Lists

For those of you who know me well, you know I like love lists. So when mom and I ran across a blog of a sister serving in Africa who posted a list of 25 things she missed from the states I couldn't resist making my own. The following is a list mom and I constructed of things we miss about being in the states (but not 25 of them). If you had asked me to write a list like this when we first moved to Panama or even a year ago it would have been quite different, I have come to view some things we live without as just being part of life. But this post will not be completely filled with reminisces and pity parties, I am also including a list of things that we would miss if we left Nicaragua and needgreater life in general!

Things I Miss From the States:

1. Family (especially getting together with family for gatherings)
2. Friends (Don't think this needs much of an explanation)
3. Walmart (how much and how often I desire to go to walmart cannot even be put into words!)
4. Libraries (yes there are what they call "libraries" here, but they can't even touch the isles of neverending English that seem to never end, I miss everything about them, when I go back to visit the States I could live in a Library...or a Walmart)
5. Yards/grass (Is there grass here? Well there's a couple squares in the central park area, but they are fenced off... other than that, we have a 2x2 patch on the street in front of our house... I may be exaggerating, since outside of town there are areas, but not by much. And as for yards, we have a tiled in courtyard for our laundry and that's about all anyone has, remember the houses here are all connected, the only way to really see the difference from the outside is the colors the fronts are painted)

   

   This is the only picture I have of our street to show the makeup of the neighborhood, although its unusual to have those gates in front of the houses like you seen in the orange one, usually it's just house fronts and front doors. You can see our garage door (the green one). And the rainbow is just an added bonus. 

6. Health food stores (they even smell healthy!)
7. Snow Days (really just snow in general, but I especially miss those days when the news tells you you must stay inside, and so you have no obligation to do anything except for curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate, then later go out to sled and play in the snow, snow is really what makes freezing your butts off worth it, on hot days here though freezing your butts off under any circumstances sounds nice)
8. Everything about Autumn (I miss home the most during the fall, everything from fall layers, to colorful leaves, to everything being pumpkin flavored, what's not to miss?)
9. RBC (I didn't really get to be apart of it much before we left the States, but it always sounded so fun! Although there are suppose to be a number of hall builds happening soon in our area...)
10. Fast Food (I know its so wrong, but every so often I crave going through the drive through for some super salty french fries, a McGriddle, a Frosty, or a .99 large slush)
11. Long Summer Days (here the sun goes down at 5:30, 365 days a year )
12. Road Laws! (and people who follow them, and mom would like to street lights on the highways so you can see when you drive at night)
13. QuikTrip and just the service breaks in the states in general (for those of you who do not know what quiktrip is, I am sorry your life stinks...)
14. The weather changing (having the four seasons means you constantly have a change, and having four wardrobes for this is really an added bonus)
15. Controlled Temperature!! (This is a biggy, man I miss everywhere having air conditioning!)
16. Radio Stations (there is one station we discovered here that has English songs playing a lot, but its not the same)
17. Dishwashers (I HATE doing dishes!! 'nough said)
18. Quiet (yeah, Nicaragua is loud...)

There you have it, I probably will think of a couple more later, but honestly that's about it, I do miss Bethel, but since that's in New York I would miss it back in Missouri too, I would miss Bethel pretty much anywhere since it is my favoritest place in the world!

Now for you all to hear what you're missing up North... ;)

Things I'd Miss from Nicaragua/ Needgreater life in general:

1. Trash pick up 3 times a week (be jealous, be very very jealous, it is wonderful)
2. Low rent (a couple years ago I asked how much rent is in the States, since people would always come down to Panama and talk about how "cheap" the rent was, I about choked when I heard what "cheap" rent was considered there, I even cried a little for you guys up there)
3. Simple Life (things in general don't matter as much here, we don't have a sofa, just 4 rocking chair, we haven't unpacked anything but clothes [and my yarn] since we moved here, you'd think people that come over would care they have to sit on the floor but they don't at all, it just doesn't matter, our neighbors have dirt floors, others have no glass in their windows, my study has her fridge and stove intermixed with her old sofa and tv in a room smaller than my bedroom. Priorities are different here, and there's really not any pressure to change it)
4. Bible Studies (each one individually)
5. Being able to sit on street corners and front steps (not only do people not care, but it is expected of you)
   
6. Cart Mondays (every Monday we do the cart at the park, we stay as late as possible)

   

   Although this picture wasn't taken on a Monday...and it was on the English cart...and it was totally staged....

7. Eating out cheap (.60 pupusas or .80 tacos... yes please)
8. Laguna (I love it... you will too when you come visit!)
   
9. Need Greater Culture (What? Its something really had to explain to one's who haven't lived it, but I'll try my best. We've established that we are no longer American's, we really gave up that citizenship when we moved to Panama, yet we're not Panamanians either, nor Nicaraguan, we just pick up a little from where ever we are and we become needgreaters, fitting in best, with other needgreaters. When someone asks where we're from the correct response is now needgreaterhood. And something I would miss immensely leaving this lifestyle would be being around other's of our culture)
10. Having the ocean so close! (45 mins away!)
11. The Friends here
12. Walking in service (well not all of us would miss this...)
13. Cheap tropical produce! 

    

    13.60

14. The focus being on service
15. Thrift Stores (I know they have these in the states, but the ones here are just so wonderful, $3 brand name dresses are hard to resist!)
16. Parks all over (there are small neighborhood parks all over)

    

    This one is only a block away, we pass it almost everyday, although it is a bit larger than others, and look GRASS! Who knew? In my defense this is rainy season and there is a fence around that!

17. Little amusements we get on a daily basis, for example...

    

    Those little bags are full of  oregano, crumbled cheese, crushed red pepper, and ketchup! This is what you get when you order a personal pizza to go. 

    
    

    

    Sorry its so fuzzy, but this was dad the other night coming home with our laundry from the cleaners when it was raining too much to hang it up and dry. This was before we had our new car...

18. Living the universal brotherhood everyday (not only being in a foreign country, but also so many visiting from other country we get to meet!)
19. Lack of dress code (this sounds so wrong, and really there are limits, but we can wear jean skirts, flipflops, and tennis shoes in service, and brother's don't have to wear ties in service)

    

    No tie! 

20. Everyday is start a bible study day! (if someone in your group doesn't start a start a study that day, its odd) 
    
    

    

    Pretty Much, except for the "try to" part is unnecessary. 

So in conclusion mom has a saying she wrote down from a friend, in the US you have lots of things, but here we have lots of people, so even though we miss things, the people need us, so we will always chose people.