Visitors to NicaLand

I can never pass up the opportunity to share about visitors to Nicaragua. My cousin Amber and her friend Jenn spent just under a week experiencing life in here. Of course there were abundant bonuses for me as well including seeing faces from home, a fresh stash of droppies and other Dutch treats. Mmmm love the taste of home.

Amber and Jenn spent most of their time at an orphanage just outside of Managua. The kids there have come for various reasons. In the time I was there I heard a couple of the stories. One little guy was covered with burns. He had been left alone at home in his crib with a mosquito netting over it. There was a candle close by and the netting caught fire. Thankfully a neighbour came to rescue him but not before his arms and face were covered with burns. He's returned to his family for a period of 3 months but they brought him back because they were unable to care for him. Another little girl was found abandoned in the market. She had been begging for food after her mother just set her on a chair and left her. At the orphanage she is learning that she doesn't need to beg, that her words are a little vulgar, and that they are not going to leave her. She has made remarkable progress in just a short time. The youngest is a baby just 15 days old who was born in the poorest hospital in Managua. His mother, a drug addict, left the hospital without her baby.

The children are so young and yet have suffered so much at the expense of their parent's decisions. It just tears my heart to see these children suffer in this way. Where is the hope? The hope is seeing these young children who are now cared and loved for, but my heart cries out for the many children who remain in desperate situations. I can only imagine that Jesus sheds the same tears we do for these children and that one day they will receive a great reward in heaven.

Besides spending time at the orphanage we were able to get out to the beach and a volcano to see other aspects of Nicaragua as well. It's fun to see people take in the culture of Nicaragua that for me is so familiar now but for visitors is so odd and strange. One example of this is when we were driving down the highway and a big cow with large horns is calmly walking through the parking lot of a store. One of the girls pips up, "Is that normal?!?!" Yes everything strange and odd to us, in Nicaragua, is indeed normal. One of my favorite foods is quesillos which is a corn tortilla with cheese, sour cream, and onions. It soon became Jenn's favorite too. I can and have only been able to eat 2 at a meal, but Jenn's love for them allowed her to eat 4!

At the beach

At the volcanoQuesillos