When I am in the thick of the day to day, it is easy to focus on what has to be done for the future and dwell on everything that has yet to be accomplished. Last week I took a quick trip to the States to visit donors and pursue some new opportunities for Water & Light. Conversations with old friends and the 6 hours of driving between Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho gave me some time to reflect on what has been accomplished in Salinas Grande in the past year. Sometimes it takes looking back to gain the momentum needed to push forward. I became aware, more than ever, that the Lord began weaving our family’s story together with a small fishing village in Nicaragua a long time ago.
One example is our computer teacher Yunior. He finished high school and started on his computer degree at the university about 5 years ago. When he rode the chicken bus to his first Saturday of classes, we were living on the Oregon coast and I did not know Salinas Grande even existed. Fast forward to January 2019. We had spent the last year building a children’s center, moved into a small home on the same property, and had 6 generously donated computers ready to be used. The internet was finally hooked up and we were in search of a teacher. I knew of Yunior from his work volunteering as a mentor for SuNica and so we asked him if he would be interested in a job as the Tribu Radiante computer teacher. It turns out that after going to computer school every Saturday for the last 5 years, he was graduating and ready to find a job. Over the years he had gone toe to toe with his father (a fisherman) who wanted him to quit school and work on the family fishing boat. What’s the point, his father thought, there is no hope of ever getting a computer job that pays. Yunior respectfully followed his dream while volunteering as a mentor and helping with the family business. Our path collided with his in late January when we offered him a job using his degree in his hometown. He told us it was his dream to come back to Salinas and teach young people about computers, but he had no idea where he would find the resources he needed. You could say it's a coincidence that we found each other just at the right time, but I believe things happen for a reason.
La Tribu Radiante and an interview with Yunior