St. John Goes to Nicaragua

Today was our first day in the ¨field.¨ After a delicious pancake breakfast, we left at 8 a.m. for a 2 hour drive to the community we would be serving, El Jobo (pronounced Hobo). As Mary Ann said, it is the end of the rainy season, and the roads to El Jobo are not paved, so they were a bit muddy in places. We are so grateful for our bus driver, Carlos, who kept us moving.

We arrived at the school in El Hobo to find a large crowd of children and adults, as well as chickens, pigs, horses, and cows milling about in anticipation of our arrival. Okay, well maybe the animals were´t so much anticipating our arrival, but they were fun to see. Our favorite pig, the spotted pig, gave us a great deal of enjoyment throughout the day.

We had three classrooms to work in, so we set up shop: sign in and screening in room one, the distance glasses and our eye doctor, Gary, in room two, and the ¨readers¨ in room three. The system worked well and we were able to see 180 folks throughout the morning and afternoon, and we gave away lots of sunglasses at the end of the day to the dozens of children standing about, entertaining us through the windows and out in the breezeway between classrooms.

It was a good first day as we all became aquainted (or reacquainted) with the process. Kelly and Claire and I were in the readers room. We saw folks who had passed the initial screening for distance glasses (by our standards 20/50 or better) and so they were sent down to us for screening for reading glasses. We were fortunate to have 2 interpreters with us, Alex, and Carlos (our famed bus driver) so I was able to do my own screenings and I didn´t have to do much interpreting myself. Joan was our ¨bouncer¨ at the door, and also helped get glasses and sunglasses for me when I was getting tired later in the day. (So yes, Mom, I was smart and asked for help).

I have to say, the lack of running water equated to outhouses. My heightened-sense-of-smell-pregnant-self just couldn´t deal with this, so it was a long bus ride back down the mountain for me. We packed it in around 3:30 p.m. The rain was falling harder and we knew the roads would not get much better. Carlos got us safely home and I was grateful for running water in our bathroom. An instant reminder that we have so much and the people we saw today have so little.

Lesbia´s famous chicken cutlets and potatoes were for dinner tonight, so needless to say those of us who came in 2007 were more than excited. We have been extolling the virtues of this, our favorite meal, since we got on the plane Saturday, and she did not disappoint.

On a personal note, Charles and I found out yesterday that someone very dear to us passed away late Saturday night, and that has certainly put a damper on our emotions. We loved you, Larry McGehee, and your mark on us and everyone who knew you we will carry with us always. We hope our being here would have made you proud.