One of the many advantages that a Progressio volunteer position affords us is the opportunity to learn a language. Working in Latin America and Africa at first seems a daunting prospect; the food, the climate (so unlike that of permanently cold Britain) and, most of all, the language. The worry was evident on the faces of the volunteers at the training weekend: How were they going to learn the language? Luckily for me, I had a significant advantage already, as I am a Spanish secondary school teacher.
For five months of winter in Nicaragua the rain hasn't arrived and climate change shows its impact with drought. Although the water hasn't wet the ground, the tears of a sad family who say goodbye to both Nicas and Brits on their last day in the community does.
Seeing as we are approaching the end of the cycle now and everyone is busy writing up reports and debriefs, I thought that this week would be a good time to reflect on the progress that we have made this cycle and everything that we have done in the National Park Volcan Masaya.
After seven weeks of hard work from both groups it seemed like it was about time that Group 1 took a trip to the volcano to see exactly what Group 2 had been up to. We were given the option of two different routes. The first, called Las Marias, was a route which Group 2 had done a lot of work on. The second, called Las Pencas, was a longer, more scenic route that they hadn’t done much work on, but still needed to promote. For both routes, Group 2 had to take photos of the tour for brochures and posters to promote the volcano and encourage more tourists.
After finishing our main project we decided to start a vegetable patch in the church grounds and a playground in the La Sabanita school as a prize for the enormous amount of bottles that the students had collected during the previous weeks.
This week, as we are now approaching the end of the cycle I would like to write about one of the key goals of Progressio ICS, personal development. The aim of ICS is not just to help developing countries, but also to mould volunteers into more knowledgeable, globally aware and responsible citizens. In my opinion the greatest personal development amongst the volunteers in terms of knowledge has come from their increased ability to use the Spanish language.
In summary, the objective of the mid-term review meeting was more than just a simple opportunity to review the progress of the work done in La Sabanita by group 1 and in the Masaya Volcano National Park, by group 2. We also met to take on board new instructions from our Group Leaders, and put forward our ideas as volunteers.
Una mañana muy alegre y entretenida se vivió este miércoles en la cancha de La Sabanita al realizarse por primera vez un torneo futbolístico entre voluntarios de Progressio y habitantes de esta comunidad.
Progressio doesn't only leave a better world for children to grow up in, but helps to educate them with the aim of making them better prepared for the world. Progressio ICS volunteers don't want to live without a purpose and for our contributions to be unhelpful. With our commitment to help those in need within our society we have handed out 220 fruit trees to 20 families in the community of La Sabanita. It is hoped that the children who live in these homes will care for them and in a few years time they will bear fruit for them to eat.
As part of our work in the community we wanted to raise the awareness of recycling at the school of La Sabanita. As around the community there is quite a lot of litter, including plastic bottles. With the recycling facility now in place at the school thanks to the last cycle of ICS volunteers, it is important to get the message across to the children that empty plastic bottles can be put to better use when disposed of in the recycling facility.
