Monday Morning

We arrived in Puerto Cabezas about noon Saturday, after a safe flight over and through beautiful cumuloni.mbus clouds. On the way home, with Julie driving Earl's big truck, we experienced a 'toadstrangler' of a cloudburst. Julie had a hard time seeing, and Earl, the luggage, and myself had a thorough shower in the back of the truck. Saturday afternoon we settled in, Julie took the crew on a tour around the Verbo facilities. We did discover we were missing one piece of luggage with some important, but non-mission-critical items. You might pray that the bag turns up.

Sunday morning we had more time to get acquainted with Kendra, Erin (yes, another Erin), and Billy and Kathryn, who are from various places in the states, living here short term and supporting the work of Earl and Damaris in various ways.

In Sunday services we sang a song I had learned in about 1991 at the Managua orphanage... except we did not learn the Miskitu words. Recently they have been translating several of the songs into the Miskitu language. Puerto Cabezas is linguistically a blend of Spanish, Miskitu, English, and Sumo. Sumo and Miskitu are the indigenous languages from the area.

Another highlight of the Sunday service was the dedication of Justin Thomas, son of Keveta Anderson's adopted son Efrain and his wife Nixia.

Here's the happy parents, and a happy (and proud)

Keveta! (Keveta is a registered nurse from Redding

living and working in Puerto Cabezas.)

In doing dentistry, sometimes we have to have a child translate for us between Miskitu and Spanish or English, depending upon the language skills of the operator. It's a stretch, but a blessing.

Sunday afternoon I took a nap while Tammie and Julie set up the instruments and equipment in the clinic. Later Earl took us on a long drive all round the outlying barrios and neighborhoods and we saw some places none of us have ever seen before.

Often houses are built in stages, as money for materials becomes available. Here's one where the outside wall is cobbled together for the rainy season.

We passed a swimming hole filled with kids of all ages on our drive.

MONDAY NOON

It's noon and the morning was productive, though adjustments were made, and will continue to be. Each trip, because of different equipment and different facilities, setting up the equipment is different, and usually it takes a day or two to get thnings smooth. An example is that our disinfectant was in the missing bag. So we sprayed our instruments off with Birex, the surface disinfectant we use at home, and then soaked them in a bleach solution, rinsing well in 'agua pura'... bottled water... to get off the corrosive chlorine.

Here's Mary and Gary working on one patient, and Tammy and Erinn working on another.

Monday night after dinner, the crew threw Tammie and myself a surprise birthday party over at the restaurant across from the church. Tammie's birthday was the Thursday we drove to San Francisco and mine on Monday. Gifts, the birthday song in English, Spanish, and Miskitu... it was a lot of fun.

The cake was great, and a nice example of the what the bakery

is producing... several of the disciple boys have become worthy pizza chefs, and produce pastries and cakes, which put the operation in a positive cash flow position!

FYI, the Casa Bernabe House of Encouragement is divided into the facility for small children with the older girls, and the 'discipleship' program for older boys, who have separate quarters and eat separately from the others. The two groups number roughly 65 and 35 respectively, with some fluctuation. Each of the older girls assigned a smaller child to watch over, and the older boys are given suitable roles to help the operation.

(Tuesday Aug 14, 2007)

The August 6 post was the last I was able to make from Nicaragua. The electricity was off more than on after that, and Wednesday Ross arrived from Juneau Alaska to work with the computers. I will attempt to reconstruct our week as I am able...

Well, here we are in Managua at Las Mercedes. The team is getting settled in after a refreshing lemonade beside the pool. The temps are in the mid 80's, but with the breeze it's very nice.

We got a little late start out of Redding yesterday, but arrived in Millbrae and got to bed at a reasonable hour. Took the 8 o'clock shuttle to the airport and it was a good thing...

Several things to be thankful for
1. A passport gone missing turned up just before the owner got into a cab to go back to the motel to search for it.
2. Julie's careful packing had 8 of 10 bags right at the 50 lb limit, but two had
crept over it, and due to the embargo in Managua, we had to repack several bags, adding to the light ones and emptying the heavy. The Continental attendant was especially patient and helpful, and we got it all done with time to spare.
4. Erinn was at the gate before we were, and her arrival was smooth.
5. Due to luggage problems *not our luggage* our flight out of SF was very late, but our departure gate in Houston was right next to our arrival gate, and we had an easy connection.
6. We had LOTS of snacks!!!!!
7. We know God is in charge!

On to Puerto Cabezas in the morning!!!

Last Minute Notes

Well, tomorrow at day's end we drive south to Millbrae's Best Western El Rancho Inn and Suites, where we'll spend the night and leave our vehicles in their park'n'fly. Being at least a national finalist- (if not an olympian-) level procrastinator, I still have a to-do list to be done before departing Redding. Mary and I work tomorrow, though Diane says it's a little shorter day than average.




What with my domestic upheaval and the resultant chaos, nights have been shorter than I would have liked (long story, but a broken pipe on July 16 answered a prayer ). I'm taking along antibiotics and plan to down some Airborne before flights as well. We would all appreciate your prayers for our wisdom, health, safety, and for God to work His will in and through us as we make this trip.




Julie and Priscilla packed Priscilla's vehicle today, and I know Julie has been checking her way down the lists for at least a week or more already. Administration is certainly one of her spiritual gifts! Our reservations in SF, Managua, and Granada have been made, as well as those on the airline to Puerto Cabezas on Saturday. It's always an enjoyable moment for me (even though it makes one suck in one's breath a bit) when you get about an hour out of town, and you realize that if it isn't packed in a bag somewhere, we'll make do without it.






Nicaragua, here we come!

p.s. The woodpile was beside the orphanage last April.
The fire-place wasn't far. Big pots of rice, beans,
are cooked here. Makes for a cooler kitchen!

Five Sixths of the Team / Tamales

Here is Five Sixths of our dental team. Our Sixth Sixth, Erin, lives out of the area, and I didn't think to get Julie to take a team photo when we all met... but we'll get one from her and get it posted pronto.

Left to right you see Priscilla, Tammie, Gary, Mary, and Julie. The five of us and several other very giving friends spent nearly 8 hours on Saturday, making tamales to help defray costs associated with our trip.

With a lot of fun, the group effort produced more than 35 dozen tamales, nearly all of which were pre-sold. Several generous supporters paid more than the asking price; one friend gave $100 for his dozen. While it will need to be a team decision, we may use excess funds to take care packages either to the prison or to La Esperanza, a community of folks who subsist from what they salvage from the dump.

Five weeks and counting...

On August 3, 2007, six of us will leave SF for Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, Central America, for a ten-day trip with the goal of helping serve the dental needs of our friends at Casa Bernabe (House of Barnabas) Children's Home and the several ministries of Verbo Church in 'Port'. Two of us are longstanding veterans, two have been in Nicaragua a time or few, and two are making their first trip. We are two teachers, a nurse, a dental assistant, a dental hygienist, and a dentist, and besides working in dentistry, we will be spending time with the kids in classes and many other ways as well... possibly puppeteering! (Better introductions upcoming when we get a pic of the faces involved!)



Saturday we meet to make tamales to raise funds for overweight luggage and other unforseen costs which have a way of springing up. Several on the team already made 30 dozen tamales and earlier a big garage sale was held to raise expenses as well.



We invite you to check out our blog here, to see what we're up to, and most importantly, so you can pray for us as we prepare and go. Experience has made clear that both what God does through us as well as in us is blessed especially as the entire effort is saturated in prayer.