Students and staff traveled to Nicaragua over February break. For several years we have been traveling with Compas de Nicaragua (Friends of Nicaragua), a non-profit organization that supports “Women in Action”, a group of 40 women who organize health and education projects in the impoverished settlement of La Primavera in Managua. Compas de Nicaragua also supports aa farmers co-op in La Paz, Carazo who carry out sustainable living projects. Compas organizes several service learning trips to Nicaragua each year. Their mission is to promote cultural exchange and improve lives through service learning trips and sustainable community development.
The main goal of our service trips is to build friendships and promote cultural exchange while working together on community projects lead by our Nicaraguan friends. Our students lived with host families and worked side by side Nicaraguans on farming projects. During our trip, students repaired a biogas unit, made gourd art, and helped build a solar powered food dehydrator. Participants also got the chance to splash in the Pacific Ocean, shop at a local market, and ride horses!
Rock Point students had the unique opportunity to meet local ceramic artist, German Alguirre, toured his gallery and also visited the cultural museum in La Paz to learn more about the area. Other highlights of this year's trip included making chocolate, swimming in a volcanic lake, and boating in Granada to an island with bananas and monkeys. The most significant part of the trip was the relationship students and staff built with the communities and families who welcomed them.
