15 June 2008

My Experience in La Chureca

Written by Summer Volunteer Heather Lillemoe

Throughout the past month as a summer volunteer for Manna Project in Nicaragua, I got to spend a great deal of time in La Chureca. However, on my last day there I remember feeling a lot different than I did on my first day. When my group of volunteers toured La Chureca and saw it for the first time, I felt helpless and overwhelmed with sadness. I remember Dane telling us as he led us around that we should look at La Chureca as a community, because that’s what it is and we can’t just look at it and try to figure out how to change it. I tend to be one of those people who sees a problem and wants to solve it, but I instead took Dane’s advice and accepted the situation. I think hearing those words early on was very helpful to me because from that point on I looked closely at the community that is La Chureca. During my month in Nicaragua, I chose to spend 2 to 3 days every week in La Chureca. Once a week I would go on house visits with Marcela or Erin to check on the children in the child sponsorship program and ensure that the mothers had the appropriate amounts of vitamins and milk. On the other days of the week I experienced a Milk Day, a women’s health talk (along with a crazy fiesta for international children’s week!), and I helped out in Juntos Contigo. Through all of these different activities I got to know certain kids and individuals in La Chureca.

In a way, I felt that I had the opportunity to enter into these people’s lives for a little while and forget the world that I’m used to. On days that I went on house visits I was welcomed into different homes of different families in La Chureca. Erin or Marcela would chat with the mothers and check on their milk and vitamins, very frequently having to ask why the children weren’t in school. Some days were good days and some were more frustrating. I remember visiting the school in La Chureca and having the children run up to me with so much excitement and energy. It felt so good to see all of the kids happy and giving me hugs. I realized that even though many of these kids lived in these terrible conditions, they almost always had smiles on their faces.

On my last day in La Chureca, the women in our English class greeted us politely when we arrived. I got to meet some new families and said hello to some of the families I knew. I saw a rare smile from an always-sad Ángel, I listened to a father bickering about another community member, I watched a group of kids playing soccer, and I got a great picture with a bunch of community members and some of the other volunteers. I really felt like I had become a part of something after this month in La Chureca. I went from feeling worried and angry about this place to feeling like I was a part of it. Although I couldn’t get rid of all of the trash or give all of the families clean homes or even shoes to wear, I know I did make a difference. From saying “adios” in passing, to getting high fives from my favorite kids on various occasions, to the abundance of hugs in Colegio Esperanza, I finally realized as I walked out of La Chureca for the last time this summer that it was most definitely a community and that I was honored to have been a part of it for a short while.

12 June 2008

Getting to Know La Chureca



Written by Summer Volunteer Becky Maroon

After living in Nicaragua for one month, I feel that I have grown a lot in terms of the way in which I perceive the world around me. I was fully aware at the beginning of my journey that I would be encountering ways of life and standards of living that were completely foreign to me and everything that I know. However, those things that have changed me, my thoughts, my perceptions – they are not things that I would have been able to pinpoint upon arriving in Nicaragua. I have found that my greatest struggles here have also been my greatest source of learning.

Manna Project holds true to its mission of communities serving communities. On one of my first days touring a community outside of La Chureca, I was truly taken aback by the poverty of the people in the community. A few days later I was able to meet the mothers and children of the Child Sponsorship Program in La Chureca on Milk Day. The people that I met in the clinic of La Chureca came with a whole new wave of poverty. I was certain that this must obviously be the most severe level of poverty that I would be exposed to while in Nicaragua. Then came the house visits to the mothers of the Child Sponsorship Program to ensure that the kids were doing well and receiving the vitamins and food that the program provides. I do not think that I am mistaken when I say that this is when I abandoned all of my expectations of poverty and the communities with which we are working.

Poverty, in its many shapes and sizes, has been full of surprises this past month. In addition to accepting the living conditions of the communities that we serve, I learned that I am not here to fix anything. It has been a constant struggle for me to accept the fact that I cannot change the way these people are living their lives or provide a simple solution. I am here to serve and help in any way that I can. I am here to build relationships. I am here to look at these people, not as the poverty-stricken and destitute, but as the people that I have come to know and respect as my friends in the communities I came here to serve.

04 June 2008

Children's Day


Written by Summer Volunteer Becky Maroon:

June 1st is internationally recognized as the celebration of the child. That being said, the people of Nicaragua have taken it upon themselves to extend this celebration, like all others, into a full week of festivities. To honor the sacred tradition of celebration, we hosted a party for the children of our Child Sponsorship Program in La Chureca. Prior to the grand event, there was a brief health talk with the mothers in the program concerning the effects of the rainy season on the health of their children. This covered everything from the specific diseases that can occur as a result of the increased rain, to the bugs and critters that create problems by taking refuge in any form of shelter throughout the season. The mothers and children then gathered to play games, eat cake, and win prizes in the multipurpose room of the clinic where the party was held.

Since I have been in Nicaragua I have been so focused on the needs of the communities that I am here to serve – nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, etc. However, just seeing the beaming faces of the kids when they were eating cake, hitting the piñata, participating in the coloring contest or dancing around with volunteers and their mothers alike, helps to remind me that kids are kids no matter where you are in the world. They shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not they will have food on the table or clean clothes to wear. So even if for only that morning that we celebrated and danced around in the back of the clinic in La Chureca, we were able to let these children forget about their daily troubles and just be kids, I think that we more than served our purpose. The memories that I have already created by spending time with these children are some that I know I will never forget.