Conserving gloopy paint. Climbing wobbly ladders. Sponging absorbant walls. Three walls anticipating signifigance. Two rooms hungry for cheerfulness.
After six long hours of hard work for our community action project at Barriletes, we finished!
As a group, we took on many projects, despite an allotted time of only two short days. We had two full days to execute our project, but we also dedicated a lot of extra time in planning. We began our work with learning about the organization Barriletes in order to gain a better idea of how we could help them. Then we spent time weighing the pros and cons of all the ideas we came up with, narrowed it down to a handful, continued to do even more planning, faced difficulties with supplies… That was all done before the two days.
And I think our end results show all of our time and effort. We painted two of the rooms upstairs because they looked like jail cells. We fixed up the swing set for the kids. We created a library for them. We bought two bins: one of recyclables and one for trash. We painted three murals: one was a progression of a person from childhood to adulthood symbolizing how an education is important for success. Another one was to promote better ways of disposing trash, which went along with the bins we implemented. The last mural was the title of the organization painted on the front of the building along with kites and silhouettes. Throughout the day we incorporated the community in our project which was crucial. In this development project, an important aspect that we focused on was sustainability. Having kids from the community help us was wonderful because then it gave them a chance to help. It makes it more meaningful for them since they know they were apart of it. Then when we leave, they are more likely to keep our projects alive. Especially since Barriletes is a preschool, we thought that it was important to instill a passion for learning and an appetite for success. We envision that the library will be a place will kids will spend their time reading, then have fun on the swing set. It´s the best of both worlds for a kid.
At the end we were presented a certificate from Maria. She and a few other staff from Barriletes thanked us for all of our hard work. You should have seen the looks on both Maria´s eyes and all the glimpsers eyes. Maria appreciated out work and and all of us glimspers were so proud of our project. It was a gratifying experience, being able to finally give back to the community after two and a half weeks. Not only that, it was a learning experience. Today we improved so much on our working habits, with working with each other, etc. Tonight, we also had Self-Reflection, time for us to sit down with three other students and share our experience. Weve learned so much about working as a team.
Today was our last day of English tutoring. Each group had their own little party and there was even a piñata in the main room that everyone enjoyed. It was a room filled with laughter and joy. We were upset that the sessions were over because we had built meaningful relationships with the students we tutored. Walking back from tutoring, I talked to many people about how our students told us they´d remember us forever and how they´d seed us again. My student said, “This isn´t a goodbye, because we´ll see each other again.” When 8 o clock rolled around, I could see it in his eyes, that he was sad that it was over but I knew that he was going to take what he learned from us, and fulfill his dreams. Once again, we were able to give something back to the community. The indivisuals that came to learn were devoted to their English studies, some having to travel an hour to get there. So we were more than glad that we could help them. We walked to the market during a downpour just to buy goodies for them. We care.
These past two and a half weeks, we´ve learned so much from Nicaragua and the people here. It was nice to finally feel like we were able to give back to what feels like our home now. We´re global citizens. Nicaragua is also our home. It´s stunning to see the changes in all of us. When we first arrived, the culture was strange to us and we liked the rice and beans. Now we´re soaking up the humidity, admiring their culture, and despite our displeasure with rice and beans, we´re doing this all with a smile on our face. Together. We´ve begun to care so much about the people here. Nicaragua has become near and dear to our hearts.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It´s not.”
-The Lorax
