Catholic Center students assist orphanage, underprivileged in Nicaragua during mission

01/30/09 - In an eye-opening mission trip to Nicaragua, 14 University of Rhode Island students built a cottage foundation for an orphanage and helped underprivileged citizens.Rev. Matt Glover, of the URI Catholic Center, acted as a chaperone for the trip and several days of labor for the cottage foundation.

The mission, which was emotional for many, started at an orphanage called "Hogar Belen," or "Place of Peace," Glover said, which is operated by Mustard Seed, a Christian organization.

Glover said there are 21 children currently at the orphanage, and the time with the kids was "a blessing." There was a multi-cultural aspect, as students saw going to church through the eyes of Nicaraguan children.

"It was very lively when the kids started singing and dancing in the chapel," Glover said. "You go down to a different nation ... we were speaking two different languages, really, but it was one language of faith."

While there was a language gap, Glover said two students were bilingual, and Mustard Seed also had bilingual escorts.

Students spent the first few days of the trip digging a hole approximately six and a half feet deep, 20 feet long, and about 30 feet wide. The hole was to build a new cottage for Mustard Seed to host kids.

After digging the large hole for the foundation, the student workers put in steel supports and cement. There was a professional foreman at the site, but he and his workers were busy with their own projects, Glover said.

"The guys under [the foreman] were local villagers who basically developed a trade," Glover said, adding that the American concept of a professional is different from a Nicaraguan professional.

The project was to build a cottage to allow Hogar Belen to host 80 children in one spot.

During breaks from building the foundation, Glover said the students played soccer with Nicaraguans in the area and the workers.

"Obviously, they smoked us through and through," he said. "We were the subject of a few laughs." The students brought boots, paintbrushes, and other work tools from the United States, and left those tools with Mustard Seed as part of the mission, Glover said.

Indeed, the mission started before students even left. Glover said American Airlines, the carrier they used on the trip, allows two bags for free on international flights. Students packed one personal bag and another bag with health and medical supplies, he said.

After the foundation was built, students spent an entire day at the orphanage with the children. Matthew Brum, a student on the trip, said they were between ages three and 19. Glover said students played Frisbee with the kids, checked on them if they cried, painted cribs and took care of them, which inevitably caused some bonding.

"If anyone in their life time has an opportunity to do this, I would strongly recommend it," Brum said. "You have to experience it yourself to fully understand."

The most compelling part of this visit, a day-trip to La Chureca, was what students talked about most, where about 1,500 people lived, Brum said.

"It was neighborhood upon neighborhood, house upon house, they weren't even really houses," Brum said. "It looked like a doghouse, it looked like several dog houses shaped into a neighborhood."

Brum and two friends, Eileen Marran and Amy Carbone, said they drove in a van through highway-like passages between heaps of garbage, got out, and started giving out candy and food. Brum said no one knew how many people were going to come for food, and they gave out too much to the first people they saw. As their stay lengthened, they had to reduce their portion size in order to continue offering.

"We were breaking [food] in pieces and giving them to the kids, because there were so many," Brum said.

The URI team was escorted by at least one Mustard Seed employee, but students said they generally felt safe, even when in a dump.

"I wasn't scared then [when we were in the dump], but afterward I was like 'oh crap, what did I just do?!'" Marran said.

Brum said children and adults who came for food were often barely clothed.

Correna Blewett, another student on the trip, said the people living in the dump acted in a civil manner, and didn't try to snatch the food away.

"Nobody was greedy," she said. "I'm sure if there were a place like that here, and we went, there would be people grabbing left and right."

Several students described the scene as heartbreaking, which became apparent when they got back in the van to leave.

"We were all in complete silence, and we didn't know what to think, we didn't know what to feel," Brum said.

Many of the students said the time in Nicaragua taught them to be more resourceful. Some students don't spend as much time in the shower as they previously did, appreciate what they have and enjoy simple things.

"I'm so lucky to have what I have here," Carbone said. "I should offer myself to anyone who needs help."

The day after the trip to the dump, students had a recreational day zip lining over a local lagoon and went to the Pacific Ocean "to relax and celebrate," and after a week in the Nicaraguan heat, Glover said, coming back to the winter weather of the Northeast was hard.

"It was like 20 degrees when we got off the plane in Boston," he said. "I was wearing sandals and I was like, 'what,' adding about 85 to 90 degrees in Nicaragua.

Glover said the mission trip will be annual, and it is open to non-Catholic students.