Ometepe Life

What an Island! It is such a wonderful place to be, people are so friendly and will go out of their way to help you and even just have a chat with you. A guy walked us back from the beach yesterday just so he could chat to us and get a bit of English, he must have gone 2 Km out of his way to walk us to our compound.

Christianity (catholosism) is alive and well here. Everywhere you go there are crosses, and becuse it is now Christmas, there are cribs being set up all over the back lanes where lights are flashing, music playing and people dancing preparing themselves to celebrate the birth of Christ. I can't tell you how amazing it is, a few small children grabbed my hand the other night wanting to dance with me outside a crib. Our faith is everywhere, you cannot escape it, and whilst like any society there are some bad things here in terms of corruption and alcoholism etc etc, the forthcoming celebration of the birth of Chirst is in full swing.

I woke this morning at 4.00am to get the first bus over to Moyogalpa, the port where the ferry leaves for Rivas. Sitting at the bus stop on the main road, I was joined by a few people off to work. A pick-up drove up and 6 men got out all weilding tubas, trumpets a base drum and other paraphanalia. Without any introduction they launched into a full on Brass tune belting out across the town (Obiytie) at 4.30am in the morning. Off went the fireworks (launced only from a hand) and all of a sundden the whole street was engulfed by the towns people. 5.00am mass - the town was alive and kicking at 5.00am and in full swing for celebration. Out blasted a few good old hymns I recognised but sung in Spanish from the Catholic church opposite me. It was wonderful, what a start to a day!!

Off I went on my merry way on the bus to Moyogalpa and then onto the ferry to cross to the mainland which I nearly missed and required a hop skip and a bloomin great jump to get onto the back of the thing as the ramp was being hoisted into the air. It was a close call. But it was a nice crossing and wonderfull to see the two volcanoes of the island during sunrise.

I got to Rivas and straight onto a bus to Managua (the capital) where I am due to meet libby to go and see this guy from Welsh House Farm in Prison. This bus ride was typical of most public transport in Nicaragua. I got on to find no seats and the thing rammed to the hilt, faces squashd against windows. The conductor type person was insistent I sat down, however, the only seat available (they are three to one seat) was a seat with two rather large ladies, who due to their size had taken the entire seat. I had the best part of 10cm to place my buttocks on which was a cause of great ammusemt to pretty much everyone on the bus, after I had gesticulated that it was a near on impossible task to get my backside on that seat. Man it was a serious session of Bum terrotory wars I can tell you and for the next two hours i think I have given every muscle in my lower body a great work out just to keep on the seat. However, after a couple of minutes I realised it was probably time to relinquish my bag and sling it on the luggage rack overhead. I did so with a keen amout of gusto which resulted in a 5 litre container half full of water launcing itself off the rack, into mid air in that slow motion type thign where you know whats coming but cant do a thing about it. Thump it went onto the head of a poor unsuspecting woman. You should have heard the roar of laughter, the gringo gets it wrong again. Still all was well and everyone took my clumsiness in good spirits. So it was back to Bum wars!

So I am now in Mangua and meeting with libby in an hour. We are hoping to get into the prison today but i have a vital peice of documentation missing at the moment which may make it a little more difficult. We are going to give it a good go as the officials here are well, I shall not repeat what Libby called them, suffice to say they wont be making it easy for us to see this guy. I am going to ask him if it is ok to mention who he is on this blog as he does have a brother still living in Quinton. So I need to be sure first before I tell you who he is, however, please do pray for this man. he is 35 and recently had an appeal to his sentence where they reduced it by 2 years. His full sentence is 23 years now. Again, I have purposely not mentioned why he is in prision as I see this as information i need his approval to mention.

Anyway, there are a number of photos dotted around this so you can see a little of what we have seen. Andy started work today in Alta Gracia which he is nervous and excited about. I am half a days travel away from him at the moment, so prayers for us both would also be welcome concerning our safety. And we both want to say a huge thank you for praying for us in Church (St. Boniface) yesterday morning. Jude sent us a text via skype to let us know. It is so very heartwarming and encouraging to know that our family back home are supporting us through prayer, for there is nothing else more powerful. Our sincere thanks to you all.

We will try and update these as best we can but as I said the internet it a little illusive on the island, but we shall see what we can do.

Thank you all, and if we are not able to get on the internet before hand, a BIG happy Christmas to you all!

God bless.