Leaving Nicaragua - Coming Home

I write this on Monday morning in the Salt Lake City Airport; sorry for not blogging yesterday, but last night was consumed by sleeping on the plane and hustling through airports. A group of us who slept in the airport are sitting in the airport eating Cinnabon© and waiting for the rest of the group that spent the night in a hotel.  

Yesterday everyone woke up and ate breakfast at the usual time. Our Sunday morning consisted of a sort of devotion/ service.  We sang songs; Jeremiah led devotions, and, besides all the “logistics” of packing and leaving, Mr. Goede pulled our thoughts into the words of Matthew 9: 37 and 38. “Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”

It was rough to say goodbye to our new friends at the Project H.O.P.E. Our bus ride back to the airport sharply contrasted the bus ride from it. The ecstasy and novelty of being in a new place had diminished. At the airport a somber mood settled over the group as we waited in the airport to leave.

Travelling has gone smoothly, but we are beat, tired- some are deliriously tired. “Muy cansado” is how we say it in Spanish. We are almost home.

Jess for the missions team

“I’m so tired I put my feet on the wrong shoes,” I said this morning as I put my flip-flops on after spending the night in the airport here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Yesterday was a rough day, a very rough day for many of our team members. We woke up yesterday, ate breakfast at our normal time, 7am. This was a new thing for me since I do not eat breakfast normally. J As soon as breakfast was over we gave our love offering to Project Hope. Part of the monies that we gave went to fund the rice and beans that Project Hope gave to the Nursing Home/ Senior Center earlier in the week. The other part went to the staff there at the base.

After breakfast we had an hour or so before the devotional that was led by Jeremiah. Then we had “church”! It was amazing. We sang many hymns in Spanish and English, most I had not sung in years, but I loved it! After our service and a systematic “wrap-up” of the week, we pulled the loose strings together and we closed our service with Alabare (the theme song of the week). Then we took group pictures; serious and crazy!!

After the pictures we said good-bye to the Michaels. It was a hard good-bye to say, but we know we will see them again someday, be here on earth or in Heaven one day. After these good-byes we checked our room one last time for any garbage that we may have left and to make sure they were in order and then we loaded our bags and luggage on the bus. The ride to the airport was a very different one compared to the one from it just one week ago. Sure we laughed and joked, but there was a somberness presiding over the students and adults that could not be shaken by laughing or joking.

The walk from the bus in to the airport to check our bags was extremely difficult. We were told earlier this week by Freddy that it was too early for tears, but when we got to the airport and checked our bags the tears began to flow freely and in abundance. Saying goodbye to the people from Project Hope was one of the hardest things that I think I have ever had to do in my short almost 18 years. The girls, including me, shed tears. Two of us blubbered.  Freddy, one of our translators, cried as well.

The wait in the airport for our flight, which was supposed to leave at about 1:50 pm ended up leaving at 2:30 pm, was painful and taxing. (for some) Looking out at the landscape and remembering what we would be leaving behind was very hard.

We were finally told that we could board and while we were waiting in line Trina, Mrs. Kneeland, and I ended up talking to a man who was doing philanthropic work in Nicaragua by putting solar panels on houses for the people. He had a very skewed perspective of the way to get to Heaven and the God of the Old Testament.

We arrived in Atlanta at approximately 8 pm, ate dinner, talked, cried, and walked around. We then boarded our flight to Salt Lake City and got in to the airport at a little after midnight. From there we got our luggage and we split into two groups. All of the women, minus Trina and me, went and slept in a motel and all the men plus Trina and I slept in the airport. It was hard, cold, loud, and dirty, because we slept in the baggage claim. Right now we are in the airport eating Sun Chips©, Wheat Thins, and Delta airline junk food (given to us by the wonderful steward named Nathan).

We will be leaving in about an hour for Bozeman. We miss you all but not the snow or the homework!!! :D (Some of us miss the snow. Eeehhhhheeemmm NATHAN! Lol)

~Jessica for the 2011 Project Hope Missions Team