The Widow Maker

Just wanted to share with ya'll a picture of our shower head. It's called the widow maker. Isn't that a lovely name! Here's a picture of it:
It looks fairly normal right? Well if you look at the back of it, you'll soon see why it's called the WIDOW MAKER.
Those are electrical wires, just hanging out! Here in Nicaragua, there are not hot water faucets, everything is cold. Usually there is only one faucet, not two. So in order for there to be hot water from the shower, you have to turn on the widow maker - the water runs through a heating coil of some sort and then you get hot water. But, we've been warned not to touch the the shower head (Widow Maker) or we'll get an electrical shock! How crazy is that!! Needless to say, we have not been touching it!

And because people have been asking - here's a picture of David cutting up a 80 cent pineapple and me loving Coca-Cola Light.

About Nicaragua

We learned quite a bit about Nicaragua today and wanted to share some of the history/facts we learned. Thomas, NCA's computer teacher and a true Nica, shared his knowledge with us!

• Nicaragua has 17 districts. They don't call them states though, just districts. We live in the district of Managua.
• There are 2 autonomous regions on the Eastern Coast, that aren't districts. Why? I don't know!
• The people that live on the Eastern Coast look more Jamicain/African than the people living on the West Coast. The West Coast population look hispanic.
• The town of Managua is the capital of Nicaragua, but is not set up that way. The majority of towns in Nicaragua have a central square, but because of the earthquake that hit Managua in '72 there is no town square. Managua used to be just a fisherman's town, but somehow became the capital! I can't remember why!
• Managua is notorious for having no street names. So giving/getting directions is very confusing. They will say things like, "Go to the place where the statue used to be and it's 4 blocks a lago (the lago is north!)". I should say it's probably just confusing for me, everyone else here seems to know what they are talking about!
  

So there you go! Just a few random facts about Managua, Nicaragua

We're Here!!!

Hi friends and family!!

We finally made it to Nicaragua! I can hardly believe we are here!

We flew out of DFW on Tuesday and arrived later that day. With all of 5 of our bags weighing the maximum, we wre a bit worried about getting there, but with the help of Landon Maples we made it! If you see Landon at Woodcreek tell him we say thanks!! He helped us so much!

After arriving there, we went to our apartment, which is really nice! We have a bed, a couch set, a kitchen table, a fridge, a stove and oven, a microwave and even a George Foreman grill! What more could you ask for!

Our adjustment has gone pretty smoothly! I have definitely had my moments of tears, but the Lord has been very faithful to us.

We were able to set up our apartment to make it more like home and to go grocery shopping - both very good things!

Below are some before pictures of our apartment. Look for the "after" pictures soon!

This is our kitchen area!

This is looking from the hallway to the front door!

This is looking out our front door!
I hope this gives you a little bit of what are life looks like!
We love ya'll and miss you a ton!
P.S. Jeremy and Michelle, I love the digital picture thing!! Love it!! It brings me great joy to see all our friends and family!!

What's in a name?

You may be wondering where we got the name of our blog!? Well, let me explain. There are many, many Russells. There are the New York Russells.There are the Oklahoma Russells

There are the Texas Russells (which I don't have a picture for!) You know what Tracy and Orell look like!

And now there are the soon to be Nicaragua Russells!

So there you have it! The explaination of the name behind our blog!