Trey's trip to Nicaragua

In October I went on a medical mission trip in Nicaragua. The region we traveled to was the Rio Coco river which serves as the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. It was a tiring trip that took 3 days of travel in order to reach our destination. I flew from Abilene and joined the rest of the team in Houston. We in turn flew to Managua which is the capitol where we spent the night. The next day we spent 8 hours on a converted yellow school bus and finally arrived in Wiwili on the Rio Coco. We overnighted in Wiwilli.

Wiwili was the Sandinista (Marxist) stronghold during the Sandinista-Contra civil war back in the 80's. There is still some tension in the area with memories of the U.S. supporting the Contra rebels that were based in Honduras. Siempre Rojo y Negra was the flag colors and rallying cry of the Sandinistas as well as a saying I thought might come in handy. Fortunately, I never had to use it. One picture shows me next to the tail of a Russian made bomb that was left over from the war. It seems the U.S. and the Soviet Union have had scuffles all over the globe. The children's text books have descriptions of bombs, land mines, and grenades in order to protect the children from their natural curiosity.

From Wiwili, the team rode in 30 foot hand dug canoes that had been carved out of huge trees that grow along the river. The boat captain said it takes about 1 month to carve out a canoe. We had motors attached to the boats and traveled at 6 mph. It took about 11 hours to reach our final destination of San Andres. Along the way, we landed on the Honduran side of the river twice to take breaks so officially we had been to Honduras but only to relieve ourselves. Yes, we went to a country only to pee on it. Along the way we saw terrain that resembles Hawaii with lush vegetation, banana trees (or some variation), coconut trees, and coffee been bushes. Surprisingly it was mountainous and somewhat cool at times. Early in the trip I was the first to spot an alligator that was about 7 feet long -- pretty proud of that one. Unfortunately it was early in the trip and we hadn't pulled out the cameras yet. Another strange sight was seeing a dead cow in a canoe and the passengers of that canoe seeming like it was just an every day occurance. We saw hundreds of people along the river who would stop in their tracks to watch the gringos pass by. Maybe I was just seeing things, after all I was tired and dehydrated. Did I mention a monkey playing the banjo with midgets serving pitchers of beer. Who's gonna read this anyway? Maybe I'll blame the sightings on the anti-malaria medicine which has some strange side effects. Everyone on the trip saw what I saw but then again -- the malaria medicine.

We finally arrived in San Andres to a warm welcome. This area is so remote that it had been 8 years since a medical team had been to this area. The area is home to over 42,000 indigenous Miskito indians and the government has designated only 1 doctor for the whole region. The community was simply a collection of shacks with tin roofs at best but some still had the traditional palm leaf roofs.

We served close to 1900 people medically and the dentist pulled close to 500 teeth. I had a translator, Harold, who had developed into a very good pharmacy technician by the end of the first day. To the left, Ernest is seen after he cut up coconut for my pleasure. Strangely enough, many of the indians had anglicised names. Back to the subject, our translators needed to know English, Spanish, and the native Miskito language. The Moskito language resembled the Hawaiian language in its written form. The Moskito phrase for "examine this" or "check this out" is monkikak which is pronounced "monkey cake".

We had a new patient walk into the pharmacy every 50 seconds on average. The idea is to see as many as we can for the short time we are there. While waiting for their turn in the clinic the people stood in line, many with bare feet. With the farm animals doing their "business" in the same areas that the people tread, needless to say parasites were a major complaint. Overall the people were clean in that they bathed and washed clothes daily. They unfortunately needed some education in drainage and infectious disease control.

As people stood waiting their turn, local evangelists associated with and supported by churches back in the U.S. preached the gospel. Thousands of study bibles were handed out as well as reading glasses for many of the people. Hopefully some of the message was received.

Life is hard for these people. About the only job available is clearing brush with a machete for the landowners for 30 cordobas per day. That is the equivalent to $1.50. The women do most of the work while a large number of the men are alcoholics. Life expectancy is short and was demonstrated by how young they start their families with 15 and 16 year old girls showing up with more than 1 child of their own. We didn't see many elderly people. Of the 1000 or so population of San Andres, there are 280 families of which 80 are single mother households.

Our boats ran a taxi service for other communities along the river to come to our clinic. The flow of people was well organized and constant. The Moskito people were hit hard by the civil war in the 80's and again by Hurricane Mitch in the mid-90's. The community we served had all of their homes washed away by that storm. They were still kind and thankful people.

Returning down the river, we approached a Nicaraguan military checkpoint (looked like a bus stop shelter) and the first boat with a French doctor and some translators didn't stop. The soldiers rattled off 3 shots in the water in front of the boat from their AK-47 rifles. That was a little disconcerting but we only found out about that little episode after everyone reached the final destination. Chalk up one more good story for the folks back home. By the way, most people didn't realize there would be left over military ordinances, alligators, and trigger happy military personnel on this trip.

I was sure glad to see my beautiful wife and energetic kids who happened to be more interested in the plane on which I arrived rather than the fact that their daddy had just come home. After taking this picture, I was glad to find out Evan had only spilled his drink on his pants. The smile on my face represents the joy of being home but also concern in what my right hand is holding. I promptly returned back to the real world.