Day 8: Students Teaching Students


Today we spent our first day with the kids at the Ometepe Bilingual School. Prior to this, Álvaro Molina, the founder of the school and the hostel we are staying in, gave a lecture about the importance of education and a knowledge of the English language on an island with a large focus on tourism. Álvaro and his family moved to Miami when the revolution began here in Nicaragua in 1979. There he learned to speak English and then returned to Ometepe once he had an education in the U.S.A. During Alvaro’s lecture, he mentioned to us that about ten years ago Nicaragua only averaged about 3.6 years of education per person. As of now that number has risen to 3.9 years. He also talked about a technique he used to clean up his community, this being an “eco-brick.” An eco-brick is a plastic bottle filled with trash used as a building material for the walls in the classroom. This idea was originally from India, and he pays members of the community who bring in filled eco-bricks 50 cents per bottle. This is in hopes of not only helping the trash issue on the island but also providing a way of making a little extra money for those who need it. His wife, Esther, followed by talking to us about her vision for the school and how most, if not all, families would like to see a high school at some point. In her eyes, unfortunately, this won’t be feasible soon. This was mostly due to lack of funding. The rest of the morning was spent helping the kids from the school learn some English with the use of flash cards. Following this we played some games with the kids, including baseball and soccer. The last thing we did with them was walk them home.
At the end of the night we discussed having a non-profit organization like Ometepe Bilingual School and how it could fit in with different countries around the world. The conversation focused on the pros and cons of this non-profit organization. The main topics and realizations of this talk were, how important schooling is in general, how important English is becoming in the growing world and the significance of development in not only Nicaragua but also other developing countries. During this seminar, we mainly focused on how Álvaro hinted at the fact that English is becoming a key skill that is needed to be successful, especially since he was partially raised in the U.S.A. We feel as though this is one of the major reasons he built the bilingual school, so that other people could have his experience and be well off in the end. One of our students also mentioned how tourism can both be a “blessing and a curse” because although it is profitable for the local economy it also puts a strain on the local infrastructure. This also increases partying on the island and since they don’t have any sort of law enforcement to stand up to it they are increasing in occurrence. This is primarily an overall negative impact on the community. Overall today was a very successful day and all are looking forwards to the last three days we have in this paradise.

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