So, as I said, I tried to write down at least “something” everyday to give yall a good glimpse of life here at Vision Nicaragua!
Saturday– We invited all of the kids from the surrounding communities over to the ministry site for the day. We just had a lot of fun playing baseball, frisbee, and of course soccer. After lunch, we had 3 "lectures" for the kids: Sanitation (the importance of keeping yourself clean), Pollution (the importance of keeping your community and environment clean), andFaith (why it's not only important to keep your body clean, but your spirit clean as well). In between lectures, we set up piñatas and let the kids expel some of their built up energy. As Ron said, “You can only make the little ones sit for 20 minutes at a time. After that, they start to wander off. But this gets them tired again!”
Sunday – We went back to the small community called Bethel to help host the first annual soccer tournament for the kids. Everyone did their part to make it something this community will never forget. It was amazing to see the people of the towns gather for an event like this. People brought out their chairs just to sit and watch the games. You’d think they were watching one of their own kids, but no, they’re just watching… Most of the time I wondered how many of them were just curious, stopping by to see what was going on in Bethel. Because stuff like this doesn’t happen very often in Bethel.
Every day was usually the same old routine for them. But today that routine was broken. And for once in their lives, the kids who played in the soccer games were the center of attention, the main attraction! I wonder how many of them have spent their lives being forgotten, in the background of people’s thoughts. Well today, all eyes were on them! As Ron said, “This was their Super Bowl.” And the way they celebrated after each goal confirmed it!
My job was to referee all 4 of the games!
I even had sideline refs.
Monday – After a weekend with the kids, we headed to Leon for the day to get some supplies and shop for our secret Santa! We also had the chance to visit the biggest church in Central America!
Inside the church.
View of the Leon shops from the church.
Just enjoying the view from on top of the church.
Tuesday – Construction month finally began! We worked in 2 teams. One team worked on the new house, while the other worked to install the new roof of the existing house. I was working at the site of the new house. As you may know, Nicaraguan houses are not like the ones in the states. First of all, it’s only costing Estella about $1,000 to buy the land and built it. The floor plan of her house is going to be a simple 22×16 foot box, dirt floor, concrete foundation, brick walls, and a few pieces of tin for the roof. One door, a bed, toilet and sink. That’s about it.
This is the existing house. We're actually building the new house around it and then tearing the old one down after.
We first had to dig the trenches for the foundation footers. We dug 3 trenches the first day.
Wednesday – We finished the last trench at the site of the new house. Then, we moved to the site of the existing house where the other team was working on the roof. While some tore down the old roof, others painted the support joints for the new roof.
Thursday – Now that the old roof was demolished, Dan and I began to lay block for the new roof. It was fun to finally get to lay some block! But, as you can see, the scaffolding they built for me in 10 minutes is definitely not OSHA approved!
Mixing the mortar.
Friday – Today we worked until noon laying block. Then we headed back to the ministry site for our “Christmas Break!”
Saturday – Christmas Eve! The teams will be spending Christmas Eve at the beach!
If you want to see more pictures, you can find them on my Facebook!
