March 26, 2014

By Shan Moore
Staff Writer

A small boy watched the little group of volunteers carrying bags of rice and beans up the steep hill to his house in the poor Nicaraguan barrio.

Running to his father, the child told him excitedly in Spanish: "My aunts and uncles are bringing us food!"
"It was amazing to me," said Leagon Carlin, 17, one of those who made that trek.

That boy, maybe three or four years old, had looked upon him and the other North Country Mission of Hope volunteers not as strangers, nor just benefactors, but as family.

Global growth
The logo of the Plattsburgh-based group, chosen about 16 years ago, is the world encircled by people of all colors holding hands.

"The wisdom that was unfolding (within the group) at the time was really about global awareness, global community," said Dominican Sister of Hope Sister Debbie Blow, who is Mission of Hope (MOH) executive director.

Sixteen years of bringing aid to the poor in Nicaragua has built a bond that furthers that global aim bit by bit.
It has also cemented a connection that grows ever stronger between the Nicaraguans and Mission of Hope missioners.

"They are so happy to see us — and they don't forget our faces," said Sally Kokes, a parishioner of St. Augustine's in Peru, who make her third MOH trip in February.

The student she sponsors, a 16-year-old named Gilbert, "spotted me first this year," she said. And Gilbert, for the first time, was able to converse with her in her own native tongue. "A year ago, he could hardly say hello in English," she said.

Much accomplished
This trip, according to Sister Debbie, the volunteers built nine home shelters and a school kitchen; painted a wing of a children's hospital and rooms at a women's health center; made repairs at schools; taught English to students; delivered 600 pounds of rice and the same amount of beans to families in 10 poor barrios; conducted a pediatric clinic and more.

Nicaraguans pitch in where they can, especially building home shelters, and it's something MOH encourages.
It is demeaning to people to have everything done for them, Mrs. Kokes said.

"They lose their sense of self worth, they lose their pride." There is a lesson in that for the missioners.

Another, Mrs. Kokes said, came from a little boy who was playing with a truck made from scraps of wood.
"One wheel kept falling off, and (the child) kept putting it back on."

She couldn't help but think about two big red trucks in her attic that her grandchildren had once played with.
"And here this kid was happily playing with a truck that kept falling apart."

‘Very overwhelming’
The poverty, visible everywhere the missioners look, is hard to swallow, said Jackie Ward, 16, of Gouverneur and a parishioner at St. James Parish there.

"It's sad, and it's very overwhelming," she said via cellphone in the midst of the recent mission. "We write in our journals and that helps to get your feelings off your chest."

Leagon, on a path to enter seminary in the fall, relied on faith as he witnessed the depths of the destitution.
"I don't think I would be able to cope with it without the church, without prayer and the strength given by God alone," he said.

At the same time, he sees God in the poor of Nicaragua and is uplifted by them.

"These people have absolutely nothing," he said, (but) even in the midst of that poverty, the absolute joy ... they exhibit can only come from their faith.

"In our country, you never see that," he mused. "It shows possessions are not where happiness come from."

Returning home hard
Kokes feels the same.

"When I see the people, who with nothing monetarily can be so happy as long as they have their family and their faith, I really believe that's what it means when God says he'll take care of us,” she said.

"He doesn't necessarily always give the (material) things people need, but he puts somebody in their path who can help."

Returning home isn't easy. Back in Peru, the aspects of life she takes for granted -wasting time, wasting resources, the American's habit of acquiring stuff they don't really need - hits her in the face as she thinks of how little in material goods Nicaraguans have.

"You have to kind of re-immerse yourself," she said. "I get really crabby."

Leagon has not eaten in his school cafeteria since returning from mission in 2013.

"There's so much waste," he said. "The amount of food waste and waste in general that we have every day is staggering when you come back from a place that has nothing."

To help Mission of Hope
Learn more about North Country Mission of Hope at: ncmissionofhope.org.
• Cost to sponsor a child's education is $140 a year. That also covers clothes, shoes and a daily multivitamin.
• Feed a child for a year for $75.
• Sponsor an orphan, including some who have HIV, for $300.
• Partial scholarships are available. • Donations can be made for general purposes.
Send checks to:
North Country Mission of Hope, P.O. Box 2522, Plattsburgh NY 12901.

Photo Provided
Sally Kokes of Peru poses for a photo with the Nicaraguan family who received (and helped build) a new home shelter during her third North Country Mission of Hope experience in the Central American country. The tiny but sturdy shelter, one of nine built this trip to replace shacks of tree branches, plastic and scraps of tin, was paid for by a North Country family in memory of a lost loved one.