Dios le bendiga (God Bless You) and hugs were parting rituals seen and heard often at the clinics as a patient left…
This year, I was privileged to go on another medical mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua with the UNT Christian Medical Association. We brought 5 physicians and other volunteers (DO, PA, and MPH students, significant others, siblings, friends, pharmacists) totaling around a hundred. We were also lucky enough to have local doctors helping at the clinics. By the end of the week, we had seen 1300 patients!! Tears came to my eyes when I heard the number. It was almost double the number of patients we saw last year in El Salvador. The missionaries and trip coordinators worked extremely hard so we could service as many areas and patients as possible with our limited resources. And similar to the memento of last year, the patients healed out hearts.
We had one fun day, then it was work time! Through out the week, we rotated through three different clinics set up in three community churches. On Wednesday, a physician and small group of volunteers saw patients from a women’s shelter and orphanage… so we had four clinics on that day. A typical day was breakfast, packing a lunch, seeing patients in the clinic, dinner, a devotional, redistributing meds to each clinic, shower, then sleep! Because it was busy, the wonderful and blessed week flew by and it was time to go home!
We had to stay at mission houses – girls and boys! The ladies were at Quinta Primavera. I was in a room with twelve women and ONE bathroom. Imagine the logistics! At least there was a community bathroom.
There was gorgeous vegetation everywhere! And we had mango trees on the premises of Quinta Primavera.
We were transported in three buses. This was one of them! You would not believe the skills of the bus drivers. They could get us anywhere through anything. Really, we would be less than 6″ passing a wall, another vehicle, etc! It was nuts!
Lots of views from the bus – headed to the central plaza.
On our fun day, we did zip lining through the canopy and a boat tour of the coast. {I skipped the zip lining – I’m a scaredy cat and afraid of heights.} On the boat tour, we saw beautiful birds and vegetation, small islands {some that were only big enough for house that sat on it}, and monkey island! The monkeys wait for the boats to come by with treats! One even jumped onto the boat!
Look at the monkey’s face!! Can you tell he LOVES oreos?!
This is the beautiful door at Clinic #1. One of the church members acted as a gate keeper to let a certain number of patients in and then out to prevent overcrowding.
Trying to get organized on the church stage for our make-shift pharmacy.
These were the make-shift exam rooms at Clinic #2. It was the largest and busiest site. Here, a local family of doctors came and helped see patients. It was a father, wife, and son team. They were awesome!
Back to Clinic #1 – Sweaty but still smiling!
This was our last night in Nicaragua. One of the local doctors, the son mentioned previously, sang at our celebration dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the trip.
Adios Nicaragua. Thank you for the beautiful scenery, experiences, friends, and love that we gained. And thank you for letting me share this wonderful experience with you. I will always have a part of Nicaragua in my heart.
{The pictures were a compilation of my own and other trip members.}
