When we first arrived in Nicaragua, the hot, humid weather immediately testified I was far from home. The luscious sugar cane and corn of the local agriculture dressed the landscape in bright green, feeding the gaunt grazing horses on the side of the streets.
All the honking made me nervous until I understood that honking is a polite thing to do in Nicaragua. Apparently it means ‘I see you, don’t worry.’
People were out selling their wares, fruit, and water in sealed plastic bags at every stoplight in Managua. Eric and Ronaldo, the members of the Living Water crew who picked us up at the airport, told us that the water was not safe for us to drink. As we entered more rural areas, we saw the expansive Lake Managua and the distant peaks of volcanoes on the horizon.
We drove over an hour to the northwest region to a home in León, where our group stayed while we helped repair the broken water wells and pumps. We also taught mothers and children about sanitation and hygiene using a curriculum called Clean Hands, Clean Hearts, incorporating Bible stories and crafts that shared the love of God. We spent the first day orienting ourselves and learning more about the operations and condition in Nicaragua.
On Sunday we went to church and then helped another mission group pass out food and soap in a very poor community. The homes were either simple squares of space surrounded by handmade blocks of the volcanic sediment from the region, or held together by sticks and twine covered with plastic to keep the rain out.
We visited several homes that day, but two in particular were touching to me. We were invited into a small tent where a little girl, maybe 8 years old, was cradled in a hammock. Her mother, father, aunt, and cousin were by her side. The Living Water Crew assessed the situation and told us that the child had been sick – bleeding from the nose for over a week – likely with Dengue fever. We spoke of our concern and prayed with the family. The family cried silent tears, but the little girl smiled weakly. As we left we were reassured the family was taking her to the doctor for treatment.
In another tender moment we stopped by the home of an 83-year-old woman who said she had been a Christian for 20 years and that she was going to “finish strong.” Her dress was worn, she walked hunched over, and she was missing teeth. She was encouraged by our visit and as we prayed with her she cried and we hugged her.
Sitting in the back of a truck like locals, we saw mothers walking along the road holding babies, people riding in pairs on bikes, burning piles of brush and trash. We rode back to the house, inspired by those two opportunities for prayer.
On Monday we got to work on the wells. It was amazing! The people were expecting us and waiting at the pump when we arrived. They were friendly, welcoming, thankful, and helpful. They had a gracious way and a rugged peace. The women were organized and got right to work sanitizing the pipes that would deliver the water from the ground once we installed the new pump.
We gathered the rest of the community by going hut-to-hut, talking to some at length about their hardship, injuries, and loss, but I did not see self-pity. I was touched by the openness and sincerity of the interactions with the community and once we gathered the women and children together, I saw how supportive and friendly they were to each other, like a big family. And did I mention funny? I love how humor transcends cultural boundaries.
Once the lessons started we were adopted into their sisterhood and had instant rapport. I taught the lesson about bacteria and germs and how scientists study them, how they make people sick, and how to keep the water from the well clean. Most interesting was the diarrhea doll. It was a demonstration of what happens when you drink contaminated water and how you need to rehydrate yourself or your child. It was, in one word, messy.
At the end of the lessons we passed out soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and special measuring cups for sugar and salt to help prepare rehydration solution. The hygiene materials were bought with the excess money collected from our church mission offering and individual donations specifically for this mission trip. They were all so appreciative and unassuming about receiving the “gifts.”
On Tuesday we arrived on the site of the next well to be repaired. It was a smaller community with several pregnant women. There was concern about the well because it was not very deep and they had a latrine and an animal pen too close to it, so it was likely to be contaminated. We had a similar experience teaching the women and children, as before, however there was a little less enthusiasm and concern for the possible contamination issue.
Living Water’s ministry approach works because they understand that a sense of responsibility and infrastructure is necessary for the community to thrive. These people were told if they did not relocate the latrine and animal pens, that Living Water would not maintain the well. This kind of ‘tough love’ is sometimes necessary to encourage respect for the resource. Living Water encourages communities to participate in the maintenance by donating materials or labor in the form of volunteers to help offset the cost of maintenance, and to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility. Recently the government has instituted Rural CAPS (Comités de Agua Potable y Saneamiento or, in English, Potable Water and Sanitation Committees), a program that facilitates community organization to have leaders in charge of maintaining the wells and helping provide for the wells’ maintenance. In regions where the government has no plan for the CAPS, the committees provide an infrastructure for Living Water to work with. I have often thought that sometimes if the proper infrastructure is not in place, any mission to build up a community will only last as long as the parts hold out. I feel the work we contributed was valuable in that it has an organized infrastructure that provides maintenance and empowers the people to learn new skills and take responsibility for their communities. This contributes to lasting changes that heal people, communities, and nations. Whether we are aware of it or not, we all need each other.
Later in the afternoon we did hygiene lessons and Vacation Bible School for a community where a new church was being planted. The women of the community get together once a week to feed the children collectively, so we installed tippy-taps (milk containers with a string you step on to tilt it so water pours out of a hole made in the side) and soap tied next to it in netting so they could wash their hands easily before they ate. We also looked at the kitchen area where the food was prepared to make sure the food preparation was sanitary. It was good and the children enjoyed a hot meal of chicken and rice, followed by a brief downpour of rain.
For me the most touching day was Wednesday. The community was very large and there was easily more than a hundred people waiting for us by the well when we arrived. The community leader was there, organized and ready. The people of the community had been buying water for the last six months and they were excited about getting the well working again. We separated the women from the children and taught specialized lessons to each group. I worked with the women and noticed one holding a mentally disabled child. She was feeding and fussing over him and it was sweet to see her selfless love for this little child. Later our hygiene leader, Yamileth (Yami for short) took some supplies and said we were going to visit a lady she remembered seeing in the hospital with a sick child when she was there with her daughter (Yami’s daughter was born with spina bifida). We arrived at the house of the same woman that caught my eye. Jessica told us about what happened to her 2-year-old boy, Steven, how his treatment was going, and her hopes for his future. Steven had meningitis at 21 days old, but Jessica didn’t really know what that was, only that it caused her son to suffer. I was able to explain to her that day what meningitis is and how it caused the damage to her son. I studied neonatal meningitis for five years and it was surreal to put that passion to use in such a remote location. Sometimes I’m astonished at the unlikely situations we find ourselves in and then filled with so much faith that we are loved by a God who cares enough about the details of our lives to orchestrate these messages of hope in ways that are so personal.
Certainly the scariest moment was Wednesday afternoon.
We went to another community to
replace the galvanized piping and pump. The piping was rusting and contaminating the water. We took water samples and tested the pH, alkalinity,
nitrates, and bacteria levels. As we lifted the pipe out of the well,
disassembling it one piece at a time, we saw a thunderstorm coming. We tried to hurry and get it all up before the storm came, but it wasn’t going to happen. We saw the wind blowing so hard in the trees across the field. People took cover but some kept working. With the lightning overhead, thunder booming,
and rain drenching any protective gear we had, I jokingly thought, ‘at least the guys are holding up a giant lightning rod, so as long as that is higher than the pipes I’m loading onto the top of the truck, I am safe.’ We called it a day once we got all the piping out and planned to come back the next day to finish the job. I had a whole new respect for well repair.Thursday we returned to the community and began flushing out the well. The boys played in the gushing water. We taught hygiene lessons and did crafts and passed out toothbrushes and soap as before. We met a man named Manuel who was mute but communicated with sign language. One of our team members, Debbie, knew sign language, so it was a blessing for him to be able to communicate with us. And we hit it off. He was very intuitive, so in some ways he knew what I was communicating with my high school Spanish and blossoming bilingual sign language skill s better than others who could talk. Once we repaired the pump we did a quick fix on another pump within walking distance. We loaded up and headed back to León.
After the excitement wanes of establishing a first-time water supply in a community, the complexity of sustainability is revealed. Living Water is actively seeking help in this area and that is the call we answered with the support of our church, family, and friends.
Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America. A hand-pump is still the most appropriate way for the rural poor to extract well water, but there’s no existing local supply chain or significant pump expertise. This was a problem we ran across first-hand the last day when we were unable to complete a repair because the parts were not ready yet.
The beauty of the Nicaraguan culture is reflected in the people through the mutual respect and sincerity they demonstrate that to me, seems to come from the vulnerability in accepting and sharing their common needs. As they bear each other’s burdens, and as we bear it with them, a lightness of heart shines through. We left Nicaragua changed.
Lastly, I must acknowledge the commitment, compassion, and wisdom of the Living Water crew, led by Jairo Salazar. Without them we would not be able to share this experience. I am humbled and thankful for the knowledge and patience of the crew to open their world and their home to us.
Thank you again for your support and encouragement. I hope you are encouraged as well in the positive changes that are being accomplished through Living Water International and through the LBF team’s time there.
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