Final Deliverable


Our group decided that our final project is to make a presentation to Engineers Without Borders in order for them to decide if they want to sponsor our group in returning to Nicaragua, and perhaps help us with a project we wish to pursue.  We are also in the process of making a video of our trip, and I plan on uploading it to my blog when it is completed.  Of our project options, the three that are most appealing to me is the free adult high school, the eco stoves, and the water filters.

There are many social aspects that could be addressed by the improvement of the free adult high school.  The high school was started by an NGO and it provides educational opportunities for those that are excluded from the public high schools, such as women who are pregnant or work during the day. The free high school enables a greater majority of the potential work force to become utilized, as well as the obvious benefits that result from greater education.

The eco stoves are beneficial to the women of the community because they are the ones who do the majority of the cooking. The eco stoves benefit the health of the household members as well because they cause much less smoke than the previous stoves.

The water filters provide the household members with a healthier and more efficient way of obtaining cleaner water.

I hope that Engineers Without Borders approves one of these projects, because I truly think that they will benefit the communities in Nicaragua. As I said in my earlier posts, the biggest issues of concern for me are education and health, and these projects would improve all these aspects.

I plan to take this class again next fall, so that hopefully my group can return to Nicaragua in order to actually start one of these projects. We are meeting with Engineers Without Borders next week to give them our final presentation, and we can only keep our fingers crossed that they will approve it.

Here is the website about the free high school for adults: http://sanjuandelsursistercityproject.wordpress.com/adult-education/

Going forward...


I have been home from Nicaragua for almost two weeks now and the next step of our project is to find an NGO or other organization to help us make our project more successful. We are having a meeting next week to determine what our ultimate project is going to be but for now we have a few ideas.

Our main idea is that we want to work with a group that is building a high school in Nicaragua. This project would be idea for our group because the engineers could help with the design of the building while the other arts and science students (including myself) can help create a curriculum for the students  that involves sanitation and/or women's health/rights.

Another option for our group is that we could potentially work for Engineers Without Borders, and hopefully get a grant from them or from Lehigh University so we could go back to Nicaragua and work building the high school or on another project chosen by EWB.

In my next post I will write about what our final decision is.

The main issues



Although my experience in Nicaragua was truly enjoyable, there are many issues about their living conditions that really stuck me that we can hopefully improve by our work.

Personally, what I think the biggest issue is women's and children's health and education. When we were in the village, we saw that very young children were running around, touching animals such as chicken and pigs, playing with toys that they were rolling around in the dirt, and then put their hands and even the toys into their mouths. Furthermore, the adults seemed to condone this behavior. Also, the villagers barely drank any water in the ninety-degree weather, which leads me to believe that do not know how much water they should be drinking per day, so many

of them probably suffer from dehydration, even though they do have clean drinking water. Also, the relationship between the men and the women really affected me. In the village, the women do all the cooking and cleaning while the men are seen lying around and not helping at all. For example, in the house we were working on, I witnessed a young, strong man holding a huge jug of water however, the grandma of the house came and took it from him, because it is the woman's duty to do the work around the house. I also met a nineteen year old girl (the same age as me) and her two year old son. This young girl not only cooked and cleaned, but she also took care of her son while her "partner" stood around and did not speak to any of us. When we visited the schools with the book mobile, we learned that the children are only in school for about four hours a day, and that only about 1/3 of the children in a village actually even attend school.

This is a 3 year old girl holding her 3 month year old brother at the local elementary school

All these are serious issues that can be fixed through education. If women were to receive a better education, they would be able to reduce many health issues by simply learning the importance of washing their hands. Eventually, it would be ideal to even educate the men and motivate them to help the women with their household chores. 

Our trip!


I returned home from Nicaragua last Friday and since then I have had time to reflect on my trip. In this post I will write about what we did on our trip, and in my next post I will discuss what the next step of our project will be.

Our first day in Nicaragua we went to visit Volcano Masaya, which is an active volcano. It was beautiful, but the drive there took much longer than expected, so it took the entire day.

The next day, we visited the rural village in which we would be fixing the bio sand water filtration systems and installing eco-stoves. Since I am not an engineer, there was not much I could do to help with the installation of the stoves, so I painted the water filtration systems that had already been installed in the homes.

There were two other non-engineers in my group, and together we determined that it would be much more beneficial for us to turn our focus elsewhere, rather than on the technical aspects of the project.  We rode on a mobile library, called the "book mobile", which is a car that travels to the multiple rural schools so the children can check out books. I really enjoyed this experience, because the children were truly grateful to be given the opportunity to read.

The next day we returned to the rural village to finish installing the eco-stoves. The installation was successful and the home owners were excited to have a more efficient way of cooking.

Here are some pictures of our trip!

Global Warming



Since I was a child I have been concerned about the environment.  However, as I grew older, I forgot about everything I had learned about global warming as a child because it was something I never learned about in school.  However, in class, we read an article from Rolling Stone magazine called "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math", which made me remember why I had always been so concerned about the environment. The article states the facts about the true dangers of global warming.

To me, the most concerning part about global warming is how unconcerned politicians are about this extremely pressing matter. Understandable, politicians have important concerns, such as the economy and wars to focus on, but if the issue of global warming is not addressed, there will soon be no point caring about anything else, because the world will be on its way to destruction. The article states that "Barack Obama didn't even attend" an extremely important environmental summit. If government officials are unwilling to show their concern about global warming, average citizens will never understand how severe the problem actually is. Without the support of politicians to change the amount of pollution we are emitting into the environment, average citizens will continue to pollute as much as they already do and no one will be motivated to research efficient ways to solve the problem.

Personally, I think global warming is one of the most concerning problems affecting society. If the issue is not fixed, the human population will begin to die out due to severe heat and lack of water. Politicians need to begin focusing more on global warming if they want to save the world from destruction. Furthermore, without their strong support for global warming research, people will never know the damage they are doing to the world just by living their every day lives. Humans are literally destroying the word and no one is doing anything to stop it.

Being open-minded




I now feel more confident about going to Nicaragua then I do from when I wrote my last blog post.  Last week, my biggest concern was that my ignorance and naivety towards what developing countries really need versus what I "think" they need would negatively affect my trying to "do good" in Nicaragua.  However, I have recently learned that although this is still possible, there are different approaches I had not yet thought about that will open my mind and hopefully make it easier for me to relate to and help the Nicaraguan people.  In a speech by Ernesto Sirolli, I learned that it is common for volunteer tourism trips to be unsuccessful, and therefore, the volunteer tourists need to understand that we must put ourselves in the shoes of the people who live in the countries we are traveling to. A "white man's burden" mindset will not be beneficial; it is important that you ask the people of the community what they need help with, rather than tell them what you will be helping them with. Sirolli notes that the tourist needs to understand that people from other countries often have different ways for going about common practices- and that there are reasons that they do these things differently. For example, people in Africa will not be able to grow tomatoes as easily as Italians. Sirolli explains that tourists need to learn from the community members the way in which they do things and why they do these things in order to really understand how we can be of assistance to them. Sirolli uses the words "paternal" and "patronize" to describe the mindsets most volunteer tourists have towards the communities they believe they are helping, but really are hurting. In order to be successful with volunteer tourism, one really must lose this mindset and understand that the first step of being helpful is respecting why people in different countries may do things differently.

After listening to this speech, I am more confident about my trip to Nicaragua. Especially after the failure of my last volunteer tourism trip, I now not only know, but I truly understand what I must do differently in order to at least try and make this trip a success. Even if my group does not successfully install enough bio-sand water filtration system for an entire community, but we are able to communicate effectively with the community members and learn their customs so we can understand how we can adapt the water systems to be beneficial for them, I will be content.  I think that the most important aspect of volunteer tourism is learning to respect the community in which you are working in and be able to put yourself in their shoes.

Sustainable Development and my expectations


When I was young and my elders would ask me what I want to do with my life, I always responded that I wanted to help the world.  Today, I still reply with the same answer, so I am taking advantage of my college experience so I can help developing countries have the same basic necessities that I am fortunate enough to have.

After my junior year of high school I spent a month in an extremely rural Peruvian village called Patacancha.  I was on a community service trip that aimed to build a community center for the locals to gather. I was honestly disappointed with the overall outcome of my experience.  Compared to the strong Peruvian men who are accustomed to the heavy weight of the building bricks and the extremely high altitude of the community, my group’s ability to complete the physical labor was fruitless. Although the Peruvians clearly appreciated our efforts, my group’s physical labor skills were in no way comparable to theirs. It was really frustrating because it often seemed as if we were more of a burden than an asset to the villagers.

Although it was disheartening that we could not accomplish our goal of building a community center, I still do not regret my time in Peru because it was truly a memorable experience. At the end of each workday my friends and I went to the local elementary school to play soccer with the children. One of the teachers also allowed my friend and I to teach his second grade class for the day. It was through these experiences that I was able to understand how people in developing countries are much more appreciative than most Americans, and I admire their positive attitudes to their tough situations.

I enrolled in the course “Sustainable Development Solutions” because I know it will provide me with opportunities I would otherwise never have. After learning about volunteer tourism, my biggest fear is that my group will do more harm than help in the Nicaraguan community we will hopefully be traveling to. After my experience in Peru, I am able to understand that volunteer tourism may often help the tourist much more than the villager. Hopefully, my group will be able to do enough research that our efforts in Nicaragua will actually prove to be effective.  Although I know I will gain so much from my experience in Nicaragua, I do not wish to leave disappointed, knowing that our efforts did not benefit the community.