My Nicaragua Trip: December 2010

I made a few more trips out to the Betania bean field, and we had it almost to the point of being ready, but then the the Krin Krin pastor training trip came up, and the farmer from Betania decided to go on the trip with us. He decided that we would not be able to plant the field before I left, but he is excited to work with me in the future.

My dad arrived in Puerto Cabezas Thrusday the 9th, and we immediately got to work on the baseball field, because he brought down a few parts for the irrigation system that I couldn't find in Puerto Cabezas. On Friday we had four sprinklers running at full pressure on the field, and then on Saturday we planted the remaining half of the infield. The irrigation system works extremely well, and we trained the grounds keeper employee, Alvaro, who is also a Agro Forestal major at the local university, to manage the field. After our week in Krin Krin (which I will talk about next), the field was already germinating, about a week after planting! We put on a shot of 15.15.15 fertilizer and told Alvaro what rates needed to be applied going forward, so the field should come in quite well. After 5-6 weeks I am hoping that it will be ready for game play. Jeff Thompson will continue to send me pictures and updates, and I am also going to be in contact with Alvaro, so hopefully everything goes smoothly.

On Monday the thirteenth at 3:30 am we began our trip to Krin Krin; I was driving the old red dodge ram truck, loaded up with gear and eight of the older boys. The drive to Waspan took 5.5 hours; once we arrived there, we unloaded the gear into the boats, and waited for the bus loads of people to show up. Dad took off on the Panga with all of the other gringos at about 11:30, but I chose to stay and help with the kids and ride on one of the large dug out boats which they call "batu's." We left Waspan around 1:00 in the afternoon and went all day until about 10:00 pm; we still hadn't reached Krin Krin, so we had to stop at a village along the way called Esperanza. I ended up sleeping in a small storage shed with three young boys and one of the older boys; when we first went into the room, there was a large animal that looked like a jungle rat eating the rice that was left on the floor. I was about to pick up the machete and kill it when the owner came in and said that it was his wild boar that he was raising for food. I maybe got two hours of sleep that night, so when the sun started coming up I went out and began helping to get things ready. We left Esperanza around 6:00 am and then arrived in Krin Krin around 8:30. Throughout the trip up the river our boat got stuck around 10 times, and each time all of the guys had to unload and push it off the sand bar. All in all it was a good experience, and I would definitely make the same choice again; having said that, I soon found out that Dad and the other gringos arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon the day before, which meant they spent a total of about three hours on the river.
The time in Krin Krin was amazing; the main point was pastor training for all of the surrounding river communities, but it was also an opportunity for many of the kids in the orphanage to see their families, because most of them come from the river. Dad and I met a lot of the kids families, visited farms, went fishing, and played all kinds of games with the people; in other words it was a very busy week, just the way we like it. It was getting very cold in the night time in Krin Krin, sometimes below 60 degrees, which was very tough for our unprepared group. Dad and I both have a little bit of a cold going, but it is well worth the experiences we had.

We traveled back to Puerto Cabezas with Pastor Earl on Pangas and then in his truck on Friday the 17th, arriving at about 4:30 pm; six hours before the buses got back with all of the kids. When the buses did arrive, the house dad, a few of the girls who stayed behind, and I had the food ready for all of the tired and hungry group of kids, which included ten new ones ranging in age from 7-9. Out of the new kids only one speaks Spanish, which makes life a little more difficult, because the house parents do not speak Miskito; they seem to be fitting in very well however, and I am sure they will pick up Spanish quickly. On my last day Dad and I bought ice cream for all of the kids; the ten new kids had never had ice cream, so it was very entertaining to watch the enjoyment and surprise on the faces as they dug in to the icy treat.
It was tough to say goodbye to all of the people there, because they are very much like family for me, but it helps to know that I will be coming back in June to spend a year working on a more focused plan with the guidance and support of Dustin Holliday and his church out of Virginia, "Christian Fellowship Church." Here is a link to a blog post Dustin wrote about me coming down which explains it all a little better: http://cfcoutreach.blogspot.com/2010/12/crisi-tara-big-crazy-is-how-we-roll.html.

Dad and I began the trip home on Monday the 20th at 6:30 am; we arrived in Los Angeles that night, and we will be staying in Hemet, California at my grandparents house through Christmas. On the 26th we fly back to Oregon with Mom and Mckayla to have Christmas with the Oregon family, and then life begins to move back into normal mode.

I would like to thank everyone for all of your support and interest through this awesome adventure that I have been on, please feel free to ask me any questions about my trip whenever you see me, or through email or phone calls, I love to talk about it.

God Bless,

Austin

The Truck I Drove