Day 5 Nicaragua Monday

On Monday, Day 5, Mom and I started off the morning going for a short walk. Everyday she would walk with the owner of our hotel at exactly 5:20am but she slept in a little bit this day. So we decided to take a short walk and look for a place to buy coffee. Many places in town are closed due to the fact that the locals do not have a lot of money and the tourism is way down since the 2018 uprising and COVID. 

We walked into a local church and here are the flyers that were posted on the wall.

Another…

This is the inside of the church that we were able to see. It was absolutely beautiful! The church is currently in renovation so this is the only room that’s currently open for use and prayer.

Another shot of the other side of the church wall.


We walked down toward Nicaragua lake and we saw these two horses. The horses just roam free all over Nicaragua… Along with chickens and dogs and cats and cows.  These two horses weren’t tied or anything… They were just hanging out in the middle of the median. People use the horses to pull their buggies just like the Amish do. 

Many times when people take one of these horses in and become the owner: they will tie them to the side of the road and allow them to eat the grass on the side of the road in order to feed them.  It is not a very good existence for animals in this country…

After our morning walk we headed down to the mission for breakfast. After breakfast we spent the entire day in the Diamanté area of Granada, Nicaragua.  Diamanté means diamond. We had a clinic from 9 to 11 and then the mission brought us lunch. We ate lunch on site and then did another clinic from 12 to 3.

Here is a shot of our vehicle on the way… We had to hop out and move some thing so I was able to get a shot of the vehicle in route …

Arriving at our destination…

this is the church where we held the clinic on Monday. This sign loosely translates to “The Potters Home”. The potter in this reference refers to Jesus.  A lot of people here use plastic soda bottles, bleach bottles and water bottles, cut in half, as planters. You can see one hanging below the sign.


This pig belongs to the family that lives next to the church. When a family owns a pig they raise it from a baby. If it’s a female they’ll allow it to have babies at least once before they kill it and eat it. If it’s a male, they will just feed it until it’s large enough and then will slaughter it and eat it. This pig is tied in an area under a mango tree… Mangoes constantly fall from the tree and he literally just sits and eats the mangoes.

Another picture - I loved this sweet pig!! But you can’t get close… Because I don’t think he or she was very friendly. They are definitely not treated as pets. I don’t believe anyone truly has a pet here. Cats and dogs are not really pets either they’re more considered pests…it was hard to see this but I tried to understand that this is how they live. Many days they are lucky to eat or survive so it’s hard for them to also worry about the animals around them.

This fruit was delicious. This tree was right next to the pig also it is called a Manono. You crack the outer shell and then you suck the sweet yet sour fruit from around the seed that’s inside. If you’ve ever had a rambutan, it’s like that, except it looks different on the outside.

Here’s what a Manono looks like on the tree… Ww ate so many of these the day we were in Diamanté.

Here is the vital station of the clinic… The “boys “ran this station. My professor Dennis was the consultation table. My mother and I were the pharmacy.

Here is Dennis at his consultation station. That is my professor on the left… His name is Dennis Collins. The gentleman on the right is Angel. He works with the mission and he was our translator and a majorly phenomenal person! And that is one of the residents with her son explaining what their current ailments are.

Here’s a shot of my mom and I at the clinic! Mom is the one in the blue shirt!

This is a picture of the whole church from the backside of our Pharmacy area.

And another… There are many common meds that everyone needed. It’s very hard for these people to get vitamins so we gave out a lot of those. Also many people have different worms, fungus is, bacteria‘s. We gave a lot of meds to fight all of these.

Just a picture of an ongoing consultation…

Here’s a picture of the roof and the wall of the church. Most of the roofs here are made of tin siding. One of my friends donated money to specifically be used for toys and candy for the kids. These children rarely get candy because their parents can hardly afford food. We also used it for Pampers, socks and female pads. These these things are very hard for these people to get.

Here’s an ongoing consult. This mother wanted Dennis to listen to her sons lungs and the son was not very happy to have that happen. We told the mother sometimes we cried like this when we were around Dennis in clinicals… Lol!

Picture of clinic…

this young man happened to walk by the clinic… He had been down at the local lake and had caught all of these fish to take to the market and sell. People here do whatever they can to make money.

Here’s a close-up of his fish…

This is a picture of the pastor and his wife at this church.

This is one of the guys that came on the trip with me. This little boy was fantastic and so cute and funny! We gave him a lot of candy and treats and he went home and changed his clothes and came back again. We pretended not to know him and gave him more. Next time he returned he brought a whole bunch of friends with him. It really makes your heart feel good to know that if only for a day you’re giving these kids some joy! 

The little boy spent so much time with us he then wanted our team to walk down and see where he lived. This is the home where he lives with his brother and his mother who was at work.

Here’s a close-up of him and his brother…

Here’s a picture of the lake with that boy in the previous picture caught his fish… It is just behind the houses where they live in the church.

After the day we went back to our hotel to relax before we had dinner at the mission. This was an arrangement that the owner of the hotel put in the lobby. He had cut these plants from his own garden at home. I had to get a picture because they were beautiful!

Here’s a close-up…it is called an Easter Heliconia! Beautiful!!

That’s it for Monday! I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday and I’m sending many, many hugs to all of you!

XOXO

More tomorrow!!