The day of THE Talk

Today marks the three year anniversary of a very important and completely insignificant moment.

It was today, three years ago, that we were here in Jinotega on a one-time only, one-week only trip to bring an auto-refractor to Mision Para Cristo. As we sat on a breezy veranda, singing and sharing the events of the day, a guy I had never had a conversation with made an off-hand remark that would change my immediate future in ways I couldn't imagine. It was the comment that meant we'd be leaving our US life for a very different one in Nicaragua.

Even in hind-sight (you know, when everything makes sense and seems reasonable) the process from "never once considered it" to "packing stuff in a box" was unbelievably fast. (just 48 days!) This is what I was saying about it then:

off hand remarks                happening so fast

And now? It's still such a surprise to me how different things are. How different we are. Here are a few things I notice as I look back on the Hollands who first considered moving here on Oct. 28, 2011.

September Update

September Update

Hello all:

This year is moving right along and our hopes to enjoy a bit slower pace has become the opportunity to learn to enjoy the same hectic pace, but with different matters outside the scope of guest missionaries and their work with us.

Travel Notes

As I write this update I realize that one month from today Sheila and I will be heading south to Managua, then north to Portland, OR for a wedding/family reunion with her family. This will be the first time the whole group has assembled in many, many years and we will be celebrating with her brother and his soon-to-be-wife.

From there we will head back to the Lone Star State. I will be working with the school group north of Mt. Pleasant as I have for the past 20 years. I always say that returning home is tiring and as I look at our schedule I see that we will not spend more than three nights in a row in any one bed. We look forward to seeing as many of our friends and family as possible, but also realize we will not get to see as many as we would like.

As always, I have dropped a few pounds (not enough to notice) because of river trips, etc., just before the return to the States. I will, of course, pack them back on once I get there and return home to Jinotega heavier. My wallet is always lighter as travel is expensive – no way around it, but we have budgeted well and are excited about the five weeks we will be back.

Vision Screening Meets Bible Hour

With the addition of some new equipment it is safe to say that we operate one of the most complete vision screening operations in Nicaragua. For specifics about the number of people screened, check out a sight for sore eyes. When we screen children’s eyes we include in the follow-up an invitation to our children’s  Sunday afternoon program. We continue to have 85 to 100 children meeting with us weekly with newcomers each week as a direct result of the vision screening.

This last week I handed the blank schedule sheet used to plan every month’s lessons and activities to the three group leaders. I provided nothing but a fill-in-the-blank form. They planned and prepared the October schedule completely on their own. I am proud of these 20-somethings for their leadership, willingness to learn a new way of doing things and the Godly attitude with which they lead. The program has spilled over into the youth group as older brothers and sisters have come with younger ones and have been invited to the Saturday evening youth meetings. They are even participating in the youth retreat to be held in a couple weeks at a nearby Young Life Camp Facility.

I have mentioned little Carmen Lopez at times in my reports. She is the little girl, now 6 years old who you have helped over the course of the last two years with transportation and other travel related expenses to the seven eye surgeries she has had. She will have her next surgery in December. Often, this family comes to visit, and often brings a gift. Last week they brought a box of jocotes,( a wild local fruit). Her father stopped by Friday to say thank you and pay for services rendered. (We don’t charge anything for what we do.) The corn they grow and eat is pretty much what we grow for feed in the States and I got a whole sack of it! I was told there was no hope for it because this was harder than what the locals eat. It is the thought that counts.

By the way, Marina, our head cook, turned that hard corn into some wonderful things. She turned it into enough for the whole staff to have lunch together. She made tortas de maiz, atol, güerillas, tamales dulces and more. And if you don’t know what any of those are I am afraid you are missing out on some good stuff. Please com eon down and try them out!

our friend Carmen

SPOT

The SPOT machine is here and is literally the answer to prayers. Within seconds this little machine, roughly the size of my late Grandmother’s Polaroid camera, gives us diagnosis of six vision maladies. Based on the person’s age it takes the information and compares it to appropriate parameters and gives a pass or fail message. If the test recognizes an issue we refer the child to the local optometrist for a more complete eye exam. We then help the family pay for the child’s new glasses or fit used ones on the adults.

Sheila and I will try to complete the vision screening of the five remaining schools in Jinotega before we travel. These are big schools with one of them having a student population of over 2,000. With the addition of the SPOT machine, a gift paid for with donations from the Kaufman and Lubbock Lions Clubs, we should be able to complete the screening this month.

El Rio Coco

The Mission was gifted with opportunity to have two boats built and given motors to go along with them. The boats in which we travel are genuine dugout canoes. The canoe builders begin the process by finding an enormous tree. Then they dig it out – using only hand tools.  The cost of the boats and motors was a donation from church of Christ in Mulberry, AR.

I have had two trips to the Rio Coco since the last group left in August. Normally they are not booked that closely together. This last one was a medical brigade from Olive Branch Ministries International and I was blessed to make many new friends, the majority of whom were from the Austin area.

I was slowed down a bit by dehydration, something that is hard to admit since I have deemed myself the Misión Para Cristo Dehydration Czar. I have been back off the river a little over a full week and am still feeling the effects of not quite being right. A bit of a bug and more dehydration put me working from home for a few days. I am ready for this to be over. Maybe in was the noni. For more on this obscure, cryptic reference read here: Probably the last fruit of the day ever.

Los Cardinales

Our little league baseball team, the Cardinals, still have not won a game. We are competing better and have won a couple of innings. Our team has some skills but lacks fundamentals. Just last week we didn’t even get run ruled in one of our games. After seven weeks of doubleheaders (only 13 more weeks  J) official team rosters, forms, birth certificates and photos were submitted. Our two best players excelled partly because they are 14 years old, and in a 12-and-under league that can be an advantage. They are not any larger than the other players. Go figger…  

The team has been blessed with cleats and uniforms. With the cleats, we are able to run faster so that our base runners at least get to see who is on the base waiting for them with the ball. We are also able to overrun and misjudge while fielding. The cleats were a gift of Maryellen Grounds, who support Misión Para Cristo in many ways including lending her nursing skills, working in construction while she is here, and filling and delivering Smile Boxes before the holidays. The uniforms are a gift of the Tyler Duke Foundation and have been ordered. Learn more about this foundation here: The Tyler Duke Foundation 

The general managers of our team made the decision to buy used international name brand (Nike, Body Armor, Umbro) cleats because the cost and quality of what was available in Nicaragua proved to be expensive and of poor quality, mostly made of plastic in China. They are thinkers and by allowing me to tag along as the team grandfather it has opened the doors to some folks I would otherwise not have had the opportunity to get to know.

Please join us in our…

…Concert of Thanksgiving

·         success in the linking of our version of children’s Bible hour and the school vision screenings taking place

·         success in the young adults taking leadership and ownership in the children’s program

·         donation of funds to purchase the SPOT machine

·         continued opening of doors to new people

·         Colette Price, who keeps Sheila and me from going crazy by filling in all the little gaps and keeps them from becoming great chasms

·         Improvement of health issues

·         You, for your continued support through prayer and finances so that we are able to do what we God has sent us here for

…Concert of Supplications

·         understanding, fairness, grace and mercy as we deal with the daily challenges of working with Mission staff

·         continued prayers of support, especially for spiritual stamina

·         an additional congregation/individual(s) to fill in the financial gaps

·         continual prayers for the process of adoption documentation presentation

  

What is probably the last "Fruit of the day" ever: noni

I'm not going to drag this out or tease you.
I found noni in the market.
I brought it home.
I may  now have PTSD.

Noni is bad. Really, really, really bad.

Day One: Hope
Look at that big grin. I have no idea what the future holds.

So, here we go. Noni are smooth and firm, a buttery yellow and look a bit like a tiny, lumpy pineapple. Inside, a very firm fibrous flesh surrounds lots of small black seeds. Oh, forget it. All this detached description is unfair to the horrors that follow. Here. Just look at them.

The guy at the market said they were for making a drink. He said to treat them the same way as sour oranges. So, yeah. I tasted them. Even Jonathan tasted them. Nothing. Tough, slightly juicy, and almost no taste. And yeah, I had heard of them before. I've seen that expensive juice in U.S. supermarkets. I'd heard it was a "cured" or fermented product. The guy at the market even said, "Take these firm ones and they will soften tomorrow." I thought I knew. But I had no idea.

Day Two: Realization
"soften"
"ripen"
Look, I am not naive. I know these are all just stages of decomposition. And I don't think I am particularly squeamish. I've dispatched my share of critters for the dinner table. I am versed in the fragrant arts of pickling vegetables and fermenting sourdoughs. I take pride in my composting skills. I'm a grown-up who's certainly cleaned up my share of indelicate things.

But here's the thing: noni stinks. I don't mean "smells strongly" I mean s t i n k s!

 On the morning of day two the skin was stretched and soft and the whole kitchen smelled--well--awful. The noni was moved outdoors to finish it's ripening process. I read some more stuff about noni.
This site which calls noni "the vomit fruit" should have been a warning.

Here I read, " It is sometimes called starvation fruit. Despite its strong smell and bitter taste, the fruit is nevertheless eaten as a famine food."
Did you catch that? In the detached scientific-ish definition of this fruit they point out that only people starving in a famine would eat this.

But even worse--This site  which is designed to sell the stuff says, "Most would describe the taste somewhere between "not too bad" and "really, really awful." The kindest way I heard our noni juice described was that it tasted like smoky coconut. However, another woman told us it tasted like rancid funky cheese. Personally, we find that the smell is far worse than the taste. While the taste of noni juice has never been described as good, most people we know get used to the taste, and even begin to like it...just a little."
I mean, come on, if that's the kindest the marketing department can come up with..

On the evening of day two, I was so amazed at the power of the smell, that I convinced Jonathan to give it a whiff. He did.

I. am. not. kidding: I haven't seen or spoken to him since.

.Day Three: Aftermath

for real: this picture is blurry because I am gagging

oh, the horror! I can smell it just by looking at this photo

When I woke up this morning, (from a nightmare-filled night, clearly fueled by this horrible stench) my top priority was ridding my immediate environment of this smell.

Keeping the fruit out of the house was not sufficient. The smell has permeated everything. I washed the container it was in, which just made my kitchen sink stink. The smell on my hands has proved intractable to soap, Fabuloso (a scented liquid disenfectant), and bleach.  The area of the yard where it was, (not IS--was) still smells like a week old laundry hamper in a locker room populated by gassy teen-aged demons from the deepest pit.

And here's something to note: We live in a place full of little critters. From stray mammals to hordes of ants and fruit flies--there has never been an occasion since moving to Nicaragua that I was the only living thing in a particular place. But near the noni? nothing. Not a single bug. In fact, after dropping it on a pile of compost in the yard that was buzzing with fruit flies, every single one, gone.

As for me? How will I go on? Well, it's far to early to tell. There will need to be a lot of healing. I'll have to try and convince Jonathan it's safe to come back to the house. I'll have to face my new fear of walking the market. I'll have to decide if I can live with the lingering smell, or if my hands will have to be removed at the wrist.

All I really know is this: noni smells very, very, very bad. Don't go smelling it for yourself. Your life is far too precious.

a sight for sore eyes

I know that in this blog, it seems we mainly write about adjusting to the differences of life in Nicaragua, and the things we are learning while here, (and evidently we learn a lot about fruit).  But we are actually also working toward the goal of providing vision care as we reach out with the love of Christ.

We set ourselves the lofty goal for 2014 of screening all elementary students in the city of Jinotega. That's a bunch of kids.

I am so delighted to announce that with the addition of a new piece of equipment, we are well on our way to meet, and even exceed that goal!

Here is "the SPOT machine".

It allows us to evaluate very rapidly if children have vision needs that require more in-depth examination. Today alone, with just myself, Jonathan and Ricardo, we were able to screen one of the larger schools in town. That's 563 students screened in just one day! Students who were identified as having a need will visit a local optometrist and receive financial assistance with brand new glasses, if needed, with the support you provide Sight for Sore Eyes. Before year's end we will have served well over 3000 people, and provided eyeglasses for almost 1000.

twins Jensel and Jansel (the J sounds like "H") model their new glasses

We continue to hold "open hours" in the Mision Para Cristo Clinic, and always have a crowd of adults waiting for care. This week, I was so honored to help some of the midwives that our local Casa Materna was hosting for a seminar. These ladies had come in from very remote regions along the river, and arrived at the clinic with their Miskito translator. After the glasses were fitted and distributed, one of the ladies asked me to take her on an errand in the market. I was sensitive to how loud and bustling Jinotega must seem to someone from such a remote place, so we avoided the main market, and wound our way into the secluded back portion of the old city market, which does very little business. As we walked down an aisle with bags of dried corn and beans, she exclaimed, "That is so much food! Are there enough people to eat that much food in the whole world?" Having experienced those "culture shock" moments, both here in Nicaragua, and on visits back to the States, it was interesting to watch someone else experiencing the same thing. She added, "People can just buy corn already dry like that? They don't even have to winnow it?" I thanked her for helping me remember how very blessed we are to live in such an easy place.

It reminded me that, while our goal may be providing vision care, and our goal may be sharing the love of Jesus, God has all sorts of blessings planned our for us--both to give and to receive.

Thank you so much for all the support you have provided us that enables us to experience His blessings, in all the many ways He reveals them.

P.S. Speaking of "many" blessings---At the time of this writing, this blog had just passed 10,000 views. Wow. There are certainly times I feel alone, but it is such an encouragement to know that so many of you out there are walking this road along-side us. Thank you!