Nicaragua will forever hold a special place in my heart for 6 reasons: Yesenia, Maritza, Roger, Cristhian, Deyby, and Mike.
These 6 people have loved us so well this month.
Who would have thought on our first night at the Quinta that the lady who cooked us dinner, and her husband who drives a moto taxi, and her daughter and 2 precious kids, and her husband who works for a Christian ministry in Managua, would be our most treasured friends come the end of the month.
It was always the same two staples: arroz y frioles, but somehow our cooking wiz Maritza managed to make rice and beans taste wonderfully different for every single meal. We didn’t think it possible to fit 6 full-size human adults into the back of a tiny 3-person moto taxi, but Roger came up with a system that got us from point A to point B safely every single time. I didn’t know I had a sister just south of the US border that would capture my heart and leave me aching to see her again come the end of the month, but Yesenia is just that for me, mi hermana, my sister. I was inspired by Cristhian, who works so hard during the week doing construction with missions teams in Managua just to provide for his family back home in Dolores. Deyby, mi novio (my 8-year-old boyfriend) was always a blast to joke around with and helped me pick on the boys. And sweet little Mike waddling around and trying to get “chicha” from me (sorry Mike, I don’t possess the capability to breastfeed you) will forever hold a place in my heart.
They took care of us when we were ill. A couple days ago, my teammate Ryan got pretty sick. He was vomiting throughout the day so finally after dinner we decided to take him to the doctor. Unfortunately, most doctors are closed after dark so with the help of our wonderful friends Yesenia and Maritza, we were able to find a doctor in his home that would take a look at Ryan. Mind you, this family speaks about 0% English, but by God’s grace, I’ve been able to pick up a good amount of Spanish over the past 2 months to be able to communicate well with our friends. Yesenia and I have a special way to understand each other, so our means of communication at the doctor were as follows: the doctor, to Yesenia, who would repeat what he said but say it slower and use more words that I would understand, to me, to Ryan. Ryan would then describe his symptoms to me, I would try and communicate those to Yesenia using a combination of English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language, who would then pass that information on to the doctor. It was a bit of a mess.
Ryan got the drugs he needed, we headed back to Casa Mateo, where the doctor hooked him up with an IV to get liquids pumping through him. It is now probably 9 at night, which is late for us, and our sweet friends are still right by our side. We find out that we need to take out Ryan’s IV in the middle of the night. So now I have a Nicaraguan nurse explaining to me in Spanish how I need to wake up at 3am, and remove a 4 inch needle from Ryan’s forearm, and administer to him 20 more mLs of his meds. Bless it.
Promptly at 7am the next morning I receive a call from Yesenia checking in on Ryan to make sure he was ok. Thankfully the IV did the trick and he was feeling much better the next day.
On our last day with our Nicaraguan family, Maritza & Yesenia presented us with gifts. The gave all the girls traditional Nicaraguan garb (as displayed below) and gave us jewelry boxes that Yesenia’s brother Manuel had made for us in prison. (Sidenote: please pray for Manuel; he is wrongfully in prison for picking up drug dealers in his taxi and the corrupt police here never gave him an investigation; he is innocent and sentenced to 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Please join us in prayer for his liberation!) Deyby, Yesenia’s 8 year old son, gave me a bracelet and a giraffe stuffed animal. And Maritza gave me a fab gold shimmery dress.
That night we cooked dinner for the family that had served and loved us so well throughout our stay here. We made a “traditional American meal” aka burgers, fries, pasta salad, and oreo balls. We sang worship together and presented our gifts to them (a frame, clothes, and a journal) and then played this recap video I put together for them of our time here. This video only highlights them and our time with them, but I feel like it adequately represents what this month was for me – meeting more members of my family, who will forever hold a place in my heart.
Te amo mucho mucho Yesenia, Maritza, Roger, Cristhian, Deyby, y Mike!
Forever His,
Grace
