I have been to Jalapa, Nicaragua twice now, both times being in 2010. My ECE professor, Debbie Young, has gone both times with me and instilled this passion in me to help the innocent children around the world. I'm starting in Jalapa because that is where I have connections. Later in life I hope to expand to other parts of the world and help there too.
Anyway, the first time I went to Nicaragua it was in March as part of a class I was taking at Naropa University. We did more than I could probably ever say while we were there. We all lived in pairs with locals to get a real experience of what it is like to live there. We stayed for two weeks. We held workshops and taught locals how to grow and care for gardens so they could have nutritious, home grown food. We also did house visits and learned about the local's needs. Our technique is called PAR - Participatory Action Research. We go down with an idea, but hear from the people there what they need, instead of imposing what we think they need upon them and forcing them to be dependent on us and other people from the United States. We also helped build a school, although most of the work was done with the help of another student who was there for an entire school semester. This school just opened in September! The experience was amazing, life changing, and beautiful.
The second time I went to Jalapa was in November over the week of Thanksgiving. On this trip, it was two college students, a high school student, a dentist and his friend, and a computer technician and his wife, as well as Debbie Young again. This trip was only a week long but a lot was accomplished. The dentist, James, paired up with another dentist, Sandra, in Jalapa and every day they went to another part of Jalapa and the surrounding area to see anyone who felt they needed to see a dentist. For the more extreme cases, they went back to Sandra's office in Jalapa and worked on people's teeth there. This was all done free of charge to the locals! The only thing the locals had to do was attend a workshop that educated them on how to properly care for their teeth. Once they had seen the dentist, they also got a toothbrush. Part of the workshop also told them how to make their own toothpaste from baking soda and water so that there is no dependence on other people to bring them toothpaste every couple of months. These workshops were given to them by the wonderful member of PIEAT, who I will tell you all about at another time.
While all this wonderful stuff with the dentist was happening, the computer technician was well at work. He taught anyone who wanted to attend his class how to put computers together, fix them, and work the basic features. Being able to use a computer is a huge privilege to the people in Nicaragua and one we were happy to educate them on. A lot was covered in just this one week, and before we left they could access Windows or Linex, depending on what they needed, and had knowledge of how to gain access to basic Windows software. The two college students (myself being one and Gabe being the other) also helped in an English class.
Now all of the above was accomplished in one week, two at the most. Now I, along with two other students (Gabe and Leah), are taking a semester off from school and going do Jalapa for four months to accomplish a number of things. This blog is specific to follow my journey, but all three of our lives will be very connected for the next few months. There are a number of things we have planned gfor our four months down there. I plan to teach an English class, teach a computer class, work in a preschool, participate in home visits with PIEAT to build relationships in the community, and help Leah and Gabe with their wonderful projects as well. Leah is working to implement art and self expression as a part of every day classes. She is bringing beauty to the community and will also be painting a large mural on one wall of the school with them. Gabe is working towards building a daycare so that the young women who have very young siblings or children of their own still have the opportunity to go to school. The daycare is attached to the school so that the girls can drop their siblings or children off, go to school, and then pick them up at the end of the day. These projects are very important to us and the people of Jalapa who deserve beauty and education just as much as anyone else does. In order to afford this amazing opportunity for them, we have to raise $15,000 and we will be able to accomplish everything we plan to and then some.
A very important part of what we do is to make everything sustainable. We want the organization and the education to keep running even if no one from the United States never went down there again. We can't send toothpaste to them every four months so that they can brush their teeth. We want to give them the means to use what they have regularly in order to make things they need. We want them to know how to use a computer and be completely self sustainable. It isn't about us fixing things for them, it's about supporting them in fixing it themselves.
Sorry, I guess it wasn't so brief.
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