Nicaragua – Day 1 and 2

September 23-24, 2017

Nicaragua - Land of Fire and Rain

Having arrived on a Friday night, our schedule has changed somewhat from past trips. While we usually will get acquainted with the place and then start working before we do any “touristy” things, this time the sightseeing and shopping are happening first and the real work will begin later.

Our first full day, then, was an amazing trip to an amazing place. The city of Masaya is about an hour southeast of Managua. After an amazing breakfast, we started off on out journey that would bring us to the same place our journey last time ended at, the Masaya Market. For those who have been to Latin America, you know what an open air market can be like. For those who haven't, imagine a farmer's market with little room to walk between the stalls, people selling things to you at every turn, and being barraged by vibrant colors, enticing smells, and engaging people. It is truly an experience. We were given about an hour to do some shopping. This particular market is framed by a wall on all sides, so it is impossible to wander away from the market. However, it is still a maze inside, so getting lost is almost assured. Luckily, this time around, everyone made it out on time and with their purchases and stories. Our group is not that big, but it is a group I am impressed with and amazed by. I am the youngest in the group, but there are six wonderful people traveling with me. Four come from Neidig Memorial UMC, the larger of the two churches where I serve as Pastor. One individual is from Mt. Zion UMC, the other church I am blessed to serve in. We also have a fun-loving and engaging woman from New Freedom, Pennsylvania that heard about the trip and wanted to come along. There is a growing cohesion among that group that I am very thankful for. In addition, there are two individuals who are spending the first two days with us. The Volunteer Coordinator for our hosts, the Jubilee House Community/Center for Development in Central America. She is our guide and the organizer of our schedule and has been absolutely wonderful in making sure we are able to do all the things we have planned. We also have a wonderful new-comer to the JHC, a woman named Carolyn from Germany who is here for the next few months doing an internship at the clinic, as she is a nurse and interested in medical care in Latin America. Both Carolyn and Autumn are wonderful company and a joy to be around and I am thankful that we've been blessed with their presence, their intelligence, and their passions.

After our shopping trip in the market, we went up to a favorite place of mine. Laguna del Apoyo is an extinct volcano that has filled up with water over thousands (I assume) of years. There are a number of small resorts around this lake and we ate lunch and spent some time swimming. The water is bath-water warm and provides a wonderful way to appreciate the natural beauty of this amazing country. It also afforded us an opportunity to just spend some time with each other. Talking while we ate, getting to know one another as we swam in the lake or relaxed on inner-tubes as we floated around.

After swimming, we headed back to grab some burritos to eat while we were waiting in line to see a sight few people get to see. Outside of the city of Masaya, there is a large volcano by the same name. This volcano is active and over the past few months, there is a lake of lava inside the crater. There is a viewing station at the top of the crater, so after dark we went up to see down into the volcano. We were able to hear the bubbling lava below us, see (and smell) the sulfuric fumes rising from below. An amazing scene to behold.

Managua – City of the Trees of Life and the Cliffs of Death.

Our second day here was also a “tourist day.” We were taken around to see the sights, sounds, and smells of the capital city of Managua. There is a lot to see in this city and we can't see it all but we hit the big things. One of the first things you notice about this city is the gigantic, multi-colored electronic trees that have been placed everywhere as a way to increase tourism. They are lovingly called the “Trees of Life” and while they are a sight to be hold, they are a bit out of place here, and the Nicaraguan people are still not quite sure whether they love them or hate them. We started with a trip down to the center of town to he central plaza. Here we saw the old national cathedral which we can't enter because it is condemned. The earthquake of 1972 damaged it quite a bit and it suffered some damage during the revolution a few years after that. Nonetheless, it is a sight to behold.

Next to the cathedral is the national museum where one can walk back in time to see the history of the beautiful country unfold, era by era. Next to the museum is a small memorial with three “eternal” flamed each marking the final resting place of one of the heroes of the revolution. After our time in the central plaza we went to lunch where we could enjoy some amazing pupusas, which is a corn meal based thick pancake with different things inside, cheese, beans, chicken and/or vegetables. Driving around the city at different times during the day we saw a number of sites. The embassy of the United States provides a convenient way of addressing the complicated and sometimes disastrous impact the US has had on this tiny country and the results of that impact that can be seen in many ways even to this day. We spent some time at a few crucial overlooks of the city where in the past the National Guard (which were really the secret police of the Somoza dictatorship) would take dissidents and throw them to their deaths.

One of the highlights of the end of the day was a trip to the Malecon, which is a lakeside park. During the last trip, we went to an adjoining park dedicated to the martyred Chilean president Salvador Allende. The Malecon, though, was something I wasn't expecting. In this park they have a walk-through replica of the main thoroughfare of Managua as it was the day before the devastating earthquake of 1972. That temblor destroyed much of the downtown and it was never rebuilt for reasons I won't go into in this post. I had seen pictures of it, but only in black and white. To see a fairly large model of it in color was amazing. There is a new water park next to this and on the other side of the waterpark was one of my new favorite things to see here. Just as they created a mini-Managua, they also have recreated every cathedral and important church in the whole country. For those who know some of the history, they layout of this exhibit is well thought out. The exhibit starts with a replica of the central plaza in the city of Leon, from there you travel throughout each region of the country seeing the churches and cathedrals in each place. Though, in those churches, the plazas are not recreated, just the churches. The exhibit ends with a recreation of the central plaza in the town of Granada. I was not aware just how many churches and cathedrals there were, and I was surprised at out large this exhibit is. It is breathtaking.

This ended our two days of sight-seeing. We went back to our dormitory for this trip and prepared for day three, the first day of back-breaking labor as we would work to further the construction of the third clinic in the refugee camp (now a town in its own right) Nueva Vida.