Mission Trip - DAY EIGHT - Homeward Bound!!

You gotta love these 2:45am wake up calls..........and then sitting around waiting and waiting............  But the suitcases all had to be loaded on top of the buses and that takes time!!

We finally headed to the airport - I found a place to buy Glenn a ball cap that said Nicaragua - but the coffee line was TOO long so had to wait till Houston for that!

Rayna was super tired - and chose to nap a little before we got on the plane!

Houston looked the same as it did when we were there a week ago - I was impressed by the new customs computers - you lay your passport flat and then stand in a certain position while the computer takes your picture.  Then a receipt comes out and if there's a big X on it, you go to the long line which takes a while - if there's no X then you go to the short line!  I didn't have an X so got through customs immediately  but Jaime had to go through the long line!

Coffee and lunch were on the agenda at Houston and before long, we were headed back to Denver!  Always a great feeling to get home!!

Antonio's family makes pottery so he gave Jaime, Rayna and I this beautiful vase!  Jaime will house it at her home but I took pictures to share! 

 My souvenirs from Nicaragua - always a bookmark and a Christmas ornament (this time there are 3 because that's how the place sold them) and also a neat necklace made out of seeds.

My name tag and a bookmark we were given the last night - what an awesome journey this trip was!!  One I'll never forget and hopefully one I can go on again in the future!!

Mission Trip - DAY SEVEN

WOW - I forgot how good it felt at the Mission House to sleep in air conditioning!!  I slept like a log! Breakfast was great - and I have to smile at the toast they served - it was lightly toasted and then left to dry I guess - Jaime called it crouton toast and I agreed that's what it tasted like!!

After morning worship service, we headed out in 2 busloads to go to the market - some of our translators joined us (they had went to their homes in Managua on Thursday night and then came back to the Mission House Friday morning).  It was one of those "enclosed" markets where everything is jam packed under a huge roof and the walkways were like mazes - rows and rows and rows of shops and it was easy to get lost!!

Unfortunately Antonio was grabbed by another person so didn't get to go with us - another guy came up and we assumed he was one of our translators so started walking with us and showing us things - it wasn't until a little later that we realized he was NOT one of ours...............so we found one that we knew although the other guy stuck with us during the shopping.  We didn't need a lot of things and soon found what we wanted and then headed out of that place - it was almost claustrophobic in there!!

Our bus headed to the active volcano!!  A very neat thing to see although we were so excited when we saw these steps that we thought we could climb, but couldn't as they were unsafe!!

Of course we couldn't see down into the volcano as it was spitting out so much smoke!!

One thing to check off my bucket list - I've been to a volcano!!

We met the other busload of people at Narcy's for a chicken lunch - it was very good and filling!!  Then our bus headed to the zip line while the other bus headed to the lake for a boat ride!!

Jaime and Rayna had never been zip lining so were quite excited!!

The first station had this saying that we all smiled at while we received our instructions!!

We all received heavy gloves to wear as this type of zip line didn't have the automatic brakes at the end and you had to slow yourself down if you were coming in too fast by pulling down on the wire!  It wasn't hard to do at all!

Just as soon as we got to the 2nd station, it started to rain - nothing like a little rain in a tropical jungle - it was awesome!!!  But did make for some slick spots on these bridges!!

I sure wanted to take more pictures of Rayna as she was up ahead of Jaime and I but trying to hold onto your gloves, onto the rails and then pull a camera out and take a picture was a little harder than I thought it would be!!  I feel lucky I got these!!

The bridges were a little scary in spots but the zip lining was awesome!!  We all had a ball!!

This cute dog found Rayna after we were done - she wanted to pet every dog we saw but most of them were pretty mangy looking - this one looked just fine!!

We had a super fun day with everyone but were tired after getting back to the Mission House - after showering and repacking once again, we had a great sweet pork loin dinner and then it was off to bed for an early wake up call!!  And so ended DAY SEVEN - To be Cont'd..............

Mission Trip - DAY SIX

Packing up started early - very early - so we were wide awake before our 5:45 alarm went off!  The pharmacy was to be the holding area for all of our backpacks that we would take on the bus which meant our tents and bags had to be all packed up IMMEDIATELY!!  We dressed quickly and started the process of packing up our tents and trying to get everything back in our bags...............

Before we were even finished, the maintenance men were in taking down the lights and the fans!  So much to pack up!  But it was finally done on our end and we were glad we had all the drugs boxed up and ready!!

Breakfast that morning was cold pancakes (the stoves were all packed up so nothing hot to eat that morning and no coffee!!) and cereal - hooray - they had mini wheats!!

And then the waiting began as the village people and our translators started loading everything into the big box truck!!

A lot of the village people were around this morning - I know the kitchen handed out the extra food to these people who greatly appreciated it!!

One last picture with our Nicaraguan pharmacist and 2 of our translators.

Since we were waiting for so long, we walked down to see the huge tree that had fallen that one evening - gosh it was large and just a miracle that little boy had only a scratch!!

We climbed into the buses late morning and then stopped in the city of Matagalpa for lunch!  After lunch we went next door to a lovely hotel and climbed to their rooftop to take pictures of the city!

It was very warm out that day and we already missed the cooler weather of the mountains!

Coming back to the Mission House felt like pure luxury!!  Real beds - sweet tea with ice - flush toilets and LONG hot as we wanted showers!!  We all headed to the showers as soon as we could to wash our hair and bodies with "escabin", the special shampoo for head lice.  And it felt great to put on nice clean clothes!

They had a feast waiting for us that night - steak, cheesy potatoes, lettuce salad, fresh vegetables and cake!!  After our meal, a lot of people shared the highlights of our time serving the people!  It was a very emotional night for all of us as we heard the stories of how God worked in all of us during our 3 days in the village.  Jaime and I were very proud of Rayna who stood up and shared her view of how she felt during the trip - and we all later gathered around her and the 16 year old and prayed for them as they would head back to school soon!

I slept like a rock that night - in fact, I'm not sure I even moved!!  And so ends DAY SIX - To Be Cont'd...

Mission Trip - DAY FIVE

Even though it's nice and cozy in our little tents, I had a hard time sleeping each night - I did miss my comfortable bed back home.....................I read a little bit each night with my head lamp and I always journaled until my eyes got heavy but as soon as I turned out my light and got situated, I seemed to be wide awake!

Breakfast was pancakes, oatmeal and fruit - but since I don't drink coffee until I've had my breakfast, I found they were already out of it by the time I got through the line!

We all moved just a little bit slower on Wednesday!  Marta, one of the translators, does a wonderful job with hair so Jaime asked her if she would braid her hair   -  check out the results - it was gorgeous!!

Not a great picture of us but after all it was Day Three!!

Antonio had told us the day before that he really wanted to learn a country western dance!!  He certainly asked the right person so Jaime found some music on her IPOD and I set out to teach him the 2 step and the 3 step.  The 3 step was a little much for him but he did awesome on the 2 step!  In return, he taught me a little salsa!

Antonio teaching Rayna a few steps!

I was thrilled to be asked to go out with the vet team that afternoon!!  I knew I would see some beautiful countryside and be a part of something special!!  A Nicaraguan vet had his pickup available and Carl, Steve, Caleb, Kari and I crawled in the back end along with Miguel, the translator.  We would just pull up to a place and the vet would yell up to the house and ask if there were any animals that needed shots!  First up was a cow - it was interesting to see the owners rope them and tie them to a tree and then use a couple more ropes to hold their head while they gave the cow shots!

When we got back down to the truck, a girl had brought her pig in on a rope and there were several people waiting with dogs - yup, they all got shots!!

Most of the places just had 1 or 2 cows - after the 1st stop it started raining - bummer!!  But we still had a good time!

If there were kids around, Kari and I would hand out sunglasses to the kids and beans and rice to the moms - these 2 little ones were so excited over their glasses!

The vegetation was very lush - here's a papaya tree and right behind is a banana tree!

One of our clients brought over a bunch of "little bananas" - Steve tried one out and said it was harder than a regular banana - I decided to pass on trying it!

I think we ended up giving shots to around 8 cows, 4 hogs and 15 dogs during the afternoon!!  At one time it was raining so hard we stopped at a nicer house and sat on their porch till the rain subsided!

These 2 little girls were happy to get sunglasses too!

I was pretty wet and dirty by the time the afternoon was done but they were still working in the pharmacy so I helped them finish up the last of the patients.  What an amazing 3 days we had serving the village people!!  Our final total of people seen were 4099 people over the 3 days, 11,078 prescriptions filled, 430 tooth extractions, 588 pairs of prescription glasses given out and 624 accepted Christ into their lives!!  WOW - THAT'S EXCITING!!!

We were all very tired that night BUT we weren't done yet as the medication that we didn't use had to be all counted and boxed back up - we did make quick work of it though and after a couple hours we were done!  A late dinner tasted great and we all went to bed with smiles on our faces!!

And so ends DAY FIVE - To be cont'd...................

Mission Trip - DAY FOUR

It was pouring rain when the alarm went off - in fact, it poured most of the night and it was tough sleeping with those tin roofs above your head!  The good news was that the rain made the air much cooler - the bad news was the MUD!  We even wore our rubber boots to bible study that morning because the tiles and cement were already getting slick with water and mud..............to say nothing of the poor people already standing out in the rain, waiting for us!

Breakfast was delicious - burritos filled with eggs and peppers, cubed potatoes and peaches!

We're ready to start our day!!

Our "down" time was right after breakfast while the people were in the medical area!  You can see the baskets with the sacks put in them - wrapping those grocery sacks around each basket for the prescriptions took almost as much time as filling the prescription!

Jaime and Raquel had a great system going between them - Raquel didn't speak hardly any English so a translator was needed anytime there were questions.

This little boy was staring into the pharmacy door for a while so I grabbed my camera and caught him - I couldn't get him to smile until a translator coaxed it out of him and wouldn't you know, I blurred the smiling picture!

Our leader Eric, had warned us at bible study that morning not to eat the "white" pineapple which was his joke as he loves it so much!  We got to experience white pineapple at lunch and all I can say is WOW - once you've had white pineapple, you'll never want to eat yellow pineapple again.  Although white pineapple is never available in the stores!!

We had a little break in the afternoon before the next wave of people arrived and I told Jaime and Linda we needed to grab our boots and get outside for a few minutes.  Church was held at the top of the hill each evening but because we always worked so late, we were never able to go - so we climbed the hill during the break to check it out!

This little boy was standing in a tree listening I presume to the church service going on.

Church service in full swing - check out all the mud outside the tent - it had rained off and on again all day!

The road we were on continued up the hill and it looked gorgeous!

The cloudy weather didn't make for great pictures but you can see the lushness of the countryside!

It was a busy, busy day again with 1356 people through the medical clinic and 3810 prescriptions.  We all devoured our spaghetti dinner and headed to the showers late that evening.  And so ended DAY FOUR - To Be Cont'd.............

Mission Trip - DAY THREE

Did I even sleep the night before?  I guess so but the 5:45 alarm sure came early!!  We dressed in the dark in our tents and were out our door by 6:15 for morning worship service.  The kitchen came through with an awesome breakfast - eggs, pancakes and peaches!!

In our scrubs, ready for the day!!

One of the translators did a chalk drawing outside the medical room so I slipped out before we got busy to take a picture.

Rayna was asked to go out with the vet team for 1/2 day!  Carl and Steve took her under their wing along with Kari, the RN who went along!  They went with a Nicaraguan vet and a translator and gave shots to dogs, horses, cows and pigs!

Here is the outside of the school.

And it wasn't long before the first set of 250 people were out of church and standing in line for their small group evangalism.

This line extends up the hill towards the church - we could see this line outside of our window so always knew how much longer it would be before the next group came in!

These patient people sometimes waited for hours - most of them walked from their homes, sometimes leaving at 2:00am to arrive by morning.  And if they needed a tooth pulled, they would wait for hours at the dental room.

The family packs room didn't have a lot of time to get organized so were in need of extra help - I slipped in for an hour in the afternoon to sack up rice and beans.

Here are most of the many, many boxes that were shipped ahead - full of toys, stuffed animals and clothes.

Once in a while we got to sit down - but not often!!  Since we stood on a cement floor, my legs really hurt by the end of the evening.

By early evening we were all exhausted but the lines seemed to go on forever and ever...............Little did we know at that time that extra cards were given out and 1596 people actually went through the lines that day - no wonder we were tired!

As I said earlier, it rained 3 to 4 times a day and this day was no different - early evening there was a commotion and we later found out a huge tree had fallen across the road a little ways down and a small boy was pinned under it.  The Lord was working his magic that night as the huge branch he was pinned under had a bough in the branch and that's where he was found - he ended up with just a cut on his forehead! 

I was working family packs and had just taken a sack out to a family when a pre-teen climbed the few steps and just stood there frozen - I knew something was wrong when she wouldn't respond when I spoke to her - I yelled for someone to get behind her in case she fell and sure enough, after about 30 seconds she collapsed - she had an epileptic seizure but she was fine after resting.

Dinner was on the run that night and we had a side dish that was so good - it was cooked cabbage with bacon - I'm not that fond of cooked cabbage but this was excellent!!

On the way back to the pharmacy, I got this picture of a moth!

The electricity was on and off all day due to the rain and by 8:30 that evening, we filled the last prescription!!  Jaime and Raquel were STILL smiling though!!

The next morning we learned we had filled 4416 prescriptions on Monday - wow - no wonder my feet hurt!!  We were even too tired to take showers that night.  And so ended DAY THREE!  To be Cont'd..