I want to share about this year’s project in Nicaragua, including some photos. In short, we have the world’s best volunteers. We did not travel this year ourselves, for the first time ever in 11 years, because of political turbulence that is already a lot calmer, so we will go next year, God willing. Our volunteers in Nicaragua carried the project out themselves, which was a LOT of work for a group led by Maverick, a man with a family
with a new baby whose mama Marta and grandma also did a ton of work. It also shows that the system we have built over the last decade is very functional now. Our co-founder, Mateo Garibaldi, ferried our funds to Nicaragua, and our long-time Nicaragua coordinator, Maverick, bought all the school supplies for five schools, including three new schools that we have never worked with before, that are more remote and rural than the ones we already work with!
Then, after a brutal day of packing boxes and a very long drive right past the crater of a smoking volcano, the team, including our amazing school liaison Crispin, went to the very remote community of Aguas Frias, which means Cold Waters. Because of the turbulence, we weren’t able to coordinate the dentists this year, but the veterinarians made it, and they treated 280 horses, 170 cows, 30 pigs, 20 dogs and 1 cat! The children were very excited about the school supplies, Maverick said.
The next day, the team headed off to Los Mangles, where we have worked for several years. See the videos of the little dance and presentation that the school did for us so we (and you) could see it on video. They thanked us all by name for not forgetting about them in the nation’s time of trouble. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
On Thursday, March 15, they headed out to El Caracol (The Snail!), another new school,
also remote and rural. There is a delightful picture of a pretty young girl, about whom Maverick wrote to us: “Esta niña no estaba asistiendo a clases por razones economicas su mamá no tiene dinero para comprarle los artículos escolares , y con la ayuda que se le entrego comenzó este día ir a clases un claro ejemplo de que realmente estamos
ayudando a los niños a que asistan a clase.” That means, “This girl was not going to go to school this year for economic reasons, because her mother didn’t have money to buy school supplies, and with our help she began coming to classes today. It is a clear example of the real impact we can have helping children go to school.
Monday, March 18, the team set out for the third new school, La Morita. That, too, is a remote rural community that I am very excited to see for the first time next year. Finally, after a full week of packing boxes, driving hours and hours of really, really bad road, the team went to the last school, La Leona, which we have visited a number of times, and concluded this year’s project.
I don’t have words for how awesome and amazing Maverick, Crespin, and all our Nicaraguan volunteers are. This was an incredible amount of work, usually done with five or six American volunteers to help, they carried out alone, and coordinated three new schools that were hard to reach. They take this project so seriously that each year they work to make it better. This year, they plan to prepare reports for all of us. I will make those available soon.
Thank you to all of you who helped make this happen. Our Jam for Nicaragua has been nominated by the Washington Blues Society for Best Non-Festival Event, because of all your help, too. I’m crying inside because I didn’t get to go myself this year, but we were being careful. I miss it there so much, though. Please consider volunteering with us next year. You will love it, too.
See below for more photos!
