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.