Blogs from Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Well, after a long absence, I'm back to another adventure. Without going into many details, the time was just not right until now. But, I finally said to myself, "If you don't do it now, when will you?" And my business was in good enough shape that I could leave it in the capable hands of my new assistant for awhile. But not too long! So I figured I'd do a short trip, covering more of Central America (hoping to do the whole stretch from Cancun to Panama City eventually). Previously, I´d done the Costa Rica circuit with Tucan Travel. So, I´m doing the one-week San Jose to Panama City section of the route--with a couple of extra days at the beginning and end. A brief glimpse of Nicaragua at the start, so I flew into ... read more

And so my time here in Jinotepe comes to an end. In nine weeks this community has truly become a home to me. I have gained a new family in my home stay (¡muchisimas gracias a mi familia nicaragüense!), worked alongside the wonderful employees of the Centro de Salud Jinotepe, and explored the natural beauty of Nicaragua. The 15 minute walk to and from work twice a day has become the most natural activity and I can't imagine that I will not be doing it again next Monday. At the Centro I have been welcomed as a fellow employee and I feel comfortable and useful there. I have gained at least 8 new mothers in form of the nurses and doctors who work at the Centro, all of whom love to check in and remind me ... read more

Six weeks feels like six days when doing development work. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by and that I now only have 3 weeks left working in my community, with the Centro, and with the wonderful people I have gotten to know here! Before leaving for this trip I thought 9 weeks was going to be an incredibly long time to do a project, but I have figured out very quickly that it is really only enough time to scratch the surface. It has been interesting as well to meet volunteers in other programs that are only here volunteering for 2 or 3 weeks (normally a decent length for a trip but now equal to the amount of time I have left) and I can’t even imagine at this point being here ... read more

The first meetings! Success comes in many different sizes, and in the last few weeks they have ranged anywhere from getting used to a spanish keyboard to actually holding my classes and having participants! There is, however, good news and bad news for this week. The good news. I have now successfully held two of my meetings and people actually showed up! First, I just want to say that Midwives are amazing people and invaluable resources in their communities. I have so much respect for anyone who takes on that responsibility, especially in a semi-rural, developing place, and the extent to which they know everyone in their community is incredible. My first two meetings took place in La Competencia, a neighborhood in Jinotepe, and all we had to do to spread the word was tell the ... read more

¡Hola! It has already been 12 days since I've arrived in Nicaragua, and the time has flown by! For anyone who hasn't heard, I am working as an intern through the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) for 9 weeks this summer in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. My time here has been a blur of orientation, integrating into my home stay, and 3 semi-awkward days of work. FSD's internship place interns in an organization where they then work to create a project the organization feels is important and that can be sustainable after the intern leaves. This has so far basically translated into a first week consisting of varying degrees of success in getting to know the organization, asking questions, finding my place within the organization, and finally developing an idea for a project (which will most definitely be ... read more