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!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
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.
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.
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.
Monday, February 20, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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.
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.
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