Nicaragua Adventures

Hola de Nicaragua!

We are having a wonderful time in Nicaragua so far! Sorry it has taken a little bit to write my first blog. We have pretty limited access to internet here. Currently I am typing this up on a Word document and when I find a time to connect my computer to wifi I will post it! It is crazy that we have already been here for almost two weeks and we only have one more!  Although we have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time it is getting sad that we are through a lot of our time in Nicaragua. Anyway, in the next few paragraphs I will explain what all we have been able to do during our time in the country thus far.  First, I am going to describe a little bit more about the organization, With One Hope, which I am working with here.  I know I mentioned some in a previous blog, but I think it will help you to better understand this blog if I explain more about the organization again. Also, if you would like to learn more you can go to withonehope.org to read more about the organization.

The Organization

With One Hope is an organization that was started by Chris Cunningham, an A&M graduate of 2006 and member of Aggies for Christ. I heard about this organization by going on a mission trip through AFC my spring semester of my freshman year.  Chris has taken many trips down to work with his organization over the years and I am so glad The Lord influenced me to go! Anyway, With One Hope is an organization that strives to alleviate poverty by encouraging sustainability.  Although it was started by an American, With One Hope is becoming completely Nicaraguan run with monetary support coming from The United States.  This organization provides monthly food packages to families as a supplement to their nutritional needs. Currently, With One Hope supports seven families each month with the full food package.  Secondly, they provide three families that have children with disabilities with a formula such as Ensure to make sure that these children are receiving the proper vitamins and minerals they need.  Thirdly, the organization gives one family monetary support for the work the mother does growing and maintaining a garden in her yard to try out many different fruits and vegetables and how well they grow.  With One Hope has also started many preschools in different cities all over Nicaragua to increase the amount of children attending school. With One Hope sees the benefit in quality over quantity and the importance behind building relationships.  There are two individuals, Walter and Johana, who work full time with With One Hope here in Nicaragua.  Walter is responsible for all the paperwork and documents that they need to send to the government as well as delivering the food packages to all of the families.  Johana is in charge of purchasing all of the items for the food packages as well as cooking meals for any groups that come down.  She also lives at the church and is responsible for cleaning and maintaining it.  Walter and Johana work together to visit the families during the month to continue to develop relationships with the children and their parents.  There are two words to describe who Walter and Johana are to everyone they encounter and these words are love and joy. They speak so much truth into the lives of these children who have come from incredibly horrible pasts and who are still dealing with so many trials today. They are wonderful examples of what it looks like to live a life loving The Lord. This is very important in a culture where this is rarely seen.  Walter and Johana work hard to show these children that they are loved not only by them but by their Holy Father.  These two also strive to show them how important, intelligent, beautiful, funny, and creative each one of them are.  It has been amazing to see the transformation that these children have had since I was last here in 2012.  Along with the materially support that this organization provides they also ensure that all of the children are attending and making good grades at school, ensuring that the parents are no longer involved in the crippling parts of their past by providing new avenues to earn money, and using encouragement to lift up the families and teach them about Jesus. The majority of the families that With One Hope supports are single-mother households and it is very important for the young girls especially to see Walter as an example of a husband who loves his life with the love of The Lord and truly cares for his little daughter with all that he has. He instills in the young girls the knowledge that they are very valuable and lovable and should never have to give themselves up for a man.  There are many other examples of how Walter and Johana embody who Jesus was by sharing his love and his amazing grace to these families.  Although this little paragraph cannot capture the huge impact that With One Hope has made in Nicaragua, hopefully it helped provide some knowledge for you to understand a little bit more about the tasks of the organization. 

Our Trip

This is Kasey and I''s precious house that we are absolutely enjoying to be able to call ours! It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, and kitchen area. It is so nice!

This is a view of a little walking trail that is in the compound that we live in. It is beautiful and all the trees make the temperature feel wonderful!

This is Chris and Walter's house, known as The Watermelon House. However,  they believe it is purple.

Now I will move on to what we have been able to accomplish on this trip so far! I will be posting random pictures amidst all my words as well.  First I will introduce you to the team a little bit so you will know who I am referring to when I mention people’s names. It will be pretty easy because there are only really four of us doing a lot of the work together.  The first person is Chris Cunningham who started With One Hope.  He spent a little over a year living here and appointing people from here to work for his organization.  He still comes down to Nicaragua somewhat frequently to see how things are going and to continue to form relationships with the families.  The next person is Kasey McLenna, she is also a nutrition major at A&M who is Aggies for Christ with me.  She developed an interest in using her nutrition knowledge overseas and after hearing what I was doing this summer she decided to join! The fourth member of our team is Walter who I already mentioned above.  The four of us have been working together along with a few others like Johana.  

Food Packages

We have spent time putting together the food packages and delivering them to the families, talking with Johana and the families to see how the utilize each ingredient in the package, checking the status of a new school being built, exploring the beautiful country of Nicaragua while learning the culture, and beginning a documentary to share each family’s story.  The two biggest purposes of this trip are to create the documentary and make any modifications to the food packages to create a healthier and more substantial package.  We have a nutrition survey that we have created that we are going to ask each family to see what they eat in a normal day and how they prepare each item that we provide in the package.  The packet contains rice, beans, sugar, oil, spaghetti, sardines, coffee, Ramen noodles, chicken soup mix, soy meat, and drink mixes made of barley, oats, and corn.  The diet of Nicaragua revolves around these four main items: rice, beans, sugar, and oil.  It was very interesting to discover the reasoning behind this.  While talking to Walter one day, he explained to us why these four ingredients are essential in the diet here in Nicaragua.  During the 1980s, there was a revolution in Nicaragua.  I do not exactly remember who it involved but that is not too important for this right now.  Anyway, the conditions were very rough for the population of Nicaragua and food was very scarce.  The main access to food was from the government that consisted of food packages containing rice, beans, sugar, and a little bit of oil.  During this time, the country had to learn how to use these four ingredients to survive.  Even after the war, the country still chose to utilize those few ingredients more than others.  Walter said this was a huge shift in the culture and has remained roughly the same for over 30 years. The biggest concern from a nutritional stand point is the amount of sugar these families consume daily.  After talking to Johann, she said a family of average size, maybe five to six people, would use a pound of sugar each day.  A big challenge for us is to figure out ways to make small incremental changes in the sugar content without changing the culture.  Although there is much more that can be said about our ideas for the food package, I will save it until later after we have discussed more with the families. 

Although it is hard to see, this is an example of the food package that With One Hope gives to the families each month.

This is an example of the milk/formula With One Hope provides to some of the families. This is the type given to Ruth

Going to Leon

 The weekends are a time of rest for us so the first weekend we went to a city called Leon and stayed with Walter and his parents.  We were able to tour the city and spend the majority of the afternoon and evening relaxing at the beach. Also while we were in Leon we were able to check the status of a school that With One Hope began building in December.  We did a few activities with the children in their old school while workers were finishing a few touches like doors and windows on the new one.  It was awesome to see the huge difference in where they are having school now and where they will be able to have school soon.  It was good to be able to see another aspect of With One Hope that we are not really focused on with this particular trip. 

This is Kasey and I hanging out one of the many times in the car.  We spend a lot of time driving all of the country of Nicaragua to visit schools, families,  churches and beaches.

This is us working with the children at their old school in Leon.

This is part of downtown Leon

One of the many lions outside of one of the churches in Leon, which means lion in Spanish

The beach we spent the majority of the afternoon at in Leon. It was so relaxing and beautiful.

This is the new school that is almost finished for the children in Leon. We were able to watch workers install the windows and doors.

This is the inside of their new school.

This is what farmers do in Nicaragua to ensure that their pigs do not escape their property. Also, behind the pig to the right is where the children in Leon are going to school while their new school is being built.

 Sunday was also a pretty relaxing day.  We went to church in the morning and then Kasey and I washed our clothes the old school way during the afternoon. It was really fun to experience the culture here in a new way.  It is so nice to distance yourself from technology every now and then. 

This is Kasey washing clothes the old fashioned way.

The result of Kasey and I's hard work washing our clothes!

Life in Nicaragua

  Ok, so what does a normal day in Nicaragua look like?  The first few days were a little different but then we somewhat created a consistent schedule. We spent the majority of the first few days putting together the food packages and delivering them to the families. Usually during the week, we leave our houses around 8:30 to start our work for the day.  We do some sort of work in the morning, eat lunch at the church made by Johana, do more work in the afternoon, hang out at our houses for about an hour, head to the church for dinner, and then relax at home preparing ourselves for the next day.  One day this past week we spent the morning going to the market with Johana.  It was neat to experience the way Nicaraguans shop and the craziness of the market! We spent the afternoon asking Johana questions from our nutrition survey to grasp initially a usual diet in Nicaragua.  Later, we began filming her while she told her story.  Walter and Chris asked her a few questions, but it was mainly her taking the time to share where she had come from and how The Lord had strengthened her into the woman she is today.  Although, I could not understand every word she spoke in Spanish, it was incredible to see the emotions and the tears she shed while sharing her story.  We were a little bit nervous about asking people to share their stories figuring they may be camera shy or just think that no one would care to know where they have come from but it is wonderful to see how empowering it is for someone to share so much about their life.  I am so thankful that The Lord encouraged Chris to make this documentary.  I am so excited for the finished product and for many people to be able to see and hear how The Lord is working in Nicaragua.  I will probably not go into great detail about each individual family’s story in order to allow you the opportunity to see it the first time when you watch the documentary.  Johana is an amazing cook and we are so fortunate to have her cook our lunch and dinner everyday.  She even spent one morning teaching us how to make some of her specialties.  

This is one of the many examples of how crafty Johana is. She made this card by hand and has many more things like this that she made to decorate the church.

Here is Chris working on the documentary with Johana.

Johana showing us how she makes scarves.

Walter holding all of Johana's scarves she made.

Johana teaching us how to make maduros, which are fried mature plantains.

Maduros are Chris' favorite Nicaraguan food hence the huge smile on his face.

Harby's Story

 We spent some more time this past week visiting families in the program and capturing their stories.  Each family has a unique story that just shows the creativity of our God.  One family that With One Hope supports right now is really hurting and has been hurting for the last several years.  Silvia has an 18-year old son named Harby who has been battling with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for about four years.  He currently has two big tumors in his lymph nodes by his groin which causes him a great deal of pain when he walks.  We were able to visit him in the hospital and pray over him and his mom.  He had been in the hospital for a few weeks receiving morphine for his pain.  About a week ago, he was kicked out of the hospital.  The health system is essentially free in Nicaragua which makes it not always the best.  The doctors basically told Harby and his mom that he is not going to get better. They explained to him that they could not waste any more morphine on a kid who is just going to die.  The reality is they said these exact words to him and his mother.  They said it would be best if he just went home to die.  Isn’t that just awful? Our prayer is for either a miracle or for God to take Harby home.  The suffering he is going through is unbearable.  Please take a few minutes to pray for Harby and his family.  Ask that God be big and perform a miracle or that He take Harby into his comforting arms of rest. We were able to go visit Harby and Silvia at their house a few days ago. Silvia said that Harby was actually eating and seemed like he was doing better.  Harby even called on his mom to go help him out of bed to walk out into the living to greet us and thanks us for coming to visit.  It is amazing to see the joy that this family has amidst the trial they are going through right now.  They have such a strong faith in what The Lord has planned for their lives. 

Ruth's Story

 This week we also spent a great deal of time this with Ruth’s family.  Ruth is the mother of five children.  Four of these children currently live their house with her and her husband.  Ruth has a daughter who is also named Ruth that has special needs. Taking care of Ruth while also raising her other children is very demanding job. Like I mentioned earlier, I won’t go into huge details of their story because I want the documentary to have a big impact on you.  This is a family that With One Hope supports with formula that has helped Ruth a great deal in her development.  It was an incredible opportunity to hear Ruth share the many trials she has encountered and overcome while raising a child with special needs.  We also got the opportunity to spend time with the young boys while they shared with us what they do to help out with the family.  They love to help out with the animals.  They have pigs, chickens, roosters, ducks, bunnies, and dogs.  What is also incredible is the piglets, chicks, ducklings, and puppies that also come with those animals.  The boys absolutely loved showing us all of the animals and telling us their names. We were sure to capture that on video as well.  We also were able to here Ruth’s daughter Virginia tell her story.  She is 18 years old and is studying English.  She is one of three girls from her class of twenty four girls that started school.  All twenty one other girls have become pregnant or are mothers and will not return to finish school.  She has incredible dreams and desires and it is awesome to see how confident with who she is and how valuable she is as well. It was absolutely wonderful to spend so much time with Ruth getting to know her story while loving on her children. 

This is Ruth's son, Brian, showing us a little chick, one of the many animals they have in their back yard.

Here is their mama pig and all of her piglets.

This is the backside view of Ruth's house from the backyard.

We have also spent some time in the evenings with these two young girls in one of the families named Guiselle and Lupita.  We played Uno, solved riddles, and even took them to the circus!  This past Friday was Mother’s Day here in Nicaragua so we took Walter to Managua to spend the day with his wife on their first Mother’s Day as a family.  Kasey, Chris, and I then spent the afternoon in Managua eating lunch and even going to see a movie! The movie theatre was so nice; each person had a full recliner to relax in while watching the movie. Sunday morning we went to Managua to go to church with Walter, his wife Rene, and their new baby Walkiria. Although the whole service was in Spanish and I could only understand bits and pieces, it was wonderful to worship alongside many brothers and sisters who love The Lord so much.  It was so great to spend the afternoon eating lunch with Walter and his family. I was able to meet Rene last time I was here so it was good to get to talk with her again and of course I love any opportunity to practice my Spanish with someone who is patient! They are such a wonderful and encouraging couple and their baby is absolutely adorable. 

This is Kasey, Me, Rene, and Walkiria after church on Sunday.

 It is very great to take some time to recuperate on the weekends in order to rejuvenate ourselves for the next week full of Spanish conversations, nutrition surveys, and documenting stories.  This next week will be much the same but only with different families that have different stories.  This morning we were able to go to one of the preschools that With One Hope help start in Jinotepe. Kasey and I were able to read the children the story of Noah, we made crafts, and sang songs. It was so much fun! I think this is all I have for now. Also, Kasey and Chris are more of the photographers and not me so hopefully I will be able to borrow some of their pictures so I can show you more!   I cannot thank you enough for all of the thoughts and prayers. More updates to come soon!