Day 3
Good morning.
It’s about 6:00 AM and my phone has done its part. Dede is not feeling too hot. She took some meds last night to get over the pain from those holes. I think the pain is gone but the drugs are still there. We finally get up and start our morning routine. Wash your face, make sure your mouth is closed. Brush your teeth, use the water from the bottle, etc, etc. Breakfast is about 30 minutes from now so we turn on the tube to see what’s happening in the world. It’s seems as though everyone is now speaking Spanish. It’s the new black. We find a CNN news channels and see the wildfires in Greece and the jazz concert in Afghanistan. Both which are big deals. One is the destruction of history and heritage; another is the birth of them. But nevertheless; the TV landed on Star Wars IV, in English. Sweet. We watch little bit of it and head down to the kitchen.
We get there and I’m amazed that we have all gotten along so well. At least by now little personality things start to appear but it’s really been a pleasant trip. We wait for everyone, or at least most of everyone, to show and we let the games begin. A little grace and we are there. We have pancakes, fruit and… of course… Gallo Pinto. They have a little cereal section as well today. Nice touch. Over breakfast MAD tell us that the government and the power companies are in a little fight so most of Managua and its surrounding cities are going through rolling blackouts. The power is getting turned off from 2:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. every weeknight and then changing to 5:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. every other week. It might hit us today but we will have to see if it’s a 2:00 week or a 5:00 week.
When breakfast is over we all have devotion and today is Zanta’s day. She was nervous but she did very good. After that all gathered and prayed over the day’s work and headed out. We have about 30 minutes to get the rest of our things and be at the trucks. Dede and I head back to the room and apply all of the many creams and sprays we brought with us. Afterwards we head to the bus and load up the tools for the day. All of the post digger are hurting. I wasn’t until Johnson grabbed my shoulders and said; “How does that feel?” (Insert evil laughter) Then I was hurting for the rest of the morning. Well load up and take off.
The ride is always going to be the ride. Nothing we can do about that. When we get there we all man our stations. The same people pretty much head for the same things. As Dede and I approached the ends of the property with Mike in front of us with a truck bed full of lumber we know that today will not be an easy one. We gather the tools and begin to dig. Oh my God! It hurt so bad. I wasn’t hurting yesterday… today I’m hurting. I shoulders are in absolute pain. I can barely finish one hole with bending over in complete pain. Dede is the same. She looks at me and says; “Baby, I don’t think I can do this all day.” I totally know what she means. Johnson and Brain finish nailing down four lines of barbwire on the post we laid yesterday and them head our way. Johnson looks at me and say; “Bro.” I know what he means to.
After about four holes we had to stop and rethink this things. Even without the pre-dug holes we were moving a lot faster yesterday. We all thought the rain would help but now the dirt is 10 lbs heavier. Well, that goes that idea. Mike must have seen the lack of progress because he sent three or four locals over to help us. Can you say, “Thank You Jesus.” The helped speed up things. While we were working we got to talk to them a lot. Alexander, one of the guys, is really cool. He tried his best to speak to us in English. It was quite funny to see what he knew from American culture. He knew that Barry Bond uses steroids and Beckham was playing in California. Yes, it all had to do with sports but he also had an Aunt that lived in Chicago. I taught him how to say “Windy City” so the next time he sees his Aunt he can make her smile.
The day was long and lunch was short. We had turkey and cheese and was loving it. We took a lot of pictures and tried to connect with the people today. The locals were hitting it hard and getting the post done really. While we were doing the fence the other guys were steady building the kitchen. It looked amazing. They got more done in one day then anyone every thought possible. The frame was done and the roof was ready for nailing. Today has been one of the most productive days ever… No I mean ever… really…
After lunch the post were done so I made my way inside for some pictures. Each day I have taken over 300 pictures. What can I say. I want proof. Well after some great shots of the clinic I found myself drawn to the dental area. OMG! I saw things! I smelled things… that should never be spoken of. But what the heck. There we people in that chair that had some of the worst teeth you’d ever seen. One mad had teeth so bad that Lyn didn’t even use Novocain. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even use tools. She just pulled them with her hands. That’s how loose and dead they were. One guy Lyn had to ask him which tooth he ate with so she could leave that one in. He only had 5 left to start with. It was bad. But he wanted 2 of them gone. He said they hurt; so out they came. To be honest they all needed to come but then he wouldn’t be able to eat. Trips like this force you to see that no matter the country, no matter the nationality… we are all the same. We all need the same things and if one of us can help the other then why on Earth wouldn’t you do it.
Good morning.
It’s about 6:00 AM and my phone has done its part. Dede is not feeling too hot. She took some meds last night to get over the pain from those holes. I think the pain is gone but the drugs are still there. We finally get up and start our morning routine. Wash your face, make sure your mouth is closed. Brush your teeth, use the water from the bottle, etc, etc. Breakfast is about 30 minutes from now so we turn on the tube to see what’s happening in the world. It’s seems as though everyone is now speaking Spanish. It’s the new black. We find a CNN news channels and see the wildfires in Greece and the jazz concert in Afghanistan. Both which are big deals. One is the destruction of history and heritage; another is the birth of them. But nevertheless; the TV landed on Star Wars IV, in English. Sweet. We watch little bit of it and head down to the kitchen.
We get there and I’m amazed that we have all gotten along so well. At least by now little personality things start to appear but it’s really been a pleasant trip. We wait for everyone, or at least most of everyone, to show and we let the games begin. A little grace and we are there. We have pancakes, fruit and… of course… Gallo Pinto. They have a little cereal section as well today. Nice touch. Over breakfast MAD tell us that the government and the power companies are in a little fight so most of Managua and its surrounding cities are going through rolling blackouts. The power is getting turned off from 2:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. every weeknight and then changing to 5:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. every other week. It might hit us today but we will have to see if it’s a 2:00 week or a 5:00 week.
When breakfast is over we all have devotion and today is Zanta’s day. She was nervous but she did very good. After that all gathered and prayed over the day’s work and headed out. We have about 30 minutes to get the rest of our things and be at the trucks. Dede and I head back to the room and apply all of the many creams and sprays we brought with us. Afterwards we head to the bus and load up the tools for the day. All of the post digger are hurting. I wasn’t until Johnson grabbed my shoulders and said; “How does that feel?” (Insert evil laughter) Then I was hurting for the rest of the morning. Well load up and take off.
The ride is always going to be the ride. Nothing we can do about that. When we get there we all man our stations. The same people pretty much head for the same things. As Dede and I approached the ends of the property with Mike in front of us with a truck bed full of lumber we know that today will not be an easy one. We gather the tools and begin to dig. Oh my God! It hurt so bad. I wasn’t hurting yesterday… today I’m hurting. I shoulders are in absolute pain. I can barely finish one hole with bending over in complete pain. Dede is the same. She looks at me and says; “Baby, I don’t think I can do this all day.” I totally know what she means. Johnson and Brain finish nailing down four lines of barbwire on the post we laid yesterday and them head our way. Johnson looks at me and say; “Bro.” I know what he means to.
After about four holes we had to stop and rethink this things. Even without the pre-dug holes we were moving a lot faster yesterday. We all thought the rain would help but now the dirt is 10 lbs heavier. Well, that goes that idea. Mike must have seen the lack of progress because he sent three or four locals over to help us. Can you say, “Thank You Jesus.” The helped speed up things. While we were working we got to talk to them a lot. Alexander, one of the guys, is really cool. He tried his best to speak to us in English. It was quite funny to see what he knew from American culture. He knew that Barry Bond uses steroids and Beckham was playing in California. Yes, it all had to do with sports but he also had an Aunt that lived in Chicago. I taught him how to say “Windy City” so the next time he sees his Aunt he can make her smile.
The day was long and lunch was short. We had turkey and cheese and was loving it. We took a lot of pictures and tried to connect with the people today. The locals were hitting it hard and getting the post done really. While we were doing the fence the other guys were steady building the kitchen. It looked amazing. They got more done in one day then anyone every thought possible. The frame was done and the roof was ready for nailing. Today has been one of the most productive days ever… No I mean ever… really…
After lunch the post were done so I made my way inside for some pictures. Each day I have taken over 300 pictures. What can I say. I want proof. Well after some great shots of the clinic I found myself drawn to the dental area. OMG! I saw things! I smelled things… that should never be spoken of. But what the heck. There we people in that chair that had some of the worst teeth you’d ever seen. One mad had teeth so bad that Lyn didn’t even use Novocain. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even use tools. She just pulled them with her hands. That’s how loose and dead they were. One guy Lyn had to ask him which tooth he ate with so she could leave that one in. He only had 5 left to start with. It was bad. But he wanted 2 of them gone. He said they hurt; so out they came. To be honest they all needed to come but then he wouldn’t be able to eat. Trips like this force you to see that no matter the country, no matter the nationality… we are all the same. We all need the same things and if one of us can help the other then why on Earth wouldn’t you do it.
We loaded up to leave and the kids cleaned up around the church. I don’t know if you got that… they cleaned up. These kids live in abject poverty. Everything around them is filthy. Is not uncommon to see adults eat something and throw the wrapper on the floor. That’s the way they are… but here… they’re cleaning up after themselves. This is why we’re here. This is why we came. To not only give them something to be a part of but something to be proud of as well. They love this church. They have accepted it as their own and they want it to be clean. That alone is worth its weight in gold.
As we are pulling away the children are waving and running after the bus. We can literally feel the love of Jesus, that we’ve tried so hard to pour onto them, leap of off their faces. What a day it’s been. What a day it’s been.
We ride back to the hotel, hit the showers and head for dinner. We have a nice quiet meal and then headed over to the debriefing. MAD and Ben and Susan are all astonished at the amount of work that has been done. Ben said that they would have never ever imagined we would be this far this soon. You can really tell that God is on our side. It’s been a great trip. A few people have gotten on my never but I’m sure I’ve done the same. Mike made an ice cream run for us and Dede went with him. Maybe one day she will tell us if anything happen while they were gone. When they got back Johnson, Brian and myself were all out talking and having a good time. I stayed up for a while to write this and then went to bed. A few people had the great idea to jump in the pool but the rain put an end to that fun. After a while I headed to the room and called it a night. Wow! I wonder what tomorrow holds.
Nes
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