Saugeen Shores family hosting St. Mary's mission trip to Nicaragua

Seventeen St. Mary’s students - 13 girls and four boys - will be travelling to Nicaragua on a mission trip during their March Break. Submitted photo

Hub staff

Seventeen St. Mary’s High School students will embark on what could be a life-changing field trip from March 12 to 22 when they travel to Jiquillo, Nicaragua and spend their March Break unplugged and engaged with Nicaraguan citizens and their community.

Saugeen Shores resident, Jack Evans, is one of 17 from St. Mary’s who will bring classmates to his family’s hotel, the Brisas del Mar, where his family has spent the past few years building local infrastructure projects, teaching English and much more.

Jack’s father and co-owner of Brisas del Mar, Saugeen Shores Police Sergeant Andy Evans, said this is the biggest group of volunteers, which will include school chaperons and parents, to travel to the Central American location which has housed many missions, trips and volunteer groups including the Saugeen Shores Rotary Interact Club.

Evans said the students - 13 girls and four boys - know that this trip will not be a vacation. “Sure there’s going to be fun but most of it will be benevolence and helping out people in the community,” said Evans.

The students will spend time teaching English at a school in Jiquillo, which currently has one resident teacher from the United States. Students will also provide two traditional Nicaraguan meals to between 200 and 500 children of El Limonal, a community that was devastated in 1998 by massive flooding as a result of Hurricane Mitch. Since that time, a “shanty town” has been created and dubbed the “circle of death” with a dump on one side, a river with sewage run-off and a cemetery surrounding the area.

The habitants largely live off the dump where they collect recyclables with many living on just a dollar a day. Evans said every group he has taken there has said the experience was “life changing” and it will be an “intense day” for the students.

Another day will be spent cleaning up the beach at the Padre Ramos Estuary Natural Reserve, just north of Brisas del Mar, where they will take part in an ocean ecology day, releasing turtles and learning about the importance of the estuary and the ocean as a whole.

The students will also travel to the León Cathedral, a historical landmark of Nicaragua and one of the largest cathedrals in Central America; and the Cosigüina Volcano. The now dormant volcano last erupted in 1859 but its most famous activity occurred in 1835 with the largest historical eruption in Nicaragua.

Evans said that students will learn that there is a bigger world out there. “It will give them a global perspective on how other countries work and how other people are and how they operate within it.”

He added that once the students experience that, they will know that distractions such as screen time and social media are, “in the grand scheme of things... not that important.”

Evans said he was first introduced to Nicaragua and its people after some work in Japan following the 2011 tsunami and earthquake. Through GlobalMedic, a charity that provides assistance in the wake of disasters and crisis, Evans met David Sakaki a Canadian firefighter from Kamloops, British Columbia, who travelled to Nicaragua as part of “Operation Nicaragua” which supports various infrastructure projects.

Evans said he was there for two weeks, nearly three years ago, and two weeks after returning to Canada, booked another trip for he and his wife and their two children. Evans said they now travel there every few months.

“It has organically taken off, we absolutely love it, it dominates our life,” said Evans. His son Jack spent three weeks there by himself last summer. “That’s how much we think of the area and the trust that we have in the people.” Evans said it’s the kind of experience he wants his children to have.

Students at the English school in Jiquillo, Submitted photo