Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

I decided I would try to blog for y'all and for me since I'm not very consistent with old fashioned journaling (although I did make a mod-podge notebook before I left in case this fails!).  Whew, yesterday was a 22 hour day filled with all sorts of emotions.  I am sad to leave the family and friends I love in the US, but I'm so excited for the adventures I'll have in Nicaragua.  Yesterday we visited El Luminol aka "The Triangle of Death."  El Luminol is the Chinandega city dump situated next to an above ground cemetery where the waste from a local hospital, a meat processing plant, and sewage treatment facility coalesce.  In 1998 when Hurricane Mitch struck Nicaragua, thousands of Nicaraguans were killed, and thousands more farmers were left homeless from mudslides created by a crater lake on top of a volcano.  When the homeless approached the government for help, they were placed "temporarily" on the land of the dump.  However over ten years later people are still living there. That's where Amigos comes in.  They have been going to the dump at least once a week for the past ten years and inviting people to leave and move in to houses built by Amigos.  There are many beautiful success stories living in places like Villa Catalina, but there are also families who refuse to leave the dump.  They have become complacent with their situation and find it impossible to trust what Amigos is offering.  At first it seems absolutely crazy that someone wouldn't immediately accept the offer of a new life for themselves and their family.  Currently they make a "living" ($12/day) by rummaging through the dump for glass, plastic, metal, anything of value.  They have all sorts of health problems from living in the dump and breathing in the burning trash. It seems absurd to continue to get by like that when Amigos is offering to help, but how often do we do the same thing? It may be a little less visible, but I know there are areas in my life where I have settled and I am complacent with getting by. But there is hope.  Amigos will never stop pursuing these people to help them realize that they are called to something more.  I believe by the grace of God there will be a day when El Luminol doesn't exist.

After we went to El Luminol, we visited El Chonco, a village about 30 minutes away.  These people came to Amigos a year ago asking them to build a well so they could have water.  They currently have to walk 4 miles (one-way) everyday just to get clean water.  Amigos agreed to help as long as every family (about 150 familes) would send 1 person 1 day a week to help work on the well and the pipes.  The people were ecstatic and through themselves into this project wholeheartedly.  Amigo estimated that it would probably take two and a half years to finish this project.  They started last June and it will be done by the end of this month!  We went to play with the kids yesterday, who are so full of life.  One girl took me to meet her abuelita and hang out in her home and while I was there she offered me water.   Knowing how limited of a resource water is for them, the fact that she would willingly give it to a strange gringa that she just met is pretty incredible.

The pace of life has changed drastically in the past 24 hours.  I have already accepted the fact that I will be sweating continuously for the next 3 months.  I took my first outdoor cold shower of the summer last night and I can't remember a time when a shower felt soooo good.  The other interns and I went to Tacos Mexicanos for dinner last night, muy delicioso. This morning I realized that drinking coffee here is a bit of a lose-lose situation.  If I don't drink it I'll be lacking the pick me up I have grown to know and love, but if I do drink it I need to plan on some time in the bano in the near future, bano terminacion anyone?