Learning to say no

One of the struggles as a missionary family living in a third world country is seeing such great need everywhere and knowing what is the best way to help. Every time we go out we are approached by cripples, young children, and women with small babies begging. Young boys squirt water on our windshield at stoplights ready to clean our windshield for one Cordoba. Men and women stand in the middle of the road selling little trinkets of little or no value. Letters and email come in each week requesting assistance with a church, school or orphanage. The need is so great, and sometimes overwhelming. Where do you start and how do you really start to make a difference? This is a question that has repeatedly come up in our family. We are here as missionaries to help the people of Nicaragua, but how do we really help them?
Our commitment as representatives of Worldwide Christian Schools is to help with the development and construction of Christian schools. In the Western part of Nicaragua, there are 123 Christian schools of all shapes and sizes. First and foremost we work to assist these Christian schools with their needs. Currently teacher training is taking place in different regions of the country to assist with the development of teachers. Another 43 of these schools have gone through the School Improvement Process (SIP) which helps schools access their needs, determine their vision, and create a plan for improving their school. From these 43 schools we select schools that have shown a commitment to providing Christian education, have strong leaders that are committed to the school, and have made investments themselves in the school. After going through this evaluation process, we are left with a select number of schools. This means saying no to many Christian schools with physical needs. If a school is not ready, contributing to the schools construction needs may do more harm. We know that by following these guidelines, we are helping schools that are ready for help and will benefit from our help.
Our family has learned to say no to the many of the poor we encounter begging on the street corners and outside of stores. When we come across someone in need, more often we give them juice or crackers and if there is someone who is handicap or too old to work we will give them money. However this is not a long term solution to the problems of Nicaragua. The many problems of this country will only be solved when Nicaraguans decide to do what is best for their country. It is not the responsibility of Missionaries to change the country, but to assist and help the people of Nicaragua bring change to their own country.

Taken at the pump

In Nicaragua instead pumping your own gas, an attendant pumps it for you. It sounds like a very nice service, but it is designed to keep people from stealing gas more than to service the customer. Unlike most full service stations in the states, you don't sit in your car and wait till your tank is full and drive off. Most times the the attendant will look at you and say "zero" and then start filling your tank. He is letting you know that your not paying for the previous persons tank of gas. If you are not watching the attendant, it is very possible that they will start where the last person left off and pocket the difference.

Well, ever since I was made aware of this little trick I have always made sure to watch closely to see that the attendant zero's the pump. The other day when stopping to get a little gas, I did the normal routine of getting out the car, telling the attendant what kind of gas I needed and how much. Well, instead of starting to pump the gas, he asked me a few more questions in Spanish. I was not sure what he was asking and wasn't sure why he would ask me something else since all they do is pump gas. Well, he continued to talk and as I walked towards the back of the vehicle he started to pump my gas. It hit me, that he did not zero the pump, and I quickly looked at the amount on the meter and saw that I was already over 300 cordobas. I told the attendant that he did not zero the pump and I should not be this high already. He responded with a few Spanish sentences which I could not understand and continued to 500 cordobas and stopped. When I again told him that he did not zero the pump, he proceeded to squeeze the trigger and push the button on the pump, as to say it would not zero and wasn't working. Not sure what to do since I had no proof and figured that all the other attendants would be sharing the profits, I handed him the 500 cordobas and left very frustrated. Clearly he took advantage of the fact that I was American and knew little Spanish.

After talking to a few of my Spanish teachers at language school, and still not feeling good about the fact that this guy was able to take money from me without knowing, I decided to return in the afternoon, but with someone who could speak Spanish (my wife:). When we returned that afternoon the same attended was still working. Tiffany proceeded to ask him his name and then proceeded with me to the office to find his boss. At the office she told a man who looked like he was in charge what happened. When she used the word "robbed" the man's eye's got real big. He asked who did this and when we told him, he proceeded to call him over. After talking for a minute with the attendant, he informed us that we would receive 250 cordobas of gas. He said that sometimes these things happen, as if it was a mistake. It was clearly obvious to us that this person in charge was not concerned that one of his employees stole from one of its customers. It may be very likely that he would even share in the profits of his employees stealing.

While feeling satisfied that we received what we were owed, I was disappointed that this type of behavior is accepted and goes unpunished. It is this type of corruption that plagues Nicaragua and frustrates its honest citizens. This same attendant who was willing to steal from me, will most likely be the victim at a later time of corruption. If only he knew that the cycle will only end of each person takes it upon themselves to do what is right. Considering he did not loose his job or was punished for what he did, it will be up to him to decide if he will steal again.

Encounter with a Nicaraguan Cop

To give you a better idea of how things work here I will expand on on an incident we had a couple of weeks ago with a Nicaraguan cop. Ryan and I were blessed by the generosity of a fellow missionary who was away in the states for a while and let us borrow his vehicle until we bought our own. We received this vehicle during our second week, during which we were reminded that along with a corrupt government comes a corrupt legal system and police force. These hard working underpaid men and women make up for a lack of good wages from the government by stopping random people on the side (sometimes the middle of a round-a-bought) road and making up reasons to take away licenses unless paid a bribe. Often times the cops will give options or leave accusations hanging so the driver will catch on and OFFER a bribe. This way the cop can't be accused of asking for one. Our goal is to in no way offer a bribe if possible and argue the reason for being pulled over. We do not want to encourage this behavior by giving in and paying them off to avoid arguing. On a day in which we made the comment that we were surprised that we hadn't been stopped by the police as we learned our way around Managua's crazy streets. We were maybe five or six kilometers from our front gate, getting ready to pass the police station, when we noticed four cops outside in the middle and the sides of this major highway stopping lots of people. On our side of this four lane highway, a pickup was stopped in the left lane making it hard for other vehicles to get by. After making sure the way was clear, we merged into traffic, making sure it was NOT a solid double line that we crossed over to get into the right lane(which seems to be the number one reason cops pull people over, even if no line is visible at all on the road). Suddenly a little red car pulled in next to us in the left and must have realized it couldn't get by the truck pulled over in the middle. So out of courtesy we scooted as far over to the right next to the shoulder in order that we both could pass by. Suddenly the cop who had pulled over the truck was directly in front of us and the red car flagging us both down to stop. I hoped we wouldn't be recognized as Americans through the tinted glass and watched for his hand to wave us on. He looked at the red car then looked at us and waved us to the side of the road, the red car who had been straddling the solid double line in order to pass the truck drove on. Ryan and I quickly decided we would play visiting Americans who spoke little if any Spanish and hope the cop would give up on us and let us go. The cop said that we touched the center line which he said is against the law in Nicaragua. We knew that we hadn't touched the center line, but it was no use arguing with him. After about twenty minutes of broken Spanish, screaming and crying kids in the backseat, we realized that he was not going to change his mind. We have since learned to argue, NEVER giving in if you are absolutely sure you didn't do anything wrong and it's obvious the cop is making it up, or state from the very beginning that you would gladly take a ticket, oh and the badge number and name of the cop. We are told that they usually will not write out a ticket if they don't have a real reason because it's too long a process and too much paperwork since everything is done by hand. Oh how I love irony.

Our Adventure Begins

Thursday our family left the United States without a hitch. Beisdes a half hour delay from Omaha, the flights to Chicago then to Miami and finally to Managua were all on time and none of our luggage pieces were lost. The girls traveled very well and Ashlyn loved flying in so many airplanes.



Friday we spent the morning shopping for groceries and kitchen utensils at a local grocery store known as La Colonia. We also visited PriceMart which is very much like a Costco or Sam's club store with bulk items, a place where a lot of missionaries do some major shopping. We also experienced our first power outage which began at 2pm and lasted till 7pm. Ryan and Nathan Boersema went in search of a vehicle but the two possibilities were no longer available. From what the other missionaries said, if you see something you need, get it right away because more often than not it will be gone the next time you come looking for it.



Saturday we went to La Sinsa, a hardware type store but also included some very random products including Christmas decorations, IN OCTOBER! Atleast we know Christmas is as big a deal to them as it is to us so finding simple decorations or even a tree to help us feel more at home won't be a problem. We also visited a couple furniture stores but the one we were very successful at was located in a new mall. The store, La Curacao, gave us a wonderful deal. We were able to purchase a frigde, stove, kitchen table, washer, two beds, a tv and with the fridge and stove we got a blender and a special rice cooker for free. I was told later that the original deal included an umbrella but for some reason it seemed too much to throw in last minute:) We then ate lunch at the mall where we feasted on Burger King whoppers and chicken nuggets. I don't remember the last time a whopper tasted so good.



Sunday we attended ICF (International Christian Fellowship) which is located in the chapel at NCA (Nicaragua Christian Academy) where I was reunited with the missionary families, the Loftsguards and the Mosts, after being away for seven years. The rest of the afternoon we rested and swam in the private pool that is part of Quinta Allyson, our building complex.



Monday Tiffany went to a local market where all kinds of locally made stuff is sold. Anything from rocking chairs and hammocks to food to plastic containers can be found.

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