 Students from St. Andrew's Episcopal School returned to Austin recently from a Project Schoolhouse construction and instruction trip to Nicaragua. The group of a dozen students (10 from St. Andrew's) and three adults spent 8 days in the small rural communities of Martillo and El Naranjo teaching and building at two of the latest schools conceived and constructed by the nonprofit.
It is the second adventure by a group of St. Andrew's students on a Project trip, and the young folks say they both enjoyed the experience and learned valuable lessons from it. What struck student Jordan Moffett was the dignity and intelligence of the people.
"We probably learned more from them than they did from us," Moffett said. "I was impressed with the people. That was my favorite part. It makes you feel really good. Everybody's poor, but everybody's really dignified."
St. Andrew's teacher Richard Kriese explained the concept of the "junior experience" at St. Andrew's - a program where juniors are encouraged to travel during the summer between their junior and senior years. The trip was the junior experience for these students, and it involved both experiencing travel,experiencing a different culture and different modes of living, and most importantly getting a chance to improve education for the targeted, underserved communities that Tab and his team at Project Schoolhouse select based on need.
"They lived with families in the villages and spent their time preparing meals, teaching," Kriese said, and of course helping to construct new schools to replace the one-room, dirt -floor buildings that formerly served all grades at once. He described the old "schools" as essentially one-car garages.
St. Andrew's student Zane Zemborain said he was struck and inspired by the lifestyles of the children of the villages.
"The kids are always smiling and eagerly waiting for you to play with them," he said. "These kids
make their own entertainment. They explore the beautiful landscape, shoot mangos down with their slingshots, and play endless games of tag and baseball."
The Cien Amigos School in Martillo is fully constructed, with two rooms and a gravity-fed, running water system also constructed by Project Schoolhouse assisted by the villagers themselves.
The second school, in El Naranjo, is almost complete - just needs some paint and some doors, the students said. The villagers there voted to name the latest school Escuela Alicia in honor of St. Andrew's mom and Project Schoolhouse board member Alicia Kriese.
"The kids got a chance to see the needs that rural Nicaraguans have," Richard says. He also explained that elementary education in Nicaragua focuses on basic literacy and numeracy so the students decided to teach subjects that aren't normally available. "They taught music, drama, and theater. The things that make St. Andrew's great."
Moffett described his construction experience as hard work but fun.
"I helped slap on some concrete," he said, also describing leading horses down the mountain with two men from El Naranjo and bringing the big bags of cement back up the hill to the school site on horseback.
Zemborain talked about helping construct the El Naranjo school and how he and his fellow students got their hands dirty helping to plant the community garden. "It was amazing; we were able to escape outside of our normal comfort zones, get dirty, skip showers, and live somewhat like a third world nation citizen."
Kriese, like the students, remarked upon the lack of certain basics like no sewage or hot water. "Yeah, they lack some of the basic things, but what they have is their families and so few worries really."
"The people seem uncorrupted by materialism," Moffett said. "I really most respected that."
The teachers and Tab hope that the relationship will continue, possibly with an initiative to build
another school, but the students are still in decompression mode from such an invigorating trip.
"It takes a while to assimilate the experience," Kriese said.
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