Update from Rivas, Nicaragua

Well, we arrived in Managua around 7:30pm local time on Tuesday night, but then didn’t make it to the Buzzbee’s home until almost midnight (it takes a while to get through customs with 10 bags, oh and then it took about an hour to rent a car). Anyway, we arrived in darkness, but woke up Wednesday morning bright and early (5am - it was 7am back home the girls reminded us). When we walked up to the “prayer tower” on top our bunkhouse, we had a chance to see the sun rising over the jungle - it was amazing! I have some pictures, which we will upload when we get home.

After a great breakfast with the Buzzbee family, we were off to visit La Churecha (the dump). I can’t really say a whole lot about that right now because of how overwhelming it was. None of the pictures I had seen really prepared me for the scale of it all. We visited the school inside the dump that the Buzzbee family runs. The children ran to us and were so welcoming. It was a stark contrast to the homes (shacks) surrounding the school. It was like a little oasis inside of a large desert. We left that with equal feelings of helplessness and inspiration to move here and start working right away!

Oh - one funny thing that happened in the dump… I tried out my Spanish. I was able to explain that Corinna and Caeli were my hijas (daughters) but then I told these kids that Wyeth was my hermana. I felt very confident but then saw them chuckling as I walked away. It was a few minutes later that I realized I should have said he was my “espousa” (spouse) instead. Hermana means sister! Oops!

After leaving the dump, we stopped by a grocery store before heading south toward Campo Alegria. Along the way, we stopped to visit a large volcano. We arrived at Campo sometime in the afternoon. Again, the photos don’t do it justice. It feels like you’re never going to arrive but then when you do it’s just so beautiful. I must admit I found myself wondering how Peter ever convinced anyone to build this place! It’s amazing - only God could have gotten people to believe in Peter’s vision! (But we’re so glad they did!)

The girls swam before dinner. Beatrice and Oscar (the Nicaraguan caretakers) prepared dinner for us. Adam and Rachel (the missionaries from Chop Point) also ate with us. We turned in early (the sun goes down around 6:30pm and rises around 5:30am). The wind was FIERCE all night, but for that we were thankful as it kept away the bugs!

Today we went to the school where we intended to give out the backpacks we brought. The principal was fearful of starting a mini riot, since there were more students than we had backpacks for, so we decided to leave most of the packs with Adam. The principal will call Adam whenever new students want to come, but don’t have the adequate supplies. We will take 8 of the packs with us to Melissa Buzzbee’s home for girls, when we visit on Saturday.

We took a quite detour to stop by Adam’s house (where I’m typing this) and are getting ready to go to San Juan del Sur for lunch (it’s on the Pacific Ocean). We will spend one more night at Campo before heading back to the Buzzbee’s in Managua on Friday.

Thanks so much for your prayers - our trip here was uneventful (which was good) and both girls were great on the long plan ride! We appreciate your continued prayers for health issues. Corinna has been dealing with a bad case of hives since yesterday. I haven’t seen her this covered in over five years! Hopefully her skin will clear and she will feel much better soon.

We probably won’t write again until Friday night or Saturday when we return to the Buzzbee’s home. Until then… Adios!