Additional Photos from Dia Tres

Here are some more pictures from day three:

We went to PriceSmart, a warehouse club store like BJs or Costco to pick up food to bring to the orphange we were visiting, food for a family we were helping, and snacks for our VBS and a conference my mother will be doing with the teachers. The microbus (pictures of that soon) was being used, so we had to take th suzuki, which carries a good number of people, but has virtually no cargo space. We were prepared to carry things on our laps & stuff them under the seat, but my father and Bob are master packers, and made it all fit into the very back, which was only about a foot deep.

Bob decided to mimic the Nicas and carry the big bag of rice up two flights on his head.

Here's everything that was packed into the tiny back of the Suzuki:

A toy store, at I just thought was cute:

In the back of this truck is a homemade wheelchair: a lawn chair on some kind of metal cart, with bicycle wheels attached to it. Maybe not much to look at, but it is effective and made from available materials:

In Tent City, we talked to a woman who waas cooking up a giant pot on maize (local corn) in a cast iron pot over an open fire. I tried to get a photo of the pot on the fire, but missed the chance before she transfered the maize into two big bowls. She wanted me to take a picture of her stirring it:

This house was right across a side street from Tent City, which provided interesting juxtaposition:

This was just a cool tree, and a very cool house that I saw here. I have seen a number of very oddly-shaped trees around. The house is not at all typical of the houses in Managua, where most everything is built from cinder blocks with corrugated steel roofs.

Day Three: Tent City and Painting

On Thursday, day three, some of our team stayed at the church in the morning to work on electrical and air conditioning projects, and the rest of us went to a school to do some painting.

Jess, Pastor Cal's wife, teaches at the Nicaraguan Christian School in Managua. NCS began as a school for missionary kids. They teach in English with an American curriculum. They are the only school in Central America that is triple-accredited, once in Nicaragua and twice in the U.S. Since they have such high standards and a strong reputation, affluent Nicaraguan families also send their children to NCS. The Nicaraguan children attending this school will be many of the future leaders of this country, so in the long-term, it will be very good for the country that they are getting a quality education taught with Christian values.

It was at this school that we did painting, re-painting the classroom where Jess teaches high school math and science.

After lunch, we all headed to Tent City for an outreach similar to the one we did in Guadalupe. Tent City is full of refugees and farmers from the Nicaragua countryside, many of who have become ill or injured due to pesticide use and other unhealthy farm practices. A few years ago, they came to Managua and camped out in tents, protesting to the government and seeking a settlement of some kind. Given that many of the harmful practices were from private industry, there is little likelihood of a settlement. After years living in tents, the government did build the people homes. These are refugee homes, where many families might be all in one room, and they are not built as well as the homes in Guadalupe. The one-room homes are often divided by hanging blankets and cloths, creating room dividers.

One family that we prayed with at Tent City had a big impact on me. This gentleman had three boys, one of whom was born with significant health issues. I couldn't figure out everything he was saying, but my understanding is that his son had some kid of hydrocephaly, which must have affected his brain. The boy, at 8 years old, was laying in a hammock with only a diaper on. (It was a very hot day.) His head was larger than typical, his limbs were thin and under-developed, and he seemed unable to communicate. The father, Jose Luis, told us about his son's birth, and the struggles to get equipment for him. He also had two younger sons, and when his boys were four, three, and one years old, his wife left, leaving him with the kids. In a country with a derth of present fathers, this man told us how he was father, mother, doctor and teacher to his boys. Jose Luis had a very strong faith, and was doing his very best to take care of his sons, while trusting in God to provide for their needs. I was astounded at the depth of this man's faith in such a difficult situation, and his ability to see all three of his sons as blessings to him, and continue to pour out love on them.

In addition to meeting Jose Luis and his sons, we also visited and prayed with a number of other families.

All in all, it was a great and very productive day. The whole trip has been pretty amazing so far.

Day Two: Guadalupe and Work Projects

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Day two (Wednesday) brought our first work project and a trip to the neighborhood of Guadalupe.

Each day, usually in the morning, we do work projects to help support the church we're visiting. Wednesday morning we started organizing old accounting files in a storage trailer. The cabinet the files were in had only partial shelves, so many of the files had fallen behind the shelves and become very disorganized. While one of our team members worked on constructing better shelves for the cabinet, Marissa and I organized the bulk of the files by month and year, then Caleb joined us to sort through the loose files and papers and put them in order. Since we couldn't read all of what each thing said, it was a little like being an archeologist of an ancient culture: searching for clues that would indicate what each piece meant and where it should go.

After another marvelous lunch prepared by Rosa (pictures of food soon, I promise), we hopped in the microbus and headed to the neighborhood of Guadalupe for outreach. One of the neighborhoods that our teams used to visit, Manchester, flooded out a few years ago, leaving many people homeless. The government eventually built the neighborhood of Guadalupe for them near the dump, and gave many of them houses. The houses are cinderblock, typically with three rooms and a bathroom. It is the people's understanding that they will own these houses, and that the government will be issuing them deeds to their homes. This may well happen, but everything with government down here moves very slowly.

The purpose of our trip to Guadalupe was to visit people in their homes, asking if we could pray with them and giving them copies of the Gospel of John. Our team split into three groups and spread out throughout the neighborhood. Some people were more receptive than others, but all were polite about it. I teamed up with Pastor Cal and Cysco, the teenage son of long-term missionaries staying at Calvary Chapel Managua. We met a few people who were already saved, and invited many people to visit the church. Althought Guadalupe is much farther than walking distance, the church sends a van over each Sunday to pick up kids for Sunday school and any adults that want to come to church.

When we arrived in Guadalupe, we saw a number of kids gathered around a tree, from which someone had hung a very long piece of material. A teen boy was climbing and hanging from the material as if he was a circus performer. He was very talented at it, and did a number of tricks, much to our enjoyment. It looked like he was teaching others how to do it as well, although at a much lower height.

I'll post more on Guadalupe later, including pictures inside the house of one of our church members there.

Nicaragua, Dia Uno - Now with Pictures!

Yesterday was the first day of my Nicaraguan mission trip. The day started at 1am (yes, AM!). We headed out about 2 and met the rest of our team before heading to Logan Airport altogether. After going through security, we had enough time to grab breakfast at Dunks before boarding. Anticipating a tight connection in Houston, I bought a lunch sandwich at Dunks as well.

When we booked our flights, we had an hour and 15 minute layover in Houston. A week or so ago, the airline changed our flight times, so we ended up with only a 32 minute layover in the very large Houston airport, and we (of course) needed to change terminals.

Arrival in Houston

After hoofing it through Houston while toting a 26 lb carry on and a 20-ish lb backpack, I was pretty wiped, but we did make our connecting flight.

By the time we got seated on the second plane, I was very grateful that I had bought a lunch sandwich earlier. I was positively famished.

Both flights went very smoothly. For Rick's benefit (you know you want to know), we flew in a Boeing 737-800 out of Boston, and a 737-700 out of Houston. Do you need a picture of the wing this time?

Clouds over Boston

Landing in Nicaragua was fine. We had a little trouble coming in through customs, with some old, donated computer parts. Customs didn't want to let us bring them into the country. In the end, after a trip back to the airport and many hours of waiting and negotiation by one a Nicaraguense (native) church leader, the decision was made to abandon the computer parts. The amount of time and energy invested to bring in very low dollar value was simply not worth continuing to persue.

Flying into Managua, Nicaragua

The drive from the airport to the church was much as I remembered it from my previous trip here in 2006. Lots of cinderblock buildings with open windows (no glass in them), covered by metal grates for security. An earthquake in 1972 essentially leveled the city of Managua. The tall building in the icture below is the Intercontinental Hotel, the only skyscraper that survived the quake.

Intercontinental Hotel, Managua

The church itself hasn't changed much in the past 6 years. We went to the Comedor for a delicious lunch, prepared for us by the wonderful Rosa. The Comedor is the original church property, used before the current building was constructed. The church used to have a feeding program there, but now it houses the church-owned bakery. When missions teams are visiting, Rosa comes in to cook three meals a day for them. Rosa is a magnificent cook, creating meals that are muy delicioso on a shoestring budget.

We often joke that food in Nicaragua is rice and beans or, when you get tired of that, beans and rice. The food so far on this trip has been great. Rosa makes an incredible rice (arroz). I'm not a fan of frijoles (beans), so I pass on those. Last night's dinner included fried chicken (pollo fritas)-- yum! Every meal includes fresh fruit, with lots of sandía (watermelon). I'm wishing I could bring Rosa home to have as my personal cook ... the woman is wonderful!

We dropped our bags in our rooms before lunch, then after lunch yesterday we were given a tour of the church and had an orientation meeting with Pastor Cal. I'm very familiar with the rules, having not only been here once before, but also hearing my parents' stories over the years. This is my father's 16th trip to Nicaragua, and he's been coming to this church (La Capilla Calvario - Calvary Chapel Managua) for 11 years.

My Spanish was terribly rusty yesterday, as I haven't used it at all since I was last here. Today, it has definitely improved. The hardest part is understanding what others say when they speak so quickly. I'm doing okay at sussing out their meanings if the speaker slows down, and I've done what I think is a respectable job in getting my meaning s across. I even prayed out load in panish last night with a group of women at the Tuesday night prayer service. I had to rehearse the prayer a few times in my head first, and it was a short one, but I did okay. I could have prayed in English as the other ladies on our team did, but I wanted to see if I could do it in Spanish and get my meaning across. God, of course, speaks all languages, and doesn't need me to translate for Him. :-)

By the time I sat at the computer last night, I didn't have energy to do more than a quick facebook post and email check before I hit the sack. Yesterday was a 23-hour day for me, so I was pretty wiped out.

It's now about 12:30am hear, and I need to be up in 6 hours, so I'll post this and sign off. Tomorrow I will post about today, day two of the trip.

Thank you to all for your prayers, blessings and good wishes!