A Look Back: Journaling Day 4 in Bluefields

My journal for day 4 has arrived. As Stephanie said, we had some difficulty with the diet yesterday, but we're redoubling our efforts. We made more rice pudding, this time with coconut milk. I also made a curry & chickpeas concoction that we'll eat with rice tonight. Thanks for your continued reading, here is my journal entry from day 4.

Wednesday, August 7th: If yesterday was hump day, this day was even longer. We had things to do from about 8:30 until at least 5, followed by an extended trip around the edges of town. We saw human suffering, we saw human dignity, and we saw the majesty of nature.

The morning started at the church, where we helped prepare for the day. Stephanie and I worked on painting the welds while Sixto welded further down the line. It was hot, messy work, but by the end of the day, Sixto completed the roof!

We helped serve food, we played with kids, and we did a pinata with them! One church member makes pinata as a business. The kids absolutely loved it. I got to hold the pinata! We separated the kids by size/age into 3 groups and shepherded them into the Sunday School building one group at a time. Kids swinging at the pinatas were hilarious, but the best part was the dog-piles of kids writhing on floor for the last piece of candy.  It was so touching that they shared their candy with any kid that didn't get candy.

In the mid-afternoon, we had a session specifically with the parents. It was basically a church service, with games before (adults running and popping balloons! ) and cupcakes after. The service was a chance for Pastor Ed to talk to the parents, some of whom don't feed or adequately care for their kids.

After the cleanup, we headed to a restaurant that jutted out into the bay. Fantastic view! We all got juice, told jokes, and soaked up the beauty. Some new friends came, too, so we got to get to know them better.

We dragged home around 7, ate, and relaxed until porch time. In porch time, we discussed how to propagate the change we're involved in here, rather than letting it simply sit in our minds as a memory. After that, BED!

Hindsight View: Something that came out of the porch time is this compassion diet that you're reading about and possibly experiencing.  When we asked ourselves how we can bring the change home with us and really make it something that lasts longer than our short trip, we had lots of ideas. Last year, students at UVA did a period of going completely barefoot. Other teams had done similar events. In our case, we realized that we wanted to do food to more specifically relate to the feeding program and to stretch ourselves physically. 

I think the day in the entry above was the beginning of the end.  It was probably our longest and most hectic day, but it was also when we started to feel like our time was drawing to a close. There was a bittersweet feeling to it because we enjoyed the time so much and we truly felt like we were having very real, tangible time with God. He continues to be with us, but it's truth that you often most vividly experience Him when you are forced to rely on him and/or are outside of your normal comfort zone.

It was because of this that we really started thinking about further fundraising.  I want to thank all of you that are supporting us.  If you read this and are interested in throwing your support behind us, please see this post or just visit this website to give directly.