So I have arrived safely back in Canada. I apologize for my lack of blog entries over the past month or so. The power cord for my computer decided to break in half so needless to say it became difficult to use my computer. But now everything has been repaired. So I am going to continue to post details from my trip. Some entries I had written while in Nicaragua and just couldn’t post, others I will write now that I’m back just to fill in some of the gaps. I hope that you enjoy them and thank you so much for all of your prayers and good wishes over the last few months. They were very much appreciated.

Yours in Christ, Lauren

So things have been really busy for me here in Nicaragua over the past couple weeks. I began working full time at a local hospital here in Jinotepe and also decided to take on a second position at a local centre for children with disabilities. My time at both jobs has been amazing so far, and each have offered very unique opportunities to learn and to serve.

So my first (and original) placement is at Santiago Regional Hospital in Jinotepe. This hospital is fairly new (about 20 years old) and is considered a secondary hospital here, meaning that we are one step above the “centre de saluds” that are found in each small town/village but one step below a major hospital, such as would be found in Managua (The capital). Here’s a shot of the outside

This hospital has been even more interesting for me because it is a teaching hospital which means that once the medical students have finished the classroom portion of their education some of them are sent here to complete a year of intership. I have gotten to know one of the interns (Cesar) and have been able to shadow him and learn from him over the past few weeks. Here’s a picture of Cesar and I

So since the interns rotate through the various departments I spent two weeks with Cesar in Pediatric Emerg and we have now switched to Obstetrics and Gynecology. In addition to getting to see patients with Cesar and learning from the supervising doctor I’ve also been allowed to attend medical classes with the interns. Usually there is one lecture in the morning with all of the interns involving a case study of a patient seen in the hospital and then there is another seminar in the afternoon, with just the five of us from pediatrics (or now Obstetrics and Gynecology), where one of the students presents on a topic assigned by the supervising doctor. It has been really interesting to learn about different topics especially ones that are particularly crucial here such as Malaria and Dengue Fever. Here’s a picture of the lecture hall which also serves as the chapel.

Nicaragua has both private and public health care. Santiago hospital provides public and free health care to the community and therefore has to make do with minimal funding from the government. And this fact is most definitely reflected in the amount of resources and supplies available to the doctors which in turn restricts the quality of medicine that is available to the patients.  Which at times I have found quite frustrating to come to terms with, there is also a strange disconnect between donations from North America and the actual needs of the hospital. For example one day while examining a child on rounds with one of the doctors he explained to me that the child had a gastrointestinal parasite. He said that that part of the diagnosis wasn’t the difficult part but that the difficulty comes in figuring out what kind of parasite it is in order to treat with the proper antibiotic. The use of the wrong antibiotic or the use of a full spectrum antibiotic can lead to super bugs and other complications so it is important to try and narrow your options. He then went on to explain to me that the hospital has the equipment to perform these important tests but that they do not have any personnel who know how to use the equipment. Poverty can be so complex and this fact becomes more and more evident to me each day as I ask more questions and become more a part of the community here. There are no simple answers and I struggle with how best I can continue to support the people here once I return to Canada, in ways that will go to the root of the problems and help improve the quality of life for the wonderful people here. Anyway that’s enough talking for tonight, I will write soon about Los Popitos (the other place that I’ve been working at) and I will post more pictures of the hospital soon as well.

God bless, Lauren

So I want to tell you about a Nicaraguan tradition that I have recently learned about and that I think is pretty cool. However it is one that I have also complained about to some of you, simply out of ignorance because I didn’t understand its significance. Let me set the scene for you.

It is 5 am in the morning and the sun has just started to peak over the horizon. But I am wide awake in my bed thanks to the marching band and the thirty fire crackers that have been going off for the past hour. This is not an uncommon event and during the day these firecrackers make it impossible to carry on a conversation, they are so loud!  Mind you these are not your average fire crackers, they sound almost exactly like gunshot, and resemble crude fireworks. Even after living here for a month they continue to make me jump out of my skin everytime they go off in town. I have complained to some of you about these firecrackers that seem to go off without reason and often sound like they are in our house they are so close (the houses here are very open and sound travels very easily across town), and that quite frankly scare me! However despite my dislike for these loud noises, the new insight that I have gained into the tradition that accompanies them has completely changed my feelings towards them and now when I hear them I smile, and say a quick prayer of thanks (although I do still jump, I can’t help it!)

These fireworks or fuegos artificiales mark any kind of celebration here (and there are a lot of celebrations, Nicaraguans most definitely know how to throw a fiesta !) And their purpose I have been told is “to call the Lord’s attention to our happiness“. How awesome is that? When I think about all my blessings and how much happiness I have in my life, I realize that I don’t often call the Lord’s attention to my own happiness. And in doing so take time to thank God for that happiness. This unique Nicaraguan tradition captures the joy and energy that is in this country. Nicaraguans have a very strong sense of God’s presence among them and are happy to share the wealth that they find in their God’s love with those around them, including foreigners. It is my hope that as I spend my last month here and continue to learn from these amazing people that I too can find ways to call God’s attention to my happiness, and I pray that you may find ways to do the same.

Hasta Luego

Lauren

So I am extremely sorry for my extended blogging absence this past week. Last week was a long one for my body! I managed to catch a cold, then the flu and then broke out in hives. So it was an eventful week. The good news is that now that I´ve had everything I should be healthy for the remainder of my trip. So to try and catch up I want to tell you all about my trip to Leon !

Leon is a gorgeous city in Nicaragua. It is one of the bigger cities and was known as the capital of Nicaragua before 1852 (the capital since 1852 has been Managua). Leon is best known here in Nicaragua for it´s liberal thinkers. It has been home to many influencial poets and was a key location during the recent revolution for the Sandinista movement. Not to mention it is home to five universities!

We began our adventures in Leon at the ‘Big Foot’ Hostel, which is probably one of the nicer hostels that I’ve been in, in Nicaragua. This was our room which we shared with people from Israel, New Zealand and the US.

They had lots of pets including these turtles . . .

 and a really cute kitten . . .

 They even had a ‘pequeno’ pool

 Very luxurious for five dollars a night!

Our first morning in Leon we decided to go volcano boarding. Which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You take a big board up a local volcano and pretty much sled down the volcanic rock. We figured we couldn’t pass up such a unique opportunity and so we all piled into a pick-up truck to Volcan Negro, Central America´s youngest volcano.

The volcano is appropriately named since it is completely black, unlike any of the other volcanos that we´ve seen on our trip, and it is also very small in comparison.

So we began our journey at the base of the volcano, with our boards in hand.

and began the hike.

 It was an easier hike than our hike in Ometepe, taking about 45 minutes. Volcan Negro is an active volcano, however the lava isn’t of concern to the local people, since it flows in the same direction each time it erupts creating this sea of black that you can see behind me in this picture.

However, uur guide told us that the problem for the local people is the amount of dust that the volcano gives off when it erupts. This HUGE amount of dust lands on the roofs of their huts and causes them to colapse, it is also very detrimental to the local crops.

This was the view from the top of the crater.

 Erica and Kaitlyn at the mouth of the crater (we were pretty much coated in black dust at this point)

 After looking around the crater for a bit and taking pictures of the scenary we ventured to our boarding spot. I am not sure what I had imagined when I signed up to go volcano boarding, however it didn’t involve such a steep hill ! In this picture where the hill seems to stop is about half way down the volcano, as people began their descent they would disappear and then reappear in the ‘black sea’ at the base of the volcano.

 So incase any of you are worried that perhaps this wasn’t a safe endeavor, I want to assure you that we had the best available Nicaraguan safety equipment with us. I.E these beautiful orange jump suits.

 Before we began our decent we watched these snow boarders attempt to master the slope. Our guide also told us about a German biker who had taken his mountain bike down the side of the volcano. He set some incredible speed record that I can’t quite recall at the moment.

 OK so this picture requires some explanation. While we were all waiting at the top for further instruction and for the boarders to finish their descent we were swarmed by more wasps than I have EVER seen in my life! While I was taking this picture I was unaware of the growing number of wasps behind me, however the expression on our fellow volcano boarder’s faces say it all. We are not sure why there were so many wasps at the top of a volcano or why they swarmed us (we wondered if they were attracted to the orange jumpsuits?) but I have never had so many wasps around me before. Fortunately no one was stung and after what seemed like a long time (but what was probably only about 5 minutes) they dispersed and left us alone.

 So the boards we were going down weren’t that high tech just a slab of wood with a place for your feet and a rope to hold onto. You used your feet to break and also to steer. After a short lesson on the general mechanics of steering and stopping we began our very rapid descent.

 We arrived at the bottom, all safe and sound, but definitely much dirtier !!! 

 After our boarding adventure we walked around Leon to see the many different churches, colonial architecture and murals from the revolution.

The first church we stopped at is probably the most well known, it is called La Catedral de Leon and is the largest cathedral in Central America. One story claims that this however was by accident. That the architect accidentally switched two sets of plans while they were on the ship from Spain, and that this cathedral was actually intended for Lima Peru. As with many colonial churches the attention to detail outside and inside of this cathedral was astounding. Unfortunately no flash photography was permitted inside the cathedral so my pictures are limited but this view of the outside gives you an idea.

 Inside all around the cathedral were these gorgeous paintings for the stations of the cross, most of which are falling apart due to the heat and humidity.

 I just liked this lion, there’s not story for this one : )

 

 Church number two was Iglesia de la Merced, which was built in 1762 by the Mercedarian monks. The first monks to arrive in Nicaragua during the Spanish conquest.

 Church number three was Iglesia del Calvario. This church has a special story but I’m going to save it for a later post to keep you in suspense.

At this point we decided to switch our attention from churches to murals. As I mentioned Leon was crucial during the recent revolution and to commemorate this there are many murals throughout the city.

This mural depicts the evolution of Nicaraguan culture from the arrival of the Nahuatl people to the revolution in 1979.

 

 Opposite the street to  this mural is Sandino (the leader of the Sandinista movement) standing on Uncle Sam’s and Somoza’s heads.

This mural depicts the massacre of four university students, by the Somoza government, during a protest at one of the universities in Leon.

So that about summarizes my adventures in Leon. Sunday morning Kaitlyn and I attended mass at La Catedral de Leon, which was definitely a cultural experience!!

I have some other posts in the works at the moment and will hopefully be putting up pictures from my trip to San Juan this weekend very soon, along with pictures from our Canada day Nicaraguan celebration. I miss you all and hope that you are doing well.

Yours in Christ, Lauren

 

Hola !!

So as I mentioned in my previous post this past weekend I was blessed to visit Ometepe island. Blessed is infact probably an understatement. This island is beyond words and definitely beyond what my camera could capture.  The island is huge and situated on an extensive fresh water lake (complete with fresh water sharks) and has two volcanos, Concepcion and Maderas, which take up most of the island. We were only there for a weekend but I´m sure that you could easily spend weeks exploring the hidden treasures of this island.

So here are some of my favourite pictures from the trip, hope you enjoy!

Our journey began on the main land where we took about a two hour ferry ride across the lake to the island

This was our first view of the active volcano Concepcion

When we arrived on the island we took a taxi to Charco Verde, the road to Charco Verde was blocked by a herd of cows . . . .

And right behind the cows, Coca Cola (I am fascinated by the extent of the Coca Cola industry even in the romotest parts of this country)

Charco Verde pretty much consisted of a restaurant, hostel and beach. This is the entrance to the restaurant, it was absolutely gorgeous (though admittedly pretty touristy)

We were excited to find a playground and swing set on the beach but there was a large sign reading ¨Solo por los ninos¨which made us sad.

Here is the beach, we pretty much had it to ourselves which was nice.

Except for one dalmation who was enjoying an afternoon in the sun as well, he looked too out of place not to take a picture

When it was time to leave Charco Verde we had arranged for the hostel we were staying at to pick us up. Apparently the hostel was pretty busy that day so we were instead greeted by a wonderful woman driving a pick-up truck and so began my first pick-up truck ride in Nicaragua. I joined two of my other friends on a bench on the back of the truck and enjoyed the most amazing drive of my life. You would think that an hour ride on the back of a pick up over very rudimentary dirt roads would be less than enjoyable, but the view of the villages, country side and people was unforgettable, not to mention the sunset. Here are a couple of pictures to attempt to illustrate the beauty of this island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the hostel just in time to finish watching the sun set. Here is Kaitlyn on the dock.

And the sun set from the dock

The hostel was really nice, we met some pretty cool people there from California, France, Quebec and Ireland. The hostel helps to run an english language program at a local school and so we were happy to find out that part of the money earned by the hostel goes to support volunteers teaching english in the village.

Here is our room

In the morning we went kyaking along the coast line and down Ometepe River. Unfortunately I don´t have any pictures from this excursion, but it was neat to see all the people out on the lake, fishing, washing clothes and playing in the water. Very peaceful.

In the afternoon we decided to go on what we were told was an hour and a half hike to a waterfall. It turned out that the hour and a half part was just to get to the park and the real adventure was the three hour hike up the volcano from the park. Here are some pictures from the road to the park.

Thinking about the power of volcanos really amazes me. We were a good piece away from the base of this volcano but there was still a lot of evidence of its last erruption. Everywhere you looked you could see these good sized bolders sticking up out of the land, I can only imagine what it would have been like to see them thrown through the air !

This cow was posed too nicely not to take a picture

Ever seen a flock of butterflies? There were so many butterflies around this ´special´ pile of manure.

So we arrived at the park which consisted of huge landscaped grass lawns (very uncommon in Nicaragua) and really nice buildings. For those of you who enjoy the television show ´Lost´, we felt like we had found the Darma Initiative, it had that kind of vibe. So we were under the impression that the waterfall was just within the park and that the hour and a half hike we´d just completed was the extent of our hike for the day. But we were very wrong. The hike started out innocent enough up this nice hill . . .

After the first half hour the path became a little more like a dirt road.

After about an hour and a half of steep up hill climbing, four members of our group had called it quits. However being the stubborn person that I am I continued to climb the volcano with Leanne (a volunteer medical student from the states).

In addition to us both being extraordinarily stubborn signs such as this one kept us thinking the waterfall was just around the next corner

they lied.

The path just kept getting sketchier . . .

 and sketchier . . .

However after about four hours of hiking we finally reached our destination.

And we were again rewarded on the way down the volcano with another gorgeous sunset.

It was neat to walk home along the road as well, our flashlights attracted a lot of children who would walk with us a short distance before disappearing into houses along the road.

The next morning we reluctantly said good-bye to the island and took a boat back to the mainland.

 

 So that about summarizes my adventures from last weekend. This weekend we´re off to Leon.

Su Amiga, Lauren

 

Hello all,

I have just gotten back from an amazing weekend at Ometepe island. I will hopefully post more about it tomorrow but it involved kyaking, hiking volcanoes and watching a magnificent waterfall. However right now it´s not my trip that I want to tell you about but a ´small moment´ that occured this evening.

I have already been blessed with many wonderful experiences in Nicaragua, and although these experiences are great I have found that it truly is the little things that make me feel a connection to this place and the people here. This evening I was talking with my mom on the phone and she was asking about whether there was a church that I could attend here. I explained that Nicaragua is predominately Catholic and that although I would like to attend a church service in some of the gorgeous buildings here, the language barrier might prevent me from doing so regularly. Well God obviously doesn´t agree and I was proved completely wrong moments later when I got off the phone and walked down the stairs. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I began to hear ¨this is the day the Lord has made¨ being sung across the street (in spanish of course but luckily one of my only spanish words is dia and the tune is easily recognizable as one I have sung in church many times). So apprently there is a Church of Christ right across the street from my house! I´m not sure how I´m going to figure out what time they meet but hopefully I will be able to scrounge up enough spanish to join them next weekend. Anyway just wanted to share that with all of you, I am constantly humbled by how God works in our lives ! It is a blessing to have moments here where for a second it doesn´t matter that I don´t understand most of the spanish spoken around me or that I am a gringo, but to truly see that we are all one in Christ.

Buenos Noches

So Sunday we went on our first ´out of town´ adventure. We (four other volunteers and myself) went to Mombacho to hike around the volcano there. We left Jinotepe early in the morning, and took various forms of public transit (which is an adventure in and of itself!!) to the base of the volcano. We then took a large covered truck, like this one behind Stephanie . . .

up the volcano. Once at the top there was a hostel/information building where we were given some history of the volcano and then we hiked around two of the three craters of the volcano. Since we were up so high and it´s the rainy season in Nicaragua the ´cloud forest´ that now covers most of the volcano was very real and so we didn´t get to see much of the view. None the less the forest is gorgeous and unlike anything I´d seen before.

Here is the view . . .

Some of the forest . . .

We had to go through a tunnel to reach one of the craters

Looking down the side of the volcano

A look out point . . .

So once we´d finished hiking we took the truck about half way back down the volcano and stopped at a ´canopy tour´ spot.  The canopy tour involves going on zip-lines above the canopy, so for someone such as myself who is scared of heights it was not the activity that I was most looking forward to that day, but definitely an awesome time once I took the first leap (quite literally). There were about fifteen platforms in all that you could go between and our four ´guides´were great and took lots of pictures (and even videos) for us. So here are some pictures from that adventure.

Us getting ready to go, me=terrified!

 

Me hanging on for dear life on the first zip line

All of us and one of our guides on a platform in the canopy

 

Don´t worry Dad I wasn´t brave enough to try any of the crazy positions but some of the others did

Our guides and Kaitlyn

I have two videos too from this adventure but for some reason can´t get them to post right now, I will try again tomorrow.

Buenos Noches, Lauren

So I arrived safely in Managua Nicaragua Friday night, after 16 hours of travel we (I was with two other volunteers and the country coordinator for my program) jumped into a taxi and drove one hour to Jinotepe which is where I will be staying for the next two months (more info on Jinotepe to come soon). The house I’m living in is gorgeous, there are two floors. Upstairs there are three dormitory style rooms with bunk beds. This is a picture of my bed, the rooms are huge ! There are actually two other bunks in the room and a huge closet on one wall.

You can kind of see one of the other bunks and the closet in this picture.

Upstairs there is a also a large hallway that has chairs and a hamock to lounge in.

Downstairs there is a kitchen, more room to sit, a classroom (for spanish classes), an office, and a central garden/courtyard area, which is gorgeous so I have to post pictures of it.

So that´s where I´m staying for the next little bit.

Yours in Christ, Lauren

Welcome !

I just wanted to get a post up to see how this whole blogging thing works before I head out tomorrow. I am unsure of how reliable my internet connection is going to be in Nicaragua but I will try and put up posts and pictures about my adventures as often as I can. Thank-you to everyone who has helped me to get this trip off of the ground (quite literally), and thank-you to everyone for your continued prayers and support as I head out on a new adventure.

love Lauren