Nicaragua's blog

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.

Thursday, 16th December 2010.  The 1^st December 2010 will always be remembered as a special day in La Bastilla’s history.  This day marked La Bastilla Agricultural Technical School’s first ever graduation ceremony, with 15 students, including Escarlet who won a scholarship to study in the US starting in September 2010 (refer to 23^rd June 2010 blog entry: “Bright Students, Promising Futures”), gaining the Agricultural Technical Certificate with Honours in Agribusiness.        

Wednesday, 27th October 2010

These last couple of months have been relatively quiet here at La Bastilla compared to previous months, mostly due to the Independence Day and subsequent school holidays in the middle of September.   In the week leading up to Independence Day on 16^th September, each year group at the technical school led and organised the morning’s school assembly, including performances by the teachers, culminating in a procession involving all 211 students from both the technical and primary and regular secondary school through Las Colinas community.

Wednesday, 25th August 2010 - It’s been quite a while since my last entry and have I got news for you!  Where to begin? 

Wednesday, 23rd June 2010 - This month I thought I would do a special blog entry writing exclusively about the students of La Batsilla Agricultural School who are, afterall, the protagonists of this educational programme.  The following profiles are of five determined and ambitious students who have stood out for their achievements in the last few months, and are clear about what they would like to accomplish in the future. 

Sunday, 9 May 2010 — Hola everyone! This last month has been abuzz with activity, very much like the school beehives which are finally starting to produce golden delicious honey, though not quite enough to start selling yet.

Saturday, 27 March 2010 — So a month has passed since my last blog entry, and what an eventful month it has been! Two school-related elections have been held in an equal number of weeks. First, following a week of impassioned speeches and heated debates, the students elected members of the Student Committee, comprising a representative from each of the three year groups and a President. The following week the parents spent a morning at the school to attend a large meeting with students and staff to express their concerns and opinions, discuss the academic and business performance of the school over the first year, and to elect new members of the Parents Association. It was a very positive morning, and dates were set for the remaining three meetings of the academic year.

Tuesday, 16 February 2010 — Hi! My name is Rebecca and I have taken over from Alex as the new Project Officer in Nicaragua, so beautiful La Bastilla will be my new home for the next year.

I can’t believe it has already been three weeks since I arrived! The first week was relatively quiet around here without the students who were enjoying the last week of their summer holidays. All that suddenly changed, however, in week two when the new school year started. This year we welcomed twenty-seven new students into First Year, bringing the total number of students across the three year groups at La Bastilla Technical School to fifty-eight. This is a significant increase from last year’s total of thirty-five students, though, there were only two year groups last year. There are a lot of new faces about and new names to learn but I’m getting there.  All the students and staff arrived enthusiastic and ready for the new school year to begin. What a positive start!

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 —He all, two months have passed and it’s time again that I give you an update of what is going on here in Nicaragua. Things have been moving along quite a bit out here.

Friday, 18 September 2009 — Well here I submit the first update of our educational project in Jinotega Nicaragua. The project is well on its way, but the updates have been lagging behind. So this is going to be a quick resume of what has been happening here over the last 5 months.

The school project was initiated in 2005 by La Bastilla coffee estate. It started off as a primary school for the workers of the coffee estate and the local community. In 2008 a new part was added and that was the technical agricultural school. We as TAMTF fully stepped into the project in the beginning of this year and that is how I ended up here.