Home Sweet Home!

We arrived safely to DC last night where Joe's sweet parents were there to pick us up and take us to Broadway. We woke up today to snow covered woods which continued the entire day...such a treat and truly beautiful! It was great fun to build snowmen, sled, peg each other with snowballs with our family. The weather has been a bit shocking considering we lost around 40 degrees from our flight from Panama to DC yesterday...crazy! But we are excited to be home and spend time with our friends and family, have good home-cooked non beans and rice food, sleep in clean beds (Joe got attacked by bed bugs one of our last nights in Panama), take hot showers, have more than a 2 shirt option of what we will wear each day, and most importantly sing Christmas music. Thank you all for all of your support, prayers, thoughts, etc for us while we were in Central America and we will return to the blogging world in early January when we go back South for another adventure in South America. Happy Holidays and Happy Birthday Jesus!


Julie and Joe

Matagalpa

At Selva Negra-a gorgeous coffee farmer built by Germans and therefore with a German twist of architecture. The family built a chapel on the premises so their daughter could be married there.
An amazing sunset overlooking the mountains in Matagalpa.

At the vida joven camp-they have a maze and this is what you find in the center. (our friends Frank and Bekah)

Other parts of the Vida Joven farm-this picture doesn't do it justice for its beauty. It's truly amazing!

One of the precious kids at La Chureca in Managua. His home, school, doctor, etc is all located inside the dump. But for some reason, the Managua dump felt more hopeful and peaceful than our dump in Granada.

Last Weekend in Nica

Hola!! Last weekend, our last weekend in Nica, we tested our luck/faith and rented a car. We went with Frank a Bekah, a couple who is down here for at least the next year, discipling recovering drug addicts and keeping it Real in Granada. We left Friday and went to Managua to visit the dump up there, which is daunting and has at least 800 people that actually live inside the dump's gates. We encourage you all to visit websites about the programs serving the communities inside the dump (just google "La Chureca, managua"). We then headed north to the mountains to visit the Young Life camp in Nicaragua and some coffee farms.
Our time in the highlands was incredible. One of the highlights was the simple pleasure of actually being cold for a few hours. It was a part of the country that neither of us had experienced at all. Quite different from Granada- mountainous, windy, cool, and some buildings actually made of wood. The locals from the north even look different, taller and with lighter eyes due to German lineage (also reflected in the architecture).
Saturday's visit to the Young Life camp was really sweet. Frank and Bekah live with the Young Life staffers (Yener and his pregnant wife, Oneida) here in Granada and we have developed great friendships with them as well, so we had heard lots about the camp and were excited about the ministry of young life (vida joven) here in Nica. The camp is gorgeous and is set up much like YL camps in the states, with slight Nica twists thrown in. The camp also has its own vegetable gardens (it has a goal to be completely self sustained) and a huge coffee farm right there on the premises. the coffee is now being sold and they are launching a program to sell the amazing organic coffee in the states and at US Young Life camps. The purchase of 1 pound of coffee is actually enough to pay for a kid's week at YL camp here. I urge you all to check it out, and look at the info about Vida Joven and Young Life International. http://www.vidajovencoffee.com/ (our friends Frank and Troy actually made this site, as well as the site for Vida Joven Granada.

Pictures of the weekend and of events from our last week in Granada coming soon!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Joe and Julie

Rosita

Sweet Rosita was run over by a truck 20 years ago as you can see on her right leg. In order to repair her leg, they took a bone from her left leg along with many skin grafts all over her body and tried to repair her right leg. Although it has been 20 years, her leg is still infected and unfunctional. With this hospital admission, she fell and broke her hip. She is also anemic so they waited adn waited for there to be blood at the hospital so they could give it to her during and after surgery. She finally had surgery and was bedridden for weeks waiting for her bone in her hip to continue to grow stronger. We grew extremely fond of her and her sisters. She has the cutest smile (ask Joe to do an impression of her when we are home-it's perfect!) and she sang "At the cross at the cross, when I first saw the light, and the burdens of my heart rolled away..." in Spanish of course, to us every week. She cried many times because she was so tired of being stuck in bed and had 2-3 huge bed sores from just laying in bed. We worked with the Lions Club here and got her a new wheelchair and for days all she could do was look at it because she could not get out of bed or for that matter move. We loved her and always looked forward to seeing her on hospital days because we just knew she would be there forever. Then, one day, she wasn't there! We had been praying for God, Jehovah Rapha, to heal her because Joe and I both thought her situation was too bad for medicine to help and escpecially medicine at this hospital. And what did the Lord do? He healed her! By the power of God, she got out of bed, into her wheelchair, onto a bus, and off to her house! We learned such a lesson that day about God's power in healing and doing miracles.

Us with Rosa and one of her friends that visited her everyday!

Sooo... because Rosa left the hospital before she thought she would, we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. We always talked with her about after she got home we'd come over to her house one day and have dinner. From getting her the wheelchair we had to get a copy of her ID card, so we sort of remembered her address, which are not too exact in Nica. All we knew was that she lived in a tiny little town called San Blas and her house was small and in front a school. We asked our Nicaraguan friends where San Blas was, and most of them didnt even know. Turns out it is very tiny and about 6 miles off the highway between Granada and Masaya. We sat out one Sunday afternoon with a mission to find Rosita, and find her we did! We got a taxi driver to drop us off at this dirt road in the middle of nowhere that he told us led to San Blas. We had to wait around for a Tuk Tuk (mototaxi) to take us the rest of the way. We asked the tuk tuk driver if he happened to know Rosa Aleman and he said, "oh yea, Dona Rosita!, She lives in front of the school!" Turned out their inexact addresses worked out just fine. the drive back the dirt road was beautiful, pure farm land and dust. We pulled up in front of Rosa's house and there she was, sitting on her front porch in her wheelchair, beaming from ear to ear and cackling with laughter! It was such a blessing to be able to see her in her home. She was o happy there with her family who was visiting and to have the two Gringos there on her porch. We took lots of pictures and stayed around a few hours talking with her and her family. We sang some hymns with her and we even recorded her singing "En la Cruz, en la Cruz." We showed her the video and she thought it was the coolest thing ever, it was freakin' adorable.

Sweet Rosita at her home, in her element. Smiling with Julita, her favorite Gringa.

Amigos cont

Juan-This guy is awesome and he NEVER wears a shirt! He has the best attitude ever and is always joking around with us. He's been here since we first started coming to the hospital and today was quite sad when we had to say goodbye. He had a compound fracture in his calf a few months ago and now has osteomyelitis-a very serious bone infection that needs to be treated correctly with IV antibiotics for months. This hospital simply does not have the antibiotics that he needs. To compensate, they change from week to week his antibiotics according to what they have available. The doctor today was trying to encourage him to have the leg amputated but he completely trusts in the Lord for complete healing. Today was the first time we saw a serious side of Juan. He actually started crying and we talked about God's perfect plan for him and how Juan wanted to go back to work and provide for his daughter but physically can't and how he doesn't want his leg amputated for this reason. God is doing some serious healing on him physically and more importantly spiritually.

Winston-he was shot in his upper leg and the bullet shattered his femur about 7 months ago. An ironic situation because Winston had graduated from Peniel, the rehab center our church works with and sponsors addicts to attend. Upon graduation, he experimented with drugs and got involved in the wrong crowd again and thus got shot. He was been in the hospital and had screws placed to repair his femur which got extremely infected while at home and now he is back at the hospital. He is serious about his spiritual life now and wants to change and live for God. He is always reading his Bible when we come to visit and Joe has had many deep conversations with him regarding different thoughts of theology.

An adorable little couple where the wife had a pretty nasty infection in her toe that was actually amputated. He serenaded the hospital room one day (which was precious) and always had a huge smile!

Margarita-she had a leg infection when we first met her and she was in the room with all guys. They moved her into another room and we were told she went home a few days later...which she did and THEN came back to the hospital because the infection was not healed. We ran into her in the hallway and exchanged addresses and numbers.

This fella is Pedro Enrique. He was one of the first guys we met and he was only there for a few weeks after we got here. He is a pretty adorable old man who knew probably 15 English words and also loooved to use them any chance he got. He always wanted to know about the US and was obsessed with us meeting his daughter and son-in-law. We gave him a copy of this picture and he was pretty giddy, he had a huge crush on Julie. He gave the picture to his girlfriend. He thought he was pretty handsome in it.

Amigos del hospital!

This is Manuel. He lived in Miami for a few years, where the rest of his family still lives. He gets to talk with them sometimes and they come to visit every now and then, but he had a drunk driving accident and was deported. He is super friendly and loves to show off the few English words he speaks. He is the singer of the hospital and croons in the guys' room and out in the halls. He was really pumped to get to sing some English songs with us, he loves some Lionel Ritchie, Chicago, and Journey. He is diabetic and has a pretty bad infection in his foot. He has been at the hospital for about a month now, and will probably/hopefully leave soon.

Fast Times at the Japanese Hospital

A large chunk of our time here in Granada is spent at the Japanese hospital. This is the large public hospital on the outskirts of town. It gets its name, not because it serves only specific asian tourists, but because it was built about 10 years ago with Japanese support.

We spend two mornings a week visiting with patients and helping nurses. We have taken vital signs, organized a mess of old x-rays, and set up a much needed system for incoming patients' paperwork. However we spend most of our time getting to know long term patients and their families. We talk with them (julie has had the spanish words 'infection', 'cleaning', 'antibiotic', and "getting better little by little" pounded into her head, pray with them, and even sing with them (we don't know too awful many well known spanish language songs, so "la bamba" was busted out quickly).

We spend our time in the surgery inpatient and infection ward. Patients are stuck in these rooms with 8 beds anywhere from 2 days to 3 months and counting. It's a pretty tough place to be for the patients and has absolutely shocked us from our standard view of hospitals in the USA. Everything is free for the patients, which is nice, however some days they do not have medicine, some days they do. The doctors (as in the entire hospital's legion of doctors) take vacation days very often. They will schedule a surgery for a date two weeks away, only to change it at the last minute for no reason, then change it again because there is not enough blood for the surgery. Many of the patients are there with a fairly simple infection, just waiting with no exact end date, just trying to keep up hope. The open-air rooms also hover at 80-90 degrees throughout the day and night. Despite the dismal description, there are many amazing people there and the relationships we have formed and the opportunities we've had have taught us invaluable lessons about our God,the Healer, spreading joy, and true patience.

Im afraid this blog would be entirely too long if I tried to go into details about all the folks we've met, and the experiences. Instead, we will post pictures and introduce you to a few of the pacientes.

Love yall!
Jose y Julia