Day 4 at the Worksite & Another Great Nica Afternoon

Just a few highlights below from the day, including a great trip to the SOL site in Las Delicias for some afternoon fun, a community about 30 minutes outside Dario. Some interesting before and after pics below as well from our typical ride to the worksite in the back of a pickup, that shows the difference in energy level after the workday.

Hospitality to Strangers

Deuteronomy 10:19 You shall also love the stranger, for you we're strangers in the land of Egypt.

All it took was a casual conversation about avocado farming with Tom and one of the people we're working with at El Chaguite and we were invited to a local farm. Although we barely knew this family, they invited us into their home for freshly made tortillas, queso fresco, a local cheese made from the milk of their cows, and pastries. If that weren't enough, Shelly was invited into another person's home that she barely knew, as were walking down the road to the farm. Between everyone's hospitality and sampling the local fruits, what an experience,

The Food – Que Rico

Working at El Chaguite the past five days in the Nica heat and humidity has been physically demanding. Fortunately we have Enrique and his La Estufa (The Stove) restaurant around the corner with some great food and buffet style meals. Breakfasts are always at his place, with lunches and dinners catered by him at the SOL Learning Resource Center where we're staying. All of our meals have been typical Nica food, and usually include gallo pinto (spotted rooster) which is a Nica staple at most meals and is made with beans and rice.

Snacks for the worksite this week have been an interesting adventure. Each day some of our group heads out into the community to buy them from local merchants and usually consist of fresh fruit and bread/pastries from the local bakery. Early this morning the three old men (aka Jeff, Tom and Joe) headed out at 6:30am to buy freshly made tortillas and pineapples from local women in the neighborhood and cheese at the main outdoor market in the center of town...Que Rico!

Where We're Living - LRC

While we're in Ciudad Nicaragua, we are staying at Seeds of Learning's Learning Resource Center. Our group is sleeping in one of four rooms. Pat and Silvio drive us around in a pickup and old Toyota Landcruiser. And Dona Maria has been graciously doing our laundry. Between our living environment and transportation, we're living a very good life here by Nica standards. Some pics below.

Our Nica Kids and the Joy of their Smiles

Three action packed days since we arrived, so keeping this brief tonight. We've spent the past two days at the SOL Learning Resource Center in Ciudad Dario and our worksite in the rural community of El Chaguite Santa Maria. As part of our time in both communities, we've had two great welcome ceremonies. This afternoon began with playing with the kids at the LRC--water color paints for the chicos, stickon tattoos, board games, sidewalk chalk drawing, friendship bracelets and bubbles for the older kids. Great end of the afternoon as well with a dance lesson and watching our own Nate Coleman jamming with the local LRC band. For the conversation tonight about Highs and Lows, a ton of Highs and not any Lows. Looking forward to more days like this one and continuing our connection with the warm and welcoming Nica people.

What we’re working on & the El Chaguite community

Tuesday we started our work on the pre-school addition in El Chaguite Santa Maria, about a 20 minute drive into the foothills outside Cuidad Dario. This is an add-on to the existing primary school and will support approximately 12 kids between the ages of 3-5...and yes that's the outhouse from El Porvenir (more on them in a future post) that the kids all use as their school bathroom. El Chaguite is a relatively small community of approximately 300 people and comprised primarily of three clans.

As they've done for the past 25 years, Seeds of Learning's policy has been to work with the local community, so we worked side by side today with 10 people from El Chaguite. We mixed concrete, put together reinforcing steel for the concrete and took down concrete forms from the crown. Along the way we played soccer with some of the local kids and did craft projects with the Chicos. Just before lunch we got to visit a local family and farm and had an incredible experience...with more about that in the next post.

This evening during our devotional time together we talked about the theme of Rejuvenation and how this trip after only a few short days has re-energized our spririts. It's been long days and everyone's worked hard, but really excited about what we've had a chance to do here. All in all, another great Nica day.

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua...It's Great to be Back

Although it's been two years, it seems like yesterday we were at our old worksite in Villa Japon. It was great re-connecting with two of the three amigos--Julian Guevara & Casey Callais--who were the consummate hosts on our last trip. 

Although everyone was worn out Sunday morning from the late-night trip down the day before, we had a great time briefly touring old Managua. After that we went out to our old worksite in Villa Japon, to see the school building we worked on and to see/meet our old friends and Villa Japon village elders Memo and Raquel. Since we were there two years ago the village has increased their school population by almost 3x. Thank you to all from RHUMC who donated computers to the teachers and students of Villa Japon where they'll be put to productive use.

What a way to start to the trip!