Here we go! July 10, 2008

It’s late Thursday night (11:20 p.m. ish) and I’m heading to bed soon as I have to get up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow to get ready to head to the airport.

THANK YOU so very much to those who helped to send me on this trip.  I am more grateful that I can ever properly express to you.  You are doing God’s work when you help to send folks like my team on this mission trip.  THANK YOU.

I’m not sure if I’ll have the time (or energy) to update this blog while I’m down at the orphanage, but I promise to try, and will for sure upload photos and more on the Saturday after I return. 

God Bless You all, and God Bless the kids and folks we’ll be interacting with.  I know the work to be done there is much larger than our group of 17 who is heading down, but we will do our best to touch the hearts and lives of those we can.

We arrive late Friday night, and on Saturday we are taking the kids of the orphanage to the beach!  (I have folks on the team who promised to get me to reapply the sunscreen OFTEN!)

Love you all,

Nate: be good, listen to the Bittners and hold down the fort!  (I’m so proud you are such a responsible young man.)

Ryan: Enjoy your time with Dad and remember to check your email for notes from me (I hope!). And stop growing for a week, okay.  Don’t want to return to find you have leaped another inch or two!  You are already the tallest in the family … you don’t have to push it!  (Yeah, I know … I’m “Shorty”)

             LOVE YOU BOTH!!!!  XXXXX OOOOO  Mom

- Laura

Very exciting pre-trip brainstorming July 7, 2008

Our team had a very lengthy meeting Sunday after services to brainstorm, share, etc. about the trip Friday. I was breaking out into a big smile over and over, as people said things that tied into thoughts in my mind, ideas in my heart, emails I’d sent over the past week:

- We are bringing down some baseball equipment as we’ve found out that the kids there have been receipients of some soccer equipment, but are also baseball fanatics.  This past week I hit a thrift store and found three baseball gloves which I snatched up.  It sounds from talking to others in our team that we’ll have quite a supply of equipment to bring them. Fun!

- I’d emailed another gal this past week, asking if we should bring down nailpolish to do the girls’ nails.  In our meeting, others also had the idea of  doing the girls nails and their toenails too.  We will probably tie it into the story from the bible where the woman poured fragranced oil on the feet of Jesus and used her hair to dry his feet.  Can you imagine how special these little ones will feel if we give them all sparking clean feet and colorful toenails?

- One lady has a daughter in New Orleans who is mailing up a box of Mardi Gras beads … because kids always get a kick out of those.  And I too have quite a big pile of beads I could bring down!

- Our project to teach the older girls to crochet rag rugs is still going to happen.  Eren and I have been buying the large Q and P needles wherever we can find them, hoping to have about 30 when we leave.

- We had a lovely gal on our team (a nurse) volunteer as “Poo lady” …. never mind.  You’d probably have to have been in the meeting to get it.  Let’s just say that she’s out “go to” person if we happen to get digestive problems.

This week many of us have been picking up things to bring to the kids.  Another gal who has been before told us stories about how the children in the city (not in the orphanage) will beg for anything you have.  As they were getting on the bus to leave (a day trip into the city) a little tiny girl begged for Eren’s four dollar Old Navy flip flops.  Eren said to her that they are too big for her.  The little girl said that she needed them to sell … to help her family.  Eren gave her her flip-flops and returned on the bus barefooted.  The men on the bus were peeling off their shirts and passing them to the kids in the street.  Women pulling off their earrings and bracelets and giving them away.

So, we are going to bring what’s needed for the kids in the orphanage, but also bring down other small things we can shove in pockets and purses to give to others in the city.  I’m planning to empty my jewelry box of nearly everything in it (only keep a few sentimental pieces) and have that to give to kids to sell.  Anything that’s small and easy to carry around and can be re-sold seems to be a good idea.

I’m praying also for the strength to handle this trip well.  I know much of it will break my heart, leaving the kids will break my heart.  But I hope to be able to have a lasting impact on one or two kids, and perhaps search out a way to have more of an impact down the road, once I more fully understand the people of this country.

I hope you’ll pray too.

- Laura

La Chureca – The city dump at Managua July 4, 2008

At Managua's city dump, a child pick through the trash.

I hope you’ll read this blog about the 2,000 or so people who live in Managua’s city dump:

http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/for-some-in-managua-home-is-garbage.html

Here’s an excerpt:

” I asked the taxi driver to take me to the trash dump.

Our arrival must have been a sight to behold — a cab slowly driving through mountains of debris as hundreds of people paused from picking through the trash to stare up at us.

Throughout La Chureca, clusters of shacks dot the landscape. They’re made of cardboard, plastic, plywood, metal, mattresses — all material dug up from the piles of trash surrounding them.

In one complex live 15 family members. They have made these few shacks, each spanning several square yards. The family has lived in La Chureca for 20 years.

The first question that might come to mind is why any human being would willingly live in such conditions. Reyna Isabel Arbizu, 49, explains, “We moved here because we didn’t have work. We don’t have to pay anything to live here.”

Santo Ramón Aguirre Ríos, 42, the taxi driver who drove me to La Chureca, says that they have access to everything they need to survive right there.

In a perverse sort of way, Ríos is right. A hose next to this family’s shacks provides water to bathe in and to drink. In the piles of trash surrounding them, there are leftover clothes to wear, leftover food to eat. But is it possible to maintain one’s dignity while living off everyone else’s leftovers?

Celia Gutierrez Arbizu, 19, says that the adults in her family work in La Chureca from 6 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, seven days a week. Their mission: to find recyclables in the trash heaps and sell them to a nearby facility. This work is the only gainful activity available to most residents here.

“When we don’t work, we don’t eat,” says Celia. “