Disaster Relief

Another busy day traveling out to the villages, Today we went to Nandarola. While in the village, we visited the community centre that our team had paid to renovate. Doors and windows had been reinforced and the dirt floor replaced with a beautiful tile floor. We were excited to learn that since the renovations, a doctor and nurse do medical clinics there three times a week. We feel reassured to leave the medical aspect of the care in that community in their hands. The mayor also shared that the building is being used by the sewing co-op and that art classes are being held there. A little renovations on our part allowed them to open up a whole new area of community involvement.

Tuesday, Oct 17

Hola! Jessica here with an update on a few of the things we spent doing on our second day in Nicaragua. Today we headed out to one of our adopted villages; San Luis to assess any damage caused by the storm and any needs they have. We first stopped in at the school to speak with the principal about any needs she had and she expressed to us the need for some more school books, paint for the building and some musical instruments. Upon visiting the mayors house in the village, we learned that most of the homes in San Luis had been spared significant damage by the storm, although they had been without electricity for the past week. She also shared with us that the sewing program we had began was going well although they had a need for more functioning machines and had used all of the material. We took note of these needs and hope to bring them these things on the trip in January.

The most thrilling part of our day was taking inventory of the storage room at NPH (not). We finished up our day with a meal of the same food we distributed to the villages- soup from the dehydrated vegetable mix and rice and beans.

Hasta Pronto Jessica

Oct. 17, 2017

We then headed to a village near Ochomogo that had been especially impacted by the flooding. Many of the homes in the community had been damaged and when we arrived, 10 sheets of tin were being handed out to each of the families to help repair their homes. Many of the people's belongings and food had washed away with the extensive flooding this community experienced. We asked one of the women in the village which families had the greatest need for food and she replied "Everyone". We went house to house in the village and distributed a bag of rice, beans and Gleaner's dehydrated vegetables to each family for which they were very thankful.

Mom (Janice) was especially excited to be able to see her sponsor child, Orlando and his family. You couldn't beat the smile on his face when he saw her coming to pick him up from school. It was nice to visit with his mom and brothers and share the gifts we had brought for them. Orlando's mom showed us that the floor was still damp from the flooding. She held up her hand to her waist to show how deep the water had been. Several articles had been washed away including their stove and a mattress. Although the children had been able to go to NPH for refuge during the storm, the parents had stayed behind to save what they could. Orlando and his brother, Jose were great helpers distributing the food to the other families in the village.

Some of the energy efficient stoves at the factory

The model of the stove we hope to build in the kitchens in Nandorola and San Luis.

Wednesday, October 18th

COMMIT blog October 18, 2017. A cooperative effort of COMMIT, the Rotary Club of Stratford, and NPH

Today we loaded into the truck and went to Managua.We wanted to visit a stove factory that makes energy efficient stoves ( 70 to 90% ) that might work for our villages. The group called Ecofogon is an NGO group that manufactures a stove for about $200 US. We are hoping to model our stove after it but with a local solution that is much cheaper. Pictures are enclosed. In an earlier blog we showed you how open cooking fires inside were contributing to serious respiratory problems. Several hundred stoves would probably be needed in our area alone.

From there we went to Managua to buy tables and some equipment for our mission in January. We visited a Price Mark which is similar to our Costco that has all the same merchandise. Such a sharp contrast to the towns and villages in our area that are so poor. NPH as NGO was entitled to a break on 15% sales tax but 3 hours later we were only partially successful in obtaining it. Welcome to the bureaucracy of Nicaragua. Half a day shot and we had no time to shop for some sewing machines.

We bought more rice , beans and were able to give it to a friend who works more south around San Juan del Sur in an area where the floods devastated the villages. A bag of rice and beans and a package of Gleaners dehydrated food cost us about $5 and would supply a whole family with food for a week. We have given out a lot of that in the last five days and intend to ship down over 3000 kg in a container when we get back so that would feed over 1500 families and a school feeding program we are continuing with. Gleaners gives us the food free ( many thanks) but getting the container down is expensive ( $7 to 10 thousand Canadian) . We appreciate your support. We have been eating the same food at our Casa to see how it tastes. Actually not bad and we have become experts at preparing rice, beans, vegetable soup and refried beans.

NPH ( orphanage we work through) has been so supportive of our projects. We threw a party for their staff of about 10 tonight and served spaghetti and meat balls, salad, refried beans and donuts for dessert. A good time was had by all and 2nds and 3rds where had by some. Not something they get very often and as usual they were very thankful.

Tomorrow we meet with the director of Nandaime hospital to do more planning for January, visit more villages and distribute food and hope to liaise with the Rotary Club in Granada to maybe plan some joint projects. Communicating by email does not seem to work so may have to try to make a personal visit.

Doug

Thursday, October 19th

Today started out with our group leaving NPH at 0730. We headed to the hospital in Nandaime to get directions to the two villages on the agenda, La Flore and Oho de Agua. Because there are no street signs on the back roads, a guy from MINSA was sent to be our guide. Now that there wasn't enough room anymore in the front, Jessica and I hopped in the back to ride Nica style. The scenery was amazing as we zipped along the road, Jessica sitting on a sack of dehydrated vegetables and me on a sack of kidney beans. About halfway to La Flore the road started to get really bad. Large rocks littered the road and it became muddy and hard to navigate. The truck fishtailed back and forth between the sheer mud faces of the walls on either side. As we climbed higher up the mountain the road became quite narrow in places, barely wide enough for the truck. Then the inevitable happened, our front tire slipped off the road and the truck tipped to the side. What could we do? Were we stuck there on this remote road? Luckily the guys were able to push us out by lifting the front of the truck up and using rocks behind the tires for traction. One thing was very clear to us, we would NOT be bringing a bus to La Flore in January. This village and the trip there gives a whole new meaning to out in the Boondocks. At one point we came to a river which was the end of the road for us. There was no way to cross and the road beyond we learned was impassable for our truck. It was only suitable for a team of oxen. As we stood there on the banks contemplating our next move five teams of oxen came to the other side to cross. Once they crossed over we learned that they were from La Flore and that the lady on the horse with them was the community leader. Divine intervention! We agreed to turn around and meet with them further up the road. At our roadside meeting we learned that a couple homes in the village had been totally flattened and many homes flooded, 30 in all. We shared the dehydrated food and rice and beans with them. They are also in need of a drilled well as they only have dug wells which have become contaminated. We plan to send Jairo from Jesus based Ministries to investigate the possibility of drilling a well there. Our team plans to do a medical clinic there which we will use larger trucks to reach, hopefully the roads are better by then. If not the village has promised to come and fetch us with the oxen teams, something I would fine cool but Doug says hopefully not. After a quick picture in the oxen cart for Jessica and I we were back on the road again.

This time we headed even further up the mountain to Oho De Agua. They had been hit by the storm but mostly wind related. We shared more food with them and made plans to return for a clinic in January. As we travelled back on the remote road we saw a huge flock of vultures congregated on the ground, jumping up and down and flapping their huge black wings. Once we got closer we saw their prey, a large snake- nasty. Further on down the road another snake slithered across the roads in front of us and disappeared into the long grass. Sure glad I was safe in the back of the truck. Snakes are NOT my favorite reptile for sure.

After traveling to Managua to purchase some things for a family who had lost many things we came back to NPH with 30 chairs and 7 tables for the secondary school.

Haste Mañana

What a full day.

Janice

October 20/ 2017

Our day today started in Nandaime where we visited a local cement business. We are working with the owner of this business to create an energy efficient stove for the people of Nandorola who currently cook on open fires. Today we had a lengthy discussion with the owner, perfecting the design of this stove which we hope to pilot in our adopted villages. We picked up a few more things in the city including paint, rice and beans and bags of cement and headed off to the village of Nandorola. The food we distributed to the families in the village that had been hardest hit by the storm and flooding. The bags of cement are to be used to finish the tile floor in the community house. We discussed with the community leader the projects we are planning together with her including building a shelter for their well and the stove project.

The next village we went to was La Enramada to have a visit with one of the families and bring them a new stove and mattress as theirs was lost in the flooding.

We ended the day with delivering tubs of ice cream to each of the children's houses at the NPH home. The children were so excited to be having this treat. We sure got a lot of hugs tonight and it was so much fun to see the kids practicing their English for us.

Buenas noches!

Jessica