Nicaragua's blog

As usual La Bastilla has been buzzing with activity, literally and figuratively.  Among the high number and variety of insects, I’ve taken notice of the tremendous presence of cicadas that provide a constant soundtrack to our days here.  The students have also been buzzing about their first term exams and grades.  The results are in, and I’m proud to announce La Bastilla students scored an overall average of 88% after their first term.

Hello to all the Teach A Man To Fish Nicaragua followers! I’m Mary, and will be taking over from Rachel as the Project Officer in La Bastilla for the upcoming year.  My first week did not disappoint in terms of exciting activity and memorable experiences.  Erica from the London office is also here for the next week visiting, and introducing me to all the bits and pieces that make up this remarkable project. 

February was another action packed month at La Bastilla! We welcomed the students back after the long Christmas holidays to start a new academic year. We have 17 new students in 1^st year and 4 in 2^nd year, and may welcome more as the harvest season comes to an end and more students enrol in classes. The new group is really enthusiastic and has loads of potential so we are happy!  

This week I’d like to introduce you to Nelson Lanuza, one of our December graduates who is now working at La Bastilla Coffee Estates. He is a great example of how much education can transform people’s lives, if they take advantage of all of the opportunities presented to them.     

As we celebrated our second ever graduation from La Bastilla Technical Agricultural High School this month, I thought it would be great to share with you the profiles of our graduates and what they hope to go on and do after life at the school.

As part of their last year of classes at La Bastilla, we felt that the final year students should learn about how to write a business plan and over the course of the second semester write their own plan to present as part of their graduation. The students mostly worked in pairs and chose a range of businesses including chickens, coffee cultivation, pig breeding, vegetables, a bakery and an internet café! Having taken classes since July and progressively written the various sections of their plan, the last week in November was chosen for the presentations.  

October was an extremely exciting month here at La Bastilla as we prepared to host the 5^th international Teach A Man To Fish conference; Educ

Hi everyone,

Hi everybody! Seeing as we’ve now been here for 3 months (4 months in the case of Antonio!) we thought it was about time that we introduced ourselves and blogged about the exciting things happening at La Bastilla!

Monday, 17th January 2011.  Where has all the time gone?  I can’t believe that it has been a year already and that it’s time for me to pack my bags and say goodbye to La Bastilla and Nicaragua.