Tuesday has now come to a close, it feels like we have been here and experienced far more things than three full days could possibly hold. There is so much to see and experience in this beautiful country. Today we had a real ‘chill’ day. First we toured the Eskimo ice cream factory, and then we cooled off in the pool.
After breakfast we picked up the children of El Farro daycare. This daycare serves the neighborhood of La Chureca also known as the dump. People have been living on a city trash dump for years. Recently the Nicaraguan government has shrunk the amount of land that functions as an active dump, but it is still in use. These are the conditions that the children that were with this morning live in, every day. We took them to the Eskimo ice cream factory, they were so excited for this little field trip. After donning ridiculous booties, a lab coat, and the always stylish neon yellow hair nets, we started our tour. We each had a buddy to go through the factory with. We saw how popsicles, knock off drumsticks, and Sunday cups were made, stored, and shipped. We dropped the kids off and headed to our next stop (after getting to sample some of the goods, yum).
We headed back to Nueva Vida, and today drove past where the houses of the community were. The houses were nothing more than a 20 foot square with a roof made of corrugated metal, and maybe a chain link fence around the yard. The kids make it easy to forget the conditions that they come from because of how joyful and kind hearted they are, but the image of those houses is something no one will forget. We loaded up some of the kids and drove to a pool outside of town. They all were so excited to go jump in the pool. We did our best to give swim lessons to the kids in another language (with some surprising results!); the kids wouldn’t give up which helped a lot. It was so rewarding to be part of something that brought the children so much joy. Praise be to God that he lets us share in the joy of his children in Nicaragua!
P.S. Chris Johnson gives a shout-out to his grandmother (thanks for reading)
