Nigh Ox Newsletter

June 2001

Tillers and First Baptist Collaborate for Health and Education

By Rachel Bemis

In March, several volunteers & Tillers staff joined efforts with the First Baptist Church of Kalamazoo for a second annual work trip to Nicaragua. There were 11 in our group: Don, Rachel, & Andrew Bemis, Carol & Kris Svenson, John Sarge, Rick Gutierrez, Gyula Ficsor, Pat Wentworth, George Crouse, & Ben Jameson.

I was on my way from the latrine to the truck, thinking how nice it would be to crawl into my sleeping bag beneath the mosquito net and get some much-needed rest, when three young girls kidnapped me. They grabbed my fingers and pulled me off into the dark, babbling as fast as only children can, much too fast for me to translate a word of their Spanish. Eventually they stopped, and after a few seconds my eyes adjusted to the light of a single candle in a room.

It appeared this was the girls' house and it was full of people. It didn't take much longer to realize they were all staring at me. The girls giggled and their mother motioned me to the empty chair in the light of a candle. I sat down. They told me to speak. And so we spoke. We spoke of families, of schools, of the drought, the animals, the new health clinic we were helping to stucco. We spoke of churches and faith, of similarities and differences. We spoke of language and farming and Tillers. "This," I thought to myself, "is what Tillers is about." Tillers' passion is for sharing knowledge, understanding, and skills, especially in helping aid development efforts. It is fascinating to do this here in Kalamazoo, and it is amazing to have the opportunity to share on-site in Nicaragua.

The first week we spent a couple of days in Managua at the PROVADENIC headquarters for orientation before heading up to Quebrada Grande, a rural village just south of Honduras. We were there to help work on the community's health clinic; I'm not sure how much help we were, since the local men had much more experience in mixing cement and stuccoing than we probably ever will, but they were thrilled that we were there and we were equally thrilled to spend time getting to know them. We did finish the project before we left, and, more than that, Tillers' work in Nicaragua is helping to bring organizations and people together in order that each might be a resource to the others.

Right now, Tillers is working primarily with three groups in Nicaragua: RELATA, PROVADENIC, and Rancho Ebenezer PROVADENIC is a vaccination and health care project that began in 1967. PROVADENIC works closely with ProFamilia (a family planning organization) and Rancho Ebenezer. Rancho Ebenezer is a farm dedicated to raising small animals and teaching people to care for them, conducting careful research to improve farming methods and education. It is at Ebenezer that some of our group stayed an additional week to teach blacksmithing. Tillers International is in a unique position to be able to partner with each of these groups in Central America to enhance the work they have already begun. At the same time, Tillers learns from their experience and research.

It was a terrifying moment when I was asked to speak in a dim room full of people, in a language I don't use particularly well. I realized, however, learning is not a function of how well a language is understood; it is a function of how well people and ideas are understood. I hope to be able to return next year. With each trip we learn more and are better equipped to teach. May our work in Nicaragua continue.