Since FH did not do the UVA trip this year, I started a separate FH spring break trip. The team was very small ( 7 members), but it turned out to be a great trip.
A William and Mary team was there at the same time, working with Casa Bernabe and El Canyon, so rather than try to schedule around them, I decided to work with two completely new orphanages: Maria Albertina, a catholic orphanage in Granada and a very small (8 kids) Evangelical Christian orphanage in Managua. The kids at the Catholic orphanage were incredible. They were not used to going out on activities, so their excitement was through the roof. As we approached the orphanage’s front door, the children were smashed up against the gate looking for us. The minute they saw us, they went absolutely berserk. It was like rock stars walked into the building.
Combining the Protestant and Catholic orphanages was interesting. The Catholic kids recited the Our Father when we got into the bus, the nun led prayers for dinner, and everybody did the sign of the cross. Luckily, the Protestant orphanage leadership was not fazed at all. The kids from both orphanages played together, sat together for dinner, and the leaders cared for each other’s kids. If only it were always so easy!
We did a lot of similar things but with new twists. We stayed in nice hotels…spoiled missionaries…embarrassing but nice. The kids came to the hotel pool. We went sailing on the lake at Laguna de Apoyo which turned out to be a great event.
Josh Eubank was on the trip. We had a classic Josh event. The team arrived on Saturday, and Josh arrived on Monday at 9 am. Sarah, one of the team members, did not get her bag, and we were going to Playa Coco in San Juan Del Sur on Monday with kids from La Chureca. We hired a cab to pick Josh up on Monday morning. Josh never slept on Sunday night and left his apartment at 1 am to catch a 4 am flight from JFK. He left his apartment for the subway, took the Long Island Railroad to JFK, and flew to Managua. A Nica cab drove to the airport on Monday morning with Sarah’s passport and met Josh with a sign at 9 am. They both went to customs, and Josh talked them into giving him Sarah’s bag. The cab then drove him to San Juan Del Sur, but 2km before he got to Playa Coco, there was a large pool of water on the road. I had gone through it with the van, but the taxi cab driver did not want to take the chance, so Josh had to walk the last 2km with Sarah’s bag and his two bags. He strolled into the restaurant on the beach around 2:30 pm with three bags on his shoulders, completely unfazed.
I had a déjà vu moment at Playa Coco when Josh and another team member went far out into the ocean and hit some massive waves. I was watching them (getting a little worried as usual), but their heads kept popping up, so I thought they were ok. When they came in, Josh said there was a moment when they were caught in a crashing wave, and he felt he was in trouble. Yikes!!! It reminded me of the night surfing incident when I was freaking out because I could not see Daniel, Travis, Tyler and Alyssa in the dark. So many close calls over the years!
We stayed overnight at Playa Coco. Our house was on a steep hill, and our rental van got stuck in a ditch. The workers said they would get the van out the following day when more workers would help. We woke up the next morning to see the van out of the ditch, but the whole back window smashed out and a massive dent on the back door. Some help!!! Of course, we knew if we held them responsible, the owner would fire the workers or make them pay for it, so we let it slide.
I felt like the team was too small for a prostitute party, so we took prostitutes to dinner at Delicious del Bosque, the really nice restaurant on the mountain. It was the first time for the prostitutes and the team members, so the experience blew them away.
One of the prostitutes came to Montilimar with us, so we had Americans, a Catholic orphanage, a Protestant orphanage, and prostitutes—only with FH!!!!! We had an amazing number of guests at Montilimar ask us about the kids. They handed the nun donations and talked about how well-behaved the kids were. Some people hugged the leaders and sat with them and the kids for dinner. It was a great experience!!
Pancho, one of the leaders from the Christian orphanage, used to work at Casa Bernabe. Josh said that when he was ordering a drink, he got worried when Pancho saw him. Pancho walked up to him and said, “I saw that you looked worried about drinking, and I want you to know it’s no problem for us… We’re not Casa Bernabe.”
Josh kept contrasting our spoiled missionary trip with the old days. He reminisced about what he called “the glory days” when everyone (Travis, Daniel, Tyler, Josh, and Graham) wanted to “tear ourselves to pieces and sacrifice ourselves to the poor.” That was one of his many classic quotes. He had the team laughing the whole trip with his “glory days” stories.
The main thing was not so much the events themselves as the people who were experiencing them for the first time. This trip was made up primarily of first-time team members and first-time children, making it a unique experience. Ironically, it would never have happened if Orphanetwork had not been working with the other orphanages. It’s another lesson that what initially seems to be a problem turns out to be a positive experience.
