Los Quinchos: Nicaragua 2008-2017: From Natural Disasters to Natural Wonders

Saturday, June 7, 2008

From Natural Disasters to Natural Wonders

As we gallivanted around the city of Estali last week, we were amidst tropical storm/hurricane Alma, which kept us from departing for a day or so. During this time I was bit by a dog, which then ate my medication...and I thought it was going to die, as I was whisked off to a doctor to check out my bite. This is not to forget that a gallo (a rooster) crowed incessantly for the entire night outside my window the night before the hurricane started. This was an eventful period of my trip!

After the torrential rain calmed down, we took an adventure to a cascada (waterfall) about 45 minutes from Estali. It was refreshing to experience a bit of nature and pure air after running around the city all week. It is easy to become overwhelmed with emotion between the poverty and amazing organizations trying to improve the conditions of the country, so for an afternoon we escaped. The natural wonders here are more beautiful than most can imagine.

Speaking of natural wonders, Nicaragua is home to many volcanoes, several of which are active. We drove up a mountain in Managua yesterday to gaze into one of them, Volcan Masaya. Nicaragua could and should increase its ecotourism, but the country's government is in such bad shape, and is so corrupt, that Nicaragua does not have the man power or attention needed to make this happen.

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Internships with Los Quinchos

2017: I am working with the fourth grade class at my school to carry out another philanthropy unit and partner with Los Quinchos. Students plan to gather donations and send pen pal letters to the children I work with in Nicaragua.

2016: At the end of my first year as a school counselor, I worked with the fourth grade class to do a philanthropy unit in which they learned about how to partner with communities in order to make positive impacts. Students gathered over 100 pounds of donations (school supplies and Spanish books) for Los Quinchos. My US students wrote pen pal letters and I worked with Los Quinchos to write them back. Another volunteer and I continued to implement sections of the "Girl's Only Toolkit" described below.

2015: After completing graduate school in social work, I worked with another volunteer to implement San Diego County's self-esteem curriculum, "Girl's Only Toolkit" with the girls of Los Quinchos. We also continued our work around student literacy.

2013: Before entering social work school, I continued my service-learning work from the past four summers with the intention of learning more from all my amazing Nicaraguan friends and homestay family. My 4th grade students in California worked hard to come up with 50 pounds of Spanish books to add to the library, as well as 50 pounds of school supplies for the children of Los Quinchos. In total, my three groups of 4th graders collected 300 pounds of donations for street-children in Nicaragua - shout out to them! In the words of one of my students, "No matter where you come from, you can always help others in need."

2012: After teaching in Richmond, California for two years, I was able to bring my teaching experiences to one of the countries I love the most. This summer was similar to 2011, bringing 50 pounds of books to add to the Yahoska library, delivering pen pal letters, running reading workshop, teaching literacy, and working with the Yahoskas on self-esteem, women's rights, and writing.

2011: In between my first and second years of teaching 4th grade in the Bay Area (Teach for America), I was lucky enough to have the ability to return to Nicaragua in order to intern with the Quinchos for a third summer. I did a series of guided reading circles and pointed reading workshops with books I purchased and that were donated as additions to the Yahoska library I started in 2009. My 4th grade students engaged in a philanthropy unit, in which they developed and executed a classroom philanthropic goal. They filled a suit case full of useful donations for the street children in Nicaragua. They also wrote pen pal letters, describing what life is like living in Richmond, California. The Yahoska girls responded to the "pen-pal" letters that my 4th grade students sent to them.

2009: The Center for Peace & Global Citizenship of Haverford has funded me to "continue my connections" with the Quinchos. The continuation of my work includes the construction of a library at the Yahoska complex, a poetry workshop and final showcase (open-mic night), as well as a series of sexual education workshops.

2008: The Center for Peace & Global Citizenship of Haverford College sponsored my summer internship in Nicaragua. After a three week "delegation" with seven other Haverford and Bryn Mawr students, my internship takes me to San Marcos to work with Los Quinchos, a multifaceted program for former street children. The delegation serves to integrate our group into Nicaraguan culture and to visit the various volunteer sites of our peers.

One of the Los Quinchos projects is a girls residence program in San Marcos, entitled the Yahoskas, which houses about thirty girls. Los Qunichos serves more than 200 children in residential programs and even more in street outreach programs. I worked with the girls residence in San Marcos, helping with school work, water safety skills, and doing various activities with the girls (animal rescue sessions, reading activities, and self-esteem building projects). I raised over $2000 for the organization's main library, and worked with the librarian to re-organize the library's structure.

"To Roosevelt" by Rubén Darío, a famous Nicaraguan Poet. 1904

You think that life is fire
and progress eruption.
That the future is where
Your bullet strikes.
No.
The United States is powerful and great...
You are rich...
You join the cults of Mammon and Hercules
Liberty raises her torch in New York
To light the way for easy conquest.
But our America, that has poets
from the ancient days of Netzahualcoyotl...
lives in light and fire and perfume and love...
this America lives and dreams-you men with
Saxon eyes and barbarous souls-it loves,
it trembles, it is daughter of the Sun.
Be careful...

From the book "The Best of What We Are," by John Brentlinger, this poem is referenced to help explain the feelings of the Nicaraguan perspective during the revolution.