Computer Course Day 1

We finally began the computer course today. It was a huge success! Mothers and kids lined the hallway, waiting anxiously for the clock to read 2pm. We opened up the doors and brought the kids in one by one, taking down all of their information. Nineteen kids sat around the plastic tables. Some excited, other a little nervous.

As I picked up one of the green little laptops eyes grew wide and smiles appeared on all the faces. Nervousness washed away and excitement built. They were quick to learn how to open and turn on the laptops. Most of today was spent building mouse skills, learning how to click, and also how to create new project and to save them. All of the kids did quite well. By the end of the day one of the kids discovered the games on the computer, and proceeded to teach everyone else. That is exactly what we are hoping to see. Not kids playing games, but kids learning new skills and those skills with others. All in all, it was a great start to the program. We are excited to continue!

Allow Myself to Introduce... Myself

Hi There! It’s your newest resident Campo Alegria Blogger here, Lily Plourde, reporting live from Nicaragua! If you’re a frequent follower of this blog you may remember my post from this past January when I spent an incredible week at camp that ultimately paved the way for my 6 month adventure here. Before I start to frequently blog, I thought I’d share a little bit about myself so you have an idea who this stranger is writing all about life at Campo.

It all started back in 1998 as a thirteen year old camper at Chop Point summer camp in Woolwich, Maine; truly the best experience of my teenage life. It was at Chop Point where I developed a sense of independence, made my first friends away from home and best of all, got to go on sailing trips with Peter Willard. If it weren’t for those sailing trips, I don’t think I’d be sitting here in Nicaragua today. I kept in touch with Peter long after my last year at camp in 2001 and when I needed a break from my mundane corporate life in marketing, I found myself emailing with Peter and booking a flight to Nicaragua for a week. ...and the rest is history.

After selling the entire contents of my 3-story town house in Harrisburg, PA, I packed my life into my Honda Fit, drove to New England to spend a few days with my family and flew to Nicaragua to be a volunteer at camp on June 15th. I left my life in Harrisburg because I felt purposeless. Sure, there were plenty of opportunities to give and serve, but for whatever reason my heart wasn’t in it. I’ve always admired the stories in the Bible where people dropped everything in their lives to follow Jesus, and I’ve always wondered how my faith would change if I were to do the same. So that’s what I did. To be honest I have no idea if this is what God wants me to do, but I definitely know that here at Campo Alegria I get to serve children and a community that truly needs the love, energy, time and patience that God has so graciously given me to share with others.

In the next 6 months I will be sharing my observations about Nicaraguan life and this new journey of faith I’m about to embark upon. I hope you’ll join me (virtually!) on these new adventures as I search for purpose through serving my community here in Nicaragua. Stay tuned, there’s lots more to come!!

Computer Course in Granada!

This little guy may look familiar to you. It is one of many XO laptops from OLPC, donated to Campo Alegria, to give the kids of Nicaragua a brighter future. We are combating hopelessness by showing the kids that they can learn new skills. We are teaching them that they can make a difference in their own lives, by applying themselves and working to the best of their abilities.

Daniel Whitney and I are here in Grananda, about and hour from Campo Alegria. Daniel is a second year college student at the Univsersity of Maine in Orno. My name is Jonathan Levis. For the past four years I have taught at Chop Point School in Woolwich, ME. I have recently made the move to Nicaragua on a permanent basis. Daniel and I have spent the past three summers volunteering together. We love Nicaragua and very much enjoy living and working among the people.

We have spent the past week or so reformatting, validating, installing, and cleaning the XO computers. Quite a daunting task, but the two of us hammered it out quite efficiently. Twenty minutes ago we finished all the technical prep work! It is time to move on to lesson planning. While we have a general idea of the topics we will cover, the details still need to be worked out. The good news is that we have the remainder of this week to prepare for our classes. If all goes well, in about five days we will have twenty kids sitting anxiously in the classroom, waiting to pop open these green computers. The next few months will be very exciting as we watch the kids use their own intelligence and creativity to produce projects that they can call their own.

Be on the look out for photos and more updates.

The Maine Street Baptist Church Pulperia

The Maine Street Baptist Church Pulperia or “the pulp” as we like to call it, is a store where we serve our community by selling really inexpensive items to the people in our community. We offer towels, sheets, shoes, pants, shorts, shirts, hats, food, toys, and health care bags to everyone. We discussed prices with our caretaker Oscar and have priced our items to fit their budgets since most sugarcane workers make only $5 a day. Oscar says it gives Nicaraguans pride to buy things and it also helps to have some sort of order system too.

"The pulp" was something I was looking forward to leading when I got to Nicaragua. With my business background, marketing skills and my ability to adapt well, I thought it was going to be a "Piece of cake," or so I thought. The vision was there, the building was built, the donations were plenty, the only need was some organizational skills and hours of man power. Well folks... GOD stepped in and He blessed it more than anyone would have ever dreamed. Our grand opening was amazing, it was like a tornado hit, I saw people I have never seen before literary stepping out of the sugarcane fields. Over 200 people showed up. The second time we opened, we decided to use a ticket numbering system so that we would have a little bit more order, but we failed to limit our numbers and had another huge crowd. We've now figured out a system that works now. People are always looking forward to visiting the store and many of them walk miles just be able to pick out a new shirt or to try on some shoes. We have started to run out of donations and need more. Its been a blessing to the entire community.