Concern for Nicaraguan friends

Aaron Kienle and his family have been watching the protests and the use of force by the government to quell the civil unrest in the Republic of Nicaragua with great interest.

Kienle explained his family has rather close ties to Nicaragua having spent a considerable amount of time there through the years, establishing friendships they still maintain.

“Actually it started with my brother Joel when he was in Europe,” said Aaron in a recent Yorkton This Week interview.

Joel was travelling to visit a number of countries when he happened to hear a presentation by the Peace and Hope Trust in England relating to Nicaragua. Through the presentation Joel was given a flight to the South American country, creating the first connection for the family.

In time Aaron and his wife Carrie and eventually their children would visit the country, spending months at a time not just in the populace cities, but along the Caribbean cost, one of the poorest areas in the country, and even boating inland to villages there.

Aaron said initially he basically sluffed off Joel’s interest, but then when in Costa Rica they crossed into Nicaragua for the first time.

“Crossing that border we noticed the people were so different from Costa Rica. They didn’t have very much, but they were so happy. It was so inspirational,” he said.

“Over the next three years Carrie and I went back to Nicaragua.”

During their time in Nicaragua Kienle said they worked to help out where they could, pitching in to build a school, a rehabilitation centre, and working on a coffee plantation.

And Aaron said they did some fundraising and used the money to purchase uniforms, bats, gloves, balls, all the gear needed to play baseball from Hometown Sports in Yorkton, then took the gear to a poor community in Nicaragua.

“It was quite a thing to see a boat heading up river filled with baseball gear,” he said.

The involvement through those years made friendships which have endured even as local responsibilities have kept the Kienle family from going back to Nicaragua in recent years.

Now as protesters take to the streets against president Daniel Ortega, Aaron said they are concerned. Ortega and his government have used force to quell protests and that is having an effect on the poorest in Nicaragua. There are roadblocks in areas, including the Caribbean Coast region that are limiting food supplies to people who are so poor they just live day-to-day.

The situation in Nicaragua is getting limited international press, in part because Ortega controls media in the country, said Aaron, who is trying to raise some awareness locally that people are suffering as they fight for democracy.

“I wanted to do more for the people we were in contact with when we were there,” he said, adding getting supplies to the most needy is the first step, which he hopes is aided by people being made aware of the current situation.