A once in a lifetime trip

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The view of Masaya Volcano from our hotel.

Maria Esposito

It all started in September of 2016, when a school wide email was sent out; A once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to Nicaragua and help improve the community. I am sure many of you are wondering, how was it? Was it worth the $3,000 cost? What kind of work was done there to improve the community of Nicaragua?

The trip was ten days, and it occurred during the week of Semana Santa, or as we call it, the week of Easter. There were 12 iSchool students in total, and 5 adults traveling with the group at all times. We stayed in two different parts of Nicaragua: Tipitapa and Somoto. Tipitapa was the more urban town, whereas Somoto was in the countryside. The organization that made this trip possible is Dos Pueblos, a nonprofit that has been working for 30 years to improve community development of Nicaragua through projects of education, nutrition, health promotion, cross cultural and educational exchanges, environmental health, and human rights.

 

In a typical day, we woke up at 7:00 a.m., ate breakfast at 8:00, and then got ready to leave the worksite by 9:00. We worked for about three hours. Work time was so short due to the extreme heat, which made it dangerous to stay out too long. The work included building furniture, gardening in extremely rough terrain, painting the walls of the library, and picking up lots of trash. After work we would have lunch, which was usually a typical meal of rice and beans, gallo pinto, with plantains and a choice of meat.

After work we would go sightseeing around different parts of Nicaragua, both the beautiful parts and the not so beautiful parts. We visited a town of Cristo Rey, where garbage stretched for miles and miles all over the land. Young children would go through the garbage and pick out goods their families could sell.
According to Ms. Colon, “At times it was really hard to see, at the end of the day we go back home to a comfy bed, and a roof over our head. But this is these people’s everyday lives.”

However, there was also a lot of marvelous parts of the trip. According to sophomore Georgia Moore, “My favorite part of the trip was probably going to a different country and seeing how different, yet at the same time similar the lives of the Nicaraguan teens are.”

Culturally, the teens there are very much like us. They listen to the same music, like the same movies, and like to dance and have fun. However, their culture is also a lot different than ours; we eat different types of foods, speak different languages, and they also experience a lot of hardships that most New York kids don’t face. However, they still remained constantly happy and viewed life with a very positive attitude. (Below is a picture of the teens we worked with. They are part of the “Arco Iris” organization where the youth of Nicaragua work to improve multiple communities.)

According to sophomore Deva Grumet Bass, “What surprised me most was how friendly everyone was. The moment we landed in the airport, Cesia and Erik (two of the Nicaraguan teens) instantly greeted us with hugs.”

This trip allowed for a new family to be created. Lifelong friendships have been made, and if given the chance I would most definitely go back. As one of the Nicaraguan teens said, “This is not adios, only hasta luego.”