Last Day

I can´t decide if our trip went quickly or slowly. It feels like we just arrived, but when I consider the vast amount of activities we were part of, it seems like we´ve been here for a while.

Yesterday we had the morning off from VISEDAL activities, so we first went to El Canyon, an orphanage where I´ve been during my spring break trips. Brad knows many of the kids there, and had some pictures for them that he promised them the last time he was there.

I haven´t been to El Canyon in over a year, and I was surprised to see how many improvements have been made since my last visit. There is a new fence around one part of the grounds, some painting has been done, and they are currently building a new, paved road at the entrance. We spent about an hour there and at the kids´ school. The kids were quite excited to see Brad.

We then stopped at a coffee shop for lunch. Brad knows the owner, Javier, who is an eclectically interesting guy. He owns a coffee mill, runs the coffee shop, fixes and sells luxury cars, and is a singer/songwriter. We enjoyed talking with him and learning about some other organizations that help here in Nicaragua which Javier supports in a big way.

Our next stop was La Chureca--The Dump. Brad worked in the school there for a time while he was living here, so we stopped by and visited his kids. Some changes have been made to the dump school, too. There is a new wall and the inside is painted. Like at El Canyon, the kids loved seeing Brad again.

We came back to the hotel for a few minutes before meeting the kids for a tour of UCA (University of Central America), a highly-regarded college which our friend Esmir attends. Esmir took the older kids (seven of them) on a tour around campus. Our goal was to give the older kids tangible motivation to work hard in school. Sure, they know that education is good for their future, but if their reasons for taking their studies seriously stay in the abstract they will not succeed. Now that they´ve seen where they could quite possibly be studying one day we hope they can have dreams based in that very realistic idea.

Esmir is the perfect guy to show the kids his college since he is a success story himself. He grew up in the Casa Bernabe orphanage, where we stayed during our spring break trips. He showed promise and an American sponsor agreed to pay for his college education. Esmir also works on the weekends, speaks English, and is about to graduate. Then he wants to use his agricultural sciences degree to help Nicaraguan farmers. He is proof that systems like ours can work. At one point he sat the kids down and told them his story. They obviously respect him and I just hope they could see themselves in him.

While we were walking around UCA we also ran into Brad´s friend Andrea, who we met on Sunday at their church. She is extremely kind and speaks good English. She immediately starting loving on the kids and agreed to come to our party that night. The girls adore her.

Following the tour we headed for Pollo Campero for our grand finale with all of the kids and their families. The kids arrived in waves, and before we knew it, we had 28 kids in attendance. In total, 45 people were at our party. Not surprisingly, it was ridiculously chaotic. Take the usual (high) level of madness present in our Pollo Campero parties and mutiply it by two or three.

Everyone was having fun until Alex, a child who is not in the program, fell while trying to jump off a chair and landed on his arm. It was visibly broken, and the commotion ensuing from his hysterics, frantic moms, and the arriving ambulance brought the intensity level of the party to, say, 11. Alex will be fine, the EMTs said, although it was sad to see how upset he was.

After the kids calmed down a bit we started to steer them back to our outside play area. But, our waitress Claudia informed us that another group reserved the area for a party starting at 7:00. It was 7:15 then, so we had to go.

We rounded up all of the kids (no small task) and had them stand outside, since I needed to talk with the moms about the changes we are making to the program. I anticipated our talk lasting aroud 5 minutes. 15 minutes later the manager offered to give each child a free soda if we would bring them back inside and have them sit at tables in the inside area. I guess the broken arm, plus the undoubtedly great commotion they were causing outside led to this offer. We took her up on it, and the kids had fun drawing pictures and making lots of noise inside while we finished with the moms.

The real heroes of last night--and this whole trip--are Brad, my mom, and Emily. They selflessly entertained/disciplined the kids while I talked with the moms and worked on the business side of things with Carlos, our local coordinator. I´m so lucky to have such great people who clearly love the kids so much here with me. Without them, this trip would have absolutely been impossible.

I don´t have space to write about all of the changes here, but check our website (www.geocities.com/dylweed17/visedalindex.html) soon and I´ll detail them. The most drastic was that we reached an agreement so that the kids will not work on the streets at all anymore.

All that was left following our meeting was saying goodbye. After only five days, I felt the same way I did following my departure after 3.5 months in January. I don´t plan on returning until December, which is a long time.

I think we made tremendous progress during this trip. The program is much stronger now. Unfortunately we lost one kid, Manuel, but we also gained two, Glenda and Katy (check the website for their profiles soon). We also established ways to check on the kids´ attendance, and we found a way to keep the kids off the street. Most importantly, we were able to show the kids how much we love them and care about them by returning, treating them to special events, and demonstrating how special they are.

In the car on the way home we were fairly quiet. I think we were all feeling a sense of gratitude and wonder concerning the last five days. There´s no way that we could have pulled off this trip by ourselves, and we are so thankful to God for the relationships we´ve been able to form and the fond memories we now have. We´re so excited for the future of VISEDAL and these kids. Big things are in store.

Ok, time to pack, shower, and enjoy one last Nica breakfast. Thanks so much for reading this past week. It´s been an honor to share what we´ve been doing with you.