Group from R.F. Hall ready to help out in Nicaragua

January 21, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, but there are always people around ready to help out.
That includes a contingent from Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School that’s about to travel south to help build a school.
Chaplain Brenda Holtkamp said the group departs tomorrow (Friday), returning Feb. 2.
They will be staying in Jinocuao, which teacher Glenn MacGowan said is a very small village close to the border with Honduras.
The students and accompanying teachers will be assisting with the building of an additional classroom onto a secondary school there. MacGowan said it’s only recently that there was a school there at all. Previously, kids had to walk a long way to their school. The current project will add a fifth classroom to the facility and finish it.
“It’s just a very impoverished area and the government hasn’t built a school for them,” he commented.
“So we’re going to help them out,” added Grade 12 student Michelle Ocampo.
MacGowan said they will be helping to construct the foundation, with workers from the community eventually completing the masonry work and the roof.
“We’re just starting,” he said, adding groups from other schools in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board have already been down there to work on the school. “So we get to see their finished work.”
No one in the party has ever done this kind of work before, but Holtkamp said expertise won’t be needed for the tasks they will be assigned to.
“We work along side community workers,” she said, meaning they will do simple jobs like mixing concrete, carrying water and preparing the earth for the foundation.
“It’s just something that I always wanted to do,” Ocampo said, explaining her participation in the project. “I wanted to experience a new culture and do what I can.”
Grade 12 student Tyler Kann also he’s always been interested in “experiencing just how most of the world lives,” adding he wanted to “kind of get out of the bubble.”
This is going to be his first time away from Canada.
“For a while, I’ve wanted to travel to other parts of the world to see how they live and experience their culture,” commented Grade 11 student Maria Pepple.
“Lots of people don’t see very much of the world and how parts of the world live in poverty,” Grade 11 student Sierra Gogol added.
Grade 11 student Caitlin Asmunt thought it would be “cool to just see how another culture lives.”
This will be her first time out of Canada too.
Grade 12 student Katrina Dasilva commented that an opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime; the chance to “walk in solidarity with how the other side lives.”
She also thought the opportunity would be “riveting.”
“It pushes you to change the way you live your life,” she added.
“We’re lucky enough to have an opportunity like this,” Grade 12 student Brendan Longstreet observed, adding it lets them appreciate what they have here. “So why not take it?”
Everyone agreed the experience promises to be like nothing they’s experienced before.
“I’ve never made a brick before,” Dasilva said. “I haven’t done any sort of ground work like that before.”
Holtkamp said there aren’t many concerns about the physical labour involved. The real worry is over the ability to communicate, since the people in the village will be speaking Spanish.
The local group will be put up by host families while in Jinocuao.
“They get to live with families in their living conditions,” Holtkamp observed.
“The experience should be sweeter because we get to immerse ourselves with the whole project,” Ocampo added.
It won’t be all work down there. Holtkamp said there will be trips to see various points of interest, including a volcano. They will also get to check out the largest artisan market in Central America. “It has everything there,” she said, adding the focus is small cultural artwork, as well as needlepoint, pottery and leatherwork. It will be part of a tour of the capital, Managua, their first day there.
There will also be chances to play soccer with the young people living there. Holtkamp added there is the hope that there will be some interesting conversation; “Ideas on what young people face in different cultures.”
MacGowan said that Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, and the second poorist in the hemisphere (Haiti is the poorest)
The trip is being made in partnership with Casa Candiense, a Toronto-based non-profit Canadian-Nicaraguan partnership that supports grassroots community development in Nicaragua and seeks to educate Canadian youth about global issues. Holtkamp said the students are paying for their air travel.
There will be a big change in the weather they will be flying into, with temperatures in the area of 30 degrees.
Holtkamp added the southern part of the country is mainly rainforest, while further north, where they will be, is dry tropical.
“It’s a good place for us to get a really good experience,” Holtkamp observed.

Brenda Holtkamp, Glenn MacGowan, Maria Pepple, Laura Fodaro, Caitlin Asmunt, Michelle Ocampo, Sierra Gogol, Katrina Dasilva, Brendan Longstreet, Tyler Kann and Alex Annab are getting ready to pitch in on the construction of a school in Nicaragua.
Photo by Bill Rea