Month 3 of 11 Recap: Nicaragua - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Month 3 of 11: Palacaguina, Nicaragua

Ministry: Pastors of the Kingdom

Overview:

This month has been absolutely incredible. It’s my fourth time coming to Nicaragua after a short hiatus during my time at Belmont University. My three other trips to Nicaragua were with Christian Fellowship Church on the eastern coast in Puerto Cabezas. This past month I have been able to explore new cities and fall in love all over again with the places and people of this beautiful country. We started the month off with a few days in Granada for Leadership Training Sessions with our squad leaders. Those three days gave us the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Granada before heading off into ministry for the month in different places all over Nicaragua.

Palacaguina, Nicaragua is in the Northern Central part of the country. Three World Race teams including mine served here in ministry between three different pastors and their churches. We were fortunate to be paired with a really amazing host family including: Pastor David, his wife Damaris, and three kids Daniel (Age 20), Byron (Age 17), and Edwin (Age 15). Their church is located on a hill, and their home is located at the bottom of the steps to the left (or right depending on looking up or down at the home). My team and I stayed in the church in our tents, enjoyed our meals on our hosts front porch, and used bucket showers and an outhouse! One of our favorite parts of living here was Wilbur, the family’s pig that lives next to the shower area.

We had an incredible time this past month. It was a humbling experience and we were so fortunate to be blessed by the amazing relationships we were able to cultivate and grow. This month was great because our ministry work wasn’t something we did between certain hours of the day…it was a lifestyle. Our work varied throughout the community and on the outside of the church.

Unfortunately we did lose a team member the beginning of the month. Sasha Hosick chose to go home from the Race the first week due to medical reasons.

The project, events, and activities we took part in include:

Fix ups around the school

Paint the inside and outside of the church

Excavate a hill of straight rock to create the foundation for a children’s area

Assist in the building of a home to house missionaries with another team, The Joy Bombs

Dig up holes on a mountain for another church an hour away with the two other teams

Cook and feed the kids of the community Tuesdays and Thursdays

Climb a mountain to see all of Palacaguina and pray over the town…and then come down aka fall down the mountain (yes, this was a day of ministry for us with our Pastor)

Make house visits and pray with the families in the community

Take part in the services of the church that took place three times a week

River trip with the youth of the church

Inauguration of a maternity ward in the town

Prayed with the Mayor and her council before their town planning meeting

Visit the old folks home and children center

Sights

Very dry land

Dirt roads

Cows passing by the porch during mealtime

Mountains

The Pacific Ocean during our trip to Leon!

Monkeys while in Granada

Tobacco fields

Coffee factories

Sounds

Roosters crowing….all night long

Pigs (in particular Wilbur…our lovely shower mate)

Pigeons on top of the roof every morning

The sound of the wind blowing off our tin roof

Breaking up rock with a pick ax and hammer

Smells

Pigs

The aromas coming from the kitchen as Damaris cooked

Random Things I Learned

I actually love having rice and beans all the time

How to use an outhouse regularly

How to climb down a mountain (it’s not as easy as it sounds)

Nicaraguans don’t have much chocolate in their pulperias/tiendas

Our host family jokingly paired off each of their sons the first week with the girls on our team (we didn’t find out til the last week)

In Latin American culture Christians don’t listen to secular music or salsa dance

Don’t lay on a wall in the central park with my phone on my stomach (yep. It shattered)

Chocolate milk from a bag is really good

Granada has amazing pizza place called Pizzaoili (look this up online)

Real Life in Nicaragua is

Lying in my tent in the back of the church watching The Real Life of Walter Mitty as the locals prepare for the church service in 10 minutes

Hand washing my clothes next to a pig named Wilbur

Taking a shower with a bucket

Fighting off the vicious ants

Walking 30 minutes each way into town to use the Internet for 10 C an hour

Waking up at 6:20 to get in morning yoga/pilates

Having meals on the front porch as cows and bulls pass by

Using an outhouse as cows come down the road

Teaching a 3 hour English session to 13 & 14 year old girls

Fighting to keep the metal sheet from blowing down as I shower

Activities on our Days Off

1^st Monday off: Waterfall in Estelli

We hiked, swam, and enjoyed the day with another team and a couple others from another team. The waterfall was beautiful!

2^nd Monday off: Leon

16 of us took a private school bus to the city and stayed overnight at Bigfoot Hostel. We left at 5 am to arrive by 9 am and have a full day in the city.

Highlights from this day off include: breakfast each morning at Desayunazo, a popular breakfast place in the city (highly recommend it!), for part of the group Volcano Boarding with Bigfoot, chocolate croissants from Pan y Paz (a French bakery), smoothies!, spending the day at Bigfoot’s beach house, meeting a girl named Kristen and her friend “Crispy”…both are from Nashville! Kristen graduated a year before me from Belmont and just so happens to work with one of my really good friends from College at CAA.

This day also happened to mark the 1-year of my best friend Sami’s death, and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend it. Everything about the day was perfect down to the pink sunset I watched over the Pacific Ocean.

3^rd Monday off: Lazy day with the team

We spent this day doing whatever we wanted. We got to sleep in til 9 am, do our laundry, workout, taking naps, writing blogs, using the Internet in town, and watching movies.

4^th Monday off: Quiet day with myself!

A few people went to explore the canyons an hour away, and the other two on my team spent the day on the river with our Pastors sons. I had my first day alone in 3 months! It was absolutely amazing. I was able to get a good workout in, write emails, shower and pamper myself, and start a new book called My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock. I highly recommend this book!! The day was great, but by 6 pm I was wondering where the rest of my team was. Partly because I’ve lived with these people 24/7 the past 3 months and it was weird being alone, but mostly because I felt trapped in the church because I can’t go anywhere alone. Regardless, it was such a treat!

A HUGE Thank You to those who donated to my fund this month:

AJ Hermandorfer

Kristen Pappalardo

David Kranich

Hannah Unis

Tyler Hancock

Dana Hoyes

Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, VA

Lisa Russell

Walter Wallace

I am now 75% funded!! The remainder of the $4,000 is to be raised by July 1. Please prayerfully consider donating to keep me on the field! Any bit counts!

James 1:2-3 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.