Nicaragua

Over the summer, I and a group of six other teens and two adults traveled to Nicaragua.
Our goal was to learn about the county and help the people of a small village with a
service project. During our three week stay we not only got to know a bit of the language
and culture, but also about the history of the area. For our first week we stayed in the
historic city of Leon, where we stayed at home stays and learned Spanish at Leon Lingua,
a local language school. Going home that first night to a family that spoke only a few
words of Spanish was an experience for all of us, especially those of us who had not
taken any prior Spanish, like myself. After classes we would visit places like a catholic
church in an indigenous village and a mural depicting the tumultuous history of the
country. We were all shocked to see how much the country had changed in just a few
decades and when we realized how much our own country had been involved in
questionable ways. This truly illustrated the seventh principle and how the interconnected
web binds us all together. The second week we spent in a more rural area where we also
did home stays and learned Spanish at a language school called La Mariposa. However,
this language school was much more than just a school. It served as an eco hotel for
travelers, a place of work for the locals, and had numerous humanitarian projects such as
community gardens and even a school for the children. This place was absolutely
magnificent! The successes of their projects and hope it provided for the town was
inspiring. For the third week we saddled up for a week of work in a small community in
the Metagulpa area. And when I say small I mean it. The town had a total of four streets
and the community where we worked was only a few families spread through the
highlands and farms. Each day we would ride to work in the back of a pick up truck,
enjoy gorgeous views, meet honest and genuine farmers, and dig holes and gather rocks
along side them. By the end of this week we had restored an old lavandero and dug a six
foot deep drainage pit for the structure. The absolute satisfaction and gratitude that the
finished product brought was astounding. Each of us took away more knowledge and
understanding than we could have expected and the bridge between Nicaragua and the
United States got a little stronger. It was an eye opening experience and I can’t wait to go
back!

Alessandra Roup

University Unitarian Church- Seattle