TJ von Oehsen: the Mendozas family and constellations
The most striking thing for me, throughout my entire extraordinary and life-changing trip to Nicaragua was how close I became to the people of Las Palmas in only 5 days.To be honest, before getting to the village, I was absolutely terrified. I worried if my Spanish was good enough, I worried if the family would like me, and I worried about the work we were going to be doing. Yet, even after a day, I thought of the Mendozas as family. Through working together and sharing the laughs of living together, we had become close. I even became close to the families that lived around us and, on the...
Read MoreBetween Trash Mountains
In our previous post, Freyja took us on an adventure through Nicaragua, opening a window to the walled trash-city of La Chureca. Some may know La Chureca as the pile of trash Anthony Bourdain visited with his show, No Reservations. A single visit to the dumb had Anthony almost to tears. Getting to know the landfill’s school shows that all kids have the same imagination and desire to learn, even those with virtually no opportunities on their horizon. Freyja’s teen travel group saw that compared to La Chureca, many impoverished communities look like “the good life”: “Beyond the...
Read MoreNotes from McKenna [Part Two: Helping from Home]
![Notes from McKenna [Part Two: Helping from Home]](http://alcampointernational.org/wp-content/uploads/et_temp/Spero-19197_186x186.jpg)
In June of 2010, McKenna Asakawa traveled to Nicaragua with Al Campo International. The trip has had a huge impact on her. Here, she relates how her exposure to poverty in Nicaragua has motivated her to take action back home through the Spero Foundation. Even from her local high school, McKenna continues to help out Nicaraguan communities. My co-president (who also attended the 2010 trip to Nicaragua) and I were resoundingly impacted by the severe poverty we saw during our day spent at La Chureca (the unsanitary landfill and home to many local trash-pickers and their families) and Colegio...
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