We’ve begun working our rural territory as a congregation more often. We pile on the bus, or sometimes in a brother’s truck and head out for a whole day of preaching. We are on foot most of the day. It is great. The young brothers and sisters really show up to support and 50-60yr old sisters come too. We all meet together for a picnic lunch and a bit of a rest and then we take off again to visit more people. The last rural we did we were on foot the whole time. Something that happened has become one of my favorite moments here by far. Shane didn’t make it, he was sick. I’m so sad he missed it. There were about 25 of us out. We split into two groups after lunch. One group of 10 went uphill the other group of 15 went downhill. Our group went up hill. We followed a dirt road with houses on both sides preaching the whole way. Our goal was to reach the new paved highway called the Guayacan and then preach our way back down the highway. As we kept working, the houses along the way became fewer and fewer. The dirt road became narrower and steeper until it was finally just a foot path that ended at someone’s front door. We needed to go further up the steep hill, but on both sides of the house were deep gullies carved by rain and clogged with brush. Our captain knocked on the door, and all ten of us stood below and waited to see where we would go. He asked the smiling lady of the house “Which way to the Guayacan?” After seeing our group, she smiled even wider, stepped to the side and pointed toward her living room. “It’s this way,” she said. She was inviting all ten of us to pass through her living room, dining room and kitchen (complete with Grandma slapping down some tortillas over the stove) and out the back door to continue our climb on the other side. One of the young sisters in our group recognized the woman’s daughter as a school mate and got to explain what we were doing. Josh and Miguel were the tail end of our crew and gave a polite thanks and a brochure to the family. I am still laughing about this as I write it. Nicaraguans are very obliging people.

Stalking Sloths:

We hear there are sloths in the park in town. Some have told us that they were killed off a long time ago by some nasty kids with rocks. But today a man who works at an office in the park said as of last week they were still there. He has seen them. Four of them. They come down out of the trees around 5pm. But we know from the recent Watchtower article that they only come down once a week. We really really want to see them. So, I want to start taking our dinner to the park to watch for them. If we can possibly see them and catch a picture, we’ll pass it along. Not as if once you spot them it is so hard to take a picture. The problem is seeing them in the first place. The magazine article said they look like hanging moss and move just about as slow. We’ve gotta see this!

We got to host the C.O. and the D.O.

We had our circuit overseer, Ruben Aguado, visit last week. And the district overseer, Arnoldo Garcia, was here too. Their visit was right after our circuit assembly so I thought we’d be really worn out, not to mention how tired they would be. But they were so encouraging and the visit just built energy for you. We even got to host them for dinner. We ate with them last time they were here, but we could hardly understand them, or express ourselves. One of our earlier posts had a picture of them and mentioned that Bro. Garcia was just loaded with jokes and stories that only Nicaraguan’s could understand. But that’s not true! We can understand him too now. They are all very funny. He made fun of Bro. Aguado who is from Mexico saying he’s not really Mexican because he doesn’t eat chili peppers or listen to Ranchero music. Ranchero music is a Mexican type of bar music. Or so said Bro. Aguado to justify his dislike of it, I think. And to update our last post about his health, Brother Garcia has now had malaria 6 times. But he said his last time was better because a sister told him about one medication that does what two used to. One used to clean your blood and the other cleaned your liver. Now one med does it all. He said, with the medication, the symptoms don’t reoccur, unless of course you happen to get bitten again. They also all really encouraged us saying our Spanish had really improved. It makes one shudder to think of how bad it was. But we are so glad we stuck it out, because now we can really know how wonderful our brothers and sisters really are down here.

Our first stay at a Missionary Home

I think I mentioned the circuit assembly already. But we had a huge privilege this time. Duane and Kim Lindala invited us to stay with them at the missionary home. Another couple had already been invited too, and the rest of the couples there had to approve it. Thanks to all of them, they let us stay. We had a great time. Kim and Kati (the other invited sister) and I made earrings one night and I wore them the next day at the assembly. They made us fresh passion fruit juice and pitaya juice. (I can’t even describe that fruit except that it is red and spiny outside like an artichoke and makes purplish pink juice)  Kim even helped us make our lunches and loaned me clothes. They made us feel just like family. We were so excited to be invited.

So, all the pictures are from the missionary home. And up at the top I included one of our garden in the little courtyard at the Kingdom Hall. It is thriving now that it’s the rainy season.

Plus, I have to answer a comment posted on our last blog. Shawn and Fam; Yes Shane wears his helmet constantly. Funny, as I was rereading your comment Shane walked in the internet place helmet and all. Guess that answers the question. At least he´ll be safer that way. :)

written by  Shane Perry on July 17, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
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We only had one case of lost bread. A man dressed reasonably well arrived late and stood on the back row. I noticed that he seemed to be praying or something as the bread began to be passed. Anyway, when it came by him he swiped a piece and crunched away on it until it was gone. And of course, it was so quiet in there, everyone could hear him. Then he left. He didn't even hang around for the wine. Maybe the poor guy was hungry. :)

I have to add this statistic too. Between the two congregations here theres a total of 170 publishers. But the memorial was 600+ people. They held it all together in a big auditorium. I would have loved to see that enormous group. Everyone said it was beautiful. So, in total over 700 people from the area were at the memorial. Can you imagine?

The Mangoes are in Season.

Speaking of Dancing

Yesterday in the Ministry

A sister and I went to a house and I gave the young woman, named Karelia, the tract on "Is there a hope for the dead?" She was so pleased to see it. She said she thought yes. And had us sit down as we showed her the scriptures from the tract. She loved it. She told me her mom died 4 years ago. And that a sister had given her this tract, but after she read it she lost it, and had looked everywhere for it. She even tried to tract the sister down to get another one. But couldn't. I asked her if she had ever studied the bible. She said of course, but alone. I showed her the bible teach book and let her choose a chapter. We started chapter 3 and are going to study again next Wednesday. The sister with me, Luisa, is a new publisher. Her husband was a publisher as a teenager, but now only attends meetings occasionally. She comes to every meeting and in the ministry with her mother-in-law. Yesterday, though, she came in the ministry alone. I am so proud of her. And she is very good at speaking. She jumped in a few times to the conversation when she thought she could help make a point more clear. She is excited to go back to Karelia next week too. I'm considering letting Luisa take over the study. As great as it is, our schedule is getting really full with the ones we already have. Tough job, huh, having too many good bible studies?!

written by  Shane Perry on April 23, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
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Pantasma

Funeral for Sister Nubia

written by  Shane Perry on March 25, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
tagged Funeral, Francisco, Reading and Lindala
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It's true. You can see it on Google Earth. There is a large population that lives in the "Valley of Pantasma." And to us it always just looked like a normal valley. But some photos on from space show it is actually a huge old meteor crater. There are lots of people who live in it. One guess was 50,000. But there is no congregation there. The main community, Praderas has several thousand people, a wide dirt main street and bars on both sides. It's like an old west town especially on the weekends. They get to be a wild bunch. And Shane is on everyone's 'Best Frien' list. I guess he looks like the kind that just might be able to buy them a drink if they could just lure him up to the bar. Anyway, that's all happening on main street.

Meanwhile, in other parts of town many studies have been started. The other congregation in Jinotega has been helping our congregation to work up there. Two very zealous publishers, Coni and Darline spent almost two weeks there this month. They really did a lot of good and next weekend we get to follow up on their new studies. Here's their picture where they stayed the two weeks.

There used to be a small congregation in Pantasma. While a special pioneer couple lived there in the main town it did well. But after they left the publishers there struggled to keep going spiritually. So now they are under the care of our congregation. And Jinotega is 2-3hrs by bus from Pantasma so they dont get to the meetings very often.

We were very impressed by a young teacher, Berania, and her kids who studied for several months before the other pioneer couple left. She had continued reading all the literature they left with her and is determined that she wants to serve Jehovah. When she works out of town on the weekends a few hours away in Wiwili, she goes to the meetings there. Prayer time in class is still done here, so she has taught her students that they should pray to Jehovah.

Pantasma is the largest population in Nicaragua without a congregation, we were told. There was talk of having a memorial up there. Not sure whether they're going to do it though. But either way, we're enjoying getting to work up there.

Shane's first public talk.

Well he did it. He gave his first public talk. No, he doesn't know I'm writing all about this, and if he did he wouldn't let me. But I'm the wife, it's my job.
It was great. Thanks to loads of practice and some proofreading from Andrew, he delivered it really well.
And most importantly everyone said they could understand him.
One sister even told me that if she'd known Shane was going to give the talk, she wouldn't have come so late! Haahaa.

One very big surprise is, Alejandro, the non-witness husband of a sister showed up right as it started. His wife, Marta, wasn't even there. She's in Costa Rica right now. We've never seen him at a meeting and he's refused a study once that we know of. But he said something about having promised it to Pablo (Shane) that he'd come. All his kids attend meetings so while there mom was away last week we took dinner over to visit. Shane dropped the hint about his talk then but didn't say more than that. Cant wait to hear what Marta says when she finds out.

An update on Bentura and Pastora

Bentura is the 50-something yr old man who Shane is studying with. We wrote about him in our last blog. So, for an update, Shane thought he was going to lose the study. Bentura said evenings after 5pm are best for him. One day about 2pm we were in the neighborhood and his sons trotted by on their horses and said their dad was at home today and we should stop. Shane had been planning to go at 5pm, but thought 'why not stop in and say Hi'. We pulled the bike up to his pasture and Shane saw a man duck into a roofless block shed in the middle of the pasture. Shane called out and no one came. He opened the gate and walked through the pasture and called out again. No one came. It was strange that someone standing inside a barn with no roof couldn't hear Shane's calls. Shane left the field and came back to me worried that Bentura was hiding from him. “No, dont think that. He wouldn't do that,” I said optimistically. Shane walked to where he could see the back side of the barn. And there was Bentura, hiding, with a guilty and irritated expression on his face. “Why not come back after 5pm!” he shouted. Shane agreed, apologized and we quickly left. When we came at 5pm we were both kind of worried. We didn't want the poor man to feel hassled and we hated to think he was just studying to be kind and didn't know how to tell us to move on. So we went in and there was Bentura with a big handshake, smiling and in clean clothes. We apologized, but he said he didn't mind our visits. But that when we had come earlier he was sweaty from working and covered in horse manure. He felt ashamed to discuss the bible like that. He is a very humble man. It is such a good lesson for us. The study has gone just fine since then.

Ray and MaryAlice Bloxsom were here. We had a great time seeing them. They seemed to have a great time. It was great getting to catch up on how everyone is back in Virginia. Their week here went by too fast. Wish we could have spent even more time together. As it is, we shamefully admit that we even invited ourselves over to a dinner party where we knew they were going just to spend more time with them!
Here's a picture. Sorry some of us have closed our eyes.

This last picture has nothing to do with anything. We just thought it was funny to see it so crazy loaded down with green plantains, (aka, giant bananas). You could tell it wanted to roll over really badly. Thought the kids might like it.

The special pioneer couple in our hall, Luis and Maribel Tercero were our hosts because that was their last assignment. They are still in love with it and we could see why. Every meal we ate included something grown right there on the island. You'd never starve. The fish, mangos, cocoa beans and plantains. They have so many plantains (you know what they are right? They're like big huge not so sweet bananas.) that you dont need to buy them. Someone always has some to give away. Luis said when they first got to the island and were going door to door preaching, they saw a horse munching away on the cargo that it'd just been carrying. He went quickly to the door and said “Hey, your horse is eating your load of plantains!” The lady at the house just laughed and said, “No, dont worry about him, that's his food.” That horse had good taste. We love plantains now. When they are green you can make tostones. You peel the plantain and cut it in big slices and fry it a little on both sides, then comes the fun part, you take a glass and smash it! Then you fry it a tiny bit more each side and salt them. They're not sweet so Shane compares them to potato chips.

We all stayed at the Kingdom Hall since we were there in between meeting nights. And there's no real hotels nearby. Shane and I, pitched our two person tent inside the Hall to avoid the mosquitoes. I'm sure that did nothing but add to our 'we're-foreign, thus-we-are-weird' image. It didn't bother the brothers and sisters at all though. They're all so wonderful. They had a little welcome party for us when we came. They made enchiladas and fresh juice and put on music for us to dance. One of the pioneer sisters did all our cooking for us all four days. We gave her a little 'donation' when we left, but we couldn't really repay all the kindness and hospitality she showed us.

Bentura

Shane met a man who wants to study. He is 50 yrs old named Bentura. He told us he couldn't read, which isn't that uncommon so we didn't think anything otherwise. He had so many questions about what happens after death. One was, “If we go back to the dust when we die, why does the bible say we can live again on the earth?” Shane showed him the Enjoy Life brochure. You know, the one that is almost all pictures except for the captions. He started reading very very slowly. The truth came out, he actually could read he had just always been embarrassed because he reads so slowly. Shane showed him how to find scriptures in his own bible and soon he was telling Shane not to help him with it. He wanted to do it himself. He was so proud of what he was learning. His wife, Pastora, sat beside him the whole time. She was very interested in the conversation too. We're going back Wednesday evening after he finishes work. He owns several horses, they look pretty well kept too, not starving and struggling to stand like some of them here. He walks his horses up the mountains to the little pueblos on the other side and makes money hauling loads back and forth. It is so exciting for Shane to find some men who are interested in studying. Like the scripture says the women are already a large army here. But the congregation still needs the help of more brothers. Especially because the news according to the branch through the special pioneer in the other hall is, they want another congregation here in the next year. Our meeting attendance is at 120 and the other congregation is at 125, that with three elders and six ministerial servants between the two congregations.

Here is the finished photo of the Kingdom Hall. You can compare it to some that we took early on in the trip and see the big change.

Greetings to everyone. We hope that everyone is enduring the North American winter. Firstly we would like to introduce a road sign which, we believe, should be in every road in the world (where appropriate, of course.)

Public inebriation is something that you encounter often. During Christmas day there are loads of them about, it should be interesting to see what new years is like. It is of interest to note that 95% of all drunks here can speak some English, “Give me moneys!”, “I luf you!”, etc being some of the more notable lines that are used. They also enjoy touching you, grabbing you on the arm and not letting go. Fortunately, they never do this to Vanessa but, I on the other hand, am a magnet! I think I have discovered my second super power (closely following my ability to attract mosquitoes, not sure what that's about either). Fun stuff! I now know why I've avoided bars to this point in my life!

We've been quite busy. We've recently completed our District Convention (They have them in the winter here. Someone told me in order to avoid the heat.) The drama was excellent. They put a lot into it just like at home. After the program though Duane Lindela, a missionary brother, showed us the prototype for the idol in the drama. He said it was rejected because it looked too much like a pinata.

Painting the Kingdom Hall

The Kingdom Hall is finished. It is so nice. It really stands out on the street now. And since so many people go on foot, they'll really take notice of it now. I wanted a picture with Shane turning to smile at the camera like the rest of the brothers, but he refused and insisted to keep working. He said he just wont tolerate anymore jokes from Shawn about him with his hands in his pockets! So, there you can see him on the scaffolding reaching up where no one else could. He subsequently got shingles and stopped working for the next several days. Likely excuse.

We're headed to Texas for a couple of days at the beginning of February to try for some of the things that we'll need to get our residency. Not that we're going to stay here forever but it will open up some doors for working down here on the branch and on an assembly hall project. It will be the first real assembly hall to my knowledge. There currently is one at the branch, but it's part of the branch so we won't count that. It will also reduce our expenses for obtaining visas. The way it stands now we have to leave the country every six months to renew our visa. Under the residency plan we can stay here for 10 years for something like $120. Obviously that excludes living expenses.

Our next entry should be interesting because we're taking a couple of days and going to the Isle of Ometepe. Two volcanoes that formed an island in the middle of a huge lake. Think Hawaii only smaller. :) We're going to sleep in a kingdom hall, (hey, saves on hotels!)(oh, and I mean sleeping in the auditorium not an apartment or anything) and spend some days swimming in lagoons and protecting our possessions from monkeys that, when looking for food, take your backpack off of you and destroy everything in it or so we've heard! Should be fun! We could sure use that US gun ratio during a monkey attack couldn't we!

Update on Katalina: The 50 year old woman from the last entry has decided to move, temporarily, to Managua to work. We find this out and, undeterred offered a study to the person that offered us the news. This lady, the daughter of Katalina and mother of the small child in the picture, also agreed to a study and chose the same chapter on what happens when we die. She spoke very favorably about the study with Katalina, evidently they were talking, and we're going to return for the first study this week.

written by  Shane Perry on December 29, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
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During the tract campaign we met a 50 yr old woman named Katalina. She chose the question, “What happens to us when we die?” She had her own thoughts already, but the sister with me shared Ecc 9:5, 10. And Katalina was considering it, but not yet convinced. Nevertheless, we told her we'd return to talk more about the condition of the dead.

When we went back she swung the door open wide and asked Shane and me in. We started immediately in Chapter 6 in the Bible Teach bk. She must have read the tract because now she agreed with everything. And as she got more comfortable, she asked more questions.

Do we need to observe the sabbath? Because some say you do. Can we drink alcohol? Because some say you cant. (Why didn't they put that one in the tract? It's useful here!) A few scriptures was all she needed to see the answers. Then she asked where our meetings are. We told her and said we'd love to see her there. At our next meeting though, she didn't come. So, when we went back for the study last week she said she had come all the way through town in a taxi, but couldn't find the hall. We were so shocked. After we left that study, we made a point to visit a sister nearby and ask her to go to Katalina's house before our meeting and go with her this time. Sure enough, Saturday evening (we have our Public Talk and Wt study on Saturday evening) thanks to the sister's help, she came. We were so happy.

She even brought her one year old grandson, who climbs everything like a jungle gym. But he did as good as a one year old can. Some sisters in the row across the aisle captured him for her when he got loose one time. And Katalina looked as comfortable as could be. She even stayed half an hour afterwards to visit. Here is a picture of them.

The Motorbike

We bought a motorbike.

Buying the bike was easy. Registering it was not. The police decided that non-residents can't own property and wouldn't issue the license. They called Managua, the capital, to back them up. They recommended putting it in the name of a resident. But to do that we needed a lawyer, since it was already purchased and insured in Shane's name. The lawyer, a return visit of the special pioneer/elder in our hall, read the law to Shane and said it absolutely permits non-residents to own property. So, if we wanted to we could take the police department to court. Can you imagine? What a horrible idea! As if we don't stand out enough as it is. We'd be the favorite target of every officer in town on our little red motorbike. No, Shane just paid to have the ownership legally changed. It was cheap by the way. An hour and a half of a lawyer's time for $15.00 and then he discounted it by half! Plus, they preached to him the whole time. He was totally floored that Shane would leave all the glamor and prosperousness of life in the U.S. (yeah, not these days, right?) to come down and live off his own money and preach. He asked Shane and Luis, “So, you're telling me, if I learn what the Bible says, I'm going to want to give up my lifestyle and just start preaching.” Luis and Shane told him it is the best kind of life any person could ask for.

So now, we are enjoying “borrowing” our new bike from our brother Luis and riding is style. For your questions about safety, you'll be pleased to now Shane drives incredibly cautious and slow. With two of us on it, the bike's top speed is about 35mph. We don't intend to use it much in town. As for traffic, out in the rurals, we'll probably pass about five cars an hour.

We're going to repaint the Kingdom Hall!

Next week after our district convention, we're going to repaint the Kingdom Hall. We're looking forward to it. Here is a picture of the pre-work. They had to redo the concrete stucco on the pillars and the security wall. We'll have more pictures of the finished project next time.

Now for a bit of shameless advertising:

Is anyone looking for a cell phone and plan? We need to find someone to take over our Sprint contract or we pay a cancellation fee. It has one more year left. The plan has 450 minutes for $49 + tax each month, free nights and weekends after 7pm, free long distance, and mobile to mobile. The plan can be adjusted for what you want. We will send you the LG Fusic phone with MP3 player and camera (is that still cool? We dont know!) If you hear anyone looking, please let us know.

written by  Shane Perry on December 9, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
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To keep everyone abreast on what's going on with us I feel the need to fill you in on what's been going on with us the last several weeks. Once we had decided that we would like to stay for more than a year following protocol we decided to contact the branch to try receive an assignment. After waiting for a couple of days on the branch we received two options. One in Jinotega South, which is the other congregation here that has a territory that goes nearly to Honduras as far as I can tell and the other assignment in a little town called Las Maderas. It was brutal decision. The little congregation in Las Maderas only has one ministerial servant and 36 publishers. The friends were super hospitable and really wanted us there. The congregation here in Jinotega had effectively one elder and on servant for 85 publishers, and a huge territory as I've already mentioned. We prayed and waited for almost a week before making the decision to stay in Jinotega.

The need here is definitely great. I've gotten already 1 part a week on the meetings and the brothers asked me if I could take the school. I told them that my Spanish was too bad, how can you talk about speaking qualities if you can't speak? I'm not sure... Anyway, they were still very happy to have us and so here we are working away.

What Else Have We Been Up To?

We moved! We get to live in the apartment at the Kingdom Hall. We love it. It needed cleaning and painting badly. But after a week or so of that we're in.

One other great thing, I get to keep studying with Evelyn the 10 yr old girl who sells tortillas. And it is official because her house is in our new congregations territory. I'm looking forward to meeting her family. I'd like to see if they would come to the meetings. Evelyn could only come if her family comes because all our meetings are at night and she lives in a barrio (neighborhood) too rough to walk through alone at night. Although the night of the other congregation's meeting she was still out selling tortillas after dark with her little buddy. And they came to the front of the KH and were using the padlock to clang on the metal gate and shouting my name as loud as they could. I made it to the gate at the same time as Hacial one of the attendants. I think I asked the girls if they could “please be to silence,” or something like that. They nodded. So I guess they could come out at night, but I'd be so worried about them going home in the dark.

Shane's mom came. We had a really great time. She was such a great sport. Got out and danced some Merenge at a party with all the sisters (There is a really cute picture of this, but I will not put it one until I get permission from my Mother-in-law :) and even used a latrine out in our rural territory. We were glad to see nothing made Betty flinch, not even the uproar over the elections here. And she was very popular. At the meetings everyone is asking about her. The friends get really attached to people fast. It was so great to have visitors (hint hint you guys) and she brought us a suitcase of stuff like peanut butter and chocolate (hint hint again, no just kidding!) Andrew and Jenny also have guests. Her sister Heather is here this week. Its really pretty to hear her great Portuguese/Spanish blend.

We're sorry this has been so delayed. We'll try to do better. Please dont give up on us! BYE

written by  Shane Perry on November 25, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
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As we go, we are passing only people with horses and on foot. They all stop and watch us and wave with friendly smiles, oh the preaching would be good here! In retrospect I think they were watching us because of other reasons. (I.e. we were complete fools to be driving this “road”) Ah, but the day was beautiful, the birds were singing, and we were ready for adventure. The road continued on over the mountain wherein it turned in to a babbling brook. Oh, how beautiful! Unfortunately, the road started to get really steep and unstable.

written by  Shane Perry on October 13, 2008 from Sebaco, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure
tagged River, RoadOfDeath, Chijuitas, Julio and GoatPath
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Roses:

October 3rd was our 5th anniversary. Shane thought to buy me roses. And the story is funny. When he gave them to me he said there were supposed to be five, one for each year. Which is so incredibly sweet. But there were only four. He bought them from a woman selling on the bus. The “Bus General” ( The Bus General, as we call him, is not the driver. The driver only, well, drives. This man is in charge. He collects all the fares, keeps order and scales the outside of the bus while its moving to get down peoples chickens and bicycles before their stop.) had already told her it was time to get off. So Shane quickly asked how much they were. Five cordobas each. Shane opened his wallet and the General and the lady 'whoa'd. He only had 100's. The General quickly made change and the lady asked how many. Hurried, Shane tried to say five. But the General shouted “four,” paid the lady and kicked her off the bus. Leaving Shane bewildered with 4 red roses in one hand and a pile of change in the other. That definitely makes these the most special roses he's ever got me.

Andrew and Jenny: