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.