After that, we went over to Nueva Vida, which is just about 10 minutes down the road. Nueva Vida is where people settled after Hurricane Mitch when the government gave them just a stick and a tarp to make a home out of. The place has changed immensely!
Although the roads are not paved and the streets are littered with trash, the area has come a long way. Many people now live in houses with concrete walls and steel roofs. It is like a mini-city. Each house unit is right smack up against the one next with each family taking up about 10 feet along the road. Although this seems harsh, we passed some much poorer housing on our drive down to Nueva Vida. Some of the houses were probably closer to permanent tents than they were to houses. The families just need a roof over their head and possibly a small area to keep their animals. It is not an easy life.
Well, we drove to Nueva Vida and split into groups at the health clinic, and I was put in the painting group with most everyone else. We painted the inside of the new health building with some kind of white paint that luckily washed off with water. After a hard day of work we had some time to play with the local kids. I found two pieces of fruit and played baseball with some kids until two hits were made, which kind of ruined the "ball". But these were Nicaraguan kids I was dealing with and soon enough they were back with a ball made from a role of tape.
We played some more and got everyone involved in the game until we were called back to the bus because it was time to leave. I was sad to leave and even sadder that I couldn't speak Spanish to them. I tried my best and asked some of them what their age or name was but not much more than that.
We drove back to JHC and I took a quick dip in the milky white water of the swimming pool. It was refreshing after a long day of sweat and paint. Since then we have had another awesome dinner consisting of veggies and fried cheese and chips and salsa, not to mention the fried dough with honey! All of the food was awesome and I am stuffed once again.
Looking back on the day I am humbled by the laid back way that Nicaraguans deal with what most of the world considers horrific conditions. Despite this, every person we saw didn't seem to think about these things. This is their everyday reality. And actually, this is the best it has been for them since the hurricane in 1998. All of it is humbling and it really makes you think about the absurdity of the distance between the rich and the poor in the world.
Tomorrow, Daniel Ortega will be given power in Managua and we will watch it on TV. Although no violence is expected, no one really knows what to expect. I think tomorrow will be a good day.
