Five wesley members from CMU, including director Charlie, and 2 MSU Wesley students set out on Friday March 6 for a spring break trip to Nicaragua!  Our group was met at the airport in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, by our hosts Karen and Steven Small and a number of people from the WMU Wesley Foundation.  They were very excited to tell us about their experiences.  We spent a day in the city at a market where we bartered with artisans.  We also had a chance to hike around the Masaya Volcano.  It was very windy and very steep!
Click on the picture to the left for more pictures of Managua, the market, the volcano and our drive to Quilalí.

Unfortunately the keys were accidentally locked into the van on Monday night and after numerous attempts at retrieval it was decided that our driver would take the bus back to Managua and get a second key from the car rental place.  Considering the length of the journey this was no easy task.  Our plans for Tuesday had to be re-arranged.  Instead of visiting the coffee farm we went shopping in Quilali.  We were not shopping for ourselves, we were buying food to fill bags to give away.  The students from Karen and Steven's English School wanted to create care packages for some of the families they knew in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Quilali.  We filled 17 bags with 2lbs of red beans, 2lbs rice, 1 lbs sugar, laundry soap, and 1lbs coffee.  We delivered these bags later with the english students.  Click on the picture to the left to see Tuesday's pictures.

La Casa Materna welcomed us with open arms on Wednesday morning.  They gave us a presentation about the services they offer the women.  They have educational classes of varying types. Their primary purpose is to house pregnant women for roughly the last 2 weeks of their pregnancy.  Most of the women live far away from the hospital with no reliable means of quick transportation.  By living at the home they live close to the hospital and also receive preparation for giving birth.  The women help to cook their meals and clean the facility.  Unfortunately there have been financial difficulties for La Casa Materna.  One of their fundraising ideas was to buy 100 chairs and to rent them out to people for events; they however, did not have the money to invest in the chairs yet.  As a group we decided to purchase 100 chairs for the facility.  By Friday they had already rented out 15 chairs and used the money to buy food for the women.  On wednesday we also toured the hospital in Quilali.  Click on the picture above for pictures of La Casa Materna and the Hospital.

Thursday morning we had the opportunity to climb La Gloria, the largest mountain in Quilali.  At one point we were blazing our own trail straight up the mountain.  The view was worth every ounce of effort put into climbing.  It was phenomenal.  Thursday afternoon, after a large noontime dinner and a little siesta, we had the privilege and honor of listening to a very strong and courageous woman tell us about her life.  She had been working selling food but soon looked for a better job with a bank because of financial and family difficulties.  Recently this woman was asked to run as vice-mayor of Quilali.  Her party supported many projects to help the poor people of Quilali.  Unfortunately she had to give up her job in order to go door to door campaigning.  She spent a year on a motorcycle knocking on doors and drinking coffee with the people she wished to serve.  Even more unfortunately her party lost the election and she was left with no job to return to.  Karen and Steve hired her to cook for us for the week and we were well fed indeed!  Click the picture above for more pictures of La Gloria and Thursday.

Our amazing week finally drew to a close on Friday with a trip to a local coffee farm.  We saw how the woman grew and harvested the plants, made organic fertilizer, and dried and roasted the coffee.  It is a very labor intensive process and although the woman belongs to a fair trade co-op she still receives substandard wages for each pound of coffee.  We relaxed in the afternoon and then were treated to a karaoke performance by the english students.  Of course our group had to join in the fun singing "Living on a Prayer".  Some of us joined the English students in singing "We are the World", which was very powerful.  Click on the picture to the left to see more pictures of Friday's adventures.