Days 1 & 2 (Thursday & Friday 8/6 & 7)]

Given that these two days were filled with travel, I'll combine them.

Group #1 (Pastor Scott, his daughter Rachael, Rachael & Bernardo Serna, & Sara Thompson left Seattle around 10:30am on a flight that would take them to Cabo San Lucas, a night's stay in Mexico City, and a third flight on to Managua. Their flights went as expected.

Group #2 (Tim & Angela) were on a red eye to Dallas with a connecting flight to Miami, and then to Managua. Generally our connections were tight, but we arrived first. While on the Managua flight I struck up a conversation with a fellow across the aisle and it turns out he was with another group that was doing dental mission work in the south part of the country.



After a lenthy time clearing immigration and then customs, we were spotted by Adrian. It was good to see him again and we reminisced and talked about the plan for the week while we waited for group #1 to arrive. We only had to wait for about an hour. Using that time, I set up my phone for GSM and made my first FACEBOOK post. Technology is definitely making the world a smaller place. This daily detailed blog won't get posted until we get back in the States.






Now that the team was once again one group, we loaded our gear and selves into the van and headed for the mission compound at Masaya. The scenes we began to see were once again flashbacks from our trip here last year. Same business, people on bicycles, lots of old US schoolbuses that are now the main form of transportation, animals on the road and alongside the road, etc. It was also interesting to see how they kept vehicles off of road surfaces that were under construction.

Reaching the compound, there was a nice chicken sandwich lunch waiting for us. We greeted the workers we had met last year along with a mission team from the East Coast that was here last year as well. We were also privileged to meet Wallace Nix, CEO of Chosen Children Ministries (who is the sponsoring organization for our mission). As we started to eat, a giant, and I mean giant thunderstorm opened above us. There was more rain coming down than I can recall in a very long time.


Finishing lunch, we headed off to Masaya to acquire paint for our project. The rain had let up, but the streets were still rushing torrents at the varous intersections. We finally found the paint store and put in our order. The 20 gallons cost us $292.56 US or about $15 per gallon. We also found that we needed sealer, but there was none in stock, so we put in an order for 2 five gallon pails of sealer (it gets reduced with water). We'll get to pick that up tomorrow somehow. Somehow is because we are all headed for Salinas Grandes for the day tomorrow to visit the beach and do a Bible club that Adrian leads every Saturday.

Arriving back at camp, Cheryl and the kids were there with their bead necklaces for sale which was a smashing hit. The rest of the day was spent unstructured by relaxing and regaining our energy and renewing friendships. I'm writing this in the thatched roof cabana that we spent a lot of time in last year.