Well after the exilerating New Years Eve festivities, we needed a little extra down time to clear our head, lungs, and ears. And that’s what we got today, some free time. I was able to have a cup of coffee, pray, write a blog, eat a healthy breakfast of homemade sweet bread and an orange, fresh off the tree; it was green which wouldn’t sell well in the store, but tasted just fine; it kind of reminded me of one of my favorite books to read the girls at bedtime, “green eggs and ham”. I can still remember the words without looking and can’t wait to read it to my grand daughters. We had a picnic at Oscar’s farm, which is a mile down the road from the cabins, and he has 18 acres on which are 18 different fruits and vegetables, including coffee beans, chocolate fruit, mangos, lemons, bananas, coconuts, mangos and lots of others. It is very scenic and well kept. He also had a horse to ride. So I rode it. It was fun. She wanted to gallop. I didn’t want to. I didn’t let her. She didn’t like that. I didn’t care. The girls in the group like to gallop. So they did. They had fun. The horse liked them. I didn’t care. I like Dr Seuss. I think I will start to write like him. But I forgot to rhyme. But I had a good time. That’s a good sign. 

I was remembering our New Year’s Eve and all the fun we had. They have some interesting traditions here, and one of them is the “old man of New Year’s Eve”. So what they do is get a dummy, not a dumb person dummy but a fake scarecrow type of mannequin dummy, and they dress him up like an old man, and they set him up outside the home, and he just sits there and looks, well, dumb. But what he represents is the past year, and to celebrate the end of the last year and start of the New year, they light the dummy on fire; exactly at midnight, and they let him burn away to nothing; away with the old. We walked into town to catch the end of all the old man dummy fires, and it was kind of interesting to see all the fires in the middle of the road, like you were in some kind of war zone. We got up close to one of them as it was just about done burning, and we found out another one of their traditions. They put an explosive device inside of them I guess, or maybe they did it because they saw a large group of green shirted gringo’s coming to look at their dying ember dummy, and it exploded right as we got close, which was quite a surprise to us, and quite a delight to the others; but I kind of like and respect that kind of sick slightly dangerous humor, as it was something I might do to my sisters when I was younger and immature, not like now. So I may just bring that tradition of burning explosive dummies at midnight, as well as fireworks inside church on July fourth – that’s a keeper too. 

Well we are off to the countryside tomorrow morning for 3 days of Veterinary service to the underserved people and animals of Nicaragua. We will be out of cell phone service, wifi, and even electricity so you will not hear from me for a few days. Actually you should have probably quit reading this awhile ago anyway. But I really love this part of the trip, and I will tell you about it if you want, but I am not going to complain about the noise anymore, even though I know there are dogs and roosters and other noisy things just waiting for us out there, but I am going to just put in my foam ear plugs and grin and bear it. That’s the mature thing to do. And I have been transformed, thank you Jesus. 

And I do so like green eggs and ham. Try them, try them,  you will see, you can eat them in a tree, with a rooster, with a dog, in a hut, or with a hog, I will try them you will see, and then will you please, just let me be.

Many Blessings

Dr Seuss McTigue