A family friend of ours got involved with an orphanage/school in Nicaragua and invited me down along with some of his dentist friends for a sort of missionary trip to help build a sports field and offer the community some free dental work. This was my first time doing something like this, where I wasn’t there for selfish reasons but in order to help others. It was fun to explore a more rural part of this country and experience a much different way of life than I am used to.
We were successful in building a basketball hoop, a baseball diamond, and of course a couple soccer goals. We also went door to door to hand out some care packages of first aide and food items. The community was a little apprehensive at first about the dentistry, but a lot of people showed up to take advantage of these check ups. I remember one local who helped out a lot with the sports field who was wearing rubber rain boots. We became friendly and he commented on how much he liked my hiking boots. After a few days when it was time to leave I gave him my boots (and he also wanted my socks), and luckily it looked like they fit him well.
An odd memory I have of my trip there was that this happened when it was announced that America had found and killed Osama bin Laden. This experience proved that with a little effort and time and money you can really make a positive impact in countries that are not as fortunate as we Americans are.
