Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we had our Youth Bible Study, and Itzel brought soft drinks and bread. She said she just wanted to bless the group, and it really made me happy. I wish so badly others of the youth could see her example and follow it, rather than be jealous of her when she gets blessed for walking out her Christianity. In the afternoon about 20 of us biked 20-30 minutes back behind the church property and Quitanka to a place called La Presa. It is a river with a dam that allows for about a 30-foot deep swimming hole. We swam for about 2 hours in very cold water, which helped us beat the afternoon heat. We came back and I helped Bismark, Wilmor, and Ernesto finish digging the septic tank for the house and future public/church bathrooms. I spent time Tuesday night visiting with Cony and Jessica and watched Jurassic Park at their house. I got a mattress on the floor of one of the clinic rooms to sleep without mosquitoes now.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday
Jessalyn and Susan left this morning before the rest of us woke. Tommy, Linda, and Ben and Jennifer Hunter left this morning for a 2.5 day trip to the mountains in Matagalpa. Carlos and I bussed out with as much of my belongings the two of us could carry in the afternoon. I put away clothes and other personal, items into the clinic bodega, while Carlos started drama/dance practice. I biked to La Isla/Guanacastal to Rosa’s house and visited with her 4 youth aged kids. I talked with Maria about her college classes, and plans for next year. Yasmina and Glenda will both graduate from high school on Friday, and we talked about their future education plans. Monday night I spent time visiting with Franklin, Katherine, and Itzel in their house and then went back to sleep at the church with the 6 boys.
Moving Out, Moving In
Sunday morning after taking the kids to the bus stop at 7 AM and still half asleep from only getting 3 hours of sleep I went back to my place and began finished packing up my room. I let Dona Lutrecia that I would be out on Dec. 1 to move to Candelaria to keep from paying rent for December, and with Sunday night service this was my only time. I really wanted to sleep, but instead I got everything I've collected in 10 months of living there into 4 trunks, 3 moving boxes, and 3 suitcases. Sergio used the mission truck and helped me load the bed and back seat of it completely full and drive my stuff 2 blocks to the Barnum's house.
Tommy shared from Hebrews about faith in God in Sunday night service, and Jennifer Hunter sang How Great Thou Art acapella dueting with Ben on the refrain. We closed the service with Susan and Jessalyn saying their goodbyes and Jessalyn praying over the youth group. It was a well attended service and Daniel shared some new worship songs too.
We came back and had dinner together and said our goodbyes to Susan and Jessalyn with them leaving at 5:00 AM Monday morning for the airport. It was great to see the friendships and fun they brought to the village and the software training for our NewSong staff.
The Gables left Monday morning with the Hunters for a 3 day vacation/trip to the mountains, so without the truck I only took as much as Carlos and I could get in the taxi and bus of my stuff to Candelaria. Carlos will went back to Leon at 6:00 after drama/dance practice and I will be staying out here until Thursday evening. The house is not done, but I can lockup my belongings in the bodega and shower in the clinic.
Tommy shared from Hebrews about faith in God in Sunday night service, and Jennifer Hunter sang How Great Thou Art acapella dueting with Ben on the refrain. We closed the service with Susan and Jessalyn saying their goodbyes and Jessalyn praying over the youth group. It was a well attended service and Daniel shared some new worship songs too.
We came back and had dinner together and said our goodbyes to Susan and Jessalyn with them leaving at 5:00 AM Monday morning for the airport. It was great to see the friendships and fun they brought to the village and the software training for our NewSong staff.
The Gables left Monday morning with the Hunters for a 3 day vacation/trip to the mountains, so without the truck I only took as much as Carlos and I could get in the taxi and bus of my stuff to Candelaria. Carlos will went back to Leon at 6:00 after drama/dance practice and I will be staying out here until Thursday evening. The house is not done, but I can lockup my belongings in the bodega and shower in the clinic.
Article from The Tico Times
Sugarcane Worker Illness Investigated
Blake Schmidt - November 07 2008
CHICHIGALPA – One of thousands of sugarcane workers whose kidneys have stopped working in what has become a health epidemic in this agricultural region of Chinandega, Necdaly Peña lies on a rusty bed frame with no mattress, a sheet barely hiding his frail body and twiggy limbs. “You give your life to the sugar mill,” he said, referring to San Antonio, a sugar mill owned by sugar export giant Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited, a holding of the powerful Grupo Pellas. After working 14 years in the cane fields, Peña was let go in 2000 when the company’s annual blood exam showed he had signs of chronic renal disease. The company, one of Central America’s leading sugar producers with 11,000 hectares of sugarcane fields, hires workers for six-month terms and contract renewal is contingent upon test results for creatinine – a waste product in the urine that indicates kidney disease. The company doesn’t renew contracts for workers whose levels exceed 1.4 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), according to a complaint cane workers filed with the World Bank, which recently gave the company a $55 million loan to invest in alternative energy. Normal creatinine levels are between 0.6 and 1.2 mg/dl. Peña’s father worked for San Antonio Mill his whole life and died of the same disease that Peña suffers from today. Like many of the sick workers who developed the occupational illness while working for the San Antonio Mill, Peña, whose creatinine level is 3.8, no longer receives compensation from the company, and survives from the modest widow’s pension the company pays his mother.
“Tell the company to help me. I need to buy things but I can’t move,” he said, avoiding eye contact and glowing with sweat because the electricity that powers his fan had been cut. Over the past eight years, his kidneys have been slowly giving up on him. The five-stage disease begins with an increase in creatinine and a few other symptoms. Treatment can slow the deterioration of kidney malfunction, but over time, the kidneys – the body’s filters of toxins – begin to lose function, leading to myriad other diseases that range from malaise to anemia. In the fifth and final stage of the disease, patients must be hooked up to a dialysis machine or receive a kidney transplant to stay alive. “Life is hard,” Peña said, “I need help to survive.”
Chronic renal syndrome has become a defining fact of life in Chichigalpa and the surrounding communities, where the 118-year-old San Antonio Sugar Mill is the main employer. Widows of sugarcane workers dominate entire communities. Yet young boys continue to head out into the cane fields each season, despite the grim odds against them – as many as 3,500 cane workers have died of kidney disease here in the past decade, according to local cane worker unions. “A cycle of death is happening,” said Jason Glaser, a New York resident who is filming a documentary on cane worker deaths and is helping to support their families through a non-governmental organization in León. Chronic kidney disease is the seventh leading cause of death in Nicaragua. A 2005 Pan American Health Organization report on the growing kidney-disease “epidemic” in Nicaragua estimated there were as many as 1,000 sugarcane workers with the disease in Chinandega, concentrated in neighborhoods of sugarcane worker families. Between 1990 and 2003, mortality rates among those with the disease increased by 2.5 percent, mainly among male farmers between 35 and 49 in León, Chinandega, Granada and Rivas, with the highest death rates in Chinandega. The report estimates that 100,000 farmers exposed to occupational and environmental hazards have the disease. Even younger cane workers stoically accept bad results from the sugar mill’s seasonal blood exams as an announced visit from the grim reaper.
“I’m waiting for death” said 25-year-old Nelson Martínez, whose creatinine level is at 6.0, well above the 1.4 mg/dl limit. A mix of heavy farming chemical use, extreme poverty and extreme weather conditions are the main culprits of the disease, with some studies suggesting the presence of heavy metals in rural drinking wells. Contamination associated with aerial fumigation and irrigation runoff from manually-sprayed crops are widely suspected, according to Kristen Genovese, staff attorney of the U.S.-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Chinandega is also one of the driest parts of the country, and dehydration can also be a cause of chronic renal syndrome. Over the past three decades, Chinandega has become increasingly dry due to climate change, according to climatologist Jose Milan, with rainfall decreasing by 10 percent across the region. And it’s doesn’t seem to be getting any better (see separate story, N3). The way things are going, rain will continue to decrease, and temperatures here could increase by up to 5 degrees Celsius by 2090, according to climate experts. “Temperatures in Chinandega could reach 45 degrees, like the desert of Arizona,” Milan predicts. Yet the health epidemic may not be limited exclusively to cane workers, as was once thought. Epidemiologists at the National Autonomous University in León have found high prevalence of the disease in a Chinandega mining community as well. But in a country where there is no government-certified water testing lab, the cause of the epidemic has largely remained a mystery. Cane workers allege the company’s environmental impact studies have been kept a secret from the larger public. “You see a lot of ex-sugarcane workers who are sick. You start to ask the question: what is in the sugar cane?” said Genovese, one of several U.S. activists who have converged on Nicaragua in recent years to help cane workers seek solutions to the epidemic.
Deaf Ears
Part of what makes the sugarcane worker struggle in Nicaragua a unique endeavor is the convergence of an array of U.S. activists who have gotten behind their cause over the past few years, from Yale University forestry students to sister city project volunteers to film producers. In March of this year, Genovese’s CIEL and a Yale forestry student Olivia Kaplan helped a group of Chichigalpa cane workers file a complaint with the Ombudsman’s office of the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank that in 2006 approved a $55 million loan to increase Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited (NSEL) sugarcane production and fund construction of an ethanol plant. The workers filed a complaint after a lack of results in dealing with local authorities. “All the institutions act like they’re deaf,” said ex-cane worker Juan Salgado. In the IFC complaint, cane workers allege the sugar company is not in compliance with Nicaraguan law, and that the IFC has failed to meet its own environmental and social standards in its relationship with the company.
The 29-page complaint alleges that Nicaraguan Sugar Estates workers and community members who live next to its sugar fields are experiencing an epidemic of chronic kidney failure. The complaint alleges the company has interfered in the creation of independent cane-worker unions; pesticides have impacted indigenous lands; residents living near sugar cane fields suffer from respiratory illnesses related to burning practices at the harvest; company irrigation practices have depleted ground water; pesticides and runoff waters have contaminated local drinking water supplies; and former employees and community members who complain against the company have been harassed, persecuted and even jailed. Over the course of a month, The Nica Times tried unsuccessfully to coordinate a visit to the Sugar Mill’s clinic with company spokesman Ariel Granera. “Some people presented a complaint that the World Bank is contemplating within the framework that exists between the IFC and companies with which it works. Any time there’s a complaint – well-founded or not by people that represent the community or not – they follow up on it and come meet with us,” Granera told The Nica Times.
Amar Inamdar, of the IFC ombudsman’s office said that the World Bank entity is “currently assessing these issues with the cooperation of all parties.” The complaint says that as the company has grown, it “involuntarily” resettled workers living on its property to the community of La Candelaria, allegedly because the worker’s drinking water source on the property had been contaminated.
In the complaint, workers demand that Nicaraguan Sugar Estate Limited pay adequate pensions to ex-employees who suffer from occupational illnesses. Despite the long list of health and social concerns at the mill, the sugar company failed to make public its social and environmental assessment that the IFC required for its ethanol plant production to begin, according to the complaint. Genovese said the company has responded positively to the complaint and is cooperating with IFC compliance officers.
“It’s a pretty good case. I just can’t say with any certainty what’s going to come of it. It’s not a perfect process. We don’t have a lot of power to force them to do anything really. There’s a huge power imbalance here and the (ombudsman’s) office is meant to somewhat balance that. I really hope we can get some remedies for the victims and the families affected by the operations in the mill,” she said.
The Sandinista government is also promising to help cane workers at the country’s largest mills, including San Antonio. Nicaragua’s Ombudsman’s office announced last month it will sit down with cane worker leaders to negotiate pay that they are owed from when the government of President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1996) agreed to pay cane workers 25 percent of their assets after privatizing cane fields and mills that the Sandinista government had nationalized in the 1980s.
“Those sugar mills were state-owned in the ’80s. When Violeta won, we were stripped of that,” said Marco Sandino, head of the San Antonio Sugar Mill cane worker union. It’s not yet clear where the Sandinista government will find the money to compensate the workers.
Life in the Cane Fields
In the community of La Isla, which borders sugarcane fields and a stream that is potentially contaminated, Ursula Aguilar, 42, sits rocking in her chair in a dirt yard shared with a pig. “Once they turn up sick, they’re treated like a piece of scrap,” she says of cane workers such as her late husband. Aguilar is one of some 80 widows of cane workers in this tiny community. Her husband died of chronic renal disease after cutting cane for 17 years. “Doctors gave him two months to live, but he lasted eight,” she recalls with pride. As a mother of eight, the San Antonio mill paid her a widow’s pension of about $80 a month after her husband died. Because two of her kids dropped out of school to cut cane, the pension was cut in half. She now makes tortillas, raises pigs and washes clothes to get by. “We’re just surviving, sort of,” says Aguilar, as seemingly endless rows of sugarcane tremble in the breeze across the stream behind her. She fears all her kids will end up working in the cane fields because “that’s all there is.” Two of her sons who worked in sugarcane now suffer from the disease that took her husband and her grandmother. She is aware solutions exist for chronic renal disease victims, but they’re beyond her income level. “Dialysis costs $200 a day. We can’t afford it, so instead we’re waiting for the will of God. Out here we’re dying due to a lack of money,” she says.
________________________________________
The Tico Times is Central America’s Leading English-Language Newspaper, covering news, business, tourism and cultural developments in Costa Rica and Central America.The award-winning weekly has been reporting on the region from San Jose, Costa Rica, since 1971 and became a member of the Inter-American Press Association in 1989.TT’s Online Edition provides a brief capsule of stories appearing every Friday in our PRINT EDITION. And in response to reader demands, we now offer a complete DATABASE of back issues and online CLASSIFIEDS. Call us at 258-1558 inside Costa Rica or from the U.S. 011 (506) 258-1558 or fax us at 233-6378 inside Costa Rica or from the U.S. 011 (506) 233-6378, email: info@ticotimes.net
Blake Schmidt - November 07 2008
CHICHIGALPA – One of thousands of sugarcane workers whose kidneys have stopped working in what has become a health epidemic in this agricultural region of Chinandega, Necdaly Peña lies on a rusty bed frame with no mattress, a sheet barely hiding his frail body and twiggy limbs. “You give your life to the sugar mill,” he said, referring to San Antonio, a sugar mill owned by sugar export giant Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited, a holding of the powerful Grupo Pellas. After working 14 years in the cane fields, Peña was let go in 2000 when the company’s annual blood exam showed he had signs of chronic renal disease. The company, one of Central America’s leading sugar producers with 11,000 hectares of sugarcane fields, hires workers for six-month terms and contract renewal is contingent upon test results for creatinine – a waste product in the urine that indicates kidney disease. The company doesn’t renew contracts for workers whose levels exceed 1.4 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), according to a complaint cane workers filed with the World Bank, which recently gave the company a $55 million loan to invest in alternative energy. Normal creatinine levels are between 0.6 and 1.2 mg/dl. Peña’s father worked for San Antonio Mill his whole life and died of the same disease that Peña suffers from today. Like many of the sick workers who developed the occupational illness while working for the San Antonio Mill, Peña, whose creatinine level is 3.8, no longer receives compensation from the company, and survives from the modest widow’s pension the company pays his mother.
“Tell the company to help me. I need to buy things but I can’t move,” he said, avoiding eye contact and glowing with sweat because the electricity that powers his fan had been cut. Over the past eight years, his kidneys have been slowly giving up on him. The five-stage disease begins with an increase in creatinine and a few other symptoms. Treatment can slow the deterioration of kidney malfunction, but over time, the kidneys – the body’s filters of toxins – begin to lose function, leading to myriad other diseases that range from malaise to anemia. In the fifth and final stage of the disease, patients must be hooked up to a dialysis machine or receive a kidney transplant to stay alive. “Life is hard,” Peña said, “I need help to survive.”
Chronic renal syndrome has become a defining fact of life in Chichigalpa and the surrounding communities, where the 118-year-old San Antonio Sugar Mill is the main employer. Widows of sugarcane workers dominate entire communities. Yet young boys continue to head out into the cane fields each season, despite the grim odds against them – as many as 3,500 cane workers have died of kidney disease here in the past decade, according to local cane worker unions. “A cycle of death is happening,” said Jason Glaser, a New York resident who is filming a documentary on cane worker deaths and is helping to support their families through a non-governmental organization in León. Chronic kidney disease is the seventh leading cause of death in Nicaragua. A 2005 Pan American Health Organization report on the growing kidney-disease “epidemic” in Nicaragua estimated there were as many as 1,000 sugarcane workers with the disease in Chinandega, concentrated in neighborhoods of sugarcane worker families. Between 1990 and 2003, mortality rates among those with the disease increased by 2.5 percent, mainly among male farmers between 35 and 49 in León, Chinandega, Granada and Rivas, with the highest death rates in Chinandega. The report estimates that 100,000 farmers exposed to occupational and environmental hazards have the disease. Even younger cane workers stoically accept bad results from the sugar mill’s seasonal blood exams as an announced visit from the grim reaper.
“I’m waiting for death” said 25-year-old Nelson Martínez, whose creatinine level is at 6.0, well above the 1.4 mg/dl limit. A mix of heavy farming chemical use, extreme poverty and extreme weather conditions are the main culprits of the disease, with some studies suggesting the presence of heavy metals in rural drinking wells. Contamination associated with aerial fumigation and irrigation runoff from manually-sprayed crops are widely suspected, according to Kristen Genovese, staff attorney of the U.S.-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Chinandega is also one of the driest parts of the country, and dehydration can also be a cause of chronic renal syndrome. Over the past three decades, Chinandega has become increasingly dry due to climate change, according to climatologist Jose Milan, with rainfall decreasing by 10 percent across the region. And it’s doesn’t seem to be getting any better (see separate story, N3). The way things are going, rain will continue to decrease, and temperatures here could increase by up to 5 degrees Celsius by 2090, according to climate experts. “Temperatures in Chinandega could reach 45 degrees, like the desert of Arizona,” Milan predicts. Yet the health epidemic may not be limited exclusively to cane workers, as was once thought. Epidemiologists at the National Autonomous University in León have found high prevalence of the disease in a Chinandega mining community as well. But in a country where there is no government-certified water testing lab, the cause of the epidemic has largely remained a mystery. Cane workers allege the company’s environmental impact studies have been kept a secret from the larger public. “You see a lot of ex-sugarcane workers who are sick. You start to ask the question: what is in the sugar cane?” said Genovese, one of several U.S. activists who have converged on Nicaragua in recent years to help cane workers seek solutions to the epidemic.
Deaf Ears
Part of what makes the sugarcane worker struggle in Nicaragua a unique endeavor is the convergence of an array of U.S. activists who have gotten behind their cause over the past few years, from Yale University forestry students to sister city project volunteers to film producers. In March of this year, Genovese’s CIEL and a Yale forestry student Olivia Kaplan helped a group of Chichigalpa cane workers file a complaint with the Ombudsman’s office of the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank that in 2006 approved a $55 million loan to increase Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited (NSEL) sugarcane production and fund construction of an ethanol plant. The workers filed a complaint after a lack of results in dealing with local authorities. “All the institutions act like they’re deaf,” said ex-cane worker Juan Salgado. In the IFC complaint, cane workers allege the sugar company is not in compliance with Nicaraguan law, and that the IFC has failed to meet its own environmental and social standards in its relationship with the company.
The 29-page complaint alleges that Nicaraguan Sugar Estates workers and community members who live next to its sugar fields are experiencing an epidemic of chronic kidney failure. The complaint alleges the company has interfered in the creation of independent cane-worker unions; pesticides have impacted indigenous lands; residents living near sugar cane fields suffer from respiratory illnesses related to burning practices at the harvest; company irrigation practices have depleted ground water; pesticides and runoff waters have contaminated local drinking water supplies; and former employees and community members who complain against the company have been harassed, persecuted and even jailed. Over the course of a month, The Nica Times tried unsuccessfully to coordinate a visit to the Sugar Mill’s clinic with company spokesman Ariel Granera. “Some people presented a complaint that the World Bank is contemplating within the framework that exists between the IFC and companies with which it works. Any time there’s a complaint – well-founded or not by people that represent the community or not – they follow up on it and come meet with us,” Granera told The Nica Times.
Amar Inamdar, of the IFC ombudsman’s office said that the World Bank entity is “currently assessing these issues with the cooperation of all parties.” The complaint says that as the company has grown, it “involuntarily” resettled workers living on its property to the community of La Candelaria, allegedly because the worker’s drinking water source on the property had been contaminated.
In the complaint, workers demand that Nicaraguan Sugar Estate Limited pay adequate pensions to ex-employees who suffer from occupational illnesses. Despite the long list of health and social concerns at the mill, the sugar company failed to make public its social and environmental assessment that the IFC required for its ethanol plant production to begin, according to the complaint. Genovese said the company has responded positively to the complaint and is cooperating with IFC compliance officers.
“It’s a pretty good case. I just can’t say with any certainty what’s going to come of it. It’s not a perfect process. We don’t have a lot of power to force them to do anything really. There’s a huge power imbalance here and the (ombudsman’s) office is meant to somewhat balance that. I really hope we can get some remedies for the victims and the families affected by the operations in the mill,” she said.
The Sandinista government is also promising to help cane workers at the country’s largest mills, including San Antonio. Nicaragua’s Ombudsman’s office announced last month it will sit down with cane worker leaders to negotiate pay that they are owed from when the government of President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1996) agreed to pay cane workers 25 percent of their assets after privatizing cane fields and mills that the Sandinista government had nationalized in the 1980s.
“Those sugar mills were state-owned in the ’80s. When Violeta won, we were stripped of that,” said Marco Sandino, head of the San Antonio Sugar Mill cane worker union. It’s not yet clear where the Sandinista government will find the money to compensate the workers.
Life in the Cane Fields
In the community of La Isla, which borders sugarcane fields and a stream that is potentially contaminated, Ursula Aguilar, 42, sits rocking in her chair in a dirt yard shared with a pig. “Once they turn up sick, they’re treated like a piece of scrap,” she says of cane workers such as her late husband. Aguilar is one of some 80 widows of cane workers in this tiny community. Her husband died of chronic renal disease after cutting cane for 17 years. “Doctors gave him two months to live, but he lasted eight,” she recalls with pride. As a mother of eight, the San Antonio mill paid her a widow’s pension of about $80 a month after her husband died. Because two of her kids dropped out of school to cut cane, the pension was cut in half. She now makes tortillas, raises pigs and washes clothes to get by. “We’re just surviving, sort of,” says Aguilar, as seemingly endless rows of sugarcane tremble in the breeze across the stream behind her. She fears all her kids will end up working in the cane fields because “that’s all there is.” Two of her sons who worked in sugarcane now suffer from the disease that took her husband and her grandmother. She is aware solutions exist for chronic renal disease victims, but they’re beyond her income level. “Dialysis costs $200 a day. We can’t afford it, so instead we’re waiting for the will of God. Out here we’re dying due to a lack of money,” she says.
________________________________________
The Tico Times is Central America’s Leading English-Language Newspaper, covering news, business, tourism and cultural developments in Costa Rica and Central America.The award-winning weekly has been reporting on the region from San Jose, Costa Rica, since 1971 and became a member of the Inter-American Press Association in 1989.TT’s Online Edition provides a brief capsule of stories appearing every Friday in our PRINT EDITION. And in response to reader demands, we now offer a complete DATABASE of back issues and online CLASSIFIEDS. Call us at 258-1558 inside Costa Rica or from the U.S. 011 (506) 258-1558 or fax us at 233-6378 inside Costa Rica or from the U.S. 011 (506) 233-6378, email: info@ticotimes.net
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Concert in Leon
Last night Scarleth and I brought 30 of of youth into Leon and kept them overnight. We went to a Christian concert at the baseball stadium in Leon. Oscar and his wife, Scarleth's sister and son, Sergio and Francis, Tommy and Linda, and Susan and Jessalyn were all with us, so we filled up a decent section of the stadium.
Redimi2 (red-e-me-dos), a hip-hop/reggaeton Christian rapper opened for Alex Campos. Both artists were very different but our youth group and the packed baseball field and stadium loved both parts of the evening. We got there just after 7:00 PM to hear Redimi2's first song and stayed through Alex Campos encore. We got out of the stadium at 11:00 PM and walked a 6-8 blocks to the places we had to sleep. Scarleth kept the 18 girls, and Daniel and I were with the 12 boys.
The kids would not go to sleep, even though we made it very clear we were leaving at 7:00 AM Sunday morning. I think the boys finally feel asleep about 3:00 AM, but were awake at 5:30, and I heard the girls did about the same.
The concert was a great blessing, and all the kids enjoyed their time there. Scarleth and I did have to deal with some attitudes and younger kids not listening, so please pray for our youth to grow up. I love doing things with them outside of the village, but it is hard to stay patient with them all the time. Pray for these kids to grow up, and also for Scarleth and I to practice patience with each of them.
Redimi2 (red-e-me-dos), a hip-hop/reggaeton Christian rapper opened for Alex Campos. Both artists were very different but our youth group and the packed baseball field and stadium loved both parts of the evening. We got there just after 7:00 PM to hear Redimi2's first song and stayed through Alex Campos encore. We got out of the stadium at 11:00 PM and walked a 6-8 blocks to the places we had to sleep. Scarleth kept the 18 girls, and Daniel and I were with the 12 boys.
The kids would not go to sleep, even though we made it very clear we were leaving at 7:00 AM Sunday morning. I think the boys finally feel asleep about 3:00 AM, but were awake at 5:30, and I heard the girls did about the same.
The concert was a great blessing, and all the kids enjoyed their time there. Scarleth and I did have to deal with some attitudes and younger kids not listening, so please pray for our youth to grow up. I love doing things with them outside of the village, but it is hard to stay patient with them all the time. Pray for these kids to grow up, and also for Scarleth and I to practice patience with each of them.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Nicaragua Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to all...sorry this is a day late, I have been busy getting things ready for my move to the village...I had planned to move as soon as I got back but not everything was ready at the house...it is really coming along now and will be ready very soon...I am moving out of Leon Sunday and will start Dec 1 being on the land full time.
I hope each of you are having a great time with your family this holiday weekend, and have plenty to be thankful for.
Things I am thankful for happening here this holiday season are:
Thursday 27: Jose Ramon Rodriguez, one of the leaders in my youth group, had his high school graduation yesterday, he invited Tommy, Linda, Julia, and I to be there with him and his mom and then to the graduating class after graudation celebration.
Friday 28: We are heading out at 2 with Carlos Zapato, a 19 -year old from Leon, who has been helping me with the youth the past 2 weeks...He leads drama, dance, and enjoys the time with the youth. He has a heart to serve by ourside in our youth ministry totally volunteer. He is my most recent blessing, and I thank God for him.
Saturday 29: I am using youth funds to bring 35-40 of our 14-22 year olds in for a Alex Campos and Remini2 concert at the baseball stadium in Leon. Both artists are well known Spanish Contemporary/Reggaeton Christian groups, they wil spend the night in Leon and head back Sunday morning for Sunday school. Pray that this event will touch our youth in a special way and that the Holy Spirit will get them on fire for our new weekly youth service beginning next Friday!
Sunday 30: I will be packing everything and moving out of the place I have stayed 9 months, to be with my youth group full time. I am thankful for the place I have had in Leon, and also for the great opportunity ahead being an influence and friend living with the people I have been sent here to serve.
Happy Thanksgiving, I love you, May God bless your family and give you safe travel this weekend.
Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support.
Jim Bob "Diego" Norman
John 15:13
I hope each of you are having a great time with your family this holiday weekend, and have plenty to be thankful for.
Things I am thankful for happening here this holiday season are:
Thursday 27: Jose Ramon Rodriguez, one of the leaders in my youth group, had his high school graduation yesterday, he invited Tommy, Linda, Julia, and I to be there with him and his mom and then to the graduating class after graudation celebration.
Friday 28: We are heading out at 2 with Carlos Zapato, a 19 -year old from Leon, who has been helping me with the youth the past 2 weeks...He leads drama, dance, and enjoys the time with the youth. He has a heart to serve by ourside in our youth ministry totally volunteer. He is my most recent blessing, and I thank God for him.
Saturday 29: I am using youth funds to bring 35-40 of our 14-22 year olds in for a Alex Campos and Remini2 concert at the baseball stadium in Leon. Both artists are well known Spanish Contemporary/Reggaeton Christian groups, they wil spend the night in Leon and head back Sunday morning for Sunday school. Pray that this event will touch our youth in a special way and that the Holy Spirit will get them on fire for our new weekly youth service beginning next Friday!
Sunday 30: I will be packing everything and moving out of the place I have stayed 9 months, to be with my youth group full time. I am thankful for the place I have had in Leon, and also for the great opportunity ahead being an influence and friend living with the people I have been sent here to serve.
Happy Thanksgiving, I love you, May God bless your family and give you safe travel this weekend.
Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support.
Jim Bob "Diego" Norman
John 15:13
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Summer Break Begins
Summer break has begun for the kids and the past week has been fun, but tiring. The bible study Tuesday and Thursday mornings numbers are up, with no one missing for morning classes. Lots of people are around the land helping with our projects. We are hoping to have the youth house complete and the clinic completely finished by the end of the year. The men are working everyday on the clinic, and the boys on the youth house.
Tommy finished his mini-series on Forgiveness Sunday night and started a new series on Faith & Trust this past Wednesday. His longtime newlywed, friend, Ben Hunter, came in this past Saturday with his wife Jennifer. Ben, Mincho here, has been an awesome part of God's work here. He is the main reason we have a church shelter in Candelaria, and helped us with our last youth retreat. They have enjoyed visiting with some of the youth he met and has kept up with since his first trip here 6 years ago.
Susan Hall and Jessalyn Moore are also with us this week from Atlanta City Church in Georgia. Jessalyn came with the group of 6 doing dramas this past summer and has adopted Marylaysi Vega. She came to see her and help her family with her preschool gradution coming up next Friday. Susan does our accounting work from ACC and is here to serve and visit in the community as well as help explain PowerChurch software better to Oscar and myself. We have taken time this week to work on finances with her, and will practice more as the week continues. The kids absolutely love playing with both of these young ladies.
We are also staying busy with graduations this week. There are graduations for children after preschool, 6th grade, and 5th year high school. Carlos is having dance and drama practice twice a week, as we are getting ready to start a weekly youth service Friday nights with more of a church service feeling.
Tommy finished his mini-series on Forgiveness Sunday night and started a new series on Faith & Trust this past Wednesday. His longtime newlywed, friend, Ben Hunter, came in this past Saturday with his wife Jennifer. Ben, Mincho here, has been an awesome part of God's work here. He is the main reason we have a church shelter in Candelaria, and helped us with our last youth retreat. They have enjoyed visiting with some of the youth he met and has kept up with since his first trip here 6 years ago.
Susan Hall and Jessalyn Moore are also with us this week from Atlanta City Church in Georgia. Jessalyn came with the group of 6 doing dramas this past summer and has adopted Marylaysi Vega. She came to see her and help her family with her preschool gradution coming up next Friday. Susan does our accounting work from ACC and is here to serve and visit in the community as well as help explain PowerChurch software better to Oscar and myself. We have taken time this week to work on finances with her, and will practice more as the week continues. The kids absolutely love playing with both of these young ladies.
We are also staying busy with graduations this week. There are graduations for children after preschool, 6th grade, and 5th year high school. Carlos is having dance and drama practice twice a week, as we are getting ready to start a weekly youth service Friday nights with more of a church service feeling.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Yo te Extranare
here is the video I made and showed at Sunday service to honor Eddy's family
double click the video to view in full screen
Watch All Videos Here
below are the lyrics to the song used for the video
Tercer Cielo-Yo Te Extranare
I will miss you, take it as insurance
They were beautiful, so many people and the moments that I lived with you
The details, the small ones, things that seemed not so important for you
They are those who invade my mind the most when I remember you
I hope he could return for some time
To meet again
To give you a hug
And to never come undone
I understand that your time has come
That God has called you, to be next to you
This is the way he wanted it, but I never thought
That it would hurt so much
Do not cry for me
I am in a place full of light
Where peace exists, where there is no wickedness
Where I can rest
Do not cry for me
It is beautiful here like I never imagined
I want you to be happy, and know that you are fine
And when it is time for you to divide, I hope to see you here
I will miss you, take it as insurance
Now knowing that the life can end in a second
That life is as dust; it can scatter in a moment
Nothing can be brought here only what exists inside yourself.
I hope he could return the time
To meet again
To give you a hug
And to never come undone
More I understand that your time comes
That god has called you, to be next to you
This way he wanted it, but I never thought
That was hurting so much
Do not cry already for me
I am in a place full of light
Where peace exists, where there is no nastiness
Where I can rest
Do not cry for me
They are beautiful here never imagine
I want that you are happy, that you are fine
And when I had you to divide, I hope to see you here
I WILL MISS YOU TAKE IT AS INSURANCE...
double click the video to view in full screen
Watch All Videos Here
below are the lyrics to the song used for the video
Tercer Cielo-Yo Te Extranare
I will miss you, take it as insurance
They were beautiful, so many people and the moments that I lived with you
The details, the small ones, things that seemed not so important for you
They are those who invade my mind the most when I remember you
I hope he could return for some time
To meet again
To give you a hug
And to never come undone
I understand that your time has come
That God has called you, to be next to you
This is the way he wanted it, but I never thought
That it would hurt so much
Do not cry for me
I am in a place full of light
Where peace exists, where there is no wickedness
Where I can rest
Do not cry for me
It is beautiful here like I never imagined
I want you to be happy, and know that you are fine
And when it is time for you to divide, I hope to see you here
I will miss you, take it as insurance
Now knowing that the life can end in a second
That life is as dust; it can scatter in a moment
Nothing can be brought here only what exists inside yourself.
I hope he could return the time
To meet again
To give you a hug
And to never come undone
More I understand that your time comes
That god has called you, to be next to you
This way he wanted it, but I never thought
That was hurting so much
Do not cry already for me
I am in a place full of light
Where peace exists, where there is no nastiness
Where I can rest
Do not cry for me
They are beautiful here never imagine
I want that you are happy, that you are fine
And when I had you to divide, I hope to see you here
I WILL MISS YOU TAKE IT AS INSURANCE...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Linda Returns & Weekend Plans
Tommy and Joanna Sellers left late Thursday night after the funeral to go and get Linda at the 
aiport. They are spending a few days in Granada over the weekend, and then picking up their friend Ben Hunter, and his wife from the airport Saturday. They got to Granada very early Friday morning and Linda emailled me that she is happy to be back and will see the rest of us Sunday.
Yesterday afternoon, Julia, Carlos, and I went out on the bus to be with the youth. Julia is a Davidson graduate that has been down
here since October 1st helping us with the mission and enjoying her time visiting the country. She will be leaving December 17. I can't remember if I had mentioned her in earlier posts. Carlos is a 20 year old from Leon that is going to be helping us with the youth. He knows Oscar's brother and others that have helped with drama. He wants to teach dance and drama and see our Friday night activities have a stronger impact when we start them back up in December.
All of the high school aged students finished their school year these past 3 days, and the
preschool-6th grade students will be out by next Friday. We went out for the afternoon and had a meeting with our future youth event planning team, and Carlos shared a dance and drama with them that we think we will use in our first activity. Daniel and Yahaira also came over from Bethel, as they will be helping me in the youth ministry.
I brought Marvin Vega back with us to stay the night and Saturday in Leon, because when i got my hair braided just before leaving for the states I promised him I'd take him to have his braided the next time I went. When we got into Leon, 2 other youth aged boys that help in the garden were here. Angel and Ceaser had been with the agricultural engineer at a large farm and decided to stay the night with Marvin and I. We went and got our hair done then played some video games. Today we walked around Leon because none of them have ever visted the city.
Yahaira, Julia, the boys, and I will all be leaving aorund 2 in the afternoon for the village. We will
pass time with more of the youth and then have evening service. Julia is going to to spend her first night in the village with plans to sleep at Itzel's house. We will come back to Leon in the morning to see Tommy and Linda, and meet Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hunter. Then our whole team will be going out for Tommy to finish preaching his third night on the mini-series of forgiveness.
Hope you all have a great weekend and special Thanksgiving next week. For my family members, sorry I will miss you Thursday but know that I love each of you and I'm very thankful for all of your support and love for my mission here!
In Christ,
Jim Bob / Diego
John 15:13
aiport. They are spending a few days in Granada over the weekend, and then picking up their friend Ben Hunter, and his wife from the airport Saturday. They got to Granada very early Friday morning and Linda emailled me that she is happy to be back and will see the rest of us Sunday.Yesterday afternoon, Julia, Carlos, and I went out on the bus to be with the youth. Julia is a Davidson graduate that has been down
here since October 1st helping us with the mission and enjoying her time visiting the country. She will be leaving December 17. I can't remember if I had mentioned her in earlier posts. Carlos is a 20 year old from Leon that is going to be helping us with the youth. He knows Oscar's brother and others that have helped with drama. He wants to teach dance and drama and see our Friday night activities have a stronger impact when we start them back up in December.All of the high school aged students finished their school year these past 3 days, and the
preschool-6th grade students will be out by next Friday. We went out for the afternoon and had a meeting with our future youth event planning team, and Carlos shared a dance and drama with them that we think we will use in our first activity. Daniel and Yahaira also came over from Bethel, as they will be helping me in the youth ministry.I brought Marvin Vega back with us to stay the night and Saturday in Leon, because when i got my hair braided just before leaving for the states I promised him I'd take him to have his braided the next time I went. When we got into Leon, 2 other youth aged boys that help in the garden were here. Angel and Ceaser had been with the agricultural engineer at a large farm and decided to stay the night with Marvin and I. We went and got our hair done then played some video games. Today we walked around Leon because none of them have ever visted the city.
Yahaira, Julia, the boys, and I will all be leaving aorund 2 in the afternoon for the village. We will
pass time with more of the youth and then have evening service. Julia is going to to spend her first night in the village with plans to sleep at Itzel's house. We will come back to Leon in the morning to see Tommy and Linda, and meet Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hunter. Then our whole team will be going out for Tommy to finish preaching his third night on the mini-series of forgiveness.Hope you all have a great weekend and special Thanksgiving next week. For my family members, sorry I will miss you Thursday but know that I love each of you and I'm very thankful for all of your support and love for my mission here!
In Christ,
Jim Bob / Diego
John 15:13
Friday, November 21, 2008
Eddy Garcia's Funeral
Church numbers were down during Wednesday night service, with most people at the Garcia house. Daniel led worship and Tommy preached, then we all went to see Eddy. He passed away around 8 pm Wednesday, November 19. Over a hundred people from his family, church, and community attended the wake. The guys that I sleep with at the church and I left around midnight, but some people stayed until 4 and 5 the next morning.
I went along with some of the working boys and key men of the church to the cemetary a few hundred yards behind the church property at 8 am to help dig his grave and lay the block for the casket. Tommy. Scarleth, and Sergio helped get a casket from Leon and run other errands for the family.
Tommy led a funeral service at 3 in the afternoon that was very much attended. Our need for more plastic chairs was very evident. Friends and family alike shared there thoughts of Eddy and grief for his younger sisters and family. It was sad to see him go at such a young age, but I think everyone feels that it was time, and are happy to know that he will no longer be suffering here.His neighbor, and one of our prayer leaders in the chuch, Jairo Salvari, shared some scripture and words at the grave side service. We love him and will surely miss him. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they cope with this loss.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Cony's 15th Birthday
This is the photostory I shared during Cony's Birthday Celebration and below you can see pictures and read about the event.
double click the video to view in full screen
Watch All Videos Here
I used some youth group money I had saved since we have held off on our Friday night activites to host a great celebration for Cony Vasquez last night, Tuesday, November 18. In Latin American culture, a girl's 15th birthday, or quinceanera, is recognized as the day she becomes a woman, and is a bigger celebration than weddings, or almost any other life milestone.
Over the weekend, I spoke with her family and friends to see if they had any plans, and they said they hadn't planned anything, and didn't think they could do anything financially. They helped give me some ideas, and together we put together an activity that we feeled honored Cony.
Her family rented the pink dress, common for a quinceanera, and her friends helped us decorate the church. We had curtains, balloons, and crepe paper attached to the perlinies. Tommy picked her family up in the truck and brought them down where all the friends were waiting. Tommy, Daniel, and I all danced with her, and then invited others to join in. Friends shared special words and songs with Cony, and I showed a video of pictures and video clips gathered of Cony.
We had a pinata, cake, soft drinks, and cookies at the church befor
e loading the truck and heading into Chichigalpa. Cony had told us even if she wasn't having a party she just wanted to spend the evening in the parkl with her friends. So a group of a little over 20 went to Parque Ruben Dario and enjoyed ice cream and the new double decker Eskimo, and time together.
It was a fun night for Cony, her family, friends, and all of us from Leon. Please continue to keep the Garcia family in your prayers. Eddy is still in bed, with many friends around praying for him and supporting his family.
Pics of Cony's party coming soon!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Prayer Request
PLEASE pray for Eddy Garcia, a 14 year old boy in our youth group who has been very sick for years. He has Aplastic Anemia, a condition where bone marrow does not produce su
fficient new cells to replenish blood cells. It has kept him between hospitals in Managua, and the village for the past few years. It has been a real struggle for his grandmother, who takes care of him, his younger sister, and cousin. The transportation costs and medical bills are a constant struggle for his family, and he often cannot leave home.
fficient new cells to replenish blood cells. It has kept him between hospitals in Managua, and the village for the past few years. It has been a real struggle for his grandmother, who takes care of him, his younger sister, and cousin. The transportation costs and medical bills are a constant struggle for his family, and he often cannot leave home.A year ago he died in the hospital and came back to life. This past weekend he has been in a hospital in Managua and they sent him home to Candelaria after the doctors said there is nothing more they can do. His family, friends, and church are all praying for him and his family as it appears he will be going to be with the Lord soon.
Please join with us in praying for the Garcia family, and Eddy specifically.
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