It's month 3, and I am in Nicaragua. More specifically, I am living on an island called Ometepe, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. My team and I are doing ministry at a children's home called CICRIN.
There are currently 19 children, ages 4-18, who live on the property. Most were removed from their families by the government because their families could not provide for them. A few are orphans. All of them are well loved and taken care of here.
Ministry:
Our ministry this month is helping on the property. CICRIN sits on about 15 acres, and needs a lot of hands to help maintain it. Right now we are helping tear down and rebuild a gazebo type thing beside the lake, where the kids can hang out in hammocks, relax, have meetings, and where we have impromptu worship at night. There's also a lot of painting, and small building projects to do. Besides construction, we spend a lot of time working in the garden. Almost all of the food eaten here comes from the property. Fruits and veggies are grown in a massive garden, there is a chicken coop for laying eggs, and these weird sheep-goat things and chickens are raised and butchered for meat (obviously this vegetarian Racer is exempt from that task). The garden requires a ton of upkeep, and planting, weeding, and harvesting are daily tasks. Aside from the manual labour, we get to play with the kids as much as we want, and help with their English lessons a few times per week.
Accommodation:
We are being treated to large rooms, foam mattress beds, and daily showers (necessary after doing labour in 35 degree Celsius heat). However this is the World Race, and nothing is quite as good as it seems… so this month we are also being treated to a lot of bugs and creepy crawleys. It is no reflection on the ministry, just something that is unavoidable in this climate. Our room is never without geckos,spiders, wasps, and hundreds of ants… all up in our packs… and in the bathroom we have seen all of the previous mentioned things, as well as snakes, and a large lizard just outside the door. Yup, definitely on the World Race.
(5 girls living in 1 room… this is what it looks like)
Food:
All of our meals are cooked for us (3 people help with meals every day). A lot of rice and beans, and fresh fruit juice. CICRIN receives a lot of food donations, and right after we arrived, a large quantity of soy meat was donated by an American company. So I (a vegetarian) have been spoiled with vegetarian chilli, veggie burgers, and a weird noodle hash thing. Super blessed by plentiful food this month.
Other:
So, the property is out in the middle of no where. It's a 2 hour walk to the closest town on the island. Which is a blessing in that it's been easy to save money, it's freeing to not have a bustling city around you, and it's healthy to be away from the convenience of constant snacks and coffee shops. But it's a struggle in that there is no internet aside from the 2 hours you get once per week in town, and a financial deadline is coming up in a couple weeks.
One little incident that happened the first day we got here, is that I was attacked by these tiny little bugs, and got around 500 bites on my legs…. pretty much like 500 mosquito bites. It made for a miserable few days until the itching died down, and yes, I did look like I had a deadly disease (see the picture of my legs below). I learned the hard way that everyone needs to stay inside between 4 and 7, when the bugs are at their worst.
We also got rocked by the earthquake in Costa Rica on September 5th. We felt it very strong, and it seemed to go on for a good 60 seconds. I'm used to having a little earthquake now and then at home, but this was big. Definitely a bit of a scare for all the teams on our squad.
If you're reading this and you know me, let me tell you that I am doing great, and still haven't felt homesick.
If you're reading this because you're on the World Race and you're team is coming to this ministry, let me tell you that you are about to be blessed by a wonderful contact and a great location.
And if you're reading this and considering applying for the World Race, just do it!
HELP! My next financial deadline is coming up on September 30th, and I still need $1000. You can donate through the link on the left hand side of this page. Every $1, or $10, or $100 helps!
