Martinsens arrive in Nicaragua!

Well, it is Sunday morning here on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua and I finally have time to sit down and make my first blog entry. I need to do this before all the days start melting together. I want the details to be fresh in my memory as I document our life here. So…I will start at the beginning….

We arrived in Managua on Wednesday, July 14, 2010. It did not take any time at all to know that we were definitely not in the USA anymore! The airport is very small and “primitive”. We were quite the sight with the five of us and all 20 bags. Lora and Emma were following directions well to stay attached to my hip as we made our way through customs etc..which made things even more difficult to manage our bags with 2 kids hanging on me.



To back up just a little, I happened to sit next to a young guy on the plane who was born and raised in Nicaragua, but now working in the states. He was on his way home to visit his wife. They were married 2 months ago and this was his first visit home to her. He speaks English quite well and he and I talked almost the whole flight. He was an angel and did not leave our side until we were safely in the taxi that we had prearranged to meet us at the airport. He even insisted on paying the tips for our bags and when some little boy gave the girls some flowers made out of leaves, he quickly gave the boy some money for that too. His name was Fernando and I will not forget him. That was the first of many tender mercies that the Lord has given us so far in these first few days. We could not have made it easily through the airport process without him.



The half hour taxi ride from the airport to the Hotel was an experience in and of itself. I don’t even know if I have words to describe it. None of us really even spoke…we just sat there with our eyes open wide, trying to take it all in. Extreme poverty. We are talking like the most extreme thing I have ever seen. Dirty and chaotic. By chaotic I mean that there are just people everywhere. They walk in the street, like right in the middle of the street! The cars just swerve and honk like crazy. Women walking everywhere with baskets of fruit on their head and when the taxi has to stop for a light, the women come up to your window (which is wide open) and they ask you to buy from them. You might think that some fresh mango would be something to snag, but no. When you see them sitting there on the side of the road cutting them up and putting them in bags with dirty hands and laying them on a nasty old board, you just know that you can’t eat it. They have bags of colored juice that they are selling as well, which is just made with the local water, so you cannot drink that either. I have to be honest and say that during that ride, my heart was in my throat and I wanted to cry. I sat there looking at Emma who was in complete shock and I wanted to cry for her. I thought of the faith of a child and how hard this must be on her to see what we were seeing. She is extremely sensitive and seeing all the poverty was making her really sad. It seems that they have no concept of garbage cans. They just throw trash everywhere, therefore, things are just horribly dirty.



Well, we made it to the hotel, “Los Cisneros”. It was a colorful little building with lots of beautiful flowers and trees around. The office lady was so sweet and helpful as well, although she spoke no English at all so we did a lot of smiling and hand gestures. Ok, the hotel room…..oh boy. I will just way that it was not a Holiday Inn and I will spare all the details. I was so sweaty an stinky, but preferred not to shower in that shower, if that tells you anything. Our bags filled up the entire room and so we had very little space to walk around at all. We sat on the beds and stared at each other for a minute and then decided to take a walk to Price Smart. We had been told that Price Smart is like a very small Costco and it has American food. The walk was another experience. Don’t worry, we had asked Fernando if this would be a safe thing for us to do, and he had no worries about it. Just like any big city though, he said you don’t want to be walking around at night. There are really no sidewalks. The sides of the road all are just broken up. All along the way are street vendors cooking various things and cutting up fruit. They have these strange little things called “mamones”. They look like a very small lime. I was asking a woman what they were and she broke one open and gave it to me. I did not want to offend her, so I ate it. Now don’t panic everyone….It is like a little lime that you pop open, so the fruit is nice and clean inside. I realize that her hands were not the cleanest, but I wiped it off on my shirt first. It tastes like a grape sort of but has a big pit in the middle and the fruit is a little hard to get off the pit. Anyway, that was my first taste of any native food.

We continued on our walk and I said to Lane, “I just want to run into some Mormon missionaries. It would just be comforting to see something familiar.” I was feeling so foreign and unsettled. Soon we saw Price Smart up ahead on the corner and it was a good thing because we could see that a torrential rain was about to unload on us. As soon as we got inside, BAM! The rain began and let me tell you, it was no drizzle.



We took a few steps and who do you think we saw standing there with big smiles? That’s right, 2 Mormon missionaries! I was so happy I wanted to run and hug the guts out of them! Of course I didn’t, but I sure wanted to J. One of them was from Sandy, Utah and the other from Las Vegas. Both English speaking! We all went and sat in the food court and we talked their ears off. Their comment to us was, “wow! You guys are famous! We have been waiting for you to get here!” ha ha…that was funny. Lane and I had called the Mission President months ago and told them that we were coming and these Elders work in the office so they had been told about us. We walked around the store with them and got a few things that we thought we could manage to carry in the ferry to the island. We bought 2 loaves of bread, a brick of cheese and some ham. It was all food from the U.S. that we recognized the label so we felt safe. As we made our way around the store we ran into 2 more sets of missionaries as well as the new mission President from the Nicaragua North mission, which is not ours, but it was still fun to meet him. There is just such a special feeling about missionaries and we just felt so happy being with them.

There actually was a McDonalds across the street so we all piled in their truck and we treated them to dinner. They said they eat there quite a bit and have never gotten sick so we trusted them. I think McDonalds would be pretty standard anyway.

While we were eating, Elder Pulley called the missionaries that are serving on the island and he told them about us and that we would be there tomorrow. Apparently the island elders had not heard we were coming and they were excited.



Well, they gave us a ride home and even though it was only like 7pm, we decided to just go to sleep since we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow and there was nothing else we could really do anyway. I slept with one eye open since I wasn’t sure what might be lurking around on the ceiling. All through the night we heard this funny little sqeaking noise that sometimes sounded almost like a giggle. We had no idea what it was until we found out the next day, that is the sound of a Gecko. More about them later.

Day 2: We had breakfast at the hotel café which was a plate of fruit and a cheese sandwich. Emma was the only one who would not eat a bite. She was just feeling too uneasy to eat. We had bought some bottled water at Price Smart so that is all we were drinking.

Our taxi driver arrived about a half hour late, but at least he came. A young boy had spotted our bags in the lobby and so he hung out until the taxi arrived so that he could help us with our bags and have the opportunity to get a small tip. This is the case everywhere we go. People are clamoring to help you so that they can receive a tip. I think it is great that they are so eager to work, but you have to be careful or else you will have 50 people helping with a 2 person job.



Well, the 2 hour ride from Managua to Rivas was very interesting. Crazy driving, people in the road, cows, horses and pigs in the road as well. The cows and horses are all so skinny and lots of skinny dogs everywhere too. But the women…plump. We waited by the ferry for about an hour or more. Talked to several tourists who were waiting as well. Most of them were from Australia or Germany. At least it was fun to speak with the Australians who spoke English. Emma had to use the bathroom really bad so they pointed the way and as soon as she saw it, she suddenly did not have to go. You see, the ferry dock area was swarming with millions of these little tiny water gnats. They are harmless, but just so annoying! They were literally covering the entire seat of the toilet and the floor, etc. She decided to wait.



We were having a fun conversation with some Nicas (native people) who were hanging out with us to help us load our bags onto the ferry. Something we notice right away is that the people in general are very un-animated. They are sober faced and quiet until you smile at them and act interested in them and then they come alive and want to be your best friend. It is like they are very shy and insecure and it is our job to make them feel comfortable. Luckily Lane and I are not shy about meeting new people and so we love that challenge of making them feel comfortable. Anyway, we were trying to talk to these guys who were waiting with us and we were all laughing together as we tried to understand each other. The urge hit Emma again so this time we walked onto the Ferry to see if the bano (bathroom) was any better. There were no bugs because they all died within a 50 radius from the SMELL! Oh boy… it was this teeny tiny closet with a toilet and we held our breath the entire time. You see, here in Nicaragua they do not flush any paper in the toilet so all of it goes in a can next to the toilet so the smell is…..well, you can imagine.



We got back out onto the dock as quick as we could. Right then we hear someone say. “Lane Martinsen family?” It was Adam Harris who is the son of the owner of the house we will be renting. He had made the journey from San Juan Del Sur which is about an hour or so away so that he could meet us and help us get to the house. We had hoped he would be there but were not sure. He is about mid 20’s and just the nicest guy ever. He was born and raised in Canada but now lives in Nica and started coming here to live off and on since he was 9. He is very familiar with the Island and Central America in general so it was just awesome to talk with him for the whole ferry ride (one hour) and he put us at ease about so many things. He was able to explain why there are so many misconceptions about Nicaragua in the U.S. It is largely because of what our media chooses to portray and that is not always the true picture. True, there was a huge civil war here in the 80’s but since then there has been peace. He is a really fun person and set us at ease about many things. He told us about some fun things to see and beautiful places to explore on Ometepe which got us really excited. Looking at the Island from the ferry, is a sight I will not forget. It is lush and beautiful and the volcanoes are so incredible! The five of us all had butterflies as we anticipated getting off the ferry and making our way to our new “home”.



The dock was swarming with boys and men wanting to help this “Gringo familia” with all of our 500 bags! I am sure they just thought they had hit the jackpot! Adam quickly told them that we would only pay a certain amount and they would need to split it up, so that we didn’t get stuck paying them all separately. Thank you Adam. This did not discourage them at all. They would rather have something than nothing so they just kept right on lifting and loading. It was about a 10 minute ride to the house. It was just so interesting to look out the window and see all of our new friends and stores that we would be getting to know. The village is called “Moyogalpa.” It is pretty hustle and bustle…lots of action going on but has a quaint feel to it. The entire feel was so completely different than Managua, thankfully. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is still dirty and very poverish, but just a much safer and nicer feel to it. Everyone stares at us though. Not to worry, they will all be our friends soon. They just don’t know that yet. Well, I don’t know quite what to say about the house except that in this case, the pictures that we had seen online did not capture the smell or the filth in the corners that was the reality when we opened the door. I don’t want to be too negative, but I will say that my heart sunk when I saw it. I hid my feelings fast so that it wouldn’t carry over to the kids too much and add to the culture shock that they were all in already.



We put our bags in the rooms and said goodbye to Adam who had to hurry and catch the last ferry back to the mainland. We just all stood there wondering what to do next and I was honestly trying to fight back the tears. I could not wrap my brain around living in this house which was maybe a step above camping and I don’t even like camping for more than one night! Well, we look up the hill and we see these two smiling missionaries and another man who they introduced to us as the branch president. We all sat on the porch and talked for a couple hours. Elder Young is from Missouri! That is fun huh Elder Martinsen? J He thought that was just awesome when we told him about Alex. Alex is helping his friends and neighbors and he will be helping Alex’s family here in this strange land. The Lord works in wonderful ways. This sweet Elder could very much sense our feelings at this point and how overwhelmed and apprehensive we were at this point. He looked us each in the eye and said, “ I want to tell you something….this island has been a difficult place to try to do missionary work thus far. I have been feeling a bit discouraged. I prayed my heart out to the Lord to please send help to us. Please send a family who knows how the church works and that can be a strength to the people. I didn’t know how this was going to happen but I had faith that Heavenly Father would answer my prayer. Yesterday I got the call from the office Elders that you were coming.” He then said, “I know this is hard for you right now and you are feeling so overwhelmed, but please remember that I prayed you here.”

It was a very tender moment for all of us and we felt the spirit testify that we truly had been led to this place for a reason. The other elder and the Branch President do not speak any English but we could feel of their goodness and gratitude as well.



They left. It was dark. We were pretty hungry since all we had was the few things we had bought in Managua. We got ready for bed and all gathered in Lora’s bed to start a new book together, thinking that would help the kids get their minds off of things. At least we were together and safe and at that moment that is all that mattered. We would tackle the house as soon as we could and try to get it feeling a little like home.



Ok…I have to get ready for church now, so I will have to post this and write more later. Lane actually has to run up the road a little ways and do this at the internet café because we do not have internet access at the house yet but we realize that you are all probably anxious to hear from us, so this is it for now.

I love you all. I love Lane and the kids. I love my Heavenly Father so much and am so thankful for how he has blessed us so far.javascript:void(0)