8/28/15 The Importance of Santa Matilda Nicaragua

The time has come for us to actually give a proposal for our Passion Projects. We have done so much to help us give an idea of what we want to do. Most people have come up with their ideas and they sound so cool! Next week we are going to present our proposal in a Shark Tank style presentation in front of the class.....which makes me so nervous. I am still working out the kinks to my project so I'm not going to say what it is yet, but I do want to share why this topic is so important to me.

Like I said, I've been to Nicaragua twice now and the people there have captured my heart. But leading up to my first trip, I was so nervous. There was a language barrier, I mean I was in French, not Spanish so I had no clue how to keep a conversation with someone who couldn't speak English. Basically right up until we got on the plane, I had so many doubts about what was going to happen this next week. But the first day we rolled into the village of Santa Matilda on the cattle truck, I looked out to the church and saw all of the kids there, holding posters and little gifts that they had made. We stepped out and the kids who were standing so still waiting for us, immediately ran for the different members of our team. A little girl named Gloria ran up, jumped into my arms hugged me and made sure that I didn't put her down for the next couple minutes. That day I knew that there was something that I needed to learn from these people. 

We went on house visits the next day which were so tough. Each of the stories were so different and people were going through so many things like one lady who had cancer while taking care of her grandchildren. Their stories were so different but they all had something in common, they weren't complaining, they invited us in and just had a conversation with us, they never begged us for anything, in fact they were worried with how we were doing, making sure that we had enough water and food. They never wanted us to feel bad for them, and they gave all they had which was much more than any dollar amount that someone could give me. 

After all of that I'll shorten it down of why Nicaragua is so important to me, the people of Santa Matilda(the village that I worked in) give so much to other people. Coming back, it was like reverse culture shock, where most people wouldn't give you everything they had to you, and I'm not saying that everyone is like that here or like that in Nicaragua. But if you look at the material things that they have compared to the material things that we have, we would beat them out no problem, but the amount of love and care that they pour out to complete strangers compared to us, they would beat us out so much more than you would think. 

Next time I promise I will have my Passion Project worked out. Thank y'all for reading my post this week.

My 1st blog! My Heartbreak Map

This week in class we worked on our Heartbreak Maps. We had to pick what we love, what breaks our heart about it and what are some possible solutions to fixing it. For my heartbreak map I put in the center for what I love is service work, and my kiddos in Nicaragua. I have gone to Nicaragua twice now and have fallen in love with all of the kids and people that I have met and worked with, their stories have completely broken my heart. One of the main problems that I have seen is teen pregnancy, girls as young as 11-12 are pregnant because that's the culture they have grown up in. This means a lot of girls are unable to go to school and get an education, instead they may have to get a job to provide for their family or have to stay home and take care of their family. When the translators were talking about how the children live and how everything works in the village, I fell apart. A lot of girls who are unable to get pregnant become prostitutes to earn money for their families. I began to think "Why would children be okay with doing this to themselves?" and then after a long time of going through different opinions in my head, I finally asked my translator, he told me that they don't know any better, there is no education that tells them that they could be doing so much better with their life, that's a norm in their society and its a way for a family to earn a little bit of money. 

My translator Mario has come up with "Empower" which is a company that teaches not only abstinence till you are married but self-confidence and self-worth which was absolutely amazing to sit in and watch. It is a student lead meeting and is a couple weeks long and if you teach for other kids, you are eligible for a scholarship to an university.  Their big thing is using Nicaraguan teens because they are able to connect easier than an adult can. 

So far I haven't really come up on a solution for what breaks my heart. Hopefully, if this becomes my passion project, I'll have some sort of answer for you.   

  I want to make sure that none of you that are reading this feel bad for people in third world countries because I assure you, they don't need it. They may not have all the things we have here but they are some of the happiest people in the world, they give everything they have to anyone and everyone. Walking around in one village, an older lady had just gotten back from getting mangos that she was going to cut up and eat, we had stopped to ask her some questions and she invited us inside her "house" and asked us to stay and talk to her for a little while. We stayed there for a bit and as we were leaving her home she asked us to take the mangos as a thank you for visiting with her. She had eight mangos in her hand a gave us all eight. I was blown away, this lady had just gotten back from picking all of these mangos and she gave us EVERY single one of them. 

Thank you so much for reading my first blog!