When I first arrived here I noticed my feet were so swollen from the heat (apparently this is a common thing) that I could no longer fit my shoes comfortably. The heat here is piercing and dry and there is no escaping it, especially when you, per say, live in tents and cook on concrete. I laughed when my teammate who has a thermometer said “its 115 degrees today”
“Of course it is” I look around at the group of people I work with sitting limply with squinting eyes and melting foreheads. This month we live here. Close to the hottest point in Nicaragua, among villages that are experiencing a drought in their raining season. The best we get to a storm is heat lightning. We pump our own water from a well, the bathroom is a public hole, and the shower is a bucket. Our camp is overrun by wild dogs who look to be starving to death, they stand around just waiting for a crumb to fall from our mouths. That’s not to mention the pigs, chickens, and cows who consider our outdoor living space theirs.
We wake up at 5 am because you can’t sleep any later than that with a sun competing for hottest ball of fire. We get ready and head to ministry that feels like a 3 day excursion due to heat exhaustion. The crazy thing though is, somehow, I love it here. I forget about the sweat rolling down my back when I see the familiar faces light up in the neighborhood when they see us. I forget about the fact that my refrigerated water is already hot enough to burn my tongue when children run up to me to practice the English they’d learned in our classes. I forget about the fact that I won’t be able to sleep tonight after a long day because the weather is refusing to drop to a cooler state when I look up and see how God has chosen to paint the sky so clearly here with stars of silver.
I have fallen in love with this month and the people we get to serve here, despite the hurdles it takes to do so. Despite the extra work to stay clean and hydrated, despite the long walks to ministry in the sun and the oven my tent becomes… it’s worth it. It is an amazing ministry that we’ve been invited to invest in here. A ministry of loving on small villages that are struggling with day to day life. We have the privilege to love on and make relationships with these people during a hard time for them. How grateful I am for that. Something tells me there is something special about this month. Something more important is happening than I expected. I don’t know what but I am quite open to what God is doing and I feel so blessed to join in and have the opportunity to be a part of His plan for these people!
I am very convinced that something good is coming.
Joy. Expectancy. Contentment.
Alyssha
