Isn't she beautiful. This picture was taken near Las Salinas, Nicaragua, approximately 2.5 hours drive SW of Managua. This child lives in a three room structure along with her 11 brothers and sisters, mother and father. The structure does not have windows or screening, nor running water, and until this date had a dirt floor. Water is drawn from a 20 foot-deep open well by a tattered rope. Bathing involves drawing several buckets from the well and takes place in an open air stall. Although her clothes are torn and stained, they are clean. The clothes she is wearing are probably all she owns. She, along with most of the other children, do not have shoes or even sandals. Some of us left our clothing and shoes that fit the older children.

Click here for a slideshow with 55 photos from this trip. Seven surfers from Brevard County , Florida, and several people from the nearby surf camp (Popoyo Surf Lodge), poured a concrete floor for the entire structure during this trip. All work was done by hand as there are no concrete mixers or other power tools in the area. A concrete floor significantly raises the standard of living for this family. Since materials must be transported from quite far away over very poor roads, they are expensive compared to what we pay here in Florida. Materials were purchased with funds donated by friends and family of the travelers. All travel expenses were paid personally by the individual travelers.

During this one-week trip we only worked on the building project for about 8 hours over a two-day period. Since volunteer turnout from the Popoyo Surf Lodge and by area locals was so good, the job was finished faster than we anticipated. A typical mission/surfing trip will usually involve surfing once or twice a day and one or two partial-day work sessions. The surf in the area is extremely good for short boards, but was usually a little too fast (and big) for me on a 9'4" longboard. I only saw two other longboards in the area during the week.

Our work-project efforts were performed as a mission activity under the direction of Danny Cruden. Local assistance was provided by JJ Yemma of Popoyo Surf Lodge. This particular mission activity is called Surfing with a Purpose. If you would like to contribute to mission efforts in Nicaragua, or if you would like to go on surfing/mission trip to Nicaragua, contact Danny Cruden. Please reference Surfing with a Purpose as the subject of your e-mail. Click the link to visit Danny's website.

Non-mission related (just plain vacation) travel:

If you simply want to travel to the area on your own for surfing and/or fishing (both are very good), there are two camps in the vicinity. These are: Popoyo Surf Lodge, run by former Brevard County, Florida, resident JJ Yemma and his wife Kimberly; and Surfari Charters International run by Lance Moss and Kristin Dotsey. Popoyo Surf Lodge can accommodate approximately 20 people at a time. Surfari Charters, located right next door, can accommodate 4 people at a time. Visit the websites at the links above for more information. We stayed at the Popoyo Surf Lodge. The food there was excellent.