Day 7 Afternoon Nicaragua - Vera Cruz

In the afternoon of our final day in Nicaragua we were having a clinic in Veracruz. It had been raining from the day before and had not slowed down at all. Many streets were flooded so when we went to go to Vera Cruz the main roads were all flooded out. We had to drive the back roads that the locals use. Thank goodness we had Carlos, a very experienced driver, because it was a very sketchy ride.  Later in the week I will post the video of him driving. 

This is what the road look like on our way there around noon on our last day. We took this back road because the main road and bridge had been flooded out. As you can see the back roads are fairly flooded also… Lol!

This poor family was walking apparently had called for a ride… We were following the pastor to his church… He is the one in the Toyota in front of us. We needed him to show us the back roads that were still available to drive on.

This poor family had to walk through this river of a road!! Ugh! Those cookies you can see on the dashboard below I called brown sugar cookies. They are delicious! We all shared them in the van! They were made at a local bakery!

Our final clinic in the afternoon was held at a nursing students house. He went to his house to his church to hold the clinic inside. It was super nice of him because we were unable to access the church due to the road flooding. Here we are all set up…

Another photo… all the kids were absolutely adorable!

Another shot of the clinic and the pharmacy…

and this time a stray cat ran through the middle of the clinic… Lol

A local family was unable to get back home due to the rain so they hopped in the back of the van with us and we dropped them off when we were finished with the clinic and headed home to the mission.

This is a picture of the flooding when we returned home… The water was so much higher it was to the bottom of our doors in our Land Cruiser. You will see you when I post a video how absolutely crazy the drive home was. I was honestly worried that we would be stranded and not make it back to the mission. The person you can see in the front seat in this photo is the pastor‘s wife. We gave her a ride home as well.

Crazy high waters! It’s like we were driving down a river!

Here is a video of the high water travel.

Once we made it safely back to the mission we wanted to get a few pictures of the mission staff. Here are the wonderful people that we worked with all week! (Left to right… Laura - mission pastors wife, Blanca one of our translators, my Mom, me, Shawn fellow nursing student, Dennis nursing professor, Jeremy fellow nursing student, Carlos one of our drivers - down in front is Angel one of our translators)

so this picture is the same people as above except Angel is taking the picture and add it on the left is Drew. Drew is the pastor that runs Straight Street Nicaragua which is the mission that we volunteered with. This entire crew of people is so amazing. They are the most selfless people I’ve ever met in my life.

There was an uprising in 2018 in Nicaragua. The people tried to overthrow the government… There were protests in the street and in order to stop the protests; the government was just shooting people, including children, in the street. Over 400 people lost their lives before the people finally gave up because too many of their children were being shot for no reason. The people who run Straight Streeet Nicaragua stayed through this turmoil. They could’ve went home to Tennessee and instead they stayed to help the people of Nicaragua. This is the same for our translators and everyone that works there. We asked them why they didn’t leave and go to another country and they said they have a calling to help their families and the people of Nicaragua. I have so much respect for every single person we met here and I hope and pray daily that these people can someday have a democracy and be able to live the lives they deserve to live.

Our final night we went to a nice dinner at the Garden Café in Granada. This is a view of the restaurant inside… It was absolutely beautiful! They also have a cute little store you can shop in while you wait for your meal.

This was mom‘s dinner she got the salmon and green beans and zucchini. There’s also a side of couscous that was absolutely delicious!

Jeremy got a hamburger they served it with a side of chicken salad.

Here’s a little selfie of the whole crew… At this point I think we were already to be home. It’s a lot of together time and it’s a lot of personalities. By the end I think we all needed a little time apart… Lol

I hope you all had a fantastic week! Feel blessed for what you have and where you live! Sending so many hugs to you all!