Their clothes were filthy, bodies’ frail, and they lived in makeshift homes cobbled together with scrap metal found in the streets.
But for the eight days Meighan Kouvelas, 17, spent in Nicaragua with Windsor’s First Lutheran Church, she said the people of Chinandega were always smiling.
“We have so much here and we still complain about stuff. They have so little and are perfectly happy,” Kouvelas said Saturday, about 10 hours after getting back from the church’s youth group mission in the second-poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.
Armed with five suitcases full of clothes and school supplies, the group of 11 ranging from 14 to 18 years old, accompanied by six adults, visited three Lutheran churches in Chinandega – Nicaragua’s fourth-largest city with a population of around 120,000.
The churches were started and are funded by Lutheran Church Canada.
About 30 children and their families attend each church Meighan’s father and youth group leader Bill Kouvelas, 49, describes as “basically a ceramic floor with four walls.”
“When you saw how happy they were to receive just a handful of regular lead pencils – it was quite an experience,” said Bill, who leads the youth group with his wife Karin, 46.
The $13,000 March 8 to 15 mission was funded by bakes sales, spaghetti dinners and car washes put on by the youth group last year. The school supplies were collected by students from Windsor’s First Lutheran Christian Academy.
The youth group stayed at the Lutheran Mission Centre and spent two days painting the wrought iron windows, doors and rafters of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in sunny 35 to 37 C weather.
“I didn’t really know what to expect going down there,” Meighan said. “I knew there was poverty but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
Kouvelas said the children of Chinandega would cheer when the youth group pulled up and stick their hands in through the windows of their van to say goodbye.
She remembers them excitedly waving around their new clothes over their heads and intently listening to the youth group sing songs from their church.
“The best part for me was the kids,” said Meighan, a Grade 12 student at St. Anne high school.
This was the group’s first time visiting the impoverished city apart from Rev. Gilvan de Azevedo, of Windsor’s First Lutheran Church, who teaches at Lutheran seminarians in Nicaragua.
Bill said each church offers after school continuing education, yet does not have adequate space. He said the youth group is considering tackling the addition of classrooms as its next project.
