PROJET SOLIDAIRE NICARAGUA 2016
WEEK 1 (18-24 January)
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| Arriving in Bluefields |
The first week we worked with an NGO named Copraj. This NGO helps young people of Bluefields who are drugs addicts socialise and go back to normal life. The director is Georgina and her husband is Randy.
More information on Copraj:
DAY 1
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| At Copraj |
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| Yellow House |
DAY 2
DAY 3
In the morning we played football and basketball with the people of Copraj.
In the afternoon we finished the workshops from the previous day.
DAY 3
We finished recording the song which was part of the music workshop and in the evening, we celebrated Oscar’s birthday. He turned 18! Georgina had bought a huge cake.
DAY 4
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| Sconfra |
DAY 5
We spent the night in Sconfra. In the morning we divided into 3 groups: the first group cooked, the second one digged a path and the third one picked up plants to build a roof. We went back to Yellow House afterwards. |
| View from Yellow House |
DAY 6
| We visited Bluefields’s market then we played in a park. |
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| At the market |
DAY 7
We went to the beach with Copraj apart from Randy and Georgina. The beach name is Al Bluff. At the beach we swam and played football. It was fun!
WEEK 2 (25-31 January)
DAY 1
When we woke up our teacher Juliette had just arrived in Bluefields and we had breakfast altogether: she had brought “Savane” cake and “pains au chocolat” from France!
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| Building water filters |
We were divided into 2 groups. The first group washed the sand and gravel several times with Hector. The second group built the filter with cement with Mario.
In the afternoon, the 1st group attended a presentation on eco-stoves by Remy, one of blueEnergy’s volunteers. We were to build eco-stoves in Rocky Point the following days. The group also made a box for the solar panel’s battery.
More on blueEnergy: http://blueenergy.fr/spip.php?rubrique78
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| Permaculture session |
The 2nd group went with Vincent, another blueEnergy’s volunteer, to the field for a permaculture session with locals.
More on blueEnergy: http://blueenergy.fr/spip.php?rubrique78
DAY 2
Alternating groups, we carried on the same activities from the previous day. Then, each group installed a water filter in 2 different houses in Bluefields.
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| The water filter is ready! |
We all left for Rocky Point, first in a panga (boat), then on a truck.
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| Boarding the panga |
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| On the truck |
We were divided into 2 groups again: one with Oscar, Zoé, Jean-Yves, Aubin, Hector (blueEnergy) and Sandra (our teacher); the other one with Madeline, Ali, Mehdi, Rémy (blueEnergy) and our teachers Nico and Juliette.
The 1st group started building an eco-stove.
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| Building an eco-stove The 2nd group installed a solar panel. |
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| Installing solar panels |
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| Sleeping in hammocks |
DAY 4
The second group built an eco-stove at a different house.
Then the whole class went to a hotel in Pearl Lagoon for the night.
DAY 5
In the morning, the groups went back to the jungle to finish their activites.
In the afternoon, Ali and Zoé, accompanied by Sandra and Nico, went back to Bluefields to interview Randy. The rest of the class and Juliette stayed in Pearl Lagoon for the night.
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DAY 6
Early in the morning, Sandra took the plane back to France.
Ali and Zoé started interviewing Randy in his barrio.
The 2nd group which was supposed to join Ali and Zoé in Bluefields couldn’t make it because no pangas were allowed to go to sea.
In the evening, Ali, Zoé and Nico launched a party at Yellow House with the volunteers of BlueEnergy and the people of Copraj.
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| Waiting for the panga |
DAY 7
Ali, Zoé and Nico went to Copraj to see the young people of the NGO.
We went to a natural swimming pool and we had a good time!
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| Cooling down the bus... |
In the meantime, the other group was still stuck in Pearl Lagoon because the panga situation had not changed. So we decided to drive back to Managua. It took us 11h hours to make it to Managua, with 3 different cars/public buses! It was quite a journey!
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| Waiting for the bus |
WEEK 3 (1-5
February)
Day 1
We took the bus to Granada by noon - it was late but Juliette let us sleep in after
a lot of efforts the day before.
It took us two hours before arriving to Granada where we first checked in at the
hotel before going to eat a good burger ! (We enjoyed it very much
after eating "gallo pinto" almost every day!). Then we visited the
city.
Day 2
In the morning we
decided to rest at the hotel, waiting for the second group.
We went to eat a burger again!
We went to eat a burger again!
We had some spare
time afterwards and we separated in several groups.
We carried on
visiting the city and bought souvenirs.
Then, we rode
a bike around the lake. Aliénor, Nicolas, Zoé and Jean-Yves swam in
the lake. We had a good time!
Day 3
We had some free
time: Nicolas, Juliette,
Zoé, Oscar and Mehdi rode a bike again around the lake and then went
swimming; Aliénor and
Madeline had a walk in the city and bought other souvenirs. Jean-Yves spent the
afternoon sleeping.
In the evening, as
it was our last day in Nicaragua, we went to a typical restaurant and
we had "gallo pinto" for the last time! |
| Gallo pinto! |
Day 4
We took a bus to
Managua airport, then we flew to Miami then back to Paris.
It was a long trip
full of surprises!
A FEW ANECDOTES...
by Mehdi:
I have a lot of fun
stories from my stay in Nicaragua, but this one is the best!
It was in Miami at
the airport, we had just landed from Paris to Miami, on our way to
Managua. We only had a couple of hours in Miami to change planes.
Our group went
through US customs. Then, it was my turn. The police officer (the guy
who controls travelers) was a big black guy, he was a little bit
scary - his eyes resembled those of a dog. I handed over my passport
to him, he looked at it and asked me to join the immigration room. I
couldn’t understand what was going on!
In the immigration
room, I waited for 40 minutes. Then, a young police woman called out
my name, so I went to her. She asked me a lot of stupid questions
like “Have you ever been to Syria? To Belgium ?” After a few
questions like that, they took my fingerprints and a picture of me.
Because of that, we
missed our plane!!! So we had to sleep in Miami… while the other
travelers spent the night in a hotel, we slept in a very small camp bed, in the cold, without a pillow. It was a hard night!
And the nightmare
was not over !
On the way back to
France, I forgot my passport on the plane, in the front pocket of the
seat. We got off the plane when I suddenly thought: “ Where the f…
is my passport???!!!”
So I ran out back to
the plane but a woman told me it was closed. We then decided to part:
I went with my teacher Juliette to the information desk and waited
while the rest of the class and Nicolas went through customs.
And we waited and
waited… It was very stressful because once again, we only had a
couple of hours to change planes. After an hour, they eventually
called us and we managed to get my passport back. We were more and
more stressed out because we only had 20 minutes to go through
customs and get on the plane. Nicolas and my classmates had already
boarded by then. We were about to miss our plane so we asked people queuing if we could go upfront. There was only 5 minutes remaining. Running
like crazy, we boarded just before the plane closed its doors! When
we got on, we could see people applauding - it was funny. We were so
relieved! I had one of the best nights ever on the plane - I (almost) slept all the way back to Paris!
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