Building and agriculture trip

Today our team of 7 leaves for Nicaragua where we will spend 11 days working on a community centre in Nandarola, assessing our other projects and helping at the NPH home. Please remember us in your prayers as we travel to and from Nicaragua and for the time we will spend there. What a privelege it is to help those less fortunate.

'I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do' (author unknown)

 Edgar, our loyal partner was waiting patiently at the airport for us and our ten large hockey bags filled with donated firefighter uniforms and other items. The hour and a half bus ride brought us “home” to the orphanage at NPH near Nandaime.   Breakfast thanks to our amazing cook Ava, a short rest time, lunch and off we were to visit the village of Nandorola.

 This is one of the key villages that the Mission has supported for over seven years.  Today we had Jimmy Espinoza along with us.  Jimmy, an interpreter and highly qualified agriculturalist has been guiding a group of ten local families as they start the adventure of becoming amazing farmers.  Jimmy proudly introduced us to the farmers and especially highlighted the garden/farm of Reina Chavez.  Reina and her husband have transformed a plot of infertile land into a rich garden of passion fruit, avocado, tomatoes, lemons, squash and pumpkins, plantain and bananas.  The key to their amazing success was the pride of the project.  Jimmy started from the ground up and got the farmers to start composting and vermiculture . (worms transforming cow manure into rich compost)  Jimmy has taught the group how to produce this rich treasure and with the amazing success of their production they are transforming their infertile soils into nutrient rich soil for their newly planted crops. We’ll   see some of the other farms later in the week.

The obvious pride of Jimmy and his ten farmers and the obvious success of their hard work and community effort was heart warming.  Now it appears that the success of this group is inspiring other families to want to join with the project and another ten farmers are waiting for the opportunity to produce food that gives their families food security and an important source of income. The other project we looked at was the expansion of the community center.  Cody and Cosmo, from our team will be working with the local men to construct the expansion using bricks, mortar and steel beams.  This work will take place early next week.

As we headed back to NPH, the drive took us  along rutted mud roads with herds of cattled, people on horseback and riding motor cycles, bicycles or walking.  We crossed two rivers driving through them and up muddy banks. 

Now we are settled back into our cozy casa.  We are all tired and ready for a good night sleep.  We feel like we have already been away from Canada for a long time.  Another busy day awaits us tomorrow

Pat and Jane 

Photo Dump

Agriculture Project Pictures

Proud of the 2 thousand pounds of organic fertilizer that they made to improve the soil quality

Eco friendly stove

The people of Nandarola are thrilled with their eco-friendly stoves. COMMIT hopes to replace all the stoves in the village to improve the respiratory health of the people, as well as using less wood.

Blog-Granada and NPH celebration

COMMIT Blog October 19, 2019

The day dawned as a muggy warm day having rained overnight as it often does in the rainy season. Everyone slept well from the sleep deprived night before which now almost seems surreal.

We loaded into a van to go to Granada to meet the Rotary club of Granada and the major of Nandaime to further connect with our water project in Nicaragua. We went over the details ie permissions for land us, electricity needs, hydrological studies etc. It was a regular Rotary Meeting held at Sonrisa Restaurant which is part of Tio Antonios establishment employing the deaf and disabled. The menu is all sign and pointing. They also make top quality hammocks and chairs and handbags which are very colourful and unique and we never mind spending money there. Six Rotarians from the Granada Club showed up including 3 women although the club has about double that number and two government officials. It was a regular Rotary meeting. Two members of their club spoke good English. They were doing a marathon the next day for polio plus and they asked us to join which we gracefully declined .We were greeted warmly and were able with face to face connecting and good translation to clarify our Water project and duties involved on all sides. The project involves drilling 3 wells in 3 communities without any clean water except what is trucked in 2x per week, expanding the well in two communities where we previously drilled with electric pumps water towers and a distribution system. The communities so desperately need the water and we are just waiting for the grant money if the project is to be Ok’d or not. The “not” would be a disaster for the communities but nothing is guaranteed. The usual banners were exchanged and some Canadian gifts to our friends and partners and our friendships were brought even closer. They practice saying the 4 way test before every meeting to keep them focused on service. So similar to our club and we felt a sense of community you only experience as a Rotarian in travel.

Then we were off to enjoy some of the sights of Granada which is starting to recover its tourism from the past political strife. We always visit the chocolate factory where we have a great show on chocolate complete with tasting after and a new appreciation of chocolate. Then lunch at Tele pizza where we met with Augusto our local dentist who has worked for us in past years. The children at the orphanage and those we bus in from the community for education and a good meal and lots of love, have many dental problems and NPH (the orphanage we work at) has asked us to help. We have a dental setup from past years of mission including a drilling setup, sterilizers and appropriate instruments and he agreed to work one day per week in a dental capacity for those children. Nothing fancy. First teeth are pulled if painful or infected and second teeth drilled and filled if possible. The Dental Society of Stratford (Jim Kelly, Susan Lipa and everyone) have been very generous in supporting past missions including instruments, and toothpaste and toothbrushes so we have been able to run both a preventative and active dental program. One year a Rotary grant and personal donation bought us a portable dental machine which we have been using since, Rotary acts in many invisible ways to make a difference both locally and in the world.

There was a special celebration we had to be back for at the orphanage at 3:30. It is called the Quinceanera when many Latin American countries celebrate girls coming of age at 15 years. There was a full church service, banquet, music and feast after. A beautiful people celebrating their culture and we were asked to join and we were honoured to be a part of it. Pictures to follow.

Doug

Blog - October 20th, 2020

Day 3 of our trip in Nicaragua. We had a very early morning starting at 5 am to drive to catch the ferry in Rivas. Here we all jumped on the ferry for a 70 min boat trip to Ometepe island. Ometepe island is a beautiful, lush island. The homes are colourful and the streets are full. This island is shaped like a figure- eight. On either end of the island lies two massive volcanos. One volcano Conception  is active and bubbling with smoke and the other Madera is inactive with a blue lagoon on the inside. We boarded a small bus (at this point we are so used to being hot and sweaty in cramped busses) and made our way to another NPH satalite home called the Samaritana house. Here we meet a beautiful mother and daughter. The mother -Angela, and her daughter- Milagro Valentino sought the help of NPH  for Physiotherapy and Medical therapy. The therapy for Milagro is important as she needs G-tube which she is feed through. In all of Nicaragua and other cities  and countries as far as Guatemala there are no tubes for Milagro available. They tried another kind of tube but Milagro lost a lot of weight and had skin breakdowns and infections due to these tubes. We were able to bring her tubes to last them another 18 months and will bring more in January. Her mother Angela shared her day to day challenges with Milagro. Living far away ( 10 km) from the NPH home she must carry her 9 year old daughter and take her on a bus. Milagro has no motor skills and needs constant care so Angela must care for her. Each day is a struggle for her as it’s difficult to provide care and medication for Milagro with her seizures and needing to blend her food to fit in her G-tube. On route to come in January in our shipping container is child sized wheel chair and a blender for Milagro. This will help Angela not have to carry Milagro to and from the clinic any more. When we told Angela what we would have for them in January she teared up and said “Muchos gracias “ - thank you so much. This kind of medical care would be provided in Canada for our kids and family and is not available here in Nicaragua.  COMMIT/The Rotary Club of Stratford are doing what we can to help Milagro and her mother. Next we ventured over to the former NPH orphanage. This orphanage is no longer running as an orphanage since they had to evacuate the children from the dangers of the volcanoes which last erupted in 1957 killing people.. It is now currently an active farm - plantation, grazing animals. This provides food for the children In the current NPH children’s home we are staying. The old residences are being transformed into beautiful guest houses along the water where the commit team hopes to stay in January for a night and is open to the public now. Here we checked on the bee hives made 2 years ago. We had to bushwhack our way through the over grown banana plantain to the hives to see how they were doing. With many wild African honey bees buzzing around we could not get too close to them. We travelled back to the ferry and headed across the water to Rivas where were met by our trusty driver Bismark to take us home to NPH for the night in another torrential down pour. A long day but well worth it. .... we hope we can get across the water in our truck to Nandarola to work in the morning on our build project. Buenos notches !!!

Tessa

Today after a night of lots of rain we made our way over to Nandarola to start our build and agricultural projects. The famous seven started our projects with the community helping. The build project included Doug, Janice, Cody and Cosmo. They worked with the people in Nandarola prepping the ground and starting to lay the bricks for the new foundation of the community sewing/computer room. With lots of help from the people the bricks were placed quickly and efficiently making our day very successful. The children came from school to grab some bricks and the local adults helped mix the cement. Canadians and Nicaraguans worked alongside each other without the language barrier being an issue. The smiles on people’s faces were worth more than words. Pigs, Chickens, Cows, Horses and Dogs came out too to supervise our project to make sure it was acceptable. By the end of the long day the brick wall was 5 ft high and well on its way to being finished on schedule. Although hot dirty and tired everyone felt the satisfaction of a job well done. We look forward to continuing with the build tomorrow when the windows and walls hopefully get completed, weather pending. Thanks to Melloul Blamey for sending our carpenters and the Rotary club of Stratford for your continued support of our projects.

The second project being run at the same time today was agriculture. Tess, Jane and Pat worked with our project leader for agricultural – Jimmy. He has been working so hard to start 9 farmers on proper agriculture planting and harvesting in Nandarola. The farmers sat us down to let us know how thankful they were to learn new and valuable ways of proper planting and care of their crops. They have started a new project to make composted soil to add to their plants and to eventually sell. They collect the cow manure on the roads and in the corrals and add it to their constructed worm boxes. These boxes filled with African and California worms are taking the manure and turning it into rich compost soil in 21 days. One worm box has 1 kg of worms to start and in 6 months it is filled with 5 kg. Jimmy had the goal to get each of these 9 farmers started with a construed worm box, and we had the privilege of telling them today that we will be funding and helping build 7 more boxes. These compost worm boxes not only help these farmers with their own crops but with the ability to sell compost and worms as an important source of income. Jimmy and Commit have lots more long term goals for these 9 farmers and we are excited to be a part of it. Another thing we did today with agriculture is help them understand different ways of planting their crops; like mounding their pumpkin and squash soil for more veggie/ fruit production and making tree wells on their new avocado and mango trees to not rot out the stems/ catch rain water. As we learned from them how to make a composted worm box and add it to their plants. We are so excited to see where this new project will progress too.

Cosmin, Cody and Tessa

Blog-October 23

October 22nd- Day 5

October is the rainy season in Nicaragua and we have definitely experienced lots of it, torrential downpours at times,last night was no different.

Our team hopped into the truck, some of us riding Nica style in the back with all of the building tools. Edgar, Doug and Janice jumped out in Nandaime for a meeting with the director of the hospital, Doctor Saborio, aka Doctor McDreamy. The rest of the team headed out to Nandarola to continue the build and garden projects along with Jhonny, our translator and friend. 

Our meeting with the doctor went well and villages for our medical team to do clinics in were decided upon. We will be servicing 6 different communities who have little to no access to medical care other than traveling to the hospital in Nandaime. Our team also hopes to teach first aid to 7 people in each village which the director was thankful for as help is not quickly available. Dr. Saborio is also excited for the contents of our container- delivery beds, two defibrillators etc. Thankyou Mike Rosser for sourcing out and obtaining these invaluable pieces of medical equipment. Upon asking what their needs were, they asked for an ECG machine as the one they have is no longer functioning and we hope to bring one with in January.

 As our meeting was coming to a close Edgar received a call from our driver BisMark saying that they were coming back as the river that we must cross to get to Nandarola was too flooded today and they were not able to cross. What a disappointment for the team, but nothing that we could do anything about. 

Cody and Cosmin went back to NPH to work on some odd jobs and we headed back out again in more torrential rain to visit the village of Rio Medina where we will be doing one of our clinics in January. We learned that the village is in an epidemic right now with Dengue Fever, with many of the villagers hospitalized. The village is often flooded by the river and with the large amount of rain lately the mosquitos have been reproducing quickly. Upon arriving in the village we visited the church where our clinic will be held but decided not to get out of the truck to avoid the possibility of getting bit by a mosquito. Thankfully in January it will be the dry season and Dengue will most likely have dissipated and we are lucky and blessed enough to have mosquito spray. 

After meeting up with the rest of the group, we split off again, Jane, Tessa and Pat heading off with Jimmy to visit his property to see his gardens and to an organic farm. The rest of us headed to the hardware store to buy tools and supplies for the garden project and building materials for the community center. Five stores later we had found everything and arranged for all of the supplies to be delivered to Nandarola tomorrow. 

After our unsuccessful attempt to cross the river this morning, Pat, Jane and Tess headed off with Jimmy for a very rewarding and informative afternoon.  We drove to Jimmy’s village and toured his own farm where we saw productive Avocado trees that were only two or three years old. These large beautiful avocados sell for a minimum of one American dollar in the local markets.  Each tree is able to produce three harvests a year producing over forty avocados per harvest. Jimmy also has lemon and lime trees among others. These are all lucrative productive trees that ensure a good steady income. The goal is to see these results for our village farmers.  Jimmy also took us to the farm of a neighbour a short walk from his home and farm. There we also saw plantains and bananas. This farmer has a good quality life and is able to provide for his family, with a comfortable home, and lifestyle.    

After our delicious traditional  lunch prepared by Jimmy’s wife, we headed off to a very unique nature reserve called  Reserva Silvestre Privada Conceptcion de Maria.  This 60 hectare nature reserve was a lush tropical jungle.  We enjoyed a cup of coffee, produced onsite in their own coffee plantation, in a luxurious boutique Inn.  Their resident agronomist talked to us about the trees on site, and the history of developing this property.  Following our coffee we waiting on the large well furnished covered porch of the Inn, sitting out a torrential rainstorm that lasted over an hour and a half.   Finally, decked out in rain ponchos we were guided along several of the many trails on site, marvelling at the richness and diversity of the tropical forest.  

Jane, Janice and the Team

Blog, Wednesday, October 23rd

The day dawned sunny after a night of rain. We were not optimistic we would be able to cross the river to our building site but the OK was given and off we went. When we arrived at the River three members of the village were there to assist our safe passage along the river so that we would not turn back a second day. I guess they really wanted our work team to show up today. When we arrived at the village the building had been advanced from our previous build and through the day we were able to complete the walls. Men women and children came out to help and everyone worked really hard. The sun was a sweltering 95 degrees but our local Nicaraguan friends laboured like it was a balmy 70.  Cody and Cosmo held up the Canadian part. Pigs wallowed in the mud puddles.  We had some laughs, lots of attention from kids with offers to help, everybody got to share our lunch of peanut/jam butter sandwiches  and the day went very quickly.

Meanwhile our Garden team headed over to our garden project. We were taken to the first harvest of squash from one village garden which had been planted 6 weeks before. They are so proud of what they have accomplished as a communal group working together and looking forward to eating their rewards and making money in a number of areas ie selling crops, selling worm compost, and selling regular compost and this was the first result they had in their hand. They even did an experiment of using compost on some plants and not on others. They result was remarkably better for the composted plants which were double in size. Indeed a proud moment. They work very hard, work the fields with hand tools and the richer farmer might use an oxen team but there were not tractors in sight. As mentioned previously the project is so successful that 10 other villagers want to join so we brought out tools to get them started. We discussed how payback could be mentoring their fellow villagers and sharing their produce. One story related to us by the farmer producing his first squash is a superstition that if women during a certain time of the month touch the squash the vine would wither and die. The women in our group had a nervous laugh of indignation and the men of the village a sheepish grin of why take the chance.

In the afternoon we helped build some worm boxes for composting. This compost is highly sought after and simple to produce ie cow manure in a box with worms and 12 wks later several kilograms of compost. Of course it is not that simple and had been tried before by some farmers without success but under the direct supervision of Jimmy is proving much more successful this time. It was nice to see them joking, proudly happy and sharing the construction project with us.

At day’s end everybody loaded into the 4 wheel truck and we headed home arriving just as the sun set. A rewarding day and many grateful thanks to be able to help such a hardworking and wonderful people.

Doug

October 26th

Well another day in beautiful Nica, and yes… you guessed it, rain AGAIN!! We ate another great breakfast and had a meeting with the National director of NPH ,Marlon. We discussed the upcoming trip for January and we were asked to use the NPH students as our translators so they would be able to have the experience for the leadership program in Seattle, Washington. We also touched base on the Bee project and plans are being made to meet with Marty from the Wisconsin Nica bee project to discuss how to improve the present hives/ expand 2 more hives and to market the honey. 

 We took the Mini school bus to the Maternity house in Nandaime to deliver the many many bags of baby and infant clothing donated by Doris Martin. Thank you again for your donation. Here we got to see the place for expecting mothers to learn how to properly care for their newborns, breastfeeding and a place to rest before the baby comes. They often come to the  maternity house 2 weeks before delivery to ensure that they deliver in a hospital instead of in their remote villages without proper help or medical care. They are sent to Granada (1 hr away) to deliver the baby if they are high risk or for multiple births. We are excited that very soon Nandaime hospital will receive a delivery bed which will replace the bench with stirrups where they deliver now. This bed is state of the art and will make things so much more comfortable for the mothers to deliver in. Thanks to Hillrom for your very generous donation and to Mike Rosser for sourcing out the beds. 

 We all got on the bus again and went to Janice’s God child Orlandos. The village that Orlando lives in is a very very poor. The homes are made of  steel and blocks and nothing but rice fields around them. With only access to school 1 day a week the reality of life to them is working in the rice fields. We dropped off some gifts to the family as they invited us into their home. The dirt floor and the dark room was hard for us to see comparing it to how privileged we are. With all the rain, everything out side and inside the house was mud filled. They were proud to show the 2 pigs that Doug bought for them in January. These pigs will provide a food source and breeding stock to sell for the family of 8. There are little words to describe how we feel when we see the daily struggle of  the majority of Nicaraguans, we have so much in Canada to be thankful for. 

 As we finish our journey here in Nicaragua, we are sad to say goodbye but we are happy with the work and what we have accomplished on this trip. Looking back we have made great progress on a new community center addition, finished 9 compost worm boxes, and most importantly we have made great  friends with the community of Nandarola. We didn't get to say a proper goodbye as the river was too high, but we waved and yelled our loving remarks to all the workers from across the river. They were all waiting there to say goodbye as we all feel like family now. Although we travel home at 3 am on Monday, we all feel that we will be leaving a piece of us behind in the community of Nandarola and NPH. Our mighty little team of 7 is family now and  we'll all be sad to go back to our day to day lives in Canada. We will continue to Fundraise for our projects and prepare for our medical mission trip in January.  Our next Fundraiser is a Ladies Night Fashion Show Fundraiser November 6th in Mitchell.  Please come out and support this worthy event.

Thanks again to NPH for your continued support of our projects and being our "Boots on the Ground " here in Nicaragua.  Without your continued support our projects wouldn't be so successful.  Thanks to Jimmy Espinosa , our ergonomist who teaches the people in Nandarola how to successfully garden. You have made our Garden Project a real success so far. We look forward to working with you as we move forward with introducing more villagers to the project.  Thanks to all of the great people who have donated their time, money  etc to raise money for our projects.  Especially thanks to The Rotary Club of Stratford Charitable Foundation for believing in what  COMMIT does and taking us under your wing and supporting us through donations. Thankyou everyone.  

Tessa and Janice