A fantastic chapter in our life is now over

Having spent around a year in Nicaragua and Costa Rica we have now sadly arrived to the point when its time to say goodbye to all brothers, sisters & friends in this part of the world.
Its time to go back to Europe and join the Spanish speaking congregation and help out there instead ;)

But it goes without saying that our experiences in this part of the world has formed + trained our thinking in many ways.... and just to mention a few.

1
Many material things we take for granted in Europe are not "the basics" even though that is what we might think... on the contrary its pure luxury.
And it does not help when the commercial systems is pushing our thinking in this direction as well.

2
The brotherhood is stronger here since people need to rely much more on each others while coping with daily struggles.
I suspect that our social welfare system in Europe is to blame. Back in Europe our welfare system "cuts out" the need for real people and we become detached since we think that "others"  (or the system) will look after our fellow humans instead of us. 
And OK, it might be the case that our system does that fairly successfully.... but only up to a point though.
The problem is we lost the human aspect of looking after others in the process!
It has just become a numbers game that does not provide for all facets in our daily lives ... so vulnerable people end up being lonely, isolated and depressed in the process.
But I'm NOT saying that the support system here is better all the time though... but people are somehow treated more as people and not as numbers and one gets the feeling they are better cared for (as long as they have a family, which is the network).
The good thing with Jehovah's Witnesses is that our congregations are our families so our "support network" is huge and no one will ever be left fending for themselves.

Finally. ..
We hope that all the photos we posted over the last year in our 2x blogs helped you to understand a bit what we faced when living in this part of the world + enabled you to get a taste and all the positive things we experienced as well.

Since we are flying out to Europe tomorrow this is probably our last update on our blogs; but we will not close them down though.

So we will keep our blogs running for....
1.   Others who want to go and preach in these places in the future ... and who want to know a bit more what to expect here. We are not the first couple to do this type of work; but not the last ones either.
2.   All friends who want to look back now and again.
3.   Keeping it as a sweet memory for me & wife and for us to share with others with a similar mindset. 

Once again... thanks to all who followed us on this trip :)

Sending off party

The congregation had a send off party for me and Mily. It was a fantastic day,  one of the best we ever had.  A brother in the congregation owns a land where they built an open house for events like this. We spent all day from morning to evening here and it was like paradise... just hanging around chatting, eating and taking baths in the river... a day we will never forget.  (I will upload more photos later).

La congregación hizo una fiesta para mí y Mily antes de irnos. Fue un día fantástico, uno de los mejores que he tenido. Un hermano en la congregación tiene una finca donde se construyó una casa abierta. Pasamos todo el día desde la mañana hasta el noche aquí y era como paraíso... sólo hablamos, comemos y tomar baños en el río todo el dia. Un día que nunca olvidará (voy a cargar más fotos en algunos dias).

Washing machine, what's that?

We have been without washing machine for a year now, all washing has been by hand, mostly by my capable wife actually ;)

This is our (80 liters approximately) Costa Rica bucket seen from above.
Probably one of the last washes before we have to leave next week.

Cutest ever?

One of our friends just got a puppy. .. tiny tiny and cute cute.
Only 1 month old :)

What IS this actually?

Almost every evening we get these HUGE bugs flying around in the flat.
But they are so laughably incompetent and flies into walls/doors and everything else.
Thus one wonders... what did Jah think of when he made these creatures who can't even fly straight and look after themselves!!?!?!!
:)

Took the opportunity

Since dentistry is slightly cheaper here than in the UK we took the opportunity to clean our teeth here in Costa Rica today.

If all else fails

If all else fails ...
1. We forgot to buy something.
2. Or run out of something in our food supply then we go to this corner shop to get some essentials.
They dont have a lot in their store (which is a room in their house only).

They keep asking all the time about where I come from & how is life in England etc etc.
We often speak about spiritual things as well and I left a few WT etc... so hopefully planting a seed for the local brothers to continue working on in the future.

The Kingdom Hall is ..... hot hot hot.

This time of year you got a warm welcome in the Kingdom Hall in more ways than one ;)

Those things in the ceiling are fans trying to cool us down, and if you sit right under one they are doing a pretty good job actually ;)

A "Tica" meal

Me & the wife got invited for a "Tica" meal in a sister's restaurant today as a send off present.

The sister was taught in San Jose by Chinese chefs so Chinese is her speciality believe it or not. But we went for the "Tica" option though  ;)

Since we now have to sell off our meager belongings before we leave (that includes our basic cooker) we might actually return to eat here again fairly soon.

As we were eating someone passed with a newly born cat in a box to give away to whomever wanted it. 

The cat did not end up in the oven or stove in case you wonder ;) LOL

This will not be the case

This sight will NOT be the case when we go back to England and preach... thats for sure!!!
Clear sky without clouds and a merciless sun striking us with heat above 30 degrees Celsius.
HOT, HOT, HOT !!!!

Sad but true...

Our spiritual journey to Nicaragua and Costa Rica is fast approaching the termination point. .. not much time left now... counting the days to our departure :(

Both Nicaragua and Costa Rica have been absolutely fantastic experiences on all levels... and we made many new friends in the process :)  We thank them all for their patience with us and our limited Spanish.... and also for trying to teach us their local versions of Spanish including their culture.
It goes without saying that we will never forget the brothers and sisters in Totogalpa and in San Isidro; neither forget our Bible students and the interested people we met.

Also, thanks to all following our blogs and thanks for all positive feedback we had on them (from both believers an unbelievers).
Even though we could not write about everything that happened to us in the blogs we hope it was enough for you to get at a small taste of what we experienced on our journey to this side of the planet.

1 Cor 7:31 from a technical perspective

Since I'm a technical geek (it's my profession after all) I'm often reflecting on mankind's progress in the technical realm as well as in the social, religious and scientific areas.

I was looking at Mily's phone today and thought to myself that new technical gadgets are always expensive because manufacturers have to get their investments back; this is often years of development without any genuine income during the process.
Back in 1980 you would for example have to pay around £3000 to get a sample of the worlds first portable mobile, it was the Motorola 8000X that the executives and yuppies bought to impress others and to look important. Besides the big price the size of the phone was humongous as well.

Nowadays this technology is so low cost that "normal people" like you and me can buy phones that are more powerful than many computers were back then.
Actually this technology is now so cheap that some people even got several phones; or as in the case with my wife ... we bought a banger for her to use for a couple of months (£15 only).

Times have certainly changed ;)

Don't they never learn?

Seems like the small animalitos never learn in Costa Rica.
A flat toad in front of our house. ... yet another example of not looking right or left before crossing the road ;)

The Quebradas river behind our flat

It's dry season now and this is how the Quebradas river looks like behind our house in Costa Rica (I don't know if you can spot the people in the distance that are having a bath).

Trabajando

Today we went to a place 1hr away from where we live to assist in the building a new Kingdom Hall.
It was a great time and I took some snaps with my mobile ;)

Absolutely awesome ! !!!!!!

This was just an outrageously fantastic experience!!
An awesome event!!

My brother in law said he was paying for me to do this ... and it was the best gift ever. .. we both enjoyed this to the extreme and here are the photos to prove it.

It was a lot easier to learn than I expected  as well; thus after 10 min training we were able to do it without any major problems.

The only hiccup was in the beginning when i was learning. I fell in front of the water-scooter which was speeding in the wrong direction.... and for this reason it ended up driving over my face so I now got a black eye as a result.
But it was worth it anyway ;-)