Beating the Bakersfield Heat...in Nicaragua?
Beating the Bakersfield Heat...in Nicaragua?
Currently, I am a junior to-be at Stockdale High school and this past summer I engaged in an endeavour far far away from the July heat of Bakersfield.
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the world whose past economics and political affairs stain any present or future affairs. I came with a group of teenagers, one including my older brother, promoting education and the value of a dollar. We are the founders of One Dollar For Life: Nicaragua. We are a nonprofit organization asking for just one dollar from every American high school student in order to build over one thousand schools a year in devoloping nations. I came to Nicaragua to build a school and luckily escaped the heat of Bakersfield simultaneously.
Along with our daily work of mixing cement, painting the structured walls, and carrying water from the river to the worksite, we found time for leisure weekend trips as well. We hiked through a rainforest and up a mountain in the small coffee growing community of La Pita. We crossed rivers, fell down mudslides, and had the greatest time of our lives. If one fell, we all fell but never failed to give a hand to those in the mud. There were banana trees and green lush plantlife interjecting the foot wide trail, vines falling across the trees and naturally, it rained while we hiked the through the forest, a cool beating on our skin in this picturesque wonderland. Everything is alive in the rainforest, nothing can compare.
In the community of La Corona we hiked a strenuous trail down to a classic waterfall. The kind in magazines, that you always look for but never find. Local teens and fathers of the community lent us a hand upon the slippery ground. It's path was well worth the reward. I could've stayed there all day just taking in its scene of green moss and white water. It didnt matter if the water was cold or warm, we were caught up in the chance of a lifetime, swimming in a pool of gleaming water. We cooled off in a country so hospitable to our prescense and grateful for our work.
To conclude an article, not a memory, a Nicaraguan proverb, "aquellos que duermen nunca apreden" those who sleep, never learn. Cheers an active summer away from the heat!
