VeNture Nicaragua Missions

Hey world!  With our trip experience closed, I’ve gone ahead and closed out the commenting options due to the increasing spam we’re receiving.  This blog will stay live so you can continue to send friends and family to check out our experience.

We’re beginning to gear up for our July 27-Aug 4 trip to El Salvador, and we’ll be blogging at the new address, here: http://venture-online.org/blog/july-2007-elsalvador/

Check us out and read about more lives being changed as we do the work Christ has called us to do!

Thanks for your support!

Eric Robertson

Hey, first of all, if you’d like to see the PRECISE location of where we put the well in Abangasca Norte, here’s a link to GOOGLE MAPS. For those Google Earth junkies out there, the exact coordinates are 12 deg 28.722 N, 86 deg 55.133 W

Second, pictures are beginning to be posted at OUR FLICKR SITE. Check them out!

Well, I’m sitting here in the internet cafe, yelling at the 256K connection they’ve got, and I’m going to catch you up on yesterday.  Sorry for not posting, but it was a long day too…

I left you Tuesday night, filthy, with us very frustrated with the day. Well, Wednesday had some surprises of it’s own. We got up and had our 6:30 devos again, and picked up where we’d left off.  We went down with our 4″ bit to our final resting depth of 140′ and began to flush and flush and flush, trying to get all the cuttings and debris out of the hole. While we were doing that, Phil left and went back to get the casing. When he returned, we shut the pump off, pulled our pipe, prepped our 200 gal. water tank for the final flush with clear water and chlorine.

Once we were ready to set the casing, we began assembling the screen and casing, with a 2′ tailpeice attempting to get to 140′.  Well, sadly, that was not to be. We began putting casing down the well, and all went well until we hit that same spot at about 105′-110′ and we got stuck. Not going ANYWHERE.  So, after much discussion, we called the depth our well (as we couldn’t get it up OR down at that point). We put our gravel pack down and started flushing. At this point, Phil left again to get the compressor. Things were going fairly smoothly until we had a “bridge” with our filter pack. As we dropped small gravel down into the well, we were trying to get it to settle all the way down to our final depth of 110′. Unfortunately, we put a bucket down, took a measurement, and the gravel had all caught at 30′ on one of the casing collars.  DANG.  Not bad, but not what we were going for. After much discussion, we called that good (everyone pretending it was what we were trying to do all along) and added more gravel, and decided to fire up the compressor for development.

This is the moment of truth, if you don’t remember from last time. When that compressor starts blowing out water, if it stops, you’ve got problems.  We gathered around, prayed, and started the compressor.  Water shot out, and we were making probably 60 gal/min. This from the well that broke our rig, almost swallowed a drill bit, and generally wouldn’t cooperate at all. THings started picking up after that. We put the electric pump down to try to pump it as clear as we could, and begin picking up the drill site.

It was pretty incredible to watch one of Pastor Luis’s sons grab a bar of soap and take a shower in the flow of the electric pump. As long as the pump was on he was playing with it. Lew made the observation that he had never in his life had the opportunity to PLAY with water. Water is precious and takes a TON of work to get, so this might have been a once in a lifetime thing for him.  Praise God!

We had a good time again watching the Nica’s make cement faster and more efficiently than a machine for the pump pad. We all laughed as the gringos tried their hand at it and, well… gave the shovels back quickly. We arrived home late and had to eat dinner in our work clothes again. We got a visit from Oscar, our translator from August, and were done by a little after 9:30, after the house gate had been locked. SO, no blog.

Thanks for your prayers, as the well is not what we’d been shooting for, but a success nonetheless.  Gloria a Dios!

This is our last blogging opportunity, so thanks for everything and we’ll see you on Sunday the 28th in VeNture for our trip report!

We said goodbye today after dedicating the well site.  What an incredible week God has allowed us to experience.  The people of Abangasca Norte have blessed us in as many ways as we have blessed them.  Watching them work together with their neighbors and love their families has been inspiring.  There is so much to write about and tell that I don´t even know where to start.  We´re short on time right now to blog so I´ll just list a few things and I´ll elaborate later.

Children are the same all over the world…they love to play, they are full of wonder and joy, and full of curiousity.

My biggest joy here has been talking with the teenage girls and the young married girls.  Suprisingly, many of the teenage girls are also the young married girls.

The people in the United States could learn a lot from seeing how families here take care of each other.

We don´t need 98% of the STUFF we think we do to have a decent life.

Okay, gotta go.

God Bless,

Julie

PS. Kate and Owen, I love you and we´ll be home soon!

Well, it is a bit sad as I am sitting here typing this blog as we have just returned from the village for the last time. Today, we got up, had our devotionals and breakie and then headed out to assemble the pump and dedicate the well. We gt out there in good time and assembled the well so easily with no problems.  It was awesome witnessing  the team hoss trio of Joe, Lew and Eric lowering the galvanized pump pipe with the c-wrenches.  Get it done!  Maybe it was the bull testicle cannelonis we ate last night that provided that extra gusto to finish it up!  Ha ha!  The whole village showed up to watch us work this morning.  Most days we had a good portion of folks watching and helping out when they could but today it seemed like the whole village came and they were all dressed in their best clothes.  It was lovely!  Rosa and the pastor´s family were cooking us lunch (we heard the chicken die) and as it wasn´t ready yet we had some time to share our thanks and Pastor Luis gave a short message and told the story of the Woman at the Well.  A few of us spoke out what was on all our hearts and the people got us all in the middle and prayed over us.  I love how they pray Nica-style with everyone raising their voices to the Lord.  Pedro (I´m sure others have mentioned him) raising his shouts out to the Lord!  We prayed all of us for the community and the well and then had time to visit with folks we had made friends with.  I taught some games to the kids like the hand slap game and thumb wrestlign which they loved so we played that.  Then we had lunch which was an incredible stew of chicken, yuca, plantain, potato, some kind of green vegetable, some kind of purple vegetable and some mega fat and huge tortillas.  Mmmm!  After lunch more games and visiting and then pack up t go.  I wanted a photos with Pastor Luis y familia and Dan stayed to take it but as we were waiting for them all to assmble, the other guys left.  Luckily the girls were still there and thanks to missing the first truck, I was challenged by a bunch of folks to ride Roman´s massive hog!  It is a monster…maybe 400 or 500 pounds and like 3 or 4 feet high.  Well, I managed to get up on it twice for a few seconds.  They were trying to give me tips but they were yelling so fast all I could make out was ´Chele!  Chele!´ Ha ha!  Now I am back in Leon after a quick shower and in thew internet cfae writing to you al.  (I will mention that there are two girls dancing right outside the place to blaring music on the back of a flatbed truck!  Loco!  I think they are advertizing something…)

Well, that is the basic facts.  I am still processing my thoughts and probably will do so but I can share a bit that is on my heart.  The village we went to had the NICEST people I have ever met.  Truly, they were so amazing and such a blessing and although I tried to tell them (in my limited spanish) I don´t think they know how much they gave us and how much more a blessing they were to me and all of us.  Pastor Luis, Rosa dn their family are amazing.  Such a living example of Christ´s love.  I´m sure others have talked about them but they are awesome and the way they lived giving so fully of everything of the very little they had materially, taking in Pedro and sheparding the community.  I wish you could all meet them, I´m not sure I have seen Christ´s love and joy exhibited and shared so fully.

It is amazing to meet folks who have so little by American standards (materially) and work so hard, often 12-14 hours a day of hard manual labor and yet exhibit such a joy and fulness of life.  I find myself wondering if they are the one´s who have it right.  Derek, Richard and I were discussing it last night on our nightly porch sitting.  Just taling about how much like how Nicaragua is and how Abangasca Norte felt like home the the people there like family.  They shared there time, prayers, children, laughter, tears, sweat…..with us and they and us were both blessed.  Well, I am rambling I guess.  I´m sure I will write a better blog post lter after I have processed through stuff.  But I feel like I could just stay here for good!

Well, I think we are going to the beach this afternoon for some relax and debrief time so that will be good.  I will also say how awesome it has been to ride in the back of a pick-up truck everyday!!  Man alive, I wish that was legal in the US..  OH!  Not sure if anyone else mentioned it but we also ate horse the other night!  Muy sabroso!  Oh and we all got to dance with pretty Nicaraguan girls!  Hey hey!  (The guys did, I mean, the girls danced with guys)  OK, anyway, thank you all for your prayers.  Got to go!  Ciao!! 

So today was our last day in the Abangasca Norte community - we put the finishing touches on the well (praise God, water was there, and prayers have been answered!) The community responded with such an attitude of thanksgiving. As the pastor shared his heart with our team and the community, I found myself with tears of joy for this gift to the people here. In perticular, Pedro - about my age, and dealing with Downs Syndrom (spelling?). Watching him pump clean water from the well and telling me how much he liked it, brought my heart great joy. The team as a whole found the day in an emotional limbo, between the end product of our physical work, and the fact that we had to say goodbye to MANY GOOD people we had met this week.

Other than that, we were served heaping portions of amazing chicken dumpling soup with tortillas today (Mom I got the recipe dont worry, but it is in spanish)

Tonight we are off to a meal on the beach. Take care, thank you for your prayers. Much Much love - praise God for grace, freedom, and clean water !

d

So, it’s me, Eric, and I’m going to write for all of us today. It’s 10pm local time, and we had devos this morning (thanks Dan Biddison… it was good) at 6:30. We’re having devos tomorrow morning at 5:30am due to the events of today.

First, an update on the hygiene side of things. I’ve heard from Gricel that she’s having a blast, and that teaching here is MUCH easier than teaching the team in our “practice sessions”. Julie is having a better time communicating, as the language barrier has been hard for her. Lisa is swimming like a fish… as it were… with the water thing… it’s a water trip?  Eh? 

Sorry, it’s been a long day.  The girls left the site at a little after 4pm today, so they’re fine and dandy, showered and spring fresh. I’ll get to the guys.  I’m blogging on the Wilson’s personal computer, still dressed in my work clothes and covered in filth.

SO… we get up, and the formation we’re in is just killing our progress. Inches an hour. We’ve got to get to 150 feet, and we’re only at like 115 this morning from yesterday, and that last 10-15 feet took AAAALLL afternoon. We make a little progress with one setup, then pull 100′ of pipe out to try an “experimental” bit, still in new blue paint, that just makes a mess and doesn’t help at all. Then we pull out 100′ of pipe, yes AGAIN, that we’d just put down, to try yet a third combination.  That worked well and got us to 140 feet. We decided to call it a day and enlarge the hole (reaming) using a third combination of new bits and reamers. Phil leaves to go get our casing, thinking we’d finish quickly, but this setup gets stuck on the bottom, for the better part of 45 minutes.  Painfully slow, up and down, up and down, stuck bit, up and down 6″ wait… up and down… wait… stuck… We thought we’d lost the well and would have to leave pipe down the hole.

After much praying, it FINALLY breaks free, we pull 100′ of pipe out AGAIN, change to our 4th combo of the day, and get started. This is slow going as well, and we’ve made essentially no progress in almost 2 hours. we’ve still got our target of 150′ almost 40′ away.  The last bit combo is going OK, but is hampered by a couple things. First, two members, who shall remain nameless here, of our team fill up the hydraulic engine with the wrong kind of fuel, which stops the entire process while the engine is drained and re-filled.  Then, another member of our team (who wasn’t totally at fault, it’s an experimental model, due for mass production in 2008 and needing some design improvements) BROKE THE DRILL RIG. Sheared the hydraulic control bracket right off the mast.

DONE.  Phil has to drive 20 minutes back to the storage container to get the manual rig, then 20 minutes back to the site… and gets stuck behind a funeral procession, who were all walking. Side to side down the middle of the road. DONE.  DONE….

SO, we finally finished pulling the 140′ of pipe out manually once Phil got back.  We’ll set our well at 140′ instead of 150′ but the jefe’s think it’ll be fine. 

We finshed pulling pipe under flashlight, and the one bare bulb that illuminated their church building.  They were going to have a service and were waiting for us to finish. With no time to change, we then proceed to this special party/service/dinner thing… in our work clothes, COVERED in mud and grease, stinking to high heaven…  and we sit through a wonderful dance troupe (walking in late, all nasty) which closes by inviting audience members to dance with them. I think our entire team danced at some point in front of an audence of about 40 people.  Some were better than others.

YIKES. 

Please pray tomorrow that this well gets done. The pastor and his family are beautiful people, and this would bless them SO much, not to mention the community it will serve. This well has covered every problem the manual covers and then some.  Prayer will do what we cannot. Please, pray…

Thanks again for the opportunity to come! and you should see the night sky here, covered in a blanket of stars…

AND.  Ask us when we get home about:

1. Hungry facial hair.
2. Losing one’s shirt to the latrine.
3. Forbidden dancing

This is not news to you, but…I´m in Nicaragua!!!! Okay, I just had to get that out of the way. What to write, what to write. There is so much I could say and so little I should say in one blog to you, because I know you don´t want to read forever, and I am already rambling. Still, not news to you. Okay. I begin, and I also apologize if I´m repeating what others have said. We don´t have any extra time on the internet beyond what we need to blog.

Being here in Nicaragua, the thing that has impressed upon me the most is not the remarkable poverty of the people in Abangasca Norte and the other villages outside of Leon. I am more impressed by what they do with what they have. Many houses are so small that the people who live in them must have to sleep on top of each other, yet most everyone has nice clothes that fit well. Today I saw a boy wearing a shirt with a Calvin Klein logo and a woman wearing a bright sky blue suit jacket and skirt, and I don´t think I´ve seen anyone wear the same thing twice yet. These are just clothes, but it´s surprising, nonethless.

The more I get to know the people here, the more I realize that their poverty does not make them so different. Playing with the kids, especially, seems to reinforce that. They don´t acknowledge that they are lacking anything. Uliser, one of the boys in the village, turned 10 today. We baked him a cake and gave all the kids who came to our training a piece. It was definitely a treat for them, and they looked forward to it all morning, but they waited very patiently before coming to us for their cake. I´m more aggressive about getting a piece of cake than any of those kids were. Of course, those who know me will know that´s not saying much, but trust me, they were patient.

Another thing I love about being here with the kids is that the language of play is universal. I´ve been remembering a little of some of my Spanish, so I can carry on some basic conversations with the kids, but there are times when we all forget that we can´t speak the same language. We get excited and just start talking and only then remember the language barrier between us. It´s not such a thick barrier. The first day we arrived, everyone was hesitant about making introductions. But all it took was a smile to win the kids over. Veronica, for example, I saw looking at me sideways the first day, I smiled at her, and she´s followed me around ever since. She´s actually a very vocal eight-year old who thinks she´s an adult, and I love her. I admit, she´s my favorite, but there are a number of close seconds.

In closing (I know I´ve been rambling too long because Eric is looking over my shoulder, so you must be tired, too), being here has been a very humbling experience. The biggest lesson I have learned here is that life is rich. God has given us all many blessings, even when life is only about doing what we need to survive. Anything beyond what we need to survive is either more blessing, distraction, or some odd combination of both. Buenas noches, everybody. And many buenos dias to come.

Wow what a day! This morning’s devotional was on 2Cor4:1-2,5-6 and the callenge was to reflect upon how we serve during this trip. One of the thoughts on verse 1 was realizing that during difficult times God is in control. Today for the drill team was a day to reflect upon this fact. We started to ream the hole out to 6 inches with the hope that we would race through the layer which stopped us on Saturday. We did manage to get past this layer, but ran into a layer of hard material, which forced us to change to a special grinding bit. Then the fun started.
I was thinking about titling this post “Unionized Labor” or “Dead Weight”. But in either case when we were drilling through the hard layer one person would work the drill and the rest of the team piled onto the rig to add weight to the drill bit being forced down. The photos will be worth waiting for them to get posted. The team was able to get through the hard layer and then went into something soft. We then spent hours trying to drill through the next layers, however the specail drill bit was working against us. At 4:30 PM we started to pull the pipe. The team is tired and worn, but we still have faith that God will enable us to complete this well.

W hen I was providing weight to the rig, Lew (the LWI team leader) was taking photographs of the kids and being swarmed by them. It was a flashback moment for me with the Aug trip. Granted the guy being swarmed by kids was me in Aug. I´m not sure if I should be thankful or jealous. Later in the day I was able to get a few shots (60-80) of the kids. The slow drilling provide a chance for the team to play frisbee and americian football with the kids. Lew brought these NERF footballs that wistle when they fly. The kids had a good time with them. We also broke out the bubbles and watched the kids smile and chase bubbles around. I´m always humbled when I see what fun these kids (of any age) have by the simple toy of bubbles.

A few prayer requests would be: 1. God enabling us to complete the well, 2. team safety, 3. Conversations with the locals, 4. change within the village physcial and spritual.

I am very glad for the difficulties that this trip has had as it reminds me that it is a different trip than Aug. I would hate to think that serving God could become routine. Well I will close out this blog so Lisa can fill you in about how the hygiene team did today!

You might not know it, but my (unofficial) nickname is “Pedro.” My wife sometimes calls me Pedro, my sister-in-law calls me Pedro, I sign notes to my wife as Pedro, and I use Pedro as the pen-name on my blog. The nickname has something to do with the movie Napoleon Dynamite, although I have never quite figured it out, since I don´t think I particularly resemble the “Pedro” character in that movie in any way other than my continuous efforts to bludgeon the Spanish language for laughs.

When we arrived at Abangasco Norte to begin work at the drillsite, several of the campesinos pitched in to help out with various odd jobs — filling our water barrels with water for the drill rig, helping shovel dirt and move drill cuttings as they floated up to the surface of the circulation pits, and keeping the surface of the circulation pits clean of leaves, sticks and other debris that could clog the water circulation system. I noticed that one of the villagers, a small, stockily built campesino, had taken on the task of skimming the surface of the water pits, and was doing so in an extremely eager and thorough fashion. I looked a little closer and noticed that this campesino had the short stature, low-set ears and slightly mongoloid facial features that are a hallmark of Downs Syndrome. I suppose it was a bit of a surprise to me — although it shouldn´t have been — that one of our villagers had Downs and that the campesinos allowed him to help us out (which he was doing with heart-melting eagerness). I made sure that I introduced myself to him before the end of the day, and you might have guessed by now that when I asked him his name, he responded “Pedro.”

The next morning, we returned to the village for church (there is no work on Sundays, after all). One of the missionaries had mentioned to us that it is very important to wear your nicest clothes for church, and our missions team thus wore our nice pants and collared shirts and left our work boots and hard hats at the mission home.

When we arrived, you can probably guess who was the first campesino to greet us. It was Pedro, wearing his finest white pants and a dirty, blue striped button-down Ralph Lauren shirt, complete with a white contrast collar and white French cuffs which he had somehow buttoned together with a pair of old cufflinks (although it was obvious that no one had showed him how to wear French cuffs). You couldn´t have avoided him if you´d wanted to. He gave each of us a big smile, a handshake, and a hug, and then planted himself in the front row for the church service.

The service started with a medley of Spanish praise songs, led by the pastor and a pianist playing an electic piano (don´t ask me where they got the piano, or for that matter, how they got an electrical box or the amplifier when their church has no walls — it´s beside the point). Up in the front row, Pedro was singing (if you could call it that) at the top of his lungs , stomping, and jumping up and down and pointing into the air. It was fascinating, heartwarming, a little sad, and definitely unusual. Another of my team members commented that he didn´t know whether to laugh or cry or do both.

But what was the most interesting to me about Pedro´s worship — and it was worship — is that nobody came up to stop him. No one asked him to quiet down because he was distracting. No one told him that he was embarrassing the village in front of their guests from America. No one tried to apologize for his antics. I sat there thinking that, if this had been church in America, an usher would have come up and gently escorted him out of the sanctuary, so that he wouldn´t disturb the worshipers, or make them uncomfortable, or cause a scene — or, heaven forbid, throw the service off pace. Quite simply, the villagers unwittingly gave us a profound demonstration of their understanding that man may look on the outward appearance, but God judges the heart.

I spend my days in a world where people constantly judge each other based on externals. Judges and magistrates judge the papers I file and the arguments I make. Partners judge my commitment to “the Firm.” My professional peers judge the way I dress, the way I speak, and the way I write. Everyone around me is constantly judging other people based on things that have absolutely no eternal value. Success is not measured by character, but rather by bank accounts, house size, and type of car driven.

Pedro probably has no idea that I or anyone else took this lesson away from today´s church service. But he did, and I have his face etched in my mind as a reminder. Oh, yeah, and I did help him button his French cuffs properly. It was the least I could do for another Pedro.