Families in La Chureca, Nicaragua, live in a giant trash dump and survive on the small amounts of money they receive from recycling reusable materials from the trash. A group of Auburn students made the trek to La Chureca to to help the citizens and expand their horizons. "The real goal of this trip was to really feed these kids, and not just physically--feed them physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually," said Mark Chuckney, senior in international business who led the group through an organization called Frontier Horizon. "I'm not into building stuff, but I am into relationships. What these kids really need is love and just to know that people care about them."
Chuckney said 65 students from several different universities went on the trip, and the team focused on building relationships with people and providing for their needs. "Every day, what they do is they dig through the trash," Chuckney said. "Hospitals come and dump biohazard bags with syringes, bedpans--you name it, it happens." Many of the residents of La Chureca inhale glue to curb the pangs of hunger, Chuckney said. Each day, the team planned fun activities for kids and teenagers in the and around the La Chureca area. The team took 80 children to the beach, rented out a club and hosted a dance party and dinner for more than 100 prostitutes, took a group of children to a volcano and gave makeovers to young girls who live in the La Chureca area.
The team also put plastic roofs on houses in La Chureca, removed lice from more than 160 children's hair and worked in an infant orphanage. Each member of the team packed two 50-pound suitcases of clothing to donate. Five thousand pounds of clothing were donated, Chuckney said. "This team was so selfless in the way they served," Chuckney said. "I saw over 65 people from all different colleges, towns, backgrounds and upbringings just come together as one body." Lindsay Chuckney, sophomore in pre-nursing and co-planner of the trip, said she saw one woman who represented the saddest side of poverty. "She had a little cup of glue kind of cupped into her bra, sniffing it, and she was really just very high," Lindsay said. "She came up to us and started kissing everyone and then she reached out a Bible out of nowhere and was just crying and talking crazy Spanish."
Lindsay said many times working with children in poverty is a joyous task because they are grateful, smiling and laughing, but meeting this woman showed the team the dark side of poverty. "A lot of people cried because it was just really sad to see someone who is just out of their mind," Lindsay said. "It was a big eye-opener for a lot of people." The happiest moment of the trip for Lindsay was the night the girls on the team brought 50 girls from La Chureca to their hotel rooms and gave them makeovers. "We brought down a lot of dresses and each girl got to pick out one dress and feel pretty for once in their life," Lindsay said. "By the end of the night they were so happy." Mo Wright, senior in secondary social sciences education, said the trip has changed her outlook on life.
"I'm just going to walk through life and realize that everything that happens is miniscule compared to the way some people have to live everyday," Wright said. "My worst day is better than any day that they could even imagine." Another trip will be led by Lindsay next spring break and information about how to participate will be available through Facebook in the coming fall.
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