Honey, Smoke, and Sweat

Since the honey harvest season that began in December is sadly coming to an end, I thought that I’d share some of the different honey harvest experiences that I’ve had here in Nicaragua: Harvesting Cantera’s farm’s 120 beehives, harvesting Leydi’s 2 beehives, and harvesting the cooperative’s 20 collective beehives in Rivas.

Cantera’s Farm

When we harvest honey from the 120 beehives at Cantera’s farm, I normally work with about six men to harvest all of the honey in 2 (or sometimes 3) days.  In the weeks before the harvest, we arrange the beehives so that the panels with honey are in the top box of the beehive.  Depending on how many panels of honeycomb are in a beehive, we take anywhere from a full box to just a few panels that are full of honey.  We load the boxes from one or two apiaries into the back of a pick-up truck, and ride in the bed of the pick-up truck with the boxes back to the extraction room.

All of the boxes in the back of the pick-up truck are full of honeycomb panels ready to be harvested!

In the extraction room, we cut off the top layer of wax from the honeycomb.  This allows us to open up the cells of honey without distorting the shape of the cells.  At the end of the day we return the panels to the beehives so that the bees can refill the cells with honey again!

Cutting the honeycomb

Cantera has an electric extractor to spin the honey out of the panels.  Spinning the panels also allows the cells to keep their shapes.  This electric extractor fits 18 panels, which is much more efficient than the manual extractors that only fit 4 panels (which need to be flipped)… although we do use the manual extractor when the power goes out at the farm!

Cantera's farm's electric extractor

 

Harvesting Leydi’s 2 Beehives

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to harvest with Leydi, a 20-year-old woman who is a member of the cooperative that I accompany (Cooperativa La Dulce Miel).  The day before we harvested, Leydi and I traveled on horseback for an hour to visit her beehives.  After we confirmed that there was enough honey for us to harvest, we rode back after sunset as the stars lit up the sky.  I stayed with her and her family, who live a very simple and very rural lifestyle.  It was wonderful spending time, conversing, and sharing with Leydi and her family.  They gave me homemade cuajada (like cheese) and plantains from their farm to take home.  We weren’t able to borrow a horse to return to harvest the honey, so we spent a couple of hours biking on dirt roads to get to the beehives.  I pedaled Leydi’s bike while she sat on the bar between the seat and the handlebars.  Leydi was talkative, patient, and energetic.  Before entering a hive, Leydi always paused to say a silent prayer.  I  returned to Managua after we harvested her 2 beehives with manual extractor, grateful for the opportunity to build relationships and share in Leydi’s beekeeping experience.

Harvest in Rivas

The cooperative’s collective beehives are in Rivas, which is where many of the cooperative’s members live (including Leydi) and is about 2 hours south of Managua.  When we harvest in Rivas, we normally leave Managua around 6am and return around 9pm.  It’s always a long and exciting day!

We use plenty of smoke when we enter the beehives!

We check each panel that has honeycomb to make sure that it doesn't have open cells with eggs.

Cloud of bees!

Sometimes my bee stings don't swell up at all, but here you can see that a sting on the palm of my left hand really made the back of my hand swell up!

At the end of each honey harvest, my beekeeping suit and I smell strongly of honey, smoke, and sweat.  We’re hoping to harvest at Cantera’s farm once more before the harvest season comes to an end!

Climate Change and Carbon Footprints

A few weeks ago the rural development team that I’m on held a sustainable agriculture workshop.  I got to facilitate the section on climate change and learn about what it means to communities in Nicaragua.  While there isn’t an idea here that climate change could be a huge conspiracy, there is confusion about what it means (sometimes people think it means the changes between the dry and rainy seasons).  One of the most interesting questions that we asked was how the harvest has changed over the last few generations.  Many people explained that in comparison with their parent’s or their grandparent’s generations that there are more plagues and smaller harvests today.  Our project (which includes a family organic vegetable garden program and environmental education) doesn’t just try to reduce climate change, but also helps people adapt to the climate change that’s already occurring.  People in rural communities where we work are more affected by climate change because they rely on farming and are affected by the increase of natural disasters, plagues, and gradual weather changes (like more or less rain or hotter temperatures).

There are things that people in Nicaragua do that are harmful to the environment (particularly burning trash, littering, using pesticides, and sometimes slash-and-burning), and a lot of the environmental education that we do works to reduce these things.  Nevertheless, Latin America is responsible for 3.8% of the world’s contributions to global warming, whereas the U.S. is responsible for 30.3%!!

A friend of mine recently wrote a blog post on things that she does in Nicaragua that she didn’t do in the U.S. (read Kristin’s blog entry).  That got me thinking about the things that I do and don’t do here, especially related to the environment.  I decided to calculate my carbon footprint for the last 6 months to find out what I do here that is better or worse for the environment.

Things that I do here that are good for the environment:

Buy Locally Grown and In Season Food – The fruits, vegetables, and grains that we find at the market and at the ventas (family-owned neighborhood stores) are locally grown and in season.  Buying anything else would be expensive.  (Apples are imported from the U.S. and sold here, but it hardly makes sense to buy an apple for USD$1 when I can buy a gigantic carrot here for less than USD$0.50!).  My carbon footprint for buying locally grown food is 0.05 metric tons of CO₂.

Fresh fruits and veggies!

Eat Vegetarian – We tend to eat a lot of vegetarian meals here, and we don’t eat beef or pork very often.  My carbon footprint for sometimes eating white mean (chicken) is 0.27 metric tons of CO₂.

Use Less Electricity – Our only uses of electricity are for lighting, fans, the refrigerator, a toaster oven, internet, and charging things like camera batteries and laptops.  Think about all of the energy that we save by not having a microwave, an oven, a washing machine, a drying machine, air conditioning, hot water, a television, etc.!  My carbon footprint for electricity since I’ve been here is about 0.11 metric tons of CO₂, which isn’t nearly what it would be if I were living in the U.S.

Use Public Transportation – Managua buses tend to be packed full of people, which means that gas is used pretty efficiently!  I’ve done some traveling on buses as well, so my carbon footprint from buses is about .48 metric tons of CO₂.  When we go out to the rural areas for work we all go in the same pickup truck (whether there are 2 or 12 of us), which you could call carpooling!

Wear Hand-Me-Downs – I haven’t bought any new clothes since I’ve been here, but my wardrobe almost doubled when some of the volunteers moved out and left some of their clothes!

Buy Things with Less Packaging – We can buy lots of things without packaging (eggs, beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables) at the market, but almost everything comes in a plastic bag (see below).  My carbon footprint for packaging is 0.03 metric tons of CO₂.

Pay with Cash and Use Fewer Bank Services  - After we take our stipend money out of the bank, we pay for everything in cash.  I hadn’t ever thought about the CO₂ emissions that results from a globalized economy!

So, unfortunately it’s not just good news that I have to report.  Here are things that I do here that are bad for the environment:

Fly – My flight here released 0.76 metric tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere… not good!!  (Especially considering that it wasn’t the only flight I took in the last year).

Throw Recyclable Items into the Trash – Recycling doesn’t really exist here, at least not in the way that we think of in the U.S.  Plastic bottles are oftentimes reused, but other plastic waste and used paper are usually taken as garbage and eventually burned.  We try to contribute our food scraps to a community garden and compost pile at a youth center where Matt works in Barrio Dimitrov.  Add 0.33 metric tons of CO₂ to my carbon footprint for not recycling.

Receive Lots and Lots of Plastic Bags – Anytime I buy anything I get a plastic bag.  I’d like to be able to tell you that I reject these bags and use a reusable bag, but we use the plastic bags for our garbage containers in our home.  At least we’re reusing!

Use Gas – We use our stove to make most of our meals.  But, my carbon footprint from gas is pretty tiny… just 0.03 metric tons of CO₂ since I’ve been here.

Kitchen Stove and Gas

Recreation – I don’t go out to restaurants, etc. too often here, but my carbon footprint is still 0.54 metric tons of CO₂ for recreation.

Use Water – So, water usage doesn’t directly contribute to CO₂  emissions, but I thought that it was still important to report.  Now that we’re in the dry season, we have to water the grass in our front yard and our plants almost daily.  I’ve noticed that laundry uses a lot of water…  A bucket’s worth of water to soak clothes, and a lot of water to rinse the soap out of clothes after hand washing and scrubbing.

Part of our back patio where we soak our clothes in buckets and hand wash them on our "pila"

Results:

Even though my lifestyle is much more environmentally friendly here than it is in the U.S., my carbon footprint is still way too large!!  My footprint is 2.59 metric tons of CO₂, whereas the worldwide target to combat climate change is 2.0 metric tons of CO₂, and the average footprint for people in Nicaragua is 0.74 metric tons of CO₂ (all of these calculations are for over the last 6 months).

My footprint in Nicaragua in comparison with the average footprint in Nicaragua and the world target footprint

But, want to hear something shocking?  The average footprint for people living in the U.S. (over the last 6 months) is 20.40 metric tons of CO₂!!

Here's how my footprint (in Nicaragua) compares to the average footprint in the U.S. and the world target

What’s your carbon footprint?  Calculate it!  And then work to reduce your carbon footprint and  offset your footprint.

Peace!

Ana

Ecological Brigades

Knowledge Fair / Ecological Brigades 2011 / Let's Live in Harmony with Nature

What does the environmental education that we do in rural elementary schools in Nicaragua look like?  Tips like “lower your thermostat,” “drive less often,” and “hang your clothes to dry” wouldn’t make much sense in the communities where we work!  While over-consumption of energy might not be a huge problem, littering and burning trash are common practices that harm the environment.  Similarly, teaching students about the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) is different when there isn’t trash or recycling collection in their communities.

As part of my work Cantera, I am on a rural development team that works with Ecological Brigades (groups of students who care for the environment) in six rural elementary schools.  We find creative and engaging ways to teach about things like sustainable agriculture and waste management.  Many of the students have parents who are in our family vegetable garden project, so the students are also able to learn about sustainable agriculture at home.

Since the school year just ended for the Ecological Brigades, we had a competition within each school to encourage students to study and to give them a chance to show off what they’ve learned.  Groups of students in third and fourth graders competed in games and answered questions like “why is it important to use natural resources responsibly?,” “what is crop rotation?” “why shouldn’t you plant tomatoes and peppers together?,” and “what does it mean to reduce?”  Fifth and sixth graders chose a theme (like sustainable agriculture, the destruction and restoration of the environment, or waste management) and presented a poster-board, diorama, skit, song, or craft.  After winning groups from each school were chosen, the groups came to compete against each other at Cantera’s center.

The competition was a day of games, water balloons, races, and puzzles.  I was impressed by the enthusiasm, creativity, and knowledge of the Ecological Brigades.  Here is a summary of the big day in photos and captions:

Students unscrambled and presented the definition of "sustainable agriculture"

In one of the activities, students were tied together and had to race to balloons. Each balloon contained a question about the environment, and they had to write the answer to the question before the raced to the next balloon.

Students sorting trash that we collected as organic, inorganic, or dangerous

Water balloons!

Students racing and jumping in sacks

A group of fourth and fifth graders did a drama about the dangers of deforestation

I love working with the rural team, spending time with kids, and planning fun ways to teach about the environment.  I’m looking forward to working with the Ecological Brigades in the upcoming school year!

El Salvador, Solidarity, and Inspiration

Note: you can also find this post on the Cap Corps Blog

During my sophomore year of college I decided to take what was a bold step for me and go on a trip with the Creighton Center for Service and Justice to a protest and vigil at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas) in Fort Benning, Georgia.  I had learned that the school trained military officials from Latin America who had been convicted of torture, human rights abuses, and hundreds of unjust killings of civilians.  One of the many injustices committed was the brutal killing of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter on November 16, 1989.  The Jesuits were killed for the political messages they made when they applied the Gospel to social and economical injustices in El Salvador. Although I was initially a little uncomfortable with the idea of taking a strong political stand, the protest taught me the importance of being committed to social justice and the connection between faith and politics.  I went to the protest in Georgia the following year, and last year I helped prepare for and participated in the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington D.C. These experiences deepened  my faith as well as my commitment to social justice.

Protest at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia, November 2009

Creighton Delegation at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington, D.C., November 2010

This year I was unable to go to the protest and the teach-in in the U.S., but I was able to remember the martyrs in a very powerful way.  Elizabeth (another Cap Corps volunteer), Sister Kari, and I traveled with some of our friends from Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM) to San Salvador for the vigil and mass at the UCA (Universidad Centroamericana), the university where the six Jesuits taught and were killed.  It was powerful being in the place where such courageous and committed people had given their life for their faith and for the common good.  I felt lots of energy the gathering of thousands of people who had come to remember the martyrs and show their commitment to social justice.  With lit candles in hand, we walked around the university and marched through several salt rugs (murals made out of colored sand on the road).  Then we celebrated Mass outside together and listened to a homily that so beautifully connected our faith to the current realities that it would have made the Jesuit martyrs proud.  We received generous hospitality from other VMM volunteers and their country coordinator, who not only took us to the vigil but also to the house, church, and crypt of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a martyr who was shot  in 1980 for denouncing social injustices and standing with the poor. It was a full weekend, and we also got to experience El Salvador in other ways, like eating lots of papusas (stuffed corn tortillas) and hiking on Volcano Boquerón.

Me and Elizabeth at the Anniversary of the Martyrs at the UCA in San Salvador

Me, Elizabeth, Sister Kari, VMM volunteers Kristin, Billy, and Maggie, and VMM Coordinator Stephen at Romero's Crypt

The weekend was an incredible way for me to be in solidarity with students and friends from Creighton at the teach-in, as well as with those who have suffered injustices and work for peace.  I left El Salvador feeling grateful for such a dynamic experience and with renewed energy to live a purposeful and committed life.  The lives of the Jesuits continue to inspire me as I work for economic development in rural communities in Managua, Nicaragua.

Me and Elizabeth in the chapel at the UCA

Check out my last post on work and beekeeping!

Work and Beekeeping!

Two months into my work in Nicaragua, and each day is something different and a learning experience.  I am beginning to realize that it will probably always be this way.  Thus far I have found my work to be exciting, and I feel very grateful for all of the invitations and opportunities for me to be involved with work.

All of us Cap Corps volunteers in Managua work with a Nicaraguan NGO called Cantera, which does urban work (youth/teenage centers, preschools, workshops), rural work (a family vegetable garden project, a beekeeping cooperative, and environmental education), national workshops (gender, development/ popular education, systemization, and spirituality), and natural medicine.  I work with the rural teams of Cantera.  One of my jobs is to support a beekeeping cooperative that produces organic honey and promotes the participation of women.  The cooperative has some big plans to grow and develop, and I have been attending some of its meetings and learning more about what they do.   I also work with a rural project that supports fifty home and school organic vegetable gardens (to promote food security and sustainable agriculture) and ecological brigades (interactive environmental education classes in rural elementary schools).  I love working in the fresh air, building relationships, and learning new things!

Since I am working with the beekeeping cooperative, it only makes sense that I learn how to keep bees!  One or two days a week I go to Cantera’s farm (which has 140 of the cooperative’s beehives) to work with Moises.  Moises has years of experience and has worked in the U.S. and Canada doing apiculture.  He is an excellent beekeeper and teacher.  Moises takes off the lid of a beehive, and before lifting up any of the panels, he can tell whether the queen is healthy, how many eggs there are, and how much honey has been produced.  He is teaching me how to notice these things, too.

Me in my beekeeping suit

Moises working with the bees

One of the farm's seven apiaries

Moises once told me that the bees do ninty percent of the work, and that the ten percent of work we do just helps the bees do what they already do.  The honey harvest starts in the beginning of December (I am counting down the days!), and everything that we have been doing has been to prepare for the harvest.  When I started working in beekeeping, we fed/ nourished the hives by putting bags of sugar water (which we mixed in a gigantic tank) in each beehive.  This tricks the queen into thinking that there is more pollen outside, and she lays more eggs.  When the flowers are flourishing, there are more worker bees to collect honey.

Just some of the many plastic bags of sugar water that we put in the hives

We also have been reordering the hives so that more honey and eggs are produced.  The number of panels, the space between the panels, and the way that the panels are organized can all affect how many and which type of eggs are laid.  This week we made hundreds of wax sheets for the hives, so that the bees can focus their energy and time on producing honey instead of on making wax.

The bees, hard at work!

I am learning a lot about the world and about myself.  I hope that you are too, and that you are also finding energy in everyday life.

Lots of love and peace.

Ana

Joys, Patience, and the Cap Corps House

After 2 weeks of orientation in Milwaukee and 3 weeks of language school in Granada, I was excited to unpack my suitcases and settle into the volunteer house in Managua!  I am living with 4 other Cap Corps volunteers: Courtney, Megan, Elizabeth, and Matt.  Courtney has been here for 2 years and Megan has been here for 1 year, so they have been showing me, Elizabeth, and Matt around Managua, explaining bus routes, introducing us to our friendly neighbors, bringing us to local markets, helping us get to know our volunteer jobs, and answering our many questions.  I have felt a lot of joy as I have been introduced to where I will be living and what I will be doing, and I am grateful for everyone who has welcomed us!

Although there have been many moments of joy, I have also realized that I need to be patient with myself.  I am excited to escape from the newness that I have been experiencing and am ready to turn Managua into a home.  I know that my work will be to support rural projects like beekeeping, community gardens, and/or environmental education in schools, but it will take awhile for me to develop my role.  It will also take time before I understand directions in Managua or the bus routes.  Luckily I know how to get myself home in a cab if I get lost!  I am trying to take in everything that I can while being patient with myself as I get to know my new home, work, community, and way of life.

In conclusion, I thought that I’d offer a visual of where I am living.  Here are a few photos of the Cap Corps House:

Living Room

Kitchen Stove

Toaster oven, water filters, and a lot of peanut butter from the U.S.

My bed (in my bedroom that I share with Megan)

Backyard

Where we hand-wash and line-dry our laundry

Paz y bien!

Granada

So far the transition to living in Nicaragua is going pretty well. Many of the things that I’m doing in Granada (living with a host family, taking Spanish classes, and volunteering with kids) feel familiar because I’ve done them before.  I feel pretty comfortable in what I am doing and where I am staying in Granada.

Granada is a small, colonial city that is popular among tourists.  I really like living here, but I often feel like a tourist and a guest.  Elizabeth, Matt, and I have been doing a lot of exploring and tourist activities.  Sometimes I feel like I’m on vacation, not in a country in which I will be living for the next year and a half.  In a couple of weeks I will move into the house in Managua where I will be living, so I suspect that I will feel a little more settled in then.

While in Granada, I have been familiarizing myself with Nicaraguan culture.  During Spanish conversation classes, I have been learning not only how to use el vosero and common Nicaraguan words and phrases, but also about the history, politics, and culture of Nicaragua. There is so much to learn!

I enjoy volunteering with an after-school program for middle school students.  Each afternoon I help students with their homework and then played games with them.  One of my favorite games is a card game called la torta, which requires players to quickly slap the deck of cards in order to avoid receiving a bunch of cards.  Our games get pretty intense!  We also teach English classes to the kids.  We have taught them soccer vocabulary (everyone here is a fan of either the Barcelona or Madrid soccer teams), and slang (cool, dude, coach potato, etc.), and played games with them like pictionary.  Teaching and playing with the kids from Casa Xalteva is one of my favorite parts about staying in Granada!

Me, Elizabeth, and Matt with some of the kids from Casa Xalteva's program for kids

Living with my host family has also been a great experience.  I especially love living with Osmara, my seven-year-old “host niece.”  Together we enjoy coloring and playing games like hide-and-seek, cards, and hangman.

Me with my Mirian, my host mom, and Osmara, my host niece

I have also had the chance to explore some parts of Granada and Masaya.  Even though some of these excursions have been a little bit touristy, they have allowed me to get to know parts of Nicaragua’s history, culture, and landscape.

Active volcano in Masaya that expels sulfuric gas

Matt’s blog entry on the volcanoes, bats, and caves

Boat tour of Las Isletas (the small islands) on Lake Nicaragua

Matt’s blog entry on Las Isletas

Me trying to turn a pot in Los Pueblos Blancos, the only place in Nicaragua where ceramics are made (I failed both times that I tried)

Me and Elizabeth enjoyed the view of Granada from La Torre de La Merced, a church tower

We got to kayak and swim at the lagoon. The sulfuric water was really clear and warm!

Although all of the excursions that we did were fun, the excursion that I found most worthwhile was a bike tour of Granada led by a friend named Andrés from Casa Xalteva Spanish School.  I loved biking and seeing new parts of the city, and I appreciated the chance to see the diversity that lives within Granada.  Some of the streets were paved and smooth, whereas other streets were muddy and extremely bumpy (which made biking quite an adventure!).  We saw polluted rivers and littered streets, and we also saw the pristine waters of Las Isletas (the Little Islands) and gorgeous views of Volcano Mombacho.  We biked past some very nice houses, and we also biked past barrios of small houses given by the government to those who had lived in crowded and impoverished houses.  Andrés took us to his home, which was a one-room house with an outdoor place to cook.  Before visiting his house, I had no idea that he and his family lived so simply.

The bike tour was just a three-hour glimpse of the diversity of Granada.  While I have photos to remember the beautiful view from the top of a mountain of Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada, images of small, crudely built houses and impoverished children are what stick with me.

Me and Andrés on top of a mountain that we climbed during our 3 hour bike tour of Granada

I also continue to feel grateful for the community that I am  building with the other Cap Corps volunteers.  Matt, Elizabeth, and I went to La Boquita, a beach on the Pacific coast, with Megan and Courtney (the current Cap Corps volunteers in Managua), and Chepe (our local coordinator).  It was nice to feel the energy and support of our community!

Cap Corps Managua Community at La Boquita

I am looking forward to the rest of the time that I have here in Granada.  While I still feel like I am in transition, I am very much enjoying my time here!

Arriving in Nicaragua

Since arriving in Nicaragua, I have been welcomed and received by many people.  Megan and Courtney, my future housemates, met us at the airport.  The host family that I am living with in Granada has been very hospitable and considerate.  I am living with a host mom, her daughter and son who are both older than me and her seven-year-old niece.

Meeting Courtney and Megan at the Airport

I also feel extremely grateful to be able to share this experience (and every emotion that comes with it) with Elizabeth and Matt, my friends and fellow volunteers.

Me with Elizabeth and Matt

Today was my first day studying at a language school in Granada, and I will be living and studying here for the next three weeks.  Class is basically a four hour conversation between me and my teacher about everything I want to know about Nicaragua.  I am also learning how to use “vos” (a Spanish tense that is not used in most Spanish-speaking countries) and Nicaraguan “dichos” (common phrases).  In the afternoons I am volunteering with an after-school program.

All in all, everything is good!

Orientation

I just finished over two weeks of orientation in Milwaukee.  Orientation covered servant leadership, Franciscan spirituality, self-awareness, simple living, conflict resolution, anti-racism, accompaniment, community, relationships, self-care, yoga, tai chi, liberation theology, asset-based community development and popular education, and transition.

I feel much more spiritually, emotionally, and physically prepared to volunteer and live in Nicaragua having completed orientation.  The most affirming part of orientation was getting to know the directors and other volunteers in the program.  They are great people, and I learned a lot from them and their experiences.  I also enjoyed going to the beach, doing a flash mob, and eating custard with them!

Cap Corps Volunteers (Week 1 of Orientation)

Cap Corps International Volunteers & Directors and Volunteer Missionary Movement Volunteers & Director (Week 2 of Orientation)

I was very lucky to have my mom, my sister Emily, and my brother Joe visit me in Milwaukee for our commissioning ceremony.  This was a chance not only for me to see them before I left, but also for them to get to know Cap Corps and my fellow volunteers.

Me with my mom, Joe, and Emily at Lake Michigan

Commissioning Ceremony

I was sad to leave family and friends in the United States and intimidated by the uncertainty that lay ahead, but I was also excited to experience the life that I had anticipated for the past several months.  I am especially grateful for family and friends who support and challenge me.  They remain with me as I begin my time in Nicaragua.

Courage

Today I received a beautiful card from Becca Stephan.  Along the edge of the card, she wrote this poem:

Have the courage to lose control.
Have the courage to feel useless.
Have the courage to listen.
Have the courage to receive.
Have the courage to let your heart be broken.
Have the courage to feel.
Have the courage to fall in love.
Have the courage to get ruined for life.
Have the courage to make a friend.
-       Dean Brackley

Embracing this courage seems especially fitting as I begin orientation with Cap Corps.  I have experienced many different feelings lately.  I felt sad when saying “see you later” to friends and family, and I felt anxious when I thought about the uncertainty that would lie ahead.   Right now, I feel at peace where I am and excited for what will come.  I have enjoyed meeting the other Cap Corps volunteers, and I feel energized by their stories, commitment, and presence.  I hope to have the courage that Dean Brackley describes as I continue in orientation and prepare to serve and accompany people in Nicaragua.