While many of us were sipping on eggnog and postponing Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve, a group of Auburn students packed their bags and flew to Nicaragua. The trip was a part of the Alternative Student Breaks program in the Center for Community Service at Auburn.
The group flew out of Atlanta on Dec. 14, and returned back to Atlanta on Dec. 21.
"The first day that we got there was an excursion day, so we really just traveled the city," said Katie Cornwell, junior in communications. "We went on a boat ride in Lake Nicaragua, which is the biggest lake in Central America."
The group also went to see an active volcano in the Masaya Volcano National Park and zip lined over crater lakes. The rest of the week consisted of work days in the capital city of Managua.
The group worked in the community of Santa Julia, Cornwell said.
"We would wake up at 7 a.m. and then eat breakfast at the hotel and then from about 8 a.m. to lunch time we would work in the field and we would either be picking red beans out of the ground on like huge mountains or we would be picking coffee beans out of trees," Cornwell said. "They said they had planted like 1,700 coffee trees."
Santa Julia had about 65 families, Cornwell said.
Jessa Rein, junior in business management, said the families lived in houses made out of spare pieces of metal.
"There were just these metal pieces around that were nailed together and then the floors were just the dirt like from outside," Rein said. "I wasn't expecting their living conditions to be as bad as it actually was."
Peter Beairsto, junior in building science, said some of the homes had limited electricity, like speakers or a light bulb. Cooking in their houses creates horrible ventilation problems for the women and children, Beairsto said.
Beairsto said the group picked this particular area for community development because of the poverty surrounding Managua.
"(There was a) coffee bean production company that was trying to start back up again, but failed, so we came in to help," Beairsto said. "We helped donate a coffee bean de-pulper. . . it was kind of a big step in their coffee bean production."
The group got to spend time with the locals after working, including the children. Cornwell said after lunch they would play with the kids by the houses.
"Even though I didn't speak Spanish, and I usually had no idea what they were saying, it was great because I could still communicate with them," Cornwell said. "When we had our farewell on the last day, it was definitely really, really difficult to leave, and you know all the kids were like hanging on the back of our trucks and didn't want us to leave."
The team also wrapped presents for the children including clothes, toys, books and school supplies so they would have gifts to open on Christmas, Beairsto said.
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