April 15:
Yesterday, we went into San Carlos, and I was able to send the first week’s notes and some pictures. Other than that, the trip into town was not much to write about! The town itself has what I would describe as a “farmer’s market” with mostly produce and grocery items, and a bunch of shops that sell stuff that you could buy in the US (or, perhaps, knock-offs of stuff that you could buy in the US). There were a couple of places that had Nicaraguan merchandise, so we picked up a few shirts and some other souvenirs, but San Carlos is definitely not a shopper’s mecca!
Today, we attended morning worship at First Church in San Carlos. It was a very good service, with Pastor Cecilio preaching from Ezekiel 18 on spiritual formation and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We had a nice time of fellowship with the people after the service, and then had dinner at a restaurant in town. This evening, we attended services at Second Church in San Carlos. Feliciano Perez, the district superintendent, was preaching, and there was a great deal of enthusiastic singing and praise. It was a great service! Second Church is close enough to our quarters that we were able to walk to and from church, so we had a nice stroll back after the service was over. All in all, it was a great day!
April 16:Back to the worksite today! In addition to the regular “work crew,” the VBS workers made their first trip out to the worksite today, because the VBS is taking place across the road from the worksite. We are expecting to spend more time helping to tie rebar, do some painting, and mix a lot of cement and mortar this week!
The VBS had a great start. The elementary school children go to school in the morning, so VBS begins at 1:00 each day. There were over 30 children there for the first session today, and everyone is excited and enthusiastic about the VBS. We are using the Spanish language version of the materials and songs from the VBS that we did at Traverse City last summer, and the children really enjoy the songs! We have story time, music, crafts, and recreation for them, and today went very well.
April 17:More of the same. The weather is getting hot, so the work crew is sweating a lot and getting tired. Mixing the cement is a very hot job! I’ve included some pictures of that work – four or five guys at a time, moving around the circle mixing and mixing with shovels until the cement is the mixed and at the right consistency, and then shoveling it into buckets to carry to the block-laying crew. It’s certainly different that my usual work! I even asked someone about the possibility of finding a gas-powered mixer to do the mortar and cement, and I found that the team tried it a few years ago. None of the local workers would use the mixer, because they couldn’t get the right mixture and consistency with the mixer – so the mixer just sat there!
VBS was up over 40 kids today. We had some problems with my computer – the display is not working. I can tell that the computer is booting up correctly, but there is just nothing on the display. (Note: I’m having to retype these notes after we’ve returned home, because I was not able to use my computer from Tuesday on.) This means that we can’t play the DVD of the songs for the kids – so we’re just using the Spanish CD of the songs that we brought with us, on a boombox that belongs to the foreman of the work crew. That’s the way mission trips are – our motto is, “Be flexible!”
April 18:It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be our last day of work. As often happens, we did not get as far along with the work project as we had hoped. We’ve had some minor injuries, and other projects to be done, so the size of the work crew has dwindled during the course of the trip. On top of that, today we ran out of water at the work site. As I think I mentioned earlier in my diary, we have had to have crews carry five-gallon buckets of water from a well a few hundred yards away back to the work site to keep the two 55-gallon drums filled. Well, just before lunchtime today, they came back with the report that there is no more water. We are near the beginning of the rainy season – it usually starts around May 1 – and the water is becoming scarce. In fact, in San Carlos today all of the water is shut off because of the shortage.
As a result, we had a long lunch – because we’re trying to mix and pour the concrete pillars and tie-layers for the building, and we don’t have water to mix concrete! After lunch, we were able to find a little more water, so through the course of the afternoon we mixed a few smaller batches of concrete, and did as much with that as we could. Some of the crew – especially the teens – on shoveling and bringing in dirt to help level out the floor inside the building. I’m not sure that most of them knew what a pick-ax was before this week, but they do now!
VBS attendance was up again today. Some of the work crew went over to VBS this afternoon, and they really enjoyed it.
Tonight, we’re all going to have to pack, because we are having a sending service tomorrow afternoon out at the worksite at 5:00. The service will probably last a couple of hours, and then we’ll have to go back to the district center for dinner. We don’t expect to get back to our quarters tomorrow night until 10 or so, and then we have to be up and ready to head down to the boat dock at 7 Friday morning. So, tonight we try to pack as much as we can – and that should make a late night, too!
April 19:We got to “report” an hour later this morning – we didn’t leave for the district center until 8, instead of our usual 7, because we were up late packing last night. As a result, we got out to the worksite around 11. There was enough water to mix some more concrete, so we finished the support pillars and layers on top of the second course of cinder block today. So, the final report is that on top of the foundation, there is a set of 5 courses of cinder block, then a layer of concrete; then another set of 5 courses of cinder block, and another layer of concrete. This afternoon, we spent a lot of time shoveling and sifting sand to be used for mortar for the next courses of cinder block. We didn’t lay any of the block – still not enough water to mix mortar – but at least we got the sand sifted for them so the work crew can start making mortar and laying block when there is water.
For the last session of VBS, there were 70 kids! In four days, attendance more than doubled. What an awesome blessing! Everyone involved – our workers, the kids, and the local parents and helpers – had a great time.
At 5, we started gathering for our sending service. The old church building is not usable – it’s the wood building that says “Iglesia del Nazareno” on the front. That’s where all of the building materials and tools are stored. The new building is obviously not ready yet. So, we set up benches under a roof next door to the church. There is a small store there, where we have been buying Cokes and other stuff while we’ve been here. The people who own the store are part of this church, and so the church is evidently meeting there while the building is being constructed. Over the next half-hour or so, people gathered in, and we finally started with some singing around 5:30. The District Superintendent arrived, and preached a message to all of us about being bold in proclaiming the gospel. He challenged all of us with Jesus’ command to be light to the world. After the message, Alejandro, the pastor of the local church, arranged for each member of our team to be presented with a gift from a member of the local church. It was a great time for us to fellowship and rejoice with them!
By the time we got back to the district center for dinner, it was after 8 – and I’ve been going to bed between 8 and 9 every night! We had dinner, cleaning up as much of the leftovers from these two weeks as we could, and then cleaned up and headed off to bed. We’re leaving in the morning!
April 20:
This morning, we were all out waiting when the bus came by at 7. He was coming by to pick up anything that we had that we wanted to donate – clothing, shoes, etc. – because the driver would take it out to the district center when he went to pick up the team members who were staying out there. That group headed down to the docks first, to begin loading luggage onto the boat, and getting through immigration to get exit visas. The bus, and Feliciano in his car, came to get us and our luggage to take us down to the docks. We had to work our way through the line at the immigration office – because there were several locals lined up to get their visas for the boat which was leaving at 10:30. We had to try to “cut” into the line, because we had a chartered boat, and we could leave as soon as all of our people got through the immigration line. Eric, our missionary, helped us to explain to the Nicaraguans why we were cutting in the line, and we managed to get through fairly quickly. We piled into the boat, and headed south for Costa Rica.After a trip of an hour and a half, we arrived back in Los Chiles, Costa Rica. Several of us helped to unload the luggage from the boat and carry it up to the customs officials, while the rest of the team walked the two blocks up to Costa Rican immigration to finalize their re-entry into the country. By the time we finished carrying the luggage up to the customs officers, we were ready to start loading it onto the buses that had come to meet us to take us back to the seminary in San Jose. We got through customs very quickly, and then we went to immigration. From there, we walked right across the street to an air-conditioned restaurant with clean bathrooms and cold water and soda. Heaven!
After this stop, we piled into the big bus (the small bus was full of luggage) and headed south. After a couple of hours, we stopped in San Carlos, Costa Rica – which is nothing like San Carlos, Nicaragua – and had lunch at KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN! After lunch, back into the bus for the rest of the trip back to San Jose.
Tonight, we had a pizza party with a Work and Witness team from Tennessee who had been working on the campus of the seminary. They’re leaving tomorrow morning, so we had a nice time tonight sharing pizza and stories with them. Unfortunately, we had to do it in the dark – the electricity was off this afternoon and evening. (Note: it came back on later, after I had gone to bed, but I didn’t find that out until Saturday morning.) All in all, though, we had a good time, but we were all ready for bed pretty early. We’re heading off tomorrow morning for our “fun day” at 7:00 a.m., so everyone was ready to turn in early.
April 21:Breakfast at 6 this morning, and the bus came to get us at 7. We headed back north a couple of hours to Turu Ba Ri Tropical Park – the equivalent of a national park in the US. (Check it out at www.turubari.com) This place is out in the middle of nowhere – like a lot of our national parks are – and there were almost no cars in the parking lot when we arrived. After being there, I honestly don’t know why there was no one there! If we had this facility at home within a couple of hours of my house, I’d be there at least once a month! It was awesome!
The primary activity was a “canopy tour.” You may know this as a “zip line.” You wear a harness, and then are clipped onto a steel cable with big carabiner clips connected to a pulley-wheel. You then glide down the cable, from one platform to the next, over the tops of the trees in the rainforest. You get a great view of the forest and the terrain, gliding several hundred feet between each set of platforms. There are seven cables in all, with the last being over a half-mile long. What a great experience!
After the canopy tour, we rode the aerial tram back up to the visitor center, where we enjoyed an excellent buffet lunch. We spent the time talking about some of the other activities which were available at the park. My daughter, MacKenzie, and Debbie Winn went on a horseback ride through the park after lunch. A few of the team members were discussing the “Sensational Cable.” This is similar to the zip line used on the canopy tour, with a few important differences. First, the Sensational Cable is done lying down, face down, so that you seem to be flying through the air. (They also call the Sensational Cable the “Superman cable.”) Second, the Sensational Cable is only one long trip, instead of a series of short ones. This long trip is, however, ¾ of a mile long! Also, de