For about a week in January 2019, I was blessed to tour Child Development Projects in Nicaragua, as well as visiting three of my sponsored children, Cristian, Ana and Danilo, plus Enmy, whom I sponsored for over twelve years until she finished the program in 2015. The tour was hosted by
Compassion International. This is the second part of the story.
See a detailed Google photo album here.
Sightseeing and Another Visit with Enmy & Family
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At the town of Catarina, with
Lago Apoyo in the background |
On Sunday afternoon, we traveled to the hilly village of Catarina, a touristy town overlooking a small lake--Lago Apoyo--with the large Lago de Nicaragua visible in the distance. The village boasts numerous artisan shops; I picked up a few small banners with Bible verses in Spanish to give to members of family later in the week, including verses: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me." (Phil 4:19); "So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed" (John 8:36); and "The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands." (Proverbs 14:1) which I later gave to members of Enmy and Cristian's families.
Later that evening, Enmy, James and Cristian came by the hotel for another visit.
"Open Heavens" Project and Bad News
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Greetings from the "Open Heavens"
mothers, children and staff |
On Monday, we drove out into the countryside west of Leon, miles from any major roads or towns. We were greeted warmly at the "Open Heavens" project, where we met many of the women being helped by Compassion's Child Survival Program, designed to help pre-natal mothers through childbirth until children are about two to three years old, teaching the mothers how to care for their children, providing health services and food, and improving child survival rates. After a brief program, we handed sacks of food supplies to various mothers before getting a tour of the classrooms and meeting some of the sponsored children.
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Sponsors handing out gift bags
to mothers and children |
During one of the classroom sessions, I started receiving messages from my sisters that my father had suffered a serious decline in health and that I should return to California as soon as possible. The village suffered poor cell phone and internet coverage, and I had trouble finding out exactly what was going on. My explained the situation to the staff, who offered to arrange for me to meet my sponsored kids a day early, so I could leave early and still meet my children. I spent the long bus ride back talking to travel folks - I had booked via Travelocity - and was able to get my return trip to Washington changed with only the cost of the changed ticket fee. I managed to get a flight out for afternoon on Wednesday, which would give me a full day to visit with my sponsored children.
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| Two James' goofy faces |
That evening at the hotel, I decided to give all the gifts I had brought with me for Enmy and her family, even though I had not yet organized them. Enmy and Cristian did a great job reorganizing my gifts so everyone had a free an balanced share of the various gifts. We sang some worship songs together, and took some pictures together, and I learned that little James loves to make silly faces every time his mom takes a photo ... we took a bunch of really goofy photos together!
Meeting Cristian, Danilo and Ana Francys
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With Cristian, Ana Francys
and Danilo, Jan 2019 |
On Tuesday, while the rest of the sponsors went to another project, I met my sponsored children Cristian (14), Ana Francys (8) and Danilo (7), along with Cristian's mom, Ana Francys' dad, and Danilo's mom. I had sponsored Cristian since September 2013, when I visited his project and his home on another tour. I had only sponsored Ana and Danilo for a few months, since I had recently lost two sponsored children through graduation and through a program closure. We met briefly in the hotel lobby, introduced ourselves, and I handed each child a special gift as a greeting. Each child had also prepared a little card for me, although Cristian gave me an album with persona photos, stickers, scripture and little personal sayings and notes that were very dear to me.
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With Cristian, Ana and Dainlo
in the hotel pool |
We played around in the parking lot with Cristian's gift basketball, then wandered across the mall to take some photos and see if the arcade was open--it was closed until later that day, so we went back to the hotel and played in the hotel swimming pool. Cristian and I jumped in right away, and Cristian is quite a good swimmer, taught by his mom in a pool near their home. But Danilo ran down the pool steps into water three feet deep, and immediately found himself underwater! I heard a
glub! from behind me, turned around and picked him back up out of the water. He and Ana refused to venture into the deeper water after that, but we all played together in the water, and I had a couple of race laps with Cristian.
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| Our group at the mall |
We returned to the mall for lunch, and visited some more; the little kids played on some children's rides for a while, then we all went to the arcade in the mall to play some games. Finally, our time was over and we had to return to the hotel so that the younger ones could get back home before dark ... their trip was about two hours from near Leon. I gave each of the kids a small duffel back packed with gifts for them and their families as we said our good-byes.
Our tour group went out for dinner at the
Cocina de Doña Haydée (highly recommended for Nicaraguan cuisine).
Sponsors meeting their kids and final good-byes
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| Saying good-bye at the airport |
On Wednesday, my flight didn't leave until later afternoon, so I was able to observe and photograph most of he sponsors meeting their children for Child-Sponsor Fun Day. It was great to see the expressions of the various kids and sponsors meeting each other, many for the first time.
As the families packed aboard the buses, Enmy, Cristian and James arrived for a final visit. We walked over to the mall to tour for a little while, and I was determined to find an ice cream spot for little James. Finally, it was time for me to go, but the three of them wanted to follow me across town to the airport so we could say good-bye there. Halfway along, the cab driver thoughtfully offered to take Enmy and James in the cab also so they wouldn't have to ride Cristian's motorcycle the whole way--I regret I didn't think of it earlier myself. We spent some time together in the airport before I finally had to go through security. They sent me the sweetest video afterwards saying good-bye!
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