Livinkrik
Michael and Laura Bagby with teacher Rey McCoy at Cristobal Colón Elementary School in Livinkrik.
How do you spell Livinkrik? Despite the fact that the words LIVING CREEK are painted on the sides of the public health clinic, it is hard to get two natives to agree on the way one ought to spell the name of their village in their own language. To be sure, they pronounce it LIBINkrik. After taking a secret survey (the villages didn’t know I was taking an orthography sample), we found Livinkrik to be the most common spelling. So, for the time being at least, Livinkrik it is. We can always change it later, like we did with Peking, China, correct?
Although Livinkrik is smaller than Sawa, Klampa, and even neighboring Utla Mahta, the Nicaraguan government has always given Livinkrik preeminent attention. It was the first village on the lower river to boast a cement walkway, a public health clinic, and a high school. Two years ago, Cristobal Colón, the local elementary school, was the first one in our sector to be given drums and brass instruments with which to celebrate Independence Day on September 15.
A Catholic stronghold, Livinkrik native lay pastor and former Seek the Lamb teacher Roy McCoy is the regional supervisor. His brother Rey, a capable professional, teaches in both the elementary school and the high school, where students come to study from as far away as Sawa, which requires an arduous daily hike along the edge of the river, three hours each way.
Delerio Ruduel on the porch of the Moravian parsonage. In the background is the high school he attends by walking 3 hours through the swamp to and from his home in Sawa.
There is a small Moravian church. Pastor Beres Florencio’s brother Elmo commutes back and forth from Sawa and shares the dilapidated one-room parsonage with a colony of termites when in town. We still don’t know what’s living in the creek, but there are stories.
Livinkrik from the air
