"Beauty and The Beast" Part II

I continue my writings about our family’s trip to Nicaragua, the homeland of my wife to which she had not been back in 30 years. As I said last week, Nicaragua is a country of stark contrast, or what I called Beauty and The Beast. Last week I wrote about the beauty. This week it’s the beast.
The beast is in large part due to the country’s history of civil wars and natural disasters. Since the 1920’s the country has experienced at least four civil wars that were directed against either the right winged American back governments or the left wing communist governments backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union. At least two of their presidents and numerous political rivals have been assassinated in these revolutions.
Added to the political chaos have been several major natural disasters. In 1972 the capital city of Managua was rocked by a massive earthquake that killed 5,000 people, left the city in ruins and 60% of its inhabitants homeless. The aftermath of the earthquake also took the life of the Pittsburg Pirate’s Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente. He was killed in a plane crash on his way to help the victims of the earthquake. Hurricane Mitch and the resulting mudslides in 1998 killed 9,000 Nicaraguans and left 2 million homeless.
The end result is the second most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. Over 50% of the people are unemployed or underemployed. 80% of the people live on less than $2 a day. My mere words can not adequately convey the utter poverty that we observed. Nicaragua is the largest country in Central American and the vast majority of the people live in absolute poverty.
The cities are the worst in many respects. Managua has to be one of the most filthy cities in the world. Trash is everywhere and the stench of sewage can be smelled frequently. The rural areas often look like they probably did 100 years ago. Horse drawn buggies and tin shacks with dirt floors are common sites.
The most heartbreaking though is the children. Many are orphaned or working on the streets. They are begging or selling anything you can image (except of course hot water and air conditioning). It is no wonder that Nicaragua has become one of the top mission fields of evangelical churches from the United States.
For us the major discomforts were 8 days of no hot water and little to no air conditioning in 95 degree weather. The trip made me realize that we Americans are spoiled. Even our most impoverished folks live like kings compared to other parts of the world. And I have even less tolerance for all the Americans, both on the left and the right, that want to complain about the ills of our country. Sure, we’ve got our problems but, Simply Put, we’ve got it made in the shade compared to many of the folks around this world.
From the front porch: Coach said sorry looks back, worry looks around and faith looks up.