A change of scenery

I don´t have very long to write because I am getting ready to leave the office. But I wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow I will be living in four of the rural communities where we work for two to three days at a time. I will come back to Jinotepe and my main host family on Thursday, September 4th.

I am going to the rural communities for two reasons. The first is to conduct my investigations for Luke´s Society. Part of my work for them is to do some investigations regarding how the Bible and its teachings brings changes to their lives. I will then take that information and begin to write a Bible Study manual for them to use in the rural communities. The hope is that with this manual further changes will come to the communities. Luke´s Society wants the whole aspect of the people´s lives to change - not only their physical life through having clean water and better nutrition, but also their ways of relating to one another and their relationship with God. They want to write this manual and for me to do this investigation so they better know how much of the communities are actually changing and the depth of these changes. They hope that this work will then allow them to better help not only these communities, but any other communities where they work in the future. The second reason for my stay in the rural areas is to help me understand another side of life in Nicaragua and how rural life differs from that of the city and to also learn about their struggles.

So tomorrow I begin my investigation. I found out this morning that I was beginning today. I had it scheduled to begin sometime this week, but with the way things went last week I assumed it would not be until the end of the week. I will be going with two of my co-workers to one of the communities tomorrow where they have some meetings and activities. I will then stay there with one of the community health promotors after they leave. During my days in the community I will be conducting a series of interviews. I am hoping to interview 10 people in each community. 5 of these will have had a lot of contact with Luke´s Society and the other 5 will not. I will also be conducting a total of 4 interviews with couples in each community. Lastly I will have one group interview or more of a focus group discussion with 3 to 5 people. After finishing work in one community I will move on to another. The children in the communities or some of the adults are going to be taking me around the communities and helping me find the people I need to talk with and making sure I don´t get lost.

On the 4th I will return to Jinotepe for a day and a half and then on the 6th I will leave again for the other portion of the rural communities. I will be there until the 13th. I am mostly really excited about this opportunity. I know at least some of the people in each community, so it will not be like entering a complete unknown. Also all of the people I will be staying with are very trustworthy people who have a long history of working with Luke´s Society. I am a little nervous, though, about my actual interviews. I hope my questions are good and that I get the information that I need. I also hope the people show up. It is common for people to say they are coming and then they have other tasks to do during the day.

When I get back on the 4th I will fill you in on all my fun stories and also on Nica rural life. Hope you all are well.