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By SUZANNE MOORE
PLATTSBURGH — Recovering from serious illness, Sister Stephanie Frenette wouldn't have traveled to Nicaragua with North Country Mission of Hope this week.
So when winter storms shut down the trip for most of the rest of the group Wednesday, volunteer Bev Gogola knew why.
"Well," she told other members of the advance team, already in Nicaragua when they heard the bad news, "I think that was God saying if Sister Stephanie can't go, nobody goes."
The quip lightened the sombre mood as mission Executive Director Sister Debbie Blow telephoned every one of the 38 volunteers who would have flown with her from Burlington International Airport early this morning.
STYMIED BY STORM
Weather wasn't an issue there, but in Newark, where they were to make a connecting flight. And airport points south.
For hours through Tuesday night into Wednesday, Blow had tried to book an alternative flight for the group, sometimes waiting an hour or more on hold.
Breaking the group up into smaller ones didn't work; flying out of Canada wouldn't work.
"I even tried to charter a plane," she said. "I tried to charter a bus, but it couldn't get to (a connecting flight) in Houston on time."
The soonest available flight would have been Tuesday next week — with the return on Thursday.
"There's just nothing," Blow said Wednesday afternoon. "We're dead in the water. All I want to do is sit down and cry — I am just heartbroken for all the people who have looked forward to this."
This is the first time in 11 years that the main group of mission travelers just couldn't make the trip.
In Nicaragua, the group would have joined two volunteers flying there from other parts of the United States and also the 10-member advance team, which was making preparations for the many projects the mission would have undertaken.
Among them were construction of a dozen home shelters, repairs at Parajito Azul Disability Center, medical outreach, work on the mission's new compound, and HIV testing and diabetic education at the Managua dump — where both are prevalent, Blow said.
MISSING WEDDING
As well, Blow and mission co-founder Yamilette Flores were going to stand in as family at the civil marriage of past volunteer Jeremy Eppler and his Nicaraguan bride, Indira Fabiola Gradys Somarriba.
"I have the ring!" exclaimed Blow.
She was also carrying some documents Eppler would need for the service. His mother, Kathy Eppler, said Wednesday that she didn't know if the ceremony would have to be postponed. Her thoughts were more focused on the mission as a whole, however.
"I just feel so bad for all the travelers who prepared mentally, physically," she said, "and the people that are there that look forward to the mission going.
"I have a heavy heart for all of them."
DISAPPOINTED
Adam Oropallo, 16, of Malone was among the grounded volunteers. In fact, he was the messenger who e-mailed Blow about the canceled flight sometime around 10 p.m. Wednesday after checking its status online.
"Thank God, he clued me in," Blow said.
Oropallo had looked forward to making the trip "to gain a world-wide perspective."
His week of school break loomed large in the face of the canceled mission. What would he do instead?
"I have no idea."
'FINGERS CROSSED'
Blow said she was accepting a one-time refund offer from Continental on behalf of the travelers — that was one consolation.
Another, she said, was the possibility that a few of the volunteers with medical expertise might be able to make the trip later next week.
"I'll keep my fingers crossed," said Karen Case, a nurse midwife/nurse practitioner who works at Lake Champlain OB GYN in Plattsburgh.
This was to be her first mission; she would have run gynecological clinics, assisted with the HIV testing.
Her schedule is pretty flexible, she said.
"But the high-school kids, I think, are going to have a tough time — they don't have much of a window."
The February mission is planned specifically for winter break so students can take part.
IN COUNTRY
By midafternoon, Blow had turned her thoughts to the 12 volunteers who would proceed with the mission as best they could.
"There are homes that need to be built, children that need to be fed ...," Blow said.
And so the mission will go on, just with less accomplished in the coming week.
Stranded volunteers who had expected to build home shelters with their own hands told Blow to OK the construction without them, including one financed by the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Schroon Lake.
"The home is needed now," the Rev. Dick Sturtz wrote in an e-mail, "and, if in the future I am able to go to Nicaragua, I will bless it then."
There was talk Wednesday of a possible mission in May, but Blow said it was too soon to decide. She was more concerned at that point about the many backpacks piled on the stage at Seton Catholic Central School that needed to get back to their owners. And about 40-plus suitcases packed with gifts for sponsored children, much-needed pharmaceuticals and other supplies.
"It's meant to be," a resigned Blow said. "I'm not sure why, but it's meant to be."
"It's very disappointing for many," Case said. "But Nicaragua will always be there and (sadly) always have need. It's not a matter of if (they go), it's a matter of when."
Then the nurse-midwife found the perfect metaphor to emphasise her point.
"It's like labor — it happens when it does."
E-mail Suzanne Moore at: smoore@pressrepublican.com
