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