Volunteers!

As you know, the SOAAR program at NCA currently relies on volunteers, a wide range of wonderful individuals who commit to spending a year of their lives working and serving students with support needs in various classrooms. Right now, there are four SOAAR classroom assistants and a speech and language therapist who splits her time between NCA and Tesoros de Dios. I have the privilege of coordinating schedules of the volunteers, and making sure everything is in place and running as smoothly as possible for the volunteers. It has been a blessing to work with such committed, dedicated professionals this year. While their 7:00-2:30 work is really under my umbrella of "SOAAR Coordinator" responsibilities, their life outside of school is of course, outside of my control.

We learned quickly last year, however, that it can be hard to form community and feel included as a short-term volunteer at NCA. Volunteers don't typically have access to a vehicle, and it is difficult to get to know many people and the lay of the land in a short amount of time. Ruth and I decided that we wanted to prioritize creating opportunities outside of work for SOAAR volunteers to fellowship and explore Nicaragua. Once a month, we gather to eat at our home. And once a month, we host an "event," doing something fun around Nicaragua. So far this year,  as a group we've been to the beach, the volcano, and downtown Managua to explore the parks along the lakeshore. While I hope the volunteers enjoy these gatherings, our family certainly benefits from these relationships, too! Our kids LOVE hanging out with the volunteers, and they are very gracious with giving our wild children attention and love, too! (Two volunteers even babysat last weekend overnight for Ruth and I to celebrate our June anniversary!) We celebrate this micro-community that has become an important part of our lives at school AND beyond.

The Residency Process

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the fact that we were once again able to renew our residency status in Nicaragua.  If I had read that sentence before moving to Nicaragua on one of the blogs of the many people I “blog-stalked,” I would have had lots of questions:

         

          Why do you need residency?

          Why is it something to celebrate?

          What do you have to do to be residents?

Maybe some of you have these same questions.  I hope so, because I’m going to answer them.:)

When we arrived in Nicaragua for the first time over 3 years ago, we entered the country on tourist visas, which is an easy $10 stamp in your passport as you arrive in the Managua airport.  The tourist visa is only good for 90 days, though, and after that there is a daily fee for being in the country 

without a visa (being an illegal immigrant, essentially). 

Even before we left for Nicaragua, we began the residency process by collecting Birth Certificates, Marriage License, Police Reports, Doctors notes, and work contracts, all notarized and apostillized (a step above notary).  This was a long, tedious, and expensive process.  It took us over a year after arriving to finally get our residency.

Now, every year we have to renew our residency.  We have friends that have had babies here, and because of that only have to renew every five years, but as appealing as it sounds, were not quite willing to have another baby just to avoid yearly renewal.  So, every year, we get a new police report, new pictures, and start the process again. 

We are very fortunate to be under the care of Nicaragua Christian Academy, because Jairo, an amazing man that works there basically facilitates the whole process for us.  He tells us what we need, and then submits everything for us and tells us when we need to show up to make it happen.  Then he or Arturo, his assistant run around making it all happen.

When everything is ready we all have to go to the immigration office here in Managua.  We all (including the kids) have to be present at this appointment that we usually plan on taking at least 3 hours.  I have learned to come prepared with lots of snacks and entertainment to pass the time.  There is also a small playground outside where we take turns watching the kids.  You can buy donuts and ice cream inside the immigration office (which is a genius business strategy!), so we make our kids hold out as long as possible (at least until they get their picture taken) and then reward them with sugar. 

This year we celebrated because the whole process went very smoothly—we were in and out in two hours with our cedulas (residency cards) in hand.  We also celebrated because we had been a little fearful that this would be the year that we wouldn’t be granted the privilege of calling Nicaragua our home.  The government has recently instituted new laws about allowing missionaries to enter and work in the country. They have been asking more questions (we have friends who are currently “under investigation” from immigration), and making the process a lot more unsure. 

We love Nicaragua, and living here has been one of the deepest blessings that we have experienced.  We are thankful for God’s faithfulness throughout this necessary but at times inconvenient process. We are thankful to Nicaragua for allowing us to live and serve here for (at least) another year!