2009 Family Mission Trip to Nicaragua

Last year our family traveled to Nicaragua to check out some of the sites and visit a few Christian mission projects.

One of those projects is led by the Buzbee family. The husband, Mike, is a warm and genuine southerner. He took us to the Managua city dump where his family started a school for kids who live there (yes, they live inside the city dump).
> Learn more about the Buzbee’s project.

Another mission project we visited was set up by Wyeth’s father, Peter. Over the past 10 years, Peter and several donors have built some humble bunk houses, a dining hall, and most recently a 4-bedroom guest house, all on the shore of Lake Nicaragua (abotu 2 hours south of Managua). Peter named the project Campo Alegría, which means Camp of Good Cheer. The camp was original used to run week-long “summer camps” for children of the dump families. The tremendous support that the dump families are now receiving from other organizations has led Peter to transition the project to serve children living in some of the many poor villages that surround the camp.
> Learn more about Peter’s project.

While in Nicaragua, we splurged a little… visiting some of the nicer local restaurants and even spending a night at an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific Ocean. At the resort, we met a family who subtly bragged how they were slowly visiting resorts in every South and Central American country. They really felt they were doing their children a huge favor by “exposing them to different cultures,” but they never left any of the resorts!
> See where we stayed.

We returned to the U.S. exhausted and inspired. We are now ready to return and would love to have other families join us. Perhaps you’d be interested? We have tentatively scheduled our first family trip from Baltimore to Nicaragua for June 24 – July 1, 2009. (If all goes well, we hope to run another trip the following summer, in 2010.)

For planning purposes, you can expect the trip to cost approximately $900-1000 per person (ages 2+). This includes your airfare, ground transportation in Nicaragua, all meals, accommodations, 2 nights at the all-inclusive hotel mentioned previously , as well as a portion of the cost to operate a 3-day camp for 40 Nicaraguan children.

Note: Many of you helped us in the spring by sending school supplies to pass out in Nicaragua. This year we will be collecting medical & hygiene supplies (band-aids, antibiotic ointment, tweezers, toothbrushes, etc.).

We will have a planning meeting this winter, so please let us know if you would like to be involved. And if you can’t travel with us, we certain welcome your prayers!

P.S. You can see pictures and videos from our spring 2008 trip to Nicaragua in our Picasa album.