Posts

STEP Relfection

What?

It’s hard to describe the experience of traveling abroad because to communicate what you did, you have to start with the basics, the essentials that are so different and foreign that to come in with anything but an open mind, would be entirely to restrictive. The program that I went to Nicaragua with was called GIVE (Growth International Volunteer Experiences) and their goal is to create sustainable developments to foster educational needs in growing countries. It is so easy to think that things can simply be solved by just throwing a lot of money at a project but how do you help sustain something where there are no roads or addresses.

So getting back to the essentials. Nicaragua has no infrastructure. Yes, the capital has roads and phones and running water, but they lack addresses and plumbing that can handle toilet paper (yes, that is correct, you can not flush toilet paper). Our trip was broken into two halves, the first being more indirect service where we were building a school, the second was on an island where we working with children to help them read in English and Spanish. Specific stories and a breakdown of what we did each day can be found in my blog about the trip (Right Here).

The first half was on the West side of the country. We traveled on a bus for three hours to a city called Jiquilillo. I call it a city but it is really just huts and a village. GIVE has been in the area for several years building a school out of recycled materials. We were building the septic tank with 3 liter bottles filled with sand. Each day we would work in the morning and again after lunch, filling bottles, laying them and mixing concrete to throw on the walls. It was amazing how many people from the community would actually come and help us build their school. We got to play with the children on our breaks and we would always lose when we played football with them. We also took a day trip to a nearby city built on top of a dump. The people use the dump as revenue. That trip was honestly crushing. Seeing that type of poverty and need changes you. It wasn’t poverty as we know it in the States, where you see a homeless person next to a building or on a bench, surrounded by what seems to be a thriving society, these people are all surrounded by more poverty. It is the norm and it is how they live.

The second half was on an island in the Caribbean. The children on this small island have school but they don’t get the opportunity to read in class. So GIVE has built a library where we work with children after school, helping them read in both English and Spanish. These children are so smart and teaching them how to read might give them the chance to get off the island and get a job on the mainland. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to leave the island but life moves slowly there. The days wash by like waves on the beach and while I realized that there was a busy world still spinning across the beautiful water, the people on the island don’t have any concept of the opportunity just across the water.

 

So What?

If you have had a conversation with me since the trip, I wouldn’t be surprised if I mentioned Nicaragua at least once, if not a hundred times. It was truly an experience that changed my life. As I reflect on the trip and the STEP program, I can’t help but smile at my naive self, just a year ago, going to my first STEP meeting, not even thinking about what the letters of S.T.E.P. stood for, just the grant money that I would be getting. ‘Transformational’ is so encompassing when it comes to my experience. I met so many new people, went to so many new places and tried so many new things, how could I not be changed. In my journal I talk about what one of our leaders said as we left. He said that even though we were leaving, he was taking a little part of all of us with him and that he left a little part of himself in us and that is completely true. As we grew together in  volunteering and our adventures, I learned so much from the people around me. I heard about peoples passions, what drives people, why they came on the trip, basically everything under the blazing Nicaraguan sun. I learned that I am so capable. I literally traveled across the world, survived in a third world country, things that I never would have imagined doing at the age of 20. I learned that I absolutely need to volunteer and give back, there is no other feeling like giving something to someone, building something to benefit others, just giving your time to others.

 

Now what?

One of the things that I have always found fascinating is the more you learn and the more you know, the more you find things you don’t know and don’t understand. So for as much as this trip taught me, it also brought a lot of uncertainty into my life. I did realize that what I am studying (Civil Engineering) is something that can help people, but how do I reach all the people I want to help. Should I join the Peace Corp or Engineers Without Borders? Should I work at a job where I can make a substantial amount of money so I can give my time and donate money? It may sound like the uncertainty is scary, and it is, but it’s also thrilling leaves possibilities open.

I’m very excited to take a humanitarian engineering course next semester that will hopefully be a more formal education and validation to the experiences that I had. I also hope to continue studies in this field and have my senior capstone project be in a similar field. This trip was a great jump start to what will hopefully be a life long mission.

Right Here: Journals from Nicaragua

This blog is from my journal of my trip with GIVE to Nicaragua from May 4th to May 18th 2014:

Alright so I was bad and didn’t journal last night, but I will explain later. I don’t think this journal will ever be able to express the experience I’m having, the extreme humidity, the sweltering sun, the great big laughs from Gerry or the excitement in children’s eyes as we drive by in the bak of a pick-up truck; but I’ll try.

Day 1: Travel Travel Travel

As I checked through security and turned back one last time at my parents, who had waited there for that last wave, it started to hit me that this was really my first flight alone and I was going to Nicaragua of all places. My first flight was boring but as I landed, the prospect of finally meeting some of the people on the trip in Atlanta made the trek across the airport flash by. It was incredible to see a familiar face first, Rebecca, but it didn’t take long for everyone to become familiar. Our little group consisted of Taylor,Emma, Jordan, Carolyn, Taylor, Cher, Rebecca, Ekram and myself. Once again the flight was boring but when we got there we realized we also had Heather, Lexi and Radiance on our flight. We got to meet most of the group as we waited for 4 more, 3 buckeyes and a wolverine; Eli.

There was such a mixture of excitement and fear as we all made cool little connections. The bus ride from Managua to Jiquilillo was about 3 hours of bumpy hell. With our sticky shirts and wind blown hair we rolled in to Monty’s around 1 am.

—————————————————

Alright, so the last time I was writing this, I was in a hammock and napped so hard, right up until we left for our work site. But before that we woke up early to an amazing breakfast and took a boat ride down the estuary. So we are right next to this giant reserve that is to protect this incredible landscape. Gerry spoke to us about sustainability and taking care of the planet because right now, ‘there is no plan B.’ We had some Mamones, a fruit and played games on a secluded beach. But really, everything here is secluded. It’s incredible how slow paced everything is here, but they get everything done, it’s extremely exhausting and everyone is just happy. We did some body surfing in the Pacific and then I fell asleep like I said before. We walked about 1/2 a mile down the beach to the school work site and 1/2 a mile inland. It had a large clearing that will be a baseball and soccer field, the school and the POD. A lot of the girls packed 3 liter bottles with sand to use as bricks for the septic tank. The tank uses bacteria to turn solid waste into liquid that filters back into the ground. As I wheeled burrowed sifted sand across the field to use in the bottom of the tank, it made me question how if people have been working on this project, doing the physical hard labor, what would it look like if the US really got behind sustainability. All of the resources and capabilities! Would it turn out better? Would we appreciate it as much? But really, why haven’t we and then how do make that happen? We came back for dinner and games crashed from exhaustion. This group works incredibly hard and likes to have fun. I’m ready to see what we can do for another week here.

———-

I’m not sure if it is the heat or the rooster or where we are on the globe but the sun rises around 5 am and it really isn’t that hard to  then wake up at 6 or so, and we are all super tired towards 8 and 9 pm. Yesterday we had a double work day. Before lunch I was sifting sand again and we finished one pile. On the way back we stopped at someones house and some people got milkshakes or batidos. Many of those people also got sick after so I probably won’t get one. It’s so easy to take naps here so I’m pretty sure we all fell asleep after lunch. There were about 8 people that went to the school with Martina (who is doing some crazy yoga next to me as I write this).

They all said they had a blast and I can’t wait to work with kids on Little Corn. For our second half we cemented, so basically we went into the septic tank and mixed the cement and then laid almost 2 more layers of bottle walls. It was honestly some, if not the hardest, physical labor I have ever done. It was just sweltering with no wind. The cool thing though was we talked to Matt a lot about GIVE. He was actually a founder and has only worked here in Nicaragua, although he would love to travel more. It’s really tempting and sounds incredible to work like this, something completely non-conventional.He is obviously very happy but I don’t know if I have the guts or even something I’m that passionate about to take that risk. We played Princessa with some of the kids at the site and it makes me want to speak more spanish. We came back and played some games and I tried to sleep outside in a hammock. I realized that I feel like we are missing reflection. It’s something that I’ve grown so accustomed  to with service trips, it feels weird not having it. I am going to try and remember some prompts for ‘reach out and touch someone’ so we can play towards the end of the trip or when we leave for Little Corn. Also here’s to blisters, those should be fun today. I also noticed the dogs are like another set of guards and they always bark when strangers walk by but they never yelled at us, not even the first night!

———

Not to sound dramatic but people are dropping like flies. Jessica had heat exhaustion, Heather possibly had sun poisoning and Radiance was homesick. I’m crossing my fingers that I stay healthy. The great thing about our group is that first off, we all take care of each other. As soon as someone is sick we jump into action. The people that are sick also just want to work, they feel bad for not working, but the best thing is for them to get better first. So if you can’t tell, it’s hot, like really hot. Kinda like a sauna because the humidity. I don’t know if I would ever get used to it, I honestly always feel dirty and sweaty all the time, even right after showering (which has only been twice 🙂 Yesterday at the site we packed a ton of bottles in the morning. To keep spirits up we started playing games like ‘contact’ and telling riddles. The new leader came in too, Jake from UD, and he is such a big help. He doesn’t really know how to do things yet but he is so  enthusiastic and he is really good about checking in on people to see if they are okay. After lunch we set the last rows for the septic tank! I guess we are going to make the top with rebar and concrete here at Monty’s first. We played some fun card games at night. Seriously this group is amazing.

—————

 

Yesterday got really real and put things into perspective.

We went to the dump in Chinandega to serve some food for the locals.

The city literally lives in and profits from the dump. When the food was ready people literally ran with buckets, measuring cups, anything to hold the soup. It was honestly devastating to see everyone, it really wrecked me. On the way back we stopped at a mall and had pizza and ice cream.It was so good but the contrast was just damaging. On the bus ride out we picked up two hitchhikers. Holy Cow, how could I forget, the guys was an artist and had earrings, bracelets, necklaces and spray paint art. His stuff was really incredible. His ‘friend’, Patricia, was from Austria and has been on the road for a year and five months. She really has a colorful history. They cleared us out of money. They got off and jumped up and down. We played some volleyball to relax and I finally slept in a bed and slept great with a big storm that rolled in.When we got there, we played with the kids and it was amazing how excited they were despite the extreme poverty.

——–

Woke up early and did yoga again with Martina. It was a great way to start the day. There was another big storm that made the breeze stop in the morning and when we got to the site we had to scoop out the water before we could make the cement to throw at the walls. We played a lot of contact, which is a word game. The other group started making the foundation for the next tank, but on the way back from the site we got rained on. We had a nice swim in the rain with some mud volleyball! I got to talk to the group from Canada. They are from Kamloop, BC and Jenn is a great, great person who coordinated the donation of 20,000 shoes!

We went back to the site that was a little flooded but it was nice when we left for dinner and now we are playing Euchre. (Also we have Lobster tonight)

—————–

We surfed down an active volcano! So we left for Cerro Negro pretty early but it took forever to get there and the last 30 minutes were on a one lane dirt road (very important to remember for later). The hike was awesome, it took about an hour to go up and I finally started taking pictures. I also did a freaking handstand on a volcano. Then we slid down/surfed. It was so steep and I thought I was going to flip a couple of times. On the way back we were in the bus and another bus started coming at us…on the one lane dirt road. It took 20 minutes and we scraped by. Then we drove to Leon and went to the market.  I got a shirt, hammock and scarf. The church we were by was meant for Peru but got built in Nicaragua (weird, right?) but it was so gorgeous. We got back late and went to a discoteca at the neighbors. It was really cool to see the other cultures but it kinda made me sick. It was like the world was spinning by so quickly. 

———–

We had the day off and everyone got a late start. We went to a guy’s house down the beach that fosters turtles. We came back and I led reach out and touch someone. Everyone was all about it and I was so glad that I could have an impact on people.

———–

I’m writing this entry from paradise, heaven on Earth, the most beautiful I’ve ever been, but first let me tell you how we got here. We had an early start to the morning and packed up before breakfast and made the 3-4 hour bus ride from Jiquilillo to Managua. Naturally people fell asleep so people were drawing on each other and everything. It sucked that we had to leave Jake at the airport but he has another group coming today to Monty’s. He was really a great leader and so much fun, I know he is going to have a blast the next few months. We took a 60 person little plane out to Big Corn Island and then a little motor boat (no, we didn’t have to row) and for some reason I sat in the splash zone. I entirely soaked from the 30 minute ride and Taylor and I were cracking up the entire ride. As soon as we stepped on Little Corn everyone just knew how incredible this place was. There is a chance that I can scuba dive and I’m so excited (remember to get scuba certified soon). We got to walk around the island a bit and meet the locals. They speak english for the most part but you don’t always catch everything. During dinner they had a local musician on the drums coming and there was dancing that they taught the group. Everything moves at a different pace here, it’s slower and wonderful but I don’t know if I could stay knowing the rest of the world is still blazing past and i would feel disconnected and therefor unable to help and serve. I know I want to keep doing service my entire life, if I’m not serving, I’m not being myself. So here I am, sitting on the upper deck of ‘Cool Place’, clear blue wavers lapping the shore 25 ft ahead, island breeze blowing and a completely serendipitous smile stuck on my face.

———————

We got the ‘big’ tour of Little Corn Island from matt in the morning. There are only 900-1,000 people on the Island and I think he knows them all. We went by all the dive shops and restaurants and then by the school and the Reading Room where we will be working for the next few days. The kids don’t read much in school so this center has books in english and Spanish so we can help them read more. we had pizza at mangos and then went back to the kids at the reading room. Some of them were great with both Spanish and English but you could tell why we have the room. There is also a community kitchen next door that we might paint on Thursday. Tranqiulo Cafe had a cool trivia night and our team didn’t get last! I’m going scuba diving soon and I cant’t wait. Oh, also there was a rat in Jessica, radiance and Ekram’s bungalow while Jessica was in the shower. I’ve never heard such a blood curdling scream, it was priceless.

As we work more on the island I’ve realized that we are doing more direct humanitarianism service as opposed to the indirect labor of building the schools. I love people but I prefer the indirect approach much more, more of an outside engineer that fixes, not works with. I’m not entirely sure why else I prefer it but it comforts me knowing that my major is more conducive to indirect service.

————————————

Scuba diving was so incredible. We got a crash course in shallow water and 30 mins later we were going out to ‘the patch’ to dive 8-12 m in amazingly clear water. There were two nurse sharks that swam around us almost the entire time, they would swim right up under you and it startled me every time but they were completely harmless. Later we went back to the school and worked with the kids again. They are starting to get used to us being there and more have been coming. They mostly know English, learn Spanish in school and know Creole from home so they sometimes speak Crespanglish. Tranquilo had live music and it was an absolute blast to see the energy of the island all in one beautiful setting. We also did a scavenger hunt with the kids so we could see the whole island and they could read maps. Well our girls tried but we got lost and turned around a few times but on an island that is a mile long you don’t get lost for long. One of the stops was the lighthouse or tower. The girls climbed the steep ladder like monkeys and we (Jordan and Carly) cautiously followed. The view was breath taking and I’m so glad I got pictures.

————–

We had a very chill morning while some of the group rode horses or went snorkeling, we went and had snacks at Deseirde’s. I connected to the internet and was completely overwhelmed. It seems that the world back home has indeed kept going on without me, and the 100 plus emails are indicative of that. We had lunch at the cuban place and the food was divine! At the school I read Whinnie-ther- Pooh with a little girl. I never realized that it made absolutely no sense what-so-ever. We tried to help get supplies to paint the kitchen but they didn’t have bags we needed so our service got cut short. It also started to pour as we walked to Yoga at Tranquilo. The class was rejuvenating. Jack, the owner led and she really thanked us for coming to the island. Coming back to our rooms I had some pretty deep conversations with Taylor about needing to redefine priorities and what makes me truly happy and I don’t want to be so materialistic. It’s people and service that really make me happy. We also talked about needing contrast and wondered if the people on the island appreciate the beauty if they don’t know anything else. Do you need the bad to understand the good? Later a small group went to a Tapas bar called Right Here. The story behind the name is when you ask people on the island ‘how are you doing,’ they answer, ‘right here.’

As in, I’m here so therefor I am doing great because I’m in Paradise. I am highly considering getting it tattooed on me to remind me of this trip. Our last day on the island was pretty emotional, we got to work on the kitchen a bit, really making the edges look nice. It was fun being able to do cement work one last time. It seemed like there was so much to do on such a little island and everyone had five things they need to do on the last afternoon. I was tasked to help Taylor make superlatives for everyone. We had a blast writing them, while most of them were ridiculous, they were all from the heart. We had dinner at the bonfire called a rundun(?), it was a fish stew and I literally had a fish head in my bowl. I left a little hungry but thankful for the experience . We all wanted to stay up late together, but we also wanted to see the sunrise on MJ beach, so naturally after going to bed at 3 am, we got up at 4 am for the hike over.

MJ Beach Sunrise

 

It was a little cloudy but the sunrise was gorgeous and I really needed that reflection time, It made me realize that Little Corn is a place that will make you forget what day it is, or even what time of the day it is. After a much needed nap we had our last breakfast at Cool Spot and loaded up the boat for Big Corn. Thankfully I was in the front this time and remained completely dry on the quick ride over. The whole day was bitter sweet because it was like one long extended emotional goodbye.

I kinda regret not writing about all the relationships I formed on the trip and I might add them in at the end because they really made the experience possible. I really needed them for support throughout the trip and count everyone as a true friend and a blessing. Once back in Managua we took a bus ride to our last hostel that seemed like a palace. As I sat down I looked at a few ants crawling on the wall and said to myself, ‘there are a minimal amount of bugs here, this is so nice.’ Needless to say, I am coming back to the States with a considerable amount of dirt under my nails. We had a closing ceremony and gave out the superlative plates. Hearing everyones highs & lows & take-aways was really inspiring. Just a few highlights: like Jake had said in Jiquilillo when we left, he was going to take a little bit of us with him when we left and similarly, we all left a part of ourselves where ever we went. Another that really resonated with me was when someone said to their father that it was a small world, he responded that ‘it’s not a small world, you’re just living large.’ I can’t think of a more appropriate memento to take with me. The goodbyes/see you laters were so hard and they only got harder with each leg of the trip.  I’m writing this on my last descent to Cinci and it’s real now, the trip is over and I have new pieces in my heart and some pieces that I left behind and tears in my eyes. If you ask how I’m doing, I hope that I’ll tell you, “I’m right here.”