Yesterday, we returned from orientation
with the new VMM volunteers to find the mini school library already
half built! A lot has obviously been going on around here. Here is a
quick update.
To start off, there is a sense of
finality to everything we do these days. We leave Nicaragua on
September 1. This only leaves us three more weeks to finish work,
kill and eat our goat, do orientation with Alli and Kyle (the new
volunteers), oversee the completion of the new library, pack up all
our things, say goodbye to all our friends, and leave Nicaragua.
It's hard to believe that we've been
here for almost two full years, but that became a lot more real last
week when we went to Managua to greet the new volunteers, who arrived
in Nicaragua on August 4. Alli and Kyle will take our place in San
Nicolas and Natasha and Clare will take over for Erika and Kelsey,
our fellow VMMers who work at the Batahola Cultural Center in
Managua. We had a good week of orientation with them in Managua,
learning about Nicaraguan history and Nicaraguan slang, showing them
around Managua, and spending the weekend together at Laguna de Apoyo
(one of the most beautiful places in Nicaragua).
The familiarity of this whole
orientation felt like the end of a story – the kind of story that
ends the same way it started. I know I overuse this technique in my
own writing – closing the circle by harkening back to the
beginning. But I guess I overuse it because it's a motif that really
resonates with me. As we toured the Loma de Tiscapa lookout in
Managua, I remembered being there two years earlier and looking out
over the city. As we ate pupusas together, I remembered the
conversations over pupusas that we had with the previous volunteers
two years ago. Somehow, these traditions – these returnings to the
beginning – make it easier for me to think about handing over the
reins to the new volunteers. Of course, the fact that they are all
extremely capable, amazing people helps too.
The new volunteers are all in language
school in Matagalpa this week. Alli and Kyle will arrive in San
Nicolas next weekend, and we'll have a good two weeks of overlap to
orient them to San Nicolas before we leave.
In other news, the school will probably
have a new library by the time we leave! When we received a generous
donation several months ago from Davie's home church towards San
Nicolas projects, we asked Idalia, the principal of the high school
where we work, what we could do with the money to improve the overall
education at the school. Together, we drew up a plan to build a mini
library. This will be a quiet place where students can go to read or
study, or where teachers can go to hold meetings or one-on-one
conferences. Since the school currently has only one all-purpose
teacher's lounge/ director's office/ storage space, this addition is
definitely needed.
Thanks to all of our friends and family
who donated so generously towards this project, we were able to get
the construction going quickly. Many parents of students at the
school have also seen the value in building a library and have
donated towards the project as well. Construction started last week,
and in the single week that we were gone, they already finished the
foundation and have built it up about waist-high.
All of the workers hired to construct
the library are from La Garnacha, the small community where we help
with farming and tourism projects. One of the workers also happens to
be the father of two of our high school students – students who
walk six miles a day to get to and from school. To see this man being
able to invest his work in something that will also benefit his
children and their education is really cool. We feel lucky to be able
to end our two years in San Nicolas by being involved in a project
that is not only giving work to people in the community right now,
but will also benefit the children and grandchildren of those
workers, hopefully for generations to come.
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