Hey everyone, I hope everything is going well, no matter where you find yourself in life. I have been here in Nicaragua for about a month now, and it is hard to believe how fast time can fly. During my time here I have been doing my best to get the agricultural project in Betania started, but things tend to move slow in Nicaragua... Even though I am not as far along in the project as I would like to be, I do feel confident that we are on track to get everything ready for our planting periods in September and November/December; God has a plan, and I am learning to trust in him even when I feel like everything is going wrong. I have been going out to the community a few times a week trying to keep the relationship up, and also meeting with Pastor Earl and the leaders of the community. Tomorrow, Pastor Earl and I will be going out there for one final big meeting, in which we hope to select the families that we will be working with on our model farm.
The idea behind this project is to plant a variety of different crops, in order to see what new things we might be able to introduce into the current planting cycle. We are hoping to build the self esteem of the people in the community as they produce cash crops and see their land producing an abundance of food. The goal os for the farm to be self sustaining, but we face many obstacles in getting everything set up. My desire is that the people will be able to take a portion of the seed/plant material from the model farm and plant it on their own personal farms, thus influencing the indigenous farming practices, and hopefully creating better food security.
Much of my time so far has been spent supporting/leading short term missions teams as they come in each week; it has been an amazing opportunity to get to know so many people from across the US, and hear their hearts for ministry. While helping these teams, I have been a part of building houses for members of the church and the work crew, building a new building for the Verbo school, food deliveries/prayer trips into villages and extremely poor sections of town, and of course I have had plenty of opportunities to hang out with the kids here at the orphanage, in my house, at the beach, and at the river. One of my favorite parts about the opportunity I have in being here for a year, is getting to know the kids in the orphanage better, learning about their history, and hearing what their hopes and dreams are. It is so cool to see how spiritually mature some of the kids are!
I will be posting pictures sometime in the next few days; I am currently connect to the internet via a modem with a limited data package, so I will have to go to the Pastors house to upload pictures. Thanks everyone for your interest, prayers, and support.
God bless,
Austin Fricker
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
I'm Back!
Hello everyone, I am starting up a new adventure here in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. I will just add to the existing blog to keep it simple.
It all started when Dustin Holliday, the head of the mission board at Christian Fellowship Church in Virginia, told me that they were looking into expanding their missions vision into agriculture. He asked me if I would be willing to come back to Puerto Cabezas for a year to work in Betania with the subsistence farmers. I of course took the offer, so here I am, sitting in Pastor Earl's house blogging about the trip.
I arrived Saturday, and my greeting from the kids in the orphanage made me feel right at home; as soon as I crossed the fence that separates my house from the orphanage compound a big group of kids came running towards me yelling my name. All the guys in the discipleship were excited to see me as well; it is so nice to be back in the swing of things.
The idea for this year is to develop a large piece of land directly behind Betania, specifically looking at introducing new crops (especially Nitrogen fixing, green manure type crops), developing other methods of getting nutrients into the soil, and teaching the farmers to replicate what we do on this land in their farmland along the river. Today I will be heading out to Betania to meet with my good friend Nestor; he is the farmer that I worked with throughout the three and a half months I was here last fall. We will be discussing the goals and hopes for development of the land, which families might be willing to participate, and of course we will be catching up on what has been going on in each others lives the six months that I have been gone.
I will keep it short this time because I am very busy with everything that is going on, but I will be updating again soon.
Thanks for the support,
God Bless, Dios Te Bendiga, Dawan Man Mumbaia,
Austin
It all started when Dustin Holliday, the head of the mission board at Christian Fellowship Church in Virginia, told me that they were looking into expanding their missions vision into agriculture. He asked me if I would be willing to come back to Puerto Cabezas for a year to work in Betania with the subsistence farmers. I of course took the offer, so here I am, sitting in Pastor Earl's house blogging about the trip.
I arrived Saturday, and my greeting from the kids in the orphanage made me feel right at home; as soon as I crossed the fence that separates my house from the orphanage compound a big group of kids came running towards me yelling my name. All the guys in the discipleship were excited to see me as well; it is so nice to be back in the swing of things.
The idea for this year is to develop a large piece of land directly behind Betania, specifically looking at introducing new crops (especially Nitrogen fixing, green manure type crops), developing other methods of getting nutrients into the soil, and teaching the farmers to replicate what we do on this land in their farmland along the river. Today I will be heading out to Betania to meet with my good friend Nestor; he is the farmer that I worked with throughout the three and a half months I was here last fall. We will be discussing the goals and hopes for development of the land, which families might be willing to participate, and of course we will be catching up on what has been going on in each others lives the six months that I have been gone.
I will keep it short this time because I am very busy with everything that is going on, but I will be updating again soon.
Thanks for the support,
God Bless, Dios Te Bendiga, Dawan Man Mumbaia,
Austin
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Bean Field/Krin Krin Trip/ Baseball Field/Leaving Nicaragua
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
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
A Bridge We Had to Cross
Panga
Dad helping clean rice
Tub of fresh beef
 |
Rice field in Krin Krin
Worship in Krin Krin (All on generators)
The sleeping fort (keeps out pigs, dogs and cows)
Volleyball
Food Line
Oscar's mom's tomb
Baptisms
Krin Krin's Bell
The Circus Tent
More than 10 people live here
Rice drying
Food?
Fishing in the river
Oscar, Ignacio, and I
Pastor Earl and Nestor (farmer from Betania)
Rio Coco (Guanki)
Batu
Leaving Krin Krin
Flat tire on the way home
Planting baseball field
The crew
Irrigation in action
Germination!
Plane leaving Puerto Cabezas
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