La primera semana de mayo fue una semana de mucho trabajo porque estuvimos ayudando a las familias que están participando en el concurso de patios con actividades como: elaboración de abono orgánico y preparando la tierra para la elaboración de huertos de patio.
In the village of El Bramadero there lives a man called Don Armando, he is one of the local leaders in charge of water for the community. He is wise and has a lot of knowledge about the local area, the history of Nicaragua and its agriculture.
Says the Kung-fu instructor to us every morning at 6am on El Bramadero’s football field. A concern for me before embarking on my ICS placement was how I was going to maintain my fitness levels. Luckily, the El Bram group are all very likeminded in being adventurous and active throughout the day. This means most of our days begin with a run, followed by a personal training session courtesy of an exercise app on my phone. We’re also fortunate enough to have a few avid yogis’ amongst us, which has been the best stress coping mechanism we could have asked for.
Before coming to Nicaragua I thought Progressio’s ICS programme largely consisted of manual labour. My idea was that we would be sent out to different communities to build relationships and for the locals to dictate to us where they need help most. In some respects, this is the case; we will be building water filters and eco-stoves, and rather than the people themselves directing our work, it is their representative charity (ASOMUPRO) who dictate our agenda. However, a large amount of our time is spent in classroom type situations away from physical construction.
I have now been living in Parcila for the past two weeks. In such a short space of time, I have already learned of the legacy climate change has left this community.
Before I came to Nicaragua, I was certainly not an environmental activist. Don’t get me wrong, I was never a serial crude-oil-consuming litterbug either, but I would admit to being blissfully naïve concerning my personal impact on the environment.
Our first week in Nicaragua has almost come to an end and tomorrow we will be travelling to our communities and our new homes for the next 11 weeks.
El día lunes 17 de abril nos presentamos todos los voluntarios a desarrollar temas y habilidades.
Donde estuvo presente Elisabeth quien nos presentó el proyecto de las eco-estufas viendo fotografías y la importancia que tiene las eco-estufas para las personas beneficiadas por que así no se gasta mucha leña y no afecta el humo la salud de las personas ya que las eco-estufas están muy bien diseñadas.
Our adventure starts with six UK and seven Nicaraguan volunteers squeezed into a mini bus. With estimated journey times ranging from three hours to six, the mere four and a bit hours it took to reach the rural location of Parcila from Managua was a breeze.
Parcila is a rural community within San Juan de Limay, in north-west Nicaragua. The houses here are simple and small, mostly built of breezeblocks, timber frames and with either tilled roofs or corrugated iron, depending on the available resources and funds.
As an ICS volunteer, one of the challenges you face is managing your expectations. Many volunteers will tell you that they boarded the plane feeling ready to change the world, and then felt shocked when 10 weeks past by so quickly. I was certainly one of those volunteers.
To live in Nicaragua is to live immersed in great swathes of beauty. Certainly the same could be said of the UK, but as circumstances have not yet forced me to spend a lot of time in contact with its natural splendours, I remain shamefully ill-equipped to write about them.
