Nicaragua with Global Brigades

I missed the natural high that comes with visiting unknown territory.

I got back from Nicaragua about two weeks ago. I traveled with three other people from school down to Esteli on a 9 day public health trip with Global Brigades. Global Brigades is a student led, nonprofit health and sustainable development organization. Students from any university can get a group together and go on a medical, public health, water, or microfinance brigade in Nicaragua, Honduras or Panama. Typically, a brigade is made up of 15 students. Since there was only four of us, we partnered up with three students from Louisiana State University and two from Arizona State. It was great getting to know and work with some extraordinary people from places so different than anywhere I am familiar with. Everyone was so hardworking and driven to complete the project. The students who go on these brigades are independent, diligent, and enthusiastic...it's amazing to be put together with so many like minded people who are excited as I am to there.

Here is a photo of our first day.  The wooden structures are the frames for the latrine. 

Every day we would wake up around 6:30, enjoy the quiet morning before beginning the two (ish) hour drive to the community we were working in. In one community, we built two latrines and cemented the floor in a family's home.  Having just dirt as a floor can lead to children who run around barefoot getting sick from various insects. It was a lot of cement mixing, heavy lifting of cement blocks, and working under the hot sun. To be honest, I wasn't sure how I was going to do it in the beginning.  Hot and humid weather is not my natural habitat, and I get instantly lethargic in that climate. But that didn't happen like I thought it would, being surrounded by so many people when no one is complaining makes for a contagious work drive, and with some music playing and great company the days flew by.  It was incredible to see our progress day by day. And these people deserve a private bathroom and shower, and one where the walls are more than just a piece of plastic or cloth. Everyone deserves privacy, and it is something that we truly take for granted at home.

About half way done.

Sometimes the organizations that lead these kind of trips run themselves in questionable ways. I really respect and admire the way Global Brigades operates. Aspiring for a future in global development, I pay attention to the details and find it interesting to compare organizations with one another. Global Brigades hires a local contractor and a technician to teach us what to do.  We are not the experts here, and we are not down there to try and impose our way of doing things on these people.  We're just the extra hands there to help in executing the manual labor.  Before going into a community, a representative local to the country interviews the community and makes sure they are a good fit for this project, that they demonstrate need and having help from an outside organization is something they want. Community members are made aware before accepting the help that college students will be coming into their personal space to work, and they pay 10% of the project costs - but that 10% goes directly back into their community, and not to the program. This is a way to ensure the community really does want it, and in the end the idea is that they are sustainable and will not need any future help from Global Brigades or any other organization.

The finished product! 

I have never done anything like this before. I have to say it was one of the best experiences of my life - those nine days might have been the most incredible and rewarding days I've had. I am familiar with doing service work abroad, but teaching english does not compare to this type of work. It is very different, and my experiences in Costa Rica, Thailand or Laos are not comparable to my time in Nicaragua. Both amazing - but contrasting. It was remarkable to see the progress day by day, hour by hour. Actually going into a community such as this one and meeting the families and working in their homes was an experience that offered a unique and rare insight that I believe is impossible to gain otherwise. I feel incredibly fortunate, blessed, and honored to have been a part of this huge change in these families homes. They deserve it. It is heart wrenching that something we take for granted, something so simple is more than these people would have dreamed of. It makes all the difference for them. All the difference.

There is a lot of talk about young adults like myself doing international service work with personal motives; to improve their world view, to give themselves a purpose, to escape their own reality. I don't doubt this. As humans, our own best interests are always on our minds, subconscious or not and no one can deny that. When did it become frowned upon to help other people for the sake of making yourself feel capable or worthy? I'm not saying reasons such as that are the only reason I am passionate about this work. I truly believe that while building two latrines isn't going to save the world, it is going to make life a hell of a lot better for two families. 

I can't cure world hunger. I can't end poverty. I can't provide education to all the children out there who are spending their days carrying water up a hill. But I am capable of making a difference. A difference. And a million little differences are what WILL make greater change. It is SO easy, too easy, to get lost in our own drama. The drama of our grades, the people in our lives...we begin to define ourselves by what we have or what we don't have. Titles, accomplishments, the amount in our bank account. I needed this time in Nicaragua, working hard for something greater than myself to remind me that I am more than the mark on my exam, the heartache caused by someone who does not matter, the day to day stress of getting from point A to point B on time. College is amazing, I LOVE school, I am privileged to have the opportunity to get a college education; but it is a bubble. I began to lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes it is crucial that we take time to 100% devote ourselves to our passions to remind ourselves who we are, what we love, and what we are capable of. I am both humbled and recharged after my time in Nicaragua; I am thankful to have had the opportunity to help some very deserving families while receiving a gentle reminder that the bigger picture never goes away, and the next time my neighbors are being loud, my gas tank is empty, or the shower goes cold; it isn't the end of the world.