Titus Mentoring Nicaragua 2016
June 10, 2016
Day 1 is off to a great start! The group arrived last night safe and sound with all bags. They met the Global Works Nicaragua team and headed out to dinner and live, typical music.
After breakfast and orientation today the group is off to a tour of Managua and head to the Los Muñoz community this evening. Here are a couple of photos from yesterday!
June 11, 2016
We had a very awesome day today. We started with a picturesque breakfast outdoors at Laguna de Apoyo. The pictures don’t do justice. We took a tour of Managua and had a chance to see Loma de Tiscapa (one of the highest points in Managua with incredible views). We also visited Parque Central de Managua, the old Cathedral of Managua and El Palacio Nacional. We grabbed lunch at Ananda. One of the most impactful moments was when we met Yamilet who shared a story of how a community lived by recycling materials from an old landfill named Chureca. Many families lived on the landfill and the Spanish government helped to build houses and make situations a little better. Yamilet explained how she found her calling to help her community through providing health screenings and medical care for malaria, dengue, chikunguya, and other illnesses. She welcomed us to her home and introduced us to her daughter. We also had a moment to meet a community center called Podcasts for Peace (you can find them on Facebook). The kids performed dances as we sat in the audience. We read books and played a quick game of soccer before heading to La Reserva. On our way, we were welcomed by the Los Muños Community and were introduced to our community project. We were not expecting a formal welcome ceremony with dancers, a piñata, and refreshments. This was very humbling. After that, we met Ofelia, our host, and she welcomed us with dinner. We had time for reflection and finished early to prepare for our service work that starts tomorrow. Until our next update tomorrow, have a great Saturday!
June 13, 2016
Good Evening Parents, Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families affected by the tragic shooting in Orlando. Today, we started with breakfast and continued our work in the Los Muños Community. The pipes have been glued and tomorrow we hope to test the water system so that we can cover them and finish. We had lunch and visited families in the community. Those families showed us how they live and we were humbled by the what we observed. After the home visits, we played a game of soccer with about 30 people. It was an entire community event that was so much fun. After soccer, we came back to our lodge to have dinner and afterwards, nearly 50 people from the community came over and we watched a movie together. The movie was a documentary showing the day to day lives of several different Nicaraguan families. This opened dialogue between the members of the Los Muños community and us. We discussed the similarities and differences of how we live compared to them and it was a great way to end the day. To close out our day, we discussed the tragedies in Orlando and had a moment of silence and prayer for the families affected. We also did our daily take-away. The boys are so excited to get back to work tomorrow!!! I can’t tell you how proud I am of your sons. They have exceeded anything I have expected for this trip. We are having a phenomenal time. Until we talk again, have a great Monday.
-JW
June 14, 2016
Good Evening Parents,
Once again, we had another great day but it took a toll on our guys physically as we walked nearly 4 miles, along with a full day’s work. Our day began with breakfast and we then traveled to a school in the community and dropped off some school supplies and games for the kids. We traveled to the work site to continue working on our last day of the project. And worked we did! We covered about 3/4 of the project that we started and almost finished the it completely. We look forward to tomorrow’s “inaguración” and “turning on of the faucets”. We returned to our lodge for lunch and the returned to the Los Muñoz Community for a special scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt included milking cows, visiting 110 year old member of the community, learning how to make carbon, and meeting a guitarist. Ishan, Drew W., Kyle J, and and Willie came in 1st place and earned a prize package. We returned to the lodge for dinner and did our evening reflection. Our reflection was followed by card games including Camps, 99, spoons, and Mafia. It was so much fun. Tomorrow, we get to sleep in and have a fun day. I will give you an update then. Have a great Tuesday!!!
-JW
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