When our feet first touched Nicaraguan soil we knew virtually nothing about the so called world of ‘Sustainable Development’ and the many projects that are initiated under its banner. We don’t really know a whole lot more now but our understanding of what is an appropriate and sustainable intervention into somebody else’s country and life is light years ahead of our previous ignorance. When you need to learn quickly about something the best place to start it to talk to people who have spent their lives doing it. There’s no shortage of ex-pats in Nicaragua who&rsqu [View Full Entry]

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Our dip into Costa Rica had taken a higher level of significant beyond our visa extension and a nice few days away. With both sets of parents San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) bound in mid-January we needed to develop a month watering itinerary that wasn’t going to upset the parental modus operandi of squeaky clean hotel rooms and comfortable tourist buses. This brief trip would be the only time we were to spend any time in Costa Rica ahead of the two weeks with parents so sussing out the lie of the land had become a key side mission. [View Full Entry]

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When we landed in Managua bleary eyed nearly three months ago we had been told that we would be granted the normal 90 day visa. However, whilst in the bank changing money three weeks post arrival we made the unexpected discovery that our little piece of visa paper which had cheerfully been handed to us my an immigration official in the airport in fact stated that we had only 30 days. Having then made a hurried dash to the immigration office in Managua we were fortunately reassured that we did indeed have the all clear for 90 days and they had [View Full Entry]

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When you try to picture a birthday party for a twelve year old in a rural Nicaraguan village you might visualise some silly games and lots of excited chatter. Well this was what we had in mind when Yelba (the mum of our host family) told us she had a surprise party planned for Skarleth (the daughter of our host family). What unfolded on the evening of November 12th was unforeseen. Yelba had invited all the family around (about twenty five people). In such a small community every week seems to reveal a new unexpected family connection so it was good [View Full Entry]

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We must seem often quite backward to our host family and the people of Sabana Grande. The classic example of this has been clothes washing. In these parts there aren’t any of those fancy washing machines to stick your smalls in and select programme D. Here you have a stone washing board of some ilk, detergent, soap and a lot of elbow grease. When we first declared we needed to wash our clothes and were directed towards the washing equipment and we felt confident. Well we had just spent three months in Spain using wash boards and being pretty much washing [View Full Entry]

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Placing yourself in a foreign environment for an extended period of time unfailingly provides an incredible theatre for learning. Plus the more dissimilar the environment you choose from your status quo it seems the more potent the learning opportunities. When everything is unfamiliar you find yourself in a world that can quickly drag your emotions from complete elation to abject despair and back again. As long as your mind is ready for this draining emotional rollercoaster you begin to crave it (perhaps). The last few weeks we’ve certainly experienced this effect to full force in ou [View Full Entry]

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Our alarm goes at 6am. Quite early really but as it’s pitch black at half past six each night so things starts early. For example, Yelba (the mother of our host family) starts her day by taking the days corn to the communities mill at 5am. Our first port of call, post latrine, is a wash at about 6:30am. The place for ablutions is a few paces from the back door in the shape of a small enclosed brick walled area. The view from there is tremendous looking across the lush surrounding hills. Washing equipment is a bucket of water and [View Full Entry]

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Our agreement with Grupo Fenix is that we have all our meals catered for. This is the standard setup for volunteers with the programme and makes keeping fed more straightforward than fending for yourself. Breakfast and dinner is always with our host family including lunch on the weekends. Our weekday lunches happen together with the rest of the volunteers (currently three others) and rotate between the women of the community. Through our payments for bed and board as volunteers the families get paid an amount for each meal that they cater. It’s a pretty well thought through arrangement a [View Full Entry]

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Having discovered that the weekend buses to Somoto were far less busy than the student laden buses to Ocotal (our two nearby city options for entertainment) we decided Somoto would be the better spot to enjoy our Sunday. Being catered for fantastically by the family we stay with and our weekday lunches rotated between the Mujeres Solares (solar women) we had not yet needed to navigate the local market for eateries. However, so we could take a more leisurely approach to our Sunday trip to Somoto and give our family some space from their two guests we elected to seek alternative [View Full Entry]

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Once we decided to undertake our year of exploration much fruitless Goolging ensued in the pursuit of a suitable volunteer experience in the Spanish speaking world. Grupo Fenix (www.grupofenix.org) was the shining light amongst many organisations that could do little to conceal that fact that they cared a lot about volunteers paying exorbitant fees and very little about what their volunteers might actually achieve. The enthusiasm and vision that Susan Kinne, a sixty year old American, the Programme Director communicated during our several months of email exchange about Grupo Fenix drew us in. [View Full Entry]

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