A Nicaraguan travel experience

The title of this post might be a bit boring, but I spent enough time already thinking of a better one, so that's it!

The adventures I am talking about are our experiences traveling to Waslala, Nicaragua for a Central American teacher's conference/get-together. Namely:

• BAD ROADS
• Beautiful scenery
• Border issues
• Police officers that liked to chat
• Interesting topics at the conference

You might notice I put BAD ROADS in all caps. Must've hit caps-lock by mistake. Whoops my bad! 

Actually, the roads were actually nice for most of the way (excluding a stretch of holy highway in Honduras) until we got to the last 25-30 kilometers around Waslala where the pavement stopped. Admittedly, the ride would have been smoother if the driver (me) would have driven slower, but where's the fun in that! And since I was with two other vans, I wanted to keep up with the lead vehicle which happened to have a pretty crazy driver also (Alvino). Each time we went over a major bump you could hear the luggage bounce up and down in the back, and inevitably Lidia would giggle about that for some reason. It was really funny to hear the sequence "brake...bump...jounce, jounce...haha" (repeat several times to get the full effect)

Be that as it may, the road we took led us through some amazing scenery: the huge, verdant rice fields and blue mountains of Nicaragua; the rugged, rocky terrain of Honduras; and the winding, tree-lined roads of outer El Salvador. It made the 17+ hours it took to reach our destination seem less monotonous.

Beautiful Nicaraguan rice fields. Seriously breathtaking!

We stopped to take a picture along a particularly pretty mountain range.
Left to right: Paty, Lidia, Maria Eva, Melody, Verónica, Samuel, Elmer

Occasionally (twice to be exact), the monotony was also broken up by police officers in Nicaragua that really wanted donations. Foreigners in Central American countries make for easy targets, so sometimes you get pulled over for the tiniest of infractions in the hopes of getting a hunk of cash from someone who doesn't know better. Fortunately for us, though, we had Alvino who was very familiar with the culture and knew exactly how these things worked. Of the total of $350 they wanted in fines, they were only able to extract $20. After that, I made sure to be more careful to pass only on dotted lines or when there were no policemen around.

And just when we thought we might finally have a trouble-free trip to our destination, we got hung up at the Nicaraguan border. Due to a law that had just been enacted, we were only allowed to take one of our vans into Nicaragua (we had three). So after much haggling, it seemed we might have to go home again, or go by bus and leave our vans--neither of which seemed like a very attractive option. However thanks to God answering prayers and, again, the expertise of Alvino, we were able to talk to the big cheese of the border agency and convince her to let us pass just this once.

Just enjoying lunch time while waiting for our border issues to get resolved.
Left to right: Verónica, Lidia, Paty, Elmer, Samuel, Maria Eva, Melody

Boy, were we ever glad to finally go under this sign after all the issues!

We finally arrived, safe and sound thanks to God's protection and answered prayers, at the clinic in Waslala, Nicaragua where the conference was held on Tuesday evening. Tired and hungry, we quickly ate food that some kind souls had saved for us and sought a place to lay down. The girls and boys each had a house to stay in, but due to a lack of mattresses, Elmer and I and three others got to sleep in a motel the first night. One of the best nights of sleep I ever had!

Wednesday and Thursday were packed full of sessions where we learned about classroom discipline, teaching mathematics and drawing, financial topics, etc., which Mary, Melody, and I took turns translating into sign language so Elmer and Verónica could also follow along. Honestly some of the topics didn't really apply to deaf classrooms, but we still learned some very good things. One of the ideas I got was to maybe have some kind of garden for my children. There's nothing like nature to capture the imagination of a child. Plus it affords tons of teaching opportunities. We also got to meet many other teachers from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The clinic close to Waslala, where the conference was held.

On Friday, the ones that stayed around after the conference was over, went on a nature excursion with Pablo Yoder (the one that wrote The Work of Thy Fingers). We hiked for a while through the woods, saw some monkeys, birds, and other wildlife, ending up at a sizable waterfall. At the beginning of the hike Pablo had made a pact with two other men that they would do whatever he did, so when we came to the falls, Pablo scrambled up the rocks and stood directly beneath the torrent of water! Of course the two men followed suit, not wanting to go back on their word. Some other people including ourselves tried it as well. The cold water was like a masseuse pounding on my back due to the 20+ foot drop.

Part of our picturesque hike...

The water felt sooo good after a good, long hike!

Left to right: Samuel, Elmer, Melody, Verónica

At the end of our hike we were greeted with an even greater spectacle--a live sloth! Sure it was ugly, but it was still amazing to see one in its natural habitat. Pablo showed it around by lifting it by the hair on its back, careful to avoid the dangerous, flailing claws. The sloth might seem to be a stupid creature, but let it sink one of those razor sharp claws into your flesh, and next thing you know you will need to go to the hospital to get the claw removed even if you manage to kill it.

A real, live sloth straight from the woods!

Pablo explained that the sloth is a very slow creature and it takes its time to do everything, including using the bathroom. It does its business only once every weeks! The sloth we saw had a ring of green around its neck, which was said to be algae. Apparently they are so slow at getting around that the algae grows on their bodies!

On Friday night, we traveled further into the town of Waslala to buy fabric from Pablo Yoder's store. Afterwards, we played some volleyball until dark and ate supper nearby. By eight or nine that evening we were ready to get some sleep, knowing that we needed to get up at three o' clock the next morning to head out.

But get up we did! We started that early in order to get home around three or four that afternoon, but God had other plans. Due to radiator trouble on one of the vans, and some slow going, we were FINALLY able to see our lane at 9:30 that night for a total of 18 1/2 hours on the road! The other two vans got home even later (midnight) because of the radiator finally giving out and having to tow the problematic van all the way home from about the border of El Salvador. However, in spite of some hiccups, we were all very thankful to God for giving us safe travels, and for all the new things we had learned.

For me, it was an experience that I probably won't readily do again soon, but it was still something very worthwhile!

Us being...us. Left to right: Lidia, Melody, Paty,
Elmer, Maria Eva, Verónica

We even got a tour of the clinic!

Pablo Yoder leading a discussion on having gardens as
a part of school.

Paty, singing fervently with her eyes closed, while Mary
and Verónica have some fun. Everyone else was sleeping.