The Savage Traveler: Nicaragua: Part 1

Monday, June 23: This trip to Nicaragua was our second “Mission Trip” with Edgewood. Under the auspices of the Consejo de Iglesias Evangelicas Pro-Alianza Denominacional” (a Presbyterian group hereafter known as CEPAD) and Agua Clara we raised money to buy and install 100 water purification systems in rural farms with no access to pure water. With Marv, Kris and Jim D. driving 3 vehicles 14 of us (Marv, Peggy, Kris, Jim & Connie D., Alex, Bonnie, Hannah, Nancy, Barb & Carolyn from Edgewood plus Carol from First Presbyterian with her grandson, Grant, from Missouri and Jim from Eastminster Presbyterian) headed to Detroit Metro to meet Dean from Adrian Presbyterian and Jeanette from Southfield and fly United to Houston and on to Managua. The flights went without a hitch and we landed in Managua as scheduled. Everything from the schedule after that flew out the window. Instead of going to stay at the Nehemiah Center with the CEPAD folks, we were driven by our intrepid bus driver for the week, William, to a nice hotel called Casa San Juan. The group split into three rooms and, after a light snack of sandwiches and juice, went to bed.

Tuesday, June 24: CEPAD had arranged for 7:30 breakfast at the hotel of eggs, beans, rice and coffee with white bread toast. We gathered with Carolina, who was to be our interpreter and guide for our time in Nicaragua. She is from one of the regions on the east coast of Nicaragua and grew up speaking English, learning her Spanish in High School. Her “East Coast” mentality and allegiances are very different from the central and Pacific regions. We found out more about the reasons for that when we met for over an hour with Ayn, an ex-pat from Pennsylvania who is married to a Nicaraguan, has been there for 28 years, and is now a professor in Managua at two universities. Her fast paced, knowledgeable, and fact-filled Coyuntura gave us a wonderful overview of the social, cultural and political history of Nicaragua. Afterwards we piled into the comfortable, air-conditioned tourist bus that had met us at the airport the night before and took the scenic drive north about two hours to Jinotega. The picturesque town of about 35,000 is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains (possibly an ancient volcano caldera?) and with relatively comfortable temperatures in the seventies. Numerous delays again played havoc with our schedule and we ended up checking into Hostel Dolce Suega (Sweet Dreams) where, with two people to a room, Marv and I were able to be together for the night. We did only one thing on the schedule for the afternoon, visiting the coffee processing facility of Juan Carlos Palma and learning about how he has become an organic certified grower and processor of fine Nicaraguan coffee. Most of us bought a bag or more of his coffee. We were joined there by the CEPAD director for the region, Felix, who has very little English and so most of his interactions for our time there were to be with the local people, Kris, or Carolina. We had dinner that evening at Los Ticos (the Costa Ricans) where we chose our meal from a buffet of food that the wait staff put on our plates before we sat down at long tables. It was very good! Afterwards the whole group did a walking tour of the park-like plaza of Jinotega before we went to bed.