Trip to Nicaragua Combines Service and Exploration

In June, ten Hawken Upper School students traveled to Nicaragua to participate in a service project that impacted their lives as well as the lives of others. The group, led by Sara Mierke and Chad Komicki, was one of three groups helping the community of Piedra Colorada in the Matagalpa region. Each day, they traveled a dirt road on an old American school bus for one hour - their destination: the San Martin Elementary School, a 4-classroom building in dire need of repair. They began by tearing down the existing kitchen in the school building and rebuilding it. They also built up the floor of one of the classrooms with dirt and rock, which they gathered from the nearby river. All work was done by hand, including the mixing of the cement, and almost all supplies were acquired locally. While in Nicaragua, the Hawken group stayed in a hostel in the town of San Ramon. In addition to the labor-intensive task of re-building the school, Hawken students bonded with the community by helping out in the classroom, teaching English, math, and reading. They also made beaded jewelry and masks and played baseball, soccer, and frisbee with the students during recess. On the weekend, the group stayed at an eco-tourism lodge on an organic coffee farm, where they hiked, rested, and listened to campesino musicians. On their last day, they visited a coffee cooperative, a colonial town, and toured Managua. The trip was coordinated through Seeds of Learning, a nonprofit organization committed to improving education in rural Latin America. Todd Evans, a 1950 Hawken graduate, began the nonprofit after visiting Latin America on a Habitat for Humanity building trip in 1988. Since the organization`s founding in 1990, nearly 1000 groups have traveled to Latin America to participate in the work group program. For more information about Seeds of Learning, visit their website www.seedsoflearning.org.