Chepe's Song

As I promised earlier... Today Chepe sang his song for me and I wrote down the words. He wrote the song near the beginning of our bike trip.

Como las aguas del rio
Cuando llega a la mar
Asi llego la gloria del Dios a mi corazon
Ahora que libre soy
Ahora que salvo soy
Ahora siento al poder y la presencia del Dios

Like the waters of the river
When they reach the ocean
That is how the glory of the Lord came to my heart
Now that I'm free
Now that I'm saved
Now I feel the power and the presence of the Lord.

C2C Day 10

So the next morning after biking for 8 days straight my alarm goes off once again at 5:00am. I woke up very confused and wondering what all that noise was, where was I, and why am I awake in the middle of the night. Well when reality sunk in I realized that I was in my bed, it wasn't the middle of the night, and I needed to get up to go to school. So day 10 found me teaching. It was a bit of a whirlwind to be biking in remote areas, to crossing the capital city, to celebrating the end of an accomplishment, and then jump right back in to normal life. I was able to share some stories with my students and they asked lots of question.

But now what? On Wednesday we presented the trip to our highschool students and one of the guys on our team brought home two good points from the trip. First, we were just a group of average people who had a big dream. Everyone thought that we were nearly crazy or insane to do it, but it was done and was very successful. So... don't give up on your crazy ideas. When we do something crazy for God, He'll help you through it. Second point was to have an attitude of service. Accomplishing a trip like this takes alot of teamwork. I would definitely have to say that there were some people who had a big heart for service on this trip. They would be the ones who would change peoples flats, make bike repairs on other peoples bikes before their own, take the position at the back of the group to help others, and all around be a good encourager. For me they were a model of service with a Christ-like attitude. One of the people on the trip who really demonstrated this to me was Chepe. He had cut his finger and gotten it stitched up even before the trip began and yet he pedalled the whole way. At one point some of the stitches came loose but he kept going and kept helping people when they had bike problems. He also wrote a song about the trip which I hope get from him this week so I can post it.

Go Chepe

C2C Day 9

The anticipated day as arrived; our last day of the journey. "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." 2 Corinthians 2:14

Our day started at 4:00am when the alarm went off. We got up and started getting ready with headlamps and headlights on the bikes. The Channel 8 news was there as well; I was impressed with their promptness. We were on the road by 5:00am. Why so early this morning? Well we had to cross the city today and so it was our goal to beat traffic. Once again we had a car in front, in back and on the side. We traveled as one group. It took about an hour and a half to get to Nicaragua Christian Academy which is on the opposite side of the city. Here we enjoyed the most amazing breakfast ever. This is not to say I don't like my rice, beans, eggs, and plantains in the morning, but seeing yogurt, granola, and fruit gets me pretty excited. Some of you may know this has been my staple for my breakfast for years. After breakfast and a prayer with the teacher's at NCA we were off pedaling the last 50km of our trip. The rest will just have to be said with pictures. It was all pretty exciting and cool.

Sugar cane country!

A rest stop by a pulperia (a little store that sells drinks and snacks).

Getting closer... We made it!
Part of our amazing support crew.Front tire in this time.
Por fin!

At the beach we were welcomed by 150 supporters. After taking advantage of every possible photo opportunity we gathered together for a prayer of thanks. Then a lunch was prepared for us. In true Nicaragua tradition, we recieved a diploma from Accion Medica and Christian Reformed World Relief Committee for completing the journey. Afterwards we enjoyed a brief swim in a pool and then headed back home to a familiar shower and bed. Hmmm...so what happens on Day 10?

C2C Day 8

Our word for the day was patient endurance. "...and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus..." Revelation 1:9. Even though we are so close we needed to take extra care today with the extra fear of more traffic.

Today we had some pretty cool riding. It started out a little scary because the roads were narrow, curvy, and downhill, which means speed. Our support vehicles did a great job of trailing each group of about 8 bikers to slow traffic down. On the flat parts today we were getting some good speed as well just riding behind eachother. The road took us from Boaco to Managua which was about 85 kilometers. For a short distance we cycled on the Pan American highway. At one point along the road we drove along side an artifical lake for almost 20km. The river was dammed in the 80's to irrigate a huge plain for sugar cane production. It's no longer functioning nor is the land being used.

As we got really close to Managua we formed one large group and stayed close together. We had a support vehicle in front, behind and on our side. We were all eager to get to our destination. This night we had treated ourselves to a stay in the Best Western which is just on the edge of town. Since this wasn't our final day none of us expected the reception we received upon entering the hotel parking lot. Some of the bikers' families and the office staff from Accion Medica came out to cheer us in. They were holding big banners in greeting and the US, Canadian, and Nicaraguan flag. It caught me by surprise and spurred a few emotions; I must be honest. Shortly after our arrival Channel 12 came to tape video and interview some of the participants.

That night was a neat time for us because we all felt that the end was near. I think it is safe to say that we all enjoyed our time together and we realized that we would miss eachother. The hotel put on an amazing meal for us even though we said we could have something simple. They said no way they wanted to put on this meal for you. The tables and chairs were decorated for a fancy banquet and the food was delicious especially being on the road for so many days. After living in the same cloths night after night we didn't have much to dress up in. That night we did some more reflection on our trip in a more light-hearted way. We split into groups and had to write and share a song with some memories from the trip. That evening some people stayed up to catch the news clip on TV that featured our story.

Stay tuned for the final day tomorrow when our front tires hit the Pacific Ocean!

C2C Day 7

Today we went about 75 km from Matiguas to Boaco. We rode through a valley with mountains on both sides. It was a wonderful way to spend early Sunday morning. The department of Boaco is known for its cattle and cowboys. I might note here that we have seen spurs on all sorts of things here including high heels and bright, white, rubber boots. Today was a full day of paved highway and we said good bye to the rocky, gravel roads. The experience of the rough roads had been described as a constant spanking one night when reflecting on our day and we weren't going to miss that. We were all surprised when we got into Boaco by 2:00 today because most of our days had been much longer. We enjoyed the opportunity to relax a little longer.

Dodging cattle. We thought the bright orange and yellow shirts would be great to alert traffic and they were. We didn't realize they would be such a target for bulls. One biker had a bull just hit the back of his bike with his horn. On another occasion at the river a bull ended up with a shirt on his horn.

After dinner we spent extra time in devotions and had more of a Sunday service. This was a really special time for us. We spent time singing, sharing prayers of request and thanks, and participating in the Lord's Supper. Let me explain that a little bit. We didn't have a lot of resources for this so we used tortillas which I think is probably closer to unleavened bread than the bread we usually serve. Finding a red juice wasn't possible and so Gatorade was a substitute. It was a special time of sharing and growing spiritually together. As we often did we closed with the chorus:

My friends may you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
My friends may you grown in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus.
To God be the glory, now and forever, now and forever Amen.

This evening Carolina one of our support crew explained to us where the funds we were raising had gone to. They had been used for a year long project working with farmers in the Rio Coco (Coconut River). When the hurricane hit the crop was destroyed in the winds and rains, but their supplies of rice and beans was also lost when their homes were torn apart. In the countryside here people have burlap bags of beans and rice stored in the corner of their homes which is their source of food for the year. If this food is lost or spoiled they don't have anything to replace it. So Accion Medica took rice and beans for planting and eating to the people there. They also brought teachers along who could give advice to the farmers on how to get a better yield and how to more safely store their food supplies. To date the farmers have already been able to harvest their first crop of rice from the supplies they were given. Carolina also shared with us that in these communities they very much life their lives and obtain their supplies through a bartering system. People with rice and beans trade them out for soap, oil, etc.

C2C Day 6

We started out today with a burst of new energy and excitment. We knew that at the end of today we would be riding on pavement and believe me after days on rocky roads we were ready for something smooth. We also knew that this was going to be a very difficult day as well as we left the flatter terrain of the East coast and hit some mountainous areas. Our distance covered today was about 85 kilometers and our change in elevation went from 110m to 446m and then down again to 230m.

Quite early in our biking today we encountered the truck in the picture below which had fallen off the road when passing another vehicle. It had been there for some time and was going to be there for another couple days before help came there way. It had been filled with bags of rice but that had been unloaded and trucked away already. The boy had been left behind to guard the truck.

The biggest pothole I ever did see!

Our treat for hitting the pavement was an enormous hill with a very steep climb. The Pepsi truck was climbing up just in front of us. They enticed one of our bikers to hang on to the truck which he did. At the top they gave him a 3L of Pepsi. Wow! At the bottom of the following hill was a place I had been to before and I love. This was a place where they sell guirelas which is a immature fresh corn ground up into a tortilla and fried in a banana leaf. You eat the guirelas with crema and fresh cheese. It's super good and we really enjoyed this local food.

The road ahead of us was super smooth and hilly. We got alot of speed on the downhills and we were loving it. One of the bikers was chased by some dogs and one ended up infront of his tire which sent him flying over the handlebars. He got some road rash on his shoulder and his helmet took a beating, but his injuries weren't anything a little advil couldn't take care of. I shouldn't make it seem that minor. I was very impressed the next morning when he got on his bike again and kept going. That evening we gave thanks again for God's protection along the road and that the injuries thus far had not been anything more serious. Each day we continued along the trip we felt more and more the many prayers of friends and family which gave us great comfort and strength to persevere. We all got into the hotel a little late this day. The bikers at the back of the pack were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset before reaching their destination.

C2C Day 5

For the first half of our bike trip we had people taking turns being what we called the 'sweeper'. The sweepers for the day had to be at the very back of the pack so that when the support crew came by and saw them they knew these were the last bikers. Well today Carey and I took our turn. We thought that after our day yesterday with extra kilometers we could use a slower paced day. It so happened that we weren't even out of Siuna when someone had a flat tire. The day sort of progressed that way with more bike problems. It was a couple days into the trip and the bikes had taken a beating. Our ride today took us about 70km from Siuna to Mulukuku. This was definitely one of my favorite towns to say: Mulukuku (Where do they come up with these names?).

The slower pace allowed us to take in everything and little more. On this day we started to leave the forests behind and saw more grassland (or rather forest that had been cleared) and farming areas used for cattle raising. There are some laws in Nicaragua to regulate logging and land management but like most other things they don't get enforced.

Me on the left.

This was what one of our typical rest stops looked like. The tables and chairs would be set up and taken down each time. We often had buns for peanut butter and honey, powerbars, fruit, Gatorade, and water. This would serve as our lunch for the day as well. Breakfast and dinner was served in the towns we stayed and was typically a lot of rice and beans with either chicken or beef and always fresh cheese and eggs in the morning.

I had to chuckle a couple times at the things we passed along the way. One time we saw two women on horses and both women were holding a bag in front of them with squealing pigs. We also started seeing the old milk canisters along the road filled with milk. A milk truck comes to pick up the milk and they deliver it to a cooler; we saw several along the way. Some of the smaller milk cans held the watery liquid that was separated from the cream which would be fed to the pigs. There seemed to be more and more chickens, cows, and horses along the road today. We passed through several towns that reminded me of pictures of movies of the Wild West. The homes were very primitive in this area. Most homes were wooden and when you looked inside there was very little to be seen. Maybe a table with a few plastic pots on it. Life was much more community based here and very simple.

We definitely could tell that we were reaching bigger towns and cities when several people along the way asked us if we had gifts or money for them. Often organizations or even the government will just hand things out to people along the road.

By this point on the trip our backpacks were getting rather stinky with dirty cloths. We sent our dirty laundry on ahead to get washed. The cloths were actually washed in the river for us and then we hung them up to dry at our hotel. It didn't always get dry on time so we would either pack wet laundry and try again the next evening or we would just wear it wet. It was also at about this point in the trip that some of us started to get really sore bums. There's a secret to this problem and its bag balm; it worked wonderfully and I was good to go for the rest of the trip.

Women and girls washing cloths in the river

C2C Day 4

Today our destination was Rosita to Siuna which would be about an 80 kilometer day. I say would be because for some of us it was a little longer. There was a group of us that were just eager to get going that day. We had been ready for some time and were just ready to go. We finally did head out with the directions to turn right. Well that is what we did except we took the wrong right and started heading in the wrong direction. We were all enjoying the beautiful morning, beautiful scenery, and the relatively good road. That should of been our first clue we were wrong. It wasn't until one of the bikers ahead realized the sun was hitting us from the wrong direction that we realized we were in the wrong. We asked more than one person which way was Siuna and they all pointed in the direction we had just come. That meant retracing our steps again which the whole detour added 20 kilometers onto our day. We were a determind group though and refused to take a ride in the truck to catch up with the rest of the group. While we were biking out ahead our support team was nervously driving back and forth along the road wondering how they could lose 7 bikers. It was a great relief for them when they finally found us again.

Two of our very faithful and hard working support crew April and Rachel.

That wasn't the only adventure that happened this day. Alie was biking along and let out a little gasp of surprise and rightly so. Her seat bolt broke and the seat came flying off. The solution to the problem was to give her John's seat and he proceeded to ride without a seat for 5 kilometers until we saw the support vehicle again. Now that's team work! That day team LOST rode most of the day together until we caught up with the rest of the crew at two o'clock. The last portion of the trip was a lot of climbing. Our change in elevation today was from 50m-151m. Then to our surprise our hotel was on the top most portion of the town as well! What a day...in the end some of us had clocked in 100km that day. I think this was also the day that Mark ran over a chicken that couldn't decide which way it was going to cross the road.

This is our whole team in Siuna. A reporter also came this morning and took some pictures and wrote about us in the two newspapers here in Nicaragua.

In Siuna we were able to read the comments on the blog and were very encouraged and blessed by it. That evening we also heard from the chairman of Accion Medica who told us more about their work in the area.

These are the feet of Carey and I. We wore our sandals for this trip. At the end of this day they were particularly dirty and dusty making an amazing sandal tan.

C2C Day 3

Well... what I didn't tell you in Day 2 is that the entrance into our accomodations that day was sort of like a cow pasture. It took a steep down hill followed by an uphill. It was wet and muddy so when the box truck drove in it was slipping around pretty badly. On the morning of Day 3 we had the challenge of getting our trucks out. The guys hooked up the 4x4 Land Cruiser to the box truck but it just couldn't get up the hill. After untying it, the Land Cruiser made it up but not without a big push from all the guys. The 4x4 Toyota Hilux was next and it needed a big push too. For the third vehicle we didn't have much hope because it wasn't 4x4. About 4 guys grabbed on to a tow rope at the front and the rest pushed from the back. Might I also add that the women were watching and praying that what seemed the impossible would work. With a few big pulls, pushes, and prayers the truck slowly made its way up and out to the road.

It was a fun ride this morning because we rode through the communities who had put on a cultural program for us the night before. There were lots of waves along the way and my pink horn got used alot. Today was the beginning of our rocky road. The rocks pretty much spanned across the road with an exception of a narrow strip on the side. We would change sides depending on what looked to be the smoother route. These road conditions were not expected and so our days got stretched out much longer than we had anticipated. Many of our days ended up being 8 or 9 hours on the road. Although the road was terrible the landscape was just beautiful; breathtaking really. Along the way we would rest along the side of the road. At one stop a man with a Canada T-shirt came up to us and shook our hand. We chatted for a while and found out that it was his daughter's birthday that day. We gave her a granola bar and got a little bit of a smile out of her. The sun this afternoon was hot and oppressive, but a cloud covering in the afternoon was a welcome blessing. We biked about 78 km today from Nazaret Uno to Rosita.

We had another accident today. All the bridges along this part of the road are constructed from wooden slats. One of our fellow bikers was thrown from his bike when his wheel got stuck between the boards. He landed on his back 8 feet below into the riverbed with just a couple inches of water. His biked followed him in. Although he was stiff, sore, and a bit scratched up he was able to complete the trip on bicycle.

There was always lots of help when someone had a flat tire. I think we had about 25 flats between all the bikers on the trip. Some bikers had 3 in one day. I was lucky not to have any flats on the whole trip.

Rosita would be our destination for New Years Eve. Since we had biked all day and would do so again in the morning we had a little party earlier in the evening. It included a pinata and fireworks. Somewhere at about midnight when I was already in bed the big firework explosion happened.

In Nicaragua there is a tradition to make something like this called "El viejo", which is an old man. At midnight they burn it to signify the passing of the old year and the beginning of a new one. We saw many of them along the road today.

C2C Day 2

The first day of real biking started on December 30. This morning I woke up to find my bike with streamers, a pink horn, and a bell that said "I love my bike." This was a post-birthday surprise thoughtfully arranged by Carey and Rachel. So that is how I started out my first day: driving in style.

The roads the first day were a bit muddy, the dirt looked like the red soil of Prince Edward Island, and the terrain was flat with some hills. The communities we passed through this day were were of Miskito background. The eye of the hurricane had passed through this area and so we saw snapped off trees and homes still in disrepair. We crossed the Rio Wawa by a cable barge which was a fun experience. Thankfully the motor was running so we didn't have to pull ourselves across. While waiting for the barge some women and children approached us to shake our hands, but none could really understand English or Spanish. Along the road we heard about a strike in a upcoming community and sure enough we encountered it. We were told we would have to wait 3 hours before passing through. Some of our team from Accion Medica went ahead and spoke with the protesters and we were soon peacefully passing through the road block. We biked about 65 kilometers the first day and spent the night in Nazareth Uno.

With a Miskito family prior to getting on the ferry

I think our stay in this community was perhaps the most memorable. We spend the night in a house on stilts as are all the homes in this area. Accion Medica works in this area as well. The latrine was a toilet seat with black plastic held up by four posts. The shower was a wooden platform with black plastic held up by four post and a bucket. You couldn't stand up straight because the plastic was a little short. That afternoon we washed out the mud and grim off our bikes in the river.

The surrounding communities welcomed us warmly this evening. They prepared a special meal and cultural program including several traditional dances for us. It was a very rich experience to spend time in this community and we felt very blessed by the hospitality of the people there.

Carey, Allie, and I on day one. Take note of the well decorated bike.

C2C Day 1

Since I didn't have Internet along the trip I thought I would give a short summary over the next couple of days of our 9 day bike trip across Nicaragua. I say bike trip but it was really so much more than that, I hope you can see that from the next couple entries. So many events and experiences in our lives impact and change us and this one certainly did that in a powerful way. Since I jumped off my bike yesterday afternoon and into the classroom this morning, I feel that writing these updates on the blog will help me to process this trip.

Although Day 1 actually starts on the 29th of December I wanted to back it up one day to the 28th. We received a phone call mid-day from our support crew who had driven on ahead to meet us on the East coast. They informed us that Dave had an accident with his motorcycle and it looked serious. This was followed with the news that another member of the group nearly lost his finger and required stitches. We became quite concerned about the safety of our friends and the start we were having to this trip. That evening we gathered as bikers to pray for our friends and for the journey that lay before us.

Dave ended up returning to Managua the next morning after the accident for surgery on his shoulder. The rest of the support crew had driven him to Siuna a town with a doctor and an airport strip. For four months they haven't been flying out of Siuna but just resumed flights to this town on December 26. Isn't God great!

We flew to Puerta Cabezas on December 29. Our ticket was a thin piece of wood with the words Puerta Cabezas written on it although mine was missing some letters. Isn't Nicaragua so advanced, they already have a method for saving paper. I was a little leery of this flight when I was asked to step on the scale with my carry-on luggage. I guess the plane can't get too heavy. As we boarded the plane we said good bye to Managua and our luggage. For some unexplainable reason it didn't join us until later that day or for some people the following morning.

I think we all felt a sense of excitement as we landed on the other side of the country and made our way to the Verbo guest house. There some of our team members were already busy putting bikes together. Mine was mostly ready to go but it was missing a key component the clamp that keeps the seat post in place. I looked everywhere for it three times and was praying through the search. It just had to be somewhere, but I just couldn't find it. We thought perhaps it had bounced off and into someone's bike box. Finally a cheer went up and someone found the missing piece in their box. What a relief! Others weren't so fortunate as they had key bike parts in their luggage which didn't come in time. With a bit of teamwork and creativity one guy made a seat post with a post, PVC pipe, and duct tape. With our pieced together bikes we made the 2 kilometer ride to the ocean to dip our front tires into the water.

That evening we worshipped in the Moravian church. On the East coast many people speak English as they also did in this church. We were very blessed by attending this service and the people were very excited to hear about our trip. The congregation was made up mostly of older members who formed a choir and prepared a special song for us. This church meets five nights a week for worship. They have had to move their time of worship earlier in the evening recently because of safety and security at night. That evening I was surprised to receive a birthday cake from my fellow biking friends.

I haven't gathered a lot of pictures yet, but this is one from the first day.

This is the Nica crew (all those who live in Nicaragua) dipping their back tire into the Atlantic Ocean (missing are Luis and Nestor)