In November of 2011, Bob and Rose Stiles participated in a brigade team from Parkersburg West Virginia, to the American Baptist Mission in Nicaragua.  AMOS Health and Hope is led by Dr. David and Dr. Laura Parajon.  Their mission seeks to promote a world where no child dies of a preventable disease, and effective and empowering health care is available for the poorest communities.  They follow the directive of Jesus in caring for the least of these, the sick and the poor.  To learn more about their work visit www.amoshealthandhope.org.

Day 1.    Leaving Home

We left Syracuse airport at 6:00am.  When we arrived in Atlanta, we were greeted by the rest of our team who had flown in from West Virginia.  We spotted the group in their purple T shirts just as the plane was boarding and soon we were on the way to Managua.  We arrived in Nicaragua in the early afternoon.   Upon stepping outside the airport, the sweltering heat hits.  Our transportation, which is a modified cattle truck, was waiting. The luggage was thrown up on top of the truck, the passengers loaded in the back, all under the watchful eye of the ever present National Guardia.  The trip from the airport to the AMOS compound is about an hour thru the middle of the city.

The road is shared by cars trucks, horse drawn carts, motorcycle and bicycle cabs and entire families on a single bicycle.  From the back of the open truck, I feel immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of poverty.  The income for many of these families we drive by is $1-2 a day.  The street is filled with people of all ages who push up to the truck at every traffic stop to sell us things, or just to beg for money or food. 

It is a relief to arrive at AMOS.  The guard opens the gate, and we disembark in a shady oasis with brilliant flowers and greenery within the concertina wire fence.

We have time to settle into the cement block building which is our dorm.  A room for the women, a room for the men, and the bathrooms are across the courtyard.  Showers are room temperature, and don’t put ANY paper in the toilet.

Dr. Laura briefs us on the schedule for the next few days, and then we have devotions before dinner and bed. We all greet 8:00 pm because that is the time the air conditioner comes on for the night.  It has been a full day.  For those making this journey for the first time, the culture shock is intense, and we are still in the city.  Tomorrow we will be briefed on our work, the work of the mission, and learn more about the country and the people we are visiting.

Day 2     AMOS and Nicaragua 101

Today we wake at 6 and have devotions before a breakfast of eggs with salsa, watermelon, pineapple juice and rice and beans.  We then meet with Dr. Laura and Dr. David.  We give them the gifts we have brought for AMOS.  As a group, we are able to contribute $10,000, Vitamins with iron, Tylenol, baby layettes, and some other items they had indicated would be helpful.  The doctors then give us an overview what they are trying to do.  In this country 50% of the population is under 24 years old.   As many as 60% of those under 5 years old are anemic.   Amos serves 27 remote rural communities.  In each village, an annual census is taken and this is used to assure fair distribution of resources, and to determine the needs of each area.  A Health Promoter is chosen by each community, and AMOS provides training for this person so they can treat the most common needs of the community.  They also are trained to be educators and to promote health and sanitation.  To run a clinic, it costs AMOS 5-8 thousand dollars a year.  This includes providing the most commonly needed medications.  We learn that the health promoters have been having great success in reducing the anemia in children by teaching the parents some simple changes.  No coffee for the young ones, (it is a common drink) and add some lemon juice to the staple rice and beans to increase iron absorption.  The vitamins we have brought will be used for the most anemic while the dietary changes are being made.

In the afternoon, Dr. Marcos gives us a seminar “Nicaraguan History 101”-the story of his country.  We learn how complex the relationship has been between his country and ours.  We learn how the U.S. has harmed and aided them. It helps us understand how we may be perceived by those we want to “help”.  We discuss the Contra/Sandinista War, the earthquake of 1972, Hurricane Mitch and the current political climate.

After dinner, we are packed into the truck for a “surprise”.  We travel to the opposite rim of the dormant volcano that we are residing on, and are introduced to another missionary team who have established a school, church and hospital over the past 10 years.  Now, the wife has cancer, and the team wants to return to Florida and to retire near family.  They will not leave their mission until someone can take it over for them.  Dr. David is being led to do this, and is seeking guidance and support to know that this huge project is God’s plan.  We have a fantastic tour of the facility they have built, and all commit to pray for the right direction for all involved.    

Back in the compound for the night, we are all eager for the 8pm air conditioning, but alas, tonight there is a rolling blackout, and no electricity until after midnight. 

Day 3     Work and Play and Pray

This morning after breakfast, we split into teams to do several jobs.  We make antennae  for the HAM radio  we will take to the village, sort and package clothing to take to the flooded communities, repackage bulk medications into individual doses for the clinics, and stencil the new sheets with the White Cross logo.  Baby layettes are assembled.  The layettes, we learn are saving lives.  The government is trying to get women to give birth in hospitals or birthing centers to reduce the high rate of infant and maternal deaths.  Because this often requires the mother to leave the rural areas for weeks at a time to stay in a maternity home, they are resistant.  With the use of the layette as an incentive gift, many more women are attending birthing classes and giving birth in the hospital, and the mortality rates have decreased dramatically.  

The afternoon is our “tourist” time.  We go shopping in the street market.   The brave and the foolish zip line over the rainforest canopy and lagoon.   (It was fantastic!)

Then, we go to First Baptist of Managua where we listen to the choir rehearsing for the Christmas cantata.  The acoustics are phenomenal and even though we don’t understand the words, we all are in awe at the beautiful sound.  This is our church service, because tomorrow, which is Sunday, we will spend the entire day travelling to the village.  La Consulta, here we come.

Day 4      Into the Wild

We have an early breakfast today and then load the truck.  We take with us everything we will need for 5 days in the village, all our food, cookware, chairs, building supplies, tools.  By 9 am we are on the road.  Because we will not all fit in the truck which is fully loaded, 5 people have to ride in the ambulance.  This is a new vehicle with air conditioning, but still we take turns.  Everyone would rather ride in the hot, crowded, bouncing truck.  It seems the ambulance is like being in a cocoon, you see the world going by outside the window and it is like watching it on tv.  In the truck you are part of it, you are in it.  We pull off to the side of the road for a picnic lunch which we have packed with us.  After 5 hours on the Pan Am highway we stop in a little village to pick up some other staff.  We spend the next hour on a narrow dirt road, passing an occasional home and crossing two small rivers in the truck, only getting stuck once.

We stop, and are told we will need to walk the rest of the way to the village because the recent flood has washed the road out.  It is about a mile.  We will carry everything from the truck to the village.  A few village people are there to help.  We load up and head down a rocky, rutted path, up a hill, down a hill.

There before us is the river.  We look downstream about ¼ mile, and see a steady stream of people crossing the river.

The whole village is coming to help us carry things in.  It reminds us all of the Red Sea.  We make many trips back and forth to get it all across. We are intermingled at times with the cattle that are being brought to the river for water.  By the time the last items are on shore, darkness is descending.   The villagers lead us by the hand up the rough road and help us find our belongings.  The electricity (solar powered) consists of a single bulb in the teacher’s house, where the women will stay, and two bulbs in the church where the men will be.  These two buildings are about ¼ mile apart, and it is very dark.  We are glad we brought our headlamps.

At this point Bob discovers that he has lost a hearing aide.  He put it in his pack while crossing the river so it would be safe, and now it is missing.  It is somewhere between the river and the village.  This is about .3mile of sand and rock path, that at least 40 cattle, and 500 trips by humans have just trampled.  He feels despair, because he will now be unable to hear much of what is going on, and will need to replace this $3500 device when we get home.  We pray as a group, for our mission, for our safety and for Bob’s hearing aide.  The women make a group trip out the back, across the barnyard to the latrine, then we all fall onto our cots exhausted.  A few minutes later, Paula, who is on her first trip, is having an anxiety attack. She and I spend the next hour talking about all that we have experienced today, and asking God to carry us through.  As we try to go to sleep a rooster starts crowing right outside the window.   We both laugh, because it sounds to us just like the rooster is saying, ”Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you”.  We sink into sleep.

Day 5    In the village of La Consulta

I wake at 4:30 am to the smell of the cook fire and the sound of patpatpatpat.  I later learn this is the sound of tortillas being made.  It is my alarm clock each morning in the village.  We are still adjusting to the latrine, which is located between the pigpen and the chicken roost.  We brought our own toilet seat and paper so it is tolerable.  We will take all our meals as a group in the teacher’s house.  The doorways are full of curious villagers watching us.  The chickens wander through and pick up any rice that is dropped.  We are advised that we should eat what we need, but any left overs will be shared with the villagers. Many of them have only one meal a day, and some do not have that.  We will notice as the week goes on, that our left overs are distributed well throughout the village.  

This morning we have a miracle.  Our Health Promoter, Isabell comes in at breakfast and hands Bob his hearing aide.  A four year old, Marcellina, found it.  Praise God.

Today we work.  A Canadian company has drilled a well, so now the people will not need to get water from the river.  We dig trenches and lay pipe to run from the well to the clinic and to the school.  The men tear the old roof off the clinic and prepare to replace it with metal.  The termites have destroyed it.  We also work on fixing the old latrine, putting a sink and shower in the clinic.  Many of the men from the village work along side us. 

After lunch we get cleaned up.  Some went to the river for a swim, others showered in the back yard.  By shower, I mean a 5 gallon bucket of water with a cool whip bowl to pour it over yourself.  We have a cement block “stall” behind the house.  We change out of work clothes for VBS.  We have 43 children the first day, and just as many adults watching.  Our translators do a great job, but so much communication does not have a language barrier.  Everyone is having so much fun together. We are learning about the rhythm of life in the community.  We see the cattle being taken to the river early each morning, and again at dusk.  The chickens, sheep, pigs, horses, dogs and children wander through the village.  Someone asks, ”How do you know who’s pig or chicken is which?”   We are told, “the master knows his own”.

Tonight the rooster only crows “I’m the rooster, I’m the rooster”.

Day 6    Clinic and Caring

Patpatpatpat, smoke, cattle passing by.  Breakfast, and to work.  More roofing, plumbing.  The three nurses will help with the clinic today.   22 children are being treated for anemia and today will be the 3 month recheck.  We assist as the health team from the village checks weights, heights, and does finger sticks.  The health promoter counsels each parent.  Good news!  Only 5 children are still anemic! 

After lunch, we clean up and do VBS.  50 kids plus adults today.  We do songs, a bible story, games, craft and just play.  The children and adults linger long after the “show” is over.   

In the evening Isabell, the health promoter meets with us and tells us of his hopes and dreams for his community.  He is proud that no mother or baby has died in his village in 2 years.  He thanks AMOS for this. There are 2 churches in his village, a catholic and an evangelical, but it is AMOS that brings health and hope. 

 This night as I lay down to go to sleep, I am hit with a severe attack of vertigo.  I know that this will pass in a few hours, but in the meantime, I must sit, not lay, vey still.  I am unable to walk without assistance, so Paula who needed my support a few nights ago now needs to help me.  We stumble to the table, where she refuses to leave me alone.  When the worst of it has past, she supports me thru the yard to the latrine and back.  Tonight the rooster crows outside the window.  He says  ”Kill the rooster, kill the rooster”.

Day 7   Life in the Village

Patpatpatpatpat  

After breakfast some of our team starts picking up litter, which is plentiful everywhere.  The women and children of the village all join in and the place looks a lot better in short order.  We then work on filling in a huge gully thru the middle of town that the flood caused.  Work continues on the roof, and the water line to the school.  Midmorning Isabell shows us how the make chlorine using salt and a car battery.  Several of us then go with the health team to make visits to 9 homes.  We walk single file on the footpaths between homes, and at each place we stop we are welcomed in.  Our hosts are proud to show us their homes and to have us visit with them.  They add the chlorine to their water storage jugs. All of the homes, including the teacher’s house where we are staying have dirt floors, windows with no glass.  Most people sleep in hammocks with mosquito netting.   At two of the homes the women are making tortillas.  They show us how, and let us try, laughing at our ineptitude of one of life’s basis skills for them. One home consists of a 3 sided lean-to.  Two sides are made from rags, and the third side is sticks.  There is one hammock and a small platform.  It is home to a woman with 6 children.  Her husband works in Costa Rica, as he could find no jobs here. 

After lunch we have our last day of VBS.  We have fake moustaches for fun, and soon everyone from the toddlers to the 85 year old lady is sporting a fuzzy black moustache.  What a lot of laughter!  We tell the story of Jonah, then we play a fishing game, where each child catches a prize.  The girls get hair decorations.  The boys get a small toy or school supplies. 

After dinner we have devotions and time to share and reflect.  Everyone shares, we have guitar music too.  We discuss how hard the roofing job is.  Putting metal roof on in the blazing sun with the temp well over 100 degrees is draining.  The roofing crew votes to begin tomorrow at 5 am at the crack of dawn so we can finish it.  We only have one day left to get it done. 

Tomorrow  is our last day here. It is Thanksgiving Day, and we are planning to share our culture with the village. 

Day 8      Thanksgiving Day

By breakfast time the men have been working on the roof for 3 hours.  They will finish it before our celebration.  Everyone not on the roof works at scrubbing the walls of the clinic.

Today our cook has agreed to allow us to help in the kitchen alongside the ladies from the village.  We are preparing a feast for the whole village.  We fill a 30 gallon plastic tote with a rice, beans, and vegetables.  Everyone is looking to a party.  We bring out nail polish and soon every girl in town has painted nails to match her new hair ribbons and barrettes.  They are all dressed in their very finest clothes.  Every member of the village turns up for the feast, and plates are piled high with the most food they have seen.  Some are taking it home to eat tomorrow too.  A CD player appears, and the dancing begins.  I am hearing all this from my cot as I have made 15 trips to the latrine today and am getting dehydrated.  The Health Promoter stops to see me and gives me an electrolyte replacement powder.  I am glad AMOS has a clinic here.  I don’t think I would have the strength to walk the mile out tomorrow and cross the river again without this intervention.  Bob moves his cot down from the church to be present if I need help in the night because at this time I am too weak to get across the yard alone.

Day 9   Leaving the village of La Consulta

No patpatpat of tortillas this morning. And thankfully, no more trips to the latrine. We need to get an early start today so there is no time for breakfast.  We all have stashes of snack food, which is like the loaves and fishes story.  There is enough for everyone, and we leave the rest with the villagers.  We begin the process of hauling everything back across the river to the truck.  At least we don’t have the food and building supplies to carry out.  I see a lady of 85 years old carrying items out.  A 4 year old totes a bag as well.  His mother carries my suitcase (which I know weighs over 40 lbs.) on her head. I am feeling stronger today, and I walk out without help, even carrying a light load.   Everyone escorts us.  We feel such mixed emotions.  We have felt so welcome in this village, so accepted and useful.  But we are ready to go too.

The truck is loaded, last pictures taken, and we head on down the road.  It takes all day to get back to the compound.  We unload the truck and get settled back into what now seems like luxurious accommodations.  Tonight the AMOS staff has prepared a special meal for us to replace the Thanksgiving meal we missed at home.  It is a traditional Nicaraguan Christmas dinner.  We also have the cranberry sauce we brought with us.  Life is good.  God is Great. 

Day 10     Loving Nicaragua

Today is our cultural experience day.  We take the truck to visit Masaya, an active volcano.  We stand on the rim peering into the crater, but only for a few seconds at a time as the gases and heat are overpowering.  There are warning signs about the poisonous gases.  The natives used to sacrifice virgins here by throwing them in.  There are crosses on the lip of the volcano to mark the coming of Christianity and the end of the sacrifices.  The museum for the volcano is very informative.

We go to Granada, which is a small city, one of the oldest in Central America.  It is becoming quite a tourist attraction.  We roam the city, the market, the ancient churches.  We have lunch at a charming lakeside restaurant.  By the time we get back to Managua it is dark and we are delighted to see that all the roundabouts, and the lakeshore are lit up with Christmas lights.  We sing Christmas carols in the back of the truck in the 90 degree heat.  Two more of the team have fallen ill with the GI problems.  Some return to the compound and to bed, while others go out for dinner.  Tomorrow we fly home, so tonight we pack before we sleep. 

Day 11   Leaving Nicaragua

We rise early today.  We have lightened our loads by donating much of our clothing, luggage and equipment to AMOS, so packing for the airport doesn’t take long.  We load into the truck, and go to First Baptist Church in Managua for Sunday morning service.  They welcome us, and we recognize the music even though the words are strange.  We leave before the service is over to get to the airport.  As we linger inside security waiting to board our plane, we feel sad to be leaving, yet fulfilled.  Pastor Larry reminds us that our mission trip is not over.  Now we need to go back and share what we have seen and what God has done.  He challenges us to complete a mission project on our home turf as well.  Over the next few weeks the group will put together a picture album which will be delivered to La Consulta.  We have brought them home with us, and part of us will remain with them. 

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