Nicaragua Photo Diary
February 2024 - El Borbollón
In February 2024, I traveled with the organization Linking Hands for Learning to build a school in El Borbollón, Nicaragua. This was my second trip after January 2023 in El Carrizo. In addition to the school build, I also conducted thesis research for my MFA Industrial Design thesis project at RIT, and returned home with a completed prototype!
This trip is always life changing. I put together this photo diary to share some of our experiences and memories!
Day 1: Travel
Our first day did not go as planned... after a few long delays and cancellations, we all spent the night in Miami.
We flew from Miami to Managua, Nicaragua
El Sauce is the town we stay. We build schools in neighboring villages.
Day 2: Arrival in Nicaragua, School Build
Day 2: My first meal in Nicaragua! Tex Mex bowl
El Sauce - the town where our host families live.
Settling in at my new house for the week.
My host sister Dolly :)
Meeting at the truck
Driving to the school worksite in El Borbollón - about 30 mins away. Our transportation for the week is on the back of this truck!
Reuniting with my friends from Nicaragua! Ana (who is also hosting me!) and Karina. They are both interpreters for our group.
Arriving in El Borbollón. This is what the previous volunteer group completed in January - we will be finishing the third and fourth walls, and making the foundation for the sidewalk.
This is the school's water supply - and also the water we used for making concrete, mortar, etc.
Meeting the kiddos! This is the existing school next to the one we are building. It is too small to fit all the kids in El Borbollón.
Saying hi to the community of El Borbollón as we drove by.
Getting started with digging trenches.
Today's mission: get this stump out
...2 hours later!
Mixing concrete
Laying bricks and mortar
Terry the dog was a frequent visitor - he stopped by every day for pets.
Cutting wire - this wire will be used to make the foundation for the walls.
Playing duck, duck, goose - or in Spanish "pato, pato, ganso"!
Heading back to El Sauce
Ended the night with fresh watermelon on a hammock - yum!
Day 3: School Build & Salsa Dancing
Day 3
Onto day 2 at the worksite!
There were many huge boulders we had to dig out.
We rolled over the boulders to use as seats during breaks.
Hemena (an 11 year old girl from El Borbollón) helping break up the dirt in the trenches.
Terry's back!
Waiting in line for lunch (a bowl of rice)
asking us to play pato, pato, ganso again
We LOVE pato, pato, ganso here
Big hugs!
A little tarantula we dug up.
Salsa dancing class back in El Sauce!
We might've gotten even more sweaty here than at the worksite.
Day 3: School Build
Day 4
Sergio (the head mason) teaching one of the boys in the village how to bend wire.
This will become part of the foundation!
Scraping dried concrete off the wood planks so we can reuse them.
We used wire, shovels, and whatever else we could find to scrape.
Sidewalk foundation starting to come along.
Surprise - more pato, pato, ganso.
Making friendship bracelets with the girls.
Ice cream break!
Hemena and I on the hammock
Each of these boulders was pulled out of the ground while we were working.
Hector and Jessica playing tic tac toe in the mortar while we wait for the bricklayers to tell us they're ready for more.
Back to El Sauce for dinner.
After dinner, Ana and I went to play soccer with her brother and cousins.
They let us into a game - we beat her 11 and 14 year old cousins... no big deal...
Day 4: School Build & Karaoke
Day 4: Heading off to El Borbollón!
The kids made this for us to see when we arrived.
Terry's nap spot - he was here waiting for us
Each of these boulders took us anywhere from 1-3 hours to get out.
Dance break!
Petting Terry break
My favorite lunch spot
Teaching the kids some duo-language games
More digging
Our biggest task today was to fill this with rocks to make it more level.
We collected rocks from the side of the road,
and G came up with this mechanism to help carry buckets of rocks over.
We had some extra help from the kids too!
Once it was level, we were able to put in the foundation for the sidewalk.
The only power tool we had at the site was this chainsaw.
We asked the masons to cut off some extra pieces of wood.
The perfect tic tac toe game board!
This sparked an intense tic tac toe tournament.
... which led to other types of tournaments...
Those who shyed from competition stuck to friendship bracelet making
All the volunteers wrote our names & dates on the rocks.
Making some progress - even though most of it won't be visisble when the school is completed
We stopped at a karaoke bar on the way home for some cold Toñas.
Enrique belting out "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
Franklin's rendition of "You're the One That I Want"
Caroline and I (not pictured) sang an excellent Spanglish version of "Despacito"
Karaoke continues on the truck ride home
Dolly waiting for us at home
Shrimp, sausage, rice, and the best avocado I've had in my life!
The party continues in El Sauce
Day 5: Ocotal
Day 5: We do not work on the weekends. Today we are heading to the mountain village of Ocotal.
My host dad's outfit today
Ocotal is an hour truck ride up the mountain. There were so many beautiful views along the way.
We were greeted with our horses to ride.
Next stop: coffee tour!
Emiliano showed us how he grows and waters his coffee plants.
Emiliano picking coffee berries
Splitting the berry from the pit (the coffee bean). The extra fruit/pulp is used as fertilizer to grow more plants.
After rinsing and drying for a few days, the beans are ready to be de-shelled.
Separating the dry shell from the inner bean
Now the beans are ready for roasting!
The indoor smoke blackens the walls. This family is also using the smoke to smoke their cheese (seen hanging above the stove)
They boil the water in this handmade clay stove.
Emiliano's family's new puppy Bruno.
He also has piglets, chickens, and iguanas on his farm.
This man was wearing a Rochester, NY shirt!
Emiliano's family's shower
The family grows and makes their coffee at their home.
I don't like coffee... but this coffee was good.
Riding to our lunch spot.
The women in Ocotal made us an excellent lunch.
Lookout spot and kids swings
We can see El Sauce from here!
You can also see several volcanos in the distance.
The outhouse
The women from the village teaching us how to weave baskets with pine needles and thread.
We were able to buy baskets they've made! It's so much more impressive after experiencing how hard and time-consuming it is to weave.
Seeing our friend Karina's new resort that she built by hand with the help of her family.
The most incredible views
Taking it in
I met up with Anielka, who has been constructing my thesis project! We discussed updates and changes to the design.
Day 7: León
Day 7: Visiting the León Cathedral
The walk up gave us some slight claustrophobia.
The view from the roof
We were required to take off our shoes.
Shopping for souvenirs from local craftspeople.
We stopped at the beach in León.
Day 8: School Build & Goodbye Party
Day 8: When we got to El Borbollón, Hector gave me this piece of wood he made for us.
Hector and I
Playing soccer with the kiddos
Some group members brought suitcases filled with school supplies.
Emma eating some sugar cane
Piñata time!
Waiting in line for ice cream
Hector and Jovani rocking some Linking Hands shirts.
The goodbyes were very hard. All the kids started crying, which of course made us all start crying, too.
Goodbye Terry :(
The whole community of El Borbollón came together for the celebration.
One BIG last game of pato, pato, ganso!
Our group! Volunteers from the U.S., and volunteers, masons, and interpreters from Nicaragua.
Linking Hands!
What the school looked like when we left. The masons will continue to do work on it after we leave.
The kids following our truck as we drove away. This broke my heart.
Every day we passed by this unique bridge. Today we decided to stop for a group photo on the truck!
Franklin is an excellent driver but not the best chair-sitter.
Giving thank-you gifts and saying goodbye to my host family.
Enrique singing us a traditional Nicaraguan song at our going-away pool party with the host families.
Day 9: Lagoon
Day 9: Anielka delivered my thesis project in the morning. I will take this home with me, in addition to the research and interviews I did throughout the week.
Today we travel to a hotel near the airport in Managua. We stop at this volcanic lagoon along the way to swim, eat, relax, and recoup from the trip.
My meal at the lagoon - shrimp stuffed lobster.
