Visiting Granada

On Sunday the Summer Interns headed to Granada to tour a coffee plantation! Being that it is winter season, the actual beans are not mature until December, though we did sample some delicious Nicaraguan coffee.

Relaxing in Laguna de Apoyo

It was nice to get away for the day as we headed to Laguna de Apoyo.  Water was so pure; 

Nicaragua has endless hidden treasures. 

Summer Interns at Cerro Negro

"The weekend trip to Leon was a wonderful combination of gorgeous beaches and our once in a lifetime adventure on Cerra Negro." ---The 2012 Summer Interns 

Yet another one of the many benefits to living in Nicaragua....a fabulous location to host our Spring Retreat 

@ Laguna de Apoyo

Retreat and Quarterly Review

Beautiful beach sunset

Getting ready for a delicious meal of lasagna

Today we’re lucky to have a guest post from Fiona about our recent staff retreat to the nearby beach town of Pochomil. If you’re interested to read more, Fiona posts regularly at http://fionainnica.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to take a few days, get out of the Manna house, and reflect on the past 3 months. It is crazy how quickly the past three months have passed - I still have some days where I feel like I just arrived! Particularly in the past few weeks, I have been very, very busy, and sometimes it's easy to miss the bigger picture when I am so busy with the details. Having a few days to relax as a group, reflect on where we've been and what we've accomplished, and discuss what our goals are for the next few months was both beneficial and enjoyable.

As a group, we made a list of our successes and the things that we are most proud of from the last couple months, and I'd like to share a few of them with you:

• Community relationships - it has been a huge blessing to get the chance to connect with the families who live in Cedro Galan, Chiquilistagua, and La Chureca. I have really enjoyed just having the opportunity to spend time with them, learn more about their daily life, and understand this country and these communities better. I don't have as much time to do this as I wish, but I really enjoy the time I do spend in the community.

• Good transition and continued high attendance in programs - due to the turnover with Manna PDs each year, it's sometimes difficult to have continuity in programs and to maintain attendance as things change. Many people have remarked that we have done a good job picking up where last year's PDs left off and continuing forward with each program. It has been great to see our program attendance remain high, and in some programs even increase.

• Our first milk day without the old PDs, the day where we hand out food for the month to our child sponsorship kiddos, went off incredibly smoothly. A lot of this had to do with two qualities which kept coming up again and again as successes: everyone's ability to be proactive and to be flexible. A combination of these two is definitely needed here - as a group, we've been able to do quite a bit due to everyone being proactive, and have a clean house, a restructured English program, and some new partnerships to show for it. However, as with everything here in Nicaragua, nothing ever goes exactly as planned, and flexibility is key. :)

There's many more, but those are definitely a few of the highlights for me from the past few months.

We also took the opportunity to make some goals for the next few months. They ranged from small things, like trying every flavor of ice cream at the store next to Farito and keeping the house clean, to bigger goals like reaching out to more families in the communities, saying thank you more often, and planning ahead more for our programs. I hope that, in a few more months when we have our second retreat, we're able to look back on these goals and count them as our successes.

Retreat!

This past weekend all of us program directors and Amira traveled to Matagalpa for our annual staff retreat.  Leaving Friday morning we stayed in Selva Negra, which is an organic coffee farm and ecolodge located in the Northern part of Nicaragua.  Set right in the midst of rich forest, there were numerous hiking and walking trails to take advantage of, as well as a wide range of other activities to choose from and a delicious restaurant to dine in.  Whether we were hiking, reading, eating, or simply resting, it was wonderful to be able to relax in such an environment.   

It was not only nice to get out of the heat and get outdoors for a couple of days, but it was also great to be in each other's company and talk outside of the everyday busyness of programs.  As much as we do not want to admit it, our time here is quickly coming to a close and so it was nice to have a chance to discuss what the last couple months are going to look like.  BUSY is the only way to describe it.  Next week is Semana Santa, which is a holiday for us, and then only a couple of weeks until the first round of summer volunteers arrive, then the second round of summer volunteers, and then the new program directors, all pretty much in a row.  Manna Project is really unique in that part of its mission is to host these summer groups for a month at a time, offering them a chance to really take part in some of our work down here in Nicaragua and experience the culture first hand.  The hope then is that such an experience will inspire them to take back home with them a heart of service and an incentive to get involved elsewhere.  Needless to say these volunteers are a big investment and an important part of the organization.  So at dinner Friday night we spent time talking about our own personal roles in their adjustments and time here, and how we can be effective leaders.  All of the conversations were extremely positive, and even though the house is going to double in size for the last few months all of us program directors are looking forward to the new faces, helping hands, and fun experiences that are sure to come!

Small lake located in the center of the resort.

Joanna, Amanda, and Steph posing with some of the local flora.  

Megan, Steph, Will, Dane, and Zach posing for a picture on the trails. 

Entrance to the Selva Negra restaurant.

CORN ISLANDS

Last week we had 5 days off work to celebrate both Nicaragua and all of Central America's Independence Days. So, we all decided to go on a family vacation to the Corn Islands!

The Corn islands can be found off the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and are a 1 and 1/2 hours flight away from Managua.

Great Corn and Little Corn are the two islands that make up this bonita island pair.

Great Corn has even been short listed as the most authentic Caribbean island around. But, Little Corn has no cars and many of the residents their never have to wear shoes (not even sandals).

The locals from Corn Islands speak a surreal mix of english, spanish and creole slang, sometimes all at the same time. I often found myself entranced hearing the locals speak, constantly asking myself, "i'm still in Nicaragua, right?"

We enjoyed snorkelling in crystal clear water, eating a plethora of seafood, exploring white sand beaches, relaxing, and of course eating lots of Eskimo ice-cream.

Our little trip has proven to be a great recharger and we're more enthusiastic than ever to be back working in Managua!

yield, crabs crossing!

Will, Ira, and Zac about to go spear fishing

sharks are one of many of the diverse species of marine creatures

that can be found around the Corn Islands

busy dock on Great Corn

the view from the lodge we stayed at on Little Corn

Ready, Set, Ometepe!

Last weekend, the PDs embarked for Ometepe Island, located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Ometepe is home to two volcanoes, Maderas (extinct) and Concepcion (active). The purpose of our weekend retreat? To reflect, refocus, and conquer Volcán Maderas!

The month of March ushered in spring breakers from 6 differed colleges and the start of Semana Santa, Holy Week. PDs were scattered among the different groups and later among different countries (USA, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama) as we took our Holy Week holiday along with the rest of Central America. After reuniting in April, we were ready for a weekend away to reconnect and reflect upon our last few weeks. We ferried from Rivas to Ometepe and took the bumpy road to Finca Magdalena, a pretty hippy hostal located at the base of Volcán Maderas.


After checking in and chilling out, enjoying the beautiful sunset views and local flora and fauna, we gathered to recapitulate the events of March. We discussed things we learned from our weeks with spring breakers and how we can use that to shape our summer volunteer sessions. We gathered ideas on summer volunteering opportunities and are getting so excited for the new groups we’ll be hosting in May and June. Amira also encouraged us to think about our goals for the rest of the year. With only a few weeks left of April, Summer Sessions, and then July’s arrival of new PDs, the rest of our year will be over in a flash!

Saturday morning, with a 6:00 am wake up call, we conquered Maderas. Below are some photos of the weekend.

Traffic jam on the way to Finca Magdalena

Emergency plan

Kickin' up dust with the volcano smoking in the back

Kelly helps Ian clean up at the top of Volcán Maderas

Eerie view from the top

View of active Volcán Concepcion from Volcán Maderas

Thanks to PD Ian for all the photos!

Best,

Jan Margaret

goodbye josh

So, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve written. Let’s blame it on Semana Santa, shall we…?!

The truth is that all of Nicaragua shuts down during this week leading up to Easter. In such a Catholic country, Holy Week is a reason to (a) pray and/or (b) party it up. Manna PDs chose to spend our “time off” in the Caribbean on Little Corn Island, one of two islands off the Atlantic coast. Combine Swiss Family Robinson with a tropical Bacardi ad and you’ve created the rustic paradise of Little Corn. We spent a much needed vacation exploring the tiny island (4-square kilometers, there are no cars!), fishing in the crystal waters, and soaking up the sun.

But after a week of R&R and a worshipful Easter, we’ve hauled our peeling bodies back to the heat of Managua for MPI programs as usual. Unfortunately, among the fun classes and sweet home visits of this past week, we had to say goodbye to PD Josh Abeln on Thursday. Josh has been here since January 2008, pouring his heart into the construction and maintenance of facilities in the sports complex in Chiquilistagua. Most recently, Josh and the guys have been pouring concrete beneath the roof of a new indoor basketball court!

This sports complex, owned by our partners Halle and Kathy August, has been Josh’s sweet spot in Nicaragua. Now open to neighborhood children every afternoon, this area is home to soccer fields, a baseball stadium, a volleyball court, swings, a library, a computer lab, and much more. Green and spacious, the site offers kids a safe place to come and play, to explore, to feel secure and clean and loved. And so to send Josh off in Manna style, we opened the gates to this special place on Tuesday afternoon… and hosted a huge water fight! Everyone was soaked. And Josh dominated!


We miss him.

Emily

cerro negro

Very few of us would jump into action at the offer to hike an “about to explode” volcano – but we were uncharacteristically brave this weekend! Or perhaps we were just characteristically unaware and uninformed. Regardless, on Saturday morning Mose, Nikki, Christina, Jed, Michael, and I hopped into the car – ready to roadtrip it to León and face the wrath of volcano Cerro Negro. After arriving to the (really sweet!) hostel and wandering the winding streets of this colonial town, we met up with Wilbur, our guide… and our soon-to-be new favorite Nicaraguan man.

Wilbur (self-described as “short and brown”) led our crew to the foot of Cerro Negro… and then essentially straight up it. The mountain is literally a black sand dune rising 2,400 feet into the air, rockier on the “climp up” side and finer on the “slide down” side. After an hour and a half of trekking uphill and exploring heat vents in the crater, breathing in sulfur, and sticking our hands in oozing hot nooks and crannies, we prepared ourselves for the slide/fall/run down to the base. And it was awesome! – (although it lasted less than five minutes). With the adrenaline pumping and shoes full of sand, we felt like we were flying…

In the car on the bumpy ride back to the hostel, while joking with Wilbur and trying unsuccessfully to clean the grime off all exposed skin, we spoke of what a matchless experience the Cerro Negro hike was. The whole place had felt wild, almost outer-space-like. There were no other humans around; no signs or ropes or railings. We hadn’t filled out a waiver or signed our lives away. It was just simple… call the random Nica guide and then explore. In such a straightforward and minimalistic procedure there shines forth an unpretentious simplicity, one that has ceased to exist in the United States. And we found that refreshing; yet it would have been nice to know that "the volcano will explode any day now."

Emily