Time: 0730, Monday morning.
Place: About to leave Managua
an early morning today, breakfast at 730. i won’t bother you with trivial details like the weather (sunny and hot).
about 6:45 am, the fire brigade assembled, moving box after box after box after suitcase after box after duffel after box after…you get the idea… of medicine and other supplies out of the office where they will soon be loaded into a truck for the trip north and east — today we head to the mountains and matasano (don’t bother checking google maps, you won’t find it. tiny, tiny, tiny).
before the truck gets to the clinic site and matasano, harold (one of the great folks at CEPAD) will have to make a quick stop at the health ministry. apparently some unseemly types have previously tried to smuggle illegal stuff (you know what i’m talking about) into the country INSIDE vitamin bottles. we hope that because all of our supplies are sealed from the manufacturer that they will be ok’d quickly and the truck can make its way to us. fingers crossed.
while harold and co are on vitamin duty, the rest of us will head to matasano, check out the village and the clinic site and begin the setup process. as a first timer, it{s (there’s that non-apostophe again) amazing to see how well things are planned out, coordinated and executed. it is clear that we will accomplish quite a bit over the next 5 days but the prep work that’s gone into making that possible (both from kansas city and here in nicaragua) floors me. tip of the hat.
today’s blog post is brought to you by sunday: on sunday we headed south and toured granada (and its islands) and masaya including a trip to the volcano there (it was loud and smoky, but too much moon light to see the glow of the magma. you could hear it though. freaky.).
(and as i am relatively new to the chuch — i’ve been hiding out in the balcony for a little over a year — lemme say what a great, warm, welcoming group of folks i’ve found on this trip. quite a blessing.) sunday: a “day of rest” before the work begins.
so, the loading of the truck begins, departure is imminent. up next, the 3-4 hour trip into the matagalpa region and matasano. more from the road and lori’s workin on pix for the site! watch for those.
here’s to a good week. god bless.
e.j.
