Farem Estelí, Nicaragua
Esta Aqui...
In 2010 I started traveling to Nicaragua with groups of Grand Valley and Kendall College professors & students. In partnership with UNAN, a university system in Nicaragua, we developed two week innovation curriculums for Nicaraguan students and professors interested in design, entrepreneurship and innovation.
After my first trip in May of 2010, I decided that I wanted to create my own 6-month study abroad experience where I'd live and work in Estelí, Nicaragua, a small city in the North West portion of the country. Estelí is highly topographic and gets rural quick. Tobacco, rice, ketchup and coffee are major industries within the small city. Rum as well...
When I arrived for the long stay in January of 2011, I spent one month trading an hour of english lessons for an hour of Spanish lessons to language instructors at Cenac Spanish School. During that month, I formed relationships with the business community of Estelí and documented experiences for Grand Valley.
After the first month, I was then placed with the Business and Information Technology department of Farem Estelí.
For context, Farem is one of the larger universities in the city.
At first they wanted me solely in their university to expose their students to American culture and to assist in English curriculums. We soon found more extensive ways to use my time.
I began teaching a course in data collection, statistic computation and analysis in conjunction to an entrepreneurship course the university was offering. The computation course was all in Spanish -- I felt definitely in over my head at times but stuck super close to an interpreter that I infrequently worked with.
Along with the course, I worked with their student ran environmental/sustainability office. We identified that Estelí did not have a secure way of recycling plastic bottles. People had to throw out the bottles, resulting in their incineration. The students wanted to develop structures out of eco-bricks and plastic bottles but had trouble getting plastic bottles in quantity. To combat this, we developed and fabricated recycling bins made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles.
The intent of the bins were to create a full-circle loop of a way to collect bottles, making a collection/containment system with a small amount of material that then collected bottles in quantity.
The bins turned out super cool... I thought they were pretty avant-garde. Out of need from the community, we made tons of bins and placed them in various business and public spaces. We regularly collected the bottles and keep the loop moving.
After I returned back home in early summer of 2011, I would receive photos from students and professors of the recycling bins. It was super cool to see that the students began to implement the use of other materials in construction of the bins, not only plastic bottles, but wire, metals, etc...
No matter your GPA at university, you can always have an experiential time abroad despite getting no college credit for it. This experience set me back 9-months, but it was purely worth it.
I returned to Nicaragua in May of 2012 and plan to return in May of 2018.
To be mindful the length of this passage, I'd gladly hop offline and fully expose this experience.