Don't Mess With a Woman & Her Credit Card!

Yesterday our kittens went to their forever homes. It was very difficult. The house seems even emptier than before. Intellectually we have no doubt that it was the right decision but emotionally it felt wrong. Finding a good home in Nicaragua for a cat you have come to love is almost impossible. They simply don't view animals the way we do in Canada & the US. Boots (who LOVED food and was a little simple) went to a family in the English Group who have three grown children. Fresca (who is fast, smart and affectionate) went to a local vet who also owns a pet food shop. She will be well fed if nothing else. I can't worry about it now (I keep telling myself).

Our excitement for the week happened on the way to the meeting on Sunday. We had no water in the morning so we were a little frazzled to start with. We had trouble getting a bus and when we finally did, it was full to the brim, standing room only. We soon discovered why as we came up to the baseball stadium. Suddenly the entire bus (or so it seemed) started to push past us to get off. There was a big game at the stadium. We were being pushed by men from all sides even above us as they tried to hold on to the bar above our head. We ducked down and tried to slide into some newly emptied seat. I was holding onto Nikki, my umbrella, my bag with my walking shoes in it and my purse was on my shoulder. We sat down and as my bag swung around I seemed to instinctively look in it and saw that my main little inside bag (that stupidly held all three of our passports, both my credit cards that we have with us & my International drivers licence plus my money as we had been into the city to immigration the day before) was GONE! I jumped up and swung round yelling someone stole my purse (brilliant...like anyone other than my family could understand).

I stood in the way of all the people trying to get off. No one was getting off until I got my purse I couldn't afford to lose it. Again, instinctively I saw a man and I knew it was him. I hit him in the stomach and yelled "Malo, malo". As I hit him, his sweater he was carrying moved and I saw my bag under it. I grabbed it. He scurried off the bus as fast as he could (Gary, who was way at the front of the bus and unable to get back to me through the crowd, yelled at him as he scurried by). The bus driver asked if we wanted to go after him but we said no. I was just SO grateful that somehow we had got it back. It would have been a disaster. I felt so violated! More so then when, the week before, the bus attendant had grabbed my bottom as I got on the bus!

The entire event likely lasted less than a minute but it is indelibly ingrained in my mind. I have learnt a valuable lesson. Never allow ourselves to be that vulnerable on a bus or in a crowd!

We need a car.....working on it (still).

We have arranged security for our house while we are gone next week. A couple from Halifax Nova Scotia will be here when we get back and we are really looking forward to their visit. Plus the goodies from home (like a camping bag shower and a potato masher, hooray) they are bringing us! We plan on going zip lining with them on Mombacho Volcano and are very excited. It is best done with friends so we have been eagerly waiting.

Laundry awaits me so I must go. Funny how the same mundane daily things need to be done here as back home. When your imagining it ahead of time, it's somehow skipped in the dream.....;)