In just one week, I’ll be calling a small house on Calle Libertad, in Granada, Nicaragua my new home.  

Yes, I am embarking on yet another adventure, but this time not to Africa. My love for traveling, my fascination with other cultures and people, and my drive to do volunteer work in a developing country drove me to search for a long- term volunteer opportunity abroad. Finally, at the beginning of this year, I found a non-profit organization in Nicaragua that was looking for volunteers to work in six different primary schools in small villages right outside of Granada. After applying and having many conversations with the director, I decided that I’d take this wonderful opportunity to fulfill one of my biggest dreams in my life thus far.

I’ll be working mostly with kids who are in Kindergarten- 4Th grade, teaching English, assisting teachers with generating creative lesson plans (this is lacking since teachers have limited education themselves, therefore integrating any sort of creativity in to plans is not a priority for them), and running an art program at the school. On top of that, the director of the program has asked and suggested that I set up a community art project in which I will design and help paint murals on some of the school walls. If you’re thinking this couldn't be more up my alley, that’s exactly what I was thinking, it’s why I committed so quickly, and only gave myself four weeks to pack up everything and head off!

Though the thought of traveling, living abroad, and doing volunteer work has always excited me, the emotions are overwhelming now that this dream of mine is becoming reality.  I have decided to create this blog so that all of you can follow my adventures, keep track of what I am doing and how my experience is, see pictures of where I am living and working, and hear about my excursions outside of Granada and Nicaragua on my long weekends and school breaks.  Since I will have Internet access fairly accessible, I am hoping to post something on here at least once a week... so keep your eye out.  Being gone for so long this time, I opted not to put the responsibility on my father of sending out my mass e-mails, and figured this would be the most convenient for both you and me!

I hope you enjoy following me on my adventures throughout Nicaragua and the surrounding countries! Wish me luck!