I think I left a piece of my heart in Los Conchitas, Nicaragua

My First Mission Trip - Nicaragua

 Sunrise over Houston.....beautiful.  Nathan did a great job working the cloud machine for me.

 Looking out the window hoping our luggage gets on the plane too. 41 minute layover is not very long.

Our team from Lakeland First Baptist Church, me, Stephen Stancil, MD, Pastor Chris Hodges, Giles Damron, DDS, Michael Avery, and Kaylor Roberts.

 on the long leg of the trip (of course), I paid extra for a seat with a TV......and this little Sophia was sitting beside me.  She told me over and over, "I Sophia", "I three years old".....She was turning the volume up and down, changing channels, plugging and unplugging my ear phones because all of those buttons were on top of the arm rest that we shared. There were very little movie selections but SHE wanted to watch cars.  so I dug out my old ear buds and she said they were too big, she wanted to wear the big blue ones.....of course she did.  So here she is watching my movie.  Her grandmother was asleep.

I think we could get 1 more bag in there, don't you think????  This was for 6 people....mostly the dentist.

We stayed at the Hotel Granada.  I was amazed that everyone left their doors standing wide open.

beautiful hotel pool

We were at the very end.  We actually spent very little time together, but they were all so sweet.  Glad Stephanie was in our room...at least she was a familiar face. 

 Deck chairs around the pool....great place to just go to think and reflect

 This was the entry way from the dining halls and front desk to the back of the hotel where our rooms were.

This is the stairwell going to our rooms

just a regular hotel.

On the very first day into Los Conchitas, I was riding in the Way of The Cross staff van because I didn't want to get car sick.  Phillip was driving and his wife and kids were in the van along with a few others, including a lady who had gotten sick and we were taking her to the staff rental house.  Those 4 little kids (under the age of 11) laid hands on Margie and prayed for her to feel better.  I sat in that seat with tears streaming down my face, and I was thinking...."This is about to get good!!"

I mainly rode the blue bus and Oscar was our driver....the dirt road had many pot holes....we joked that he "missed one" because he hit so many.  The clutch was going out in the bus, and we kept saying "Grind it till you find it".  There was a guy from Murfreesboro that rode standing the entire way in the door way of the bus throwing out candy to the kids on the street...he would yell "carmella".....He was funny, his name was Bluker....really, it was.

Dr. Stephen Stancil, one of our team from Lakeland FBC, is a pediatrician.  He trained at University of Tennessee....he was a resident in the MED's NICU.  Great guy, he was so sweet praying over each child after he was done examining them.  Just a kind and gentle spirit.

This was a huge ball room, this picture doesn't even give it justice to how many people were there....they were wrapped around the room.  We had praise and worship for the staff and they gave us each an evangicube,  I posted in the previous post about how to use it.

 The docs would write on their forms what medications to give them.  The pharmacy was a hopping place.

We each brought a bag of over the counter medications. People were so grateful for Tylenol and eye drops.  It is so dusty, they all complained of having dry, itchy eyes.  It is the little things that we take for granted.  This is where my friend Stephanie worked.

Massage and Chiropractor along with General Adult Medicine.

Our team eating Fajita's at the Irish Pub.  All of the seating is outside.  Kids will come up to your table trying to sell anything from candy, to change purses to hammocks and home made clay vases.  They had said it was appropriate to get a to-go box with your leftovers and give them away if you were approached (even if it was food you have eaten off of)  One little boy came to my table and pointed at my quesadilla with sad puppy dog eyes, and I was going to give it to him and security came over and told him to leave.  Then security asked if the boy could have it if I was done and I said yes.  I did give away the remainder of my dinner from our last night there to a little girl, but it was in a to go box.

We set up in a place not even on Google Maps called Los Conchitas, Nicaragua.  Each day we had chapel in a big open pavillion that was built last year.  These are flags representing all of the churches there.  It was amazing how much rhythm they had.  It made me laugh, thinking about our little baptist churches trying to clap along with the singing.  And it was cool to hear Chris Tomlin songs in spanish.
Between the chapel, doctors praying over the patients and evangelism teams going out into the little villages, there were over 4,200 professions of faith.  Wow!

The first morning I worked in Peds with Stephen.  I really just weighed the kids and blew bubbles for distraction and gave them a toy when they were done.  Later in the day they desperately needed another triage nurse, so that is what I did for the remainder of the trip.

This is Moses my interpretor.  I was so thankful for him.  They estimated that 3,500 people were seen between the dentists, dental hygenists, chiropractor, adult doctors, pediatricians, ER doctors...plus pharmacy.   There were 2 triage nurses....I was 1 of them.  We did a regular intake...name, age, complaint, allergies, weight , vital signs, current medications.  That is a BUNCH of manual blood pressures.

This is the dental clinic

 Giles at work.....from Damron Dental Care here in Bartlett

 Michael, Kaylor and Giles

 Giles and Dr. Chitwood - rocking the fanny packs

This was the huge church right outside of our hotel in Granada, Nicaragua.  It had a bell tower and the bells chimed at 5:30, 5:45 and 6:00 a.m.  What a great way to wake up each day.

 Three Amigos

 Some of the kids that we saw

A little boy came up to me and motioned for me to hold out my hands....he folded them together and placed his hands over mine and prayed for me.  He was 9 years old.  The sweetest thing.  

waiting in line to see the dentist

 We had either a ham, bologna, or peanut butter sandwich for lunch....it was the best sandwich I ever had, so we were all ready when supper time came.

 Eye glasses anyone???? Just try them on till you can see good and they are yours.

Barrels of water to rinse off

sometimes hand sanitizer is just not enough

 Nicaraguan Baby Carriage

 vendor making snow cones, it was so hot, I wanted one so bad, but knew it was best not to chance it.

 home made tortilla chips and salsa

 The last shall be first

 Do you REALLY have to go to the bathroom???

or can you hold it just a little while longer????

I am so thankful for Moses and Jeyling, the translators that worked with me.

 This is the line to get to triage before they can be seen by the physicians.

 my little friend, Annalise.  She found me every day, she loved playing with my earrings and looking at pictures on my phone.  

 Thank you to my friends who gave us toys to give to the kids

 they loved the bubbles too

 funny that this is every day transportation

 the little girls (and their mommas) LOVED the nail polish

 more transportation

 This little old man really touched my heart.......look at his bible.

'

Hands made into a cross

 A body cross

Phillip playing a whistle

 another street vendor

 waiting to get their bikes repaired....the main form of transportation in Los Conchitas.

 They made me my very own clip board because of the grooves in the table, it was hard to write....I even had a Newborn Center pen :O)

 people were so sweet to come back to triage to say thank you for helping them.

 awwwwww..............that was his extra cloth diaper on his head.  Pretty ingenius I think....who needs a diaper bag????

 The sweetest little girls.....they found me every day.  It could have been the toys, stickers, cookies and bubbles that I gave them, but the stickers on the girls arm to the far right say Christo me amo....Christ Loves Me.  They asked Who loves me??? and I was able to share the love of Jesus with them.  THAT is why I was meant to go.

I must say that my heart broke when we were told to stop seeing patients in triage on the last day at 2:30 p.m.  because the clinics were closing at 3:30 p.m. There were still people standing in line.  Moses had tears in his eyes as he told the people that they would not be able to be seen.  It was so sad.  

I asked Giles "what happens now?".  He said that we do all we can while we are there, Pastor Chris helped to equip the local pastors to minister to the people, more missionaries will hopefully come later behind us, and there is always next year.

Alecia was right, I left a little piece of my heart there.

These were cards and letters and a palm cross that my friends at work sent for me to open each night, so I could feel the love and prayers back home.  Thank you every one.

As blessed as I was to go, I was very glad to see the Mighty Mississippi out that plane window.

Thank you so much Dwayne....for loving me, praying for me, texting me knowing that I could not text back, and encouraging me to go.  I am so glad that I did.