Going Outside

Yesterday, Jill and I got a special treat. We got to go outside!
Now, the architecture of Nicaragua sometimes makes me feel like I am never truly indoors. But what I mean by "go outside" is that we got to leave the city and drive through some of the beautiful parts. Jill is with the Hope for Life group here and we both kept commenting on how wonderful it was to smell some fresh green air and see something we don't see all the time. A treat!

 We went with a group based mainly out of Decatur, TX on a mobile medical clinic. Jill and I went along to do vision screenings. It was great to see the clinic in action, and to hear the perspectives of several first time mission-trippers. It was great to be able to let people know we had a way to help them with their vision, and to feel so connected to people as we listened to their concerns and issues.

Dr. Chad with the ever-popular urine cup/drinking glass

Jill rocking the auto-refractor

Dr. Bismark and Harvy in the dental clinic--wait, Harvy?

But selfishly--it was just super great to go outside. It was so recreating to look across the valley at impossibly steep hills covered in cloud forest. To see ancient giant trees draped in hanging streamers of moss. To hear the birds in the trees, to see bromeliads growing on logs in the middle of the river, to smell the freshness of soil recently planted with crops.

Here's how you know it was beautiful: I took a bunch of (wait, lemme check--yeah, I think the exact number is 16 gajillion) pictures--and not a one of them shows what I saw. Trying to take pictures of big things like mountains and oceans and empty space--just never seems to reflect the bigness you feel when you are standing there. That's what I am so grateful to have experienced yesterday. Bigness and beauty. A special treat.