November 2008 Update from Nikki Horne
December 1, 2008 by Chris Fane · 1 Comment
Dear friends & supporters,
It comes in waves, this longing to write home about my life and all that is happening here, but truth be told, I’m not very good at writing these newsletters. That’s no excuse – it’s just the truth – but I’ve managed to get this one out and that’s a start!
Over the past year I have felt tremendously privileged to have the role I do in the lives of so many adults and children and daily I am learning how to trust and let go, allowing God to freely use my hands to accomplish the good things He wants for this community. I am learning how to help carry the burdens of others but, even more than that, how to entrust those lives and those struggles, along with my own, into God’s careful and mighty hands.
Living in the middle of physical poverty breaks your heart and steals pieces of any hope you have that tomorrow can be better, that change can happen, that I can help write a new story. I have felt lost in God’s plan to bring about restoration for the poor and to bring healing for those that suffer. My head reels with all I have learned in the past year. I have searched frantically for God in the children’s cancer ward, in homes where parents threaten and intimidate their kids, and in the fears of kids that come to school with bruises and blank stares. I do not doubt that God is here, but I can’t always feel Him and that is perhaps the most paralyzing feeling of all. It is in those moments that I am learning to step back and wait, to try to be patient, because beating deep within me is God’s peace and a reminder that He is very present here in Bastion. Amidst the suffering and fear, He walks before me on these dirty streets.
This year has been such a whirlwind that I have so many stories I could tell! I am still trying to process all the highs and lows of what has happened. It is extremely difficult to capture everything in a few brief paragraphs, but I have chosen two stories that I think best paint a picture of life in Ecuador and the work that I do here.
Michelle & Narcisa
Michelle and Narcisa are two special people from my community here that I have gotten to know well this year. Michelle, a grade two student at Hope of Bastion School, was diagnosed with leukemia six months ago. Narcisa, the mother of a couple of our students, has a hole in her heart and needs heart surgery. For families with limited resources who are living in a squatter community like Bastion, the possibility of treatment for either of these two ailments is unlikely. Poverty and sickness is a very scary combination. Thankfully funds continue to arrive at the right time and chemotherapy treatments can continue and an open heart surgery can be scheduled.
The Ecuadorian medical system, with which I have become intimately acquainted, suffers from a great deal of confusion and inefficiency. Patients are restricted to their ward, while family and friends run up and down flights of stairs from secretary, to doctor, to blood bank, to nurse, to surgeon and back again booking the x-rays and operating rooms, buying rubber gloves and IVs, all the while crossing their fingers they haven’t missed anything in the flurry of paperwork. I will never again complain about the healthcare I am privileged to just by being born in a country like Canada.
With next to no medical knowledge (other then being the daughter of a wise and experienced nurse) I have found myself intensely involved with both Michelle and Narcisa’s treatment; from enduring the lame pickup lines of medical professionals to being dressed from head to toe in medical scrubs reading storybooks in the cancer ward. In the beginning it was hard to know what to say to Michelle, to this frightened girl with tubes coming out of her little body and loose hairs all over her pillow. Waiting can be a dark place sometimes, when your mind gets stuck on the “what ifs” and starts to panic. Sometimes Narcisa will ask me what will happen to her children if she doesn’t make it and I just don’t know. Holding the hand of somebody who is fighting for their life is pretty life-altering itself. Emotions run high … one minute you’re laughing, and the next you’re weeping. The reality is we never know what the outcome will be and there are no right words to say. All you can do is hold that hand a little bit tighter and wait.
Onzole River
I have been, and continue to be, involved in a small river community in the northern jungles of Ecuador called Santo Domingo de Onzole. In August, a group of us piled into a canoe and splashed our way down the river for 3 hours until we arrived in Onzole. Kids in tattered clothing and oversized rain boots stood watching us climb up the muddy slope that leads to their community. It was such a joy to be welcomed back to this familiar place, to play with the kids on the river’s edge and catch up with friends on their front porches. In Onzole you are surrounded by natural beauty, fruits and exotic flowers spilling from trees and bushes all under the deepest blue skies.
We went to Onzole hoping to spend time in the two elementary schools we have been involved with. The government has, until recently, all but ignored these kids, leaving them with no chance of receiving an education. Several months ago, a group of us began to help provide financial support for the schools. We sat down with some of the teachers, parents and leaders of the Onzole community to talk about their hopes and dreams for their school. They shared their desire to see kids from Onzole receive a quality education equal to other public schools, an education that would enable the kids to compete for future jobs and opportunities. They talked openly about the struggle of convincing parents that an education would indeed open doors to all kinds of future possibilities. In Onzole, just like many remote areas in the world, education isn’t always a high priority. Many parents are still not convinced that sending their children to school is better than having them work farming the fields.
The school building itself (a decrepit shell held up by drab cement bricks and splintering wood planks) is in dire need of repair. Wasp nests hang from the ceilings, handmade pictures adorn the walls, and old wooden and rusty metal desks fill the classrooms. Yet, every morning from Monday to Friday, 109 kids dressed in clean blue uniforms file through those doors brimming with creativity and untapped potential.
The challenges faced by school staff are numerous. In addition to the lack of government assistance, they are ill equipped to handle the medical and physical needs of their students. Many kids have learning disabilities, problems with hearing and vision, or psychological issues. The kids come to school lacking proper nutrition, so the staff members do the best they can to provide some sort of breakfast. They need more classrooms and more teachers. They dream that these humble little schools that sit atop muddy hills will empower and equip kids to go places they otherwise never could.
Evolving roles & future opportunities
I have been living in Ecuador for almost two years now and my role here has changed a lot over that time. I came to work in Hope of Bastion School as the child sponsorship program coordinator and to help grow the program. I continue to maintain that role, working with 140 elementary aged students and 50 high school students. Along with the overall administration of the program, I visit kids in their homes to gain a better understanding of their family situation and struggles and work with them to write letters to their sponsors. My job has also involved advocating on behalf of kids when there is violence in the home or medical needs. I am currently considering (and really excited about) becoming involved with a school sponsorship program in Onzole.
Outside of the Hope of Bastion sponsorship program, I spend a lot of time mentoring and counseling young girls or spending time with mothers. Every year we have work teams come from Canada and I, along with the other missionaries here, help plan and run those trips to camp, Bastion or Onzole. Though we are all involved in different ministries, I am so thankful to be working alongside our team of missionaries here.
I am planning to be back in Canada for a month over Christmas. I will return to Ecuador in the New Year and jump straight into the coordination and organization of the short term Canadian work teams coming in February and March. In February ’09 I will be helping to lead two teams of Canadian volunteers into the Onzole community to help the staff and parents repair one of the elementary schools.
Feel free to write me! I love getting news from home and if you would like to hear more about how our community is doing down here I’d be happy to write you more!
Sincerely,
Nikki