Nicaragua - by Kevin

I spent 5 days in Nicaragua. In short here is what I did:

I arrived on thursday. Jonas and a Mennonite pastor named Marcos picked me up. They we're late and for awhile there I wondered what I was going to do in a country with no contacts, no phone, no taxi driver I would trust and no idea where I was going. But they came, picked me up and brought me to Marcos' guest house.

 gate to the guest house - Quinta Shalom

There are many guest houses in Nicaragua. They are owned by various churches and are used to house service teams as they do projects. Jonas and Barbi were in Nicaragua for different reasons. Barbi was starting a women's bible study and Jonas was interpreting for a Mennonite surgical eye team. They used to live in Nicaragua and know the country and language well. It was great hanging out with people who are so mission minded and have a proven track record of giving up the silly American dream to serve others. They are great role models for Jill and I.

Their mission projects were done when I arrived. They had been there for 2 weeks but stayed a few more days to show me around.

Why did I want to go? I want to start a ministry that combines working with children, teaching the gospel and providing medical care. I don't want to go on any more medical trips where we drive in, treat diabetes and dermatitis then fly out having done no real lasting good and set up nothing sustainable.  Also, the medical teams I know are always over-staffed and people often sit around doing vacation-medicine. You know I'm too type-A for that. I want to work and work the whole time - not see 10 patients then take a siesta or have devotions for 3 hours.

So Jonas and Barbi and Marcos took me to several missions. I visited AMC, which sends large teams all over the country. Their president is a physician who served as the first contact for bringing compassion international into Nicaragua. We spent over an hour there learning about Nicaraguan health policy and the way AMC does things. One of the girls volunteering there for the past 3 years and who helped interpret for me went to NMU in Michigan, weird. Then we drove to a small clinic about 40 min away. It was closed but Jonas and Barbie knew the cook and I got to check that mission clinic out. It didn't serve the population I am interested in though and was too small. We then visited a new mission that is being run by a doc and his wife (also a doc). They just got a new building that has surgical rooms, 3-5 clinic rooms, a small lab and pharmacy and a very nice guest house. They have been sending teams to rural areas for years (his father started the mission but recently died), but now they have a new facility that is very nice by Nicaraguan standards, probably 4-6 acres, about 5 miles from central Managua.

 Kevin, Barbi, Jonas, lead doctor and MCC worker

NMU girl on left

I took notes at all these clinics after talking with all the folks I met. There are so many cool people doing good work in other countries. We need to remember to support these brothers and sisters.

Nicaragua still has orphanages and we went to 2. Both were for girls 12-16. We met a few girls but most were not there at the time (it is summer vacation there so they were not in a tight curriculum). The orphanages are both public and private. Some allow you to sponsor kids. Some of the girls have very sad stories of physical abuse that one of the volunteers told me about. The machismo, masogonistic culture in latin america leads to very serious problems with women. There is a big need there for people who want to work with young girls (and guys too I suppose). 

walking to the orphanage

The next day I got to meet one of our Compassion kids that we've been sponsoring for 8 (almost 9)years.

Josseling is 14 and was very, very shy. It was hard for me to get her to talk about anything. 

Compassion picked me up (a Compassion staff worker and a translator and took me to Josseling's project. It was only about 15 minutes away. Compassion works with over 40,000 kids in Nicaragua and there are something like 42 projects in Managua alone. They have been here for 9 years.

This is the local church that Compassion works through (each Compassion project works through a local church and serves the local children/families who live near it)

And this is the Compassion project.....Mirra Olor Fragante

The pastor of the church, sitting in the project's office

The director and translator showed me Josseling's file. They showed me her original letters to us, her grades, her medical reports, etc. It was neat to see the original letters from her notebook and all the records of gifts we have given her. It's weird to see our names on a file in another country. We now have proof for all the skeptics out there who doubt that the gifts really get to the kids. They even had receipts of what was bought with the monetary gifts.

Josseling's file

Original copies of the letters written to us

Record of letters received from us

Record of gifts (monetary) we have sent

Spiritual record ~ she accepted Christ November 2, 2008

This report, which is 3 years old,  says her mother and father have not accepted Christ.

We walked around the Compassion project. There was a cosmetology class going on and they were learning to cut hair and give manicures.

There were two kitchens at this project ~ one where the students learn to cook (above) and another where the staff prepare food for the kids who come to the project (below).

There was a music class going on. The teacher was pointing to notes and the kids were singing solfege (do-re-mi)

They have a computer lab, but as you can see the computers are quite dated. There is internet here sometimes, when the kids are learning how to use it.

And this is the library. The kids are able to come in here and use the books. The bright binders you see are the files of each child enrolled in the project.

Then we walked 2 blocks to her house. It was very humble. I learned that Josseling's father and mother are now divorced and he doesn't support them at all. I met her mother and younger sister, but her brothers were not there. Everyone was so shy and quiet. I tried getting them to talk, asked a bunch of questions, even spoke in Spanish as much as I could. Since Josseling wants to be a beautician I said she could practice on gringo hair, but she declined.

Before I left I prayed for the family and then asked if they had a Spanish Bible. They didn't, so I put mine on their shelf.

Their house in on the left ~ the red door is one of the doors to the house. The cinder block building that sticks out in the center of the picture is their bathroom.

 Josseling's mother, Josseling, Mercedes and Kevin

 their backyard

I had no phone service in country. I had to use email at the guest house. I learned later that you can get a disposable cell phone for around $20 and charge it with minutes fairly cheaply.

Late that day Jonas and I went downtown on a bus. In all the bus rides I've been on this one was the most crowded. It was your typical, no safety, cram them in, the driver wont wait for you to get off, watch your wallet, hold on to the gross bar that has bacteria not known in our country or you will fall, third world bus ride.

The market was dirty and not too interesting. I tried some new foods. You can get just about any drug over the counter there. I had fun shopping without regulations.

 

We then went further downtown and saw the effects of the 79 earthquake that destroyed the city. Jonas gave me a history lesson on the Sandinistas, the contras, Ortega, etc.

The next day I went to another mission/guest house and spent the day with a team from Delaware. They were from a Mennonite church and were building a new church about 9 hours into the jungle from Managua. I checked out their guest house and then we drove 1.5 hours to the beach (pacific) and spent the day there. The water was warm. The beach was somewhat dirty and the people trying to sell you stuff got annoying after awhile. I did practice my Spanish a lot and went out of my way to talk to the little kids who sold things. Kids work everywhere. They collect bottles, make things out of trash, clean windows, etc. Its hard to watch a 6 year old clean someones car windows at a busy unsafe intersection. The kids are all small, their are nutrition problems there. At the beach they sold these silly little shell animals and wouldn't take no for an answer. It's not always good to give white-man handouts so I would make them work for it "busca una conca como que este" bad Spanish for find me shells like this or that and then I would pay them. A buck for each one. The sun was strong there. The sand was too hot to walk on. I mostly walked in the water for 3 hours and got sunburned despite using block.

 boy selling shell "animals"

 locals showing us jewelry they had for sale

 Nicaraguan hermit crabs

Then we drove back to Managua. At nights we often walked up the road to get ice cream. They have better flavors there: coconut, rum, piña, lemon, and other tropical stuff. Prices aren't as cheap as Honduras though. An ice cream cone is about $2, which is more than most Nicaraguans can afford. There is a lot of crime there. Every house has barbed wire around it. Yet I didn't feel in danger from crime ever.

I was scared to death walking the roads though, cars do whatever they want and there are no sidewalks.

 

It was a good trip. I already started contacting some people I met there to see if they share my vision for a trip. If it works out I will be recruiting people like you who want to work with kids and moms. To teach the gospel, empower mothers, lead games and lead crafts.

I could write a lot more but I'm tired. Thanks to those who prayed for me, it went well. I didn't get sick and had a really good time connecting with Jonas and Barbi who have so much experience and wisdom. The Nicaraguans like Americans and treated me well. They even liked my bad Spanish and my constantly wrong conjugations.