Sunday, June 17

Sunday, June 17, 2012 Esteli, Nicaragua

This morning we planned to leave by 9:20 in order to make it to the church on time for the 10:00 service.  The reality of it was that we should have left by 9 am, but I’ve found in other countries folks don’t seem to be so hyper-vigilant about being on time!  As you can imagine, having arrived around 2 am and leaving by 9:20 am, it was a short night!  Actually, I woke up around 4:30 with the birds singing at the top of their lungs, bless the little buggers!  But, breakfast was great – each and every day we had great food, usually eggs, rice and beans, cereal and some form of fresh fruit and fruit juice for breakfast.  One day we had omelets, which I particularly enjoyed.  I had also made some granola to take along on the trip, so several times I just ate that for breakfast.  Not to get too detailed, but gut issues are not uncommon when traveling J. 

Sunday morning I explored the courtyard near our cabin.  The cabins were actually located on both sides of a dead end road.  For the most part the men were on the side where the open-air dining room was located and the women across the street.  I spied lime, orange, coconut, and mango trees.  There were some others, too, but I didn’t know what they were called.  A 4-foot parrot was also in the courtyard, and it was evidently quite talkative through the night based on the testimonies of those in the adjacent cabin! 

We made our group introductions – our name, where we’re from, what we would be doing for the week – and I decided that I wanted to try to sit with different people each opportunity so that I could get to know as many as possible.  The ride from Esteli to Condega, where the church and thus the clinic were located, was about an hour one-way.  The countryside I found to be absolutely beautiful, with mountains and wooded areas and rivers.  There was much less trash present than in some other countries where I’ve visited.  In several places short stone walls were present, but I’m still unsure as to their purpose.  Nothing was built within the parameters of these walls, so I doubt that they were for property marking. 

We arrived in Condega later than anticipated, and we had some trouble finding the church.  Evidently, it had been relocated when they built the new building and people weren’t sure of the new location.  I can tell you that, somehow or another, over 2,000 people found their way to the church that week!  The song services were started, and it is always a joy to me to hear familiar tunes to hymns being sung in another language.  The preaching was in Spanish without interpretation, and with the short night, warmer temps, and not understanding anything that was said, my greatest challenge was staying awake.  Not sure I won that battle :}.  We milled around after the services to determine how the clinic would be arranged and then returned to Esteli to eat fast food chicken at Tip Top.  We stopped at one, but it was full, so they sent us to another one, then we filled it.  There was a stray dog hanging outside the restaurant, and I know he was happy that we stopped by! I’m sure he’s never eaten so well in his entire life.  Pretty good food, actually. 

When we got back to the hotel it was time to count meds.  We prepackage Tylenol, Ibuprofen and vitamins in little Ziploc bags so that this doesn’t have to be done during the week.  Antibiotics and such are packaged on an as-needed basis.  All of us worked for two hours doing this job, so you can imagine just how many we had, yet we still ran out of Tylenol and vitamins during the week.  I think I heard someone say we had 2,000 bags of each medicine.  Praise the Lord, I had an hour to take a nap, so I was much more alert during the evening service.  This is the commencement of their rainy season, and boy, did it rain!  The services started about 45” late b/c the rain on the corrugated roof made it impossible to hear.  The little creek next to the church building turned into a raging torrent!  I was also praising the Lord for safety back to the hotel; b/n the rain, fog, mud and traffic there was plenty of room for accidents.  I sat with a team member that had been on another trip with MMO earlier this year.  I like to ask people their testimony of salvation when meeting someone for the first time, and this team member got saved while on his first MMO trip!  His interpreter led him to Christ. Sometimes there are folks who aren’t saved that participate on these trips because they want to donate their services for a ‘good cause’.  An added blessing to this ministry is that the gospel is presented to everyone, so sometimes it’s actually the provider that gets saved.  I rejoiced in this testimony as I lay down in bed, and I had no trouble sleeping.