Nica-time: Kathy and Andy Hart
Dr. Andy Hart had long been interested in medical missions but had put it off because it would mean taking time away from his medical practice at Holmes Family Medicine and his bariatric medicine practice in Millersburg and Wooster. Besides, travel was costly, and he wasn’t sure which organization to join or how to get involved. Then, in 2010, a visit to his daughter, Abby Hart, gave him and his wife, Kathy Hart, a glimpse into one little Corner of Love in Nicaragua that kept them going back for more.
Abby Hart had never been away from her parents longer than a few weeks at a time, so when the Millersburg native headed to Nicaragua in 2009 with SALT (Serving and Learning Together), a year-long cross-cultural service through the Mennonite Central Committee, her parents made plans to visit her in February 2010 during the second part of her stay on the small island of San Pablo. That’s where Abby Hart first became familiar with Corner of Love (CoL), a Christian organization serving impoverished northern Nicaraguans by providing medical, dental and eye care and clean water projects.
“Corner of Love came to the town I was serving in,” Abby Hart said. “The whole town, including my host family, was going to the clinic, so I went with them.”
CoL was short on translators, and, because she spoke Spanish fluently, they tapped Abby Hart to help. She learned that CoL would return in February, during her parents’ visit. Knowing her father wanted to work with medical missions someday, Abby Hart came up with a plan. Maybe introducing him to CoL would give him just the nudge he needed to get started.
“I wanted to open the door slowly,” Abby Hart said. “I never thought he’d go back to that particular group, or that mom would go with him.”
The Harts were understandably nervous about their first trip to Nicaragua. Aside from Canada and Europe, they’d never traveled outside of the U.S. But once they saw how beautiful and relaxed the people and culture were, even as the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and saw how much their services were valued as they shadowed with CoL, the Harts didn’t want to leave. Since that first visit in February of 2010, the Harts have returned to San Ramon twice with CoL to help set up clinics in small schools and churches, treating patients suffering from everything from simple colds to parasitic infections.
Dr. Hart described a normal trip with CoL, beginning at the mission compound where CoL is based, three hours outside Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua.
“Once we arrive,” Dr. Hart said, “we load up our gear and drive as far as the bus can go.”
Because the village roads are like dirt-bike paths, there comes a point where the bus has to stop and the team must walk the rest of the way to the clinic location, where they set up small stations and provide medical and dental care, pharmaceuticals and clothing to about 100 patients per clinic. This type of medical care is crucial, since transportation makes it nearly impossible for people in the outlying villages to get to the city. And while Dr. Hart had previously imagined terrible tumors and exotic parasites, the teams more often see men with hypertension or women suffering from shoulder and back pain after years of carrying children and water, people who can no longer work, don’t have a social security system, and can’t afford medical care.
At the end of the day, the team loads up the gear and returns to the bus for the long drive back to the compound. All of this happens on what the Harts called Nica-time, the very relaxed pace that’s the standard in Nicaragua.
“You have a window of daylight to get in and out,” Dr. Hart said. “But beyond that, it’s all very unhurried.”
Dr. Hart gave an example of a typical Nicaraguan event.
“We attended a 6 p.m. church service with Abby. There were only a few people there, so the pastor invited us into his house and offered us coffee. It wasn’t until people started singing and we could hear the service starting that he finished his coffee and meandered over to the service.”
“They always have time for you,” Kathy Hart said. “They make it clear that you’re very special to them.”
For Kathy Hart, the experience was life-changing. It helped her realize how unimportant material things are compared to relationships.
“Nicaraguans have a degree of contentment and happiness that’s infectious,” Kathy Hart said. “It’s something we don’t have here.”
Abby Hart agreed. While in Nicaragua, she learned a lot about her own culture.
“Americans are so worried about time,” Abby Hart said. “Nicaraguans know there should be time to work, but there should also be time to take off your shoes, put on your sandals, and hang out in a hammock.”
The Harts both agree that, without their daughter’s gentle nudge, it might have been a long time before they would have pursued medical missions. In fact, they might never have done it at all. Now, as soon as they return from a trip, they can’t wait to get back.
“Abby kind of forced the hand. Had it not been for her, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” Dr. Hart said. “But it’s more fun that you’d expect it to be. You end up getting as much or more than the people you serve. It’s not just hard work. When you’re there, you feel rewarded.”
For information on Corner of Love, visit corneroflove.org, call 425-432-0433 or e-mailinfo@corneroflove.org.