The Catholic Church at Chacraseca

December 29, 2013

We are just over 24 hours before beginning our journey back to Chacraseca, Nicaragua, the farming community we have grown to love. On this trip, three TCC students will be accompanying Ed, one to learn and write about micro-credit loans to women, and the other two to film and document this and visit two media outlets in Leon, Nicaragua. I'm the chaperon/"helper." This will be my third trip this year. This will be Ed's fourth trip in the last 1 1/2 years.

I feel somewhat that our journey has already begun, as we have spent the last two days repacking and repacking down to the infamous 50 pounds United requires. Leslie Penrose, the founder of JustHope, has said many times that this is an opportunity to see what we can live without! Ed thinks I can live without my fan...you'd think he had never traveled with a woman over 50!...my fan is in my suitcase...his is on the futon.

JustHope is the relief organization that TCC and Ed and I partner with to Chacraseca. They have been doing relief work there for at least 15 years, working with the 8,000 people of that community to help them become sustainable. JustHope helps the women of the community with micro-credit loans ranging from $50 to $250, making loans for pig farms (this is a thriving business!), jewelry-making, seed-farming, etc. There is also a group of ladies who were trained and sat up in business sewing. They are Stitching Hope and they make stoles for churches, purses, beautiful painted silk scarves, etc. JustHope also sponsors scholarship programs each year to send four to five young adults to college in Leon. JustHope has built cisterns for water, installed pumps to get it out, and helped families by building them concrete homes to get them out of plastic ones. They have accomplished so much in all these years, it is astounding. I feel very blessed to be apart of that organization helping out in anyway I can.