Our Missionaries Have Returned
By Millie May
On March 12, 6 missionaries left for Chicago with 12 full suitcases of donated items for a Nicaraguan orphanage named Hogar Belen. Their names are Millie May, Reverend Janusz Kowalski, Leah Sherfinski, Olivia Sherfinski, Dan Suchomski and Jeremy Geis. On March 13th, we left for the airport to meet our flight to Atlanta. Unfortunately for us, the airline delayed our flight by 5 hours and by the time we took-off; we missed our connection to Nicaragua. My brother Bernie, who lives in Atlanta picked us up at the airport and we spent the night with him. On Sunday, after Mass, we took a fast tour of downtown Atlanta, and then it was off to the airport again to make our flight to Nic. We landed in Nic., got through customs without issue and were met by our Diriamba contacts for the 1 hour ride to the new orphanage. We arrived there around 11:00 pm and they had dinner waiting for us. The weather in Nic. was hot, 80 to 90 degrees and they are in the dry season at this time of year. After a short night of sleep we were up to have breakfast and begin painting. Our first task was to paint the inside walls of the dining area. After lunch it was off to paint the inside of the wall that surrounds the compound of the orphanage. This wall is about 8 feet high and about 400 feet long and 100 feet wide around the compound. It is topped with razor wire as are all compound walls in third world countries. Real paint is expensive in Nicaragua so we painted this very large wall with a cheaper version of paint made from dye, banana leaves, and some sort of chemical(s) that smelled like sulfur. It took us the better part of the afternoon to figure out the best way to work with this thin, messy paint and as it was our first day of work and we were all adapting to the weather change, we broke early and after showers, we took 2 Moto-taxis into Diriamba. We went to a cyber-café and e-mailed home to let all know we had arrived safely. On Tuesday we painted that wall all day breaking only for meals and short rest breaks.
Wednesday we were off to Hogar Belen: Managua. The Government of Nicaragua has put a hold on the building of new orphanages. As a result the new orphanage has the same name as the old and they are differentiated by the city in which they are located; Managua and Diriamba. The younger and/or more handicapped children are at the Managua location while the older children and teens are at the Diriamba location. We also went to the sewing center and “La Chureca” which is the garbage dump where as many as 700 families make their living sorting through the garbage. This area has change a lot. Spain has given money to Nicaragua to build a recycling plant in which the residence of La Chureca will work. As a result, they are cleaning up this garbage dump. In a few years it will look more like a landfill that we see in the United States. While at La Chureca, we distributed food bags for the “Christ in the Garbage” ministry that Mustard Seed Communities supports. We also went to the Centro de Costura, the sewing center, where women from La Chureca are trained to sew and cook in order to provide themselves and their families with an income. Once these women complete the courses, they receive a sewing machine to get them started on earning money. On Thursday, we continued to paint that wall. By the end of the day, we managed to paint one full length of the compound and were out of both colors of paint. On Friday, it was our day out to have fun. We went to a zip line, Monkey Island and a boat tour of Lake Nicaragua, shopping in the Masaya market, swimming in the Laguna, and to Granada for dinner and a city walking tour. We arrived back at the mission house around 10:00 pm to pack and prepare for our 3:30 am wake-up call for travel back to Managua to catch our flight home.
I encourage you all to consider making this mission journey with me next year. I am looking at May or June for the month of travel. Please send for a passport and when you see in the bulletin that I am seeking missionaries, contact me and sign a commitment form for the trip. Once a commitment form is signed, I will guide you through your mission preparation. A few of you contacted me this year too late to go on the 2010 trip but there is plenty of time to plan for the 2011 trip. God Bless you all for your generous support of all our missionaries and for your donations to the children of Hogar Belen. Millie May (millie.may@solarus.net)