip so it ended up being an unnecessary precaution. We passed a few people a long the way, mostly on horseback and they kept assuring us that we were going the right way to reach the town called Esperanza.

After about 1 hour we finally reached a group of farm houses. We suspected that we were near Esperanza but the owners informed us that it was still another 2 hours ahead (At this point it dawned on us that no one has clocks or watches here because there is no electricity). Seeing as we still had planned to go to Orinoco the same day, time did not permit us to continue. Also we hadn't brought our lunches and were getting hungry. So we spent the rest of the morning with the people at these farms, who warmly welcomed us and showed great interest, we studied with everyone we met. Interestingly many of them spoke English creole like in pearl lagoon, however with a notably different accent. They used words such as “loan” to mean “many” and other phrases common in Belize Kriol that are not used in Pearl Lagoon or Bluefields. I found this particularly interesting because these people had never been to Pearl Lagoon, they had never gone to Bluefields. The people we were speaking to had lived their entire lives in this tiny collection of houses and farms in the middle of the rainforest. Still, they knew of the bible and were very eager to learn more. We got phone numbers of some of the people, and to this day I have not figured out how they manage to charge their cellphones. Or how they got cellphones in the first place.

After we made it back to the boat (with mud up to our knees) we had our lunch on the shore and head to Orinoco. There was just enough time for us to make a few return visits from previous boat trips. I was able to leave some literature with a local pastor who enjoyed using our literature. Hopefully he will now have an “updated understanding”

In the end it was a short trip, only one day and we made it back before sunset, but it felt like we accomplished more than we normally would in a week. To my knowledge Esperanza has not yet been reached, but on the way back we spoke to some of the people in San Vicente and they offered to lead us there on horseback on a future visit.