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Nicaragua Mission June 14-24, 2011If you would like to read our posts from the 2010 trip, please click here. If you would like more information on the Nicaragua Mission program, please click here. 2011 Email UpdatesWe will be posting daily updates and emails about our 2011 trip. Please keep checking back!
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:45 PM Hello everyone! We will be departing tomorrow at noon. As best as I can remember, I will summarize our activities. Forgive me for any omissions or detail errors! Wednesday We traveled from Managua to Somoto. After arriving, we went to the children´s project (NNF). After some greetings from the board and the city leaders, the ribbon was cut for the second building, the Frank Young Vocational Center. Then a meeting in which people thanked us for roofs, scholarships, support of NNF, and houses was held. Our construction crew on this day and all but one other day helped with the construction of the first house. Thursday The first glasses fitting and medical clinic was held at El Jobo, along with Vacation Bible School. Funds were deposited for finishing various projects after we leave. Then I visited the homes of some receiving help repairing roofs and the sites of the micro businesses started by women with micro loans. Toys and educational items for the children´s project (Which will be referred to as NNF from now on) were delivered and catalogued. Friday The second glasses fitting and medical clinic and Bible School (VBS) was held at El Potrerillo, where the bus got stuck, but we all made it eventually. The wheel chair was given to a lady in her twenties who has severe arthritis and cannot walk. The construction crew joined us since it was raining in Somoto. At night, a meeting was held with all the scholarship recipients and their families. They received letters from and pictures of their sponsors and signed their contracts for the coming year. Saturday The third clinic, glasses fitting, and VBS was held at El Higo. We were able to go with ERSLA to deliver and take pictures of half of the recipients of the filters, and ERSLA finished after we had to leave at the end of the clinic. The initial meeting with the El Higo leaders was held to discuss the latrines they will also receive. The first meeting was held at night with the board of NNF and their accountant, as well as Marcio, the ex mayor, to discuss reporting to the US on an Excel program and their making a proposed budget. Now that the dream of having NNF is a reality, they are moving into the second stage of building their infrastructure and organizing their successful project. Sunday Worship was held with NNF at their project. Afterwards, we travelled into the mountains to Telpaneca where we toured the Mother House that we built where pregnant women can safely give birth, we met some of the pregnant women, and we delivered layettes, bedding, beanie babies, and other supplies. We were then thanked at a banquet they held for us. At night, we had the second meeting with NNF to discuss the kind of reporting needed to apply for grants. Monday The fourth clinic, glasses fitting, and VBS was held at San Diego. An estimate for making the floor of the preschool, kitchen, and kindergarten as well as the outside walk safe and healthy for young kids was made. Their current floor is chipping, very rough concrete and is currently scraping a lot of little knees besides being hard to clean. The health department here has required them to tile all of it. The home of the 16 year old who was electrocuted, the home of the blind, non ambulatory elderly lady, and several more micro businesses started with our micro loans were visited, as well as the women shelter for abused women, where clothing was delivered. Tuesday The last clinic was held in San Ramon. After this clinic, our clinic leader Terry Ritter reported that 550 patients had been seen all week and Carol Kobel and Margot Hoffmeyer who fit glasses reported that more than 300 pair of glasses were fitted. The final and very productive meeting with NNF was held. ERSLA told us that all filters had been successfully delivered in El Higo to all 16 families living there. Wednesday A meeting was held with the leaders of El Higo, plans were made for them to work to build the latrines, and the money was deposited in their community account. A dedication of the two houses we are building was held with families receiving them and the community. We said our good byes, received gifts, and rode to Managua. Thursday We did a little site seeing at markets and in Catarina. We are packing to go home tomorrow. Projects that will be finished in our absence The two homes will be completed, one very soon and one at the end of two or three months from now, 65 more filters will be delivered by ERSLA to cover the communities of La Carbonera and La Trapaga, the latrines for El Higo will be built, the floor of NNF will be completed after funding is completed, and the scholarships will be distributed in a meeting with NNF each month. AND our projects will continue all year as communication and funding continues. Our project is year round. Bless you all for your support...God´s work, our hands....lives are being transformed. Cathy
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:52 PM Hi Again, Tears. We saw a lot of them today and some of us shed them as well. Tears. We were saying good bye to those we have come to care for..to those who care for us. Tears. Communication heart to heart. This mission is not just about what we give. It is about what we receive. And it is about how we are working hand in hand and heart to heart with the people here. Together, acting as one in God´s community. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:47 PM Hi Everyone.... Smiling children´s faces were all around the room. Kids colored and rolled out clay...a typical kindergarten and preschool scene. Only this was in Somoto. Three years ago we were approached to help a group of women start a children´s project Ninos y Ninas del Futuro...to provide safety, health, education, vocational training, and spiritual care to children. And so the children´s project was born. There are 51 preschoolers and kindergarteners enrolled. Those who come at 7 o clock get breakfast...something way too many children here do not get...and at 11 they get lunch...also not a given here. Not only is it food, it is nutritious. Inbetween is education, also frequently not available here, especially to the impoverished. But this is different than the US.... We do not send our kids to school for safety. Many women here are single because men abandon wives...or live with several. If the woman leaves home to work for her dollar or two or three a day, children are left alone or in the care of siblings who can be young. To add to a mother´s worries, gang members can threaten, molest, and influence them. If the woman stays home, there is no money to feed the children...a Sophie´s choice situation. Here, the young ones are safe and thriving. By the time the last leaves at 4 thirty, up to another 40 older children arrive to get help with homework for two hours. The project is working with families to encourage them to help as well, and parents often volunteer. Soon, the second building will be done and a computer lab will be started (save those lap tops)...computer training is only for the wealthy private school students...Vocational training will be held, music and English classes will be given, and, just as with the young ones, safety after school will be provided. All the teaching is done in a Christian atmosphere and with Christian teachings...Even for someone who is not Christian, this is good news...the moral training and self esteem that comes along with it is also not necessarily taught by parents here. And families are taught about nutrition, health, and parenting as well. So many families are being helped. The truth is, of all our projects, this is my favorite. So many lives are changed. The government is providing about two thirds of the teacher´s salaries (there are 4 of them now) and all the rice and corn they need. They currently depend on our donations to function in the buildings we have built, but the plan is in the long run for them to become self sufficient. They are starting to earn money by running a sewing co op that makes uniforms. They sell the uniforms at a 2 to 4 dollar profit, which goes into the project. As seed money donations come in, their ¨business will grow. And so today, give thanks for nutritious food for young children and yourselves. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 4:31 PM Hi Everyone, Today I spent some time finding out about two needs. The first is titled...a scholarship for an 80 year old, why? There she was, an eighty year old woman, one eye obviously clouded and non functional, and the other unable to see a thing. Yes, she is blind. She was carried to the front of her house...well, it is called a house. It is what I have described many times - sticks, dirt, plastic, and cardboard. She cannot walk. She has no family members around who can help. A neighbor helps feed and dress her. If someone gave $240, the project could give $20 a month to Candida to buy food for the woman. And there he was, age 16, in a simple house, mosquito net surrounding him, his left leg amputated. I remember him when he came to Sunday School at Marta's house years ago. Scars covered half his body from top to bottom...I saw those on top. Miraculously they are healing. He was helping with construction and grabbed a wire that was live and was electrocuted. Doctors in Managua expected him to die, but the Somoto community has been helping. The family is extremely impoverished, but so is the community. He needs $8 for medications a day...a fortune here. They are asking if we can support one of the months of medication of the four months he has left..$240. And so I am sending this out to make you aware. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 4:07 PM It is a miracle...We visited the Mother´s House in Telpaneca today where women can give birth in healthy conditions so that both they and baby live and stay healthy. It was completed in December, almost all with funds we have sent through the last five years, and already there have been 64 births, and an average of 19 a month. They gave us a banquet to thank us and to ask us to continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers and not to abandon the project. They need baby clothes and stethoscopes and pillows, not to mention an ambulance when they have to go to Somoto to have their and/or their baby´s life saved. Women come from thirty some communities...and many are very remote over roads only true four wheel enthusiasts would travel in the US. This project took five years instead of five months, but God´s hand was in it all. To read more, see the emails from last year! And so today give thanks to God for accessable medical care given in sanitary conditions...and for healthy babies around Telpaneca! In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 5:48 PM Hi Everyone, Today we had a wonderful worship service together with families from the children´s project and area. We met under the öutdoor cover they have with the beautiful mountains of Somoto in the distance. We sang rousing songs, very much like in church camp, and Pastor Abe delivered the sermon about how we have different languages, and it is often difficult to communicate with words, but that is not in the long run what communication is. Real communication is through love and compassion we communicate one to another. How true that is. Last night Mac, one of our terrific youth with us, led devotions. He asked us where we have seen God. Over and over, people said it was through the wordless communication we have had with a person we especially remember in the children´s project, in the clinics, on the streets....and the communication has been through touch, hugs, and compassion shown... not only us to them, but them to us as well. So today, look for ways you can communicate with others...truly communicate and share love and compassion. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 5:36 PM Hi Again, Please know much more happens here than I can write about! School....Our kids linger sometimes, moaning about getting out of bed and ready for school. They take it for granted...But not here. Many do not go...And those who have been following these EMails for the last few years know why. Lack of supplies, and for university students, the lack of the monthly fee of 15 dollars..that´s right...only fifteen dollars for a university...and money for supplies. If they do go, they often lack having had a breakfast, not to mention having had very little to eat the day before...And this is why the scholarship program run through the children´s project was born. There are fifteen scholarship recipients. Each has to volunteer each week in the children´s project. It is a way of giving while receiving. Each has to have good grades or at least be trying hard to get them. Each needs to be a good example in the community and have good behavior at home. Each has to attend Sunday School each week. And in the process they stay out of gangs....there are 240 gang members in Somoto, a town of 20,000...they help others, and they become upstanding citizens and examples and leaders in their community who can go into adulthood supporting themselves and their families. We talked to two, who are on probation for their scholarship, because they are not doing all of the above. They promised to do better...They will be carefully followed and given therapy as well....If you do not hear from me individually, your recipient is doing very, very well..... and we shared letters and pictures from their sponsors. I saw them looking at the pictures and the hand written letters over and over....They obviously had great meaning for them. Even in the short time I was at the project one morning I saw Eddy, a university student, helping carry construction materials for the houses we are building, and I saw Marcial, age nine, helping was the dishes after the preschoolers had lunch! So today, help your children give thanks to God for their education, and give thanks to God for yours. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 9:42 PM Some smiles I will never forget.....Two are on women wrinkled with age and so slight and so short I could pick them up with one hand...One lost her husband to the elements before they could move into their new home we built for her two years ago. She was grinning ear to ear as she thanked us with hugs and words of many thanks for being able to end her life living in a dry home...The other is an elderly woman in a house of sticks thanking us for three sheets of zinc that will help keep her dry in one corner of her shack. It appeared her house could easily fall at any minute, and she was smiling about three sheets of zinc! Another was on a man today when he declared that yes, the print was clear....now that he had his new glasses. Others were on children at the project, dancing and smiling and hugging as small children should , feeling safe and well cared for in spirt and body as their mothers went off to work knowing their children were safe. Another was on the face of Candida, who an official here told me is a pillar in the community helping children and families. She received a house five years ago from us. And the smiles of children many of us who have met in the past running to us, grabbing our hand...Smiles. Smile at someone today, you will make their day! In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 9:37 PM God´s hand. It is in everything. Two years ago we needed a water project. The nurses in our clinics had noted all the diseases people had due to lack of potable water..a world wide problem. Some one at my church made a large donation to us to provide clean water after feeling God calling him to do so after his devotions...What to do, we had no project. The internet was of very little help...but God knew how to help. Dosha who came with us that year was an ex Peace Corps volunteer here and wanted to connect with others in Nicaragua. So she sent a group E Mail...And Rodney of ERSLA, another ex Peace Corps volunteer who conceived of and runs the water filter project wrote back...They had never met. Dosha told us of the project. And so the water filter project we prayed for became a reality, in honor of Ken Harris who died soon after his donation. This year we are providing filters to three communities, 81 filters in all. All of a community is covered. La Trapaga, La Carbonera, and El Higo are all getting them, thanks to our donors. We know from other communities that the disease rate will decrease and diarhea, which sometimes kills, will greatly decrease. So today we helped distribute about 10 in El Higo...and the others will be distributed in the other two communities over the next number of weeks, depending on rain...And health and lives will be improved. Thanks be to God. And so today and during this week, thank God for the clean water you drink. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 9:22 PM Out houses. Most of us have a distaste for them, right_ They are smelly, there is no sink...But what if you did not even have THAT! Well, that is the position El Higo has been in. No latrines. Poor sanitation....as you can imagine....More disease. Last year one of three leaders of El Higo asked us for them, and a donation was made this year to cover them. Pastor Abe met with those leaders today at our clinic and plans were made. We will buy the materials to make the covers over the hole. The hole has to be dug deep and narrow, and a concrete ¨pot so to speak put on top. Then the cover for it has to be made for privacy and for better hygiene of the area inside. That is what is being provided. Each household is responsible for the hole and concrete, and if there is a physical reason they cannot dig it, the community will do so. In this way, they have a buy in to the gift...of a latrine cover. The leaders will over see the project and continue the health education that goes with it, helping families get used to using one. And health and the environment will improve. By the way, I learned how to keep the smell out of a latrine....take dried cow patties and put them in the bottom...voila...no smell. And are those mosquitos getting you_ Burn some dried patties inside your house. They disappear.... TRUE! So tonight, give thanks to God for your flushable indoor toilet... In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 8:49 PM Floors and roofs report... Yesterday I looked at a lot of floors while touring and setting up projects. The floor of the preschool and kindergarten of the childrens project is concrete that is chipping...and the health department has declared it unhealthy for the little ones. With money saved from house construction ...each house is 4400 dollars instead of 5000...and some donations from group members, we will be able to pay for the tile to cover it and protect the little ones from skinned knees and disease...Ánd I looked at the gravel and rock floor of the new vocational building. It would crack with only the tile they plan for it, so a member of our group said she would work to raise funds for the concrete base it needs under the tiles when she returns. And I look at the dirt floors as I do each year that lay under ...what many of you already know...their cardboard and plastic and bark roofing that pours in rain...seeing where they have been turned to mud and dried repeatedly. And I looked up at the roofs we will be helping repair to provide some protection from the rain. A roof over an outdoor stove so the family can cook their food in the unrelenting rain. A porous roof over the entire living area of a hut like house of a family ..A roof covering the bark shack of someone I will never forget....see my next E mail... And so tonight, give thanks to God for your floors and for your roofs. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 8:34 PM Hello, I am writing a series of shorter E Mails. Wow. Where do we start.... I can see the ad now... An hour long four wheel drive trip through amazing rain forest with breath taking views can be yours. Simply sign up for the Nicaragua Project trip this June... In fine print it would say that transportation would be by a 20 plus year old school bus.....not a 4 wheeler...and that you may get stuck in the middle of the trip...but you will have amazing vistas and hear tropical birds while watching butterflies flit by while sitting by the side of the rock and dirt road made slick by rain and going up at an amazing incline waiting to be picked up....and by the grace of God, being taken to the clinic. Our leaders and bus driver Manuel thanked God at the end of the day for His amazing guidance. The trip to the remote clinic in a very remote village that sometimes gets a nurse, but amazingly does not get medications almost came to an end...as the bus could not continue...but perserverence and Gods guidance prevailed. And as the day wore on and the road dried, the bus also arrived at the clinic. Your prayers were with us. Numerous people came ...maybe hundreds...for eye glasses, for unbelievable, inches wide sores on their legs that were deep and open in their flesh, for aches, fevers, etc. Margot shared that it was in looking at and touching each other where so much was given...to each other. As one member said today, this trip is a gift to US...In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:33 PM Hi Everyone! It is hard to get to a computer this year, and please forgive all the typos as this key board is very different! We are still all safe and sound...Yesterday we dropped off 8 sewing machines and gave a $500 micro loan to 7 women to start a sewing co op. Abuse of women is rampant here, and many do not know they have options for supporting themselves. The co op is part of a larger project in Condega helping to give abused women self esteem and independence and get out of the abusive situation. They will be repaying the money over time....and speaking of micro loans, we gave $1200 to the childrens project 2 years ago and that has helped now 24 women start business to support themselves and their families. I visited two women today who built ovens to make bread and they say their business is going great! Yesterday we had quite a reception at the childrens project we started that only half the group could attend, due to all the mud on the road...We were thanked by recipients of roofs, houses, scholarships, and micro loans. We were thanked by an official of Somoto also and told how very important the childrens project is to the community. We also cut the ribbon on the new vocational building that is three fourths built and is named the Frank Young Vocational Center after the man whose memorial funds built the roof. Today was a clinic that went very well and served about 60 people in the town of El Jobo....More when I can write. Thank you ALL for being here with us with your prayers and support, In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 8:47 AM Hello Everyone! Thank you everyone so very, very much for all your prayers and please continue to pray for us as we continue to Somoto on our journey in just a few minutes. In Christ, Cathy
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 1:30 PM Hello Everyone and bless you for your interest in the Nicaragua Project. Well, our bags are packed and all 19 of us are ready to go, and along with our luggage, we are carrying along your prayers and support. God is indeed answering our prayers and has been all year. Due to the generosity of churches and individuals, we have been blessed with the ability to not only carry out our basic projects, but those on our wish list as well. And so we are covering 3 villages with water filters instead of one, building two houses instead of one, adding vitamins to our medications offered, providing five roofs instead of three, and helping 15 students with scholarships instead of 13 (see the list of projects below). We truly give thanks to God for all of the support of those who cheer us on, those who give donations of goods and money, and those who hold us in their prayers. Tomorrow night, we will be passing through customs, always a challenge, and we ask for your prayers for all our goods to easily pass through as they did last year. The next time I write, I will be in Nicaragua! In Christ, Cathy 1. To provide 81 water filters so that every family in the very poor villages of El Higo, La Trapaga, and La Carbonera has one and can drink potable water. 2. To provide 5 water filters to Ninos y Ninas del Futuro children's project so that they will not have to purchase their water and so that they can help families have clean water when the water system breaks down in their area of Somoto. 3. Provide a latrine for each of 16 families in El Higo where there currently are none. 4. Provide medication at our clinics where we will serve over 500 people: de-worming pills, pain relievers, antibiotics, vitamins, and antifungal creams will be the bulk of medicine distributed. 5. Fit 300 people with reading glasses so that many will be able to see clearly for the first time. 6. Construct one house for a single mother who works hard cleaning and ironing while caring for her developmentally delayed daughter and teenage son. 7. Construct a second house. The family who will receive this house is currently being chosen by trusted people there. 8. Provide five roofs for shacks to provide some protection from drenching rain that falls on dirt floors. 9. Give micro-loans and sewing machines to five women in Condega to start a sewing co-op. 10. Give scholarships that will provide school supplies, uniforms, shoes, and a healthy breakfast to 15 children and youth. 11. Provide funds for finishing the construction of the second building for Ninos y Ninas del Futuro children's project so that the older children have a safe place to receive support, receive an education, and worship. 12. Conduct many mini-projects, such as giving a wheel chair to a young women crippled with arthritis and unable to walk, repairing desktop computers for the children's project, and providing the preschool at the children's project with toys. 13. Provide Vacation Bible School at every clinic site. |