This year as we purchased plane tickets and began to talk about our trip to Rancho Ebenezer it became clear that Rachel, Bobbie and Leah along with some of the other members of the brigade were ready to do some things that would take us further beyond the farm’s boundaries than we had gone in previous years. I will admit to some apprehension as they talked about these desires. Some of the apprehension came because I wasn’t sure that I was ready to go do other things. Over the last 2 years the farm has become a safe place for me, where life is different than at home and yet I am comfortable with that difference now. My other apprehensions had to do simply with the logistics of planning and organizing even more things, after all wasn’t it enough to get everything organized to make it to Rancho Ebenezer without also having to add side trips?? Rachel and Bobbie suggested visiting a school, an orphanage and the homes of farm workers, with confidence that the visits would happen. Even though I thought that these visits would add a new dimension to the trip, I was probably muttering under my breath as I began to send off emails to see what could be arranged. The responses were immediately positive and once the groundwork was laid I had to wait until we arrived at Rancho Ebenezer to get the details worked out …the never ending work of putting all of the pieces of this giant puzzle in place.
When mom and I sat down with Susy, one of the farm managers, the day after we arrived, things began to fall into place. Susy had a school and orphanage in mind and named off 6 farm workers who all lived within walking distance of the farm. We decided that there would be visits to 2 different homes, 3 afternoons, between work and supper, and that we would keep the groups to 3 or 4 people plus an interpreter at each home. We thought that there would be more of a chance to visit if the groups were smaller. Even as the plans fell into place for the visits to the homes, I will admit to still having some apprehensions since I didn’t know whether we would be appear to be sightseeing or whether we would be able to visit as friends. We took a world map to each home that we visited so that we could show them where Ohio was in relation to Nicaragua and we left the maps. We visited the homes of Nohelia and Merdardo, Carlos and Norma, Danilo and his cousin Santiago, Pedro and his wife, Juan and Antonio’s, Sebastian and Francie’s. Multiple extended family members live in each home and some of the visits involved mostly talking while others involved touring the yards, playing soccer or some other game.
The first afternoon Bobbie, Jessie, Rachel, Faran (our translator) and I went to visit Nohelia, Merdardo and Juan, their 3 month old son. Nohelia had asked me through an interpreter earlier that day whether it was true that we were going to visit her home and had smiled when I said yes. Nohelia is one of the housekeepers at the farm and Merdardo works in the big goat barn. Nohelia and Merdardo’s home would be what I would call a complex. I think that there were at least 4 different structures, each for a different purpose, and from the outside we would call them shacks. We visited in the living room/dining room structure and I was surprised by the nice living room furniture and dining room set. We asked how many people lived there and I think that the final answer was about 15 children and 5-10 adults. Nohelia is quiet and happily let us hold Juan and answered our questions. When Merdardo came home he joined us and it was enjoyable when he asked us questions like “was it hard to leave the USA and come to Nicaragua?” We walked back to the farm talking about the visit and the fact that it was nice to be able to picture Nohelia and Merdardo in their own home.
The day after our visit I took some shorts down to the washtubs to wash by hand. I later said that I thought that I had been laughed at by Nohelia and Marta who first got me a bar of laundry soap to replace the hand soap that I was going to use and then after a few minutes of watching me, politely offered to wash the shorts for me. I think that I was deemed inept at getting the dirt out of those shorts. With my limited Spanish I told them I used a machine at my house. When Marta was done the shorts were probably cleaner than our washing machine would have ever gotten them. Later in the day they were doing some hand washing, I stopped and motioned that I would help them and they both laughed and didn’t take me up on my offer. I have wondered whether Nohelia would have felt comfortable enough to laugh and offer to take over if we hadn’t visited the day before.
At suppertime and during our evening reflection time we talked about our visits and it was obvious that we were all enjoying the visits. Even though our stories were positive and my mom had pointed out that when we visited Juan and Antonio’s that we had been given the 3 chairs to sit in while Antonio stood and that the dirt floor was wet which probably meant that Antonio had cleaned for us, I still was curious about what the people we visited thought.
My answer came not only through knowing that Nohelia was comfortable enough to laugh at me and that Antonio had prepared for us, but also through Faran who shared that the farm workers had good things to say about our group and then again through Sebastian and others at my brother’s wedding reception. Sebastian and I talked for at least 15 minutes and it seemed that he could not say enough good things about our time there. One of the things that he shared was that he thought that this had been the best brigade ever. This especially intrigued me since we had actually had less time to help Sebastian in the patio area than we had in the previous 2 years. As Sebastian shared more, he talked about how much the visits to the homes meant to him and the other workers and this for him seemed to be one of the main reasons that this year was extra good. As the many farm workers who came to Mark and Jenny’s wedding left the reception, they found each of us to hug and to say good bye and many of us were asked when we were returning.
When we as individuals and together as a church allow ourselves to be pushed beyond our comfort zones, we find new strengths and new energy. For me Rancho Ebenezer is a sacred place where it seems a little easier to be in touch with God because there is so much life there and yet it is also a place that has caused me to be pushed out of my comfort zone in multiple ways. If you had asked me even 5 years ago whether I wanted to travel out of the country and then top that off by coming home and talking to our congregation about it, I probably would have laughed and said that I was perfectly content to let others do that. Yet here I am, not only having done it for a third time but already thinking about next year. So far, I have spent just 27 days of my life in Nicaragua and yet it will be a significant part of me for the rest of my life. That makes pushing myself, and ultimately our congregation, out of our comfort zones worth the effort.
