I have been asked many times, “Why
Nicaragua?” My usual response was, “Well, that is where the internship is; I
didn’t have much choice in the matter!” I honestly could not have cared less
where the internship was, as long as it was in a Spanish speaking country. All
I wanted was to work for Latino Earth Partnership (LEP). Now that I have
finished the internship, I can’t imagine my having gone anywhere BUT Nicaragua.
I found
this internship by happenstance. I am a peer advisor through the Cross College
Advising Services (CCAS) at the University. As a peer advisor I get a lot of
emails and information about opportunities and events on campus to pass on to
my students. One of those asked advisors to encourage students to check out the
new database for the International Internship Program (IIP). At that time I was
in the process of figuring out what my study abroad plans would be. I knew I
wanted to go abroad, because my goal every since Middle School has been to improve
my Spanish in a Spanish speaking country. I wasn’t especially thrilled with
studying abroad--I preferred the idea of working or interning abroad-- but I
had no idea of how to find such an
experience. Luckily for me, this opportunity plopped right into my lap. I had
been skeptical of finding an internship in my field of work, (I am majoring in
environmental and international studies, and minoring in global health), but it
was worth a look. When I read the LEP job description, I couldn’t believe what I was reading-- it not
only involved both international and environmental themes, but was heavily
focused on community development and building a program up from the bottom up. It
was as if they had read my mind, and then created the internship just for me.
I applied,
was accepted, and officially started as an intern on January 22nd,
2014. For the month leading up to our departure I was at the UW Arboretum
(where Earth Partnership, EP, and LEP are housed) translating material and
working with Maria and Rick (my supervisors) to plan and organize our first few
weeks in Nicaragua. Most days I would leave starry- eyed, thinking of all the
things I would get done while there. Every
school would have a huge garden, there would be outdoor classrooms, the
Ministry of Education would have a set amount of money for the schools (and me)
to spend on resources and materials, and everyone would want --and work for--
the same goal. As I look back at my
thoughts of two and a half months ago, I have to laugh and wonder: is that
really what I expected to accomplish?!
I struggled
a lot my first three weeks of teaching because I was beginning to realize that
my expectations were not matching up with the reality of the situation. At the
end of each week I would look back and think,: “wow, I could and should have
done that a lot differently.” I was beginning to fear that I might or might not
get anything planted at the schools at all. It was a struggle, because I felt
that if this happened, I would be
failing my supervisors by not meeting any of the goals we had set. I finally
realized that even if seeds weren’t put in the ground, it wouldn’t mean that either
I or the program were failures; just that things didn’t go according to plan. It
was a hard concept for me to grasp, but I found that making mistakes and
changing the plan is sometimes better than attempting to fulfill overly-ambitious
expectations. If we had not done the soil testing, the making of compost and
the seed collecting, and I had not taught mini lessons on how to care for the
plants, I would have left the kids with a garden but no tools with which to
care for and maintain it. By going slowly, adjusting the goals of the program
to the needs of the schools, I was able to lay the foundations of a strong
knowledge base, rather than to just get a garden into the ground to prove we
had accomplished a goal. If everything had gone smoothly and according to plan,
what would I have learned from this experience?
This internship has taught me so many things. It has
taught me to be resourceful and creative, and to appreciate the support of a
team‘ It has allowed me to experience
another culture different from that of the United States, rather than just
knowing about it from a distance. The
best thing I learned is that mistakes are experiences we can learn and build
from, and that the small victories are what keep us going. 
No comments:
Post a Comment