Ants in the Pants

Hello again friends.

Have you ever been woken up by a strange sound and wondered what in the world it was? Try waking up to Howler Monkeys? :) The sound like something out of a horror movie. But once you go outside your room, you're instantly reminded that the jungle is full of wonderful variety and crazy different animals. As the day progressed, we were introduced to a few million of them.

Luis, the "Bus Ninja" performed his magic act again and miraculously delivered us to La Esmeralda, despite the rainy season. The road to the village is one lane (at best) and very steep. The bus seats 72 people and has a rather low door which makes maneuvering through potholes a bit of a chore. We only had to get out of the bus once to provide a little extra clearance.

The team was introduced to Don Hugo (the pastor in La Esmeralda) who then explained the days events to us. He has been such a blessing to the village and the team as a whole, pouring time, energy and finances into the clinic and the church for his community. He demonstrated the proper way to plant the fruit trees and then it was our turn. We split into two teams and started planting 350 fruit trees! For the most part, the work was simple but it often turned into more of a challenge when you added the locals to the equation. The locals, of course, being the millions upon millions of ants that inhabit the mountains of Nicaragua. Did I mention that the ants don't like being disturbed? Well, we disturbed them almost 350 times! Kelsey discovered that some of the more enterprising of ants wait until just the right moment to bite...traveling from one end of the body to the other before fighting back. She's still holding her armpit! Others were doing the "Ants in the Pants" dance.

But God is good and he showed His goodness today in the interactions with our new friends from La Esmeralda, and in waiting until the last tree was planted before opening the sky and watering everything for us. We were then treated to a meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and mangos...fresh mangos...really fresh mangos...not like the store bought mangos in Wisconsin...really, really fresh mangos. Pastor Guy made sure everyone got their fill of mangos by passing them throughout the group. He was very fair in his distribution, of course..."One for you...one for me...Two for you...one, two for me...Three for you...one, two, three for me..." and so on and so on. :)

Once the work and meal were complete, we were treated to a trip to the local waterfall. Everyone had a blast and almost everyone got soaked! Good thing. We were covered in mud. The only bad deal was that everyone was cold and wet for the bus ride to Selva Negra. No worries. We had Luis, the "Bus Ninja". He tackled the very muddy roads with ease once again. Praise God for his expertise and willingness to serve a bunch of folks from Wisconsin!

Tomorrow, the clinic officially opens!!!!!! And we will have a full time doctor and a nurse!!!! God is awesome!!

In Him,

Clif