Saturday, April 14, 2012

Pictures! (Credit: Richard P. and Samantha S.)



One corner of the school's soccer field where we began the building of the wall.


Sifting rocks out of the sand to mix with cement; also, maybe panning for gold?


One of the most labor intensive jobs - mixing cement by hand. This is more difficult than it looks; you have to make sure the water doesn't escape the "volcano," mix quickly so the concrete on the bottom doesn't start to harden, and do it in the hot Nicaraguan sun!



Students diligently mixing ready-to-use concrete so that it doesn't harden.



Richard working hard





Make sure to stay hydrated!



Another labor intensive job - moving 100 lb concrete bricks. We had to carry a lot of these a large distance, until they got a truck to transport them across the field. Whew!



Everyone worked hard to carry these bricks... it was hard work...



And then some school kids came by, and wanting to help, also showed us up.



Our daily audience


Playing with the kids at the orphanage after working on the wall


Sometimes we didn't have as much energy as the kids...



Our awesome sponsors, Obed and Daniela!



A local shop right outside the orphanage


Some horses chillin' on the side of the road




Where we went ziplining on our "fun day" - Nicaraguan rainforest on a volcano! 



We got smoothies after the end of a long week of work - High chairs for the boys



Being silly with our new friends at the orphanage



What we did! It might not look like much, but we managed to put up several sections of concrete blocks. They will fill columns and a top layer over this section. To be continued...

Friday, April 13, 2012


This Spring Break (March 25 - April 1, 2012), a group of 16 students and 2 faculty sponsors from La Sierra University in Riverside, CA, went to La Trinidad, Nicaragua to help an orphanage run by REACH International  through STORM (Short Term Outreach Missions). We stayed at Hogar Reach, helped start the building of a wall around their school's property, and made some new friends (pictured above)!

We wanted to update this blog while we were there, but didn't have enough time or internet access, so we will be updating back entries now from various students who went on the trip. This will happen at different times, so if some pieces of the story are missing, or there are lots of different perspectives, you know what's going on! Thanks to everyone who went on the trip, helped support someone to go on the trip (whether financially, emotionally, or through prayer), and our new family in Nicaragua.

To learn more about STORM, visit: http://www.lasierra.edu/index.php?id=539
To donate to the STORM program, visit: http://www.razoo.com/story/La-Sierra-University

- Jaylene C.