What A Team!

Our latest team of 17 returned home from Nicaragua late last night. What an action packed 12 days! A roller-coaster ride filled with laughter and emotion, with the start of new friendships and new beginnings. 
This was one energized team, that worked and played hard.  During our time in the garbage dump we worked alongside the locals to build 4 homes.  3 of which were for single mothers, while the 4th was for a young family with 3 children. 

Listening to the mothers share their stories was over whelming, with the one mother telling us that she had been living in the most unbearable conditions for over 10 years.  Living conditions where water is leaking through the roof and floors!  I cannot imagine waiting for a home that doesn’t turn into pools of mud for 10 long suffering years.   She stayed close all day watching and smiling as the walls of her new home went up.
The second mother, a petite and gentle lady that giggled all day from excitement.  She found it particularly entertaining when the Canadian giants took a picture with her outside of her new home, I think she reached our belly buttons!    She allowed us to take pictures of the inside of her old home and 3 of our team members cried when they saw her living conditions. 

Words cannot describe the horror these people live in.   The first night, after we had completed 2 homes it poured making our working conditions on day two extremely wet and muddy.    As I lay in my comfortable bed listening to the rain, all I could think about was the families who were lying in pools of water and mud.   
​Due to the poor living conditions many children suffer from breathing problems and this was the case with a little 6-year-old boy, who’s home we built on day 2.   This little guy desperately wanted to help build but every time he exerted himself he would start to wheeze and cough.   

After the homes were built, we spent some time at The Centre, which is a place of refuge for the children that live in the surrounding slums.   We painted walls and fences and the girls painted fingernails (which was a huge hit). What a privilege to be able to love on these people and to help support them as they pull themselves out of poverty. 
Every time I go back to this country I feel more connected with the people and the culture – coming back to Canada gets harder and harder (especially when the temps are -15😊) 

A huge thank you to each volunteer that worked their butt off to make this team a success, we had such an eclectic group of personalities and ages, but everyone worked in unity to make our time in Nicaragua a success - 5 parents and 10 children’s lives have been changed based on your belief in the work we do.    
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A special thanks to our donors for supporting our efforts to change lives, without you guys none of this would have been possible.   We love you with all our hearts!
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