Nicaragua 2015 ~ Compassion Day, the beginning

Monday was our Compassion Day! We had arranged for Compassion to pick us up at our guest house at 9:30am. At around 9:15, Jonas and Barbi left for the day - they were headed to pick up Lois and head to Granada. As they pulled away from the guest house, I said to mom, "I kinda wish they had stuck around until  we made sure we got picked up."

About 15 minutes later, they returned. Lois had the same thought...that they should make sure we got picked up. Compassion still wasn't there so Lois found an office number and called. After several attempts we got through and talked to our translator Jheymmy (pronounced Jamie). She was at the office waiting for the car to pick her up. Finally they arrived at 10:15 and we were off. 

On our way to Ciudad Sandino (the city where our kids live and attend the Compassion project), we were talking about the kids we were meeting and Jheymmy realized we were only scheduled to meet 3 of the 5 kids. When I requested the visit, I only sponsored one child and mom only sponsored one child. Then after we planned the trip we each decided to sponsor an additional child. I emailed my US contact and had those 2 kids added to our visit. Then Henry and Ana in Chicago sponsored a child at the same project so once again I emailed my US contacted and added her to our visit. 

Somehow the Nicaragua office didn't get that second email. So when we arrived at the project, Jheymmy's attention was turned towards finding those other two kids.Both Kerlint (mom's boy) and Josseling (my girl) were there waiting, but without our translator and with our attention elsewhere, the initial meet and greet was kinda pathetic. 

the church that hosts this particular Compassion project

the project is on the other side of the street and is #111 ~ I absolutely love that Compassion does not flash their logo all over. It's really about working through the local church. I noticed this is Peru and Thailand as well.

Josseling was working with a tutor when we arrived

Kerlint and his grandfather waiting for us

We were trying so hard to figure out which Maria and which Kerlint were ours. Apparantly both are common names and there were several of each at this project. Neither mom nor I knew their last names or child numbers. One of the staff workers found this letter that Kerlint had just written to me and it had my name on it. It will be fun to receive this in a couple weeks or months.

See that board behind the letter? That yellow sheet is a list of kids with December birthdays. Mom knew her Maria's birthday was December 7 and she found one Maria listed there. This is how we found Maria.

Neither Kendry nor Maria were at the project so Compassion staff went to their homes to tell them we were there and to come quickly. In the meantime, we also met Ana - the sweet girl whom Henry and Ana sponsor. She was there alone as her mom was home with her younger brother.

I snuck over to snap a photo with Josseling - isn't she gorgeous?

Another crazy thing....remember those Canadian pastors we met on the plane? 

They were at the same Compassion project that morning! There were about 30 of them and the project was in full swing because of their visit. Usually there are only kids at the project on weekday afternoons - after school. During the months of December and January there is no school in Nicaragua. But because of the big group visit, kids were there and the programs were up and running so the visitors could see what Compassion does. 

There are four vocational training classes at this particular Compassion project, and we got to see all four quickly. 

music

beauty/barber

Josseling took the barber class several years ago - it's a one year program

baking

computers

Here are some more pictures of the Compassion project....(I had fun comparing them to what Kevin took three years ago...you can tell many improvements have been made to the Compassion project, including all new computers in the computer lab. To see those pics, simply click HERE)

this large, white tarp was the only visible evidence that this was a Compassion project

these brightly colored binders are records for each sponsored child. They contain school records, family information, progress reports, copies of letters (from both sponsor and child) and more. It was fun to look through.

These kids are writing letters to their sponsors. It was fun to talk to them about it and ask if they like writing the letters (they all claimed to like it).

As a long-time sponsor and advocate, my biggest takeaway from this trip is that Compassion is doing what they say they are doing. They really are making a difference in this tough community.