Bicycle-taxis and tuk-tuks roll up and down the narrow streets, whisking riders between blocks of sherbet-colored houses and businesses. A few blocks away, one can hear the megaphone of a mobile produce seller, announcing “¡Aguacate! ¡Cebolla! ¡Tomate a casa!” If the winds blow the right way, the faint smell of smoke from the nearby sugarcane fields drifts through the arid heat of April.
Yet under the surface of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua – this seemingly quaint, agricultural city – a silent killer lurks. Wives and mothers fear the worst as they await news of their husbands and sons. In some small, nearby pueblos, few men are still alive, and those that are still suffer.
Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Origin (CKDu) is a mysterious, geographic-specific epidemic affecting two specific populations: sugar-producing populations in Central America and agricultural towns in Sri Lanka. No one knows how or why this disease is caused, nor how to solve it. The New York Times, National Geographic and NPR (click on names for links to articles!) have reported on the disease in Chichigalpa and some point to the extreme conditions at the sugar cane fields, either the agrochemicals or the extreme working conditions as triggering the disease. Because they sometimes get blamed for the problem, the ingenio, as the sugar megacompany is known, tests creatinine levels of its employees each year. Too high, and the prospective employee is rejected, as high levels of creatinine indicate kidney disease. High creatinine here is essentially a death notice.
A look over the sugarcane fields to San Cristobal, which blew its top a week after our visit!
In some of the neighborhoods outside of Chichigalpa, up to 86% of the men suffer or have died from the disease, sometimes within a year of diagnosis.
Yet, in the midst of finger-pointing as to what’s to blame (pesticides, dirty wells, extreme working conditions, genetics, the list goes on…) one American, with a well-regarded background in sanitation and water supply, is passionate about the people here and will stop at nothing to determine the cause – and hopefully find a prevention or cure. Don Van Veldhuizen travels from his home in Portland, Oregon, to these remote locales of Nicaragua as often as he can, many times a year, to build relationships with wary victims and their families, the ingenio, the health ministry, scientific research teams and others. He doesn’t have any preconceived notions of who is responsible, nor does he seek to blame anyone. He recognizes that people on all sides want to find a solution and he is opening doors for information and research sharing.
Don was in town our first week of ministry and we joined him in collecting and testing drinking water samples in several communities. Our testing was as well-structured and organized as possible, this wasn’t a joke. We recorded the GPS location of all our tests, noting the sources of drinking water, the materials used for the wells and pipes, the amount of daily water consumption, the number, gender, age and occupation of the residents. We collected multiple samples from each site to test both with Don’s mobile lab back at our site as well as for him to test at facilities back home.
I’ll admit, I felt a lot like Erin Brockovich, the California legal clerk who worked tirelessly to test the water supplies and support the marginalized populations of a rural town. In fact, we tested for the same chemical, hexavalent chromium as well as another chemical compound, trihalomethanes. Don’s working hypothesis is that there are a number of factors involved in causing CKDu here, the strongest of which being the possibility of poor quality water in residential wells, possibly due to unsafe concrete, runoff or storm damage.
Charis and Jarrad reviewing the water samples in the cold office!
At the end of our week with Don, he gathered us together and thanked us profusely, sharing how impossible it would have been for him to have collected and tested so many samples on his own. I am still waiting to hear what the full results and preliminary conclusion is on our week of testing, but I am confident that Don will continue testing, researching and gathering information until he can find a solution. It was an absolute honor to work with him this month, in an opportunity that I never dreamed I would have on the Race.
Like my time in Guatemala, I am reminded of the necessity of bringing hope to hurting people. During our testing, we would often sit and listen to stories and broken hearts of the residents who lost loved ones, some having lost all the men in their families. One week of testing won’t solve the problems nor produce a revolutionary academic paper, but it is one step in a line of many. I am so thankful and blessed to know Don and to see people fight for those who suffer in the world, sacrificing time, talent, and countless resources.
If you would like to find out how you can help care for the needs of the people of Chichigalpa, or perhaps join Don on another of his research trips (he is always looking for people to join and I would LOVE to come back with him in the future), you can reach him on Facebook or at dvan [at] globalpurewater.com or you can talk with our New Song Nicaragua ministry contact, Cadence, at cadence.snyder [at] gmail.com.
Even though this post was pretty serious, I do want to continue to end on a lighter note of things becoming normal in Nicaragua:
– “Nicaraguan Snow” – ash and bits of charred sugarcane that flurry from the sky from the various fields of the ingenio, where the cane fields are burned before the sugar can be harvested/extracted.
– Heat – It was over 100 degrees F every day we were here. I’ve never been so sweaty sleeping in a tent.
– Soda/Gatorade – when it’s this hot outside, I spend quite a bit of spare cordobas seeking out a cool beverage. I think some of the tiendas around here know me pretty well! I usually drink a ton of water back home, but when you’re burning up, a cold soft drink tastes A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
– “¡Adiós!” as a greeting, not just a goodbye. You use this greeting as a way of being friendly, but indicating that you don’t have time to stop and chat.
– Overcrowded tuk-tuks, zipping me perilously across the rutted dirt alleys and “roads” of our town
– Chichigalpa Taco-Man: I salute you and thank you for many a cheap, tasty meal.
– Adventures: our month in Nicaragua was full of fun adventures with our contacts, including this day of hitch hiking and playing at (and underneath!) this waterfall outside Matagalpa!
Love you all and miss you.
