Nicaragua SST

Scouting out Laguna de Apoyo

Exploring a location where our students will travel to in a few weeks!…

Final weekend — and Goodbye to/from Nicaragua!

The final two days together have been a whirlwind of activity, from stories of service to project presentations to decompressing and getting ready to depart. Brad shows a diagram of building construction that is more stable in earthquakes. Saturday morning we all gathered one last time at…

Back from Service!

What an exciting day we had, as the students returned from six weeks at their service locations. They began arriving about noon, and by 6:00 p.m. all 22 were back at Casa Goshen in Jinotepe. There were hugs, smiles, anecdotes, and even a few tears as we all got reacquainted…

Service Visit: Alma

Alma is working at Libros Para Niños [Books for Children] in Jinotepe. In a country with few lending libraries (neither school nor public), the work of this nonprofit organization is critical in helping children and youth develop a love of reading and literature. Founded in 1993 and…

Service Visit Report: Jacob

Jacob is in the department of Boaco, a sparsely-populated central region known for its hilly terrain, cattle, and agriculture. The municipality where he lives, Laguna de San Onofre, is remote and difficult to reach without an all-terrain vehicle. In fact, when Jacob arrived in Boaco, he rode the last…

Service Visit Report: Hillary and Blake

A visiting high school group with the English class (and Hillary and Blake) at Batahola Norte Hillary and Blake are doing their service work at the Batahola Norte Cultural Center, a community center in Managua that focuses on education, the arts, and cultural and personal development.

Service Visit Report: Thomas, Peter, and Samantha

Welcome to the Research Station Thomas, Peter and Samantha are all working in the community of Laguna de Apoyo, Thomas and Peter at a biological research/preservation station, and Sam at an elementary school. Thomas and Peter report that they have done “lots of bird netting, which involves…

Service Visit Update: Ben

Ben‘s service work is at the base of Volcán Mombacho, an inactive volcano and cloud forest we visited as a group in May. “My service assignment is very laid back,” says Ben. He works in the mariposario (butterfly farm) and orquideario (orchid garden), where he helps clean…

Service Visit Report: Kara

Kara shows one of her works in progress Kara is living and working at a family-run pottery workshop in San Juan del Oriente, a town where ceramic making has been the culture for over 500 years. Given the heavily ingrained tradition, her days are filled…

Service Visit Report: David and Ashley

David hanging with the host family David is in Chichigalpa, Chinandega, where he is living with “a great host family.” His service assignment is assisting an English teacher at San Luis Gonzaga School. “There are five levels of classes there, and my schedule with each is different,…