Nicaragua

I was lucky enough to go on a humantarian service trip to Managua, Nicaragua. It was such a blast! Very humbling experience, but one of the best experiences of my life. It truly made me so grateful for what I have. Some of the things I saw there made me wish I was made of money so I could improve the living conditions of those people. The good is that they are really grateful for what they have since they don't know anything else.

Our group went to do dental work on pre-missionaries. I was expecting to see some pretty nasty mouths, but for the most part, what I saw wasn't anything worse than what I see at work here. I was glad that some of my Spanish came back to me so I was able to converse a little with the patients we saw.

One of the patients we saw was actually a missionary serving in Nicaragua that was from Guatemala. We were able to see some missionaries and their leaders because some of our groups of pre-missionaries didn't show up. This guy had about 6 months left of his mission. We got bitewings and since he didn't have any cavities, he just went to oral surgery to have his wisdom teeth taken out. The oral surgeon noticed a dark spot under the roots of his molars and told him to see a local dentist to get a panoramic picture of his mouth. Long story short, he had a multi-locklear cyst that had eaten away his jaw bone and was from his jaw up to his eye. He said he only felt mild pain and it wasn't all the time. We called church headquarters and got him released and plans are being worked out to bring him to Utah to have this major surgery to remove this cyst. We were very grateful we were able to see him and save his life. This is just one of the stories that happened while we were there.

I got to go to some members homes and that was cool to see how they live, but also very sad. I also got to go to a children's cancer hospital that services all of Nicaragua. The conditions there were nothing compared to our hospitals here. The kids were so excited to see us and recieve the gifts we had for them. It was awesome to see them all smile.

Going to Nicaragua truly humbled me and I would love to go back to Central America and serve the people. I met some really great people and have the best time.

P.S. I'll be posting pictures real soon!!