Hola! Hola! Hola!
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2009
1
5
21
Trip End
Jul 01, 2009
Where I stayed
Amigos for Christ
Chinandega, Chinandega, Nicaragua
Monday, June 15, 2009
We then went to the farm that Amigos for Christ owned and looked at their animals. Blah, blah. Since I am such an animal lover, the cows, pigs, chickens, and all that stuff didn’t really excite me. It was interesting what they do with them though. They do this pay-it-forward thing with people in need. The farm raises a pig or cow or something until it is about to give birth… then gives the animal to a family… and they have 2 years to give the farm back 1 pig/cow and they keep the rest. It is a way to “feed them for life by teaching them how to fish – rather than feeding them for a day by giving them a fish”.
The next thing we did was my favorite. We went to a community that Amigos for Christ built on their own for people living in the dump. They built enough houses for everyone in the dump 4 years ago to move out and live in this community. Sadly though, lots of people either didn’t leave, or left and then came back. Why is still a mystery… but that’s for later discussion. The people that did decide to take this opportunity were provided with a decent house, school, clinic, and an awesome community. It is in this community where we did most of our work throughout the week. Monday was spent getting to know the kids, playing games, and meeting some people in the community. This was so cool. They kids were absolutely heart-warming and adorable. They were so outgoing and just stared in amazement – partly because of my height, and also because of my hair! Apparently braids are like incredibly foreign to them!? Who would have known? But the kids were fun – we played a water balloon toss game, soccer game, egg toss – just things like that. Then we were free to go off and build relationships with the families. I was nervous about this because they spoke absolutely no English – but I went with Emilee who is good at Spanish… so that was helpful. Although, I actually shocked myself and was able to communicate and conversate with all of them! I was so excited! I met some neat families, satin their homes, talked, bough a bracelet, and all that stuff. It was really neat.
It was finally time to head back after a super hot, but fun day. We showered then went into the central park for dinner. This is an experience for sure! We ate at this weird place just right along the park. They sold poomas? Who knows… basically tortilla dough stuffed with cheese and beans then cooked/flattened like a pancake. It was actually pretty good – and it cost like $1.25 for a whole dinner (2 poomas, coleslaw stuff, and salsa)! That’s my kind of pricing… haha but while we were eating we were surrounded by kids literally standing right by us staring over our shoulder watching our every bite. We asked them to leave, but they wouldn’t. As soon as we got up they jump in our seats, threw all the left over’s on a plate and picked them up in handfuls and ate it. It was shocking. I just stared in amazement. Holy cow… I semi felt bad because I (of course) left nothing on my plate – but then again they were so rude during dinner that I was a little annoyed with the whole situation. That may have sounded mean, but just wait. So then we walked around and got a little dessert drink and more kids came up and were begging for it. We just said no and we tried asking their names and stuff, but they were not so nice. We then flagged down a cab, and when we tried to get in the boys like wouldn’t let us in the car! Then when they finally moved…. We were starting to drive off and one of the boys held on to the window then SPIT! yes, SPIT! In the window on us 3 girls in the back! I was appalled and stunned (also grossed out). But yeah – we decided that was definitely a story to be told! Haha
The rest of the night we worked on our lesson plans about hand washing because we are teaching the kids at the school in the community Tuesday morning. Then off to bed I went!
