Quiero Regresar

The last couple days of the trip were very exciting yet sad. The final Thursday we were there we had our last reflection at Corey and Lara's house and got to talk with Leticia about Atraves and her involvement and ask her any questions we had. The following day was our last day at the school and that evening we went back for their Mother's Day party and got to see lots of dances and songs performed by the kids. We got to take pictures with them and dance with them and say our goodbyes. It was a very very hot and sunny afternoon that got cloudy and right as we got on the bus to leave it started to pour and was thundering and lightning, somewhat to fit our moods of sadness that this was the last time we would see these kids. They were all by our bus windows waving and saying bye and it was very hard to think that these kids still have to live here. Every day, this is the reality they face, while we get to go back to the comfort of our own clean big homes with running water and electricity. As Leticia says, the kids are the hope of this community, and that is why the school is such an important place. I hope it is true and that these kids will help to improve the community, and when day when I go back, it will be a whole different place.

Saturday we left for our last weekend trip to la laguna. Our whole group got to stay by ourselves in a hostel and go swimming in the lake and make dinner and have our final reflection and just spend some time together before going home. Sunday we headed back to Managua for one last night with our families before leaving on Monday morning.


It was very sad to say goodbye to my host family. They allowed me to live in their house for a month and treated me like part of their family. I hope to one day go back and be able to visit Nicaragua again and see them or have them come here so I can welcome them into my home and show them around Michigan, because they were so kind and loving to me. Monday morning we all got on the bus and headed to the airport, a few people with tears in their eyes as we pulled away from La Morazon, our neighborhood. We had a long day and finally arrived safely in Michigan and couldn't believe how fast the month had gone by.


Since being home, I think about Nicaragua a lot. I miss all the wonderful people that I met, including my group members from the University of Michigan. I hope to incorporate all the things I learned while I was there into my daily life. I hope to show kindness to others the way I was shown kindness there. I hope to work hard and do my best to help others and for the benefit of the whole group. I hope to appreciate everything I have, after seeing what simple lives many other people live and I hope to be happy and have a positive and enthusiastic spirit that will make someone else's day a little better.

Un día, quiero regresar a Nicaragua! Adios!

Abrazos,

Alison

... continued

During our final work week, I once again worked in the clinic, but this time in the morning. I worked with Talia at the front desk, and we helped Katia the secretary check patients in and find their files in the overflowing filing cabinets that are not necessarily in alphabetical order. Each morning when we would arrive at the clinic there would be a line of people outside the door, waiting to get a number. Each morning and each afternoon, the clinic would only give out twenty numbers for people to see the doctor. If there were more than twenty people, the remaining people would have to try again later or try and come back the next day. This was really different than any doctors appointment I've ever experienced and it made me realize how fortunate I am to be able to make a doctors appointment when I need one and go in and get to see a doctor.

Another thing that I got to observe was the way medicine was given. When people were prescribed medicines, they would come to the pharmacy and many times we wouldn't have the medicine they needed. We would make a list of the medicines that we needed but didn't have and one of the Atraves staff would go out later that day and try to get the medicine that we needed. The patients would come back the next day and check to see if we were able to get any. The availability of medicine there is different as well.  When we walked into a pharmacy right by the grocery store one day to get allergy medicine for one of the girls in the group, there were many different medicines that you could buy without having a prescription. Many antibiotics are over the counter and the patient is very involved in treating themselves. The clinic that we helped to run was very different from one I have ever seen in the United States. A group of nurses from Pennsylvania came this week to volunteer and give the kids at the school check ups. They commented how this would not be how checkups and doctors visits would be done in the States, but in my opinion, it is better that they have this clinic than nothing, even though the procedures are not as standardized as the US.

In the afternoon, I got to participate and help lead Kid's Club. Since the kids only go to school until noon, it is something fun and educational for them to do in the afternoon. It is only run when volunteers are there, so it is an exciting thing for the students. This week was international themed, so each day we focused on different countries, including the United States, Zambia, Japan, India, and Spain. We usually did an arts and crafts activity and an activity that involved running around to get out some of their energy and tire them out and then some other activity that fit the theme of the day. The hit on India day was playing cricket, which was all thanks to Vinay, who constructed a cricket bat with one of the guys that worked at the school. They also loved playing soccer on Spain day because they can never get enough soccer and won't stop talking about Barcelona. It was a lot of fun but very tiring to lead the activities and make sure the kids were paying attention and participating. It's hard to keep them focused on one thing for very long, but you never know, they always surprised us with what activities they liked the most. They were always chattering and running around when they weren't supposed to, but on e day, they were coloring Indian designs, and were silent and had to be torn away for the next activity. Overall, it was a really fun week that took a lot of planning and enthusiasm to make a success!

Better Late Than Never

Hola, from Michigan!

It has been a whole month since I've been back from my trip, so I figured it was about time I wrote my final post to my blog. I'm disappointed that I did not post more on my trip, but it was always a hassle to get on the internet and the few times that I did it was very slow.

I just wanted to write a little more about what I did my last two weeks and then my overall thoughts upon returning home.

The second week I taught English once again in the morning with Lukose. This week, however, we were teaching the scholarship students, or the becados, which were older students in grades 7, 8 and 9. We taught one class for an hour and a half and it was definitely different that the previous week. We had less students in a more open space and had more resources, like a projector as well as worksheets to use with the students. I found this week challenging as well, because some of the students knew the information fairly well and were eager to learn more, as they thought what we were teaching them was pretty easy. There were other students, however, who disrupted the class and did not participate, and when we would try to work one on one with them, it was clear they didn't understand what was going on. We worked on a lot of present tense verbs as well as some other grammar points, and at the end of the week introduced the past tense as well. At the end of the week, Lukose gave them a quiz and was happy to see the progress some of them had made, and disappointed in the ones that still did not understand. It was a learning experience, for the the students and the teachers as well!

In the afternoon, I did biometrics with Alex in the clinic. We would take people's temperature, measure their height and weight, and take their blood pressure. It seems like an easy task, which it was, even in the stifling hot clinic, but at the same time, it was a very important job. As Lukose said during reflection, even though you're just doing biometrics, it's really more than that, because these people coming in are trusting you to do this and letting you be a part of your community. It was really interesting to talk to people as they came back, and one of my favorite parts was getting to see the little babies that came into the clinic. We always were done early, so we would get to help Jessy in the pharmacy or talk to Katia, who is the secretary of the clinic.

One of the highlights of the week was after school everyday we had salsa lessons at Mariana's house, where Nyelah, Rachel, and Joanna lived. Engels, Mariana's neighbor, takes salsa lessons and said he would love to teach us some of the stuff he knew. It was very fun even though we were no where near as good as Engels, and we did it on the front porch area, so it looked a little funny when people walked by and there was a group of gringos trying to salsa.

That weekend we left for a town called Granada, where we got to take a boat tour on Saturday, go out to dinner and then on Sunday went for a hike around a volcano, and got to see amazing views as well as climb a lot of stairs back up to the top. It was a fun weekend and good to relax and spend time together as a group!