Something special for Jules...

This post is solely dedicated to all the strange things I've seen and heard of here in Nicaragua. I already have the feeling that this will either be people's favorite post, their least favorite, or both at the same time. Personally, I'm going to enjoy it way more than is morally acceptable.

I started seeing strange things within hours of landing in Managua. The Crafts, Brian Fox and I (all from the Conroe Vineyard) crammed ourselves into Eugenio's (pastor of one of the two Managua La Viñas) truck and took a tour of the city. Eugenio's driving was the first experience the Crafts and I had of the roads here, and holy crap it terrified us. Eugenio's a pretty scary driver even by Nicaragua standards. I never heard much of the tour he was giving us--I was too busy praying for our lives, wondering who would clean my remains off the window I was next to after I surely smashed into it. It was only a matter of time.


Suddenly I saw a motorcycle on the lane next to us. Which isn't unusual at all... there are lots of motorcyclists in Managua because they all want to get in between the cars when there's traffic or red lights. 


What was odd was that two people were sitting on this motorcycle with a windshield wrapped in a package in between them. They were going full-speed down the road. The guy in the back had his arms spread, holding on to the package for dear life as the wind threatened to tear it from his grip. The guy in the front was driving the motorcycle with one hand with one arm reaching back, clinging to the windshield the best he could. 


Motorcycles are great places to look if you need a quick laugh. I won't describe to you how many times I've seen entire families crammed onto a motorcycle together... such as four little girls riding with their daddy during a rainstorm, mothers holding infants while the fathers drive with one hand and text with the other, people attempting to reach their phone in their pants pocket while driving at breakneck speed down the road... yes, I've grown to love looking around at the motorcycles.

On the way to the Costa Rica trip, we sat around on a bus at the Costa Rica border for an hour for no reason whatsoever. They had us wait there, then sent a guy to come over and tell us "Yeah just kidding, you have to get your baggage and get on another bus. We just wasted an hour of your lives, and can't do anything about it. We screwed you over SO BAD." The guy spoke Spanish so I didn't understand what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure it was similar to that anyways.


One good thing came out of sitting there not moving for an hour. When I lifted the window curtain to look outside, I saw something that suddenly made my day. There were a lot of 18-wheelers around... but one guy whose first name I assume is Awesome had stretched a hammock underneath one of the 18-wheelers and was just lounging around in it casually.


This man named Awesome was pure genius. There he is in the heat of the day, just chillin' and swingin' on a hammock underneath a huge vehicle that provided great shade. How come no one else has done it? I know some people have problems with the fact that the 18-wheelers are... you know... not exactly stationary objects, but still. I applaud the man named Awesome, and I applaud him proudly.

Carrie's favorite moment was when we went to the beach a few weeks ago. We were having a lot of fun bodysurfing into the waves, tumbling in the water and popping up again to swim out and do it all over again. Regretfully, this would turn out to not be such a carefree day of our lives. A young girl and an older woman came out to the water near us and Carrie and I happened to look over. Then we saw... the older woman had on shorts and a white shirt... but nothing underneath the white shirt. And the white shirt was wet. 

You know how every once in a while you'll see something that you really really don't want to look at, but you can't get the image of it out of your head? We experienced that to the extreme. I actually experienced it to the extreme twice because when I went to rinse myself off at the sink, the old lady was there. She waited as I scooped up water with a cup and poured it over myself to get off some of the salt water. I handed the cup to her and she immediately went ahead and poured the water all over her white shirt that had formerly dried in the wind. I didn't exactly appreciate her doing that especially since I was drying myself with a towel as fast as I could to get away from here. Unfortunately, it just wasn't fast enough.


Carrie absolutely loves to bring up that old lady in random conversations. Every time, I wince and change the subject as fast as I can.


One day we were taking a nice scenic drive. We weren't going anywhere in particular, just driving outside the city enjoying the sights. On the way back, we saw something smoking on the side of the road. As we drew near, I could feel my eyebrows approach my hairline while Carrie made a noise of revulsion. We couldn't tell if it was a horse or a cow because someone had burned it almost beyond recognition. It was charred, black, and still smoking. I'm hoping the animal was dead before being set on fire.


But my favorite moment by far was last Wednesday, on the way to the church to be picked up for the Costa Rica trip. It was about 5:45 a.m. and I was still incredibly groggy from waking up early. I'm not much of a talker in the early morning. Or at least, I wasn't much of a talker until I glanced across the road at a nearby truck. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was looking at.


The truck was full of rotting cow heads. With the eyes still in it. It was a huge, bloody mess where a couple of workers in the back were standing and stepping over, to make sure none of the precious heads fell off I suppose. 


It was so disgusting, but I found that for some reason I couldn't look away. Now a week later, I still have the image burned in my mind.

I'm sure more strange and disturbing sights will appear soon. I might have to do a part 2 to this and who knows, hopefully even a part 3! Thanks for sticking with me this far.