We are in downtown Jinotega today for our day off; hoorah for wifi! It’s been a little over a week since we have arrived in Zapote Oriental, the small town of 250 people about 45 minutes outside of Jinotega where our project site is located.

These past days have been filled with hard work and new experiences. We have broken many barriers with our host families and we are learning so much about the community. The community members are proud of their town and heritage. The kids especially love showing us their favorite spots- and showing us up in every game of soccer! They’ve taught us about their lifestyle in the town–how to hand wash the clothes, how to make tortillas, how to shake mangos from the trees. Working together as interns, we have for sure bonded over the new and always surprising experiences. We work well together on the project and we all take care of each other!

As for the project, we’ve done quite a bit with the help of other community members! The first few days Jorge, the project planner from AVODEC, came to explain to us the plans of the project. The site of the chicken farm is between our two host families’ houses. We first took apart an older looking chicken coop and dug out some rusty metal fences. The past few days we’ve been working on evening out the area where the “casita” for the gallinas (hens) will be. Tomorrow we will start pouring the concrete and putting up posts. AVODEC workers estimated that it will take about 8 more working days until the project is completed! We are all very excited to see the end result. Hasta luego:)