Maritza Hernandez and Oscar Aguilar,
beneficiaries and members of the board, acted as Carol’s
right hand in the daily struggle for the construction of a community
identity among nearly 1,800 residents.
During a visit to the Regalo de Dios community last week, I took
a walk through the rows of concrete block houses built in perfect
lines around the School Center. I’ll tell you, there is
no way to pass through this community without making many stops
to listen to people eager to talk about the wide diversity of
issues.
People want to express gratitude, worries, greetings, complaints,
and advice. It’s a kind of informal counseling that PC(USA)
mission co-workers Julie and Robert Dunsmore (now serving in Bolivia),
Melina Santillana, Daniel García, and I used to do in order
to keep an open channel to the neighborhood. We wanted people
to talk about their sorrows and joys. People used to invite us
to have a cup of dark, smooth, strong Salvadoran “café
de alturas,” which I used to say is coffee “to keep
a pair of bulls awake.” I mean that it’s good coffee.
Oscar Aguilar, a community elder and member of the local Catholic
parish, was sitting in front of his new house enjoying the crowded
and riotous passing of children coming back that evening from
Regalo de Dios School Center. While he was sipping a cup of coffee,
he told me that now he feels that life for hundreds of homes has
now returned to a sense of normalcy, including hope and faith
in the future.
The smiles of children, the joy and peace in the faces of women
and men returning from work, the chance to rest tonight safely
and to awake tomorrow, renewed. I see God in these blessings.
On this trip I came to say goodbye to my brothers and sisters
of Soyapango and to share with them the dreams and challenges
of a new commitment. This January I received a new assignment.
Now I am a Presbyterian mission co-worker based in Nicaragua and
assigned to CEPAD, the Council of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua.
CEPAD has had a long history of friendship with the PC(USA). They
worked together for justice and peace during the civil conflict
in Central America, and now CEPAD is involved in development work
with 33 rural communities deeply affected by poverty.
In recent years, Nicaraguans have been affected by recurrent
disasters. Mudslides, floods, and hurricanes have killed and hurt
people, damaged crops, disrupted basic services, devastated infrastructure.
The effect on lower-income families has been horrible. One CEPAD’s
concerns is that despite all these tragedies there is no recognition
of the urgent need to build a culture of prevention and disaster
preparedness.
Those are the two areas in which I have come to cooperate with
CEPAD: development work and disaster preparedness.
Perhaps this letter has awakened your curiosity about what is
going on in Nicaragua. In my next letter I hope to satisfy at
least a small part of your curiosity.
God is blessing us every minute, every day.
Carlos Cardenas Martinez
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