I apologize for the delay in posting a blog or responding to emails. Wifi access is very limited this month as it requires a 20 minute walk into the city to get wifi and even then, it is often very spotty. In addition, I have unfortunately been sick for most of my time here in Nicaragua. It started with allergies or a sinus infection (I’m not sure which) during debrief, which I am still fighting off. Then, I recently had to visit the local hospital after getting a bacterial infection – they gave me an IV and sent me home with 2 different antibiotics and some other medicine. That first night before going to the hospital was one of the worst nights of my life. I kept running to the bathroom all throughout the night and woke up to a fever and aches. I’m still recovering from this, so prayers are much appreciated.
Also, I am unable to upload any photos at the moment, so I apologize for not having some photos to go with this post.
Here is the lowdown on month two….
Country: Nicaragua
City: Grenada (on the outskirts of the city)
Language: Spanish
Time difference: 2 hours behind EST
Local meal recently eaten: Gallo pinto (which is rice and beans), and a lot of it. This is a VERY common dish here and is eaten for any meal of the day. In Costa Rica, they primarily eat black beans, while Nicaraguans primarily use red beans.
Ministry site: This month, our ministry site is El Puente (which means the bridge) – click the name to check out their website. They have a 2 acre lot where they hold many community events such as the sole bilingual church in Grenada, support groups, Bible studies, etc. They are also plugged in with several different local pastors and ministries that are involved in different things including feeding programs and kids groups.
My team ministries: Since we have the whole squad together this month, we have a weekly rotating schedule based on teams. Most of our work here involves manual labor (guess God was preparing my team for this in Jaco). The first week here though, my team and I were assigned the local nursing home, where we helped clean the property and visit with the residents (stay tuned for a post on some of the people I met there). We also helped out with a few feeding programs and kids Bible lessons.
After this, it was our turn to join another team and go to the island (can’t ever remember the name of it) where we are helping to build a church from scratch. You can read more about this adventure at the end of this post. This next week, my team will likely be clearing out land with a machete and/or installing water filtration systems.
Living conditions: We are staying on El Puente’s campus. They have one large, connected dorm towards the back of the property consisting of 35 or so bunk beds where we are all staying. This is all squad month, but we keep rotating shifts to a nearby island, so we have roughly 36-38 of us here at El Puente on any given day and the remaining 12-14 staying on the island.
As is typically the case on the World Race, we have no A/C, but we do have fans overhead in each “room.” While it remains extremely hot inside during the day, these fans make a significant difference at night and I’ve gotten some of my better sleep while here on the property.
Since it is all squad month, we blocked off one section of the bathrooms for the men and the other for the women. So, these leaves us with 2 toilets and 4 showers for 32-33 women at a time while the men get 2 toilets and 4 showers between the 4-9 of them (depending on whose team is on the island). As was also the case last month, we are having quite a few plumbing issues, so right now we only have 1-2 working toilets for all of us to share and 4 showers. I am still very grateful for even this though, especially after my island adventure.
Weather: It is another extremely hot and humid place with the temperature typically hitting the upper 90’s each day. It rains many nights where we are at, but the days are typically clear and hot.
Interesting fact: Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America. 43% of the Nicaraguan population lives in rural areas and 68% of them are trying to survive off just over $1 per day.
Lake Nicaragua, which we have swam and boated in, is the home of the only freshwater sharks in the world, bull sharks. It is a HUGE lake that can easily be mistaken for an ocean at times.
We were told by our ministry hosts that the gang violence has been steadily increasing recently, though they are not sure why. As such, we have been asked to not stay out past 8:00pm and travel in groups of 4 after the sun goes down. The first night in Nicaragua, two of my squadmates were robbed as they were walking home and there have been recent gang murders just down the street from El Puente. Most of the sketchy stuff occurs at night, so we just generally make it a rule to not go out once it starts getting dark, and we have been fine.
What surprised me: The huge differences between downtown Granada and the surrounding area. I’ve read the statistics about the poverty here in Nicaragua, so was initially surprised to see just how gorgeous the main downtown area of Grenada is! There are rows and rows of beautifully colored Spanish-style churches and buildings and cobblestone-esque roads. It is such a cute city to walk through with all types of offerings from chocolate massages and iced lattes to carriage rides, all inexpensively priced. We stayed in this area during debrief, but are now on the outskirts of the city, which is more typical of how people live here.
As soon as you start walking away from the downtown area, the reality of those statistics becomes more and more evident. Many people live in very simple homes put together with wood and/or pieces of metal scrapping. Most of the people living in the areas we visit for ministry have dirt floors and no power. I’m constantly amazed by the joy the children have and find in simple things, even when living in such conditions.
Off day opportunities: They have all kinds of tours here from monkey boat tours to a nighttime cave lava tour. I doubt I will get to do much simply because of how busy our schedule is here. However, the one thing I plan on getting in before I leave is volcano boarding. You hike up a volcano and then essentially sled down it, while wearing a lot of protection for the onslaught of rocks it can kick up. It’s a 3 hour bus ride one way, but I’ve heard the view and hike alone is worth it.
So, here is a summary of our time on the island, for those interested. We take two teams out at a time, so the 15 of us all packed into a long, wooden boat with 3 of the men we would be working with. We then set out for a 2 hour boat ride to our site.
The island was definitely one of the hardest parts of my Race thus far, mostly because of the living conditions. There was no running water, so we brought large jugs of water to use for drinking. However, our mess kits we brought along had to be cleaned using lake water and I’m certain the food was cooked with this as well. Some of the women there cooked for us every day and each meal consisted of rice and beans. Sometimes we got some extras thrown in such as eggs with breakfast or fish caught by the local boys there. One day we even ate fried Armadillo, which was definitely a first for me. I could have done without seeing the Armadillo alive and roped first though.
There were two “bathrooms” and no shower. One bathroom was for urinating (which consisted of some bags covering rocks that you stood on) and the other was for….well, you know. It was essentially a pit latrine with a seat covered by boards. These were both quite the experience. To make matters worst, we did not have any soap or water to wash our hands in, so had to rely on hand sanitizer we brought. You are probably starting to see where I likely got my bacterial infection from.
There was one room that the pastor and his family gave up for us to stay in. It had one bed and one mattress on the floor. We fit 4 on the bed and 3 on the mattress. I stayed here and while glad to be protected from the elements, it was extremely hot in there with no fan or air. So, I did not get much sleep. 3 people slept in hammocks as that is all the wooden covering could hold and the rest of the group slept in tents outside.
The first morning we woke up on the island, there were swarms and swarms of these gnat-like bugs everywhere! They were in our bowls, our food, our water, our ears, everywhere! Luckily, they were mostly just around the house, so our work site was pretty clear of them. Each day during our lunch break and at the end of the day, we all jumped in the lake and washed off that way. We mostly did it just to cool off and accepted the fact that showers would be had when we returned to El Puente. We won’t even get into the many tarantulas I saw! They had these odd grey looking ones that burrowed themselves in the sand, so they kept popping out as we shoveled and sifted it. For those who know me well, you can imagine how freaked out I was.
Once there, we settled in and got right to work, which was pretty intense. Our first two days we rotated between digging trenches and moving dirt, sifting sand to separate the rocks out and mixing and placing concrete for the foundations. We literally had to mix sand (which we ourselves gathered from another part of the island), rocks, some kind of cement mix and water that we brought in from the lake. I learned the “volcano technique” of mixing it and then we quickly shoveled it into buckets and dumped it where it was needed. I was surprised by just how physically taxing it was to carry buckets of water and cement, and doing so under the hot sun definitely added another level to it.
Some of us also created columns from scratch to be used in the foundation of the church, using metal bars and ties. It is crazy how much work goes into creating things that we can easily purchase pre-made in the States. Our final day involved taking a 20-30 minute boat ride to another part of the island where we shoveled sand into bags, then carried them across the rocky water to load them on the boat. I finally gave up on my chacos and just went barefoot, even though the rocks were killing my feet as I walked across. Then, we had to unload each bag when we returned for use in mixing the cement. We made this trip 3 times, which equaled many bags carried. This was a whole workout in itself and I definitely left the island sore and tired.
Though it was hard and I will admit that I intentionally had to work on keeping a positive attitude, God did begin showing me some things through this experience. He continues to show me just how much security I get from controlling things, and my need to work on patience and grace when I can’t. It also served as a reminder of how so many people live every day, and just how much of a luxury simple things such as entertainment or wifi are. I was once again encouraged by my team and how well we all work together, even when put in difficult situations.
My team returns to the island next Monday, so please pray for good health and perspective as we wrap up our time in Nicaragua there. I leave you with a hilarious spoof video my talented squadmate, Victoria Baxter, made about some of our time on the island – see below.
