Back from Nicaragua January 31, 2006

On Friday I spent some time at a music store and bought some instruments for the kids--a few guitars and some rhythm intruments, then spent the rest of the day at Casa Alianza. The kids gathered in the courtyard and we played a few Beatles tunes (the kids asked for Nirvana but I couldn't bring myself to play it).

Later I played basketball with a number of the kid. I'm in no shape to play anything at the moment, but we played for over an hour and I made it through with merely a sprained ankle and some cuts.

Nicaragua is in a little better shape than my last visit; it's a little cleaner, has better roads and more chain stores, and it seems there are a lot of new cars on the road. But the poverty is just better hidden, and the number of street kids has increased. There's hope, of course, as always.

On the way down I ran into some people volunteering for Operation Smile, and some others working on an orphanage in Matagalpa. As I left I remembered why I started Mission Research in the first place--it was after spending a ton of time in Central America and New York trying to help with human rights issues, trying to help nonprofits but not really finding where I fit.

I think this is it. Mission Research. Our mission is to support your mission. We make the tools for your work. And we make them affordable and easy to use so you can spend more of your precious resources on your mission, and less on technology. It's a great fit, and a fulfilling one.