SALT NICARAGUA CONFERENCE CALL UPDATE: Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking in a conference call with the Judge (Leader) of Kururia to get an update on the village. I learned that the village had remained COVID-19 free recently until a couple of days ago. An elderly, blind Elder of the church was found to be showing clear COVID-19 symptoms and was needing to be transported to Puerto Cabezas for care. We were able to assist in getting funds to them to transport her and hopefully save her life. I learned that there is finally some of the Russian Sputnik COVID-19 vaccines available in Puerto Cabezas, but the country’s immunization rate remains critically low. The Judge also advised us of a critical need for another handicapped Elder whose house is collapsing because of thetermite damage to the posts. We were able to provide funds for new posts for this house on stilts – all the houses in the region are on stilts – and the people of the village will install them before the house totally collapses. We were also made aware that one of the wells needed to be refurbished because the pipe had broken off at ground level causing contaminated surface water to seep into the well during this rainy season, which lasts for another two months. In addition, the use of this well is staggering as so many families daily pull water from this well – hundreds of gallons per day – and the need to return it to being viable again is vital. We were able to provide funds for this as well and men from Kisalaya will go to Kururia to oversee the refurbishing while teaching men from Kururia how to do it on their own in the future. When calling Kisalaya, we were unable to speak with the Judge there because of many ongoing meetings with the other leaders and populace. There is a lot of political unrest in Kisalaya, which is keeping us from being able to do much there at the moment. However, we were able to provide funds to hire an assistant to assist the nurse in the clinic for one month as per the request of the Judge. The clinic had been closed for a few months, which created tremendous hardship for the community. One nurse is now working but could not manage the huge number of daily patients on her own and needs help. Though some of these things are not in our normal range of committed activities, the desperate financial situation in Nicaragua due to the economic collapse of the nation causes us to have to address some needs as these communities have no money. We call these “zero dollar communities.” There are no jobs and the economy of the nation has only made things more difficult. Please continue to keep us and the people we serve in Nicaragua in your prayers. We have tickets for a first return trip to Nicaragua in March and trust God will permit us to travel and be face-to-face with those we love. Thanks in advance for your prayers!
