Chontales, Nicaragua Update No. 2

The Chontales Volunteers have just reached the halfway point in their summer, celebrating this accomplishment with route picnics and incredible youth encuentros.  Early last week, Volunteers came together with their routes to reflect and reenergize, and spend some time relaxing at local restaurants and swimming in hot springs. On Friday and Saturday, Volunteers came together with local youth for a day of experiential activities and creative presentations that left all involved inspired and excited. At the youth encuentros, the Volunteers and local youth exercised their artistic skills and created collaborative murals and maps in addition to playing games, exchanging ideas on best practices, and networking with other communities. We are especially proud of the way our Volunteers have so wholly integrated into their communities- eating gallo pinto three times a day, sharing family time and chores, and spotting monkeys in the trees. Volunteers will spend their last few weeks in community painting murals with teenagers and children, completing their community-based initiatives, and living Nicaraguan life before a project-wide goodbye party and debriefing in Granada, Nicaragua at the end of the month.