2011: 4th Grade Philanthropy Project

My year has been full of laughter, tears, and amazement as a Teach for America Corps Member. Teaching 4th grade at the lowest performing elementary school in Richmond, California has been an incredible learning experience. My 32 students were full of energy, excitement, and passion. As the year progressed, I started to share my Nicaraguan experiences in the classroom. My students' interest was instantly sparked and they continuously asked me questions about the Yahoskas and Los Quinchos.

Feeding off their energy, I planned and implemented a philanthropy unit, in which the students read Three Cups of Tea: The Young Readers Addition as a class. The students developed a class philanthropy project, and chose to center their goal around the Yahoskas. The goal was to fill a suitcase with useful donations. Their project was a success! I am leaving for Nicaragua in the morning, loaded with a 48 pound suitcase full of Spanish books (donated by my students, their parents, several other donors, and some that I purchased) and a 47 pound suitcase full of other donations. I am extremely impressed by my students drive and generosity.

My students also wrote pen pal letters to the Yahoskas. While in Nicaragua, I will conduct a series of writing workshops in which I will help the Yahoskas learn how to write friendly letters in a three paragraph format. I think they will really enjoy connecting with my 4th graders, many of whom are from Mexico. In several of their letters, students describe their experiences as Latinos in the United States, as well as what life is like living in an impoverished, urban community.

2009: Founding the La Yahoska Library

2009 Project Summary:

1) The Yahoska library was constructed, thanks to the many donors (you know who you are!). The girls now have access to books at their home. With the $2000 raised, I was able to buy several hundred books for the library.

To the right is Doña Ivania (the Los Quinchos librarian/my homestay mother) at Ispamer, the main book store in Managua. In the middle is a photo of Chris (a carpenter from the United States, was generous enough to make the bookshelf for free) and a few workers from Los Quinchos helping to set up the bookshelves needed for the project.

Below are photos of the girls helping to organize the books into categories, labeling of the categories on the bookshelf, and the final product!

2) Together, we did a good bit of both individual and group reading. I was pleased to see their interest and enthusiasm for reading increase over the course of my stay.

2) With the Yahoska psychologist present, we organized and lead a two-part sexual education workshop with the oldest girls. Each session lasted about two hours and the girls had the chance to discuss any topics they chose. For thirty minutes, the girls wrote down questions they had and passed them in anonymously. We then formed a circle and placed all the questions in the middle. The girls read them aloud and we had discussions about each question. The intention was to only do one session, but the girls requested a second.

3) Using the poetry of Ruben Dario, Garcia Lorca, and Pablo Neruda, I put together poetry

books for each of the girls. Using these compositions, we engaged in poetry workshops in which we learned about similes, metaphors, personification, and the use of vivid imagery. After the workshop series, the girls had the chance to write their own poetry and prose. The girls produced some fantastic work!

4) Using the poetry and prose the girls wrote over the duration of the workshop, they performed their favorite pieces at the Quinchos first Open Mic Night. Italian volunteers, the directors of Los Quinchos, as well as many boys from the boys program attended the two-hour performance. The girls performed beautifully. To prepare for the performance, we had a long dress-rehersal. We practiced how to project our voices, speak with distinction, and stand proudly to share.

2009: Return to Nica. Fundraising and Planning

I feel fiery and frenzied as I fiddle with whatever I can get my hands on...anxiously waiting to return to Nicaragua, the country I started to know and love summer of 2009. I am ready to return!

About a month from today I will be lucky enough to return to Nicaragua for a second CPGC internship, entitled as a "continuing connections" grant. I can't describe the pent up excitement that is causing me to wretch around in my desk chair every day while doing psychology research at Haverford College (for the two months preceding my internship). So the 2009 blog starts here! Please read below if you are interested in my last year's adventures.

Firstly, I would like to thank Jeffrey and Christina Lurie, who have been ever so generous as to contribute a generous donation to my upcoming library project. The plan is to start a library at the Yahoska complex (read below for a description). This week I will be sending out letters to friends and family in order to raise more money for books and library supplies. Library project #2 is getting way.

I also met a psychologist during the Red Sox/Phillies game who is eager to help me plan my second project for the summer, a small poetry/writing workshop. The workshop will try to incorporate and encourage the expression of pain and domestic violence topics. This psychologist has written a book for adults regarding the process of surviving 'rape and sexual assault,' and he is also on the review board for a known psychology journal.

The race is on to plan as much as possible in the next month before I head down south. But as many of us know, plans need to be malleable if any implementation and sustainability is desired.

NOTE TO READERS

A few people have been confused -- the entries at the top are the most recent.

Sorry if my grammar isn't perfect. I haven't had time to edit my spit fire entries I compose at the internet cafes (sivers).

2008: Reading Celebration

El Concurso de Lectura was a success in the Yahoska household! The winners of the contest read tons of books in a three week period. It was such a fun experience to walk into town with the girls for Ice Cream (first with the younger winner and then with the older winners a second time around). We followed our ice cream shop visit with a visit to the park to play. I forgot how excited kids get before and after they go out for ice cream :)

2008: Somos Bonitas Adentro y Afuera (We are beautiful inside and out)

Many of the Yahoska girls have never been asked to discuss their inner feelings about their personalities, but project Somos Bonitas Adentro y Afuera prompted some of these sentiments.

Two weeks ago I took individual photos of each girl and had them printed in Managua. It was an incredible process to find the hard-backed poster board I wanted to mount the photos on. I took a bus to a neighboring town to find a large styrofoam piece from an appliances store. I painted the board red and pasted the photos of the girls in order of youngest to oldest. Below every photo I wrote ADENTRO: and AFUERA:. I brought the poster board to the home of the Yahoskas, and was immediately surrounded by smiling faces and screeching voices saying, "ENSEÑA!". After every girl got a good look at the poster, we began the two day process of discussions.

We talked about what we thought was beautiful (both inside and out) about the personalities and faces of each girl. We talked about how the media often emphasizes outer appearances, and how it is important to realize there is more to a person than the clothes they wear or makeup they put on. A few of the girls blushed and smiled nervously as we talked, but eventually they all warmed up and enjoyed talking about their favorite personality traits and physical features.

2008: The Reading Contest - El concurso de Lectura

Reading is an activity that is inaccessible to many in Nicaragua. With the 300+ books that have been added to the Quinchos library, thanks to my generous donors, Los Quinchos have bright new books to read. 

To motivate students in Los Quinchos to read, organized a small competition between the girls and boys of Los Quinchos. We tracked the completion of each book with a sticker. Before a sticker was placed on the tracker, the students had to give a small summary, describe the theme, describe their favorite character, state what they learned, and answer a few comprehension questions. The two boys and two girls who read the most by the end of our internships (Gloria, Rose, and myself) were to receive a trip into town for ice cream!

I was a bit worried for the first week of the contest, because the kids were so busy and didn’t have time to come to the library, but two days ago I asked their caretakers if I could bring them to the library for extra reading time. This was no problem, and there started the beginning of the contest. All the students needed was a bit of encouragement and a person to walk them to the library. We will see who wins the contest☺

Below are photos of several Italian volunteers reading with the girls. A great portion of the funding for the Quinchos program comes from Italian donors, who often venture to Nicaragua to see the progress of the projects and to volunteer however they can.

2008: Puppy Rescue

All of the excitement of the paseo came on day three when we all took a trip to a beach about an hour away from the town. Right as the bus passed the various houses made of garbage bags and plastic which lined the beach, I noticed four tiny puppies in the sand. They were all struggling to stand up and seemed to be choking on the granules of sand. A few of the girls laughed, but most of them were concerned. I was mortified...

Gloria and I immediately got off the bus and picked them up. I filled my two Frisbees with water and put the overheated puppies into them so as to cool off. We scooped water into their mouths as they tried to stand up but could only then collapse back into the Frisbees. This situation was just too much for me to let go. There are hundreds of dogs I’ve passed by in Nicaragua, unable to do anything because they were ferule or grown up, but these puppies were vulnerable and were going to die if we did nothing.

Many people in my group thought I was crazy, but I took the puppies onto the bus while everyone else was at the beach, and poured water into their tiny mouths with the cap from my advil bottle. I looked ridiculous covered in sand, sitting on the floor of the old, dingy bus with a Frisbee on my lap and a dog in my arms. I called my mom to ask her what mixture of liquids I could give the dogs besides water, and she called our veterinarian to get a solid answer. She called me back and instructed me to mix milk, water, and eggs together. Cows milk is isn’t good for the puppies to drink straight, so the water would dilute it. The eggs were for extra calories, because the puppies were so starved.

The caretaker of the school (a young man who had grown up on the streets of Managua and went through the Quinchos program) traveled with us to the beach that day. He was one of the few people who followed me onto the bus, and he seemed interested in what I was going to do. I asked him if he would be willing to walk to the local town to buy milk and eggs to mix with the water. He gladly agreed and off he went with the sum on money I gave him. He promptly returned not twenty minutes later and handed me the items I’d asked for, along with two syringes. I had no idea the small desolate town would have syringes, and I was overcome with hope! What a thoughtful guy! My job was about to become much easier.

Using the syringe, I gave them all 4 ccs of the mixture and proceeded to let them rest. I ruffled the puppies fur with my sarong and then wrapped them all in it, placing them at the back of the bus to sleep. They were exhausted, but glad to be in a warm, comfortable place. They instantly crawled on top of each other amongst the comfort of my sarong, and were happily asleep.

For the next four hours, while the girls played and enjoyed the beach, I sat on the bus with the dogs, taking them to the bathroom (disgusted by the parasites I could see in their fecal matter), feeding them, and ruffling their fur as to make them feel they had a mother to love them. I was really worried about two of them, as they couldn’t stand up on their own for most of the day. As time went on they quickly gained their strength back. A few of the girls stayed on the bus with me for most of the day, very interested in the process of rehabilitating dying dogs. We had some great conversations about animal care and the treatment of animals in Nicaragua.

I ended up taking the puppies back with me to the schoolhouse. I knew I would have a tough trip back to San Marcos the next day, as I was planning to leave a day early so as to get the dogs to the Veterinarian. The night was full of surprises. I put the puppies in a box with my sarong, and was frustrated but relieved when they gained enough energy to climb out of it. They began to develop some personality, and followed a few of the girls around when I woke them up to go to the bathroom. This was the point where I was starting to be sure I was doing the right thing. It was a bit of trouble to get them back to the schoolhouse, and I hadn’t played with the girls on the beach. I knew it had been beneficial for the girls who had stayed on the bus with me, so I hadn’t completely neglected my internship responsibilities.

That night, the same young man who had gone to retrieve the syringes, brought with him a friend, named Wilbur, who said he wanted one of the three puppies. I was hesitant at first, knowing the puppies were all very sick and needed massive amounts of attention. He told me he had wanted a dog for a long time and would take great care of it, giving it real puppy food. I made sure to ask him never to hit his dog, as I see many people do in Nicaragua. Wilbur responded with, “Claro que no!” Of course not! “I think it is awful how many of my fellow Nicaraguans treat animals, and I will never do that.” With this statement I was convinced, and I handed over one of the girls. The boy immediately wrapped the tiny thing in his shirt and said, “I will name her Princessa.” My smile spread ear to ear. By this time it was around eight thirty, so we spent the evening talking and making jokes, while I played with and comforted the other two tiny beings in the box. I showed Wilber how to feed Princessa with one of the syringes, which I gladly gave him as an accompanying tool for his new puppy.

After the boys left, I dragged my sleeping back outside. Rose, another volunteer, is allergic to dogs, so I decided it would be best to sleep outside with the puppies. Until sunrise, I woke up every hour and a half to feed the babies and take them to the bathroom. The night was full of whimpers from the dogs, screeching from the bats, and buzzing from the bugs. I was sure to thoroughly spray the perimeters around my mat with deet bug spray, for the insects here are far superior size wise to those in North America.

Gloria and I traveled back to San Marcos the next day. It may have been one of the most tiresome days of my life. We took a taxi to the town of Posletega, and then three buses to get ourselves to San Marcos. I played the role of “crazy gringa,” who thinks she the mother of a few puppies, for the span of the day. I did receive quite a few smiles alongside the weird looks. The most attention was paid when I whipped the puppies out on the concrete in the middle of the chaotic bus stations to go to the bathroom. People surrounded me on several occasions, all which asked where I got the dogs. My only response was, “they were abandoned by some mean person on a beach in the North. They were going to die if I didn’t take them with me.”

The microbus driver to my town asked me what happened, for I was sitting in the front seat with the anxious puppies. He seemed touched by the story and drove me to the Vets before he stopped at the normal loading place in the town square. The people here can be so nice!

I begged the vet to take the dogs for a few days, so as to rehabilitate them. He was nervous they wouldn’t make it because they had some blood in their fecal matter and urine. Thanks to the emergency fifty dollar bill my grandmother gave me five years ago, that I have kept in my wallet since, I was able to pay for all of their medicine and their five day stay with the vet. Might I mention that vets here don’t normally take animals overnight, but my fifty dollar bill convinced the nice man. He only charged me five dollars a day to take them….not bad compared to what that would be in the states.

I found a home for them the same day. A friend of my family was looking for a puppy, and agreed to take them both. Yay!! I then slept for 22 hours straight, only waking up to have dinner shoved down my throat and to go the bathroom. Gracias adios!!

2008: Paseo con Los Quinchos

It is hard to truly view all of the tradegy and extreme problems of Nicaragua, and I came to this realization when I accompanied 15 of the Yahoska girls on vacation to a northern town called Posletega. For two weeks the girls school had vacation, and about half of the girls went home to their families to visit. The interesting part of the trip started with a bumpy ride to the North of Managua, which eventually caused the old, rickety bus to break down. The Yahoska workers played this off well and pretended it was merely a stop for lunch. After the bus cooled down, we chugged on to our destination.

The Quincho program doesn’t have exuberant amounts of money, so they travel to places where they can sleep for free. About eight years ago a volcano erupted and killed thousands of people in and around the town of Posletega. The Quinchos reached out to the devastated place and built a school about three kilometers from the main town. This was where we stayed.

The first day was full of Frisbee, soccer, a piñata, and story telling. Before bed I read the girls a meditation from a book I was so lucky to find on our latest trip to Managua. It was so exciting because this book was one that was read to me when I was little, so it was crazy to be able to find it in Spanish (it was found in the used books section). Despite the older girls listening to their Reggeton music not a 100 meters away, the younger girls enjoyed the story and were intent to have it read to them every night they were on vacation.

We all slept in the two roomed school, the girls and their teachers in one room and the volunteers in the other. The rooms were divided by what seemed like a cardboard, wood collection. We slept on the Nicaraugan version of sleeping bags, which were merely cotton filled mats for the floor. Right as I was about to fall asleep the bats came to life and began to swoop in and around our room from the storage room to our left. Between the girls talking in their sleep in the next room and the “murciélagos” yapping, I slept very little the first and second nights.

2008: Los Quincho Library Editions

Left in the funding for the library was 650 dollars, of which Dona Ivania, Gloria and I put to good use. With 650 dollars left to use, we ventured into Managua to purchase more books for La Biblioteca. We spent five hours in three stores debating over what books to buy. The library needed a few sets of special text books for the children to use after school, several types of science books, music books, poetry, more “learning to read” books for the smaller Quinchos, and libros in various other subjects. It is amazing how far 650 dollars can go in a third world country. We filled two backpacks and six bags full of books to lug back on the “MicroBus” to San Marcos.

Amongst our favorite purchases were books about physical and sexual child abuse, homosexuality, and a book about “all you need to know about your period.” We also chose some books about animal care and animal rights, along with a children’s meditation book (of which I used to read when I was little…only in English). Below are some photos of us with our favorite books.

Thank you so much to those who contributed to this project. Its success is evident by the smiles on the children’s faces when they walk into their newly renovated and liberated library. DonaIvania, the librarian would also like to make a special thanks to those who donated. Your contributions have brought tears to her eyes on several occasions.
The library has a new look and a fresh feel!

2008: Touring Nicaragua

It was a treat to be reunited with other Haverford students who are volunteering in Nicaragua. Fourth of July weekend was celebrated with laughter and story telling. We ventured to a southern beach called El Coco and filled each other in on our internship experiences (while taking in a bit of sun). It was the perfect get away in the middle of our 10-week span in this fascinating country. It was a bit difficult to play tourist after volunteering for so long, but we comforted ourselves by realizing our money was going toward the improvement of the tourism business. An increase in tourism would greatly help Nicaragua’s economy. It has as many beautiful sights as does Costa Rica but lacks the economic stability to advertise. It is hard to publicize and improve the tourism business when forty percent of the population is in extreme poverty.

In the Southern part of Nicaragua exists a beautiful sanctuary for the mothers of the ocean, who once a year travel thousands of miles to lay their eggs in the same sand from which they originally emerged. La Flor is a natural turtle reserve in which over 20,000 turtles come to between July and September to lay their precious, valuable eggs. About one in every hundred of their babies will survive to become procreative adults.

Besides birds and small mammals, humans are their most detrimental predator. Turtle eggs are a delicacy in Nicaraguan restaurants; so many poor residents will sneak onto the reserves and steal the turtle eggs after they are laid. But how can we blame those who are merely trying to survive and feed their families by digging up a few eggs to sell on the streets? Humans are slowly destroying nature, but poverty and corrupt governments are slowly destroying humanity. Who is at fault?

Our group was lucky enough to witness one of the great giants lay her eggs deep in the sand. I can’t begin to describe how incredible the mother turtle looked as she struggled to lay and bury her 100 some odd ping-pong like eggs and then flop back to the ocean. These incredible creatures can live up to 200 years old and have been around since the age of the Dinosaurs.

My group also arrived on a night when nine eggs had hatched, so the workers at the national reserve allowed us to set them free into the ocean. It is much safer for humans to bring them down the beach than to let them travel on their own, because many predators are constantly on watch in hopes to grab a bite to eat. It was quite a sight to watch the tiny beings scamper away to the distant roar of the waves. Sometimes we forget to appreciate the beauty beyond human kind. Nature has so much to offer.