Crash course in Nicaragua life

It was one of those trips where everything seemed to go wrong, yet it was so right.  We landed in Managua (the capital) and Pastor Osvaldo & company were supposed to be waiting on us.  That wasn't the case.  Fifteen of us gringos stood around wondering what to do.  One of us put his free time to good use and stopped off at the pharmacy in the airport - turns out the going rate for antidepressants there was $20.  Same brand and dosage as his prescription in the US, only  no prescription needed and clearly no FDA regulations or red tape.

Pastor Osvaldo arrived and I was immediately drawn to his wife, Rossy (pronounced Rosie).  She grabbed me and told me to get in the car with car.  My A-type feared getting in trouble for leaving the team, but I was in Nicaragua where it is best to be as laid back as possible.  She shared photos of her children and told me some recent hardship in their family.  It felt comfortable from the minute we met.

We met back up with the group and headed to Tip Top for lunch.  They serve a lot of American style chicken products, but I opted for the most authentic I could find and it was yummy.  It's really the only American style fast food  restaurant we saw in the country (other than some actual American restaurants in Managua) and it began my love of Coke Light for the week.  When we left lunch, we headed to Chinandega in three cars: a van, a Jeep, a truck, and Rossy's tiny Toyota.  I was with her, two teammates, and Melvin, our fearless translator for the week.

I'll just go ahead and say this: a drive from Managua to Chinandega should take two hours.  It took us EIGHT. And, then I'll go ahead and say that all eight hours were fun and awesome.  Here are some things that happened along the way:

• The radiator in the Jeep started actin' a fool.  This meant we pulled over every 10-15 minutes to fill it up with water from our Nalgenes.  
• We saw the beautiful Lake Nicaragua.
• We pulled over more times for the radiator.
• Eventually we pulled into a cantina where Osvaldo talked to a friend and traded the Jeep out for another car.  We had a nice respite in the catina, filled with some dancing, enjoying a Tona, and some new found friends let me try their chocolate/maize smoothie type beverage.  
• Eventually we were back on the road...until a tire blew out.  I'm not even sure which car lost the tire.  
• Heidi, the two Drew's, and I were in the van laughing and talking when all of a sudden two men (on our team) hopped in the van and took off going about 100 kph (fast).  At first, we weren't sure why, but realized we were the tire search party.  The four of us had a blast in the van -- laughing a lot and maybe a few tears.  We got to swing through a supermarket to use their bathrooms.  
• Looking for a tire on the streets of Nicaragua looked like pulling up to a sweet grass basket stand on the side of highway 17 and asking for a tire.  We finally found on the 4th try and cruised back to our team.
• We found the team praising and worshipping the Lord on the side of the road -- such a sweet picture and experience.
• We loaded back up and eventually made it to Chinandega.  There, we went to Osvaldo and Rossy's for supper.  Y'all, the food was SO good.  Every meal we ate with them was incredibly delicious.  
• We left their home and headed for the hotel around 11:00 pm, only to be told there was no room at the inn.  Though we'd made reservations and checked the week before, they didn't have us on the books.  I just started laughing -- of course!  They had a group coming in a few days, but we could stay there for two nights.  The Lord is good.
• The rooms were nice, and the breakfast was tasty the next morning.  

I guess you could say our first day in Nicaragua was adventurous.  It was a great glimpse of our week to come: nothing goes as planned, our team had a great time together, and the realization that trusting in the Lord for what He has in store is the best thing to do.