GREETINGS from Nicaragua! We got here uneventfully! YAY! It was a good trip. I'll upload some photos as soon as I can figure it out!

Arrival in Nicaragua

The Casa de Paz where we stay, is approximately 1 1/2 hours from the airport in Managua. One of the ladies with us has been to France,  England and Scotland and said, "This is nothing like those!" Welcome to the third World! It is very chaotic and hectic at the airport. Made it though customs and immigration without a hitch. Ed's Spanish is sensational as well!

On our way to the Casa de Paz we stopped off for fried chicken, as we were all famished! It was wonderful! French fries and roll too. This vegan loved it!

Once we arrived, they Commite Pastorale met us. I was quite humbled, as it was a hardship for them to be here, but they wanted to welcome us to their community. They are a wonderful bunch. I'll be publishing a picture of them, as well. Wonderful people.

Commite Pastorale

We met up with our friends from Kansas City. It was great seeing them again! We then had sort of an orientation about what we will be accomplishing this week. It was all good. Looking forward to the week.

Tonight at 10 PM we are all piling into a van and heading to Leon for the New Year's festivities. Really looking forward to that, if I'm still awake! Took a short nap and hope that is sufficient. I've been up since 3 AM but had a few catnaps on the planes.

All for now. Tomorrow I will have a lot to say. We believe we are going to meet the poorest family we have ever met again! We hope so. Really admired them. I'll write about that as soon as I know.

Ed & Vicki's Excellent Adventure Continues...

Sunset on the Pacific!

Our last 1/2-nights worth of sleep! We are very excited about our next adventure in Nicaragua. The picture on the left is the sunset on Ponaloya Beach last January when we were there. Looking forward to experiencing that once again. It was a dream. There were millions (literally) of tiny sea shells that rolled up onto the beach...and then out again. We collected a bag full! The ocean was very warm. Good night, Friends. Next post from Nicaragua...

The Catholic Church at Chacraseca

December 29, 2013

We are just over 24 hours before beginning our journey back to Chacraseca, Nicaragua, the farming community we have grown to love. On this trip, three TCC students will be accompanying Ed, one to learn and write about micro-credit loans to women, and the other two to film and document this and visit two media outlets in Leon, Nicaragua. I'm the chaperon/"helper." This will be my third trip this year. This will be Ed's fourth trip in the last 1 1/2 years.

I feel somewhat that our journey has already begun, as we have spent the last two days repacking and repacking down to the infamous 50 pounds United requires. Leslie Penrose, the founder of JustHope, has said many times that this is an opportunity to see what we can live without! Ed thinks I can live without my fan...you'd think he had never traveled with a woman over 50!...my fan is in my suitcase...his is on the futon.

JustHope is the relief organization that TCC and Ed and I partner with to Chacraseca. They have been doing relief work there for at least 15 years, working with the 8,000 people of that community to help them become sustainable. JustHope helps the women of the community with micro-credit loans ranging from $50 to $250, making loans for pig farms (this is a thriving business!), jewelry-making, seed-farming, etc. There is also a group of ladies who were trained and sat up in business sewing. They are Stitching Hope and they make stoles for churches, purses, beautiful painted silk scarves, etc. JustHope also sponsors scholarship programs each year to send four to five young adults to college in Leon. JustHope has built cisterns for water, installed pumps to get it out, and helped families by building them concrete homes to get them out of plastic ones. They have accomplished so much in all these years, it is astounding. I feel very blessed to be apart of that organization helping out in anyway I can.