{"id":659,"date":"2018-06-08T14:48:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T14:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentvoices.bli.lsa.umich.edu\/?p=659"},"modified":"2020-07-23T13:36:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T13:36:13","slug":"nicaragua-mission-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/2018\/06\/08\/nicaragua-mission-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicaragua Mission Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring break\u2014with the aid of a BLI small grant\u2014I travelled to Nicaragua to help
\ninstall electricity in a school building. I went with the Nicaragua Mission Team from my local\u00a0church. The trip was intergenerational: five of us were in our twenties and thirties, and the other\u00a0five were in their 60s and 70s and had been to Nicaragua several times before. The school we\u00a0worked with was located in the small community of Quebrada Honda in Pantasma. The trip was\u00a0challenging, meaningful, and perspective-giving. After arriving at the airport and spending a night in Managua, our team drove for four\u00a0hours, zig-zagging through beautiful mountains to reach the small town in Pantasma where we would sleep every night. The conditions were far from luxurious\u2014we definitely left our \u201ccreature comforts\u201d at home. We all slept on mats on a floor and our shower\u2014which was in a\u00a0separate building\u2014consisted of cold water and a dirt floor. We had to be careful to not drink the\u00a0tap water, as it contained bacteria that we were not accustomed to.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Monday through Thursday, we woke up at 7 AM and\u2014after driving about 30 minutes to get to Quebrada Honda\u2014worked for several hours installing electricity in the school. The community had asked us to do the electrical work in three out of its four classrooms, and\u2014after\u00a0initial prayers and dances given by the community\u2014we began measuring conduit, cutting wires,\u00a0and drilling holes in the walls and ceilings. Though we had had two orientation sessions before\u00a0leaving in Ann Arbor, I was mostly learning how to do the work through doing it. At the end of the day Thursday, we tested our work with a rented generator and\u2014after some trouble-\u00a0shooting\u2014confirmed that the lights and outlets were functional. Now the community must wait for the government to run electricity to their community so that they can use what we installed.<\/p>\n

Throughout the trip, our team focused on the concept of serving through relationship. Through morning devotions and evening reflections, we continuously asked ourselves, \u201cWhat does serving through relationship look and feel like?\u201d We wanted to prioritize the community\u2019s\u00a0needs, hopes, and dreams. In this way, we strove to serve through partnership instead of\u00a0imposing our own goals and culture. We recognized that the community would benefit from the\u00a0electricity\u2014not us\u2014and wanted the community to feel a sense of ownership of the project. This\u00a0translated into us sometimes stepping aside to let community members participate in the drilling,\u00a0taping, and measuring. The community members were eager to help, and at one point I was\u00a0teaching children how to twist and tape wires to assemble a functional electrical outlet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am taking Spanish for my language requirement and enjoyed having an opportunity to\u00a0practice speaking the language. I spent much time with the children in the community, who\u00a0followed me around and constantly asked if I could play ball or frisbee with them. The children\u00a0were gracious and patient with me as I sometimes struggled to construct sentences or pronounce their names incorrectly. Though I could not understand all of what they said, I understood much\u00a0of it. Communicating with these young people from a different culture brought me much joy.<\/p>\n

The intergenerational aspect of the trip was particularly meaningful to me. As a college\u00a0student, I spend most of my time interacting with people my age. This trip was a rare opportunity\u00a0for me to befriend and spend quality time learning from another generation. Each evening, we\u00a0reflected as a team. We asked ourselves, \u201cWhat moments from today surprised you or brought\u00a0you joy?\u201d and, \u201cWhat moments challenged you?\u201d These questions led to honest conversations\u00a0about our goals and experiences and enabled us to encourage and support each other through\u00a0challenges. We realized that serving through a model of relationship also meant supporting each\u00a0other as team members.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of the trip, a nearby community invited us to visit and requested that we build two new classrooms for them. This request made us think: Should we grant this request for this\u00a0new community, even though we are not as comfortable building classrooms as we are installing\u00a0electricity? Or should we continue to build a relationship with the community in Quebrada\u00a0Honda, a community we already know and love?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These are ultimately questions that the\u00a0Nicaragua Mission Team will have to wrestle with, and I hope to be a part of the discussion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Miriam Ernest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This spring break\u2014with the aid of a BLI small grant\u2014I travelled to Nicaragua to help install electricity in a school building. I went with the Nicaragua Mission Team from my local\u00a0church. The trip was intergenerational: five of us were in our twenties and thirties, and the other\u00a0five were in their 60s and 70s and had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[333],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-grants","tag-spring-break"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1970,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/1970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}