Rebuilding in Nagarote

Last week I wrote about a response to the current drought crisis.  Another problem that Nicaragua struggles with is the seismic activity of the region.  The most destructive earthquake hit Managua in 1972, which was what led MCC to come to the country. Other, smaller earthquakes have continued to be destructive.  As the second-poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the finances and engineering isn't always present in construction as it should be.

Last year, in April, a 6.1 level earthquake hit the town of Nagarote, where the Brethren in Christ have two congregations.  The three Anabaptist conferences in Nicaragua (Brethren in Christ, Convention Mennonite, and Fraternity Mennonite) have worked together to run the Anabaptist Emergency Commission (CAE). In response to the earthquake, along with MCC, the CAE built 8 new homes for people who had lost their homes in the earthquake. 

After a year and a half of planning and building, I was lucky enough to be able to step in at the finish line to celebrate the completion of this work with them.  On Friday I went to Nagarote, where we traveled around the communities there to do the symbolic hand-off of the homes from the CAE and to the new home owners.  Here are some pictures.

 Germán and Mario share a laugh with new home owner Odelma and her children.

 This was the only house that is not yet complete. Like the practice of Habitat for Humanity, the deal with beneficiaries included some "sweat equity." The future owner of this house is a welder who wanted to do his own roof.  Unfortuantely, he's behind schedule.

 Arriving at the new home for Kenia.

Passing over the keys.

This home has a nice view of Momotombo, an active volcano that is also tapped as a source for geothermal electric.

 After our home visits, we gathered at one of the churches for a service of singing, a devotional, and words from people involved in the project. 

 The three presidents of the Mennonite conferences shared reflections and words of blessing (Gerardo, Fraternity Mennonite; Mario, Convetion Mennonite; Pedro Luis, president of the CAE; Germán, Brethren in Christ). Important themes included the value of working together as different conferences on a common project and our call to actively follow Jesus, responding to needs of people around us. 

Abundance and Scarcity

A day or two ago Silas pulled off the illustrated Bible for children off the shelf for his bedtime story.  I said that we'll randomly open the Bible and read a story or two.  I may have favored the New Testament side in my random opening, but the page I opened to was the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. A story of scarcity, blessing, sharing, and abundance.

It just so happens that this question of scarcity has been on my mind a lot recently.  Since we arrived in Nicaragua, one of the first issues we needed to think about was the severe drought that was being experienced throughout Central America's dry corridor. These are considered effects of climate change and the El Niño phenomenon.



MCC partners with an organization, called ADENOCH  (Asociación para el Desarrollo del Norte de Chinandega) within this area, working with conservation agriculture (I showed some pictures of this back in July).  Unfortunately, not much will grow without any rain, even with conservation agriculture methods.  The first planting did not yield a harvest, which left farmers without seeds for the second planting.  MCC worked together with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in a relief project to distribute seed and food to families in most need throughout the communities where ADENOCH works.

I'm still just learning about the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, but it is a great program and MCC has been closely involved with them since their beginning. I understand that one of the ways that funds come into this program is through Canadian farmers who donate their crop to CFGB, who sells it and then uses those funds around the world.  It used to be that they would send the grain itself; today it is more cost-effective to procure grains, food, etc, closer to the population in need.

This past week, ADENOCH rushed to get seeds out in time for the second planting. On Saturday, I made a trip up to the area to see how the food distribution is going.  Here's a map so you can see more or less where I'm talking about.

This particular path passes by a row of volcanos. Here's the last one I passed, San Cristobal, the tallest in the country at 5,275 ft and remains active coughing dust now and then. 

When I arrived, the director of ADENOCH, Elder, briefed me on what was going on. We were in a community called Los Pozos, where the people who had been invited had gathered for the distribution.  An ADENOCH board member would open with a prayer, Elder would speak, and then I was supposed to speak. Oh, ok, the impromptu speech. I told about the farmers who give to CFGB and the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 that we happened to read with the kids the other day.  Realizing that there are many more people in the dry corridor than what we were serving through this project, I mentioned that this feels in someways like 5 loaves and 2 fish.  May God bless the seed and the food for these families and beyond.

 

(Alison Franceli Cali Vallecío, Claydis Junieth Vallecio Mejía, Franscica Vallecio Ochoa)

(Gunner José Aguilera Martinez, Lucía Olga Martinez Espinal)

From there, we continued to another community called Las Lajitas for the same routine.  I appreciated the Toyota Hilux power on these roads. I'm not sure this picture captures the scale of some of these inclines/declines, but it's what I got.

(Gerardo, ADENOCH board member)

Once again, people were grateful and it was humbling to be in a position to be able to connect people and resources.

Some happy kids playing baseball.


From there, I went to join the ADENOCH staff that were present for lunch and then met with Elder back at his office for a while to talk through details about how the rest of the distribution would be happening, how the follow-up happens, etc.

The night before I traveled up the area had received a tremendous rain, the most significant rainfall they have had since June. I hadn't traveled far before another thunderstorm opened up.  It was a great moment (even though it becomes exhausting to drive with rain, dusk/night, horses and cattle crossing the street, major potholes to avoid, people walking or biking beside the road, etc.).  I called Elder back in Managua and asked if he had gotten the rain.  Unfortunately, this one was just south of them, and some of their communities would have gotten the rain, but where he was, very little fell. We'll keep them in prayer for the next one.

Food

Finding, buying, and cooking food has been a new experience in Nicaragua.  We live in a large city and can walk to 3 major grocery stores, a pile of small shops, and a number of outdoor vegetable stands.  We also have multiple vendors walking down the street with fruit, vegetables, fresh tortillas, cheese, ice cream, and more.  There is a lot available: more fruit, but different; a variety of vegetables, not directly from farmers because of our location; and a pretty wide grocery store selection.

With all this, it would seem meal preparations should be pretty easy... but it hasn't been.  We're working to figure out what foods are affordable and which are special (cereal is pretty expensive, milk isn't the same, avocados are usually very cheap, apples are very expensive...).  Thankfully we usually eat together at the office and Yolanda cooks, so we can count on one solid meal for the day!

We're also learning to cook with a small gas stove, in a hot climate.  And about the time I find something I really want to make I run into an ingredient that is not available (or is incredibly expensive!).

Today, though, I felt okay about how our meal ended up.

About a week after we arrived I planted a whole envelope of basil seeds in a patio pot and hoped they would grow. Three and a half weeks later:

The plants needed to be thinned and we needed a quick and simple meal:

Pesto! Walnuts are expensive so we tried cashews. It was good but we'll try without nuts next time.

While looking on the internet for suggestions on pesto variations I saw a post from some friends' blog (Future fellow MCC Reps).  We have mostly avoided baking, apart from a flopped brownie mix (me), and a very good baked oatmeal (Derrick).  It's just hot, the oven is small, the temperature control is iffy... so most meals are stove top.  But that post just looked so good and I had almost all the ingredients on hand!  So:

What I didn't have were chocolate chips.  Derrick says next time we'll find chocolate chips.  I also made the mistake of thinking the batter was too runny (because it's hot) and added extra oats... so not the beautiful chewy cookies from Hungry Hounds but a moderate success and bonus points for whipping up something to bake for once!


-R

Mini-vacation in Granada, Nicaragua

This weekend is a longer weekend with two holidays on Sept 14 (Battle of San Jacinto) and Sept 15 (Independence Day).  We thought we'd take advantage of some of the flexible time to head out and see some of the old city of Granada (est. 1524).  With kids at the age that our kids are, the most important thing about the historic tour was riding in a horse-drawn carriage, the best of the tour of the islets was the boat itself, and the colonial-style hotel was great because of its pool.  Our only disappointment was not being better prepared to know which restaurants to go to.  We had some really good meals and some that were not great (sometimes after lots of walking and searching).  All in all, though, it was a great weekend. Here are some highlights.

 Snack at the hotel.  Beautiful place and reasonable rates.

 Classy historical tour with the horses and carriage.  Our guide told us that his horses are named Mercedes and Benz.  Behind is the old railroad line that used to run across the country.

Loving the ride.  The old, now inactive, volcano Mombacho in the distance.

 Silas loves horses.  He's on top of the world here.

 Some ordinary streets in the historical part of town.

 We saw quite a few very old buildings.  This church is San Fransisco, which was the first one built in 1525. However the city was burned at different points in history through different conflicts and the church has been rebuilt/restored various times.

 The main cathedral at the central plaza.

 And back to the hotel to our favorite little corner.

The next day we went on a boat ride to set the islets.  Mombacho's eruptions from long long ago left a few hundred of these tiny islands in the huge Lake Nicaragua (Cocibolca).

 

Some very wealthy people have bought islets to build fancy vacation houses.

 

 

Ordinary people live around here as well.

 At some point someone brought some monkeys (who live elsewhere in Nicaragua) to the islets.  We fed them Maria cookie/crackers.

 (part of Mombacho there on the left in the background)

 

Back at the hotel and heading to that good pool again before the return trip to Managua.

Rebekah's 5(+) fun new things in Managua (in no particular order)

1. Markets. (We'll get a picture sometime.)

2. Rebocheta - toasted tortillas with refried beans, cheese, and veggies. (Again, we'll get a picture sometime.)

3. Rain.  Here's Lia and Derrick after a wet walk home.

4. Fresh, simply in season fruit juices made by Yolanda.

5. Buses

6. The view of the lake. This view here is just outside of Managua.  Within the city, we get little glimpses here and there as we drive around.

7. Fans.