First of all, I have to say I was SOOOO impressed by the mission itself – it’s called AMOS and is run by the American Baptists – and without ONE hint or incident of proselytizing. (In fact, they report that other missionaries get upset with them because they don’t proselytize. They live St. Francis’ admonition to “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”) AMOS uses a collaborative model, going into communities to listen and empower leadership and help the communities themselves work to promote their own health and solve their own problems... slow, but an important process. At this point AMOS is working in 28 remote communities, each with a “Health Promoter” (who receives six weeks of intense training) and Health Committees who have real knowledge of the community census and have the trust of the residents of the communities they serve. With AMOS, each community now has a small clinic and the residents are gradually getting home water filters.
Our team consisted of thirteen people, six of whom were parent-child combinations (Julie and David Chay; Christina and Julia Damian; and Jan and Luke Hightower), which was nice – and gave us some young people! Our age spread went from 19 – 70, with most of us in our 60’s and 70’s, and included three nurses and a microbiologist (Janet, who proved to be an invaluable resource, and she and Donna formed a team to test the water and filters in the home water filter systems). About half of our group spoke at least some Spanish, but everyone, medical professional or not, Spanish speaker or not, was utilized in some meaningful way.
Our team was headed by a delightful young woman from Cleveland, following in her father’s footsteps doing missionary work in Nicaragua, and by “Dr. Laura” – a Taiwanese doctor whose family immigrated to New York when she was six. Her father still struggles with the fact that they left a third world country so that she would have the opportunity for a better life – and now she CHOOSES to live in a third world country! She slept on the ground with the rest of us during our stay in the mountains of Cumaica Norte, and was a real inspiration to us all!
We traveled to Cumaica Norte, a remote mountain village of 98 families five hours outside of Managua, in the back of a truck. Although it was the dry season, it rained – and the roads were dirt. We arrived after dark, and it was quite a hike (about a quarter of a mile) down hill through the mud to the two-room school house which was to be our living quarters for the week. We groped around in the dark making our camp – blowing up air mattresses, assembling bug huts, etc. by flashlight! Quite a challenge! Of course, we all had to go to the bathroom, but first we had to “secure the latrine” – which had attracted a rather unfriendly scorpion. It kind of reminded me of that board game Clue: “Kitty Crary, in the latrine, with a shovel!”
There is no “center of town” – houses are spread out along dirt roads – so everywhere we went we had a hike! Our meals were on the porch of a house about half a mile from the school where we were staying. Some of our group went house-to-house, testing water filters and supervising their proper use. (Many people who had water filters didn’t understand the importance, for example, of keeping the receptacle clean, so the water would come through the filters clean – and then get contaminated in the receptacle when they “dipped” a cup of water instead of using the spigot, or when they cleaned the receptacle by washing it in contaminated water.) Others ran medical clinics in the school rooms (transformed from dormitory-at-night to clinic-by- day), working with people with chronic diseases, testing for diabetes, etc. or working with children, de-worming them or testing for anemia. Approximately half the children are malnourished and suffer from anemia. Some of our group worked with the Promotore and the Health Committee on nutrition education. Others distributed toothbrushes and toothpaste and gave lessons on dental hygiene. These last educational pieces were critically important, as we learned that the average family in Cumaica Norte consumes between 1–3 POUNDS of sugar a DAY!!! Several people, including Juana Cordova and Linda Barnhurst, were involved in what we referred to as the “Happy Station” – the final health station in which tears (from de-worming and poking and blood- testing) were turned into smiles as kids participated in various activities we had brought: stringing beads, coloring, making frames for the Polaroid pictures Linda took with a digital Polaroid camera, etc. David Chay had brought some soccer balls, and the kids had a great time playing ball, as well.
One day we spent with the youth in the community. AMOS had brought digital cameras, and we were divided into groups, each with about three youth. We taught them to use the cameras, and then we went out into the community. They were instructed to take pictures of what they felt was GOOD about their community – what gives them pride? (In my group it was the abundance of flowers.) Then they were to take pictures of problems or challenge areas; and finally, they were asked to take pictures of their hopes and dreams – either personally, or for their community. When they finished, they printed the pictures (using a generator for electricity) and the kids wrote the stories of their photographs. The wishes of the groups were consistent: better roads; a school (currently they can attend school to grade six; then they must walk on hilly, muddy roads over an hour to another town to attend high school. Not only is the trip long and difficult, attending high school comes at a cost: tuition, uniforms, books and supplies – and the cost of the $2/day they would otherwise get harvesting coffee.); a park; a latrine for every home (or, failing that, a community latrine in the park); a bridge over the river that floods when it rains; and, a cell phone tower so they could communicate with one another and the rest of the world. The last part of their challenge was a bit more difficult: what could they, individually, do to try to make these dreams a reality? (Their “default response” was “Ask the government...” which obviously wasn’t working!)
On the last full day of our stay in Cumaica Norte, we had a fiesta in which we cooked a meal for the whole community – “If you feed them, they will come!” – and presented the results of our findings – the water testing, the testing for anemia –and gave some more education. The youth also presented their project. We had a piñata for the kids and music and dancing. People drifted in all afternoon, wearing their finest clothes (as they did when they came to the clinic as well – it was “an event”!) and everyone had a great time! Kitty and Juana and I were on “cooking duty” – in a small kitchen- structure near the house where we ate our meals (about half a mile from where we were staying), but our wood-stove cooking experience is limited, and we were of use mostly in the chopping-vegetables department!
AMOS did a wonderful job of supporting us: they brought bottles of water, a generator and gasoline for our times without electricity, their own cooks and food so that we didn’t have to worry about getting sick; an armed guard to make sure we were safe; and, constructed a “shower” for us (four poles; some plastic garbage bags for privacy, a large bucket of water, and some small bowls for pouring) – and surprised us with a padded toilet seat to put over the hole in our latrine! (We were quite grateful for the gift – although even so no one took a book with them when they went!)
We settled into the routine:
- Can’t get soap out of your hair with that bowl of cold water with which you rinsed?
- Doesn’t matter.
- Pants muddy?
- Doesn’t matter!
- Three inch spiders on the walls?
- Well, we couldn’t quite say “doesn’t matter,” but at least the most squeamish in the group quit screaming!
Friday morning it poured, and we broke camp, hiking out in the rain, on slippery, muddy roads that at least were now not unfamiliar. After a long trip back to Managua (again in the back of a truck) we regrouped and they took us to Granada for a brief tourist visit. Quite a contrast, but we got a bed and a HOT (yeah!) shower, saw some beautiful scenery, and then went back to AMOS headquarters to pack up and fly home. At that concluding, celebratory dinner we started sharing “high points” and “low points” of the week. For me, I think my “high’s” were the shared reflections during Morning and Evening prayer, and, surprisingly, those middle-of-the- night treks to the latrine, when I was alone outside in the great expanse of the night and the stillness, with only the quiet susurrus of the snores from inside the building in a kind of counterpoint to the lowing cows, the insect noises, the roosters...
Many thanks to all of you who supported us, both financially, and with your love and your prayers. It was truly a wonderful experience!
The Rev. Carolyn Estrada
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