Bienvenidos

For someone who loves teaching there is a unique joy in witnessing students' learning as it happens. My favorite moments are when students don't realize I'm there or looking, or they think I don't notice how hard they have worked, how much they have sacrificed, what difficulties they have faced or doubts they have had, to overcome, to grow, to learn to love learning.

We left Connecticut in a thunderstorm, left Miami in a thunderstorm, and arrived in Managua just after the rain had stopped. It was as though nature had welcomed us here with a sense of freshness and rebirth of winter rains.

We arrived at the airport and our friends from Nicaragua (Raul and Maria Elena, his sister) were waiting for us with our bus. All of our luggage arrived safely, even the 12 suitcases of donations for La Esperanza-Granada packed last minute with supplies for the schools.

After trying some Caballo bayo and Vigoron at a great restaurant along the way to Granada, the greatest test of my planning and trust in our friends in Nicaragua was just up ahead. We arrived in Granada for students to meet their families here. I was so happy to see so many smiles and hugs as though they had known each other forever, others who were more wary, but willing, to walk through the door into an unknown world, a new culture, the magic place that is the Nicaraguan house, like no other I have ever experienced in the world. We were all so tired after traveling all night, no one really having slept from anticipation, that everyone just seemed glad to have a home, their Nica mom waiting with the warmth that characterizes the people I have met here.

After students were sleeping and my cell phone did not ring, I knew we were going to be fine for the rest of the month. After so many sleepless nights of preparing, we are finally here. Students can begin to come to love what I see in this extraordinary people and culture: tenacity, poetic passion, devotion, and extraordinary generosity of spirit.

The next morning began early at 8 am with a conversation on reforestation, climate, lakes and volcanoes. We worked with a local community at Laguna de Apoyo and MARENA (Nicaragua's National Conservation Agency) on a reforestation project. We planted trees, had lunch, and swam in a volcano lake. It was quite a physical day, and we know next time to take gloves for everyone and require boots for hiking. The students experienced first-hand conservation in a developing country rather than pre-packed ecotourism. There is such a difference here in Nicaragua from Costa Rica that is so close. It is real, the earth, the land, and the people, without the scale tipping to unsustainable tourism, such as the mall in the Monteverde cloud forest. There is no mall here in Mombacho. Let's hope there never will be more than trees, birds, and the life of a beneficent volcano.

The students had great fun in the lake, which was a well-earned reward for all their efforts. It was a good reward for me too. I have to remember that it is ok to just have fun once in a while and laugh and swim and eat well. I am amazed at the energy of their youth, watching them play for hours, so many of them at that point between childhood and the long years of adult life. I hope they always keep their ability to play.

It is a learning experience for me to travel with a biologist and realize how differently we analyze learning experiences in the same context and where we can find points of contact between disciplines to create a dialogue for learning that we want students to have. We talk about it often. It is a challenge to make it happen, to go outside of the rigidity of our discplinary silos. The structure is not there in traditional education. We have to build those bridges, and there are so many challenges, and few well trained architects. I often feel like I am still playing with pick up sticks.

Dora's Spanish is really impressive, and she is so eager to learn, always asking questions that I would have never thought to ask. I think she is a real inspiration to the students. I hope I can inspire them as much with my interest in learning about conservation and science.

Today we had our small group language practice and volunteer work orientation in the morning, and dedicated the afternoon to a study of architecture in Granada and its relationship to colonialism, diversity of cultures, and economic development. Students at every level are getting challenged, which is good. Some need reminders that they won't understand every word and need to learn how to read ideas rather than translate. By the end of the month, they will be experts. They are so willing to work at it, even when I see they are tired. It is a fabulous group, the best one I have had. Of course, there are little details in the schedule to tweak here and there, but to be expected since this is our first time here.

I'm working 8-8 everyday and writing this at midnight now that Javier fixed the wireless at home, which is why the blog started a bit late. Dora worked on the satellite phone and the projector today while I went to the bank at lunchtime. The best thing about the bank was the long line, which I stood in twice. It was heaven. There was air conditioning! :-) It probably wasn't very green, but I am not superhuman. Noted.

I love this country and this city. The students can find their way around Granada easily and walk everywhere. They will take buses starting tomorrow in the volunteer placements in the schools... We will update then and post photos...

Poesia para pensar...

A ceibo tree's first century was begun
by a bird.
It drank
years of night rain. It swelled
with the vast stuff of earth,
unclean sap and forces
that only chemistry pardons. (A tree
is more thoroughly to blame than a corpse;
but its coffin keeps growing, rising to become a house,
a palace of stars, a factory
of feverish sweat and apogee.) Come
see this pavilion of physics,
this loom for weaving chlorophyl--leaves,
fruit, pollen's lust
and the wedlock of acorns: industrial
development of cellulose, active
and passive agents, numbers, columns...
The statistics show
all the years of hard work. And those
who are always passing judgement, devote
the energies of their articles to understand it.
But this tree we behold
with all its laws and majesty and cells
in round figures was built
so that on an April day
a branch would bear the weight of a singing
bird!

--Pablo Antonio Cuadra