Nicaragua Day Two

Today was the beginning of our work and the task for today was to get to know Pastor Silvio and his congregation, as well as to see their homes to prepare for distributing the water filters and sharing the health and hygiene program beginning on Monday. 

We had a very festive welcome to the church -- they asked us to take turns hitting a piñata! Here you can see the kids scramble for the candy as Kara begins to knock it loose. Their teacher, Paula, is the woman standing by the tree in the black shirt and she was afraid for the kids' safety as they weren't going to wait for Kara to stop swinging!  The man in the far left is Pastor Silvio, the pastor of this church. 

Another local pastor, Pastor Marvin, was also on hand for the festivities. He was recently named president of the Nicaraguan Lutheran church. On the right (with his hands on his head) is our driver, Ervin, who will remain with us for the week. 

Ervin and the others are standing in front of the school where Paula teaches 25 students. Here you can see her bulletin board with the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed in Spanish:

Here you can see the classroom desks and whiteboard. This building also has a skylight which we are hoping to repair this week. 

After our welcome at the church, it was time to visit the members' homes. Since we are here to teach about water, Pastor Silvio and our other guides made sure to tell us about their various water sources. Most homes have a well like this one to provide the family's water needs. The water is not clean enough for drinking, but the families do and have many health problems as a result. 

Rainwater is also collected:

This family had built a contraption with a bicycle wheel to draw up their water:

Washing clothes is definitely manual labor here:

This little cutie could have been a toddler anywhere as she enjoyed splashing in the  water as all toddlers do:

This chicken was about to be chased out of the kitchen:

Many families keep chickens -- this family also keeps ducks. The eggs from both provide protein for the families. The structure in the back right is the family bathroom:

Dogs were everywhere:

We were also surprised to see so many pigs living with the family. We learned that this family raises them both for the meat and to sell to provide some income:

Animals need water, too, so these recycled tires serve as watering troughs:

As one church member told us, "We are poor in possessions but spiritually rich."  This was quite evident in the level of warmth and contentment we saw. The children quickly began to hold our hands as we walked through the village. My two buddies, Erica and Juliana, made Greg stop and take a picture of us:

When we got back to the church, Pastor Silvio and several of the youth sang for us. We're looking forward to worshipping with them tomorrow:

On our way back to Chinandega I decided to try and capture some of the many modes of transportation. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Haiti), so many don't own cars. There are lots of these bike taxis. Some are used for people and some for cargo -- we saw more than one fruit vendor with a load of coconuts or melons in the front. 

Horse-driven carts are everywhere:

American school buses are used as city buses. The side of this one said Jesus es la roca (Jesus is the Rock) and many had religious themes:

The Lutheran seminary is located in Chinandega:

The inside of the church on the seminary's campus:

Then it was time for lunch -- we had chicken again today. Paul thought he was getting a small sampler plate but ended up with his own taco bar!

After a stop at the supermarket (my kiddos will be happy to know that I bought candy), we came back to the hotel to work on various parts on this week's project -- we have a lot of materials to prepare. Shortly before dinner we had a major downpour:

Dinner tonight was chilaquiles -- a delicious combination of chicken, cheese, onions, peppers, chips, and more:

The hotel restaurant serves delicious coffee so when our server brought some after dinner we asked if we could take a picture of the bag so we would know what to look for on our next supermarket trip. 

So that's Day Two. Thanks for reading and please keep us and the people of Quince de Julio in your prayers.