Jinotepe

Today the whole team traveled about 50 miles outside of Mangua to visit an orphanage near a town called Jinotepe. Managua is surrounded by mountains and as we drove out of the city we gained elevation until we reached the top of a plateau. The views were beautiful. In some places you could see as far as the Pacific ocean. This picture doesn't do it justice. While traveling to Jinotepe we drove through several small villages which gave one a real feel for what the other 90% of Nicaragua is: rich, green, and simply beautiful.

We visited this orphanage last year and as soon as we arrived I was instantly greeted by several of the children who remembered me. To my right is Maria, who remembered my name before I could recall hers. Maria also surprised me by speaking very good English. With me also is Noel and Sandra.

As some who came on this missions trip last year will recall, we have a bit of a baseball rivalry going on with the kids in the orphanage, and as soon arrived this year we were out on the field playing baseball - Nicaragua against USA. As a gift we brought a duffle bag full of bats, balls, and gloves. In the picture below, Hugo, one of the youngest kids at the orphanage is up at bat. As usual, the Nicaraguan team won, and we all had lots of fun.

While some of us played baseball with the kids, others went to work in the kitchen to prepare a special lunch of hamburgers, hotdogs, soda, and potato chips. The kids, 18 in all, ate everything. There was nothing left. After lunch Maria was so excited she started dancing with Michaela. They took out a boom box, and next thing you know, we had a whole room full of kids dancing.

The saddest part of the day came when we announced we had to leave. All of the smiles turned to sadness. Little Hugo was so sad he ran out of the building and some one had to go and get him. After joining together in a circle and saying a prayer of thanks, all the kids gathered in front of the orphanage for a goodbye picture. (We put Victor in there with them because he's just a big kid too ;-).

After driving back to the church, everyone on the team agreed that this visit to the orphanage was one of the highlights of our trip. We all wanted to turn around and go back to spend another day with the kid's at the Jinotepe orphanage.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

John Meneghini