For the eleventh year a group of 20 persons joined with Father Teddy Niehaus in northeastern Nicaragua for a 2 week mission experience. This was my seventh year.

The two words that I find myself using to describe this year's trip are adventure and inspiration.

Somehow adventure usually gets mentioned first when the question is asked, "How was your trip?"  The bus ride (less than 150 miles) jostled us for about ten hours. Most of the exhaust was discharged through the many holes in the floor.  Some of the group took to riding on the roof where they got bumped along, could breath fresh air, and had a tremendous view of the countryside.  Luckily there are many little streams because we had to stop frequently to get water to refill the radiator!

Then there was the boat ride. The duffels of medical supplies, building tools and our entire personal luggage were handled in a dug out boat with a 14 hp motor. The twenty three of us piled into a slightly larger boat (40 hp) hip to hip for the three hours on the Rio Grande.  The three portages over volcanic rock actually felt good.  We stretched our legs and hunted for agates.

Climbing out of the dug-out boat, over the boulders  and up 137 steps  to the village of Apawas got my heart pumping, but gave me a new perspective on the surrounding country-side and the life of the people who began establishing this hill top village about 15 years ago.  I was inspired.

I was reminded of Pa Ingalls building his little House on the Prairie, only to move on to another site having barely finished his Soddy in one area.  The farmers pushed the frontier a little farther downstream and penetrated a little farther into the rainforest of NE Nicaragua. Now in the name of development and progress a dam is being planned just 5 miles downriver.  The backwaters will flood thousands of acres of land, forcing families throughout the area to re locate.  The village of Apawas, perched on the high river bank won't be submerged, but will stand as a dry island.  Everyone must be relocated. Most of those 137 steps will be submerged.  but there is a promise of electric power for them with the new dam. This has turned their anger and anxiety into resignation and hope.

Within the first 10 years of its founding, natural leaders arose to plan and construct an elementary school for Apawas, a church decorated with wall painting of the life of Christ, an entrepreneur spirit that led about 30 families to create  little stores to stock everything from gas for the town's few generators to ropes, spurs, aspirins, and suckers.  In the absence of a priest, Saida, the parish's only woman delegate of the word, welcomed us to the Sunday service. The music, scripture readings, homily were all executed with dignity and confidence by lay leaders.

The ten of us who created a 3 ½ day clinic saw about 600 persons in our short stay.  Some children received a life saving antibiotic.  One young woman came because she couldn't control the fungus on her feet.   They wear rubber boots with no socks.  A man across the street was near death due to inappropriate drugs prescribed for his diabetes.  He was stabilized when we left the village.  A 102 year old man needed weeks of wax cleaned from his ears. He had traveled two hours on horseback, with his grandson helping him.  A beautiful 34 day old girl saw a doctor for the first time. A two year old boy had a severe case of shingles.  Since we had done fundraising, we did not need to charge for the medicines we distributed. One woman in gratitude pressed a 5 Cordoba coin into Dr. Ron's hand. That was about 20 cents.

Half of our group traveled farther into the mountains to enlarge the chapel of San Francisco, paint it and add a steeple. They worked with many people of the area, including their children.   Then there were cooks, helpers who carried water from the stream to the kitchen, those who chopped wood for the kitchen fires.  Groups of  local musicians, readers and  presiders at the Sunday service. We had some relationship with each one-working, praying, telling stories, serving each other.

The population of Nicaragua is fiveand one-half million people.  We did such a little bit, but we
did touch 1000.