Bucknell Brigade

We've made it to Nicaragua!! I am so excited to be back in this amazing country with the amazing people here! Our flight down went relatively smoothly minus a one-hour delay so that the starter on our plane could be fixed.

We arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and boarded the great yellow bus to drive to the compound where we stay with Jubilee House Community (JHC). Unlike last time I was in Nicaragua, the bus ride to JHC was during the day time and I was able to look around and see the bustle and hustle of the Nicaraguans. There was crazy traffic, just like last time, and the vendors were all over the streets selling food, water, and other items. It was a very exciting bus ride!

After a long trip and an early wake up, we are finally here. We took a ride from the airport down through Managua. The city, still torn from the last earthquake a couple years back, offered a hint to the everyday struggle of these people.

After that, we went over to Nueva Vida, which is just about 10 minutes down the road. Nueva Vida is where people settled after Hurricane Mitch when the government gave them just a stick and a tarp to make a home out of. The place has changed immensely!

Today was our first day working in Nicaragua. I spent the morning helping the majority of the group prepare the new health clinic walls to be painted. We had to sweep them because there is so much dust and we had to tape the windows and doors. This took most of the morning and we headed home for lunch around noon.

Today was a day of excitement and great experiences. We woke up quite early for a great breakfast of fresh fruit juices and fresh mango slices. Directly afterwards, we viewed the sewing co-op which was built by a group of women by their own hands. The remainder of the day was left for work at the health clinic in Nueva Vida which I had learned so much about. It felt surreal to finally arrive at the clinic.

Well, today I woke up for the first time when we were woken up. I slept like a rock. We got up and had another awesome breakfast and soon after we had a very knowledgeable speaker talk to us about Nicaraguan history, politics and their relationship with the rest of the world. He really made everything come together and it was amazing how many dates and names he could spit out in about an hour and a half. All in all, it was another eye-opening experience that showed maybe the United States isn't as just as we like to think we are. Either way, I am extremely happy I heard it.

Today was a very, very long day. I've gotten into a habit of not looking at the activity sheet each day to surprise myself about the upcoming activities. For that reason, I didn't know what to fully expect today. We drove two hours to the mountain where El Porvenir is located. Then we took an hour-long tractor ride up the mountain over some surprisingly rough terrain. A small town is located on the top of the mountain that produces some of the best organic coffee on the market. I knew we would be going up the mountain, but I didn't really know what would take place when we arrived.

Today, we all got up and had a quick lunch because we had a long ride ahead of us. It is about a three-hour drive from JHC to El Porvenir, and that is just to the base of the mountain. That was as far as I was gonna be carried. Julie, Meghan, and myself started our hike from the bottom of the mountain. When we got off the "Ambulance," as they call it and which is really just an old four-wheel-drive with seats on either side in the back, we met Juan who is a member of El Porvenir and the one who supposedly knows the most about good pipeline routes. He is the one that took our Professors Kim and tools up the mountain when they came in November. Juan took us over to the pump house which is right next to their current well. The motor is an old tractor motor which they have directly driving a generator. This generator is connected to a pump which is hung a couple hundred feet deep into the well.

Today was another work day and I worked with Dr. Don again in the clinic helping him to translate for the patients. It was a busier day than last time I helped in the clinic and we saw three or four times as many patients. There also were a lot more kids in the clinic. It's always more difficult for me to see the kids coming into the clinic with parasites or malnutrition because they aren't responsible for what's happening to them at this point in their lives. All that happened was that they were unfortunate enough to have been born here instead of where I was born.

Just another great day in Nicaragua and much to recount. After waking up too early for my liking, we met with the vice mayor of la Ciudad Sandino of which Nueva Vida is part. He told us his many plans for the city and the general daily happenings of the city. It was rather interesting to hear a first-hand perspective of a high-ranking government official who deals primarily with the social aspects of Nica life. Now that the Sandinistas are in power, the schools have become truly free which was an original promise of the Nica constitution. Though not a lot, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Saturday was a very touristy day for our group. We left JHC at about eight in the morning and headed for the Masaya Volcano - an active volcano here in Nicaragua. Smoke constantly comes out of the top and we were told that from the side of the crater opening that we are not allowed to walk to you can see lava inside the crater. I had visited Masaya Volcano last time I was here, but I don't think I appreciated it then like I did yesterday. Sarah, a member of JHC, told us a story about how the volcano keeps her humble and focused when she is doing the kind of work that they do here at JHC. The last time the volcano erupted it spread out very, very far and we could see the line between where the lava ended (which was covered in big volcanic rocks) and where the lava did not reach (which is green and still has houses and buildings). The distance that the rock traveled, both being thrown out of the volcano and melted into lava that flowed out, is astonishing. Sarah told us that when she thinks about the kind of power and force it takes to make that happen she is reminded that she is not in control. This is important when you consider the kind of work she does where the end goal is enormous. She commented that the power of the volcano reminds her that it is not her job to fix everything but that she simply must continue to chip away at the problem and continue to fight. The whole analogy is perhaps too difficult for me to convey in my own words but the feeling behind her analogy makes me feel better about my own goals when I do work both with the Bucknell Brigade and other organizations.

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