Day 4 (January 30): Extreme Poverty

So you know how, when you've gone through a non-stop day of emotionally-charged experiences and you reach the end of it, you just sit back and try to make sense of it all?  Well, that's what I'm doing tonight as I type.  Blogging actually helps me process it all...

At 7:20am, we joined the team at the hotel restaurant for breakfast and -- wearing my First World blinders -- was so pleased to learn the waiter could whip me up a latte to go with my bacon and eggs.  Juxtaposed against my latte experience, however, I realize what a crazy bubble I live in.  Read on and you will understand where I'm coming from.

Pineapple vendors

By 8am, we pulled into the parking lot of the Compassion Nicaragua Office.  We attended chapel with the staff (it's how they start every work week), enjoyed a presentation by the Country Director on the successes and challenges of delivering the program in Nicaragua, and then toured the various sections of the office.  It was great to learn about the way they deliver the various program components in the country, and also the corporate infrastructure of the organization. 

Two of the Compassion Nicaragua staff performed a cultural dance for us 

Thousands of sponsor letters ready for processing to/from Nicaraguan sponsored children

This is the Compassion Nicaragua team that primarily liaises with all the project sites.

We ate lunch with the staff, and at 1:30pm, boarded our bus to Project NI-179, located in Managua.  It was just after 2pm when we pulled into the project site.  As we walked into the church, which was filled with over 100 children, the place went up in a standing ovation and applause!  To have witnessed the welcome, you'd have thought Elvis had entered the building.  Yet it was just a bunch of ordinary Canucks who had entered.

Compassion project NI-179

All the children applauded our entry.

For the next hour, we watched and listened to young individual children and groups perform.  The messages of hope in their performances and dramas made it difficult to maintain dry eyes.

It's amazing to see the confidence of even the youngest child. This little guy welcomed us.

For almost an hour we enjoyed dance and drama performances.

From there, we broke into groups of five and went off into the nearby neighbourhoods to visit a family home.  I have experienced extreme poverty in several places - the slums of Manila, Chiang Mai, and Lima, to name a few.  Today's experience was certainly "up there" with those previous experiences.  The project site had arranged for us to visit the home of "Guadeloupe", a single mother of three in her early 30s.  She was very gracious to allow us to see her home, which was comprised of cinder-blocks and a corrugated-steel roof.  An old canvas banner from a retail store served as a curtain to the bed where her three children slept.  And another curtain separated her own bed from the single room living area, which held a hammock, table, and an old TV.

On our way to our first home visit

After sharing some details about her living situation, we unpacked some groceries we had brought with us, and we all joined hands and I said a prayer for her family and home.  It was a deeply moving and humbling experience.  As we walked away, I was overwhelmed with the "have" / "have not" line that divides Guadeloupe's existence from mine.  My big challenge today was getting the waiter to make that latte to go with my breakfast.  Her biggest challenge was literally to find something - anything - to give her three kids to eat today.

This is Guadeloupe and her daughter

Guadalupe's home

Guadalupe's sisters daughter had twins last year, who were quite cozy in a hammock

The extended family shared access to some pigs - a valuable resource

We arrived back at our hotel at 5pm.  Tonight, we heard from an impressive 21-year old architecture student, who is about to graduate from Compassion's Leadership Development Program.  What an inspiration he was to us all.

A soon-to-be graduate of Compassion's Leadership Development Program spoke to us at dinner

Today was truly an up-close-and-personal experience of Compassion's work in Nicaragua.  And the need it fills and the successes it demonstrates, are unquestionable.