Our friends, the Whitings

Yes, I know you might not believe it, but we have actually made some friends here in Nicaragua! :) And they've brought more excitement into our lives the last 4 days than we've had for weeks.  It's been a nice change of pace :)

We first saw them in church when they walked into Sacrament meeting with Diego, one of the branch members.  Joe and I were excited to see some white visitors, but we thought they were probably from Europe or something.  In Sunday School we met them - Philip and Angie, ages 25, and their daughter, Bella, age 2.  The conversation went something like this...

Angie: Hi, I'm Angie.
Heidi: Hey, my name's Heidi.  We're are you from?
Angie: Springville, Utah.
Heidi: No way! We're from Provo! What brings you guys to Granada? Just visiting?
Angie: Actually we're going to live here for about a year.
Heidi: That's awesome!
Angie: Yeah, my husband's job is on the computer, so we figured it really doesn't matter where we live, and we were ready for an adventure.
Heidi: Wow - same with us. Do you speak Spanish?
Angie: Not yet.

I instantly knew that Angie and I would be friends...  :)

We invited them over for lunch after church and they came! We had the best time chatting and getting to know them, finding out how they decided to move out of country and how they chose Nicaragua.  It was pretty much like Joe and me talking to a mirror - they had had the same questions before they came, we had all found the same answers through the same channels, we had all come because we felt like it was where we were supposed to be, and we were hoping to be able to help the church members here -  pretty much the only difference between them and us is that they actually will be able to help the church members here :)  Phil served his mission in Italy, so he speaks Italian, and from what we've observed seeing him interact with the locals, Italian is pretty much Spanish.  We can tell already that they are going to be a great asset to the branch they'll be attending.

They decided to come here because they have a friend who served in Diriomo, a little town about 20 minutes from Granada who said that the branch there could use a couple like Phil and Angie, so they had spent the previous week trying to find an apartment there, without any luck. 

We loved spending Sunday evening with them and they came over on Monday night as well to chat and eat popcorn - Angie, believe it or not, is as big of a fan of it as I am! :)

On Tuesday they finally found an apartment to rent! It used to be rented out by the LDS church as a place for the branch to meet, but the church has since been moved to the center of the town.  I haven't seen their apartment yet, but apparently it's got a couple big rooms, a kitchen, and a baptismal font outside their front door - who wouldn't want that?? They've told us we can go cold-tubbing with them sometime :)

On Wednesday they were planning on heading into Managua to spend the day buying all their furnishings - beds, stove, fridge, dishes, pans, etc. to make their apartment livable, but Angie woke up sick and throwing up.  No fun.  We think she was just dehydrated, but I guess it also could've been food poisoning or something.  So Joe went with Phil for the day instead, and Angie and Bella stayed with me.

That day the power went out around 8:00 am and didn't come back on again until about 1:00 pm.  That's the first time that's happened since we've been here. Poor Angie.  She was sick and miserable, lying on the bed sweating to death with no working fans to keep her cooled off and no cold water to drink.  Plus, our neighbor decided to play their entire collection of Nicaraguan techno music at full volume (imagine the loudest sound system you've heard in the U.S. and times that by 8 to get an idea).  I don't think she slept at all, but she was a good sport about everything.  She'll probably enjoy her quiet place in Diriomo that much more now :)

Joe and Phil had a productive day of bargaining in town and had the whole apartment set up by 9:00 that night when they came back to pick up Angie and Bella.  We are so happy and relieved that they were able to find such a good apartment and everything has worked out for them to finally have a place to call home!

We're hoping we can take a bus ride out this week so I can see it!