Written by Reid Mason ’18 and Eliza Dixon ’18 to recount Friday, June 16, 2017:

Beginning at our with a breakfast of eggs mixed with tortilla and the usual pinto gallo, we departed at 8:30 for La Cureña, a black pottery co-op. After a quick bus ride we arrived and split into two groups. Each group learned about how the 12 women retrieve the clay and make the black pottery. Then Liza, Greer, and Adavya were able to create a simple plate, guided by two pottery makers. We also enjoyed holding a brightly colored parakeet, especially Ridge, throughout the visit. Everyone had the opportunity to purchase handcrafted items including jewelry, key chains, mugs, and much more. We briefly stopped back at the Outreach360 house before heading to our second destination, Selva Negra. There we enjoyed a delicious homegrown lunch with sweet dessert cakes and coffee. Yes, more and more of us are enjoying Nicaraguan coffee! After the lunch, cake, and coffee, we all piled into a van with our tour guide, Manuel. He took us around the grounds of the organic farm and coffee plantation of Selva Negra. He showed us the coffee beans that would not be ready to harvest until November and then we went up to see the animals on the farm and as we headed back we also got a glimpse of a sloth. We saw cows, baby cows, baby pigs, and even a 450-pound pig! After the tour, we went back to the main building where we had our closing and they played us a slideshow of pictures and videos from the week. Next, we got back on the bus and returned to Jinotega. We packed before our last dinner of chicken and rice, cantaloupe, vegetables, and soda. As we go to town for our last night in Jinotega, we are thankful for our opportunity to have hopefully made an impact on the children we tutored throughout the week. While it was only for 4 days, we feel we have made the most of our time here and embraced the Outreach 360 slogans of “Jump Right In” and “Poco a Poco.” Busy day of travel tomorrow!

Written by Claire Mansoor ’18 and Katie Mele ’18 to recount Thursday, June 15, 2017:

We began our morning at 5:45 with the highly anticipated hike to La Peña de Cruz. We took some amazing pictures on the 1000 steps up and took in the breath-taking views at the cross itself. We arrived back to the house with our legs shaking at 8:00 to eat a breakfast of French toast, hard boiled eggs, and cantaloupe. After rushing to finish breakfast on time, we prepared our supplies for our last day of teaching and headed out the door to the church (camp) for our morning session. With only about 4-5 kids per station, the morning session was manageable as usual. We played games, sang songs, and did activities with the kids until the 2 hours quickly wrapped up. Then we headed home to eat a lunch of mashed potatoes and grilled chicken and headed out to go grab some smoothies and souvenirs. We then walked to our last 2 hours of teaching and tried to savor every last bit of it until 4:00 came around and we said our last goodbyes. At 4:00, we had to rush tables back to the learning center and then come back to the volunteer house so we could walk to Soppexcca, a local coffee shop and co-op, to buy some coffee and take a tour. We learned all about the process of taste testing and rating coffee on various criteria, and even got to try it out ourselves. After a dinner of mac ‘n cheese and toast, we went out one last time and walked around town. We are all looking forward to our culture day tomorrow and are incredibly thankful we had the opportunity to teach such awesome kids! 

Written by Ridge Moore ’18 and Liza Ware ’18 to recount Wednesday, June 14, 2017:

Waking up to pouring rain and the loud chickens, we decided to sleep in and skip the tabata work-out. We ate a quick breakfast made up of pancakes, eggs, cantaloupe, bananas, and cereal. Before leaving for the church (camp) at around 8:50, we quickly packed our supplies for the day’s activities. Some of the activities consisted of games such as the limbo, a parachute game, Simon says, crossword puzzles, songs and dances. Today’s objectives were to teach the kids insects and daily routines in English. With a much smaller group than the afternoon shift, we went back to the house with slightly more energy. When we arrived at the Outreach 360 house, we ate an early lunch consisting of beef, rice, tostonés, and pitaya starfruit juice. With our stomachs full, we used our siesta time to explore the city of Jinotega. After enjoying some delicious smoothies, we headed back to the house and played cards. The afternoon session was much more energetic with a lot more kids than the morning. Today we were able to take what we learned yesterday and adjust our activities to a successfully handle the larger group of kids. Our delicious dinner consisted of fried eggs, beans, and fresh tortillas. After dinner, we decided to head back to town to get ice cream and cake and enjoyed a short wifi session that was available at the smoothie store. Now we are heading off to an early bed. Tomorrow we rise and shine early to hike to the famous cross (1000 steps) atop one of the beautiful mountains surrounding Jinotega! 

Written by Juliette Benedetto ’18 and Athena Michaels ’18 to recount Tuesday, June 13, 2017:

After a semi-restless night for the girls due to the torrential downpour hitting the tin roof along with our new 5 a.m. chicken alarm, a hand full of us still decided to rise at 6:30 am and tackle the challenge of tabata with our leaders, Julia, Bella and Jimmy, along with 2 boys in the NA group, who seemed to have slept soundly and without interruption. We then prepared ourselves for the upcoming day and hurried downstairs to ensure our ability to play a quick game of “connect four” or “spit” before our wonderful breakfast feast. After hearing the bell ring from the kitchen staff, we attentively listened to our leader describe what we were going to eat. Thankfully, French toast and oatmeal were on the menu and everyone hurried to get in line for the food. We then finished our last bites, put away our plates and silverware, and downed any remaining coffee we had in our cups.

We then hit the road and made our way towards the church with our supplies for the day. After setting up the chairs and tables, the kids eagerly piled in and waved down their choices for reading partners. Most of them were familiar faces, however it was nice to see some new kids ready to start their Outreach journey with Norfolk Academy. We circled up and sang the now familiar songs; we even had some of our volunteers lead the chants! Afterwards, the kids had a blast playing creative games such as “wasp, wasp, bee”, coloring in necklaces with insects on them, practicing their spelling, and later enjoying some stickers given out by the volunteers; the stickers seemed to put a bigger smile on their faces than anything. After singing 3 more songs, we set ourselves up for the kids exit: the volunteers either building a bridge for the kids to walk under or blowing bubbles before they finally exit the church.

We then headed back to the Outreach house and sat down for another lesson, this time on history. This seemed to be more interesting than the cultural talk not only because we had a history master in our presence (Coach Acra), but also because we played a game called “lechuga” (like hot potato). If the music stopped and you had the crumbled up paper ball in your had, you had to read out an interesting fact about the country. Finally, we heard the bell ring again, making us rush to our chairs and listened to what was for lunch. Interestingly enough, the menu consisted of food one would find at a Nicaraguan fiesta. We chowed down on our food and afterwards, we spent our remaining free time either at “fruitissimo” (a smoothie place that has now become a hotspot, and not just because of the wifi) or “Veronica’s cafe” (the “Starbucks” of Jinotega). We raced back the house to reapply our new best friend, bug spray, and fill up our water bottles to the top.

The afternoon session presented itself with a challenge- 52 kids instead of our almost 20 children in the morning. Although, each group worked hard to ensure the afternoon children would learn to the extent the of the morning children. After changing a couple of things, including the handing out of stickers to avoid bloodshed, each group found themselves more engaged and met their certain tasks at hand. We then gave these children then same exit as the morning group and headed back to our Nicaraguan “home”.

After our hour of free time, we were introduced to our Latin dance teacher, Ernesto. I do not think any of us will be able to erase the image of Coach Acra popping and locking to the upbeat Spanish music. After the insane amount of sweat the group worked up in the 30 minute class, we eagerly waited for the 3rd and last bell ring of the day. At a little before 6 pm, we took our seats and waited to answer the trivia question of the night (answering correctly meant that one’s “team” would be first in line for dinner). The meal of homemade quesadillas (even the tortilla was put together from scratch) and our new staple, plantains, gave us the energy to create our lesson plans for the next day and later, venture back out into town.

Group with Ernesto!

As each day goes by, the group seems to get closer and closer, allowing everyone to break out of their shell and make new friends. We no longer sit boys on one side and girls on the other or only talk to people whom we hang out with at home. We cannot wait to see how our review day goes tomorrow and experience the opportunity that Outreach 360 has given us. ¡Hasta Luego!

Written by Cross Birdsong ’18 & Adavya Dhawan ’18 to recount Monday, June 12, 2017:

NA teaching team outside the Outreach360 Learning Center in Jinotega.

We began our morning at 6:30 with tired legs and sore arms from a tabata (high intensity) workout. After freshening up, we ate some delicious eggs, tortillas, and our new favorite, beans and rice, for breakfast. Right after, we were off to teach our first session of English at the local church. While some groups played games like Twister and Jenga, others enjoyed drawing and Simon Says. To wrap up the morning, we all “went bananas” in our favorite camp song. Tired but satisfied, we headed home for a lunch of pollo frito, and of course, no meal could be complete without beans and rice. Well-fed and rested after the midday siesta, we headed back to the church to teach our second session of the day. With more students, we needed to bring a lot more energy, and we did. To celebrate, the group went out for some smoothies, before getting back to work for the next day’s lesson planning. All in all, it was a “Que twani” (Nica term for cool) day.

Written by Greer Gill ’18 to recount Sunday, June 11, 2017:

Group picture outside of Outreach360 house in Jinotega.

This morning we woke up to the sounds of chickens and roosters communicating (loudly) outside our window. We then devoured a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and plantains, followed by a fun ice breaker game with the whole group. After this game, we started out for our city tour. We explored the Germán neighborhood, where we got to see

Touring Jinotega.

where some of our students live. We traveled through the city streets visiting various shops, restaurants, and the Jinotega city park. With tired legs, we returned to our house to eat a yummy lunch of white rice, pulled chicken, and our staple… beans. After tricking the Acras into taking us to free wifi in the park (no worries, the Acras cut us off after 5 minutes), we returned to plan lessons for our first day of teaching on Monday. We then ate an early dinner at 5:00 so we could venture back into the city to attend Sunday night mass. Following church, we treated ourselves to cake and made friends with a local mariachi band. To end the night, we played multiple rounds of the game “Mafia” where Greer killed everyone and Liza saved herself countless times. We head to bed excited about our first day of teaching tomorrow! 

Jinotega City Park

Lesson planning for the week

Mariachi band on the streets of Jinotega!

Written by Mackenzi Mills ’18 to recount Saturday, June 10:

We began our day bright and early at 4:50 am at the Norfolk Airport. Our travel day went fairly smooth with only a couple of things temporarily lost (GoPro, suitcase, customs form, etc.), but later found. Although it was nothing we couldn’t handle! We made it through Nicaraguan Customs and found our Outreach 360 leaders and a bright blue bus waiting for us. We grabbed some lunch and set off in the rain on our 3 hour and incredibly scenic bus ride to Jinotega. The cloud-masked mountains were breathtaking. When we arrived at the Outreach 360 house we began with orientation and some guidelines. We sorted our donations, played cards, and finished the night with a satisfying dinner. To all of our surprises including Mr. Acra’s, we had birthday cake for desert. His birthday is in October, and was not actually today. But the cake was a great way to end the night! We are planning to get a good rest tonight so that we can enjoy our jam-packed day tomorrow. 

Fourteen students are heading to Outreach360’s site in Jinotega, Nicaragua June 10-17! Though internet access is limited in-country, they will do their best to post reflections and updates on their experience here on the blog. Check back for updates, and also visit the International Programs’ Twitter Feed to follow along on their adventure from afar!