My trip started on Friday, the 12th of April. We left the house at 21:00, after many tearful goodbyes made by my Mom. After a long drive up to Seattle, and lengthy search for a parking space, and then for the group of students themselves (thanks, Dad), we did finally find my amazing teacher, Señora Shanafelt. With her were the assorted group of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders going along, as well as a few parents, getting a mission brief from Señora and Marita (another chaperone who had been coordinating Outreach360 for us). About 22:00, we all filed up the escalator to the ticket counter. After another length of time, and then having to travel through security, we were spit out into a virtually empty airport (really nice). We all tramped down to the gate, which was at least half an airport away. We took off at 23:30, and after a 5.5-hour flight, we were set down in Houston at 05:00, local time. We had a pretty long layover, which we spent mostly walking up and down moving sidewalks while the adults watched. We took off from Houston at about 08:00 local time.
After another long flight, we touched down at Managua airport, in the capital city of Nicaragua. We all got onto a bus, on which we drove for 2.5-hours to Jinotega, the city where we would be working with the kids.
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| At Managua airport |
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| Loading up the bus (I'm waving in the back) |
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| Excuse us, cows! |
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| This guy was texting while hanging onto the back of the bus! |
The country was in the dry season, so it looked more like the Australian Outback than the lush jungle that you think of when you think Latin America. Consequently, there were a lot of brushfires, dry grass ignited by a stray cigarette butt. The drivers in Nicaragua almost reminded me of those in China. I would like to see a game of Chicken between a Chinese driver and a Nicaraguan driver.
When we got to the volunteer house, we started up some card games, slept, and sat down for a great meal of gallo pinto, homemade tortillas, fried eggs, and plantains. We went to sleep fairly quickly and early, as most of us had about an hour of sleep over the last 24 hours.
On Sunday, we went on a walking tour of Jinotega. We saw all of the buildings where we worked, and we met some of the little kids that we taught. They lived in houses that were a lot like the shacks that we saw on the river tour in Thailand. Most of the other students thought the temperature was like we were living on the sun (I don’t understand Washingtonians). Most of them thought it was too hot to go and do anything, but, luckily, they grew used to the heat, at least a little bit. I thought the weather was amazing, as it ranged from 90-95 every day. After both lunch and dinner, I went with a few friends to the park and around town. In the park, we saw an “Oso Perezoso”, a lazy bear (known to us Americans as a sloth). Sunday was “un día perezoso,” or a lazy day; we were just letting the jet lag break, and taking it easy for the majority of the day.
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| Guys spreading coffee beans to dry |
Monday was our first day of teaching. I have learned a valuable lesson: I am not a teacher. I have no patience for the practice. I have no patience to tag-team teach, and I am not very good up in front of people. At the learning camp, we read one on one in Spanish with the kids for 20 minutes, and then we read as a group for another twenty. The kids would switch stations every 40 minutes. I read the same page on the punk bird, four times, and I was beginning to memorize it by the fourth time.
At the learning center I taught 16 students about fables and genres entirely in Spanish. During the time in between camp and learning center, a group of students and I went to a local coffee shop, which soon became a very popular spot. I think this was because it was the place that was most like America in the country. We also went on another walking tour, this one to a local market. It actually reminded me a little of Kokusai Street in Okinawa (another thing to make me homesick).
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| Colorful beans |
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| This is a product for diarhea help - it's a plug! |
Everyone at the campus loved to play cards. It wasn’t uncommon for a student to see a group of friends playing, and just plop on down. They were instantly accepted, and game continued on like nothing had happened. Common games for us were Solitaire, Kings in the Corner, Bluff/B.S./Bologna, Hearts, Blackjack, or Spoons. My dad finds it unethical to play cards, as his Grandfather always told him not to. My Mom likes to play, and doesn’t really care as long as I’m not gambling. Later that night, we had to watch a video on teen pregnancy in Nicaragua.
Tuesday was day two of teaching. We did the exact same as on Monday, go to Camp, go to hotel, go to School, go back to hotel, explore town. While we were rotating, one little girl named Genesis (pronounced HAY-nay-cease), who couldn’t have been more than three, came around and hugged all of us. The girls were all like “AWWWWWWW.” At the school, our carefully laid plans were cut, as the coordinator said we had to go by the book. We did two lessons that day, so we could do a book project the next day. We were still learning about fables, and today, we did discussions on authors, Aesop for example, and personification, as well as read “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The project we had planned was for the kids to write their own fable in a little book, draw a cover, and sign their name as authors.
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| Setting up the Camp |
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| The Camp |
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| Who wants homework? "I do, Teacher!" |
Late that night, we had to watch a video on Nicaraguan history. After the teaching, a group of nine people went back to the coffee shop from yesterday.
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| Sunset |
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| Tres Leches - yum! |
I saw the prettiest cobalt glass on power poles. I was surprised to see they were using the certain type. Most people believed that when added to glass, cobalt would make the glass a better conductor. It turns out that cobalt is more so an insulator than a conductor, and the glass was costing everyone a lot of money. They were mostly all taken down and melted, but I found one power pole with this beautiful color of glass.
Wednesday was our final day in the school. There isn’t a lot to report from today. We finished up with work at the school, which included giving the kids their book project, and large garbage bags full of donations that we had brought down that consisted of several types of useful everyday materials. Some examples would be bubbles, clothes, shoes, toothbrushes, pencils, etc. The kids were given instructions not to open the bags, but they all looked very excited to get their bags. We did the same at the camp that we had been doing for the previous few days. We played more cards that night, and read our own books after exploring the town some more.
Thursday was our final day of teaching. I was sad to see the kids go, but was cheered by the fact that I didn’t have to go completely Spanish for four hours every day. After lunch, we all hiked up the mountain Peña de la Cruz (Rock of the Cross).
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| Elaborate tombs at the cemetary |
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| Jinotega from above |
The mountain had about 950 steps going up it. I personally thought the hike was easy, but the rest of the group, save me and three others, had to take frequent rest breaks. The hike took about an hour, and we lost no one, but the view from the top was fantastic. The whole town of Jinotega was spread out beneath us, with mountains and Lake Managua beyond. After the hike, we went to the coffee shop Soppexca.
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| Learning about how to test coffee for quality |
I bought 7 pounds of coffee, not all for my Mom. After a delicious dinner of pizza (The Nicaraguans know how to make a good pizza. Dominos could learn quite a few tricks!), we played a few rounds of Hearts before a few rounds of Jeopardy with Trivial Pursuit cards.
Friday was our final full day in Nicaragua, and the scheduled “Culture Day”. We left at 9:00 A.M. for a black pottery kiln. These poor ladies dragged their whole families on a hike over mountains for three miles to get this clay. They then had to dig down over a meter to get to get the clay, and then hike back three miles with this clay to make these beautiful pieces. The black clay is only mined in three places in the world, and Jinotega is one of those three. Everything here is cheap, and there are no taxes whatsoever.
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| At a viewpoint on the way to the black pottery |
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| Polishing the clay with a smooth stone. |
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| Etching designs with a sharpened bicycle spoke. |
We went back to the volunteer center to drop off our purchases, and then rode out to Selva Negra, or the Black Forest. Selva Negra is a cloud forest/coffee plantation/hotel/park up high in the mountains surrounding Jinotega. The facility is owned by a German family, hence the name Black Forest. We had a delicious lunch of steak, papaya, rice, cucumber, beets, toast, and cannoli in a setting that was almost like the Chinese Summer Palace. After lunch, we went on a tour of the facility and forest before meeting back for souvenir-buying. After the silent walk through the forest, we met in a gazebo to discuss our trip to Nicaragua.
Afterwards, we headed out for an early night, as we had to leave at 6:15 the next morning.
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| Sunrise mist |
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| Managua airport |
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| Happy to be home! |
