Thursday, May 31, 2012

Home Sweet Home!

After a long day of travel, we have safely returned to the United States with many wonderful memories, awesome pictures, and a reminder of our many blessings!  How we take for granted the little things, such as running a tap with drinkable water and flushing toilet paper!

Some final team reflections:

Ariela - "This was such a good team to travel and hang out with - we had a wonderful time serving, worshipping, laughing, and talking!  A few things I'll always remember:
1. Jared holding a little girl by the hand, telling us that she was the sister of friends that were involved with the filter training
2. Janelle befriending a troubled orphan and genuinely enjoying spending time encouraging him
3. Tim running down the bank to the river to collect water samples
4. Eric playing ball with and high-fiving the little boys in the village
5. Rachel and her gel pens; she brought joy to many children by drawing pictures on the back of dark brown hands
6. Zac always making us laugh with his observations and unique take on things
7. and Linnet and her babies; I loved watching her eyes light up as she held those precious little ones!"

Eric - "My highlight was definitely being able to interact with the kids.  They were so excited to see us and even though there was a language barrier, we had so much fun!  It was also rewarding to install 3 drinking water filters; to know that the children in the orphanage will be receiving clean water is a blessing!"

Janelle - "Our time in Nicaragua was fantastic - we met so many amazing people, it was so hard to say good bye!  One of my favorite people I met was a boy named Fransisco; he made the girls a flower out of a palm leaf and later showed me how to make more things.  He was just so fun and brightened my day!  I also really enjoyed passing out water filters to people in the village.  Seeing the sense of accomplishment on people's faces after the completed the class and earned their filter was really rewarding!"

Linnet - "I am always amazed at how much God can do in a person's life in just a little over a week.  I was reminded time and time again during the trip that everything is in His timing.  He knows every detail of our lives and the lives of those around us.  He wants us to do our very best for Him, and even when we cannot see the final outcome of our actions, He is still at work!"

Tim - "The trip was amazing!! I am so thankful for all of the wonderful experiences!  My highlight was the stay in the village and installing the filters at the orphanage.  I'm thankful for the lessons learned and relationships built!"

Personally, I was stretched outside my comfort zone to be flexible when plans changed, challenged to be still in God's presence, and reminded to give thanks for all my blessings.  Visiting the Feeding Program on Monday and seeing the hundreds of kids sharing this one simple meal (on bucket lids, Frisbees, random bowls, etc.) really touched my heart!

Thank you for supporting us these past ten days - we felt and greatly appreciated your prayers! 
May God bless you and keep you.  May His face shine upon you (:

- Rachel

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Final Day in Puerto Cabezas (5/28)


It’s hit that point in the trip where our thoughts start to turn to reflection as we wrap up our time here in Nicaragua. We have all learned a lot about ourselves and have seen some of what God is doing in our lives from our time on this trip. As much as our work here influenced others’ lives, our lives have been influenced by those we have met here. 

Our day was not all reflection- there’s plenty of time for that while traveling tomorrow. Eric and Tim installed the third and final hollow fiber membrane filter system today, Rachel and Linnet were able to help with a feeding program started here, and Zac, Jared and I were a part of the debriefing meeting for those who taught the water purification lessons in the village. A lot of good work was accomplished today. 

We also got to have some fun today. Jeff drove us around Puerto Cabezas and we got to see the ocean and visit his favorite ice cream shop. The ice cream was a delicious treat. Jeff also bought a cake there and we celebrated Jared and Tim’s birthday at dinner tonight. Jared’s birthday is tomorrow and Tim’s is Friday- both are turning 21. 

Please pray for good weather as we travel tomorrow- that we may arrive home safely and on schedule. Thank for all your support, we’ll be home soon.
Janelle

Monday, May 28, 2012

Sunday 5/27

After two nights in Awas Tingni it was such a blessing to shower and sleep in our clean beds back on the FEI compound. After our much needed rest we were greeted once again with a wonderfully prepared hot breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs, and pancakes. After breakfast we walked up the street to the Verbos Church were we would worship.
                The worship experience here was one of the best experiences of the trip. The majority of the songs were in Spanish, but our group didn’t seem to mind and sang and clapped along with the congregation. The worship team was amazing and it was such a great experience for us all; they even sang a song or two in English! The message was brought to us by one of Jeff Thompson’s friends who was visiting for the week. He was an American so the entire sermon was in English and translated by Pastor Earl. The topic was about entering into a friendship with Jesus.
                After Church we ran back to the compound, as it had been raining hard all morning, and had a delicious soup made by some of the ladies of the church. It consisted of many locally grown vegetables, some beef, and rice; it was amazing. Much to our dismay we learned that we would not be traveling to the beach in the afternoon as originally planned due to the rain, which was still coming down with no sign of stopping. So the afternoon was spent in discussion with our team and allowed for a lot of time for reflection of our time in the village and our trip thus far. Before dinner Zac, Jared, Tim, and I spent some time trying to find some ripe mangos and coconuts which were growing on the compound. The fresh fruit was delicious.
                Our dinner was amazing and reminded many of us of home…we had pizza! Freshly made pizza was brought over from a restaurant owned by the Church across the street from the compound along with freshly baked doughnuts! It was all so good and we all had a wonderful time eating and fellowshipping with one another. After dinner Rachel led some of the group in a Zumba lesson which was entertaining for all. (some of us are not very good.haha) We then had devotions and are heading off to bed after a refreshing Sabbath prepared for our last full day of work tomorrow.

“Lord we thank you for your protection over us as we were in the village. We thank you for this day of recharging and relaxation so that we can finish strong on the work that needs to be done. Amen”

-Eric

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Sunny Saturday

...and we're back.  In Puerto Cabezas that is.


Today (Saturday) was day 3 in Awas Tingni.  There was a lot of excitement as this was the day that the filters would be distributed to those families who attended the classes.


Tim led us in a great devo at about 6:15 am.  At this point most of us had been awake since 5 am (when the sun came up).  It was not too difficult to do this after going to be at 8:55 the night before. Not having electricity really changes our behavior!

Three ladies from Puerto Cabezas had come with us to cook.  They made sure that our food was handled and cooked correctly.  Preparing three meals a day for about 20 people sounds more than a little daunting to me, but multiply that by the factors of not having electricity or running water!  In short – they were amazing.  Preparations for lunch would begin almost immediately after the breakfast dishes were done.

All of the filters were in a black duffle bag.  I (all of us) hoped and prayed for a difference to be made in the health of the families who received them.  Through their lessons they were encouraged to share clean water with their neighbors.  The families selected to receive the filters were among the neediest in the community.  They were identified by Cipriano, one of the village leaders, who some of us met last year during our visit.  Jared is FB friends with his son!  

The training occurred in three separate classes – each taught by the newly trained teachers.  At the completion of the lessons and the assembly of the bucket filters, the students each were given a certificate of completion.  The pride on their faces was priceless.  Jared, Zac, and Janelle were so pleased to see their new friends receive this recognition.

Rachel, Tim, Eric, and Linnet occupied the kids during these final classes.  We then loaded the bus and headed back to Puerto Cabezas.  We were able to take much needed (and anticipated) showers and then spent a good bit of time singing worship songs and talking about our impressions of our visit.

It was a great day!

Ariela

Full Day In Awas Tingni (5/25)


Friday was the first and only full day in Awas Tingni. It started out very early; the Moorish church in the town ran the bell for morning prayer at 4:45! Our sleep was broken up in the early morning by the seemingly hundreds of roosters calling at the sun and in opposition to each other. After we moved all of our stuff out of the Baptist church and had a quick devotional time then went to breakfast. Just like every other meal, it was a delicious! Although it was simply beans and eggs, it was pine pine (Miskito for very good).Two cooks from the FEI compound came with us to prepare all of our food while we were in the small rural community. We didn’t miss a single meal while we were there and ate much better than the members of community did. After breakfast, we started the water education. Zac, Janelle, and Jared were involved with the adult classes. Eric, Rachel, Linnet and I lead some classes for the little children. The kids were adorable!! We understood very little of each other’s words but that did not stop us from having a blast with them. We tried to explain to them the broader points of the importance of clean water but much of the information was totally lost on them. They thought we were hilarious as we waved our arms about trying to explain the water cycle. Their smiles were infectious, and their laughter was one of the highlights of the trip. The lessons for the kids only took about an hour, so with our remaining time before lunch, the four of us along with Ariela wondered to the more remote water testing locations. Walking around the village on similar excursions and living with the community while we were there gave the impression of belonging to the community and feeling like a part of the everyday life. The sense of family was palpable in the village. It was a sharp contrast to communities in the United States where everything is centered around the individual rather than the group. After we ate lunch, the group teaching returned to the school to finish their lessons, and the rest of us returned to wondering around the village and playing with the children. The afternoon was pretty low key; we hung around the bus and house where we ate. The down time was nice because it gave us a time to sit and reflect on the trip so far. It also gave us time to interact more with the kids, playing baseball and soccer with them. The mother in the house next to ours had her kids pick us oranges for us off their trees! The orange wasn’t orange though, it was green!! Also, it was delicious.  The afternoon waned on as we relaxed and played with kids. The classes finished and the rest of our group returned. Shortly after they got back, we had dinner (which was again amazing! Fried yucca, rice, beans, and fried chicken made a wonderful meal). The Jesus film was shown for the second night in a row. Since we had seen it the night before and it wasn’t in English, our group stayed back and hung out on the porch of the house. It was a fun night filled with conversation and laughter. After the movie we went to the church and set up our nests for the night. We basically went to bed as soon as we were all set up. No electricity and the knowledge of a very early start the next day spurred us to lying down for the night just before 9. It felt good to sleep. It was a long day where practically every experience was brand new. I am sure that I speak for all of us when I say that it was a day that I will never forget filled with lessons that will stick with me throughout the rest of my life.

 Tim

Traveling Thursday


Thursday we traveled to Awas Tingni to work with the people there. It was a long, bumpy ride with beautiful scenery.  
When we got to Awas we started to unpack the bus. It started pouring down rain so we quickly took shelter under the porch nearby. All the kids who had come out to see why a big yellow school bus had arrived in their village ran under the porch as well. The first few minutes were awkward as most of the kids only speak Mayagna and Miskito. We tried all sorts of things to break the ice—hand games, singing, making silly faces—finally Rachel pulled out the gel pens. We started drawing small pictures on the children’s hands and instantly they were flocking. Kids were pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line. It felt like we were drawing for hours. It was finally time for lunch. We braved the rain and ran upstairs into the house to get our soup. After that we retreated to the bus to eat lunch and wait out the rain. The rain finally got a little bit lighter and Jared, Janelle, and Zac headed up to the school to begin the water training. Ariela, Eric, Rachel, Tim and I went up a little after them to make sure they didn’t need anything. They seemed set so we headed off on our own little adventure.
                Awas Tingni isn’t an especially large village so we decided to walk along the main road to see all the houses. It was the way we had driven in, but walking you get a different perspective. It was wonderful getting to take in all of the sights of the village. We saw children full of smiles playing in the yard, clothes lines (made of barbed wire) bending to the weight of the clothes, lots and lots of mud, cows and pigs roaming everywhere, and many houses. Getting to see the village this way gave us a glimpse into the lives of the people here and will hopefully help us to interact with them more effectively.
                Later in the day we headed down to the river to do some water testing. At the first river we saw a mama pig come to the opposite side of the river. She had six piglets behind her and we were sure that she was going to turn around. Instead she jumped in and they followed. The river was running rather quickly after all the rain we had had and we weren’t sure how she expected them to be able to cross. Soon we saw the mama pig and four babies run past us. A few minutes later a fifth one came by—unfortunately we never saw the sixth piglet. At the spot in the river where we were doing testing there were two people in a dugout canoe on the other side trying to get a horse to come across. The man finally had to get into the river up to his chest to pull the house in. Once the horse was in it started trying to swim across. The river was too deep for its feet to touch the bottom so it was slow going for the poor thing. It took awhile (probably having ten people on the bank cheering it on didn’t help) but the horse finally made it across.
                After dinner we had a viewing of the Jesus film. We started it out by doing a puppet show for the kids about the importance of clean water. It was a wonderful collaborative effort with six of our eight team members and one of our interpreters. We aren’t sure if their laughter was because of our play or because of our troubles in pronouncing the Spanish, but none the less it was fun. The Jesus film drew quite a crowd and our team ended up having to get up out of our seats so people would have a place to sit—PRAISE GOD! The work that the Jesus film does is incredible. Not only was it probably the first movie any of the people there have ever seen, but it was in Miskito. What an incredible blessing that the people were able to hear about the love Jesus brings in their own language.
                After the film it was time to set up our sleeping quarters. The movie had been shown in the local Baptist church, which was also where we were staying. We quickly set to work unpacking our hammocks and tents. It was so fun to see seven hammocks hanging from the rafters of the church along with the two tents on the ground. It was like a giant sleep over party with friends! We finally went to sleep around 9:00 to be well rested for the next day.

-Linnet

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A waterful Wednesday...


Dan and Jonelle Stevens from Livingwater are here leading a three-day workshop that equips participants with sanitary water consumption practices and the tools needed to spread this knowledge in their communities.   Jared, Janelle, and I learned alongside community leaders from Awas TIngi, a group of translators used by the El Verbo church ministry, and a local nurse. 
We arrived a day into the workshop; even so it has been a taxing two days: our attention spans are all still waning since the end of the school year and it’s been 85 - 90 °F with 90% humidity. What’s been most difficult, however, has been maintaining an open and curious attitude throughout the sessions…the material itself is tailored for less-developed countries, in particular isolated rural areas. In addition, the workshop normally lasts ten days, so ideas we covered were the most fundamental: how to minimize the intake of pathogens into the human body.  So we discussed the reasons to hand wash, when to hand wash, how to hand wash, along with ways to properly store and transport clean water. 
All this to say that it seemed pretty basic at times, which set me up for a fairly dismissive attitude.  But that wasn’t the point of the workshops; their point was to teach how to teach these ideas.  And I was also interested in how Dan and Jonelle were themselves teaching.   So I was forced to constantly check myself, step  back, and refocus. 
All of that is to say that I’ve been required to concentrate way harder than I ever expected. Oh, and did I mention that we worked in English, Spanish, Miskto, and Mayagna?  Four languages.
We’re going into Awas tomorrow, so it’s fairly imperative that I understand the material.  Our twelve person class will be teaching there over the course of the next few days before distributing fifty bucket filters.

In other news from Lake Wobegon, Tim and Erik installed another filtration system, this time within the orphanage.  They were slowed by a fairly long power-outage, which are frequent here.  Tim wants me to mention the help they received from one of the kids here, named Leodon.  “He’s a pretty cool kid.”
Linnet and Rachel spent the day preparing educational activities for the trip to Awas. 
We had our first bananas of the trip today. 
Pray for us as we prepare to travel, and especially for our work in the village.  We will need health (well, we really only need to be able to hold liquids), energy, concentration, direction, patience (Have you heard the expression, “hurry up and wait.”?  This is where it originated), and a decent breeze (it’s going to be hot).
 Linnet would like me to point out that because we'll be in the village for the next couple days, we will not have access to the internet (and not updating the blog)...

-Zac!