Bridges to Community

Where to begin? I have been down in Nicaragua for 10 days now, and everything is going swimmingly! I am currently at a small hostel on a island in Lake Managua (the largest lake in the country). While here I am just catching up on sleep, doing some sort hikes, and participating in a little volunteering that the hostel helps to organize. Before arriving here I was on a learning experience of a life time! I was with the office of civic engagement working with Bridges to Community to build  home in small community with 15 other Marietta College students and staff.  The organization Bridges to Community is a very interesting and promising organization. They are a non-profit that focuses on community development and service learning. As a organization their goal is to bring people together from all types of cultural, and social-econoic backgrounds and unite them, and a community here in Nicaragua to build a house while learning from one another, truly a transformational process. An extremely cool part about Bridges is their focus on creating a sustainable relationship with the communities they work with. For example the community that the we worked with had been preparing for almost a year for the two houses to be built. Bridges comes in and works with the community leaders to establish a relationship and figure out how this specific community functions. Once the relationship is started then the true community development can start. Just about everything about the relationship in done with the sustainability and the community in mind.  Look at Flavio's family, the one we build the house for, will pay ten dollars a months for about 6 six year for their new home. The best part about this money is that it does not go back to Bridges, but into a community development fund.

Needless to say Bridges to Community is a transformation organization. Not only are building a home for a family for makes around $140 a month, but more importantly they are allowing people such as myself to learn from these truly amazing people. What we did down here may changed the people lives we help for ever, even more importantly they changed mine. The knowledge and cultural experiences I gained while building this home, and in down time on the work site far out weighs the significance of the house that we build for Flavio.