Bienvenidos from La Mariposa.
We have been in Nicaragua for nearly a week and a half, though I think that our time has been so full that it seems to most of us like months. As a first post from Central America, I thought I would give a brief introduction to our little travelling learning community and where we are staying. We are a group of eight students and one instructor. The students come from a number of colleges: Chelsea, Evan, and Travis from Northland in Wisconsin, Julia and Nina from UMass Amherst, Jenn from Unity College in Maine, Johnny from Appalachian State in the mountains of North Carolina, and finally, David all the way from Evergreen in Washington. I hail from Maine and this is my fourth time leading the CELL Central America program.
We are now at La Mariposa, a language school located in La Concepcion (or La Concha to the locals). La Concha is a smaller city about an hour south of Managua, Nicaragua´s capital. Thankfully, La Concha is on a plateau and between the elevation and the nearly constant breezes, the weather is decidedly delightful. The area is well known locally for the citrus that grows here.
La Mariposa is the perfect beginning to our program because it is both a wonderful place to start to learn Spanish and a great example of community based development. Started by an ex-pat Brit, Paulette, its aim is to support the community through employment and through projects. It is also something of an animal rescue center, with monkeys and parrots rescued from illegal pet trade and many very lucky–and very friendly–dogs rescued from the streets. Yesterday, we visited two of La Mariposa projects and got to draw with children at an after-school center and to show off our new language skills reading with kids at a reading corner.
So, our journey has begun…
Neal