Wow! Our first 3 weeks into this Mission Volunteer experience have been quite a whirlwind – and we thought we were headed to a more relaxed pace of living : )
Impacts of the two larger water systems funded by The Rotary Foundation:
Our first week, with the translation assistance of a graduate of the adult ed English course, we interviewed/videoed the school directors, health outreach workers, officers of the governance committees, and several families in La Trocha and Llano Verde. Their testimonials are filled with gratitude for…
- better health
- cleaner homes, school, and clothing
- ready access to clean water with good pressure
- saving time and saving labor
And they spoke about the importance of conserving water and that the monthly water fee is definitely worth the benefits. When asked about other ideas for improving their community, there was no lack of dreams… if your group wants to help with a project, let us know!
school girls: “Now I can drink water from the pipe. Just to go to wash our clothes we had to go very far to a river… now we don’t”
Neighborhood outreach project with a sister church
Speaking of helping, the 300+ reflective sashes created by the St Paul’s Older Adult Ministries, from the 22 rolls of grosgrain ribbon purchased with the Local & World Ministries funds, have been added to the ~200 sashes a member of the Los Chiles Methodist Church made. They are ready for distribution to local school children with pedestrian safety activities by local transit and fire officials. Here’s a photo of Bronwen, VIM from FUMC Graham TX, attaching the ‘Christ Loves You’ tag. Thank you St Paulians for helping with this neighborhood outreach project with our sister church!
Sashes and smiles for pedestrian safety!
Bi-National projects!
The 2 VIM teams that were here last week helped the AVS team extend the water system 1100m in La Trocha to ~20 homes, all but 3 in Nicaragua. The health impacts, e.g. 40 cases of Hepatitis A prior to having the potable water and 0, that’s zero, a month after the water was flowing, have drawn attention from health workers from Nicaragua and they are opening the doors to collaborative projects – AVS is excited to assist this community to have “water without borders” and work bi-nationally.
this photo captures current source for cleaning clothes and the pipes for the well water to reach their homes
AVS Transitions
The team from FUMC Winter Park FL had three AVS Board members and their ‘buds’ to help with the heavy lifting laying pipes. One of them, Bob (Robert) Smither, vacates a Board seat to accept the AVS Executive Director position, so this was his ‘crash course’ in-country with 1-yr AVS veteran Joel Congers, newly named Director of International Operations, and the local crew: Chente Rios, Omar Porras, Fran Bazan (they joined in 2013) with Lineth Canales as the office manager since 2015. As a young organization, these major transitions come with lots of questions and ideas for the future; please keep them in your thoughts and prayers for the wisdom and energy that will help them strengthen the organization to further its mission!
That’s all for now, folks! I found today’s www.gratefulness.org word for the day apropros:
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. Desmond Tutu
…think on these things! Abrazos, n & G