Journal Entry #2

Tuesday June 15, 2010 6:15 am

We made it last night! Everyone got through customs (note: There was a member from the team that went through Houston who had a visa issue and was turned away, however, she will be going with either Lino or Spring Lake Park in August) and no one lost any bags. It is so different here. Even the air at the airport smelled different. We were greeted by our first Nicaraguan while waiting to go through customs.

 Outside the airport we were greeted by Eddy Morales (the ORPHANetwork field director) and a bus.

We drove through Managua to Casa Bernabe and I just sat back and took it all in. The buildings were very small and the houses were dirty. Nothing like the tall shiny skyscrapers that litter downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There were lots of people and kids just hanging out along the dark street.

We got to the Team Center and settled into our rooms and waited for the other group to arrive. Right away one of the translators introduced himself to us. His name is Alvaro (Al) and he shared his story with my small group. He came to the orphanage at Casa Bernabe when he was 5 and stayed here for about 6 years. He said that people would talk to him about Jesus but he was so angry, too angry to accept it. At 7 years old he said "God, I will not believe in you until I meet my mother." When he was 18 years old, he got a letter and a picture from his mom and walked to Mexico to meet her where he wept and finally accepted Christ. He now works with kids in gangs and he walks the streets of Managua and just talks to kids and then brings them to some sort of church camp (I didn't really get that part of the story)

Its warm and muggy here. This morning I woke up to the sounds of birds, but their calls are so different from the ones at home. I am as ready to meet this day as I can be. We're taking a tour of the Casa Bernabe grounds and Managua. I'm excited to see everything.




Reflections:
We talked to one of the translators later in the week and talked about how people are all over the street at night and how it's not like that here at home. They pointed out that at night its a lot cooler, no one is working, and no one has money to go anywhere so they just congregate outside and hang out... Good point....

Also, Jenn dubbed one of the bird calls as the "Iron Man Bird" because its call sounds like Iron Man's arm gun warming up.