Echo 6: A new community centre officially open

Gary Kelly reports on Echo 6's successful phase in La Naranja de Tayacan:

Wow. What a phase. The experience was brilliant for the whole group and it was great for us to finish the new community centre in La Naranja de Tayacan. We arrived two days after leaving Fieldbase, after numerous bus journeys. When we got there we were allocated to our families, who were so welcoming to us all. Then the following day we started work on finishing what was started by Alpha 6 who visited the community during Phase 1.

Our work consisted of collecting rocks, stones and dirt to lay within the foundations so that we could cement the floor. We completed these tasks and finished the community centre fairly quickly. When we had our days off, we travelled to Yali, a small town about an hour bus ride away from La Naranja. The same day, we travelled to Esteli and stayed in the offices of El Foro Miraflor, an organisation that is dedicated to conserving the area and the communities located in the Miraflor Nature Reserve.

One of the best days we had was the second we spent in Esteli. We had a very nice breakfast and then went on a tour of a local cigar factory. There, we managed to see how hand rolled cigars are made and we were shown different areas of the factory, which included a room full to the brim with cigars! Some of the group were even given some free cigars by the factory manager!

During the last days of the phase, we traveled back into Esteli to collect decorations for the community centre opening party. The day of the party was very exciting because we knew that the group had finished the centre and now we were going to open it. The whole community was in attendance and the village priest came along and gave the building a blessing. The party went very smoothly and everyone had such a good time.

Unfortunately, our time in Nicaragua had to come to an end, but the experiences that the group encountered, we will probably never forget.