AMOS Center

As many of you know, I (along with many others) have been praying that I would find meaningful ways get involved here in Managua ever since we made the decision to move here.  I didn’t want to rush the issue because transitioning to a new country has been a full time job in and of itself, but after just a few weeks of being here, I was already getting anxious.  This is a place with so much need, and also with so many wonderful things going on to meet those needs, and I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. 

My prayers were answered recently as several different people/experiences pointed me toward AMOS, an organization here in Nicaragua that “exists to improve the health of impoverished communities by working alongside them in health, education and development.” The more I find out about this organization, the more impressed I am:  They strive to reach communities where the needs are greatest, but always wait for an invitation before beginning their work within those communities.  They work toward long term, sustainable health solutions for these communities by training health care leaders from within the communities and helping to create an infrastructure that promotes the health of the community. 

I strongly encourage checking out their website to learn more about the organization: http://www.amoshealth.org/

They also have a wonderful informational video, although if I will be visiting your church next summer, you might want to wait til then to watch it J: http://vimeo.com/33047163

So, now that I’ve told you about all the wonderful things that AMOS does, I have to be real and admit that I am only a small teeny tiny part of it.  For right now, I am volunteering 2 mornings a week at a clinic that AMOS runs here in Managua, about a 15 minute drive from our house.  I do the very simple tasks of taking the weights, heights, and vital signs of the patients who come into the clinic for treatment.  I am happy to be doing this, not only because it gives me the opportunity to interact with people (both the patients and my “co-workers”), but also because I hope to develop a better knowledge base of medical Spanish so that I can be more involved with what AMOS does (especially the education piece) in the future. 

Some Food Pics (not my own. . .but to help you "see" the food described below!)

Gallo Pinto and Plantain Chips

Nacatamales

Mamones

Soup! I love the yucca (white stuff)!

Roadside fruit stand. . .so beautiful!

Food.

“What is the food like in Nicaragua?” Good. It’s really good.

Back in June we had a potluck dinner and service at our church that many of you attended; we thought it would be nice to make some traditional Nica food. The “national” food according to Google, was “gallo pinto,” or “painted rooster.” It is red beans and rice, cooked separately and then fried up together. We tried to make a sextuple batch, and we could tell that something had gone wrong. It turned into this giant pot of mush. One friend from church said he couldn’t eat it because it looked exactly like prison food. Ouch!

It was a relief to come here and enjoy REAL gallo pinto, which is truly the national food (go, Google!). The rice and beans dish is eaten often, many times for every meal of the day. We don’t eat it for breakfast; usually just cereal or oatmeal, and of course a mug or two of good, locally-grown coffee (buy Nicaraguan coffee, readers! It is an important export here!). On Saturdays, we occasionally eat the Nacatamal, which is corn meal, meat, potatoes, and veggies wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled. They are huge, and I’m not quite used to them as a breakfast food. Henry loves them!

Henry, Mae, and Andrew buy school lunch every day, which costs C$40, or about $1.75. No Gordon Foods or Sysco mass produced food here. . .our school doesn’t even have a large fridge or freezer! It is all prepared at school that day. Lunches are almost always rice, a meat of some kind, plantain of some kind (fried, in chips, mashed and fried. . .my fav part of the meal), and some type of salad or cooked vegetable. Mondays is “sopa” day for staff and pizza for kids. . .traditional in Nicaragua to eat soup on Mondays. You eat soup here, however, with a knife and a fork. . .HUGE chunks of meat and whole vegetables make for a VERY filling meal!

Some other favorite foods here: FRUIT! We buy fruit and vegetables from roadside stands, and enjoy carrots the size of our forearm, sweet white pineapples, bright red dragon fruit (pitaya), mimones (little fruits you squeeze in to your mouth, suck off the pulp, and spit out the seed), and of course mangoes, avocados, watermelon, etc. We miss our Michigan berries and apples here. . .you can buy ‘em at some stores. . .but for A LOT of money. So we settle for the local most of the time, which is incredible! We also love Nicaraguan tacos. . .shredded chicken in a corn tortilla, rolled up and fried, served with a cabbage coleslaw and sour cream. YUM.

We eat plenty of spaghetti and cereal and PB and J sandwiches and pancakes and ice cream and raamen noodles and mac and cheese, too. . .the normal stuff is actually fairly easy to find and buy here. But we’re so excited to enjoy the comida Nicaraguense whenever we can, and thankful for kids who are okay eating most anything! Most of all, we’re thankful for plenty of food. It is a gift to be able to eat our fill three times daily in a country where that isn’t always the case.