Rio Coco 2013

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A Missionary Kid... Josh McGrew

Chink, chink, chink! That was the feeling of chiseling, which at first seemed unbearable – I didn’t know what to make of it. All I knew was that it really hurt. I would only discover its purpose almost four years later.

When I was 14 years old, my parents told me that we would be moving to the Central American country of Nicaragua. My first reaction was anger; I was supposed to be the captain of our hockey team that fall. We were moving to Nicaragua in order to do volunteer missions work, helping the poorest of the poor, and I would go to a small private Christian school. I soon learned that our financial state would be uncertain as well.  Chink, chink, chink! My life, it seemed, dropped of a cliff.

            On June 29^th, 2010, our family of five left our town of Edmonds, Washington and began the trek to Managua, Nicaragua, my “home” for the next four years. I couldn’t shake this feeling of resentment – I was disgruntled that I had to leave hockey and my friends in Washington but little did I know, those things would soon fade in importance.  I haven't had all the opportunities as students in the U.S would have, including music, varsity sports and AP courses. But because of my time at NCA I have become fluent in Spanish and have had the opportunity to travel to Panama to debate in HACIA Democracy, an event organized by Harvard students in order to provide youth the opportunity to represent member nations of the OAS, and get a taste of the diplomatic profession. These combined experiences have been much more valuable than any education I could have received back in suburban Edmonds.

A couple of months after the move, I started attending class at Nicaragua Christian Academy. I have been attending NCA ever since my first year of living in Nicaragua, and have grown to love it. Since the school was created for American students living in Nicaragua, U.S. curriculum is taught – not by Nicaraguans – by North Americans. This has always been my breath of fresh air whenever I just need to talk to somebody who enjoys the same “American” things I do. At NCA, I was and have been able to participate in many of the same activities

            While in Nicaragua, my life has not been lived only among people of my same social status; in fact, much of my time has been spent with the impoverished locals of Managua, those whose poverty is unimaginable to most North Americans. I have ventured into the dirtiest parts of the city dump just to share some bread and coke with men, women and children who live among the mounds of trash. I have had the opportunity to hug kids and care for them in a situation where it is unlikely that anybody else does. I have seen people with nothing and I feel the chink, chink of the chisel again and again.

Different from many international students, I have had this opportunity to develop my perspective by stepping out of my comfort zone – stepping away from being fully North American. Not only have I learned a lot, but I’ve also grown to have a genuine thankfulness that is difficult to develop without experiencing such poverty firsthand.

            Though life has not been easy, I have come to understand it this way: I started my life as a misshapen block and every difficulty in it, every chink, has been equivalent to the blow of an artist’s chisel. Each blow may have been painful, but in the end, something amazing and unique has formed: me. Experiencing hard times and different challenges in life has made me unique. Moving to Nicaragua has forever changed my life because of my education and grown perspective. I have been well crafted and made into a person that people can connect with very easily, something that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.