ICS Nicaragua

Its week 6!  We are officially more than half way through our ICS Nicaraguan experience and all the groups are getting just that bit closer to reaching our big target to build 30 eco latrines J The passing of mid-term has made the reality of returning home start to sink in for most of the UK volunteers, and many of us have already discussing our excitement for our end of term trip to Ometepe! We all want to make the most of our 3 remaining weeks in Masaya.

It’s safe to say that there are a lot of cultural differences between Nicaragua and the UK. Their vast array of festivals put us to shame, the climate is tropical in contrast to England’s dreary winter months and, the food, let’s just say they’re mega fans of their carbohydrates. But there’s one thing in particular that you simply can’t escape, music. Every day without fail, the radio accompanies the frustratingly loud rooster at 4 am in the morning. During construction music will always be playing and in the evenings the night is simply buzzing. whether in the street or in central Park.

As we near the end of our first week in Masaya, all the volunteers of Cycle 10 are settling in nicely to the Nicaraguan way of life. The preliminary stages of our work in the nearby community of El Pochote have been completed, we have all found new friends in the form of our Nicaraguan counterparts, and our bodies have just about acclimatized to the carbohydrate-rich diet (they like rice, a lot).

“Will be good friends”- words written for one of the UK volunteers by a Nicaraguan counterpart at the end of our training week. Whilst certainly cheesy (and possibly presumptuous) this note embodies the warmth and friendliness with which we have thus far been received in Nicaragua. It is an incredible country; tropical climate (despite the fact that we're still apparently in winter), beautiful people and stunning scenery.

There was a buzzing excitement with a tinge of unbelievably and muted sadness among both sets of volunteers, as we made our way from Masaya to Managua for our mid-term review. On the one hand, we got to exchange the intense heat of the sun while constructing, but as well as critically evaluating our performance as volunteers so far, and working towards our next few weeks here. But it was still understood at the same time by all the volunteers that our incredible journey was soon coming to an end.

Week six brought about a productive week where we finished off the remaining eco latrines for the week and continued on with our English lessons at the El Pochote School. We now do lessons every Tuesday and Thursday, which is great as both the children and the UK volunteers equally get a buzz out of it. The experience has been so rewarding for some of the volunteers that it has confirmed their feelings towards teaching as a career.

This week we said goodbye to our host families for a few days and headed off to Managua for our mid-term review. We spent a lot of time as a group reflecting on our experiences so far, evaluating our progress and setting out some new aims and objectives for the second part of the cycle.

The Progressio in-country staff asked us to answer a few questions as a way for them to evaluate the ICS programme. One question which our group feels has been answered for us this week was: Is it worth being a volunteer for ICS?

Now the niceties, greetings and settling in are over, hard work needed to commence. Not only was there to be between four and five hours of construction each day, there were also community activities to plan and daily Spanish lessons to undertake.

As week 4 draws to a close, after having hung up our shovels and scrubbed the caked-on mud from every crevice of our body, it is safe to say that the week has been a resounding success. Our team has finished eco- latrine number three and we continue to construct with smiles on our faces despite the unrelenting heat and unforgiving dove grey Progressio t-shirts which make it near impossible to disguise profuse expiration.