Our family had the opportunity to join Color My World in Nicaragua this summer.
We were a group of 30- all which we didn’t know before hand and yet, became family throughout the week. We worked hard and helped one another. Teenagers came from all different states and helped my younger boys- whether it was through their fine example of hard work and leadership, playing with them, inspiring them, or at times ‘bodyguarding’ them. The teenagers brought energy and strength to our projects.
We also had a few families join the group. We loved getting to know them. We had a young man that worked on his Eagle project as well as my own son. A generous donation was given to provide the first technology at the school in a small village for the kids and a beautiful basketball court.
We were blessed to work with such an amazing organizer for the group, Angela Hughes, who I will forever be grateful for. She and her family are a blessing and angels to the world. We also had Dan, who shares his passion to help others and relates so well to people help CMW. He was so fun to have and my kids still mimick his awesome British accent.
We love each person in our group as we built memories working side by side sweating and playing. We enjoyed our night time chats where we came together and talked about the day.
We started building some of the first houses in a small village for families without homes, helped teach English at the school, feed lunch to the village and played with the cutest kids that live in some very poor areas near the Garbage Dump, visited the sweetest kids at an orphanage-who we quickly all adored from the first minute of playing with them, my son handed out hygiene/dental kits that the people loved, we built relationships with the locals and loved talking to them and hearing their stories.
We love each person we met as we worked and played side by side with them each day. They are the hardest working and most resourceful people ever. Our friends in Nicaragua blessed our lives and touched our hearts. We love them so much! We stayed at the most beauitful surf lodge, Monty’s Surf Lodge. We stayed in an awesome hut feet away from the ocean. Our lives have been changed, our hearts touched, and we will forever be grateful for this experience together.
Many times I wondered if this trip was for us- I wondered if I could really do this… Now, we are wondering when we can go back and feeling grateful to God for this beautiful world, beautiful children all over the world, and for giving us the opportunity to change our lives for the better.
Reflecting upon how grateful I am for God’s love, my family, the strength to get out of my comfort zone, the blessing of meeting such amazing people in my life and for the opportunity to go to Nicaragua with Color My World Kids. What a special experience for our family. One we will treasure forever in our hearts. We love our friends in Nicaragua and Color My World! Thank you for such a beautiful week.
{Written by Diane Ferre}
