La Esperanza Granada

Volunteer from Austria, Valerie Schogler, describes below how she and her team spent the week before summer school planning a special career-focused project for their students. On the 1 st  of December, summer school will start for most schools here in Nicaragua.  The volunteers of La Esperanza will be in two schools in the summer. Therefore, we did some special projects with the students in the last week before summer school. We are all very happy that we could go through almost the whole semester with the same kids and because of that they really grew on us. Saying goodbye was very sad, but this, and the tons of letters the kids gave us, showed us again how important our work is and how much we mean to the kids, not only as teachers, but as friends. Our English team came up with the idea to ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up. The results were amazing! The kids were super enthusiastic and loved it! We wrote the dream job of each kid on a blank page

Preschool students from Escudo School received gifts on their last week, sent by YOOU in Spain.  On the day that they received the gifts, the class wrote a story together. The story is below. Estudiantes de preescolar de la escuela Escudo recibieron regalos en su última semana, enviado por YOOU de España. Durante el día los estudiantes reciben los regalos y escriben una historia juntos.  La historia esta abajo - MAGIA, SONRISAS Y SUEÑOS             Había una vez dos hermanitos de 6 años de nombres Fabiola y Alfredo, que vivían en la preciosa ciudad de Granada. Alfredo y Fabiola procedían de una familia muy humilde y sin mucho recursos pero muy felices. Su padre, un vendedor de fruta era conocido por toda la ciudad por ser un hombre muy alegre y divertido que se ganaba el cariño de la gente día a día. Ese carácter lo habían heredado sus hijos, dos niños alegres que pasaban sus días jugando a miles de juegos que ellos mismos inventaban, pues Alfredo y Fabiola eran dos

One of our La Esperanza volunteers, Wendell Blubaum,  was interviewed and featured  by the  organization ´Go Abroad.´   We are so glad he was honored  for his hard work and  are happy  to share the interview below. Uno de los voluntarios de La Esperanza Granada, Wendell Blubaum,  fue entrevistado y  contó por la pagina web  ´Go Abroad´. Estamos tan  contentos, el fue honrado por su duro  trabajo y estamos felices de  compartir su entrevista.  Wendell Blubaum - 2015 Program Participant Why did you decide to apply for an international  program?  As a teacher of English as a second language, I have lived and worked abroad for  my entire adult life. My first experience abroad was as a Peace Corps volunteer in  Latin America. Now that I have retired I am happy to have the possibility to volunteer  again, and to teach English to people who might not otherwise have the possibility to study. Why did you choose La Esperanza Granada? I knew that I wanted to

Volunteer, Susanne Kennedy (pictured below at bottom right) joined La Esperanza Granada this past month from Australia.  She had previously traveled and volunteered in Guatemala before arriving to Nicaragua in mid October.  She describes some of her experiences below about her time as a primary school assistant in one of our La Esperanza schools.  We are so grateful for the time she and her fellow team members spent with the children – Volunteers assisting the primary grades at Pablo Antonio Cuadra,  Clockwise from top left – Rebeca, Felipe, Scarleth, Susanne, and Tiffany Most Tuesdays and Thursdays a taxi pulls up in front Pablo Antonio Cuadra primary school with a box full of tablets and small laptops, which have been provided by La Esperanza, to rotate between the schools they support. Children line up eagerly at the door of the temporary 'computación' classroom when it is their turn. For most these sessions are their only opportunity to access information techno

We visited Escudo School today to see what the 4th through 6th graders were learning from their La Esperanza teachers in English class.   Today´s lesson focused on the students learning the English words for the rooms and the objects in a house.  The students also learned the words and actions to the song, “If You Are Happy and You Know It,” where they practiced their words for parts of the body and action words like clap, snap, and blink.  Lastly, they reviewed direction words like behind, next to, on, and under.  They got the chance to read all the words aloud and write them in their notebooks.  Five volunteers are assigned to the secondary classes at Escudo School this October – Dar, Beth, Zoe, Nita, and Alex.  Nita, a volunteer who is a teacher in the United States (pictured on the left) shares her thoughts about her volunteer experience with La Esperanza: “The opportunity to work in various public schools in Granada has been invaluable.  I have grown so much as a te

Asi empezaba el mail de Vivian. Ser voluntario a la edad de jubilación no es muy común, pero sí muy gratificante según nos cuentan nuestros voluntarios mayores. Los voluntarios ayudan en las clases creando material, apoyando a los niños que tienen más dificultades, organizando actividades como educación física o manualidades, en definitiva, complementando su educación para hacerla más entretenida a la vez que didáctica y conseguir la atención y el interés del niño por ir a la escuela y aprender. Vivian y Ricardo están jubilados desde hace un año. Este matrimonio chileno, que son de profesión Psicopedagoga e Ingeniero, tardaron 15 minutos de conversación en decidirse por cambiar sus planes de vacaciones por un voluntariado de 3 meses en Nicaragua. Renunciaron así a un viaje de ocio para entregarles su tiempo y cariño a estos niños. Preguntándoles por su experiencia, dicen: "La modificación de las prioridades de uno mismo, te hace mucho bien." Dice Vivian cuando estam

Tourists often see only certain things in the city, museums, swimming pools and restaurants in the tourist street. The only part of the real life in Nicaragua tourists will see, is children selling stuff in the streets. But where do these children really live? This can be seen in our Village Walking Tour. During our tour we show you one of these communities and a school where we work. In the midst of poverty, it is a happy place where Nicaraguans work hard to make a basic living and raise their families.  At school we are warmly welcomed by the children. Our ayudante Justo tells about the work of our volunteers. He also gives more information about the education system in Nicaragua. Nice to see is that children have a different life than children in developed countries, yet they are playing the same games. During the break, boys are playing football and girls are jump roping.  Justo then takes us to the community. It is extraordinary to see how the houses look l

Name: Aili Nationality: USA Age: 20 - How did you find out about La Esperanza? I found out about La Esperanza through a Google search I did looking for volunteer opportunities in Nicaragua. I had been to Nicaragua once in high school and was looking to return. That was two years ago, and now I am back with LEG but working in the office rather than in the schools. - What is your current volunteer role with La Esperanza? This year I'm working in the office and spend most of my time answering emails from people applying to volunteer or those who are confirmed to come. - Describe how a day of working looks like. I get into the office a little before 9am and usually answer and send out emails for a few hours before beginning other work. Then I pitch in with whatever tasks need to be done. Today I worked on training a newer volunteer who will be working in the office and helped with a small piece of reorganizing the space, starting with a new batch of volunteer t-shirts that arrived.

This week we celebrated internation al   children ’ s week. Actually there is only one international children ’ s day on   June 1st,   but because our volunteers go out into four schools, we made it a week.       We   started   the   activities   on   Tuesday   in José de la   cruz   Mena .   Wednesday   we   celebrated   in Nueva   Esperanza , on   Thursday   in Escudo   and   today   we are finishing   the   week with activities in Pablo Antonio Cuadra.   The   activities   were   different kind of games .   The   children   could   get a face   paint ,   like   a   tige r   or a butterfly  and   had lots of fun.   After   the   games, we had a real   dance   contest   in   which   children   showed   their   moves. As well   our   Ayudantes   showed   us   their   skills.   They   danced ,   played   in a real theater   together   with   some   volunteers   and   sang a song   for   the   children . A   group   of   volunteers   showed   us   their   dance   skills as well.