Lets go to Trohilo!

I first want to apologize for the time it has taken me to update you all! I have been very busy lately and catching up on sleep this past week from the team that just came from Charleston South Carolina from Seacoast Church. This group had 11 people and with CFCI Short Team Ministries leaders Joe, Carolina, Moises, and his wife Meyling, and myself there was a total of 16. This number may seem small to some and at first, it was to me as well. I think of mission trips I have taken in the past and I remember 25-30 people sometimes depending on where we were going and how the market was for income. I remember the first mission trip I took out of the country. It was to the Dominican Republic and I was very impacted by the work we did and how God used our group. I remember doing a skit and loving on the kids. There was something about this group from South Carolina and these kids of Trohilo Nicaragua. There was a certain cry that their eyes held. There was a certain smile that just made you want to never let go of the vulnerable child you held in your arms tickling him or her until they would fall out of your lap. There was a certain willingness to play their favorite game countless times (drip, drip, drop, OR gota, gota, bano). I will never forget this community of Trohilo Leon. This was an indigenous group of people and was located on the outskirts of Leon, Nicaragua. Leon was one of the first founded cities in Nicaragua next to Granada and they were both the capitol at one time. The people decided on a meeting point in the middle and that is why Managua is now the capitol. Both Leon and Granada have a very similar style to the houses built when the Spaniards first voyaged over to Central America. It is a beautiful place. Houses have NO separation between the two of them; the walls to houses are all about 5-10 feet higher than a normal North American house. They are sturdy and made of concrete blocks, but painted all different, and bright colors. I love the city of Leon and Granada. Leon is the city with the most Catholic population in ALL of Nicaragua. It is Nicaragua’s home to Catholics. So I am going to take you on a journey. Introduce you to some special people I met over this week and what I learned. You don’t have to buckle up, because you most likely will be in the back of a pick up truck bed and holding on to the side of the truck hoping the next speed bump doesn’t make you lose your balance and fall over board. Get ready! You will get dirty, you may not like what you experience, but you will never forget it! So the CFCI green and white bus pulls up to an Apostolic Church in the City of Leon. Some of the members of the team dismount the bus to use the bathroom located near the back of the church right next to the pigpen. With human feces, urine, and the smell of pigs, you can only imagine how many people attempted to hold their breath and hovered over this modern day toilet for as little time as possible. After meeting the pastor, his wife, and some people who were going to accompany us to this small town twenty minutes away by vehicle, we all piled back on the bus and got ready to see where this trip was intended to take us. As we traveled through the city streets, many people knew we were foreign because some had cameras hanging out the window hoping to catch the perfect photo of the experience they were going through. I have learned that no camera can capture the essence of what you heart ultimately feels and so I have not hauled it around as much hoping to snap a picture here or there because I know that my eyes and memory are perfect examples of blessings The Lord has given me to recall these wonderful moments. While a picture may stop time for that split second it snaps a picture for you to look at it later down the road, the sentimental meaning behind the words spoken before and after that picture and the hugs exchanged after that picture are much more meaningful and worth remembering than a smile stopped to attempt to look presentable during this photo. Back to our voyage; we reach the edge of the city and venture off the main road onto a side gravel road that goes and goes and goes. We get taken by bus down the bumpy gravel road and are peering out the windows like children in a candy store. On both sides of us there are pastures of sugar cane, cows, or every now and then a plastic house with a tin roof or a concrete house with a tin roof appear and nothing could be within 200 yards of it and this is normal. Many people were walking or biking to their next destination. I say many as in the people we did see, not literally “many” people because there were far from that. Twenty minutes later with the country wind blowing through our hair we arrive at a church entrance. From this point we have not yet reached the church itself; just the entrance and our bus driver had to contemplate whether the bus would make it down the drive. In the end, it did and we pulled up to this church. It consisted of 6 posts holding up a covering. The chairs we sit on for the service were plastic chairs used in America mainly for sitting poolside or outside. These chairs are very common in churches here and I believe it is because they are cheap and easily made. Next to our “church” were the walls and spaces left for future windows and doors to the church they intend to finish within this year. When we had church, the two times we had power, we were outside, mosquito bait, and praying rain didn’t fall through the center of the roof and drench us. The people brought their best for us. We had a speaker system that hooked up to one electrical wire with a plug running from the street which was 100 yards away from the church through the trees and maybe a couple of neighbors back yards to make it to the church. But when we didn’t have power, which was usual, we couldn’t blend our fruit juices, couldn’t read by light, and couldn’t use the microphones because there was no way to obtain electricity. We had a welcoming church service the first night we arrived in Trohilo. This service was loud and I think the same verse in Psalms was read at least twice, maybe three times. It was Psalms 133 and I thought it was so strange that these people kept reading about oil running down Aaron’s beard or dew settling on the mountains of Zion. I then realized the passage was about brother’s (of Christ) dwelling together in unity and that is just what we were about to encounter. I didn’t know my roommate, because she came with the group. I knew her name and that was about it. I also noticed that before we were taken to our host family’s house, she didn’t look too excited and I was thinking; “I will have to pep talk and babysit this trip God? Why me? Can’t you send the first timer with someone she actually knows! I will be no help!” Yes people, even missionaries think what you shouldn’t, they just usually don’t voice it until God has his chance to move. And on this trip he moved her and I closer together than I thought possible! I was talking to my host mom and her daughter who lived next door as we waited on the pick up truck to take us to our home because we each had a 3 inch twin mattress to carry, our suitcase, backpacks, and each pair had a 3 gallon bottle of water to share throughout the week. This could be refilled during the week so please don’t think we were deprived of hydrating liquids because we for sure were not! As we arrived at our house the first night, my mom (Christina) showed us our sleeping quarters. Now, we had a big room! In this room about 10 by 12 feet had a twin bed and two tables to keep our suitcases off the floor for the week. I looked at Emily (my roommate) and said, “Well we will get to be close after this week”. I can now say how “spoiled” I feel to live in Managua and how disgustingly spoiled I feel to think about my living quarters in the United States. Emily and I placed our suitcases on their tables and opened them up searching for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and our change of clothes we planned to sleep in after our shower. We were exhausted from our historical/informational Managua tour before leaving for Leon, traveling all day, and having a 2-hour welcoming church service. People in Nicaragua almost always shower in the morning so when I told my mom we wanted to shower, she asked “Now?” and I replied with “yes, please?” We were lead out to a well with a huge bucket that housed the water they used to shower in. This well did have a pump and we didn’t have to manually lift it with bucket and rope from the hole in the ground like other people did. Our shower was outside, and I mean, we had a pila to place our bathing products on and standing in front of this pila, hope that the moon was shinning bright enough to give us the light we needed to see what we were doing. On night one, we had a flash light, but it ran out of batteries shortly after that first night and I forgot to bring back up batteries. The talks Emily and I had during our showers were pertaining to what she missed and how the poor girl was homesick. I understood her all too well and asked what she missed most and about who she missed and how it is normal, but I reassured her that I am a listening ear ready for anything she wants to say or even if she wants to cry, I would be there for her. This made us so much closer because this lead us to talk about our pasts and who we were, what we have gone through, what we want to become, and the things in our lives that have affected all these things. After we took our bucket showers and kept each other entertained by talking to one another through the rush of freezing cold water running down our naked bodies in the countryside, we were ready to get some sleep! But this of course doesn’t end our first night adventure so quickly. We asked where the bathroom was because we both needed to go. During our trek to the bathroom, I noticed it wouldn’t be so bad because I got to pass this cute little pig every time I needed to go! You may think I am weird, but hey, a cute baby pig made me happy at this point! We of course had to use a latrine. And if you have never experienced this, it’s a hole in the ground, literally a concrete hole in the ground. The latrine is about 100 yards deep and is usually a house to a mountain of cockroaches that sometimes climb the walls or scurry across the toilet seat during the night. Someone told me a trick to getting them to flee when you’re ready to hover over the seat; spraying bug spray into the hole and around the hole. This trick does not work, so I told myself, well, I am going to just have to go pee the whole time here, because if I attempted to sit and something got too close and I could feel it graze my butt, I would be running to the house for my life with my pants on the ground. This latrine was always used by us Americans with the door wide open because for one, we were too tall to close the door, and two because we were both not locking ourselves in the cock roach house with no light. Again, we counted on the moonlight to help us use the bathroom. We had one roll for two of us for four days and it lasted! Emily and I were placed next to two other girls from the team and each night they came over before we settled down before bed to talk and eat fruits that our family knew we liked. They went out of their way to get us fresh mangos, coconut water, and make my favorite fruit juice, pitaya. This fruit is not in season in Nicaragua, but my host mom lives on a farm and the first one of the season bloomed right as we arrived and she picked it off and made it into a fruit juice and had her daughter deliver it to me at the school we worked at during the second day in the community. These families moved out of their normal routines, and cleared their personal space for us Americans to invade for these four days we were hosted. During the first night, I slept great, passed out, and woke up at about 5:00 AM to a crying baby. This baby was Kenneth and was only at our house the first night because his mom (our sister) had to leave on the early 4:00 AM bus to Chinandega to meet with her husband. So our host mom was keeping him for her. I was annoyed and aggravated being woken up an hour early and could not fall back asleep because by 5:00 AM the sun was already up and shining bright. So I laid there and thought how these people live like this from day to day. No fans, no air conditioning, no roof over their kitchen, chickens roaming throughout the house, and no electrical plugs throughout the house to charge cell phones. I was being inconsiderate and selfish with my thinking, due to the disturbance to my peaceful sleep. On day one, we headed over to breakfast and this was a mile and a half walk with our backpacks loaded and ready for the day. We were expected to wear clothes we could get dirty or paint on and I was ready! We headed over to the school after breakfast and team time and two members of the group shared their testimony with the school children and then we showed them how to make redemption necklaces. After this, we played games with the kids and had a blast playing “red light green light”, “Simon says”, and “Leap frog”. We then started cleaning the school of the dirt balls dried on the side or the mountain of dust built up in the windows. We didn’t get to paint on day one but headed over to the church property for lunch at 12. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday at the church and it was all food I loved! “Gallo pinto” (rice and beans), plaintains, pollo (chicken), “carne asado” (grilled meat), and a bunch of other things that are typical Nicaraguan meals. From 2:00 to 4:30 we had Vacation Bible School for the kids we invited from the school across the street and the kids who lived around the church. We had three different stations during bible school. One day one, I was translating for the face painting group, there was a guy who was making balloon animals, flowers, and swords for children. There was also a craft section where each day, the craft was something different. Everyday, there were different activities, but we had a general organized theme and pattern on how to rotate throughout each station. On the last day of painting the school I want you to know that not only did we paint walls faster than I have ever seen walls painted, we worked together, intermixed with Nicaraguans working side by side. Usually when you go to a community to help out, the people just sit back and watch Americans do the work. This community was different. They were proactive; they wanted to work along side us even if they couldn’t communicate with us because of the language barrier. It was a great way to practice and set an example of peaceful sustainability. Because during the time we were there, we didn’t finish painting the school, but instead, the Nicaraguans did it themselves! Four other members of the team were up at the church constructing a bench and table during the days while the rest of the team was at the school painting. This bench and table we made to give to the community clinic 100 feet away from the school. I was blown away by the willingness of all team members to be busy and set on getting this project finished. The youngest person on the trip was 18 and the oldest was 28, so it was quite a mixture of people and I enjoyed it very much! I want you meet Laleen. This little boy was a blessing to us at the school on our last workday in Trohilo. He had Down syndrome and was left at home alone during the day because his mom needed to work. He was at the well accompanied by Emily and Glenn who were washing windowpanes. This little boy was noticed by the two group members to be quite a little instigator of bad behavior around the school. The teacher’s must have known him because they called him by name and told him to leave! Emily noticed how dirty he was and the gnats that kept swarming around his head and landed on the sleep coming out of his eyes, so she picked up a rag she was using to clean dusty windowpanes and started washing him. The teacher, who a moment ago was yelling at him to leave, brought Emily a bar of soap and a different rag. This little boy got a bath and ate our teams left over fruit telling me each name of the fruit before I placed it in his mouth during our break we had for our snack. This little boy was a sweet heart and only wanted to be loved. He came up to me while I was on a chair painting a hard to reach window without assistance and just hugged my legs. I helped him button his shirt on and set him on his way back over to help Emily and Glenn at the well because allowing him to stay near wet paint may be a bad idea. During the second day of VBS, I met this family of five children. The oldest girl who was no older than 9 was in charge of all her little siblings; two boys maybe 6 and 4 in age and two twin girls no older than 3. She kept their hair out of their face,, guided them to where they needed to go, and kept the boogers from seeping down their face into their mouth. She was a 9-year-old girl living as a mom. I truly got attached to this family in particular and my heart went out to them! I was blown away by how mature she was at such a young age and probably not by choice. My heart hurt for them. I knew they just needed to be loved and told how precious they are so each and everyday, I looked after them, picked them up, held them, and helped them get to the next station of VBS and hoping they kept coming back! They did, and it was great to say a proper goodbye! I miss the little children who ran into your arms because your skin color was different than theirs and they knew you spoke a different language. You’re probably thinking, why would any child run to you if you’re totally opposite? In my last blog, I wrote about child like faith, and the children of Trohilo were perfect examples of just that. These children were so vulnerable and willing to love on you, if you were willing to open up your arms and allow them to run and jump into them! It was a perfect place to be! I was in heaven! I can seriously picture heaven be running around on streets shouting praises to God and picking up smiling, giggly children and throwing them in the air just to see the smile and hear the laugh that is exerted from their playful mood. To wrap up our week, we had a farewell service and during this service the group shared the Lifehouse skit. If you have never seen this, or been a part of it, please look it up on-line. It is very powerful! By this last night, I had my little niece on my lap at church asking questions and singing so loud that her little squeaky voice was so precious I couldn’t help but just stop and listen. I loved this place! The next day, we spent with our families during the morning. This morning consisted of trying coconut water, riding a horse, picking up the family pig, and getting pictures of all of us together before we departed from Trohilo. I was blissfully taking in every thing I could because I knew pictures wouldn’t do justice. I wanted to spend more time, just getting to know my mom and sisters and nieces that I lived with and near. I wanted to just work on the farm with my mom and help her sell the things she does to make a living. I wanted to just be put into this atmosphere and have to adapt because there was no other way. I just wanted so badly to stay and just take in the quiet countryside and take a break from the busy city (for example, right now, fireworks are being set off, and I have no idea why). We prayed over a guy who had high creatinine levels and then as a group, we collected $15.00 for an injection the doctor prescribed but he couldn’t afford before we arrived. We got to share our lives and stories with the families of Trohilo and hear theirs as well. I will never forget this village with plastic houses and tin walls that loved God with ALL they had. Literally! I think about all the Tervis tumblers we have sitting in the cupboards in the kitchen at home and compare it to the tree branch with the end of baby branches supporting the 8 plastic cups this family had. I am not writing you to guilt trip you about the stuff and clutter you have in your home wherever you are. I am writing to inform you that these people were so content with what little to nothing they had, loved God unconditionally, and were true examples of people who lived off faith because money was scarce and time was all they had. I loved being in this community, because I had time to think, I had time to smile and laugh with the children, and time to relish that God has blessed me with ALL that I have and everything I am in Him. Thank you for taking the ride to Trohilo! Our group got really close and on our free day, we went zip lining and then to the Masaya market to get souvenirs. On our last night, we had a feet washing, uplifting, debriefing session that left us on a good note and remembering the friendships we made. Emily, my roommate, and my twin, I loved her like she was born to be my best friend and I will never forget the impact she made on my life. She started a non-profit organization her freshman year of college at College of Charleston and is currently running it while going to school and is on fire for our Lord Jesus Christ! I encourage you to visit the website; it is awesome what she started! http://www.charlestonhope.com I met other great people who will always have a special place in my heart and especially those of Trohilo. I ask that you pray for this community and that their church and love for God will only flourish and grow! I recently renewed my passport and am getting ready to wrap up my last two and a half months here. This makes me so sad, but I know I am in good hands with God as my guide. I will be going to Costa Rica at the beginning of August and maybe accompanied by my North American mom! The next team I will be working with is the medical team from Grace Community and I cannot wait! They are coming the day after my birthday and I will be in great company! Please pray that God continues to use me daily wherever I am whether it be in the clinic in Managua, out with a team in a community, or even in my house here in Managua! I think of leaving and it makes me sad, but I need your prayers as this time is coming to an end. I am sometimes ready to leave, but other times, I know a piece of my heart will ALWAYS be in Nicaragua. Thanks for your continued prayers and support! See you all soon!