Of course today was another great day, especially because it was Patty’s 29^th birthday….AGAIN.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTY! 

We spent the day at La Chureca. (The Dump)  Although visiting the dump was mentally draining it was also equally rewarding.  La Chureca is a community of approximately 750 people who live in the confines of the city dump in Managua.  These people live solely on the provisions that they find in the dump.  Health care is a major concern in La Chureca and our team spent a good portion of the day shampooing the hair of those that have been infested with lice.  We did lice treatment on approximately 15 people, both kids and adults. The team members that participated in the lice treatments had to also treat their own hair with lice shampoo to protect from potential infestation.

While some of the team did lice treatments the rest of the team repainted two swing sets and put on new swing seats.   The painting provided a great opportunity for the kids to serve and they were quite excited to be able to choose the paint design for the swing sets.

We were also given the opportunity to tour La Chureca and experience a small glimpse of how these people live.  It was an extremely hot day mixed with rain and a great deal of humidity making the smell of the dump much more exaggerated. Because of the amount of trash and bugs we were required wear long pants making it even hotter for everyone.  The entire team did a wonderful job of staying focused on the purpose of our visit and sharing God’s love with many.  Our visit to La Chureca proved to be both an eye opening experience as well spiritually rewarding journey.

After a trip to the local McDonald’s for a late lunch we spent the afternoon at the hotel resting and recuperating.  We celebrated Patty’s birthday at a Mexican food restaurant and returned to the hotel for cake.

The day spanned the entire spectrum of emotions……we celebrated, we laughed, we cried, some of us nearly lost our stomachs, we did things outside of our comfort zone and we reflected on the reality of how many people in the world live like this and how fortunate we are.

Grace and Peace,

Team Nica