First-year Algonquin journalism student Dylan Copland is accompanying Child and Youth Worker students on a two-week trip to Nicaragua that began in mid-March. Follow his chronicles here as he updates us on the country, its people and the effect it has had on him and the students.
Day 1:
It felt like our plane had landed in a rainforest. The temperature must have been around 30 degrees and the humidity made me break quickly into a sweat.
It seemed a world away from this morning, when a group of 20-odd Child and Youth Worker Students from Algonquin College and I began the day at 3 a.m. in Ottawa. After a long day of connecting flights and airport food we had finally arrived at Managua, Nicaragua in Central America.
My job as the trip’s journalist is to document with photos and articles their projects here. Their first job is to build a classroom onto an existing school house in the small rural town of Haulover on Nicaragua’s east coast. After a week there, we will return to Managua and spend a week in the capital doing things like: painting a youth drop in center, and visiting a city dump where impoverished people live. Our project is sprinkled with relaxing events as well. A couple of days are designated as “beach days.” No explanation necessary.
The trip is organized by a company called Compañeros which is run by a man named Gonzalo who will be leading us on our journey. Among the teachers with us from Algonquin are Jane Trakalo, the coordinator of the child and youth Worker program, and Naomi Praamsma and her boyfriend Franc.
Tonight we are staying at a beautiful hotel in Managua. It feels like a tropical resort. We stayed out and drank beers around the pool as we all chatted and got to know each other a little better. I also had a great conversation with my roommate Marcel – the only other male student on the trip – about how we came to be where we are today and what we hope to get out of the trip.
There you have it, the players, some of the events… it should be an interesting two weeks in Nicaragua and I´m sure I’ll have plenty to write about. Tomorrow’s a big travel day as we make our way to Haulover, so I´m going to bed.
