Visit to Rivas Project

Today was my last day visiting projects. I went to a small fishing village on Lake Nicaragua. The three AMIGOS volunteers were working with their community to build two wells. Since the community is right on the lake and the nearest mountains are far enough away, it is difficult for them to find clean water. Without wells, they just use the water from the lake, which is contaminated. Community members and volunteers have been working really hard. The well in the picture was dug with shovels to 14 meters! The brick lining was built in just 8 days. This project will be filmed next week to be included in the next AMIGOS promotional film coming out later this year. Tomorrow I am off to Managua and the long trip home.

Visiting AMIGOS Projects

I spent yesterday visiting four AMIGOS projects with the Granada/Rivas staff. This picture is of two volunteers in Los Angeles (Emma, one of my students, is second from the left), their supervisor, the Granada/Rivas project director and the daughter of the house that the volunteers live in. In the background is the school where the volunteers teach, along with the playground/soccer field/cow pasture.

In total I toured four towns and met ten volunteers. I was able to see the results of their ongoing projects and even see some of them in action teaching classes. The Granada/Rivas staff and volunteers are amazing. They are so professional and enthusiastic about their work. Just in the four towns that I visited the volunteers are painting schools, installing locks, teaching classes, building a latrine, painting a ball court, and working almost daily in health centers. This is just what I could see in a day, as I know they are doing more formal and informal projects as well. Tomorrow I am going to tour Rivas projects with a supervisor and the assistant project director, so more to come.

Back in Nicaragua

I made it to Granada, Nicaragua after a day and a half of traveling. What a beautiful town - it is one of the oldest Spanish colonial cities in the Americas. After getting settled Friday, I had a wonderful weekend getting to know the town and people. I was here 12 years ago, and it has really changed! It is a much more popular tourist destination than it used to be (both good and bad). After meeting another aid worker over breakfast on Saturday, I went for a long walk along Lake Nicaragua, one of the biggest in our hemisphere. I spent the afternoon talking to the founder and directors of an interesting non-profit I discovered over breakfast, Casa Xaltera. The program is a combination of Spanish language classes, touristy excursions, volunteer commuity service, and assisstance program for local street kids. After spending the better part to the day getting to know the program and staff, I plan to promote this opportunity to kids in southeastern Connecticut. Today I went to watch a doubleheader baseball game at the main stadium. Nicaraguans are crazy about baseball! Tomorrow is the big day of my visit, as I will spend the day with the AMIGOS de las Americas staff touring project sites. I am really looking forward to seeing how they run their assistance projects at the ground level. I will post pictures of my adventure and another update after I finish my investigations with AMIGOS.

Surf Camp

Gianni spent the week in surf camp offered by the Cocoa Beach Surf Company. He had a blast. I rented a board and joined him for a few rides. On the last day they had a competition, and it just so happened that the swell from hurricane Bertha was upon them. The kids went way out during warm-ups and the swell got the best of them (it was head high for an adult). Then, they had the competition on the inner breaks. Gianni's team won and they all had a blast!
Slideshow

Small Surf, Great Skiing

Today the surf was small, so we went water skiing in the morning. In the afternoon, Gianni went tubing, which ended with a splash!

Pool Party for Etienne and Ahanu

Gianni and I just arrived in Florida last night. We'll be here for two weeks. Over the weekend we built a 14 foot rowboat with my dad, pictures to come... On Monday we had a going away party for Gianni's friends, Etienne and Ahanu - 12 boys swam for almost 4 hours on a perfectly sunny and hot day.