July 15,2005

Friday evening.

Today was a happy day and a sad day.

HAPPY:

     This was our “tourist day.”  We left the Fountain Blue Hotel at 8:10 this morning, and headed over to Brenda Rose’s house to see the brand new Missionary Ventures International trailer clinic.

     After a couple years of planning and waiting, Brenda was finally able to get possession of the 38-foot 5^th-wheel trailer on Tuesday, and she brought it home.  Future medical teams will be able to operate out of this mobile clinic, so they’ll be able to go almost anywhere.  We were the very first team to be able to check it out.

     It’s new and clean, and has 2 exam rooms, a dental chair, lots of storage space, a small bathroom, and a pharmacy that opens through a window to the rear for dispensing medicines.  There is a big pullout canopy on the front so that check-in and registration can be done in the shade (and out of the rain that occurs every single day this time of year).  MVI will be able to go places in Nicaragua that they’ve never been to before now.

     We then traveled to the Esperanza Coffee Company’s headquarters, where one of the 3 brothers that run the operation took us on a tour.  Esperanza, or “Hope” in English, receives coffee grown in the Nicaraguan mountains, and specializes in “Specialty” brands.  The company has established a culture of helping as many people as possible, and so they use nearly 500 employees during peak season, instead of using big machines that could do much of the work.  They support part of Brenda Rose’s Re-Nutrition Center, as well as contributing regularly to “Young Life” work here.  They focus on Christian values and try to show it by example. 

     A professional band that they’ve hired was practicing upstairs, and played 3 of their songs for the team.  They plan on building a recording studio and producing a Christian music CD, and also on touring into Nicaragua where no professional bands have ever visited.  They were absolutely great.

     Most of the coffee they process here goes to Starbucks in the USA.

     We then rode our bus to the Masaya National Park, where we peered down from the edges of one of Nicaragua’s 2 active volcanoes.  It was big and the crater was deep….a beautiful sight.

     After a tailgate lunch behind Brenda’s van, Francisco drove us to the Masaya Market, where we strolled from shop to shop finding just the right souvenirs.

SAD:

     Our trip is over.  We’re back at the Mission House in Nicaragua, and will rise early to head for the airport for that return flight to Miami.  We’ve heard that there’s a hurricane out there again, so hopefully it won’t interfere.

     We’ve made some good friends here:  MVI’s Renea Harris (again), their in-country coordinator Brenda Rose, and the wonderful folks who served us as translators (Braulio and Myra), as our cooks at the hotel, as our hosts at their Mission House in Managua, and as our excellent bus drive (Francisco).

     It’s very hard to say goodbye to all of them.

     We had our final team meeting this evening, and reflected on the incredible Nicaraguan people and their spirit and durability.  They accepted us into their country and their homes without any hesitation, and with unconditional love.

     We have our souvenirs, our pictures, and our memories, and we’ll head back to our Florida lives tomorrow.  However, we’ll always have a bit of Nicaragua and its people with us.

     And, we each hope that we’ll be able to keep some of that feeling even after we get back to the usual hassles, frustrations, aggravations, and pressures of our American jobs and responsibilities.

     Until next time….

Susan in front of the Fountain Blue Hotel in Matagalpa.

Brenda Rose, MVI's Nicaraguan Field Rep., enjoys the new mobile medical clinic that arrived today. The clinic can now be used to reach even more outlying areas.

The professional band, hired by the coffee company, performs for the team.

Renea peers into the giant crater of the active Masaya volcano. The cross was placed years ago by a Catholic priest to stop the practice of sacrificing people to the volcano.

A home in Nicaragua made from black plastic.