Hola Amigos!!!
We have had a very busy first few days. When Jack Mease, Len Rodgers, Sarah Mease, and Sandra Thomas arrived Friday night Demo (our wonderful friend and interpreter) and Enrique (another wonderful friend who is the pastor at a Presbyterian church in Masaya) met us at the airport. After waiting for a bit to get our truck, we went to Demo's house and visited with his family. Then we got settled in at our hotel, Hotel Raizon.
On Saturday, Jack, Len, Sarah, Sandra, Demo and Enrique got up early to make the five hour drive to El Cua to pick up Daniel. Daniel is a boy Jack met at Remar in 2006 and then began to sponsor. Since then, Daniel has left Remar, graduated high school and English school. He now lives near his father and grows coffee, beans, and corn and teaches English on Saturdays at a technical school. After we arrived in El Cua, we had lunch with Daniel, his father, Manuel, and his brother, Otoniel. We then drove 30 km., which felt like 100 miles and took and hour and a half to Daniel's house down a very narrow, bumpy dirt road. After approximately 20 km. the electric line ended so all the residents in the area do not have electricity unless they are able to buy solar panels. Due to being Americans and several areas we drove through were not the safest, Manuel got a police officer to ride with us to Daniel's house, Daniel's house was about two miles off the road, so we parked at his brother's house and Jack, Len, Sarah, Sandra, and Enrique road horses to his house. Due to the long car ride, several stops, and eating lunch, most of our horse back ride was in the dark. The path to his house is up and down steep hills and through several creeks. Once we made it to his house we looked at the coffee plants he is growing. It takes two years to grow coffee before the beans can be picked. Daniel's coffee plants looked great. He has approximately 9,000 plants and he wishes to plant more after the clears two more acres of land. We all enjoyed the horse ride in the moonlight. After we got back to the road, we tried to feed the horses carrots Sandra bought, but only two of the horses ate the carrots. They wanted to eat brush instead. The police officer thought us gringos were crazy riding horses in the pitch dark. After we dropped the officer back off at the police station, we headed back home and arrived at the hotel around am.
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| View from our drive to El Cua |
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| A creek we crossed driving to Daniel's house |
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| Daniel's coffee plant |
On Sunday, we went to Remar church. We saw Macho, a former boy from Remar who Sarah and Daniel were friends with, and his adorable son, Carlos. Then we went to Vera Cruz and discussed the grades of the 25 students that NESH sponsors in school with Angelica. Angelica is a women who is in charge of taking care of the administrative duties for the children NESH sponsors. Most of the students did very well, a few performed well, and a couple did not perform so well. To sponsor a student in school, it cost approximately $200 a year for tuition, uniforms, textbooks, and supplies. We then went to Enrique's house to visit with his family. NESH sponsors Enrique's three children in school as well. Dennis just completed his sixth year of medical college, Dinia just finished her second year of medical college, and Donnie just completed his first year of dental school. To sponsor a student in medical school it is $200 a month. While there, we discussed with Enrique materials and costs for the house we are building for a family in his church.
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| Remar Church |
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| Macho and Carlos |
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| Jack discussing student's grades with Angelica |
On Monday, we went to Hogar Issac, Remar's house for the elderly men. This house is under construction so we were able to look at the progress being made. The elderly men are currently living at the Remar recovery house, which we went to next. There we visited with the men and handed out prayer shawls members from Fifth Avenue Baptist Church knitted and blessed while knitting. After we left Remar, we went to Vera Cruz to discuss plans for the house we are building for Marcos, his wife and daughter. Once materials were determined, we went to purchase the majority of the materials from the hardware store and still have to go the block factory. It costs approximately $3,500 to build a house. Surprisingly, this was one of the fastest hardware store purchases so far. While Jack and Len were purchasing materials, Sarah, Sandra and Daniel studied the menu at a restaurant across the street to help Sarah and Sandra learn Spanish and Daniel learn English. There were several things on the menu that were not very appetizing such as bull testicles. Then rest of the afternoon and evening, we shopped at the market, ate dinner at Hiedie's Kitchen, and went to see the Catholic celebration of the Virgin Mary. It is celebrated by viewing many large alter displays alongside the road. It reminded Len of Its a Small World at Disney World.
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| The elderly men with their prayer shawls |
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Marcos' house
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Marcos, his wife, and daughter Crystal in front of their house
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| Buying supplies from the hardware store |
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| Men loading the truck with the supplies |
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| The old cathedral in Managua |
We want to send out a special thank you to the many individuals who have donated to help send students to school, build houses, and much much more. God Bless and continue to pray for God's work being completed in Nicaragua!!
