Day 6 ~Nicaragua, La Bolsa & San Ramón

Thursday, March 12th:
We got up very early to go to the schools to present our lesson plans. At the first school, we only presented to one class and then ventured to the next school to present to two groups. We started with Evan introducing our group, followed by Kelly, Kim, Britt, and Brad doing a germ/hand skit. Then Jen and Jess had the kids draw germs on hand cutouts. Shannon read a lecture about germs, then Maira/Rosita introduced a beach ball game where the kids pretended stickers were germs and put one on the ball when it came to them. Rosita did an amazing job! Alfter the ball game, I read a story where when the students heard a situation involving germs, they had to raise their hands and scream "Germenes". Once the story was over, I introduced our song! It goes to the tune of "La Bamba". Conchita wrote this awesome song for us. The JMU students made up a dance for the song too.

It goes:
Para lavar las manos
(To wash your hands)

Para lavar las manos
(To wash your hands)

Se necesita un poquito de agua
(a little bit of water is needed)
Un poquito de agua,

Y también jabón, también jabón, también jabón (also soap)

Lava manos,

Lava manos.

It was a hit and we all now have it stuck in our heads. When we got back to Club Chac. we rested and took a couple of hours to finish bagging the donations that we brought. The JMU students were super speedy. I was so proud of my suciecitos! We waited a few hours for the other group to get back for dinner, so to pass the time the students sat around braiding each other hair. Rosita taught the suciecitos a song about oyo en el mar (hole in the sea). We kept adding things to the hole and made up hand motions to go along with it too. It was very challenging and a lot of fun. Samantha thinks that I was so serious and "into it". Hehehehe! I agreed it was AWESOME! Gracias Rosita!

After dinner, we headed to San Ramón to meet the families and sleep. Our group "The suciecito" had a lot to talk about so we all slept outside in the comedor (dining area). After I felt sleep, I heard the next morning that "Big Daddy" had been in the comedor, bearing Tylenol pm so all the students took one and slept like babies. Per Samantha it was "the best nights sleep ever!" The weather was perfect and we got to sleep in until 6 a.m. - late compared to our normal 5:15 a.m. wakeup!

Day 7 ~Nicaragua, San Ramón School

Friday, March 13th:
We had breakfast as usual, very delicious and filled with fruit. My husband will be happy to know that I’m eating my fruits in the morning. After breakfast, we walked over to the school about 50 feet away to see what work Señor Marvin (El Maestro) had going for us. We helped mix cement and began to build another wall. The students watered one side of the wall already built, so the cement would not crumble.

Shari and Mike came at 9 a.m. to pick up Samantha, Brad, Evan, and Britt to go to the University in León. They were selected to go talk to the college students there who study English. The rest of us worked at the building of the school, and at lunchtime we headed back to club Chac. to have lunch and then a siesta. We headed back close to 2 p.m. and found the San Ramón students waiting for us because we had pen-pal letters for them from schools in the States. The kids were adorable, but it was shocking that none of them knew how to spell words properly. They speak well, but it was sad to see 10 year olds not able to spell. The suciecitos really enjoyed doing pen-pal letters. They had an awesome time talking with the kids and helping them. It took some time to pen the letters.

After we were done with the pen-pal letters, we headed to the school construction site, but "unfortunately" the maestro had already left and we had no work to do. Oh well... So, we decided to go see the families for a visit and to say good-bye to them. We found Señora Gloria who was in the fields collecting mangos from the tree. It was so cool to see a girl in the top of the tree tossing the Mangos down to Gloria on the ground.

We came back to the comedor for the dinner that Conchita and Shari brought for us. We had delicious macaroni with some type of cheese sauce and watermelon. There were also rice-filled plantains, but the noodles were the hit of the night. After dinner, we just hung out with the families and played with the kids. Evan, Kim, and I slept at Gloria's house. Gloria's sister was up at 2 a.m. making tortillas to deliver at 5 a.m. We plan to hand out donations in the morning then off to la playa in the afternoon.

Day 8 ~Nicaragua, San Ramón School & Playa

Saturday, March 14, 2009
last night in Chacraseca

San Ramón, Club Chac to distribute our donations, León, Roca Playa, farewell party, & reflection time.

Letter from Amada and her family

Saturday, 3/14/09 Chacraseca

Dear friends:

By this means I would like to express my gratitude for having constructed my small house, since I didn’t have one to inhabit with my family, I only had one made of plastic and now is a real wall.

I feel very grateful because I would not have been able to construct it being a person of limited economic resources as we are very poor.

My family and I are very happy to have had you here in my house and to share with you and I want to tell you that in my house you will be always welcome.

May God bless and help you all so that you can continue helping other people who are in need just as my family and I.

God bless you and wishes for God’s blessings and a happy trip from the family Torres Mayorga.

Day 9 ~Nicaragua, Chacraseca

Isn't it always the case the you really feel at home somewhere just when you are about to leave?

Packing all of the suitcases

Meeting - 3/1/2009

As you may already know, we have been presented with the opportunity to spend the week of Spring break in Nicaragua this March 2009 on a charity mission. Our group will consist of 32 individuals from JMU - students, faculty, and staff. Nicaragua shares the dubious distinction with Haiti of being the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Its people live on 1/100th of what people in America live on, per capita. They lack food, clothing, shelter, and clean drinking water. In the last century they have suffered from many historical injustices, severe drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, economic exploitation, decades of revolution and war, and 50 yrs of dictatorship. Trips like ours are vital to the growth of the economy and the health of the people in this part of the world.

With one backpack and two suitcases each, filled with supplies, we will be departing on a 7-day trip to Nicaragua working in 2 communities: Chacraseca and Nuevo Amanecer. We plan to build a house for a needy family, and to help the communities with schools. There is a school that was built on private property. The plan is to purchase the school and the land it is on, legally transfer ownership to the ministry of education, and then rebuild the school, complete with new walls, roofing, windows, doors, etc, for 2 classrooms, an indoor dining area, and 2 new latrines. We’d also like to put a sink in each of the fourteen schools in the communities.

We know this is a lot, but there are 32 of us that are going, so with donations from generous donors here, and with labor help from the community members, all of this can happen. We will be helping with the construction, teaching lesson of hygiene in the local schools, and providing some health care & hygiene training while we are there. We will be sleeping on cots and using latrines for bathrooms during our stay.

That's it for this week's update. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email us at teamnicaraguajmu@gmail.com

The Nicaragua Project '09

Raise the Roof for Nicaragua