HOLA! Greetings from Nicaragua and the beautiful spirit of the children and the people here.

I wish I could package the fullness of heart I experience when I am here, and the gratitude of a people that have so little and as a result become so very much in their wisdom and hearts and souls and generosity of spirit.

Yesterday was our first day here, and what a full trip it has already been! In the morning we visited the women's hospital we work with, the only women's hospital in the whole country. This one hospital serves a population of over 5 million people. We travelled from bed to bed teaching the women how to do acupressure for their pain on one another, as they do not have money for pain medicines. Visited only by doctors and nurses once every day or two, they rely on each other for comfort and support in their pain, telling stories and jokes. All of us were moved by how little the hospital had in terms of technology and educated support, but by how very much the hospital had in terms of community, care and heart. We taught them HeartMath to help manage the fears of being ill, and the lonliness of missing their families. Because the hospital is so small and serves so many, families are not able to visit because there is not room for them in the crowded rooms. Sadly, many families reject their ill loved ones as well. Often, when women have a female cancer, they are thrown out of the house because they can no longer "serve" the men. Many are beaten because their ability to "pleasure" their husbands is gone. The stress of this, as well as having terminal illness, and the concern of what will become of their children after they die, weighs heavily upon them. It was marvelous to watch their smiles come alive and peace descend upon their faces when when they found contact with their hearts and knew that our organization was here to care for their children after they go. The women who are in the chemotherapy and radiation ward for cancer must cook all their own meals and wash all of their own clothes. With all of the discussions that are happening now about our health care in the United States, how marvelous to give ourselves pause and appreciate what we DO have compared to so many in the world.

After our visit to the hospital, we met up with the children in our school in Ruben Dario, a tough barrio in downtown Managua. We will be back there on Monday to show the whole community the Care Counts video but for those who had starred in the film we made about our work 3 years ago (Click here to watch it!) we took them to a celebration at a local swimming hole! How wonderful it was to be reunited with them! It continually amazes me how true it is that no love is ever wasted. For these children, I had only spent a week with them three years ago, but the impression left has been indelible in their lives. All of them except one have stayed in school (an unheard of ratio here), and kept their visions for when they grow up to help other children in Nicaragua alive. One of the mothers approached me with something that brought me to tears and humbled me to the core. "Thank you," she said, "for being a second mother to my children. Every time we walk by the corner where they met you they say, 'this is where we met the Chevita!' and ask me when you are coming back. Because of the school supplies you sent my children could stay in school after their father died in an accident. They ask about you every day, and thank you at every meal." This stopped me in my tracks. For these were children that I had not singled out as special. They were in my mind just children that were"in our programs." I had made no extra effort to contact them or bring them gifts. I realized at the personality level I assumed they were taking our help for granted, and as a result I took them for granted. When I saw their faces light up and the gratitude pour from their hearts and minds over a smile sent their way or a simple spiral bound notebook and pen handed to them, my own icy distance melted within me. When I heard their mother say her fourteen year old boy cried weeks ago thinking that I had forgotten him and he did not matter to me anymore, my preoccupations with my own worries that kept me from attending to their needs vaished. What had I been thinking? It is not us down here helping them. They are restoring my sense of priority of what really matters in life. They are giving me my human dignity back in the opportunity to step into what I was born for- to care. And to see that my care has genuine impact. If I really knew- really truly knew- how much impact my care had the last time I was down here, I would have taken the time and space and resources to care so much more in the time I have been away. And I hope this start to your week is a wonderful confirmation for all of you reading it that your care does matter. Wherever it is pointed, your care counts! So very very much. For you, and for our world. Thank you for your care.

Now I must sign off as we are two hours late for our 3 hour journey to our school in the north where we will be showing the Care Counts video this afternoon to many of our sponsored children in the most resource poor community in Nicaragua. This is the school that we thought we might have to close for a mere lack of $230 per month. Now, after seeing the impact we are having on these children's lives with our schools, closing that school is not an option. Even if I have to pay for it myself. If any of you would like to purchase an extra class or session with me once a month in order to pay to keep this school alive, I would be happy to do that as well! Let me know!!

Meanwhile, know all my love and care and the gratitude of the people of Nicaragua is the thread tying this quilt of words together for you on this Monday in September, 2009. Until next week!

Sheva Carr