Beaches and Cities and Hostels, Oh My!

Wow! It's crazy to believe that we have been in Nicaragua for one month already! A lot of great things have already happened here: starting to lead our own programs, getting to know the community members, and bonding as a Program Director group. Although living just outside of Managua has been great, we have been fortunate enough to travel to other parts of Nicaragua the past three weekends to see how amazing this country is, no matter where you visit.

Our first trip was a day trip to Gran Pacifica, which is a beach about an hour to the west. This was our first time away from the house, and everyone was pretty excited to see the ocean! The hotel also had a pool to hang out at and the weather was really nice until our day was cut a bit short because of a potential storm (keep in mind that when it rains in Nicaragua, it pours - especially during the rainy season). It was a great time because we were able to go as an entire group and start off our traveling adventures together.

The following weekend, we traveled to Granada and Laguna de Apoyo. Granada is pretty much Nicaragua's tourist central as we met people from other parts of the world. Granada is a quaint city, but yet has a lot of fun things to do. We all went to dinner at a Greek restaurant on Friday night, which was much different than our usual rice, beans, and chicken meals at the house. The next morning, we ate breakfast at a place called Cafe de las Sonrisas (Smiles Cafe), which employs deaf people and teaches customers sign language basics to facilitate interactions. It was great to experience the service and meet these amazing people! Following breakfast, we headed to Laguna de Apoyo, which is a lake in the crater of a volcano. The place was beautiful and the day was spent relaxing by the water, kayaking, and taking in the views.

This past weekend, we headed to Leon stay at a hostel named Surfing Turtle Lodge. We had heard a lot of great things about the lodge from past Program Directors, and wanted to see it for ourselves. The lodge is nestled on an island, and has lots to do such as volleyball, ping-pong, horseback riding, and surfing. It was interesting to be at a place where everyone was speaking English! There were many European travelers making their way through all of Central America on several week trips and a few Americans, Germans and Australians that were volunteering their time to work at the hostel. It's great to see that people from all corners of the earth travel to Nicaragua and experience the country for themselves. This weekend was extremely fun, and probably my favorite of the past three even though I had a great time in each place!

As we look forward to the coming months, we are all excited to travel and see more of Nicaragua! We are already planning our next trip to Surfing Turtle in September to see the turtle hatchings on the beach! Stay tuned for more from Nicaragua!

- Michael

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REVOLUTION DAY AND SPANISH SCHOOL IN MATAGALPA

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After the excitement and anticipation of Program Director orientation in Miami, our team finally made it to Managua. We were immersed in the culture right away as we walked down to the Plaza to celebrate Revolution Day, one of Nicaragua’s largest national holidays, on our very first weekend.

After spending the weekend at the Manna Project house, we set out for Spanish school in Matagalpa, two hours to the north. Matagalpa is a beautiful, small city in a mountainous region known for producing some of the world’s best coffee. We each stayed with a different host family and attended Spanish classes together during the day, where we learned to cook delicious doughnuts called buñuelos and heard more about the history of the Nicaraguan Revolution. When we were not with our host families or in Spanish class, we used our rapidly expanding vocabulary to tour the city, visit museums and cemeteries, and hike the Cerro Apante.

Our team is now back in Managua, where we are wrapping up our training for community programs. We can’t wait to start!

Abrazos, 
Carissa Chen and Liz Rosenbaum, Nicaragua Program Directors

Generation Youth Medical Career Prep Update

Well a lot has been happening with our generation class lately. Generation is a health class for students interested in medicine. (Vet, physical therapist, pharmacist, nurse, etc.) We just finished our last unit on diseases and illnesses. The last class was on asthma, but before that we taught cardiovascular disease, dengue, sprains and fractures, diabetes, and gastrointestinal infections. During the last class the students learned all about what asthma is and what to do if someone is having an asthma attack. We also used water bottles and balloons to make a lung and diaphragm model. As teachers we are sad our class is coming to an end, but are very excited about what our students have accomplished this year. We still have our graduation ceremony and career fair just around the corner.

By Juliene Joyner

Health Promotion and Community Mapping in Cedro Galan

It is hard to believe it is June already and there are only two months left of my volunteer service! The relationships I have made with the community have been life changing and ones that I will hold onto closely beyond my time here. I am already planning trips back! Fortunately, I have some exciting projects coming up.

An MPH student from Vanderbilt, Jessica, just arrived and I will be working with her the next two months to set up a health promotion program in our community of Cedro Galan. First, Jessica and I will be performing a community health assessment while community mapping (i.e. scouting out different stores, green spaces etc). This will give us a good idea of what we need to focus on for our health promotion program and the true community health needs.

So far, I have been working on health education materials in our clinic, such as brochures, pamphlets, posters, etc. However, this health promotion program will be taken a step further. After our assessments we will construct a health training curriculum in which we can train 5 community members who will become our health promoters. This is a great way to involve community members in their health needs and in preventing a lot of diseases. Partnering with the community is key! The 5 health promoters will go house to house and teach community members what they learned during our trainings in hopes to improve the health on a large scale.

Jessica and I are hoping to focus our program on preventable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, which are major issues in our community. While we have seen this as a major health implication, it is still necessary to gather the appropriate data to back our hypothesis.

Overall, we are hoping to decrease the consumption of salt and sugar, increase green space, and educate our community members on the easy ways to prevent diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. I am so excited for this project and know it will be a great way to end my time with Manna Project International. 

By Natalie Ball

Nicaragua Summer Interns

 

Our summer session 1 interns have acclimated quickly and are already fitting right in to our house, community, and programs! We are excited to have new faces and energies helping us out for the next few weeks and we know they are going to have a positive impact on MPI Nicaragua. The interns will be here until June 6th, then we have summer session 2 interns arrive. We are so looking forward to these next two months and the impact we can make as a team! 

By Blair McGee and Natalie Ball