Do I have your attention....good, because today was one of those extraordinary, transformational days. Today began as is typical in Central America....late! We got on the bus (after a good pancake breakfast of course) and then got off the bus as the person who was to meet us was 20 minutes late...but after that, our timing couldn't be more right. Our task today was to get an incredibly impoverished school ready for the first day of classes. All we knew before we left was that we were going to clean up a school, but oh....it was going to be so much more than that. We arrived to a building with 6-7 classrooms that housed 480 students in two shifts. Primary in the morning and middle and secondary in the afternoon. We cleaned concrete floored, windowless (there ... read more

I wonder why they call it a red eye....hmmmmm. What a day! From leaving our school at 4:45 on Friday afternoon to a 12:00 arrival in Mangua the next day...it was smooth sailing. Unbelievably, all the possible delays were smooth sailing and we arrived in Nicaragua with ease, but that is only the nut shell version of the story. We crossed the US border with ease, the incredibly organized binder (thanks to Lonna) making our interactions with US Customs easy. The next big decision was where we should eat supper. A protracted cell phone discussion finally resulted in Bellis Fair Mall, much to the chargrin of one participant who wanted Jack in the Box. Our SURF training prevailed and into the mall we went. Virtually all participants settled on the Mongolian grill restuarent where we celebrated ... read more

Wow...what a day. The trip is coming so fast and it still seems like there is so much to do. Today, however, a major task was completed; packing for the trip. Several hours and 27 pieces of luggage later, we were packed. All 27 bags contained donated items for Nicaragua. One of the greatest blessings in this process has been the generosity of the various people in our community of donated of their products and funds to make all of this possible. While we live in a material world, the generosity of the human spirit is amazing to watch. As Craig Kielsburger says, we in North America have won 'the lottery of life' and yet when we plan a project like this, we find that people are so willing to share. Truly a blessing! Today we ... read more