Returning to Nueva Vida

 After the long morning and lunch we headed to Nueva Vida. I was so excited when we got on the bus. Just a right turn, left turn, u-turn, right turn and then we would be there. As we were getting closer I was telling the new people how much longer it would be until we got there. Throughout the entire trip I enjoyed know exactly where I was. After the many hours I had spent at home on Google Earth looking for all the places I had been this summer trying to recreate my drives I would hope that I would know where I was.

 When we got to Nueva Vida it was a little bittersweet. I knew that Moise didn't live in Nueva Vida but I would get to see Pastor Berman and everyone else on staff there that I made friends with on my last trip. When we got off the bus I found Pastor Berman and gave him the watch that he asked me to get him while I was there this summer. He was so excited to get it. He took it out of the box right away and put it on.

 After giving Pastor Berman the watch I went over to the bakery to get more pictures for my video. I asked them about Daniello who had played jokes on me in the bakery over the summer. They told me that he didn't work there anymore. I left the bakery and went to the store across the street and bought a 3 liter bottle of Coke for the people working in the bakery. When I brought it to them they were really appreciative of my generosity.

 Since Moise wasn't there I didn't really have one kid that I invested in that was there. I walked around and visited a bunch of the kids, Walter, Hellen, Oscar, Samuel, Erik, and Jamie. It was neat walking around seeing some of the new people starting to connect with some of the kids. Every time I walked past the gate behind the church Patsy was there playing with the same little kid.

 While I was wondering around I saw Pastor Berman coming out of the new building they are working on. I went over to him and asked him about the building. We had a conversation in Spanglish for about the building. He told me that it was a multipurpose building. They were going to put in about 4 offices for different ministries. They are planning on using the big room for English classes and evangelism. They are going to put the projector in that room. I asked him about the other building that is under construction and he told me that it is going to be a cafeteria. They are going to put a playground the area right outside these buildings. The way he described it the playground sounds really nice with swings, slides, see-saws, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. They are going to have certain hours for when kids have to have their parents there with them. This will encourage the parents to come. At the cafeteria they are going to play Christian music to be used as an evangelism tool towards the parents that don't normally come there. They are also going to sell hot-dogs and hamburger there. The cafeteria will give more jobs to people in the community.

 After speaking Spanglish for a while we got to a point that I couldn't understand what he was saying so JC, my room mate/translator, came over and help us. He was telling me that around the playground they are putting in a path for people to skate on. I found it interesting that they are going to skate there. Once JC was there I told Pastor Berman about the laptop that we brought down for him. He told me that they have had a bunch of teams come down but they don't get donations anymore. Later I found out this is because ORPHANetwork takes the donations and gives them to their partners who need them the most. Recently the greatest need for those donations hasn't come from Nueva Vida. Pastor Berman explained to me that they take the used clothes that they get and split them up between the different churches and then they sell them at a low cost. This ensures that the people that get them aren't become entitled to things. It also gives the churches money that they use for works projects that are helping the community. He told me that Jose-Luis was going to be coming to Virginia to buy a bunch of used clothes to bring back and sell.

 I also asked Pastor Berman if I would be able to see Pastor Guillermo, the pastor who had a vision about me this summer. He said that he could call him up and he would be there in 5 minutes. Unfortunately we were about to leave so I couldn't meet with him that day. I asked him about what he knew about Moise. We had thought that he moved to a small town about an hour south of Nueva Vida. He told me that he now thought that he lived in Cuidad Sandino, which is right outside Nueva Vida. I was really excited because that meant that there was possibility of me seeing Moise sometime during the week. He said that he was going to talk to another pastor and try to find out more details.

 After talking with Pastor Berman for a while he had to leave. We went back to the hotel and had dinner. For porch time it was just us because JMU hadn't gotten there yet. Christina just explained to us the rules for the week and told us a little about ORPHANetwork. After that we split into our equipos. I really enjoyed leading the equipo. The girls had some really good questions and I loved being able to tell people all about Nicaragua. I was encouraged when I found out that all three of the girls in my group are Christians and even more encouraged when Lauren said that she wanted to build a closer relationship with God during the trip.

 When we finish I hung out and wrote in my journal with Rhya and Suera. JMU came down after they ate dinner and had there porch time. When they came down they were loud so we all went back to our rooms. When I got back to my room JC was awake so we stayed up and talked. He told me his story of growing up in Hogar de Fe orphanage. He told me how he is now a caregiver there and he teaches English there. When we tried to go to bed it was hard because JMU was outside making a lot of noise.

 The first day was a really long day but it felt so good to be back in Nicaragua!

My Adventure Begins

 My adventure began on Thursday March 1 around 1:30 PM. I loaded all of the bags, like 12 of them, in the bed of the truck then went to pick up Alycia. I got to her place and put her bags in then we went to pick up 2 more bags from a guy that couldn't go on the trip anymore. Once we had all the bags we went to Cookout before we left Blacksburg. We drove to Alycia's house so that she could get her passport. On the way up we had fun talking and listening to Taylor Swift and Blink-182 (our favorite band). Before we got to Alycia's house she warned me about her mom and that she would come outside yell "Oh my baby!" Of course when we got to her house her mom came out yelling "Oh my baby!" in that embarrassing loving mother's voice.

 While we were hanging out there I started to not feel well. I felt really dehydrated and just wanted to lay down. The stress from trying to get my grad school stuff done before leaving started to catch up to me. I threw up twice while I was there. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to go on the trip. Looking back I can tell that the devil really didn't want me to go on the trip. I started to feel a little better after laying down for awhile and drinking a lot of water. Alycia was originally going to go to Libby's sister's house and go to the airport from there. Her mom was planning on taking her but that would have been a long drive for her. We decided that it would be easiest if she just came to Rhya's house with me. I was happy about this because I didn't want to drive to Rhya's alone in the condition I was in.

 We finally left Alycia's and headed to Rhya's. When we got to Rhya's she was already there with Amanda and Suera. We hung out in the kitchen for a while before we decide it was alright to go in the living room and watch TV with Rhya's parents. When it was time Rhya's dad and sister took all of us to the airport. I drove my truck with all the bags and Alycia. I followed Rhya's dad who was driving her car. When we got to the airport we unloaded all the bags then Rhya's dad drove my truck back. One of the guys working there helped bring all of the bags inside.

 Our small group was the first ones the but we had about half of the bags for our trip. Amanda convinced me that we shouldn't wait for everyone else to show up before we started to check-in. I was the first one to check-in followed by Amanda. Everyone else quickly followed. It became a madhouse once everyone else started checking in. Ashley, Katherine, and Maria had to figure out baggage and a bunch of stuff. I was just glad that I had already checked my bags and had my ticket. A couple people went ahead and went through security but I stayed with Suera and help her pass out the tank top shirts. Once we handed them all out we got rid of the book then went to security. We tried to go to the normal security check point but it was closed and a janitor yelled at us in Spanish (ironically while we still in the US people were speaking to us in Spanish) and told us to go to the baggage claim. We were so confused but we found the security check point that was in the middle of the baggage claim. They had to search my bag because I forgot that I put my toothpaste in my bag and they had to throw it out.

 We got on the tram that goes to gate A, B, and C since we were at gate B. The tram went to A then C then back A then to were we got on. The girls were starting to worry that we were on the wrong tram but I showed them the map and told that we would be going to B next. We finally got off at B and walked to our gate. There weren't many people there yet so we just hung out. The rest of the group took a long time because they had to deal with all the bags and Maggie McNealy's passport was going to expire in a couple months and that was causing problems. They all finally made it to the gate and we chilled. Some people tried to sleep but I couldn't. We were all laughing at Libby because she looked ridiculous trying to sleep.

We boarded the plane and took off. Right after we took off I passed out until they started serving breakfast. I woke up right before they served my row. I looked up at the screen on the TV and the credits from some movie they played were rolling. I had no idea that they played a movie because I was out. Breakfast wasn't that good, especially since I was expecting the mini pancakes they had on my previous TACA flights.

 When we landed in El Salvador we had about an hour and a half layover. We hung out and explored the airport while we waited. After I boarded I was waiting in my seat to see if anyone else in our group would sit next to me. Nobody from our group sat next to me, nobody sat next to me but the guy 2 seats over was one of the trip leaders for William & Mary. I talked with him for most of the flight. He was reading The Heart and the Fist which I finished reading during my trip over the summer. We talk about what an amazing life Eric Greitens has had so far. Everything from studying abroad in China, seeing firsthand the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, helping the street children in Boliva, going to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, becoming a Navy Seal, and starting The Mission Continues to help wounded and disabled warriors serve their country as citizen leaders. I want to have a story like that when I am 37. Thinking back on it now it really makes me want reread the book.

 When we landed in Managua I got really excited. We went through customs and got our bags. I was happy that I was in a group this time because I wouldn't have to worry about standing outside alone for 20 minutes again. When we walked outside Christina was waiting for us. It was nice to see a familiar face. Once everyone got outside we loaded all of the luggage into the micro bus while we got into the regular bus. On the way to Hotel Ticomo all of the translators introduced themselves.

 As we drove through Managua I just got more and more excited, especially since I knew exactly where we were. I felt so much better than I had at Alycia's house. When we got to Hotel Ticomo we unloaded all the bags and they gave us room assignments. They put me in the room with 2 of the translators. Katherine told me later that when they were trying to figure out the rooms someone said they needed to put someone else with the translators and Christina volunteered me because she knew I wouldn't mind. I was glad I roomed with them. I got to know more about them and have a good relationship with them. We moved in and had lunch before we started the real fun by going to Nueva Vida.

Almost There Again

 As the time whines down until I go back to Nicaragua I decided to look back at my journal. In my journal I found a lose piece of paper from a porch time last year. They told us to take a piece of paper out and write down what we wanted to when we got back so that our trip wasn't just something fun we did for spring break. I wrote down three things: spread the word about this place and see what people will do to help, set a goal amount of money to raise to give to ORPHANetwork, and get a bunch of people to come back next year so they can be inspired by these kids. As I look back I think that I did these things. I told lots of people about my experience there and got them to give me money for ORPHANetwork. During the Compassion Diet I raised over $700 for ORPHANetwork. I talked to tons of people at Gobblerfest about the trip. I pretty much anybody that anybody that would listen to me about how they should go on this trip. Although I did all these things I still feel like I didn't do enough. It is hard when you become so passionate about something to see people that are so clueless that if they knew any better they could make a real difference. This was a big problem for me both times when I got back in the states, especially the first time. I am so excited though because there are 21 new people coming on the trip with us this year. As an equipo leader I am hoping that the girls in my group will get a passion to help the people of Nicaragua like I have.

 I am really excited to see everyone in Nueva Vida. It will be nice to see Pastor Berman and give him the watch that he asked me to get him. I just looked on his Facebook page to see if he responded to my last post and found a project that some Americans are working on there a week after we leave Nueva Vida. They are coming in to plow the fields again so that they can grow more crops for the community. It made me so happy to see other people with the same passion for the people in Nueva Vida. Pastor Berman is doing great things there. A part of Toxic Charity said, "Juan admitted that many growing Nicaraguan churches were active in their evangelism efforts and that was good, he added but they did little to assist their converts in their struggles of their daily lives. They seemed more concerned about saving souls than saving people." After reading this I was so glad that we work with Verbo Inglesia and Pastor Berman. I have personally seen Pastor Berman involved in the people in his church's lives. He has a heart for the entire community. He helps all of the children and knows what is going on with most of their families, which is really impressive considering how many kids come to his church. The people in the community know him and he knows them. When we walked to Moises' house this summer he was saying hello to everyone as walked there and everyone knew who he was. They respected him.

 There is just so much that I am excited about I don't know how to contain it. I just want it to be time to get on the plane and start the journey to Nicaragua.

Toxic Charity

I just finished reading Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton after it being recommended to me by my friend Clancy. She said that I would love it and that it talked a lot about Nicaragua. I immediately ordered the book and started reading in. When I was only 6 pages in I sent Clancy a text telling her that I was already really enjoying the book. The book talks about how organizations and volunteers that are trying to help people often end up not helping them or even end up hurting them. This really made me think about my experiences in Nicaragua hoping that I had not fallen into these traps of compassionate thinking. As I read I saw situations where our group from Virginia Tech had made these mistakes and thought we were helping the people but ended up wasting time and not making the difference we thought we were.

After going on my first trip to Nicaragua I became very passionate about helping the people of Nicaragua. I knew that as a college student in the US I could make a bigger difference in the US raising awareness and money for the people of Nicaragua than I could if I was there. This is only true if the money that you are raising goes directly into helping the people. Luckily the parent organization of NOF, Nicaraguan Orphan Fund, is ORPHANetwork. They are an established Non-Profit that is doing a lot of great things for the people of Nicaragua. They help the people of Nicaragua help themselves. They help the local leadership develop the community. One of there more recent project was establishing a health clinic in Nueva Vida.
ORPHANetwork does a lot of great things but they aren't perfect. It's not there fault, it's groups like ours. All year round they have teams coming down from churches to college students trying to help. They don't say no to these people because they know that these people are going to support them financially after the trip. I have nothing against these trips, it was one of these trips that gave me the passion for Nicaragua. The problem is the people who are going on the trips attitude, I am included in this. We go and think that we can make a difference to this community in a week. We rush in and try to do something really good to help these people that are in need. We try and do service projects to help the people.

On my first trip on of our projects that we did was to dig holes where a fence was going to go. When I went back this summer I saw where the hole we dug were. They were filled in with dirt because they were about 6 inches off of where they were supposed to be. They weren't sure where the holes needed to be when we were there but they want us to have something to do as a "service project".

One of the other things that we tried to do on my first trip was give all the kids tooth brushes and teach them how to brush their teeth after eating at the feeding center. It was a noble cause and a good idea for American college students. The problem was that the people running the feeding center didn't care about them brushing their teeth. It isn't an important part of the culture in Nueva Vida. When I went back this summer there weren't any traces of the tooth brushes at the feeding centers. We can only hope that some of the kids took them home and use them there but it is doubtful.

Another project that we rushed into that ended up not being used as we planed was garden between the two buildings. We worked for hours moving rich soil in between these buildings so that they could have a garden. It wasn't there idea, it was ours. We wanted them to be able to grow vegetables there that they could serve in the feeding center. When I went back in the summer it was just dirt there between the buildings. The good part was that our idea about a garden had convinced them to try growing vegetables again in the vast amount of land that they had. The lesson that I learned from this was that instead of rushing into something, what us Americans are good at, develop a plan with the people to see how to better develop the community.
ORPHANetwork is doing a great job at that. When I was there this past summer they were meeting with Pastor Berman about a new project. They were having the kids that go to school teach the adults who didn't go to school how to read, write, and to do arithmetical. After a while they were planning on bringing in people from a bank to teach about finances.

While I was there this summer I learned the story of how the bakery in Nueva Vida was started. Everything besides the land that the bakery in owned by the bakery. I kept thinking about this while reading the book. It kept talking about how it is better have these small places owned and operated by locals. It is simple economics. It is better to give people in a situation like this a small loan instead of a grant. This keeps people working hard to advance instead of being dependent on other people's money.

An easy trap that many would be do-gooders fall into is giving stuff away freely. It is so hard when you see people in poverty and you just want to give them money or things so it will end. It isn't that easy. Like the saying: If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. You run into a problem when you find someone that doesn't want to learn how to fish they just want you to give them a fish. I saw this in Moises' father.

Moises was the little boy that stole my heart and started my love for Nicaragua. He was always helping us do work. He was a hard worker. The last job that he was as a security guard. He lost his job when he got sick. One of the things that he did when he didn't have a job was to see coffee in Managua. The church he went to gave him the supplies that he needed to do it. He did it for a while but at some point he wanted money right away and he sold the containers he used for the coffee.

When I went back this summer he tried to get me to support them financially by sending them money. Pastor Berman came up with a better solution for how I could help them. I would help the church build him a hot dog cart on a bike. He didn't want to do this at first and really gave the impression that he was lazy. We were going to put the mother in charge to ensure that he wouldn't sell any of the equipment. We didn't get to put this plan into action because they moved out of Nueva Vida before I could get the money to them. This is the way we need to do our supporting. We need to listen to the people there. They understand what is going on so much better than us.

Saying goodbye to all of the kids in Nueva Vida on my first trip was really hard. A bunch of us were left with a bitter taste in our mouth from it. As we were trying to say goodbye all of these kids are asking us to give them things. They just wanted us for our stuff. We felt so used. Not all of the kids were begging but there was a good number of them begging. This was groups like ours' fault. We had conditioned them to believe that whenever gringos came that they got free stuff. It is our job as volunteers to be educated about the problems that we can easily create when try to help. If you had an important business deal with someone you would do your research before rush into anything. Why do we treat helping people any differently? Getting people out of poverty is much more important than any business deal and is way more complex.

One of the facts that I found surprising in Toxic Charity was that normally trips like this don't leave a lasting impact. Normally after 8 weeks people are back to the same assumptions and behaviors. I love that VT NOF defies that statistic. Social gatherings after the trip help remind everyone of the experiences they had in Nicaragua. Writing letters to the kids throughout the year helps us keep that connection which prevents us from going back to "normal". ONet does a good job at encouraging the NOFers to continue coming back to help. While I was in Nicaragua this summer there were 4 other girls from Virginia Tech in Nicaragua working with another Non-Profit, Manna Project. I just hope that other organizations and churches can learn from us and do similar things so that people coming back from other trips don't go back to "normal".

"Religious tourism", as Lupton calls it, is definitely a problem with trips like these. "... Princeton University conducted a study that found 1.6 million American church members took missions trips abroad in 2005 - an average of eight days long - at a cost of $2.4 billion. And the number has grown every year since." This is crazy. This money could have easily just gone directly to community development to help the people. A lot of this money went to airfare and lodging. I was shocked when I saw our data about percentage of the money that gave to ONet that way for trip cost vs donations. In the 2007-2008 school year only 4% of the money we sent to ONet was donations. 96% trip cost is ridiculous. Last year we gave ONet about $64,000 but $46,200 was trip cost, 73%. There have been some major improvements but we still have a long way to go. I was encouraged during our first leadership meeting last year because everyone wanted to improve this. Everyone needs to set a personal goal of money to raise solely for donations. It needs to be something challenging but achievable. You just have to have confidence that you will meet that goal. This year I am planning on raising at least $1,000 for donations to ONet. I am hoping to get a lot of this during the Compassion diet.

Once again I encourage everyone to read Toxic Charity. It is an awesome book. It is a really easy read. I read it in less than a day. 

Jose-Luis Rivas

Jose-Luis is the owner of the bakery in Nueva Vida. He is a business administrator. He has been going to the Verbo church in Nueva Vida for the past 11 years. Before he started the bakery he worked at a place that gave out small loans. He lost his job and was unemployed for 3 and half years. He didn't want to look for a job, he wanted to work in Nueva Vida and help young people there. He was studying and Moses for a message that he was going to give at church. God spoke to him in his ear and told him to put a bakery in Nueva Vida. Nobody in his family was bakery and thought God was crazy. He didn't listen to God. A couple months later God spoke to him again telling him that it would work and it would reach out to the community. He finally accepted what God was telling him. He went to another bakery to learn how to make bread. The original bakery was small room with a big wood oven. It started with Jose-Luis and another person. On the first day they were open they sold 62 bags. There was one person on a bike selling the bread. Jose-Luis' wife thought he was crazy at the beginning. Now there are 14 people working at the bakery. They sell 500 bags of bread per day. They own 3 motorcycles and 2 bikes from which they sell bread. The bakery itself is about 4x bigger than the original room that they had. Everything is paid for by the bakery. 70% of Nueva Vida buys bread from his bakery. His wife sees all the blessings that have come from the bakery, in Juse-Luis, his family and the many people of Nueva Vida. She now realizes that he wasn't crazy to start a bakery. He has seen that God has been backing up everything that He told Jose-Luis. Now the bakery is one of the many projects that they have started in Nueva Vida.

My Adventure in Nicaragua

 After experiencing Nicaragua with a group of people from Virginia Tech over spring break I wanted to help out as much as I could. While I was there the first time they had us make a list of things that we were going to do after the trip. One of the things on my list was get a goal and raise that amount of money for ORPHANetwork, the organization that we were working with in Nicaragua. I did that through the Compassion Diet where I raised $705 for eating only rice and beans for 5 days. Another thing on my list was to spread the word about the situation in Nicaragua and to inspire people to help. I decided the that to do this I wanted to go back on my own and take pictures to show people to inspire them. This is the story of  my trip and the stories that I was told along the way.

Friday June 10, 2011


 It was finally the day that I was going back to Nicaragua. I was going back all by myself to help out in the feeding centers in Nueva Vida and to see the little boy that I got to on my previous trip, Moises (in English we would spell it Moses). Nueva Vida is just outside of the capital, Managua, in Ciudad Sandino. It was originally a hurricane refuge after Hurricane Mitch caused Lake Managua to raise which displace thousands of people. The people living in Nueva Vida live in poverty and can't afford to move out of what was meant to be temporary housing. I was really excited to be going back to help out.
 The day started by getting all of my stuff and heading to the airport. I had to go to Dulles because TACA, the airline I was flying and the cheapest one that flies into Central America, only flies out of Dulles. Everything went smoothly until I got to El Salvador where I had an hour layover. I found the gate fine then decided to explore. I came back before my flight was supposed to board. When they were calling us to board they were only saying it in Spanish. I didn't hear them call my seat to board so I just sat waiting.There were still a bunch of people sitting there so I thought they just hadn't called my seat yet. After a while sitting there seeing that there was nobody else waiting in line I decided to go up. While I was walking up the girl at the desk was counting all of the ticket stubs to make sure everyone was there. She kept counting and recounting. After I gave her my ticket and started walking down the gate they called my name on the intercom asking me to come to the desk. At that time I realized that I was the last on to check in. I hurried down the ramp and got down to the tarmac and walked towards the plane. I had caught up with the last group of people that was boarding the plane.
 When I got to Nicaragua I went through customs, got my bags and all of that other fun stuff you have to deal with when you fly internationally. Once I got my bags I walked out to look for my friend that I hired to be my translator for the week, Juan-Carlos. When I had asked him the night before where I should meet him he said that he would find me. I was hoping that he would be right there waiting for me when I got there. He wasn't. I went walking around inside then stopped and waited. After about 10 minutes I decided to go outside to look for him. After being outside for about 10 minutes he came riding up in a taxi. He threw my bags in the back and then we were off. He told me that taxi company wasn't allowed at the airport so we had to get out of there. We had to go to his friends house to wait for the rental car that we were getting.
 We had to wait an hour once we got to his friends house for the people to show up with the rental car. While we waited I talked with his friend's nephew who was studying English. We had a very intellectual conversation. We talked about economics,psychology, humanitarianism, and books.
 Once the car got we had to inspect the car to make sure that nothing was wrong with it. After that they took the car to fill it up. When they got back Juan-Carlos' friend, who is lawyer, typed up a contact/receipt. It took her so long for her to type it up. I signed the contact, paid, then we off on our week long adventure.
 We had to go to Juan-Carlos' house to grab his stuff. I met his aunt and sister. Then I drove across town to the hotel. Driving there was a totally different experience. The taxi and bus drivers are the craziest and you really have to watch out for them. You also have to always be watching out for people crossing the road, even at night in the middle of nowhere. When we got close to the hotel we stopped at the grocery store to get a big jug of water (you can't drink the tap water there) and to grab dinner, aka chocolate frosted flakes and plantain chips. The girl at the front desk was really nice and helped me save $15 by letting me pay in cash on Monday because at the hotel they had a higher exchange rate than anywhere else. We took our bags to the room then I went to the computer to send my mom and email. I had told her that I would text her when I got there but my phone doesn't work globally.

Saturday June 11, 2011


 We woke up at 7:30 to be ready for breakfast at 8, which became our normal routine. They don't have hot water there so I had to take a cold shower everyday. Whenever I would get out of the shower I would start to shivered because Juan-Carlos would always have the air condition turned all the way up. I would get dressed quick then get back in bed to warm up while Juan-Carlos took a shower. We went to breakfast and got scrambled eggs and gallo pinto (rice and beans) and fresh fruit (which we only got when this one guy was working) which was the same mean we would have almost every morning there.
 After breakfast we headed to Nueva Vida. On our way there we missed the spot where we were supposed to make the U-turn and we were headed toward Leon, an old colonial city. We ended up calling the person who drove the bus on my last trip to find out where we had to turn. We drove into Nueva Vida and it all looked so familiar. We got to where the paved road stopped and the dirt road began. I knew we were getting close. Since Nicaragua is the poorest Spanish speaking country in the world and 2nd poorest in the western hemisphere behind Hati, they don't have a good system for getting rid of trash. Most people just throw their trash somewhere on the ground. Because of this there is trash on the side of the road and in the middle of the dirt roads that go through Nueva Vida. The section of road in front of the church that I was going to is actually a road but it always has standing water.

 Pastor Berman wasn't there when we got there so we decided to look around and what had changed since the last time that we had been there. We saw that they had plowed the fields on the side of the church and started to plant things.We saw a guy in the big field that they had planted stuff so we went to talk to him. He told us that there they planted hamica, which they use to make a really good tea, and behind the church they planted peppers. They we were talking to, Winkler, told us that it had not been raining there in Nueva Vida and they had to fill a bunch of bottles to go around and water the plants.

 We ended up going into the bakery and meeting the people working there. The guys that were working there were making a bunch of jokes. They even played a joke on me to welcome me to the bakery. It was hot in there because they can't have sunlight or ventilation otherwise it messes up the bread.

 After we left the bakery we walked around a little more and in a small classroom we saw a man teaching English to some of the youth that help out at the church. Later they told me that they have English class every Saturday and that they want to expand the classroom so more people can come. We waited there until Berman got there. We briefly talked to him before he had to go to a meeting. He told us that they are working with ORPHANetwork and the youth to have the youth teach the adults how to read and do math at night when they were home from work. After a while they were planning on bringing in someone from a bank to teach them about finances. He told us that 2 people from ORPHANetwork were going to be talking to the youth abouth it in the afternoon. We decided that we were going to have a meeting after church on Sunday to talk about plans for the week. Before we left he asked me if I could share my testimony at church. Reluctantly I said that I would. I also gave him some animal hand puppets that he had asked me to bring for the children's church.

 We left the church and walked to Moises' house. Juan-Carlos walked up first and Moises' older sister was confused as to what he was doing. When she saw me she knew what was going on. She got her mother and started saying "Gringo! Gringo!" The mother recognized me from my previous trip and knew that I was there to see Moises. She told us that he wasn't there and that he was at the lawyers office. She had his younger brother and sister take us there. While we were walking there I was wondering why he was at a lawyers officer. Juan-Carlos asked his little brother why he was there and he told us that he was there with their older sister who helps out in the office to get some money. When we got there he was surprised to see me but he was so excited he started to cry a little. We decided that we were all going to head back to his house. Before we left Juan-Carlos was listening to the lawyer and what he was telling Moises' older sister. He wasn't sure what kind of "work" she doing for him but it sounded sketchy.

 We sat down at Moises' house and talked with his parents and older sisters. We learned about how the father had worked as a security guard but he got sick and he got laid off. He couldn't get his job back because he needed a permit to carry a gun, which he hadn't had before even though he needed it then too. If he got the permit, which costs a lot and needed some other stuff, he still wasn't sure if he would get the job because he is old. They told us that Moises had been going to a free school in Managua but he hadn't gone the past week because they didn't have enough money for the bus to Managua. We didn't really believe that he was actually going to school because why would they send him all the way to Managua when there are schools right there in Nueva Vida. He also said that all his school supplies were at his other sister's house in Managua.

  We decided that we were going to take Moises to the zoo since he had never been. His parents said that it was fine that we took him. Before we left for the zoo we went back to the car and got the left over rice and beans from when I did the Compassion Diet. They were so happy to actually have food. On our way to the zoo we stopped at a mall to get lunch. The mall was really nice and had all the stores you would expect in mall in the USA. It was kind of weird because it wasn't enclosed but it had a ceiling. In the food court there was a huge tree growing through that they decided not to cut down, they designed the food court around this tree. Juan-Carlos and I got Burger King while Moises got fried chicken at Tip-Top, a Nicaraguan fast food chicken joint. They gave him a cardboard chicken mask at Tip-Top and a crown at Burger King. He was so excited to have them. He ate his food so fast, I could only imagine when the last time he ate was.

 

 After we ate lunch we drove to the zoo. Next to the zoo was this place that had roller skating and bikes and a bunch of other stuff. When we went into the zoo Moises kept saying how he wanted to ride a bike. He said that he had done it before and he really want to ride a bike. When we went into the zoo they told me that I couldn't take my backpack so we checked it. Then I started to take pictures with my nice DSLR camera and they told me that I couldn't take cameras like that. We decided to take the camera and backpack back to the car. We had to put it in the trunk because one of the doors wouldn't lock properly. We went back in the zoo and looked at all of the animals. The whole time Moises was talking about riding a bike.

  After the zoo we decided to go to the place next door and rent a bike for Moises to ride. I had to pay for everyone just to get into the place then I had to pay to rent a bike for 30 min. Moises went and picked out his bike and they gave him a helmet. He got on the bike and started pushing with his foot like he was riding a skateboard. We tried to teach him how to pedal but it didn't work. He would pedal forward half-way then pedal backwards half-way then repeat. We kept trying to tell him what he was doing wrong and how he should do it but he didn't listen. Towards the end of his time he gave up, then a smaller boy came over and started to ride another bike. He felt like he was being challenged by this little boy so he tried again. He went down a hill and was going fast. He wasn't able to turn and stay on the track so he kept going and falling over. They guy working there was really nice and he cleaned up Moises' cut and put Neosporine on it. Moises played in the play-place for a little while before we left.

  Moises wanted to see the hotel that I was staying at so we went back to the Hotel Ticomo. We went to the room and Moises watched cartoon. We took him back home before it got dark. I didn't want to be in Nueva Vida after dark because Berman had told me the last time I was there people that sell crack down the road from the church. We parked the car at the church then walked Moises back to his house. When we got there they had already put the rice and bean I gave them to use. They made what looked like tortilla out of the rice.

When we left there was this really sketchy guy on the street outside his house. The guy looked high on drugs and had a lot of money in his hands, which in uncommon in that area, so we think that he was a drug dealer.

 We left Nueva Vida and were in search of an ATM so I could get cash to pay for the hotel. We went to both of the grocery stores near the hotel. Both of them had Visa ATMs but not one that accepted Master Card. While we were at La Union, the nicer grocery store that had security guards in the parking lot, we got dinner which included rice and beans like almost every other meal I had while I was there. After we ate we went to another mall, just as nice as the one went to before but it didn't have a tree in the middle of the food court, and we got money from an ATM there. I was only able to get half the money that day so we knew that we would have to come back on Sunday to get the rest. We drove back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel we went on the computers and listened to music and checked facebook. This became our nightly routine.

Sunday June 12, 2011

 We woke up and did our morning routine. I would wake up take a cold shower then get dressed and get back in bed to warm up while Juan-Carlos showered. After we were ready we headed to breakfast. While we were at breakfast a guy came to fix the car door that wouldn't lock. He couldn't get it fixed so he told us that he would have to come back on Monday. After we finished breakfast we went back to the room and started to figure out what we were going to say at church. I told Juan-Carlos what I was going to say and he would write it down in Spanish so he wouldn't have to translate on the spot. We drove to the church after we  got everything ready.

 When we got to the church Berman wasn't there yet so we just hung out for a little while. The owner of the bakery, Joise Luise Rivasa, came over to talk to me. He asked me what I was doing there and what my plans were. He seamed a little skeptical about me being there but he ended up really enjoying me being there. He asked me about my life and what I would be talking about. He told me that he was supposed to be preaching but he told me that I could take his place and preach for 45min. He also asked me what I was writing about in my journal. I told him how I wanted to bring pictures and stories back to the US and inspire people to help.

 When church was about to start we sat down and Moises sat with us. This time at church was different from the first time I was there. There weren't as many locals as there were when all of the gringos were there. It seamed like there were more kids there than adults. It seamed like some of the kids were coming without there parents. There was one little girl that was sitting across from me that was so adorable. After worship she came over to me and grabbed my hand and tried to take me with her to children's church. I told her, aka Juan-Carlos told her, that I couldn't because I still had to give my testimony for all the adults.

The girl in orange is the little girl from church.

  After the kids left they did some more worship before Joise Luise got up preach. I recognized some of the but couldn't tell which ones they were because they were all in Spanish and I only knew the English version. After they finished worship Joise Luise called me up to give my testimony. I told them about how I grew up and about my first trip and why I came back. I told them about the Compassion Diet and they all thought it was funny because they eat rice and beans all the time. I told them that I wanted to be able to inspire people to help when I got back through my pictures and my stories.

  Joise Luise started to preach after I finished. He had a really good message. He talked about how to live in grace. He talked about how you can feel really good and filled with glory when you are at church and then empty when you go home. He said that is because you don't have a close relationship with God. He gave a list of 6 things to do to live in grace and I wrote them down. I liked the message so much that I decided I could use it sometime for Valor. Joise Luise talked about how when he first started the bakery everyone, including himself, thought he was crazy. Now his bakery serves 70% of Nueva Vida. He talked about how his mother told him he was crazy when he got married but now he has a wonderful marriage and a beautiful wife and child. He talked about how the price of the dough has gone up but since the cost has gone up so has sales.
 After a while Joise Luise's wife gave him a "red card", soccer reference since they love soccer, because he was talking too long. Berman came up to the front and gave a few announcements about upcoming events including a youth gathering with all the other Verbo churches in the area. After church they were selling food to help pay for the wedding of one of the couples from the church. We ended up taking Moises back to his house like his parents wanted us to. When we were there they were asking me for money which I didn't like because it seamed like they just wanted to use me for money so they wouldn't have to do anything. We told them that we had to leave to talk with Pastor Berman.
  When we got back to the church we sat down at one of the tables in the feeding center area to talk about plans for the week. We told him about everything that Moises' family had been telling us. We told him about how the father was trying to be a security guard and how if he couldn't do that he would try and sell coffee in Managua like he had done a couple of times in the past. Berman told us that he knew that people had given the father containers to hold the coffee and he had sold them. Berman came up with an idea that over the week we tweaked a little that would give the family a job and income. The idea was to make a hot dogs stand from a bike. The father could then go around to schools and other places and sell hot dogs and some other things to go along with it. The stand would be given to them by their local church if they were getting involved. The mother would be in charge so that they father would be held responsible. Berman had told me how most of the people besides Moises in his family were lazy and didn't like to work and they had to held responsible for their actions. The start up cost is going to be $500 and it will cover everything. I am going to try and raise this money plus another $150 to get the family a mattress to sleep on. Right now the whole family that lives there, 15 people, sleep on the floor of this house that is smaller than the size of my dorm room, which I complain about being to small for me and my room mate.
 Berman also told me about how he wants to try and start an internet cafe there at the church. This will bring a steady income to the church so they can do more projects to help the community. He briefly told me what they needed to get it started. Then we finally got to what they whole meeting was supposed to be about, what I was going to do for the week. I told him that Wednesday was going to be my tourist day and I was going to go to Granada and a volcano. He told me that he was going to figure out what was going on in Moises' family and we would meet again on Tuesday to talk about what he found out. He told me that in the morning I could help water the plants and then go to the different feeding centers to take pictures. The plants needed to be water because even though it was the rainy season and it normally rains every afternoon, it hadn't rained since I got there. They also told us that even though it had been raining in Managua it hadn't rained in Nueva Vida in a while and it was really dusty. It was ironic because the whole meeting was originally about the schedule and it was the shortest part of the meeting and we didn't really decide much of what I was going to do. Most of what I did while I was in Nueva Vida was spur of the moment things that they wanted me to do, which is the way I had wanted it to be.
  After our meeting with Berman we decided to take Sarah Huffman's, she was known there as Suera, letter to a little boy named Walter. She had gotten close to him on my first trip and she sent him a box of goodies when I sent Moises a bunch of school supplies in April. We drove down the road, in the direction that Berman had previously told me that the people who sell crack live, to Walter's house. When we got there he wasn't there. He was out in the stream behind his house looking for plastic bottles they recycle for money. They sent someone to go get him.

The stream behind Water's house where he was "playing"

 Walter came running, I'm not sure what the other boy told him. He ran past us like we weren't even there and went right up to his mom. His mother pointed to us and told him that we were there to see him. I got out the letter and gave it to him telling him it was from Suera. He got really happy. He took the translated sheet into his house and read it. Everyone else took the letter that was in English and had a picture of Walter and Suera. Everyone there passed it around so they could all see the picture. When Walter came back out we told him that Suera wanted him to write back and he told us that he already had a letter to give to her. He ran inside and started to look for it. He came back out saying that he couldn't find it. His sister Helen, who one of the girls from my first trip, Ashley, had become attached to, said that she knew exactly where it was. She didn't actually know where it was she just wanted to feel smart. He told us that he would have it for us when we were there on Monday. We asked him about the box that Suera had sent him. He told us that the candies "just disappeared" because he ate them so fast. We then took Moises, who had followed us, back to his house in the car then went back to the hotel.
 When we were at the hotel I took a nap and tried to journal but it was more napping than writing. Juan-Carlos just watched TV while I napped. For dinner we went to the same mall we went the night before and got typical Nicaraguan food in the food court. While we were there I saw a bunch of other Americans in the food court but they were to try Nicaraguan food so they were eating at the American places like Subway and Burger King. After we ate we went to the ATM to get the rest of the money for the hotel. After that we went back to hotel went to the computers.

Monday June 13, 2011

  Once again the guy came to fix the car while we were at breakfast. He wasn't able to fix the locking mechanism so he just locked the door permanently so we could at least leave things in the car. After he was finished we went to Nueva Vida for the day. When we go there Moises was waiting at the gate of the church for us. We were planning on helping them water the plants so we found Winker so he could get us started. He told us that they watered the plants at 6 AM, well before we were even awake. We asked what we could help with and he told us that we could help him separate the food. We said yes even though we didn't really know what that meant.
 Winkler took me to into a room that was full of boxes. The boxes were from a non-profit organization, Stop Hunger Now that gives them rice and soy for the feeding centers. On the side of the box it would say where the boxes were packed. Most of the were from North Carolina or Georgia. Some of the boxes had holes in them and Winkler told us that they were from mice. The boxes were filled with smaller bags. At the bottom of the bag was rice and on top was soy and a little packet of seasoning. We had to open the bag, then take the packet of seasoning and put it a pile. Then you had to pour most of the soy in a box without getting any of the rice in it. Then you would pour the rest into a large 55 gallon plastic drum. Then someone would take a bowl and scoop the rice in that drum onto a sifter that was on top of another drum. This would sift the rice into the drum and the soy would stay on the sifter then be put in a box. When we opened the bag we had to make sure it didn't have bite marks on it from the mice. If it did we could take the whole bag and dump it in a separate box. This box of soy and rice went to the pigs since they couldn't serve it to the kids. This helped keep the pigs fat so they could eat them.
  While we were separating the food Moises and another boy were helping and occasionally racing around the church. The other boy, Akun (not really sure how they spell it but that is how it is pronounced), was at the church everyday. He didn't go to school and his parents didn't really care where he was. The guys from the bakery were outside making Tarzan noises to kids that were at the school next door, that was for kids with disabilities, while chopping down a small tree. They ended up coming around the front of the church and were cutting the grass with machetes. It was really hard work because they had to bend down to even get the grass and it just took a while. Winkler jokingly asked us if we wanted to help them but we said no and that we would rather stay and help him.
  After we finished separating the food we got one of the guys from the bakery to take us to the feeding centers. The feeding center starts serving at 12, más o menos (more or less), but kids were showing up to the church at 11 while we were still working on separating the rice. Before we actually left I got pictures in the kitchen at Verbo. When we left we made a right out of the church and headed towards Walter's house. We got to the church at the end of the road, where you turn to get to Walter's. I met the pastor and took pictures of the ladies in the kitchen cooking the food. There were some kids lined up waiting to come in. I took some pictures of them and ended up putting it in a video I made when I got back.
 After that feeding center we headed back the way we came. We stopped outside the school and I got pictures of the kids there and kids getting helado, which was like a snowball but it was thicker syrup. We didn't go all the way back to the church before we turned right and went down this road I hadn't been down before. We ended up going by a vocational school that taught people how to do carpentry and make clothes. Part of the school was closed but I was sure why because the people there could really use the stuff they teach there to make money. On the other side of the street was a regular school for kids. I had seen this school from the other side when we went to Moises' house. We took a left and ended up at the feeding center next Moises' house. I got pictures in the kitchen and of the kids. I saw the little girl that I saw at church. She came up to me and asked me my name and if I could take a picture of her and her friend. 
 After that feeding center we went further up that street then took a left. We saw another vocational school that taught people how to cut hair but it was closed. This part of Nueva Vida was the nicest part I had seen. When we got to the feeding center there were kids waiting. I took pictures of the food there. This feeding center actually had vegetables. They were serving the kids a tomato salda, pico de gallo.
 We left that feeding center and went to the last one that we were going to that day. This was the only feeding center that I went to that I have no clue how to get there. Luckily the guy that was taking us around to all the feeding center was in charge of this feed center. On our way there he told us how he doesn't get a chance to visit it every day because it is the second farthest feeding center from Verbo and he works at the bakery so he doesn't always have time. At this feeding center I didn't just take pictures I got to serve the food to the kids, which is an awesome experience. I really enjoyed when we went to the feeding centers on my first trip because we got to serve the kids. You get to more kids that don't come to Verbo to play. You see real emotion there, real hunger. 
 When it is time to serve someone will get in the middle and have all the kids close their eye and then lead them in a prayer. All the kids will repeat with there eyes closed, except the ones that want to know what the gringo is doing and if he is taking pictures of them. After that you take a tray and collect the cup then on another tray the plates. You then take the trays to the ladies working in the kitchen and they will put juice in the cups, most of the time it is oatmeal juice which has a lots nutrients that the kids don't get otherwise. They also put what ever meal, mostly rice and beans but most of the feeding centers have a schedule that they have different foods on different day but is all similar, and a piece of bread on the plates. The little kids are supposed to get a different ration from the other kids. Luckily the teenagers that volunteer there were able to make sure the kids got the right stuff and that I was taking trays to the right places, which was amazing because I had no idea what they were saying. It was like this at all of the feeding centers.
 At this feeding center I got to see two boys that I had met on my trip, Eddy and Edwardo. Moises wasn't allowed to come on trips with us on my first trip so I'm hung out with Eddy and Edwardo. There was also a girl that had downs syndrome. It was really sad but when I gave her her food she was so happy and was so happy to eat. Seeing how happy see was just from getting a plate of barely any food that doesn't have much taste really made me think. We don't really have anything to complain about even on our worst days here in the US. Before we left we asked if Moises could eat there because instead of going to his feeding center he just followed me around. After he ate and our "tour guide" got food to take back with him we went back to the church.
 When we got back to the church Walter was there playing soccer on the basketball court. He saw me walk up and he ran over to his backpack real quick to get the letter for Suera, as if he didn't get it to us right at that moment he would be ever be able to get it to her. We walked over to him and got the letter from him. He was so happy that we were going to be giving the letter to Suera. We went back to the feeding center part and Berman asked us if we wanted rice and bean for lunch. We said yes because we hadn't eaten yet and were really hungry. They gave us a big plate of gallo pinto (rice and beans) and a nice cold glass of coke. The coke tasted so good partially because it was so cold and partially because they use real sugar in it.
 After lunch we briefly talked to Berman. He then started to talk to Moises to find out the truth about what is going on at his house. Moises didn't say much and he ended up crying. Berman was telling him how special he is and how much he loves him. Berman also told Moises that he was going to stop going to the feeding center next to house and that he was going to go there. He also told him that we were going to get him in a church in Nueva Vida and he is going to start to go to school there. After that we hung out a little long and I got some more pictures. It finally looked like it was going to rain so we decided to leave so we couldn't get the car stuck in the mud that makes up the road in Nueva Vida when it rains.
 When we got back to the hotel the power was out so we just took a nap. After out nap we went to get dinner before our salsa lessons. We were going to go to a Peruvian restaurant. When we were almost there we got stopped by an accident on the road. We finally got there and they were closed for some reason. We decided to go to a fretanga, it's like an outdoor restaurant that is inexpensive, that was near by. The food there was really good. After dinner we went to the salsa lessons.
 When we got to the place for the salsa lesson we were a little late and it was already dark. We paid at the door and walked in. The building wasn't that big and there were people everywhere. They were practicing some of the basic steps that I already knew from lessons I had taken at school. They stopped that very soon after we got there and started to do partner stuff. I had no idea what we were doing and didn't know how to talk to any of the girls. There ended up being a lot of beginners there so they had all of us go to the left side while everyone else stayed on the right. They had us practice "wapaya" for a while which was a basic step that I had already learned just had no clue what it was called especially in Spanish. Then they taught us how to do a turn from that which took me a while because when he tried to explain it he did it in Spanish. I had to wait to see a couple of times before I realized what he was talking about, which was sooner than some of other people there that speak Spanish and heard what he said. After a while they had us practice with a partner. I just waited until a girl came to me because I didn't know how to ask a girl to dance in Spanish. Two girls ended up coming back by me and I practice with one for a while and the other practiced alone. The first girl wasn't that good and didn't understand how exactly we were supposed to do the turn and me trying to explain to her what to her what she needed to do was just out of the question. The other understood what we needed to do in order to the turn and I started to dance with her. The instructor came over and explained to us how the one hand only comes together when you get close and that was the only thing we were doing wrong. She was excited when we got it right.
 After it was over they had all the beginners stay after and the instructors did a performance told us that we needed to keep coming and we could be where they are. Juan-Carlos' friends needed a ride home so I told they we would take them. It felt so good when we got outside because all the people in the small building made it so hot. We drove his friends home who lived right around the corner then went back to the hotel for the night. When we got back we went to the computers and did our normal nightly routine.


Tuesday June 14, 2011
  
 This was the first day we didn't have to deal with guy fixing the car door at breakfast so just went to Nueva Vida when we wanted to. When we got to the church we started to talk with Jose Luise, the owner of the bakery. He asked me if I had heard the story of how the bakery was started. I told him that I hadn't but I wanted to. before he started he asked me if I was going to make a video about the bakery. I hadn't planned on it but I could tell he wanted me to make a video telling the story so I told him I would make one with pictures of the bakery while someone is telling the story. He started to tell the story and Juan-Carlos would tell me what he what he said and while I was writing it down he would tell Juan-Carlos the next part it was an endless cycle until he told me the whole story. We did it that way because he didn't have much time but he wanted me to know the story. (I'll post the story and video in a different blog post so I can finally finish this one)


 After we finished talking with Jose-Luis we went and talked with Pastor Berman. I gave him the seed that I had brought and he was really excited about them, especially the sweet corn. I made a list of some of the other seeds that he wanted so I could tell other people that were coming down what they wanted and so we could bring some more down when we came back during spring break. He told me about how he wants to start an internet cafe there at the church which will give the church a stead source of money that they can use for project in the community. He told me everything that they and where it will go and how they are going to secure it. (If you have any old computers or printers or scanners, ect. don't throw them out, let me know and i would like to be able to take them back to Nicaragua with me so they can use!) While Berman was showing me how they were going to run things he told me about how they had a $10,000 US sound system and they had 2 security guys watching the church at night and 6 guys came with AK-47s and stole them. Now they have a lock system so that people can't steal stuff from behind the locked doors. We also talked briefly about Moises family and that Berman was going to get Moises enrolled in the school that was right down the street and I would pay for it on Wednesday. He also told us about some of the other projects that they had planned for the community. He also told me how he like the VTNOF shirt that I was wearing. He told me he wanted to get ones with same design but saying "Verbo Iglesia" instead of "vtnof".
 When it was close to the time for the feeding center I asked if could go to the last feeding center that I hadn't been to yet. Berman go Winkler and he showed us how to get there. This was the farthest away so we took the car to get there. The pastor there also really liked my shirt I took pictures of the food of the church. They had instruments and a band. The pastor explained to me how he lives next to the church and he is planning on moving the kitchen into his house so the feeding center doesn't take up all the church. I got to help serve the food. I got pictures of the kids eating. There was one little girl that came a little late when we told her to hurry up she came running up. When she got there she saw everyone was watching her and she just stopped and smiled. When she left she said goodbye to me at least 3 times as she walked away. she was so nice.

 After most of the kids finished some of the kids tried talking to me while I got Moises food. I had no clue what they were saying so I called Juan-Carlos over to tell me what they were saying. They were asking if they could and Juan-Carlos thought that they hadn't eaten yet so he told them yes. The pastor was watching and he realized what happened and he told me that I couldn't tell them no, that would be bad. He told the kids, it was 5 of them, that I was sponsoring their next meal. That got to eat 2 meals that day, which just doesn't happen, all because I went to that feeding center that was out of my way on that day. The kids were so appreciative of me. The joy in their smile just made me so happy and I felt like I really did something. This was the point that I realized everyday was just getting better and better. This wasn't even the high point of the day yet.

 

The kids that got to eat twice because of me coming there.

  After everything was done I went up to Juan-Carlos who was talking to the pastor, Guillermo Zuniga. The pastor was telling me that he had a vision. I thought he was talking about the church and the feeding center and how he was going to rearrange it. He told me that his vision that he just had while I was inside was about me. He said that my life was a cup and God was pouring water or oil into the cup until it was over flowing and He kept pouring. He told me that the liquid was the Holy Spirit. He told me how I was meant to come to that feeding center that day. He told me how I was meant to come to Nicaragua alone. Everything that he told me meant so much to me. I got a picture with the pastor before we drove back.

 When we got back to Verbo they told us that they didn't have any food left for us. Berman asked us if we wanted fried tortilla with cheese. We said yes because it sounded delicious and I wanted to try something new. We didn't realize that they didn't have any tortillas there and apparently there weren't any close by. Berman sent a boy with money out to get them and it took him a really long time to get back and he told us that he had to go far to get them. While we waited some of the guys were playing soccer and picking on one of the girls that volunteers there. They were calling her dog-face, I'm not really sure why but everyone working there was doing it even Pastor Berman. Once the food was ready they fed Winkler, Juan-Carlos, the boy who got the tortillas, and myself. They gave us 2 fried tortillas with cheese inside and pico de gallo on the side. They also gave us Koolaid. Winkler ate his so fast that Berman was calling him a pig. I told him we call him Oinkler instead.
 After we ate went to a market to get Moises new school shoes. He had been playing soccer in the rain in his other ones the day before and they ripped. There was a small market there in Ciudad Sandino that we drove to. We went past a store with a big Maggi sign on the side, an instant soup brand owner by Nestlé, and I decided I needed to get a picture of that on the way back for my friend Maggie. On my first trip all the kids knew Maggi soup so they called her Sopa Maggi. We also drove past a really nice church that was fenced in. This church was nicer than a lot of churches in the US and it was in middle of this really poor city. Juan-Carlos told me that it was Morman and when I looked at the sign I could tell. It looked just like the ones in the US just in Spanish, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". He said those church were all over and they were designed the same. It made me think about how far there thinking was. The wasted so much money to make a really nice building in a place where you could have 4 walls and a tin room and it would work the same. They wasted so much money that could have gone to the people in the community there that need the money to be able to feed their families and send there kids to school if they are lucky.
 When we got back to the church we sat down with Berman. He told Moises to go home and get his father. We sat there and talked to Berman while we waited for Moises to come back. We waited a long time and we figured that his father did want to come. After a while we decide to go to the bakery and when we got back we would go to his house. On our way to the bakery we saw Moises playing soccer with some of the other kids. He didn't want to come back to tell us that his father didn't want to come. We went into the bakery and I bought a bag of pico, this really good sweet bread. We went back and got Berman and Moises and headed to his house. On the Berman was talking to some of the people the on the street along the way. 
 When we got to Moises house Berman confronted the parents. He told them how they needed to be more responsible for their kids. He told them that they need to start going to church. He told the daughters that there is still time for them to college and do something with their lives. He did everything very tactfully. He told them the plans about the hot dog stand and how I was going to help. He told them that they can't be lazy and just try and use the gringos. He told them they have been given an opportunity to change the situation that they are in and not waste it.
 On our way back I looked in the church next to his house and say the band was practicing. They were really good. When we got back to the church a bunch of the kids were there for a dance rehearsal. We ended up talking with the guy from the bakery that played the joke on me. He told us how he was the unofficial youth director. He told us how he is a gym teacher as well working at the bakery. He told us about a soccer tournament that he arrange for all of Nueva Vida and he took 300 kids from 16 teams to a park for a week for a huge soccer match and the winner team got a trophy. The kids were so excited about it and keep asking him when he is going to do the next one. He put the whole thing on with his own money so he has to wait until he has enough money to buy the trophy to do another one. He also told us how he tries to have fires sometimes on the weekend for the kids to come to so they stay out of trouble and they can come and hang out. We talk with him for a while then left Nueva Vida.
 We went to the Peruvian place that we tried to go to the night before. This time when we got there they were open. The place was similar to the fretanga that we ate at the night before but it was cheaper. The one thing I didn't like was the "sausage", it tasted like a hot dog made out of spam that they put on a stick. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store so Juan-Carlos could put more minutes on his phone. When we got back to the hotel we did our nightly routine.


Wednesday June 15, 2011

  We decided to get up early so that we would have plenty of time for the volcano and Granada on my tourist day. I wanted to go to the Masaya Volcano which is an active volcano. We got to the Masaya Volcano Park around 7:30 and the guard told us that the park doesn't open until 9. I decided that we could just go to Mombacho Volcano which is just outside of Granada. We got to bottom of the volcano a little after 8. We got tickets then we had to wait until 8:30 for the truck to take us up to the top. It was a really cool drive up to the top. We drove through a coffee plantation and a rain forest. When we got to the top it was really foggy. They took us into a building and told us a little about the volcano and the rain forest that is now on top of the extinct volcano. We ended up taking the shortest hike, the one that didn't require us to hire a guide. Walking through the rain forest was AMAZING! When I decided I was coming back to Nicaragua I did not think that I would be in a rain forest on top of a volcano. It is one of the things that not many people that I know can say they have done. I didn't get to enjoy it to the fullest because it was foggy and we could see the view. They told us that on a clear day you can see Granada, Masaya, Masaya Volcano, Apoyo (a place that I went on my first trip that was a volcano that imploded and there was lagoon there now and it over looks Granada), and the islets that were made from one of Mombacho's eruptions.
 After we finished at the volcano we went back into the city of Granada which is one of the oldest colonial cities in the western hemisphere. We went to the town square and parked the car. It started to rain when we got out so I put my jacket on. We at lunch a place right there in the square. Juan-Carlos had been telling me about Vigoron which is a specialty in Granada. I decided that I might as well try it since I was in Granada. They brought it out on a leaf which it is normally served. On the bottom is ensalada de rapouyo (similar to coleslaw) then boiled yucca (similar to potato) then chicharrones (it's like pork rinds but meatier). I didn't like the chicharrone so I gave them to Juan-Carlos.
 While we were sitting at lunch we a bunch of horse drawn carriages that gave tours of the city. While I waited to pay Juan-Carlos went and talked to one of the tour guides and he gave us a deal on the combined tour which included the historic district as well as the lake. We got on and started to go to the historic district. He showed us a bunch of old cathedrals. He also showed us an old hospital as well as a bunch of houses where former presidents lived or grew up. We went down to the lake where I got out and took a bunch of pictures. There was a guy there trying to get us to go on his tour of the islet. We told him that would me back.
 We went back to the town square and exchanged money to pay the guy for the tour. He told us that his friend could give us the long boat tour cheaper than the other guy was going to make us pay. He got in the car with us and took us to his friend. We got out of the car then got in a boat to take a tour of the islets. The first couple of islets had really poor people living on them. When we got a little farther out there were really nice houses on the islets. We saw the Pellas family vacation house, they are the richest family in Nicaragua who owns Flor de Caña (rum), Toña(beer), and Victoria (beer). We saw one islet that had a house on it and was for sale for $400,000 US. I thought how we could sell our house in Maryland and buy this islet in Lake Nicaragua which has an awesome view of the lake and of Mambacho Volcano. I got a bunch of really awesome picture. There was one islet that had 4 monkeys living on it. The people living around that islet come and feed them. The monkeys sometime out on the tour boats and you can get a picture with it but they didn't want to get on our boat. During the tour they told me how Lake Nicaragua is only place in the world where there are fresh water sharks. Juan-Carlos was worried a little while on the boat because he can't swim.
 When we got back we got in the car and headed back to Managua. While we were driving back ate the rest of the bag of pico because I was so hungry since I didn't eat the chicharrones. We went back to the hotel to see if my friends that were down there for Mana Project had sent me a message on Facebook like they said they would. We got back and checked Facebook but they hadn't sent me anything yet so we took a nap before dinner. For dinner we went to an El Salvadorian fretanga. They had these things that looked like thick tortillas but they weren't. It was this thing made out of corn and you picked what was in it like cheese, beans, or chicken and that would be made into the tortilla thing.
 After dinner we went back to the hotel to try and get in touch with the Mana Project girls. I finally got in touch with Jackie on Facebook chat. She tried to get us directions but it took a while. The directions seamed easy to me but Juan-Carlos wanted to check and on the way there he made us take a wrong turn. We got back to where I thought we were supposed to be and we found the entrance to neighborhood the girls were in. There was a gate with guards at the entrance. The guards didn't want to let us in at first because we didn't know who owned the house. One of the guards ended up getting into the car with an M1 Carbine and went to the house with us. When we got out of the car he just walked back, he didn't even wait to see if we actually knew the people there. Juan-Carlos was scared of the dogs that they had to guard the house. We hung out there for a while and met a bunch of the other Mana Project people that we didn't know. We told them about what has changed in Nueva Vida and what it is like. They also wanted to know about Granada since they had 2 free weekends and they were thinking about going there. Katherine gave us all the letters she had for the kids in Nueva Vida because they weren't sure if they would be able to go. We gave them and the project director direction on how to get to Nueva Vida if they got a chance to go. We had a lot of fun just hanging out there. After a while we went back to the hotel and slept.

Thursday June 16, 2011


 After our normal breakfast we headed to Nueva Vida like we normally did. When we got there the guys on staff were cutting up a pig that they killed earlier that morning. I'm not going to describe it because it was rather gory and might disturb some people (if you look at my pictures on flickr these would be the ones you might want to skip). While they were working on the pig and we waited for Berman to get back we started to translate all of the letter we got from Katherine the night before.
 After a while of working on the letters one of the guys from the bakery signaled for me to come over. We took a break and went over to the bakery. They asked me if I wanted to learn how to make pico. I took pictures as they showed me. After they showed me they expected me to help make it. I made 1 and didn't really want to do it. They started calling me Bruce Willis because I was stingy. There if you are stingy you are hard to kill, die hard and since Bruce Willis was in the movie Die Hard they will call you Bruce Willis. I didn't really understand it the first time they explained it to me but it just a cultural difference. They told me that to prove I wasn't stingy I could get them a large bottle of coke from the local store.
 We left and went to the store to get a bottle of coke. They said they didn't have large bottles of Coke but they had Pepsi so told them to get us one. I thought they were wrong because I could see a 2L bottle of Coke on the ground. When she came back she had a cold 3L bottle of Pepsi. I then realized what they meant by the large bottle. We took the bottle back to them and they were very appreciative. We told them that we couldn't help anymore because we had to finish translating the letters for the kids. We went back and were translating until they brought us food. They gave us fried pork, similar to chicharrone but didn't taste as bad but i still didn't really like, and tortillas. This was just for us and the staff there at the church. We talked briefly to Berman and he told us that he had gotten Moises enrolled in the school. He told me that it cost more than he thought, $2.10 a month instead of $1.50 US which I didn't mind. He also told me that he had to pay for a whole year, even the first 5 months of the year he wasn't in school. They go to school from February until late November.
 When it was time for the feeding center I helped out while Juan-Carlos continued to translate the letters for the kids. During lunch Moises showed up in his school uniform. He had finished his first day of kindergarten, remember he is 13 supposedly. I got more picture of the kids waiting for food and eating.
 After the kids finished eating I started to hand out the letters that were already in Spanish. Some of the girl that were there were helping me find the kids to give the letters to. I gave one girl a letter from Debbie and she didn't look very happy to get the letter. She went home to read the letter. About 15 minutes latter there was a girl there with a letter to take back with me. It was the girl who Debbie wrote and she was so excited to give me the letter. Ingrid, the girl that Maria wrote, came with 2 pictures of herself and a letter for me to take to Maria. It was an amazing experience being able to see the reactions of the kids getting letters from "their gringos". I got pictures of all the kids when they got the letter so I could share it with my friends who had sent the letters.
 While Juan-Carlos continued to translate letters we asked Moises what he learned in school. He got his books out and showed us how they had been working on how to use a pencil. For his homework he had to make wavy lines and stuff. I noticed why had different school supplies, worse school supplies than the ones I had sent him a month before. He didn't give us a good answer and neither did his father when we asked him later. We made Moises start working on his homework there while Juan-Carlos translated. He was really struggling to do it an kept making excuses. Part of it was him being lazy and not wanting to do it and because he was struggling to understand what he was doing wrong. All of the girls that were helping me give out the letters were gathered around the table watching and helping Moises, including Walter's sister Helen. Even Moises' little brother, who is probably the age that should be in kindergarten but isn't in school, was showing Moises what he is doing wrong. I want to be able to get his little brother and the rest of his family enrolled in school. His little brother is really smart and he needs to get into school before it's too late.
 While Moises worked on his homework and Juan-Carlos worked on the letters and keeping Moise focused, which was the hardest part, I went and played with the other kids. They were dragging all around and having me push them on the swings. It reminded me of when I went to the local elementary school in Blacksburg with Lee and we helped out with the high-risk pre-schoolers. They would always ask, "Can somebody push me?" The kids in Nueva Vida reminded me of that because they were all asking if I could push them but I didn't have enough arms to push them all at once. They took me near the pigs and started to climb trees.
 While we were climbing tree I looked over and saw that Helen was near the feeding center part of the church and she was crying. She came towards us and told Winkler something. Winkler, who speaks some English and is still learning, told me that she lost her flip-flops and she thought someone stole them. I went with her to were they were I looked around a little and found that someone put them in a bush. She was really happy to have them back and she went back with other kids to the trees. I was taking pictures of the kids in the trees. I tried to get a picture of Helen but she was being shy and hiding behind the tree. I told her that I was taking the picture for Ashley. After that she completely changed, she wanted me to take a million pictures and was always by me. Whenever I didn't want to take a picture of her she would say it was for Ashley. I ended up climbing in the tree and the kids started to call me a monkey because I could do it so easily. I got some really cool picture from the top of the trees.
 After Juan-Carlos finally finished translating the letters, after being distracted most of the time by Moises trying to get out of his homework, we started to deliver the other letters. We had the group of kids that were dragging me around, I called them my entourage, showed us where people lived. We went to the kids houses and gave them the letters and took pictures of them getting the letter. We must have been a sight for the local because it was me, the gringo, Juan-Carlos and then about 10 little kids walking the streets of Nueva Vida.
 After we delivered all of the letters we went back to the church. Berman asked us if we could take his wife home because he had to stay at the church for some meeting. We told him that it was not a problem. We went to his house which was near the old US Embassy, which is now a call center for some US company. We dropped his wife off and helped her get her stuff out. Juan-Carlos told me that his house wasn't in a safe part of town and there is a lot of crime there.
 When we left I was really in the mood for pizza. There was a Pizza Hut that we passed almost every night when we got dinner. We decided that we would go there. When we were sitting in the Pizza Hut we looked at on of the tables next to us and it was the project director of Mana Project that we met the night before with some of the other project directors. After dinner we gave him more detailed direstions to Nueva Vida. There was a clown in the Pizza Hut while we were there. Since Juan-Carlos is a professional clown as well a translator for ORPHANetwork, I was joking with him how it was one of his friends. After dinner we went back to the hotel and chilled.

Friday June 17, 2011


 This was my last full day in Nicaragua and the last day in Nueva Vida. I still had a full suitcase of clothes to take to the church. We loaded the cloths in the car and headed to Nueva Vida. When we got there Berman wasn't there so we had to wait to get the clothes out. Some of the kids didn't have school that day because some of the teachers were at a conference. Helen and the other kids that I was playing with on Thursday were there. I played with them more and climbed the trees. Juan-Carlos started working on translating the letters that the kids gave me to take back and give to my friends at Virginia Tech.
 When Pastor Berman got there we got the clothes. I took them out of the suitcase and showed them to Berman. They put them in suitcases that they had then put them in a locked room. He told me that the clothes were going to go to the staff at the church and bakery. I am excited for when I go back in March for the spring break trip with VTNOF and I the guys working at the bakery to be were clothes that I brought down there.
 While we were there with Berman I asked him about Nueva Vida. I wanted more about it besides what ORPHANetwork had told me on my first trip. I also asked him about when he was in Miami. He told me about his life which was really interesting. I am going to post the stories about the people there including Berman in a different blog post.
 After we finished talking with Berman it was almost time for the feeding center. Juan-Carlos went back to translating letter and I help out with feeding center. I more pictures of the kids. I even got a picture of a boy was wearing a Virginia Tech shirt. It was nice to see the impact of what we were doing while we are at school getting ready to come to Nicaragua. I also got a picture of something I didn't know they had in Nicaragua, especially in Nueva Vida by the way it looks. It was a garbage truck that goes around and picks up bags of trash that people leave out. The problem is most people don't have bags to put there trash in so the just drop it on the ground and it just stays there. The guys that were on the garbage truck were really nice and were waving. They wanted me to take their picture and it was really funny.
 When I was done helping with the feeding center I checked on Juan-Carlos and he was fine. I went in the church were most of the staff was hanging out. I sat down and had a conversation with Jose Luis in Spanglish. He knew a lot more English than I thought he did. He thanked me and told me how much the rest of the staff appreciated what I had done for them. He thanked me for really having a passion of helping them in Nicaragua.
 I wanted to get some pico before I left so we went to the store again to get another 3L bottle of Pepsi. This time my entourage came with me. I figured that they would enjoy it in the bakery because it gets really hot in there. We walked over to the bakery and gave it to the people working in there, people that I hadn't met before. They were really appreciative. I told them I wanted 2 bags of pico. They told me if I wanted to wait they would give me pico fresh out of the oven. While I waited for the pico I got more pictures of the bakery for the video. I also helped the kids get mangoes from the tree (mangoes aren't in season this time of year so they are kind of bitter and eat it with salt). I ended up having a mango while I wanted, it was good but didn't taste like mango because it was bitter. When the pico finally came out they gave me the 2 bags and I tried to pay but they wouldn't let me. I thanked them and told them I would see them again in March. All of the kids were asking me for my pico.
 We walked back to the church and told them that we had to leave. Juan-Carlos had a meeting at the main Verbo church in Managua for all the translators for the ORPHANetwork trip that was the next week. I said goodbye to all the staff and told them I would keep in touch. I said goodbye to the kids and Moises. Moises started to cry when I was hugging him. I told him that I would write him and that I would be back again in March. He was crying as we drove away.
 We got to the other Verbo church early so we just chilled until other people got there. The meeting was in a little restaurant that was part of the church but we were the only ones there. During the meeting I saw Nestor and Raquel, 2 of the translator that I met on my first trip. Raquel had helped me with Moises on my first trip. During the meeting Eddy, the head ORPHANetwork guy in Nicaragua, thought I was one of the translators and I told him why I was there. After the meeting I talked with Raquel and Nestor before they left. After everybody left we walked around and took pictures. We went into the ORPHANetwork office and I talked with Eddy. He told me about onet and what they are doing all across Nicaragua. he told me how they are opening several more feeding center by the end of the year including one on eastern side of the country.
 After we finished there we went back to the hotel. I wanted to see if the Mana Project girl wanted to hang out one more time before I left but they ended up being busy getting to know everyone better. We just hung out at the hotel for a while before we got hungry. We went to a restaurant that was near the zoo and on the way to Masaya. It was really nice but not too fancy. They had a band playing that played everything from The Beetles to Nicaraguan salsa. I got beef tacos. They were different than I expected. The beef wasn't ground and it wasn't steak. It was more like pot roast. It was really good though. The meal for both of us that would cost at least $35 in the US cost about $15 there. After dinner we went back to the hotel and relaxed.

Saturday June 18, 2011


 We got to sleep in because we didn't have to get to Nueva Vida. We got to sleep for an extra hour which felt so good. When we went to breakfast the guy working there asked us if we wanted to have nacatamale, Nicaraguan specialty breakfast dish that normally only gets eaten on Saturday or Sunday. I decided I might as well try it since I tried everything else and I can only get it in NIcaragua. Juan-Carlos told me that we should drink coffee instead of juice to help digest the food. This should have been a warning sign that I shouldn't have gotten it and just had eggs and gallo pinto like every other morning. The coffee was really good because they grow it right there in Nicaragua. When they brought it out it was on a leaf. It looked like cornbread stuffing from an MRE (Meal-Read-to-Eat, the stuff the military eats when we can't get a hot meal). When I ate it it tasted just like the cornbread stuffing in an MRE, disgusting. The was some pork in it which was pink. I ate about half of it before I couldn't eat any more.
 After breakfast we got out things and checked out. We stopped at the gas station on the way to Juan-Carlos' house. We dropped his things off at his house then went to his friend's house to meet the guy we rented the car from. When we got there the guy told us how the deposit for the car wasn't there. I didn't have time to wait for it to get there so I paid Juan-Carlos the difference from the deposit and what I owed him. He was going to get the deposit and that would be the rest of the money that I owed him. We got back in the car and the guy drove me to the airport. I checked in and got my ticket. I said goodbye to Juan-Carlos before I went through security. He offered to buy me lunch but my stomach wasn't feeling it so I left fast and went through customs. That was the beginning of me getting sick. I went to the bathroom then felt fine. I got a cheeseburger for lunch at a cafe in the airport before my flight.
 I got on the plane to El Salvador to begin my adventure back home. I was in the first row but for some reason I faced the back of the plane while everyone else faced me. I was in an exit row so I had more leg room. There was nobody next to me or across from me. Me and the guy cadddy-corner both put or feet up on the seat across from us.
 When I got to El Salvador I had an hour layover. I had to go through more security just because I was coming back to the US. We finally boarded and I was on the last leg of trip. While on the flight the guy in front of me asked me if I go to Virginia Tech. I made it really obvious that I was a Hokie, I was wearing a tech shirt and my VT hat. He told me that his daughter just finished her freshman year. I started talking with his daughter, Sarah. I told her what I did and told her a little about VTNOF. She was really interested and said that she wanted me to get her more information in the fall.
 We finally landed at Dulled International Airport and I was so happy to be back in the US. I was not excited about what came next. First it was the tram back the main gate. Then it was the long line in customs. Then more waiting while I waited for my bag. After all that I could go outside and wait some more for my mom to pick me up. On our way home we stopped at a McDonald's which was so good since I hadn't eaten in 6 hours since the in-flight meal.

 That next week after my trip I was sick from the nacatamale. My only symptom was diarrhea which was not fun. It kept me from putting my journal into this blog.