Song of Grace and Hope
Donna Bowling, June 15, 2017
“Humble People”
We finally met Yovette, the remarkable young woman from
Pearl Lagoon who acted as our guide and translator for our recent trip to
Nicaragua, when we arrived at the airport in Managua at dinnertime on
Wednesday, June 7th. La Jefa, our
mission team leader, and I had corresponded with Yovette for weeks as she made
arrangements for our scouting trip to look for a site for our third Living
Waters for the World (LWW) water purification system on the Atlantic coast of
Nicaragua, a place neither La Jefa nor
I had ever been. Mission teams from our church have been going to Nicaragua for
several years now, but we have worked in the Matagalpa region. Now we were looking
for a site in a new region as well as checking on the two systems we helped
install on previous trips.
Just getting to the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua is an
adventure. We flew on a small prop plane from Managua to Bluefields, and then took
a taxi to the dock, where our private panga
boat to Pearl Lagoon waited. Pangas are
water taxis that hold 20 people plus baggage. They have a roof, but are
otherwise open to the weather, which we learned could change quickly. From
Bluefields, we took an hour-long boat ride across Pearl Lagoon to the town of Pearl
Lagoon, where we spent three nights in a small, family owned bed and breakfast
and ate breakfast at the kitchen table. After breakfast our first morning in Pearl
Lagoon, we took another hour-long boat ride across the Lagoon and up the
Wawasang River to the village of Pueblo Nuevo, which Yovette had suggested as a
possible water installation site. The trip up the river reminded me of scenes
from the Humphrey Bogart movie, “The African Queen.” La Jefa joked she was not sure what purpose the life vest served.
If we ended up in the water and managed to survive the swim to shore, nothing
but rainforest awaited us.
When we arrived at Pueblo Nuevo, representatives of the water
committee waited for us at the dock. After a thirty-minute hike uphill through
the village, they showed us a well on the church grounds before we gathered
inside the tiny church with its wood plank walls and benches. The committee
members explained they wanted to use the church’s well as the water source for
the LWW system. They told us the closest place they could buy clean water was El
Rama, a town many kilometers away. These are poor people, who work hard long
hours everyday just to feed and clothe their families. They desperately wanted
clean water for their community, especially for their children. They understand
the health benefits of the clean water we too often take for granted.
After talking at length with them about what they would need
to do to prepare for an installation, including building a structure to house
the water system and recruiting operators for the system as well as educators
to teach adults and children about the importance of clean water and how to use
it effectively, we explained that our church would work for many months to
prepare to return to help them install the system. At the end of that
discussion, La Jefa and I looked at
each other and then agreed to work with them. We signed a covenant with the
water committee of Pueblo Nuevo documenting our mutual promises.
We all sat momentarily silent as we savored this new
relationship and contemplated the hard work ahead for all of us before we
celebrated with group photos and prayers. The smiles on the faces of these
normally stoic people, who live amid challenges we cannot comprehend, were more
than ample repayment for our long journey. As we hiked back to the boat for the
long, wet, bumpy ride back to Pearl Lagoon, Yovette told us the people of Pearl
Lagoon were humble people. Indeed they are, but I was humbled by their grit and
determination and deep faith and look forward to getting to know them better.
Grace and Peace,
Donna
