After a five hour or so bus ride from Granada, on a school bus with ALL our luggage onboard with us, we made it to Palacaguina, Nicaragua, a tiny town in the middle of the mountains. There were 50 plus people on a school bus with all our luggage. Plus the driver stopped to pick up a few random people along the way!
Our whole squad is here staying at a church in our tents. There are 52 of us.
Our tent city at King of Kings church in Palacaguina, Nicaragua
Here is a little background on the vision for Palacaguina: The pastor of this church has a vision for the churches to be united in Palacaguina. Our being here has helped that vision reach fruition as each team/teams are working with different pastors and doing different minsistries throughout this area. The issues in Palacaguina are violence in homes, lack of jobs and poor nutritional habits. Everyone here typically eats rice, beans and tortillas. The pastors here are working at creating a camp to help teach the locals how to use the land and grow other food sources. They are also building a feeding centre at one of the churches here. Another area of importance is garbage clean up. There is garbage all over and it is such a ministry to the people of Nicaragua to have it cleaned up. The pastors here really want the people to value were they live.
Picking up garbage in the street (left) and the street after it has been cleaned up. A big difference!
Each team or a pair of teams is paired with different pastors doing different ministries. We are with the team Spice of Life. Our ministry here involves a lot of "working the earth."
My team (Bella La Guerrera) and Team Spice of Life at the ministry site. We are clearing and leveling land at a church.
Monday: We have been using pick axes and shovels to clear and level the ground, for what we believe is to be a parking lot at the church. Also we have worked to dig a hole for an outhouse….The goal is 10ft deep, no easy task and we have the blisters to prove it!
"Workin' the Dirt" Clearing away dirt at a church in Palacaguina. I believe this is for a parking lot
Tuesday: There are different opportunites for us. This week some of us spent time at an old folks home, cleaning and playing music. Ciera, who is a physical therapy assistant, helped a man whom the workers seemed to not give much attention to as he is bed ridden. She stretched his legs and changed his position and prayed with him. One man even ended up coming over to the group and asked to accept Christ while we were there. Some of us (including myself) went over to the neighbouring school and helped with the preschool children. I spend time playing with the kids, and after drawing a cow in a child’s notebook, I proceeded to draw animal after animal in the childrens’ notebooks as they asked.
Drawing for children at a school
The following week we got to spend time at a institute for special needs where we helped with cleaning and spending time with the people there. A few of us (Ciera, Beca, from team Spice of Life, and myself) were asked to draw and colour some pictures, which they wanted to use as art work in the classrooms.
Drawing at the school for special needs
Some of the photos we drew at the school for special needs
Wednesday: We were back at the church pick axing and shoveling away dirt. And the following week we got to go help clean up at a medical clinic. We are told there is no funding to have people come to clean the clinic. The pastors in the community have arranged to have people clean the clinic once a month. It was so crazy to walk to a clinic that has a maternity ward etc., and to see spider webs and nests on the ceiling, ants on the counters and a pile of dead bugs and what looked like mouse droppings on the windowsills.
Thursday: We have spent time working on an adobe style house. We have been laying bricks, mixing mud for cementing the bricks with our feet, pick axing and hoeing the ground to level the earth at the front of the house, and digging a hole for the outhouse, again depth will be about 10ft deep. We also got to take part in garbage clean up along the streets another day, again as I mentioned this is a huge ministry here. The pastors were really happy to have us participate. It is a huge encouragement to the people to see others come from far away and take time to clean up their streets. We were also able to hand out tracts to the people during this time.
Helping with the adobe house, mixing mud with our feet
Digging the outhouse hole. 10 feet in this dirt is a lo-o-ong way down!
Friday: The entire squad is all together doing ministry on Fridays. This past Friday we went to an area in which the people we are working with are trying to make a place where they can teach Nicaraguans here to farm food and learn how to eat more healthy. Our jobs included: digging a reservoir, fixing up the road and building a rock wall (that is what I was involved in).
So essentially we are currently doing a lot of digging and clearing away dirt within the community here, but it has been really awesome. I did get a lot of blisters from the first week, I forgot to take a photo, but I had about 7 that burst and skin ripped off on my hands, but eventually we got to wear gloves and that helped a lot… Ha! Ha! We have done clean up in clinics and schools and clean up of the streets.
WR Cribs, Nicaragua Edition. This video shows where we live
