Week Two:
Casa Verde

September 7, 2015

Hello again! The second week of my work with Casa Verde has been full of activities. Due in part to the young age, and large number of the members in the Sunny Side service learning team, I am pretty much kept busy helping to manage them, and ensure that none of them are putting themselves in danger. The experience has also given me the chance to observe the manner in which Casa Verde implements programs for Service Learning Teams like the one from Sunny Side. So far, some of the highlights of this have been going on a tour of local medical facilities, traveling by oxcart through the isolated rural community of Cuascoto, and discussing the merits, and shortcomings of cooperative business practices with members of the service learning team at a local bakery. This week has also included more set up, and take down for the art changes everything activity that I mentioned in my previous entry.

At the end of every day, I travel to the beach with the service learning team, and brief one of the students to serve as the student leader for the next day. One of the central beliefs held by Casa Verde is the idea that anyone can lead others if they believe strongly in a cause or have a passion for a specific practice or activity. Therefore, to prepare members of the service learning team for the time when they might have to lead others, they have set up an activity called the leader of the day, which puts a member of the service learning group in charge of making sure that everyone is familiar with the next day’s itinerary. Every morning, the leader of the day goes over the day’s itinerary with their peers, and also introduces the group to a new Spanish word that they looked up the evening before.  They also lead the team in an ice breaker in the afternoon, and in a group reflection in the evening. I usually meet with the leader of the day the evening before their allotted date.

I have made a point in my notes for the handbook that this activity has the potential to greatly improve a participant’s capability to direct others because it has the potential to provide them with enough confidence in their own leadership skills to build on these skills later on. In a sense, this activity serves as a catalyst that aims to incentivize students to conduct a series of actions later in their lives deemed favorable by the organization. I have found that I can view several of the activities conducted by both the service learning team, and by Formacion Fenix from this same lens. With a number of its programs, Casa Verde aims to provide youth with the spark, or the push they need to become conscious global citizens and leaders of their generation through their own actions.

Now that I have finished talking about my work, I am going to just give everyone a quick update on how I am doing with a little exercise that we interns do at every morning meeting we have. The exercise is called “The three H’s,” because we have to give everyone a quick update on our health, homestay, and happiness.  Let’s get started!

Health:

I am surviving, but my body has been giving me a little bit of trouble. I am going to spare you all the details, but let me just say that my digestive system is struggling to adjust to the new microbes in the food. It’s a common problem for foreigners here. Unlike actual Nicaraguans, our bodies are not used to the variety of different bacteria that live in food here, so our bodies more easily pick up parasites that steal food or make us have…bathroom trouble. Other than that, I am feeling  100% again after my trip here last week.

Homestay:

I am happily settling into my host family again! Even though I have been gone for around 10 months, it sort of feels like I never left. Every day, I wake up to the smell of cooking bread or pastries because my host mom Katty (Kah-tee) is a baker. Though this helps me wake up for breakfast, I usually don’t get to get any free samples.  She sometimes starts working at 6:00AM or earlier, and doesn’t stop taking orders until 5:00 PM, and I don’t get back from work until 6:00PM or later, so by the time I see her, she’s pretty beat, and not crazy to talk. However, my host dad Herbie has had a little bit of a lapse in work because he works as a laborer at a resort called Rancho Santana, and doesn’t really have anything to do unless Rancho wants a new house or condo, so I have been talking much more with him, and also with my 9 year old host brother Luis. Both of them have great senses of humor, and it’s been great catching up with them! Part of my host family lives in the houses next door, but I will talk about them next time.  My birthday was on June 30^th, and the whole family sat at the table to celebrate. The best part was getting one of those cakes I keep smelling every morning! It was absolutely fantastic!

Happiness:

Good to go in this department, there is literally nowhere else I would rather be right now.

That’s pretty much all I have for now! Until next time!