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Pre-Departure

By on May 16, 2013 in 2013, Miami, Uganda

Since the school year is officially over, the Miami team is finalizing preparations before departing.

First, I would like to congratulate the three grads that are accompanying me on this project, my brother, Scott, one of Miami’s chapter leaders, Nithya, and our newest member, Nakia. I am so excited to experience this with all of you.

Second, I would like to offer those that may not know, a little background about Nourish International and our project in Nkokonjeru, Uganda. Nourish International, is a nationwide, student movement to affect extreme poverty. They encourage students to make a sustainable impact and create new opportunities for change. For our project, my chapter chose to go to Nkokonjeru, Uganda to help about 40 teachers with their computer literacy. We created a six-week itinerary and will actually conduct the classes. We will be involved community awareness on top of our computer literacy lessons. We are focusing on computer literacy, to help enhance the school systems there. Right now, there are 65 students for very 1 teacher. We hope the implementation of Microsoft programs will help the teachers make more of a permanent impact on their students. We will be working with RASD, the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development. Citizens of Nkokonjeru Town Council founded the NGO in 2000, with the mission of alleviating poverty in the Mukono and Kayunga districts by improving public health and expanding economic opportunity. The organization’s master plan is to become self-sustaining by selling items produced by its occupational training programs.

After months of preparation, I am still in slight disbelief that the moment is so soon. Sometimes I felt that I dedicated more time to this project than my studies (sorry Mom and Dad). But I think it is a very worthy cause and worth very second I spent. I am so proud of my Nourish chapter, we have accomplished so much this year. Even with early disadvantages, we passed several milestones together and I cannot wait to see what the next few years have in store for us.

I know this post is not very exciting, but that will change as soon as we arrive in Uganda. I would like to close with a quote that my friend, Megan, shared with me:

“Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths? Could it be because Africa is the place of all our beginnings, the cradle of mankind, where our species first stood upright on the savannahs of long ago? Maybe that was what led Karen Blixen to say in Out of Africa, “Here I am, where I belong”.” Brian Jackman

Thank you for taking the time to read this and support our team and project. I hope you continue to follow this blog throughout our journey. My team and I will take turns in updating the blog to document our experiences throughout the project.

Thanks again,
Kelly

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Home Again!

By on June 21, 2011 in 2011, Brown, El Salvador, Miami

Hey Everyone!

So much has happened since our last post! As some of you know our original project was to construct a school house for the children in the area we were staying in. When the funding from another organization did not come through for the school teacher we had to change our project to a womens center. We were still really excited about the project and looking forward to getting started! However, the planning of the project was taking too long and was becoming less and less feasible so our plans had to change again! We learned a lot about patience and flexibility when working in a foreign country. We worked to find a new project that would meet both our communitites needs and fit into the goals of Nourish. Fundahmer presented us with the idea of builiding pilas (Arnie I’m sorry if I spelled it wrong!) which we decided was an exciting option. A pila is a water storage basin with a cement top on one side for dishes and laundry and household duties. Water in the area is a difficult thing to come by and the people are in dire need of it. By providing pilas we are alleviating some of the water issue by allowing them a storage space to collect and hold larger amounts of water. One very unfortunate aspect of this was that we were no longer able to stay in Gaucamaya, El Tablon and Cerro Fuego. We moved to the neighboring community of San Pedro. We were very dissapointed that we had to leave the families that we had become so fond of but we also got to interact and meet more people in the area. Once we had finally started our construction of the pilas things ran smoothly and the project was a success! The people of Morazan had a strong impact on my life and have opened my eyes to the world. They have implanted a strong desire in me to continue participating and implementing projects like this. I am happy to be home but sad this trip has ended. This experience was worth every cold shower and spider in the bathroom, it was worth every ridiculously long hike and the bug bites. Anything unpleasant that happened on this trip (including my scabies which is still itching) is a tiny drop of water in a rainstorm of experience. When you leave for a trip like this you think of the physical impact you are going to have, whatever project you go to implement. I have realized that there is so much more than just the project that comes out of an experience like this. The interactions we had with the people in these communities are just as valuable as the actual projects we bring. This was a truly moving time of my life and I cannot wait to go again.

Jenna

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Morazan and Gaucamaya

By on May 26, 2011 in 2011, Brown, El Salvador, Miami

Hey Everyone!

We have been staying in Gaucamaya for the past several days. I don´t think anyone was expecting the hike that we were going to encounter. It´s quite literally mountain climbing. The people of Gaucamaya have been so hospitable and very friendly! With our things its about a half an hour hike to the central church where the three communitites meet. We were split it to two groups. Sally Sama and Rachel stayed with Francesca at her home. Sean Arnie and I stayed with Maria and her family. The first day we ate dinner and then the girls left to go to their home. We were sitting outside their home and everyone was standing there waiting for us to entertain them. It took a minute but finally we got out our soccer ball and taught the kids how to play monkey in the middle. The whole family enjoyed it. The next day we took the long hike back up the the church to help Fundhamer distribute corn. I huge supply truck came in with bags of corn and beans. The people were so precise on how much each family got. They measured exactly 25 lbs of beans. After that we hiked down to the river and got to play in the rocks. Sometimes I feel like such a little kid here and other times I feel like I have been growing more in these past couple days than in the past year. It´s a different way of life from the one I have known for sure. There has been so much happening that it is hard to write about it all. Yesterday we were up at the soccer field which is a flat area up higher in the mountains. It started to storm so we were running back down to our home. Martina´s kids were with us and as we were going back Ricardo (our guide from Fundhamer) got a little behind with Rachel and Arnie. Sean and the girls got a little ahead of me and our favorite little four year old whose name even Ricardo can´t pronounce. Our little buddy stopped to wait and I wasn´t going to leave a four year old in the forest in a storm by himself even though he knows it better than me. Once he saw the rest of them coming he continued so I followed him. He ended up taking me to his home the right at the fork instead of to Maria´s where we were staying. I was waiting out the storm when Ricardo and Sean come running out of the woods like jungle men to rescue me. Some rescue. We are happy that has been the only incident of the week. We are moving to El Tablon today and then we will be staying in Perquin for two days this weekend. Construction on the community center begins on Wednesday. I think we are all excited and kind of dreading how much we are going to sweat. I will try to post again later.

We all send our love to everyone at home,

Jenna, and everyone here from Brown and Miami

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It´s Only the beginning!

By on May 22, 2011 in 2011, Brown, El Salvador, Miami

We arrived in San Salvador last night after some minor delays to our flight in Houston and then again in San Salvador. There was a storm that we were waiting to pass which made for a bumpy ride. I don´t think I was the only one glad to touch the ground. The air was really muggy since it had just stormed but as we were driving to Fundhamer´s National Headquarters we were getting our first taste of El Salvador. We were all very excited to start the process of getting to know each other and the country we will be spending the next month in.
We woke up and got ready to greet a new day excited for what was on the agenda for the day. We attended Catholic mass at Romero´s tomb. Romero was the Archbishop in El Salvador when the civil war began. He was the voice of the voiceless in El Salvador and was a humble inspiration and leader to the people here. I was truly awestruck when we stood in the square outside the cathedral were Romero is entombed. The fact that hundreds of people were murdered where I stood by their own army is hard for my to imagine. I tried to think about what it would be like for me to be at my home and going through the same experience.
We also visited several other places in the city. We were supposed to go up to hike and get a great view of the city but the weather turned sour on us and we were delayed. Instead we visited a museum that is housed in the oldest public jail in San Salvador. The museum gave us especially insight into the culture of the Salvadorans and some of the struggles they face. I was glad that we got to visit the museum but we do hope to return to hike and get our great view of San Salvador. Along with the museum we visited a park that hosts a monument to the past a present of El Salvador and to those murdered in the civil war here.
We depart for Morazan in the morning. We recieved very exciting news that we will be staying with three communities in the same area! Guacamaya, El Tablon and Cerro Fuego are the three places we will be staying. The language barrier for me has been frustrating because I really would love to hear what everyone I have met has to say. Having translation is great but it lacks the true feel you get when speaking to a person directly. I am slowly picking up language here and there. Everyone at Fundhamer has been very friendly and eager to help me learn. I have twenty eight more days to learn from the Salvadorans and hopefully I can have some impact on them as well. I will be posting more from Morazan later this week!

Best,

Jenna and the Nourish Team

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Hello world!

By on April 13, 2011 in 2011, Brown, El Salvador, Miami

Everyone on the Nourish Team from Brown and Miami is very excited to make our way to El Salvador! We have been working very hard to plan this trip and we are anxious to implement everything we have worked on! We will be flying out on May 21st which is quickly approaching. We have thirty days in El Salvador which I feel is going to fly by! We are staying in Guacamaya which is in the department of Morazan. I am excited to experience a new culture and get to know our host families! We are all also ready to begin construction on the school building in the town which is much needed. It’s a new challenge and I believe all of us are looking forward to it. I know we are especially thrilled about working with the children in the community! Before we go we are hoping to collect some school supplies to take with us. My hope is that our time in Guacamaya will leave a lasting impact on the community. There will hopefully be a lot of posts and even more pictures to keep everyone updated about our time in El Salvador!

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