Machete. Jungle. Sunburn. Mucho Jesus, Beans & Rice, Espanol. New friends. Slept on roof. Tuani.
If asked to sum up my spring break this year, those are the 15 words that would most accurately depict it. This spring break, I had the opportunity to travel to Nicaragua, through YoungLife expeditions, with about forty other YoungLife leaders from Clemson. While there we spent our first night doing a home stay- where we had a host family we spent the night with, and the rest of our time was spent at La Finca, the YoungLife camp there. Once arriving at La Finca we were divided into groups based on what project we would be working on for the week.
Machete. Jungle. Sunburn. My groups job for the week was to repair the fence that surrounded the camps property. Several of the posts were completely rotten and could easily be pushed over, thus negating their purpose of keeping anyone (or thing) out of the camp. Our group trekked through the jungle, lead by our fearless leader Don Luciando (he's the one who had the machete- sadly I was never allowed to touch it) looking for these rotten fence posts that we would then take out, dig a deeper hole, put in a new post, staple the barbed wire back on to, and then continue to the next one. Our days were full of sunburn, sweat, dirt, cuts and scrapes from the barbed wire, and almost falling off the side of the mountain too many times to count. This might not sound like a fun way to spend a spring break to you, but let me tell you what else these times in the jungle consisted of: Incredible views, good conversation, interesting food and fruits (that yes, we did eat straight off the tree no matter what it was- sorry mom), trusting in the Nicaraguans who were leading us through the jungle, and learning more every day the value of hard work. You see the Nicaraguans have a different approach to hard work then many of us do here in America. They don't see a task as something to do ask quickly as possible in order to move on to the next thing on the list. Instead they slow down and take their time with every job set before them. They work not to finish fast, but to finish well. While working with them, they would often stop and take every opportunity to teach, listen, ask questions, and point out things that we so often miss in our frenzy to finish first. They taught me that work is not something that is bad and should be rushed through in order to be done with, but to slow down,finish well, and ultimately do all to the glory of God (1Cor. 10:31).
Mucho Jesus, Beans & Rice, Espanol. These three things compromised much of my time spent in Nicaragua. At our home stay, in the camp, every meal, every day: beans and rice. I never knew there were so many different ways to cook beans and rice, and while I may never eat them again, a meal would not have been complete without some form of these foods on my plate. Along with beans and rice, another huge factor in our time there was spanish, the native language in Nicaragua. While I did take spanish in high school, I retained very little to none of it, making it fairly difficult to communicate with the Nicaraguans that didn't know English. Convinced that this language barrier would prevent me from getting to know any of the Nicaraguans, I kept quiet on the first day whenever working with them for fear of not being understood, or not understanding them. However on the second day, a Nicaraguan girl named Isabel joined our group, and we quickly bonded over how hot it was, laughing at the boys in our group, and other various things that filled up our days. We did all this without many words, as smiles and eye rolls translate very well in both languages. Each day after that we expanded our conversations a little more to include lots of pointing and "Como se dice?" and sentences made of half english half spanish and many hand gestures to get the point across. The morning before our second to last day of work, I prayed that Jesus would give me the time and courage to ask Isabel more about who she was as a person, and try to get to know her despite the language barrier. That very day we were paired up to work on a project together, and I started to piece together the little spanish I had picked up on throughout the week (and with the help of another girl on our team who spoke english and spanish very well) asked her about her life, how old she was, and her husband. We were then joined by the other girls from our group as we continued to talk and share about things we struggle with, what our YoungLife friends struggle with, and fears we had for them and ourselves. Later that same night my friend Erin and I had the chance to pray with Isabel, and again she spoke words of wisdom and truth over us. These words filled us with courage and hope to return home with. Words that I doubted I would ever be able to understand, that I never expected to hear. Through it all I saw how Jesus is so much bigger than a language barrier, how my inadequacies are not a deterrent for him, but instead a chance to show me how his power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor. 12:9) He used Isabel to show me that the same God I saw and heard so clearly while in Nicaragua, is the very same God who is in Clemson with me now. That he is not bound by language, culture, and borders, my finite human emotions and thoughts. That he transcends all of those and proves he is greater yet.
New friends. Slept on roof. Another unexpected joy throughout the trip was getting to meet or get to better know the other leaders from Clemson. Many of the leaders who came on the trip I could maybe tell you their name and team, but nothing beyond that. There's something about traveling to another country with a group of people that binds you together though, and this was no exception. People that I knew in passing have now become some of the coolest people I know, and I'm beyond excited to continue to get to know them. Faces that before I would't even have been able to name, are now associated with some of the best memories I have. Like sleeping on a roof (or attempting to) until 2 AM when we decided that yes, physically we could make it the rest of the night on that roof, but did we really want to? Or going into a home stay together not knowing what to expect, and laughing at all the strange turns the day took for us: like ice cream before dinner, traveling into the literal middle of nowhere for dinner, and being offered to take our host families grandchildren home with us. Each person I got to meet or know better on this trip portrayed Jesus in such a unique and different way through who he made each of them to be. Through their humor, courage, kindness, wit, thoughtfulness, and so many other characteristics, they reflected back to me such a clear picture of whom Christ is, and how he is working in each of them. (Rom 12:5, 1 Cor 12:12)
Tuani. Tuani is a Nicaraguan slang term for "awesome' or "cool" and was used hundreds of time throughout our time in Nicaragua. We started and ended every day by screaming it over breakfast or at club that night. Whenever asked how you were, the appropriate response was always "tuani". Going back home though, things have not been quite tuani. Leaving the friends made in Nicaragua, the people and culture there, and returning back home has been strange and sad, and I often find myself missing their slow paced style of living. School is hard and motivation to finish the semester strong is lacking. Responsibilities that I pushed off for the week seemed to have multiplied exponentially since coming back. The pollen count is unreal, and my week has been full of refilling medicine, boring meetings, sleeping through a class, losing a family friend, and other difficult things. It's easy to forget all that I learned in Nicaragua, and focus on all the negative that seems to surround my day. But I don't think God sent me to Nicaragua and taught me all that he did for me to forget after one week back. He promised that yes, life will be hard, but to take heart he has overcome! (John 16:33). He's showing me that things are still tuani: that this week has also been full of getting new team members, receiving a grant to travel this summer, and getting to know the new friends I made in Nicaragua better. He's teaching me every day how much his power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor 12:9) and what it looks like to depend on him for my daily bread (Matt 6:11). I'm learning to once again start and end my day screaming "tuani" and that wherever I go, whether Nicaragua or Clemson, he is sure to meet me there (Matt 28:20).
