Prayers to all those wonderful people!!  Isn't it great how much responsibility Amy has assumed at such a young age.  And MaKenzie going along too.  Wonderful.  I hope her ears get good and well by next Sunday too.  Airplanes play havoc with ears. 

Can't wait to see the pics when they get back.  So interesting.

Barb

 

Praying here for the whole group.  Wonderful work they are doing.

 

Wish I could go along, too.  di

 

Thank you. MaK was here yesterday and feeling much better although with her chronic allergies she uses lots of Kleenex all day every day.

I just hope she remembers to use the nasal spray. Amy will remind her. Their seats on the plane are far from one another but Amy thinks the girl next to her will trade places with MaK.

 

MaK is so afraid of flying. I can't believe she is really going. David said when they went on vacation he had to yell at her to make her get on the plane. Mercy, how awful if she balks again. She called the tube from the gate into the plane a death chamber.  Goofy kid.

Annie

Praying for Amy & MaK and the whole group to have safe travels and a successful trip.  And praying for all their Loved Ones at home to not be worrying about them while they are on the journey.

 

A coworker has fear of flying, but used to fly quite a bit cuz her friend worked for the airlines & another for a hotel and their group could do inexpensive weekend getaways to NYC & places easily.  Her Dr prescribed like half a valium or something taken right before the flight.  Not enough to leave her woozy at the end, but enough to not make her panic about the take-off / flight.

The girls stopped by here this afternoon for their bye-bye hugs. MaK said she isn't very worried about the plane. She left her Neo Synephrine at home after all our talk about using it before each landing. Drives me nuts. With her allergies I just hope she doesn't regret leaving it behind.

The plane leaves at 7 Monday morning but they have to be there at 4:30 a.m. They will arrive in Managua at 11:30 a.m. and then bus part of the way to Waslala. That takes a couple hours. Then they ride in a little Toyota truck with 19 people smushed in the bed.

 

Makes me tired to write about it.

Annie

 

I've got the jitters for the both of you.  I'm excited for her and the rest of them and wish I could go too.  Always sad to watch someone you love, leave to go to some far away place but knowing she'll be doing a lot of good for people who need help makes it all worthwhile..hunh.

Absolutely. I am very proud of the girls.

 

Btw, Barb, Amy is not a youngster. She will be 40 this year. MaK just turned 19.

 

Both girls are so much more outgoing and self assured than I am. They both are comfortable in almost any situation. They both sing at church as does Sonya, MaK's mother. Sonya has a beautiful voice. She has sung since she was a tiny girl. Her mother and aunts have a singing group and used to go to other churches to sing.

 

We won't hear from them until they get back home. That's the hard part for parents and grannies.

Annie

We have news. Sonya called the church in Waslala to see how things were going. Not good at all. The whole group was held in customs in Managua for two days for bringing medications into the country. No narcotics, just antibiotics and simple stuff like aspirin. The eye glasses also caused a problem. They have a doctor and two pharmacists with them, with identification and passports. They had to pay a tarif of $200 to be allowed to continue with the glasses and meds. That takes away from the money they could have given to the mission.

 

They will leave Managua tomorrow morning for the 7 to 8 hour drive to Waslala and set up the clinic upon arrival. That only gives them 4 days instead of a whole week. I imagine that the patients have been waiting for two days already since they have to walk so far to get to the clinic.

 

I bet my redheaded, temperamental daughter had a few things to say to the customs guys.

 

This is really worrying the pastor in Waslala because there are several new people in the group and he's afraid they will not want to return after all this trouble.

 

I feel sure Amy will go again if given the opportunity but am not sure about Sidna and MaKenzie.

 

Please pray that the rest of the trip is uneventful and they come home safely.
They leave for home on July 1st.

Annie

 

The girls should be landing in OKCY right about now. The flight is 4 minutes late.

I can hardly wait to hear how MaKenzie liked it.  

 

 An awful thing happened while she was gone. One of her friends, 20 years old, was riding a motorcycle and had an aneurysm rupture and he died. The aneurysm was what killed him.  Sonya went to the funeral today. She said it lasted from 2 p.m. to 5:15 p.m because so many people attended. Standing room only at our largest church. I cannot imagine that many people at the gravesite. She said it was packed.

His family is very well known here and liked by everyone.

MaK doesn't know yet. Please pray for her.

Annie

Both Amy and MaK have been here to visit since their return---and the stories they tell!!

The customs fiasco was awful but they finally got thru it. Then between Managua and Waslala the bus encountered two trucks and a bus on a bridge. The drivers said the muddy road was so bad they couldn't go any further. So they sat in the bus and wandered around next to it for many hours til the rain got so bad they had to get stay in. The priest showed up at dark in a truck and told the ladies to get in. It wasn't safe for them to be out there after dark. He took them to the mission and came back to get the men. Three drivers stayed with the bus. While they slept bandits broke the side doors down to steal all the stuff they were taking down there, not knowing the drivers were in there. They shooed them away. Finally thru mud 2 feet deep, they managed to get everything to the clinic. Amy said two tropical depressions came thru while they were there and it rained hard every day.

She is covered with huge nasty insect bites. She said they aren't mosquitoes. These made a pustule every time they bit her and she has scabs on every one of them. MaK only got a couple of bites and hers are healed. There is something about Amy's and her dad's systems that attract these critters. Mosquitos land on me but don't bite. They land on hubby and bite til he has a huge welt.

Mosquitos are horrible here right now due to the high humidity.

 

Both girls and Sidna say they will go again next year if their work and school schedules will let them.

 

Sidna took lots of pics but hasn't sent them to us yet.

Annie

What an adventure!  This is something that will alway stay with them....I hope they have some kind of book they keep track of them.  I hope they enjoyed it....despite all the rain and the bad guys.  I love stuff like that...well...did anyway!  Glad to see they will go back....that is so cool. 

 

I'm really glad they got through it unscathed except for those biteful critters.  We've all heard some horror stories on a trip that was meant to help others. 

I don't know if I'm ever going to learn to read before I click the send button.

 

Annie...I'm so sorry about MaK's friend......how sad and such a shock.  To see someone full of life and with a bright future ahead...suddenly gone.  We'll be praying for him...his family and his friends like MaK.