March 04, 2004
Random Notes
A few random thoughts while we're here:
- Everyone so far has thought our baby girl was a boy, even when she's been dressed in pink from head to toe. We figured out why a day or so ago - she doesn't have earrings. Even the smallest baby girls here all have their ears pierced.
- They are also surprised to see her walk. Apparently most of the kids here don't walk until they are 2 or older, because their mamas carry them most of the time.
- It gets rather exhausting to always be on the alert about what you eat or drink. But it's worth it.
- We've been here the whole week with a group from Pepperdine University's Project Serve, and they have been wonderful to be around. They are really doing tremendous work here, and it's been fun to talk with them, too.
- I finally saw the "cable company" I've been hearing about. It's called Cosmovision - it's in a storefront, right next to a bicycle repair shop. I went to see them yesterday, but "the guy is out." My translator's comment as we left was "That's not a real company. They should be at work." And yet, that is the closest thing they have here to a "real" cable company.
- As we ate some ice cream (helado) last night at about 8pm, a little girl came up to us trying to sell some tortillas. Sheri talked with her through a translator and got her story. She is 10 years old, and she gets up every morning at 5am to grind the flour for her tortillas. She must sell all the tortillas or her mother will punish her. We realize she may have been exaggerating the details - we don't know. But she WAS out selling tortillas at 8pm, and it wouldn't be out of line with what we've seen here. It breaks your heart.
- The Pepperdine students have been repainting a maternity house here in Jinotega this week. It's a facility to house expectant mothers who are close to their due dates. The come in from the countryside about a month early, they wait to have their babies in the Jinotega hospital, and when they are ready to travel about a week later, they go back home. We met a girl there who was just 13. She had been raped by her brother-in-law. She was terrified, as her mother would not be able to stay with her. The folks here at the mission helped her with food (the mothers have to provide their own food), and also helped her with her legal situation. They have now gotten word that she'll be taken to another facility in a town closer to her home. At least at that place, her mother will be able to make a two hour walk into town to see her occasionally and bring her food. Another broken heart.
- Misión Para Cristo is doing some tremendous work here. They could really use your support.
Posted by paul at March 4, 2004 09:33 AM