The COMFORT anchored within a 10 minute boat ride to the Port of San
Juan Del Sur Nicaragua. Immediately, we noticed a stark difference
from Tumaco. San Juan Del Sur is a resident beach town that receives
many tourists each year, several who visit to surf its shores. There
were several small fishing boats docked inside the harbor. We could
see the beautiful cliffs overlooking the water from our hospitality
boats.
The weather was perfect. We only experienced a little rain in the
morning. I was thrilled to have wonderful weather after experiencing
the storms that affected the backpacks.
Coordination Challenge
There is no Rotary Club in San Juan Del Sur. After working through the
District Governor for Rotary and our main contact in Managua, we were
put in touch with the Rotary Club of Granada. Granada is a city
located only 1 hour from San Juan Del Sur. The Rotarians in Granada
were wonderful and referred us to work with their partner, who is also
a school teacher in San Juan Del Sur. He recommended schools for us to
visit for the backpack project. One of the schools proved to be too
rural for us to visit. Our bus could not make it through the narrow
roads and thick mud to the site. After investigating the schools, we
decided to visit 2 schools for the backpack project and organize a new
program for the 2 other schools.
COMFORT Partnership
Our educational coalition has offered many opportunities for members
of the COMFORT to participate in community projects inside schools
through the shoe and backpack programs. In Nicaragua, we collaborated
with the USNS COMFORT band and Dental Department to develop a new
education and music program for two of the schools.
New Program Development
Since two of the schools that the teacher recommended were not
possible for distributions, I started to look for additional
opportunities to visit schools or orphanages. I discovered that the
band was scheduled to play a concert at a school on June 22. I went to
visit the school, Escuela Intregada de Cultura, with the Civil Affairs
team and learned that the school offered an after school program
through a free community center that provided art, music, and English
courses for the surrounding community. I talked with the directors to
assess their needs and see if there was anything that we could provide
them. I explained that I had some donations that had been affected by
temperate weather and asked if they might find these supplies useful.
They were enthusiastic to take anything, but we encouraged them to
focus their requests due to the timeframe of our visit. We helped
organize a visit on the 22nd for multiple programs and donations.
1st day June 22nd
Donations
I helped facilitate the day’s events by coordinating with the
directors the time and logistics for the different programs. The
directors conveyed to me that they were trying to push an incentive
program for those children who achieve high attendance in the school.
We focused our donations to best serve their programs. While the
dental volunteers and band members set up their equipment, our
partnership donated items directly to the school for their incentive
program. We provided 40 backpacks filled with supplies, stuffed
animal, and soap, 20 dictionaries, 37 pairs of shoes, 11 teacher bags,
40 stuffed animals; additional supplies- 61 notebooks and 20 school
supply kits. They have 80 children in their top attendance list that
will receive the shoes, backpacks, or stuffed animals based on their
attendance and age range. The teacher bag donations will be given to
their volunteer teachers at an upcoming training workshop and the
English dictionaries will be utilized during their evening adult
English classes. The other school supplies will be applied to their
art program or poetry program depending on the quality of the
materials. The directors also requested that we collect large cans,
for a recycled-object music program since they could not obtain
similar cans in town. We collected two large bags full of recycled
cans from the ship’s galley and donated them for their program.
Teeth and Music
A member from the NGO UCSD (University of California San Diego) Dental
Program brought onboard the COMFORT a fully equipped dental puppet
show for children. It was amazing! The dental department, including
UCSD, Canadian and US military sent 4 individuals who played various
roles throughout the play. There was a tooth, floss, toothbrush,
plaque/bacteria, and mouth. All of the characters were adapted in
Spanish. The children laughed along and paid attention to the
material. The children were quizzed on the material following the
performance and were very responsive, answering many questions from
the volunteers.
The USNS band also had a full concert program for children. The band
was wonderful. We provided some health and hygiene programming in
between the band’s intermission. The band members allowed several
children to play alongside them by distributing different instruments
to the children, giving them an opportunity to contribute to the
performance. We also had a unique opportunity to teach the chicken
dance to the children at the school. The children laughed as the music
gained momentum and all of the volunteers and children danced rapidly
to the band’s increasing pace.
Escuela San Francisco
The second school that we visited was across from the main medical
site at the Civic Center in San Juan Del Sur. Many patients waiting in
line to receive services watched as we piled out of the bus with
instruments, boxes, and bags. There were 233 children at the school
waiting for our visit.
The band and puppet show set up outside under awnings near the
classrooms, since this school was mostly open. We had a slight set
back with the power at the school going out; however, the band
adjusted wonderfully. Instead of their being a full rock concert, the
band organized their brass section to finish out the musical program.
Soon many of the children were dancing with the military and NGO
volunteers.
We closed out the day by giving each child and teacher a toothbrush
and toothpaste before they headed out for the afternoon. We also
provided each of the teachers with a teacher bag to say thank you and
gave the school a donation of soccer balls.
2nd day June 23rd
Escuela Sauda Bikerland
Backpacks and Music
Our Rotarian partners from Granada joined us at the school and were
wonderful at helping engage the children. We collaborated to visit
each classroom and provided health and hygiene education while
distributing the backpacks to the children. The COMFORT brass band set
up a concert outside the preschool classroom for the children. After
we finished the educational component, the band played a fantastic set
for the children. We did perform the chicken dance again.
“La Cuesta” Escuela HNOS. Mendoza
Mendoza was a small school of 51 children with only two classrooms.
Since the school was so small, we spent more time inside the
classrooms with the children and teachers. Due to scheduling logistics
with the military, it has been challenging to spend a great deal of
time at the schools which made Mendoza a unique. Each class performed
a song, which was a special treat for the volunteers.
Backpack Donation
We donated an allocation of 224 backpacks and 15 teacher bags to the
Rotary Club of Granada. The Rotarians will be visiting 4-5 schools in
the more rural communities surrounding Granada to distribute the
backpacks. We also donated 80 refurbished backpacks filled with
supplies to a Nicaraguan NGO-Tengo un Sueño for an afternoon project
called the Imagination Federation Inc. at Hermandad Maryknoll high
school in Chacraseca, Nicaragua.
Nicaragua was a beautiful and unique experience.
Thank you Partners!
Rotary Club of Granada, Rotary District 6980, Give a Kid a Backpack,
Loving Hugs Inc., The Dictionary Project, Samaritan’s Feet
International, Clean the World, the College of Education at the
University of Central Florida, and Orange County Public Schools.
Thank you for your support!
Kari Williams
Education Coalition, CP11
No comments:
Post a Comment