Sunday morning

Good Morning, everyone.  Dean & I are early birds this morning.  Breakfast will be soon and then church services for 2 hours.  Since we didn't want to worry anyone at this point, we did not tell you about the problems encountered by the team getting here.  Other than some of our totes not arriving till Thurs. night, the NE people have had it easy compared to the California team.  Part of their team flew separately from the rest of the team.  The first group was rerouted but made it to Managua Friday night.  Their totes ended up being confiscated going through customs.  The 2nd group arrived and their totes went through.  Suzie & RJ stayed with the totes as long as they could and then were thrown out and the totes were taken away and locked up for the night.  Suzie's goal was not to be thrown in jail as well.  Pastor Earl's brother, we think through devine intervention, happened to be at the right place at the right time and saw a person he knew that worked in customs and put her to work helping with their situation.  To make a long story short, their totes were finally released Sat. morning and their team got here in Puerto Cabezas on 2 different flights.  Now back to the NE team in PC with Keveta on Fri. evening, we were all waiting to hear news about them which changed with every phone call (and there were many from her to the people in Managua).  We had to make a plan B as far as having our clinic on Sat. with NO doctors.  We planned as best as we could and went to bed hoping for the best in the morning.  We started our clinic with Dr. Taylor (Nicaragua dr.) helping fill Mark's (the general surgeon) spot and Jody assisting him.  Sue & Sherilyn were the ENT docs, replacing Rich till his arrival.  Dean, Melissa & I were at the scheduling (surgery) table.  Dean & Melissa assessed patients, made the schedule and I did paperwork.  (Yes, there's some paperwork in Nicaragua.)  Since a lot of our clinic supplies were in the totes which hadn't arrived, we were working with a lot of makeshift forms, supplies, meds, etc.  One by one, California people arrived after we had seen lots of patients and filled some days for Rich & Mark.  The clinic was a HUGE success and we were done, packed and out of there before 4:00.  WE DID IT!!!!!!!  We had a team meeting, a great supper and able to get to bed early!  We will have a very busy week and the doctors will be doing lots of surgeries and there will probably be some later evenings that we will be working.  That should cover our happenings for now.  By the way, if anyone at home is expecting to get e-mails from team members, you probably won't be receiving them for the time being.  We are able to receive e-mails (the junk mail is coming through fine) but not send.  Just continue to follow our blogs for updates.  In spite of all the problems, everyone is upbeat and excited for the week.  Keep us in your prayers as we proceed with our mission.  Carolyn