Robert is working outside Diriamba at Gaia Estates, a 90-acre organic coffee farm that is also one of only three places in Nicaragua that is certified as “Bird Friendly” by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. One hundred-forty-three bird species, 45 of them migratory, have been observed on the farm. The…
Maria visited these four students who work at separate locations but within about one hour of each other. Elise works outside Matagalpa city at the nutritional clinic that the whole SST group had visited at the end of May. In the mornings from 8:00 until lunch she works on the…
Maria visited Haley in Leon, the second largest city in Nicaragua (population 180,000). Culturally, Leon is famous as the intellectual center of Nicaragua. Climatically, however, it is unfortunately also famous as the hottest city in the country. In the mornings Haley takes a taxi to a private school run…
Doug, Maria and their son Josh visited Benson and Olivia last Sunday and Monday. Public transport took us almost all the way to San Onofre, but from the highway a person on foot has a steep, 30-minute climb up a mountain until they arrive at the one-street town that is…
On June 29-30 Maria S, Doug and their son Josh visited Maria J in Candelaria, a small rural community of several dozen houses about 40 miles northeast of Jinotepe. What makes Candelaria’s location really distinct, however, is that it is exactly due south (2,012 miles) of Goshen, IN.
Josh works at the Mombacho National Park that all the students had visited together in May. The park was noticeably much busier now – it is the ‘high season’ due to summer vacations in the U.S. – and about 200 tourists visit each day. Josh is helping the park create…
La Concepción, known among locals as “La Concha,” is a town about halfway between Jinotepe and Managua, but it feels more rural than Jinotepe. Ali and Emily work here at a new health center known in town as “El Hospitalito” (the Little Hospital) because it offers a number of services…
Caleb and Jordan are both living and working in Masatepe, a town about half the size of Jinotepe Maria visited them on Wednesday. Caleb is working at the local health clinic, and the day Maria visited he was heading off to a rural community with other health workers to look…
Several weeks ago all the students saw the Laguna de Apoyo, a 3-mile diameter lake in the hole left by a volcano that blew its top off in a violent explosion more than a million years ago. Aaron is working at a small biological field station at the edge…
An SST tradition is to have, the last night before students leave for their service assignments, a farewell (despedida) party with their host families and language teachers. During their last Spanish classes before the event the students had practiced several actos to perform in Spanish for their families. The students…
