TRAVEL TEAM 2017: WEEK 1: THE BEGINNING OF A BRIDGE

Our first week in Nicaragua has gone by and we are already making great progress! After arriving in Nicaragua at the Aeropuerto Internacional Augusto César Sandino in Managua, we stayed at Backpacker’s Inn hostel right in downtown Managua. After a few days in Managua, we were picked up in a truck and taken to Matagalpa, Nicaragua by our new friends at EOS International (another international sustainability organization working in Nicaragua). We picked up some clean water and groceries in Matagalpa, and got to our Guadalupe site in time for dinner.

We are currently staying with our foreman Chepe at his home, which is conveniently located right across the street from the Guadalupe bridge site. We are staying all in one room, sleeping on a row of cots, covered in bug nets to keep out the night time critters. So far, the bug nets have been effective, but lately a small grey cat–who we’ve affectionately named Pepe Lemieux–has been sleeping on the edge of our cots. We’ve been taking bucket showers and are washing our clothes by hand on slabs of rock and hanging our clothes out to dry on the barbed wire fence that surrounds the property.

 We began working on the Guadalupe bridge straightaway, and are already nearing completion. The construction has gone well and the days have been filled with drilling, measuring, bending rebar and cutting boards.

It’s been a fun experience so far and we are all looking forward to another week of hard work!