Nicaragua

What an incredible week. Nicaragua was much different than I expected…and VERY different from Costa Rica. As we approached the border last Saturday, the scenery began to shift from lush, green, and mountainous, to empty fields, flat roads, and intense sun. We passed the Lake of Nicaragua which surrounds a huge volcano- so cool!

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, and this was also evident as we were passing through. We had an adventurous journey on three different buses by the time we arrived in Diriamba, Nicaragua Saturday evening.

The currency in Nicaragua is called Cordobas. 20 Cordobas equals about $1 USD. To give an example of how cheap things are there, a ride in a Moto (their form of a taxi) is 5 Cordobas.

Moto!

Ice cream at Eskimo (the DTS’ favorite spot during the week) was about 15 Cordobas. We went with a Nicaraguan to the local market and bought breakfast for 35 people for 6 mornings and spent $50 USD. For 35 people! Crazy cheap.

The week was packed full of different activities led by our DTS: kids ministry at numerous elementary schools, English classes, church services, house to house visits, prayer walks, gatherings at the community park, a cultural/prayer night at the church, and the library- the library was my favorite part. A Nicaraguan man, Mynor, opened up this library a couple months ago and it was so amazing to work at. Each day, the library would be full of kids excited to read books, play games, and learn. A lot of kids don’t attend school and are able to come hang out at the library instead. I could have just sat in a chair at the library each day and watched the kids interact and read- it was that amazing to see! It might seem like a normal thing, to have a local library, but this is so huge for a place like Diriamba! To see these adorable kids so eager to learn and to know how little opportunity they have, it breaks your heart and encourages you so much at the same time. I loved, loved, loved our time each afternoon at the library.

Besides sitting with the kids and reading, we had tons of different projects happening at the library. Some DTS students printed out flyers advertising for the library and walked around town passing them out. (Many people visited the library for the first time last week because of the flyers). Some of the guys built a table, some students taught an English class, and a group of us painted a huge mural on the outside of the building. I was part of the mural group most days, and it was so much fun! I can’t even tell you how many people stopped and watched us. Kids stood next to us for an hour at a time just watching us paint. Adults stopped and asked what we were doing, how much we were getting paid (haha), where we were from, etc. It attracted so much attention and ended up being such an awesome tool for interacting with the community.

Just beginning...

In process (note all the onlookers)...

Finished product!

I still can’t get over the way the students stepped out during this past week. I’m so impressed! We have a lot of maturity, a lot of wisdom and SO much compassion in this group. In fact, we had to have a talk about doing “extra ministry” because our students were planning classes/house visits/etc that weren’t on our schedule! (Of course we encouraged them, we just reminded them of our commitments already made). The hearts of the students were so evident this week. It was a good time to learn for us staff- how we work together as outreach leaders, strengths and weaknesses, surprises for our budget (that was my area- yikes!), and how crazy things get when your group is 35 people large.

Typical staff meeting... :)

On the last night in Nicaragua, a family in the barrio (neighborhood) cooked a typical Nicaraguan meal for our whole team. It was so delicious! We had a couple different meats, fried plantains, “enchiladas” (which tasted nothing like the enchiladas I’m used to, but they were good!), a sort of roll up that reminded me of taquitos, refried black beans, and salad. It was so generous of the family to cook for us! That’s a lot of food, for 35 people.

Everyone came back beaming and so excited to share with people back here in San Jose. Lots of stories, lots of pictures, and lots of memories were made this week. We’re excited that most of our team is returning in about a month!