Living In the Shadow of Volcanos

Yesterday we got underway early. Before leaving Managua, we visited Jubilee House Community, the home base for the Center for Development in Central America, which you can find at www.jhc-cdca.org. I visited them once in 2006 as a member of a Witness for Peace delegation. It was good to reconnect with Sarah and to learn that she will visit Raleigh early in April. She will have items to sell after presentations as a way to fund some of the work that she is doing among the people of Central America.

Jubilee House is adjacent to the village of Sadino, which remains the poorest neighborhood in all of Nicaragua. It was established by Somoza with the funds sent to Nicaragua from countries all over the world to help rebuild the city of Managua after the earthquake in the early 70's. The only rebuilding the people received were a couple of poles and a sheet of black plastic. Period!!! Not much "bang" for the millions of "bucks" that poured into the coffers of the dictatorship. It is heartrending to see 200,000 people living in these conditions.

When our tour was complete we piled back into our van and made our way to Leon, an ancient city which was settled by Indians who made their way south from northern California in the 1600's. Never have I seen so many churches. There is one on almost every block. The main cathedral on the central square dates back to 1747, but was not completed until 1861. It is the third largest cathedral in Central and South America, behind those in Mexico City, Mexico and Lima, Peru.

The tour we took today included a climb to the roof of the cathedral. From that vantage point we could see the city sprawling in all directions. On the horizon we could see five of the tallest volcanoes in Central America, the tallest of which filled the sky with a thick plume of smoke, and the smallest of which has the distinction of erupting on an average of once in every seven years. I wish the guide had told us where we were in THAT cycle. I am beginning to wonder if the high number of churches has any correlation to the number of volcanoes on the horizon.

—Pastor Larry (Leon, Nicaragua)