The City of Extremes (an unexpected journey)

Hello readers, this is Michael Martinez. I wrote the blog for day 1 but was unable to write the blog for day 2 because I felt extremely under the weather. I had to leave the work sight (with reluctance) yesterday in the afternoon to get some rest. As the day continued, I began to feel more sick. I was coughing without rest for hours. In fact, my cough became so severe that I actually vomited six times yesterday afternoon. At one point, I coughed so much that my nose began to bleed out of sheer exhaustion from the pressure I was exerting out of my body. I woke up this morning feeling quite the same so Mrs. Wier felt like it was necessary to take me to a doctor. When I heard this, I immediately was concerned. It certainly was not an ideal situation to go to a doctor in a third world country. However, I trusted that my God would keep me safe. As we drove through the streets of Managua, I once again saw the extreme poverty on my way to the doctor's office. There was construction on the roads which reminded me of the construction back at home on US1. However, on the "highway" of Managua, there were no construction machines to be found. All the work was done by hand with shovels and pickaxes. We finally arrived at the doctor who worked from a house. I was given a waiting number and told to sit in the waiting room...which was outside. The doctor saw me and asked me many questions (Mrs. Wier translated for me). He had a stethoscope and a beat up medical bed which I was told to lay on to be examined. He told me that I should not work on the construction of the house for three days. My heart sank. I came to Nicaragua to serve and in one sentence a doctor had told me I shouldn't help build the house for my safety. In the end, he gave me four prescription medications. What made me chuckle was that my prescription was typed on a typewriter. We paid for the medication and the doctor's visit. The cost of a doctor's visit and four prescription medications turned out to be 10 American dollars. Ten dollars. Me and Mrs. Wier went to go eat lunch at a very nice place. As we left and headed back to the ranch, I noticed something. The city of Managua was a city of terrible extremes. The vast majority of the people were extremely poor which I had noticed last year on this trip. Also though, a small minority was extremely rich. Right across from a BMW dealership and a wealthy bank were shacks filled with people. In my eyes, I visibly saw the two extremes which were physically separated by 15 feet but economically separated by hundreds of thousands of dollars. I may not be able to work on the house but I am fully confident that God has an incredible plan for me on this trip. Possibly part of the plan was for me to witness more of the city of extremes today.

Thank you for all you prayers, the update on the building of the house will be put up on this blog tonight. Also, I took plenty of pictures the first day of construction when I was able to work and I will try to upload them ASAP. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone reading this blog.
 
~Michael Alexander Martinez