Vitamins can be hard to find and very expensive on Isla Ometepe, so Team Nicaragua 2014 asked our Curtis Lake family to help us collect as many bottles possible of various vitamins to bring with us for the children at CICRIN. We were overwhelmed by the response and received HUNDREDS of bottles of vitamins, which we (foolishly) packed into one big suitcase.
Upon arriving at the airport in Managua, I was brought into a special security area where Nicaraguan officials angrily demanded to know why I was smuggling a huge amount of medicine. My Spanish is better than I led them to believe, but I played the 'no habla' card because I knew they would not let me keep the vitamins and I could have also been looking at jail. It was terrifying. But it was late and there was no translator available, so I exhausted and frustrated them with my inability to understand them (wink). It worked. After about thirty minutes of intense questioning, their shifts were over and they wanted to go home. So they let me keep the bag and the vitamins. It was delivered to families on Isla Ometepe the next day.
Brett Williams lives in Sanford with his wife, Hannah, and two sons, Gabriel and Jonah. He is the Director of the Sanford Performing Arts Center and has led several GO trips to Nicaragua.