Day 7

Today was an early day.  We had quite a bit of rain last night. In fact it has rained every day at some point during this trip.  Seems to have been a rough night of sleep for several people.  Stomach ailments seem to have plagued a few and we suspect a little pastry item called a pico to be the root.  Unfortunately it was not made by our chefs, but something they bought on the street.  My stomach was also a bit off - let's just say it's a good thing my room has an ensuite bathroom.

Very noisy outside this morning.  The church next door had a morning service/prayer service that started at 5:45am.  That was okay because we had to get up and leave by about 6:45am.  We were going to Verbo school for their morning devotions.  They all line up at 7am and stand to sing their school anthem and have a short devotional.  Today we were there to share our story with them.  Emran, Izy and Kevin all shared a short word with the students.   Verbo has about 300 students.  They all stood very patiently waiting.  We sang (in English & Spanish) Open the Eyes of My Heart.  Some joined in with us as they knew the words.  After we finished they all went to class to start the day (Remember, they start school at 7am... )

We then left back to Pastor Ed's house for breakfast.  That felt like a long time - When you're up from 5am, 9am is a long time away.  Unfortunately Jeremy did not make it with us.  He went back to bed, not feeling well - he did not wake again until 3pm.  We all returned to the school.  This time we did a cultural exchange with grade 10 students.  We asked them questions and they asked us several in exchange.  Things such as what is your favourite colour, favourite singers, do you go to church, how old are you, what did you or are you studying, and how old are you.  Much closer this time around for the younger ones.  Of course the oldies in the group were always misjudged, for the better!  We finished just after 10am.  The group of 5 went to the church & feeding program.  Kevin & Vern stayed back at the school to setup the computer lab for our final day of training.

I had a number of toys donated by my kids at home - hey kids, do you recognize these toys?  The children in the kindergarten class really, really, really liked them all!  They were very happy to get the cars, balls and other things.

Today was a special day - the students were let out of school at 10:15am.  It was because it was meet-the-teacher day.  There would have been some final class reorganization and these are the final teachers the students will have for the year.  The parents gathered in the courtyard and then went to meet each teacher in their classrooms.  In the meantime, Vern & Kevin setup the computer lab (along with the help of our translator, Gizzy) and were ready to go.  About 20 students came in and we let them play on a few machines - they took to it just like kids back home do.  They knew what to do.  Even though the Internet only came to Bluefields about 5 years ago, these children have already adopted the technology and are very comfortable using it.  The same learning curve we saw in North America about 15-20 years ago.  The revolution is starting here too.  On the network, we are using OpenDNS to help protect the children from adware and adult/unwanted sites.  This also helps to prevent P2P and File sharing - a common problem here, as they don't understand the issues around file sharing and legal/illegal use of software.  This concept is something we shared with the teachers in the hope that they will be able to influence a generation growing up to glorify God in all areas of their lives, including the digital age.

THIS is what we came to do - get the computers into the hands of these kids!

You would never have know some of these kids had never touched a computer before!

Photo of the teachers who were at the last day of training with us

Here are some thoughts from some team members:

Izayana - We started off the day at the Verbo school. Our team was placed in the grade 10 class. They had quite a few questions and by this time I wasn't as shy to ask some of my own. One of them was "What do you consider beautiful?". A few of the girls replied that the eyes are the most important but afterwards, most agreed that regardless of how beautiful someone is on the outside, what's on the inside is what really matters. It was nice to hear that lessons like those still matter to our generation worldwide.
After the feeding program, Emran, Deborah and I walked about 7 kids home. With the help of Deborah, we were able to tell the parents of these kids who we were and that we came with the Church to drop off the kids, & to see where they live since Friday is our last full day. Every time we dropped off a kid, he or she would follow us again. It was heart warming knowing that regardless of the barrier, they still consider us friends. A few little boys even picked fruit and shared it with me.

Kat - After the feeding program we went and walked kids back to their home.  I had to walk up a mountain, literally. It was a very steep clay hill. As I was walking I slipped and almost fell with a baby in my hand.  We got to a certain point and was very tired yet still had a ways to go. It took me 20 minutes to get there. The house was made out of rotten wood and was smaller than a 10x10 room.  It was made of one room, with a closed off part with two buckets for the toilet. The floor was very weak and flexed as if it was going to break when you walked on it. In the back was a big basin and a piece of sheet metal to catch rain water.  There was also a stone in the back where they would wash clothes.  Nothing more than 2 cups there, and 2 beds made out of wood.

Rebecca - I walked 2 girls home and they were very young (3 & 5). For some reason today, the bigger sister was not there so we walked the girls home.  When we went to their house we found it very small. Their entire family used to live in the rock quarry; since it was private land they were moved out and a house was built house for them. There were ten people in the house. Their mother would wash clothes for other people, and their father digs wells for people. The oldest girl takes care of the younger two and an 11 month old baby. There was one light bulb in the house and very bare bones. Two beds. The house has only one room with a cooking area and  a tv.

After they had walked the kids home, they came back to the church and played with a few girls who were still there.  Pastor Ed took them to a ship repair yard for lunch (where they saw the monkeys).  It started to rain and so they left and returned home.

In the afternoon, we went to check on the tables for the computer lab.  Unfortunately still not ready.  We were in a power blackout and so he couldn't keep working on them.  He was hoping to finish them by tomorrow.  I hope we can see the finished product.  Two tables are made with a 3rd almost finished.  the other 3 are still in pieces. 

From there we went to the Bluefields hospital.  This was a request from Emran to visit since we were just down the street.  It is down the street from Casa Materna.  We could have walked there but better to move and park the truck at the hospital.  Visiting hours are from 3:00pm - 4:00pm.  Not the same as hospitals back home.  They spent some $5,000,000 Cordovas to fix up the hospital - perhaps newer equipment and other enhancements, but the hospital still looks very run down. Paint peeling and the conditions are definitely not sanitary compared to our standards. Very bare minimum in the rooms.  No special equipment and I don't think the call buttons even worked.  I am sure things have been hard since the civil war and also from the Hurricane a few years ago. One little girl who was in because of anemia was in a room by herself.  It was smaller than our traditional single room units in a hospital BUT there were 3 beds in this room.  Literally just enough space for a couple chairs in between beds.  She had bedsheets but did not seem to have blankets.  The beds looked very old.  Salt water is hard on things in Bluefields - one would think that a hospital may have more upkeep, but it does not.  In one of the wards (men's ward) there were 5 or 6 beds in a larger room with one bathroom.  The bathroom was filthy.  You wouldn't want to go in there, yet they have no choice.  The lack of resources shows throughout the entire hospital.  Cockroaches were seen throughout the hospital - and not just small ones but large ones (about 4 cm?)  that can fly.   Pastor Ed said the other day when he was there, there were so many that they were dropping like rice from the ceiling!  He did manage to kill one on the way out.  It is so unfortunate the conditions there.

One big take away from everyone on the team (caveat: I did not survey them all - this is from our discussions and my assumptions) is that we need to appreciate everything we do each day and all that we do have.  I don't think any of us took for granted the many blessings and benefits we had back home; but seeing all we have seen this week makes us appreciate the simple things even more.  What do you have that you take for granted that you would really miss if you could not do it any more, or if it was gone (e.g., physical independence, sanitation, clean water, etc...)

Before dinner, Kat and Izy went out to a local convenience store and purchased these juice bags that Vern had been raving about since before the trip.  Kat found him the JUMBO size - seems to have come down in price from last time! (3 large juice bags, about 1L for $1USD)

Fantastic dinner from Frank- hot buffalo wings.  Wings were too hot for Rebecca, emran and izy.  Kat is a lobster (didn't sunscreen often enough) and Jeremy is still in his room. He slept most of the day. Pray for him. 

After dinner a number of people went down near the park to see people practising for Carnival which is in the next 2 months.  Music playing, drums banging.  There were about 10 people up front dancing to music and in about 3 rows of 3.  A little bit of Bluefields culture in the middle of the trip.

We are winding down now.  Tomorrow is our last full day here in Bluefields.  Much to see still and to say good bye to the kids we have made friends with this week. 

After several attempts we had to tell him to stop

Emran learning to make network wire

Buenas noches.