Welcome to VMM, Alli and Kyle!

Now that it's May, it suddenly feels so real that our two years in Nicaragua are drawing to an end. We only have four more months left in San Nicolas. When our contract ends in September, we'll travel up to Guatemala to visit a friend before heading back to the US to settle, we've recently decided, in Philadelphia.

People in San Nicolas have started to ask us when we're leaving. Often their subsequent question is, “Can you give me your bike when you leave?” But we like to humor ourselves that their interest in our departure date is really more sentimental than that. One of our students, Samari, talks about writing a petition to our supervisor asking that we stay here for two more years, and having all of our students sign it.

We're usually not quite sure what to say when people ask us if we have to go back to the US, or if we'll ever come back to live here. Our position here has been so much about becoming part of the community and living a truly Nicaraguan life that in some ways it feels false to suddenly uproot and say, “Well, our two years here are over – we're going home.” And then there is the fact that while we have genuinely loved our time in San Nicolas, there are also so many people and places and luxuries in the US that we're anxious to return to.

What assuages our guilt about leaving is the fact that a great and extremely capable couple is coming to take our position in San Nicolas: Alli and Kyle Stiffney. Alli and Kyle will arrive in Nicaragua in August so that we have a few weeks of overlap and orientation together before we leave in September. People in San Nicolas are already excited to meet them.

We think that Alli and Kyle will be perfect for San Nicolas. They graduated from the same small Mennonite college that we did (Goshen), which is how we know them. Since then, many of their life decisions have been based on values that are critical to living in a place like San Nicolas. Their commitment to service and social justice is evident in Alli's profession as a school social worker and in Kyle's service on the board of the nonprofit Global Gifts and previous mission trips to Nicaragua.

Kyle and Alli have also lived in Nicaragua before, so they are prepared for all of the challenges and joys that Nicaraguan life entails. Both of them studied abroad in Nicaragua during college, living with Nicaraguan host families and doing service in the Nicaraguan campo for six weeks. Since then, they've been looking for a way to get back to Nicaragua for a longer period of time.

Kyle and Alli will bring their own unique skills to the community of San Nicolas. We think that Kyle's education and experience in accounting could hugely benefit various businesses and organizations in San Nicolas: the high school, the organic farming association at La Garnacha, and the various farmers and business owners in town who often conduct their financial affairs in a haphazard fashion. Alli's background in school social work should also be a huge asset to the town. We see lots of possibilities for her to use her social work skills: visiting students' houses to check in on their family situation, holding one-on-one consultations with students, or giving sex education classes at the high school are only a few options.

Whatever Alli and Kyle's roles in San Nicolas end up looking like, we feel confident that their sociable, caring personalities will serve them well as they carry on the VMM volunteer position of living among the people of this community.