Realizing I hadnt said much about my volunteer work in a while and that I am heavily debating my ability and impact of a potential fundraising plea to build a house during our last 2 weeks, here are a few loosely connected thoughts on the expat life to tie it all together.  All 4 of us have ben thinking about our next 4 weeks here as our last and how easy it would be for us to extend this trip.  Olivia asked today if we can stay a year. On second thought, she said how about for her 7th grade, in a year. Quentin is doing much better socially, although he still wont speak much spanish. They both understand spanish pretty well now. We’ve gotten to know several US families that are living here either for 1+ year or indefinitely.  Some appear quite gainfully employed in real estate, restaurants, hotels, and maybe consulting back home, but others keep a pretty relaxed pace, volunteering, parenting, etc. As you see the jobs created by tourism and the housing cost rise,  I wish I could be more sure of our impact on the vast majority of Nicaraguans raising families on very inconsistent income of probably $1000-2000 per YEAR.

The pubic education system is by all accounts quite abysmal.  I have not met any teachers in the public system, so I can’t say much about their training. But the kids in my 4th grade summer school are mostly unaccustomed to any class structure.  We have 3 or 4 that follow our instructions consistently out of respect for us and because they have some advanced understanding on math and spanish.  The rest of the 20 or so that show up during the week would be suspended from any California school within a week.  Despite this constant behavior management challenge in the class, I have had many opportunities to teach some math skills.  Kids have advanced in both math and spanish, had some fun, and hopefully have absorbed a bit of the frustration we teachers have shown toward their poor behavior.  OUr lead teacher is a university student with no intention of becoming teacher.  These ayudantes are sponsored by a donor to La Esperanza.  The sponsor pays their $1700 university tuition and in exchange the student has to volunteer in the La Esperanza program. Its a great system that attracts high achievers.  There are about 15 right now.  Those in the first year, like mine, are not quite fully motivated yet to learn how to be a better teacher.  Ofelia is adjusting to being a teacher, gets frustrated easily, but is otherwise a very capable 18 year old.  More later…..

Our 4th grade class has been averaging about 15 students per day since after the new year. about 10 come every day, and 5 come from about the other 20.  Summer school will go to the 28th and the regular school year starts Feb 6th. A bunch of new La Esperanza volunteers started during the past week. A large group is here building a small office addition at our school. Theyre from Westfield State Univ in Mass.  This is the 7th year a student group has come to build something for the 2 schools in the neighborhood.  Lots of volunteers in the class means that we get to do a lot of one on one tutoring, which is much more enjoyable usually.

Today I toured a few streets deeper into the neighborhood around our school. I met a volunteer from London who has overseen a lot of house building over the years.  He showed me what $3500 can get you built in the neighborhood. Its not much. Its a 20X15 concrete block structure with half walls and tin roof, maybe a new latrine and pit and small kitchen area. The entire neighborhood seems to have potable water and electricity already.    The shovel ready project is to select a family through a lottery of applicants that meet a basic standard: at least 1 kid in Nueva Esperanza school, live in a wood/tin shack with no floor, have some form of title to their small plot of land.  The house then is built in place of their current shack.   I’m thinking if I can get 30 people to donate $100, we can help get a family in a more sanitary, respectable house during our last 2 weeks.

On the other hand, La Esperanza is trying to fundraise to hire a director of their new private learning center that opened up last week.  In this center they are completely free of the Ministry of Education oversight and can greatly raise the standards for the kids.  Its the first of 3 centers planned.  The 2nd is funded and will start construction soon. But they need a full time director to oversee them and they want to raise 3-4 years salary  ($12k) before hiring one of the ayudantes.

The potential impact of these learning centers is very long term but enormous.  A new better house can also benefit more than jus the family.  The neighborhood, while from some views is a a typical shantytown, is improving quickly. In addition to water and electricity, pavement and drainage is coming along slowly.  The 20,000 residents aren’t going to be able to move down into the city. The neighborhood will continue to improve and a new house can continue that momentum and inspire families to make their own improvements.

As a houser/community development focused group of people, I cant pass up the opportunity to extend the offer to everyone to help build a house.  But I will up the ante by offering to match 50% of what is raised toward a house to go to the learning center director position over 3 years. More details to come.