It's fun to see some followers! I came to work yesterday all ready to start calling one of the equipment reps who said we could use a special instrument for our trip and lo and behold there was a message from him saying he would be here with it on Wednesday. Now we can finalize more tubs of packing. Also, my daughter called and told me her sorority is having a t-shirt drive for our trip. I tried to tell her we were packed up to the gills, but couldn't say no, so we'll just have to stuff t-shirts into our carry ons, I guess. Maybe I'll wear 2 or 3 shirts on the plane! I also have been haunted by the lack of sheets at the orphanage HAT in Managua so will take a tub full of sheets for them and leave it with the Villa Esperanza in Managua so they can get it to the orphanage. I suspect PC could use sheets too. We've had some additional donations so we can take a couple more tubs. NN

It always amazes me what can be accomplished when a group of people all work for the same goal. The fund raising, organizing all the supplies needed, packing day just shows what this group is capable of. Amazing things will be accomplished in Puerto Cabezas.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.--Margaret Mead ST

Today we packed for our trip. We all met in the garage at Novotny's each of us filling 2 - 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs. We numbered them, filled them, did inventory and weighed them so the didn't exceed 50 lbs. We had a great lunch of homemade soup, homemade bread and desserts. It was great. The Columbus Telegram came and took pictures and interviewed us. It took about 5 hours (including the food). What a good feeling to be more organized and know what we have. NN

"Packing party" Sat. at Novotny's. We start packing our medications, supplies, instruments, etc. for the trip. I hope it all fits! CKA

SILENT AUCTION

We had our silent auction fund raiser tonight. It was a huge success. We had no idea how many people to expect, but had a good turnout of folks from the Columbus Hospital, some of our church friends, other friends and my 4-H club. We had a lot of fun and good donations. One of the best was the football signed by Bo Pelini and Tom Osborn as well as 2 footballs signed by Eric Crouch. There were lots of nice baskets, good jewelry, art items and a variety of services, etc. I can't begin to name them all. They were almost all local donations which shows what great support we're getting from the community. I'll try to post a slideshow, but since I'm new at this there might be a learning curve!! NN

We've been fairly successful at fund raising which is good because we just got a delivery of $8000 worth of medicine. Thanks to Tooley Drug we got them at cost which was substantially less, but still really expensive. I spent the last two nights typing up all the medicine along with lot # and outdates and sent them to Keveta in Nicaragua so she can take them to the Ministry of Health. She sent back photos of the microscope which looks like it should work so I may be doing ear surgery there after all. NN