Greetings from beautiful San Juan Del Sur! After two weeks of roughing it on the permaculture farm, Maya 2015 enjoyed five full days of group activities and beach days–and the luxury of not feeling the heat of 1,000 stewing poops warming our bums everytime we used the bathroom! Permaculture is fascinating, but I think we’ve all had enough hands-on experience with compost toilets! Anyway, on day one with Woo, we had a short orientation before meeting our last set of host families. I think the group’s attitude toward host families has changed a lot. I remember during week two in Xela, Kerry and I couldn’t decide if our host family was extremely awkward, if we were extremely awkward, or if living with a host family is just the most awkward situation you can possibly be in. After four weeks of actually learning the language, and some odd weeks of sleeping, eating, showering, pooping wherever we could find after that, I think the group was just happy to be living in a house! Our first full day with WOO started with an 8 am meeting on the beach, where half the group started the day with a hike up a mountain to a viewpoint, which overlooked Playa Gigante, the horizon, and even the mountains of Costa Rica in the far off distance. The other half of the group started their day by joining some local fishermen on their morning haul, helping them bring in their nets, and then going for a little swim. We then gathered for a group viewing of “Surfing for Change” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IjfjCk31sk ), which is a documentary by pro-surfer Kyle Thiermann about surfing in places like Gigante, and how Project WOO fits into the bigger picture of tourism in Nicaragua. Throughout the week with WOO we got in plenty of beach time, volunteer time, and host family time. We started each day with breakfast with our host families, and then met up with the group for activities. One morning we ran a health fair at the local elementary school to test what the kids have been learning about in their health class. One day we had a group debate about the idea of “Voluntourism,” what to think about when volunteering in another country, and how to be a tourist in a respectful way. Our group met at different local restaurants every day for lunch (usually amazing fresh fish) followed by more activities in the afternoons, like volunteering at the health center to help organize data so they can continue to recieve government funding, learning how to make delicious “Nica pan dulce,” or a group surf lesson/beach day. The activities were led by WOO’s volunteer program director, Lisa Bisceglia, who was amazing. Lisa has been working with WOO volunteers for years, and pretty much has it all dialed in. She made sure the group understood all of the work we were doing, that we were having a good time doing it, and that we had a great balance of work and play. She’s a really awesome sweet lady who helped make the week the best one of the whole trip for many of us. The week closed with a big “Despedido”dinner of traditional food with Lisa, the whole group, and all of our Nica mamas. Overall the week was amazing. The scenery at Playa Gigante is absolutely beautiful, both the staff at project WOO and the community of Gigante were extremely welcoming and the activities were all awesome. It was a perfect transition into our week of free travel.
