we may be in manawa, but the roosters still start crowing at about 4am (if not earlier).

first off, thanks for checking in with us and reading these.  many of us on the trip are glad that we can keep in touch this way (and some might actually be a little happy to be free of cell phone calls and texts…who knows?), share experiences and stories while they are going on.

for instance, doctor doug (self-described as “dashing”) wants everyone to know he made it and is getting along well with the jayhawk fans. (That’s Doug in the photo with the map…)

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as this post was started, the 11 o’clock service was in full swing back in k.c.:  we’ve had breakfast, an informative talk about the history of CEPAD (the organization we work with in nicarawa), a worship service and are now hanging out until lunch.  as i write this (in the morning), stephanie is already putting people to work.  some 450 tubes of antibiotic ointment are labeled and ready for home health kits. and everything is ready for the trip to the health ministry.  they may/reserve the right to examine the 178,213 pills that we will distribute as vitamins, ibuprofen, aceto…aceta….aceti…tylenol, childrens chewable vitamins, antibiotics, etc., etc., etc.

the medicine prep work really kicked into high gear after dinner…

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the team started filling tiny small plastic bags (pre-labeled with the help of the Yawhose and bill & laurel mace) with medicines.  over the next few days, these baggies will join a variety of other things in 450 home health kits.  more on those later.

earlier in the day, the folks who are here for the first time took a tour of manawa and, joined by the rest of the team, got an up close look at the masaya volcano — literally standing on the rim of its active (smokey and stinky) crater.

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monday morning preview: trip to the health ministry to get meds approved, history of nicarawa lecture for the team, ride to matagalpa (staging area for our project sites) and then on to mesa sur where the medical clinics will be held.

overheard in the group:

“looking forward to getting to the village so we can stop filling baggies and start visiting with people.” — nancy

“hi! i got you a cricket.”  — bruce to his wife kara who was one of the nurses on the trip last year.

good night and god bless.