Walking with the poor - notes from Nicaragua

MISSION AWARENESS TRIP TO NICARAGUA

Feb. 9-16, 2008

On the outskirts of Managua after Holy Mass and a cultural activity, the team divided us into groups to visit four families. My group learned a lot from the young family we visited. Their home consists of wooden planks, a tin roof and a dirt floor. They have this humble living space “on loan” from the mom’s father. Both mom and dad work in a local cigar factory, with combined income of 450 Cordobas or $25 per week. They are deeply grateful for the CFCA presence in their lives.

Somoto

We traveled one hour to Somoto near the Honduran border. We settled in our rooms in Somoto without water, which made a reality experience for the sponsors. Our rooms are just a stone’s throw from the

church bell tower with loud “forget-me-not-chimes” that sounded every half hour during the night.

Miramar

After a journey on a rocky road, we reached Miramar, where we have about 200 sponsored.
Several hundred people gathered in the rural school. The program included folk and modern dances by sponsored girls of various ages. A poem written for this occasion was read by Don Carlos Lobo, grateful father of a sponsored child. I try to get our sponsored folks to relax and to be themselves, in the midst of these “important visitors.” Music helps mucho.

Sponsored children of Esteli smiled and danced a welcome for the sponsors.

Sponsor Trudy Wiedoeft, a 1948 war bride from Germany, expressed herself handily in Spanish to her sponsored “treasure” Thelma, who enters college for social work this year. It’s the first time they have met after seven years of sponsorship. The way she and Thelma greeted one another, they would not have had to say anything.

We split into groups in order to visit the maximum number of families. My group met the farm family of Dona Reyna and Don Arnulfo (not here—working). The parents and seven children live in a nice space. The house is simple but adequate with a very nice wood-burning stove in the kitchen. The café was being harvested now. Café from the plant sold here now at $138 per quintal (100 pounds). Sponsors were able to walk down the paths to the actual coffee trees. Only Luz Maria, 12, the youngest, is sponsored. She sends greetings and love to her sponsors. The family’s older girls were unable to complete college degrees for lack of funding. They each need $877 annually, but they don’t have it.

(left) Cristina and Bob Hentzen and sponsors visited the farm family of Luz Maria. (right) This photo of Bob Hentzen and sponsors Maria Soleri, left, and Carol Tabor, center, says: “Si, se puede (Yes, we can).”

Fast trip to Kansas City for board meeting

My wife, Cristina, and I send our appreciation and love to the Kansas City headquarters staff. We are deeply grateful for the encouraging example of our co-workers and the steady, generous leadership of our governing board. With the velocity of the express jets, we were back in Managua by noon on Valentine’s Day.

Final day together

Members of this group have so bonded with their sponsored families and with one another that they find it difficult to say farewell. We had our closing Holy Mass with the Managua subprojects in the neighborhood school called San Isidro de Bolas. Celebration of birthdays followed, animated by a father-son clown team.

Thank you for journeying with us. Cristina and I will have one week at the Hermano Pedro project in Guatemala before heading to the Dominican Republic for the mission awareness trip … and then on to Monterrey, Mexico. I will make every effort to be in touch along the way. Know of our love and prayers.

God’s blessings.

Bob Hentzen
Nicaragua
Feb. 16, 2008

Sponsor a child in Nicaraqua

Read the notes from other mission awareness trips