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2007 News & Events

June 18, 2007

Though the project has seemed “silent” over the past few months – it’s been far from idle. It all started in January of this year when we hired Josh Nagler to assume responsibilities of Program Director for the project. Josh was a Peace Corp Volunteer until November of 2006 and has a special interest in job creation. He is familiar with the challenges of Nicaragua and joins us with great ideas and high energy. He is a HUGE added benefit to this project and lives 15 minutes away from Empalme in Boaco, in the city of Boaco. He is newly married to a Nicaraguan with one step-child.

We led a 15 person work trip at the end of Feb to do some remodeling of the medical clinics in the Boaco area. We cleaned and painted the gynecology and birthing units, repaired the bathroom facilities, and installed a new water system for the surgery room at the Boaco hospital. We then moved to the community clinic in Empalme where we once again cleaned and painted the entire interior, replaced part of the roof, fixed the bathroom, and brightened up the faces of the staff.

Of course, in between these projects were community meetings – updates on the progress of the community, the housing project, the playground, and the education program. The group was content, happily tired at the end of each day, and no one got sick!

During one of these meetings I made an important announcement – I was preparing to sign a joint agreement with the government to build a new Secondary school in Empalme de Boaco. I was expecting some excitement, some polite applause. What I received was a raucous wild response from the 200 members in attendance. After decades of promises from local officials, we were finally going to build them a new school – and they knew WE were serious!

We took the time to have two nights of Board Meetings with a group facilitator (James Bourke) to identify our 2007 goals. The biggest conclusion we came up with is: we will not be building any new houses in 2007, rather wait till 2008 and let he current project take a rest and learn how to live in their new surroundings. The next phase will be our FINAL 24 homes and we want to make it perfect. Most see it as their last opportunity to receive a new house and we want to make sure everyone is educated in the process – we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity. Our plan is to start with the houses in early 2008, after the rains stop, and we will keep you informed of the progress.

The other big decision we made is we will Not be holding our annual Fund Raising event in October. Once again, we want to wait a year while we invest the money we made last year in homes, community center, school and most importantly Job Creation. We will be having another event in late October 2008 – but we want to impress you with our progress and our successes at that time. You will be impressed.

So while you might think we have been quiet, we have not been idle. Great things are happening in Empalme de Boaco. With the help of Josh and the consistent work of our Board of Directors. We are making some great progress and turning up every rock to find employment opportunities for this region. We thank you for your continued support.

New Program Director

Josh Nagler comes to us from the Peace Corp but was raised in Mill Valley, Ca. He is newly married to Aura Lila, a Nicaraguan - who has a 9yr old daughter Celeste. Josh was hired to be the new Program Manager for the project as we needed someone on the ground to supervise the ever expanding scope of our projects. His specialties are in Job Creation and he has a business background in both the USA and in Nicaragua with the Peace Corp. Besides overseeing all aspects of our programs there, he will be promoting new job programs and experimenting with ways to bring industries to Empalme de Boaco. We welcome him and his family to this very challenging position.

School Project

The St Helena/Developing Communities group is partnering with the Nicaraguan federal government to build phase one (of two) of a new secondary school in Empalme de Boaco. This is a much needed school and will eventually accommodate all the needed secondary school needs for Empalme. As you can imagine, partnering with the government has been a lesson of extreme patience – but after months of negotiating, I finally saw tractors on the field last week, June 12! We are on our way to a new beautiful school. Our own Peter Stanley helped to design this school and our plans are to build it as modern as possible, with enough capacity for all new technology needs for the future. Phase two will be started sometime in 2008, but without the partnership of the federal government. We hope to have a fully functional 9 classroom school finished by the end of 2008. We’ll continue to update you with photos and news.

February 2007 Trip

The volunteer buidling group traveled to Nicaragua this past month, Feb 26th- March 7th. Thirteen of us went this year, some new, some veterans to the Empalme This was quite a different trip for us, usually we have houses to build, sewer systems to fix, roofs to replace…the list goes on and on. This year I had other ideas, we were going to work in the hospitals and clincs in Boaco and Empalme de Boaco.

If you’ve never been to a typical Nicaraguan hospital, you’re in for a shock. Visiting the Boaco hospital, you’re in for a Super Shock! The conditions are just horrible, with cleanliness not being at the top of the list for priorities. Our group tackled the Maternity and Gynecology wards, both packed with expectant mothers. In the next two days, we primed and painted both rooms to make them look clean, bright, and remarkably beautiful. The “skilled” workers tackled the water system to the operating room and fixed the bathrooms – the dividers between the toilets had fallen down and there was no door! We also invited 5 of our scholarship students to come help with us, they were a great addition to the group and after completing the first day with us – they nervously asked if they could return the next day to help. The big hightlight of the days in Boaco was Raina, our Peace Corp Volunteer, was asked to come observe the birth of a new baby girl in the delivery room!

Our Empalme friends were feeling a little lonely without us and on day three we finished the work in Boaco and started our work on the small government clinic in Empalme. Since we were now EXPERT painters, we tackled the cracked and peeling walls with new primer and paint. All the windows were replaced, the doors fixed, the roof repaired, and the patients and staff thrilled! A complete overhaul of the clinic.

The trip was a huge success! Since we had most of our Board of Directors there in Nicaragua, we took advantage of the time to hold goal setting sessions in the evening with our group facilitator Jim Bourke. Emotions are high and goals are easy to identify while in the midst of our projects in Nicaragua and this was valuable time together.

We also we able to spend the week with our newest Team Member – Josh Nagler. Josh was hired in January to handle the day to day operations for us. While we will feel an immediate impact due to his handling the daily work at the project, Josh is directly responsible for taking the huge task of Job Creation for Empalme de Boaco. As you all know, this is critical to our overall success of complete community development. We have high expectations for Josh and we all enjoyed getting to know him during the week together.

All of us came back safe and sound, smiles on our faces for a job WELL DONE. It’s always an inspiration to me to see the reaction of the group members as they work, observe, participate, and fall in love with the people of Nicaragua. We all come home with a promise to return and do even more for our friends in Nicaragua. It’s a blessing that I can't put into words, just a feeling of fulfillment and pride of making our world a better place to live.

Fire Trip

The St Helena Volunteer Firemen took another trip to Nicaragua in February. It was our second trip like this, last year was our first, and the Firefighters were anxious to get back to see the old friends.

Our focus this year was Wildland Firefighting, using a technique called a “Progressive Hose Lay” to teach the Nicaraguans a new way to fight the constant grass fires that sweep across the country. Not only do they not have the training to fight these fires, they also lack the actual hoses to get to the fire. We delivered 800 feet of wildland hose to the firefighters, along with the backpacks to carry them – then we trained and trained and trained.

We had a blast! During the 4 days of training, we were able to use actual “live” fire for the burns (something prohibited here in the states) and get the real experience of fire behavior and tactics. The added bonus to us firefighters were the “real” fires we got to respond to each day, two wildland fires and one structure fire. Fighting those fires was part of the fun – the wild ride TO the fire was sometimes more exciting than the actual fire!

On our final day of training, we were called to respond to a grass fire that was threatening businesses in downtown Managua. We quickly wrapped up the hoses, drove Code 3 (lights and sirens) in our minivan thru the city (with a Firefighter and Police escort), and guided our newly trained firefighters to extinguish the flames. In front of their peers, the public, and TV cameras, they did a perfect job! A perfect ending to the trip.

We want to thank those sponsors who paid for this trip. We will be hosting a Carnitas Feed for 30 at the St Helena Fire house, for those who financed this trip to Nicaragua. We made a big impact there on this trip and hope to make this an annual event.