July 10, 2005

Sunday night

What a day!  And, we haven’t even started “working” yet.

     Breakfast at the “Mission House” in Managua was at 8 AM, and we admired the Starfruit tree in our courtyard while we ate.  Most of our group walked around the neighborhood for half an hour, and then walked to the church.

     To say the service was “lively” would be a big understatement, with drums, guitar, bass, bongos, keyboards, and dancers all involved in this Nicaraguan worship.  As Bob Brown often reminds us when we’re preparing to leave for faraway places, “We’re not taking God to these places; God’s already there.”  It was quite evident.

     By 10:45, we were loaded into our bus and van and headed out of town.

     After our lunch stop for pollo and yucca, the bus and van carried us up toward Matagalpa.  The trip took a couple hours, and the gain of about 2000 feet (elevation) meant that the stifling heat was not quite as harsh for this AC-deprived group.  The Bienvenidos (“Welcome”) sign claimed 496,000 residents.

     Along the way, we passed oxen-powered carts, BMW SUV’s, hundreds of people on foot, women with large bundles on their heads, dozens of huge truck rigs on the Pan American Highway, and several interesting communities.  One that stuck out was the “plastic home town,” with several “homes” made of what looked like black plastic sheets draped over tree-branch frames along the highway.  Just up the road was the roadside “pet store.”  Every 100 yards or so, a person would hold up whatever animal(s) they were trying to sell to the passersby, including various green parrots and a monkey.  It was innovative, unregulated, no-overhead, small business in action.    

     We headed on up the road toward the Re-Nutrition Center.

     For 6 years, Missionary Ventures has sponsored and operated the Re-Nutrition Center in Matagalpa for severely malnourished children.  They have averaged 27 live-in patients at a time in their 6-room structure, receiving their patients in varying stages of malnutrition and at various ages, keeping them for a couple months or longer as the (hired) Nicaraguan staff provides love, medical care, and nutrition.  The ultimate plan is to return each child to a parent when they’ve improved enough….

     As is the case in many third-world areas, the babies are breastfed, and so are blessed with adequate nutrition…. until the next baby comes along and they are bumped from the breast and must begin fending for themselves.  Competition at the food table can be quite unforgiving.

     A boy named “Angel” had been born with some genetic syndrome, but was definitely the happiest person around, and couldn’t stop jabbering (although nobody could understand his version of Spanish).  Kimberly’s fiery dark eyes were inspirational.

     A couple other things were striking at the Center.  Some of the children were quite small for their ages.  The successes seemed bright-eyed and energetic; they were eager to interact with us strangers.  The smaller, newer arrivals, on the other hand, seemed lonely; they had that distant, blank stare, and we could feel their emotional pain.  Getting one tiny smile to come up was an hour-long task.  They are way, way behind on being given enough love in this world.

     Putting down the children was very difficult for several in our group, but we moved on.

     The Fountain Blue Hotel is on the outskirts of Matagalpa.  They do not normally prepare food for guests, but they do for Brenda Rose’s mission teams.  It was quite good, and we are being very careful to avoid drinking the local water.  A hummingbird flitted around the courtyard flowers while we ate.  Our rooms included beds of foam mattresses on plywood, and hot water in the showers was courtesy of “widow makers,” a curious electric box at the nozzle level that heats the water as it flows through.  Nobody got shocked.  The street is right outside the open windows, but the ceiling fans hid some of the noise.

     Tomorrow, we will rise early to prepare for our first day of real work.

Cheryl hold a beautiful Re-Nutrition Center patient.	Renea comfort a new patient at the Re-Nutrition Center
A business along the Panamerican Highway on the way to Matagalpa.