Our first few days in Nicaragua have been so successful. Our friends from San Diego, the Fortune 421 crew and I landed late Wednesday in Managua and the group of us piled into the old land cruiser and set out for El Transito.
El Transito is a sleepy fishing village of about 3,000 people, dirt roads, horses, pigs on the side of the road and really basic homes. In 1992 it was practically destroyed from a tsunami and its crazy to see how over 20 years later they are still rebuilding. Makes me think about the destruction in Nepal that just happened and how I hope we can assist them in rebuilding much quicker.
We arrived to the first school yesterday and I was shocked to see the very simple, two room structure that was school to about 30 children ages 4 to 10. The yard was just dirt and rocks and the swing set was in such disrepair that only 2 of the 8 swings worked. It was sad because I wanted to push all the kids on swings but they were fighting over the working ones.
A couple of the volunteers with us got creative and made soccer goals out of rocks and played with the one ball they had while the rest of us brought out the coloring books and colored pencils we brought. It was amazing to see the kids excel at coloring and they were so proud of the pictures they drew. It is a great activity to do with kids and volunteers, because even with a language barrier it is fun to name colors in English and Spanish and the kids love to teach us new words. (The pencil wasn’t brown, it was “cafe,” one girl corrected me!)
I quickly made a few best friends, little girls clinging to my side and hugging me with all their might. It always melts my heart when these little beings let their guard down and show so much affection and compassion so quickly. Little kids are so innocent and genuine like that.
With our limited toys and supplies, we had to improvise our activities with the kids. We taught them a fun and simple game called the human knot, crossing our arms and grabbing different hands to untangle. It was a lot of fun. The kids didn’t quite get it at first but with some more explanation we got it figured out and had a good laugh.
Leaving was so hard. The little kids were asking if we were coming back tomorrow as we said our goodbyes. Its always so hard to drive away but watching their little faces through the barbed wire, waving at us, was heart breaking. If only they knew the plans I had to help their school. I want to provide new learning materials because the books they have now look older than me and there were very little supplies for the kids to use.
I was also shocked to learn that the kids have to walk two miles to the nearby river to get fresh (but not always clean) water because the well behind the school has dried up. I met with Stu, a local surfer who is working to help fix wells around the country for poor communities like this one. I think that collaborating with him could be really productive for the health and safety for these kids and community. So many ideas. This Nicaragua trip is off to a great start.
with gratitude,
-Linz
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