A Day in the Life (Exhibit A)

A lot of people ask us "so, what's a typical day like for you?"  Our first response is usually laughter, because it often feels to us like a typical day is something that doesn't really exist in our life here in Nicaragua.  But, I'll share with you what I anticipate for today (and be sure to update if things change, as they often do).  It's kind of a special day, because Tim is traveling, but it's also not totally atypical, because we do a fair amount of traveling to the many rural churches of La Misión Cristiana.

Tim's big trip today is to install the second biodigester, just a few kilometers from the site of the first one, in a small village called Tamarindo Malpaso, at the parsonage of the 20th Christian Mission Church.  This church is in the Western Region, where they are doing the biodigester pilot project.  We have visited the region many times, for intensive theology courses, Regional Assemblies, planning meetings and other trainings.  It's in the general direction of León, and of course you keep making turns onto smaller, rockier roads as you get there.  We're right at the end of the rainy season, so it's finally dry enough to do construction again.

To this end, Tim went by the central office of La Misión yesterday to pick up the pieces of zinc for the roof and a bag of cement.  At 5:30 this morning, he went to pick up the church president, the Reverend Rolando Boniche, and his assistant, Sonia Cabezas, at their houses before heading out of town (the drive usually takes 3 to 3.5 hours).  They will meet the engineer who helps with the construction on the way, and he has the rest of the materials.  They should arrive at the church in Malpaso by 9:30 am.  The  church there has already dug the pit in which the biodigester will sit, so the actual construction should only take a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, back here in Managua, the girls and I are without our car, so a few minutes after 6:30 I put Maya in the stroller and we walked Quinn to school.  Quinn very much saw it as an adventure (as did Maya),  and chatted excitedly the whole way.  We got to school a few minutes before 7 (when she is supposed to arrive).  Maya and I got back to the house at 7:20, and Maya had a little bit of second breakfast.

A bit before 8, Cristina, our housekeeper/ nanny, arrived, so now I get to close the door to our bedroom and get some work done at the desk.  I'll work from home today, probably grading (overdue!) papers for my Ministerial Formation students and generally trying to get things organized in anticipation of the end of the year.  I hope to also spend a couple of hours today working on writing curriculum for the Ministerial Formation project.  Of course, at 11:30 or so I'll go pick up Quinn from school and we'll all have lunch together before I go hide again get back to work.  I'll take another break mid-afternoon to help her with her homework (yes, homework!  in kindergarten... Nicaraguan schools are a little different than my impression of U.S. schools).

If all goes as expected with the biodigester installation, they will have it built before noon.  They'll probably eat lunch there (prepared by the church receiving the biodigester), and are hoping to have a meeting with the pastors of the region after lunch.  That should take an hour or so, if they leave by 2 pm they could even make it back to Managua before dark.  We'll be eagerly awaiting Tim's return!

Family

Since Maya was born we've been lacking a really good family photo. We take a lot of photos, but since one of us is always behind the lens it's rare to get all 4 of us together in the frame. So we're grateful to our friend Carl for taking this one in honor of Maya's first birthday.

I am not a big fan of posed photos but I think this one turned out great! Although I think the following one is good too and probably more accurate...