Ministerio Agua de Vida

The communities along the Bocay River (Rio Bocay) north of the small port of Ayapal are only accessible by the river. Hence this remote region has very little social infrastructure such as schools, medical clinics or potable water supplies. Our good friends, missionaries Ronnie and Angi Hopkins have been working with these communities for several years and asked that Ed accompany a team on a survey trip to assess how they might help these communities.

Angi & Ronnie Hopkins

Bustling Puerto Ayapal

We travelled to the communities in long dugout canoes which we boarded at Puerto Ayapal (Port Ayapal). This small, bustling community is located a long (8 hour), bumpy ride from the Managua airport, literally at the "end of the road". It was truly a wonder to see all the things being transported on the river - pigs, building materials, produce, passengers, and us "gringos". The canoes are actually hewn from large tree trunks, and are about the only crafts that can hold up in the rapids and on the rocks. Our canoes had small 15 hp outboard motors - Ronnie probably had to pay a bit extra for this but it was well worth it. The pilot is assisted by a man (or two) steering the front of the canoe with a long pole. These guys were good!

Motoring along the Rio Bacay

Our Base Camp at the old Kayaskita Church

Ronnie is working with Pastor Ramirez who is a District Coordinator with the Assembly of God church. Pastor Ramirez and his community of Kayaskita welcomed us with open arms. We set up our "base camp" at the old church near the river - some of us stayed in the church and others slept outside in tents (including Ed). We then spent each of the following 3 days visiting 2 communities each day - traveling by canoe. We got REALLY good at balancing on these logs! Since we were in the rainforest we should not have been surprised that it rained a LOT - we probably did not go any more than 3 hours without rain.

Pastor Ramirez watches Terry Harper navigate a local "bridge"

Tuna Walan Assembly of God Church

The communities that we visited showed amazing self-sufficiency. At several communities the local congregations had built beautiful churches - very well constructed of concrete blocks and metal roofs. All the materials were brought in by canoe and then transported up the trails to the work site. Concrete blocks were hand made in a press using imported cement and river sand - one at the time! These are some hard working, patient folks.

Typical water supply

Spring site is in the mountains above the community

Each of the communities that we visited had well organized planning committees, and they were working toward improving their schools, medical clinics and water systems. Many of the families drank water from the river or from other runoff sources. There are many springs in the mountains above, some as far as 3 miles away. Several communities have already bought a couple of acres around the spring heads to protect the water and assure access. Our plan is to assist the communities financially with funds for pipe and cement as well as engineering and planning. Each community expressed their willingness to provide the necessary labor to bury the pipe and build the spring box, water reservoirs and water stations. Please pray for these projects.

Technical Details

Project date: January 11 - 15, 2015

Location: Latitude, longitude and elevation of each community are shown below:

Project Cost: $1,858 (Survey trip only - costs for each project are expected to range from $10,000 to $20,000)

Type of project: Future installation of spring water collection and distribution systems

People served: Communities range from 70 to 18 families