Well we arrived in Palacaguina with our contact Jaime (pronounced Hi-may) on Monday. We took a private van (with A/C, praise God) from our debrief location in Managua to the bus station. Then we were blessed when a coach bus had enough seats for all 13 of us. Jaime said the bus made really good time.
We thought we were nearby when we got off the bus. Then he told us that we had a 20 minute walk. As we were walking, it began to rain a little which was refreshing. After 20 minutes had passed, we asked how much longer and he pointed to a hill with a radio tower on it and said that’s where we were headed. It looks to be about another mile away. After about another 30 minutes, 50 minutes in total, we arrived at the church. We met the pastor, Ipolito, and were greeted with a wonderful meal.
The teams were informed that the following day we’d be split up to divide and conquer. Mates went to a clinic to move some dirt and TUMBLERs stayed at the church to move dirt to make a parking lot. Since it would be an early morning, we set up “camp” – whether that be tents, or sleeping pads, or hammocks – and hit the hay.
Tuesday Shayna and I had to work on logistics so we we’re a part of much of the action. We came back to the church for lunch and everyone was already exhausted from the morning labor.
On Wednesday, Jaime decided it would be better for both teams to be at the church for work on the parking lot. Again, Shayna and I had to work on logistics. We went for the morning and came back for lunch.
After lunch we helped the teams out with the dirt. Boy was it a lot of work. Basically we are creating a parking lot that’s probably going to be big enough for 20 cars or so. However, the dirt needs to be removed to make it level – and there’s a lot of it! In most places between 2-3 feet of dirt needs to be moved. We have 24 hands, 3 wheelbarrows, 2 pick-axes, 2 metal pry bars and a handful of shovels.
It’s pretty intense work and when one of the Nicaraguans steps in, we feel rather useless. These guys can disrupt so much dirt so much faster than all 12 of us its crazy. After Wednesday was over we finally realized we had made some progress.
Today, Thursday, we all went to the clinic again to clean up the grounds. They don’t have the budget to hire a groundskeeper so it gets a little messy. There were a lot of leaves, rocks, and garbage all over the place. We spent the morning there and cleaned up a lot of garbage. Jaime was happy with our work and we headed back to the church for lunch.
After lunch, Jaime surprised us by saying we could have the afternoon off! He said we had worked very hard for the past three days and deserved a break. We have a mini-crusade tonight from 6-9 and then we leave for a retreat tomorrow at 4am. We’ll be at retreat through the weekend and be back to work some more on Monday!
