Summer is Here!

Although we’ve heard rumors of early summer weather in Michigan this year, usually at this time winter is still hanging around for many of you living in the United States and Canada. In Nicaragua, however, the advertisements for summer sales and summer vacation specials start to appear in February. The months of February and March get progressively warmer until April, when we’re all sweltering and dreaming of air conditioning. The days continue to get hotter and more humid until part way through May when “Winter” (the rainy season) finally comes to Nicaragua with the first big rainfall.

So how do we know it is summer in Nicaragua, when it’s rarely below 80° year round? Here are a few ways:

1. The pool vendors set up shop in various locations alongside the roads, selling inflatable pools and floaties.
2. The road out of Managua, which is also the road to our home, is full of beach-bound traffic every Saturday and Sunday morning. It is not uncommon to see twenty people crammed into the back of a pickup truck, some sitting on plastic chairs, many times packed to the gills with mattresses and bags overflowing as everyone escapes to the Pacific.
3. For those who don’t have cars, neighborhoods sometimes organize trips to the beach for a day in the big yellow school buses that are used for public transportation.
4. Our grass is finally completely dead.
5. We start looking forward to Semana Santa, or Holy Week, when we, too, will head to the beach for the CRC retreat. Each year we get to spend about four days with many of CRWM and CRWRC’s missionaries from Central America, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. It’s exciting to hear what God is doing across Central America through different ministries in the Christian Reformed Church, and we have enjoyed getting to know the many families that join us each year for this retreat.

Sometimes we do miss the seasons of the Northern U.S., but if we had to choose one of them, we’re glad we get summer year round. Even Belen has been out in the pool in her Hawaiian swimsuit nearly every day this week, enjoying the sunshine and the kiddie pool with her big brothers.