Members of Love & Kindness pose for a group shot on a Nicaraguan beach. The group recently returned from its humanitarian trip. Submitted photo

CASSADAGA — Cassadaga residents Krista and Adam Meyers have recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Nicaragua that they and their two children will remember for a lifetime.

Gracie and Gavin, at only 5 years and 20 months old, respectively, are learning valuable lessons that come with world travel and helping the needy.

The Meyers are part of a humanitarian group organized by Krista’s mother, Sande Irwin, called Love & Kindness. They, along with 16 others, toured rural villages of Nicaragua and performed such deeds as raising money for food and clothing, erecting a house, interacting with locals and releasing baby sea turtles into the ocean.

The people of these villages live in extreme poverty and any help is graciously welcomed.

One such village is called El Limonal, and it’s literally surrounded by a giant garbage dump.

“Twenty years ago, 300,000 people were displaced by Hurricane Mitch and a few thousand were sent to the dump to set up temporary homes,” Krista said.

Those homes eventually became permanent.

“That was hard to see through first-world eyes,” Krista said. “People work eight hours a day to rummage through the garbage to find recyclables.”

Adam said that a good day of rummaging for a villager in El Limonal is when “they come away with a single US dollar” worth of stuff.

While there, Love & Kindness members raised “enough money to help out at the women’s coop and buy enough rice, beans and oil to feed eight families for a month,” Krista said.

Before leaving on their trip in late February, Gracie had raised roughly $300 by selling homemade bookmarks online.

Gracie used that money to sponsor a number of sea turtle nests.

“The people that organize (the release) will go at night time, searching for turtle eggs and collect them,” Krista said. “They’re kept safe in a sanctuary so they won’t be eaten by whatever animals and they’re protected from poachers.”

The Meyers said while on the tour they met a local guide who exemplified the Nicaraguan spirit.

“She is very industrious,” Krista said. “She started her own tour guide business. She wanted to learn English so bad that she asked her company to hire her for free so she could speak English more.”

The tour guide told the Meyers that, despite the poverty many of her people face, the Nicaraguan people can be summed up in three positive words: “Hardworking, friendly and happy.”

“Even though they have so little, everyone was very happy,” Krista said. “The kids are smiling, running around and climbing trees. Not one child was sitting in front of a screen.”

The Meyers explained that it doesn’t cost a lot to help.

“Two hundred dollars can feed two hundred people,” Adam said.

Outside of the humanitarian work, members of Love & Kindness spent some time interacting with the locals by playing baseball and participating in a unique activity called volcano boarding

“We sat on a board and we got to ride down an active volcano, going about 1,000 meters down,” Adam said. “It was really fun.”

To find out more about the “dump village” of El Limonal, “there is an eye-opening documentary … called ‘Gringos in the Garbage,'” Krista said.

“For anyone who would like to donate money to help the people in Nicaragua, they can do so through this reputable organization that gives 91 percent of their donations to those in need.”

The next Love & Kindness trip is scheduled for Feb. 25 to March 7, 2019. To get involved, e-mail Sande Irwin at doulaguru@gmail.com.