Nueva Suyapa

This weekend I went to Nueva Suyapa. I was only there for 24 hours, but it was really interesting. I spent the night with another Calvin student in the home of a family in Nueva Suyapa. This family lives in a VERY small house--one room, but divided into 2 with sheets. 10 people live here. Suyapa and Jorge have 6 kids: Carla, Vanessa, Darwin, Kevin, David, and Genesis; ages 6-23. Carla's husband made some bad choices and left her and went to the US, so Carla is living with her parents again, along with her two kids: Axel (4) and Jo Anna (1). Nueva Suyapa only gets water once every 15 days. The don't have tanks to store the water, either. They need to collect it in empty pop bottles. Imagine this. They have 10 people to bathe and to wash clothes for (the bathroom is an outhouse, so they don't need water for the toilet). It's hard to believe. This family runs their own business making sandals. They have over 20 designs and are very popular. They are so kind and hospitable. It was weird to share a very small room with 11 other people, but it was a great stay. This is something else that just makes me think about justice and life and different cultures. But I have talked on and on about that already.... so I'm just going to let it lie for now.