Day 2

The week one team spent the first day distributing backpacks filled with school supplies to children in two public schools in two remote communities. The supplies in each new pack included pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, ruler and several notebooks. The backpacks and supplies were purchased with funds from St. Paul’s Nicaragua Scholarship funds program.

Forty-three children received backpacks at Aduano Dos, a community developed by Agros to provide land for houses and agricultural development. The primos (1st grade) through 4th grade children were gathered for their first day of school for the new year. School in Nicaragua begins the last week of January or first week of February and runs until the end of November. Smiles and “Ooo’s” abounded as children opened the backpacks to discover what was inside. The team had quite a ride in four-wheel drive vehicles getting to the village including fording a small river and bouncing along deeply rutted roads.

The second school was located high in the hills in the community of Santa Rita. In this community a local pastor selected 50 ninos (boys) and ninas (girls) to receive the backpacks. The children welcomed us and sang some Sunday School songs for their visitors. Family members accompanied the children as they received their new learning tools. After the presentation children remained at the church to smile for our cameras and see their instant digital pictures then giggle and smile again. Some of the team read children’s books to small groups of children. When one of our team read the Spanish, the children giggled and finally an older child read the Spanish while our team member read the English.

As we left each community, we shared many “adios” and “Dios te bendigas” (God bless you) as we waved goodbye.