Bucknell Brigade

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!

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, 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.

I woke up and knew right away that this was my last full day in Nicaragua and it felt terrible. I knew that in two days I would be back at school having to deal with classes and having to concentrate on my last season as a track and field athlete. But the one good thing is that the day was a work day and I knew that meant that I would have a great time and feel worthwhile when it finally came to an end.