Thursday 15 October; a date for your diary. We commemorated International Rural Women’s Day with a talk to female members of El Bramadero. The meeting was set for 2pm, however the ‘Nicaraguan hour’ meant the start time was at three. We were initially worried when at two-thirty no one was present. We were premature in our angst and received a good attendance.
Here, the veil between us and nature is thin. The insects are plenty and the rain is scarcer than it ought to be. Until today, there had not been a drop in five days in Parcila, a small community nestled in the mountains below the Honduran border. In the tail end of the wet season, this should not be normal, but the region is in the midst of a drought that has been loitering for a small few years now.
‘Unforgettable’ and ‘life changing’ have become ubiquitous expressions when describing an overseas experience and seem to be synonymous with the “on my gap yah...” cliché, as seen on YouTube. However, describing my Progressio ICS experience in Nicaragua as ‘unforgettable’ and ‘life changing’ would, if anything, be a huge understatement. While associating my time as a few months of drinking, partying and holidaying couldn’t be further wide of the mark.
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.
