Introduction - Matagapla 2010

This year it turns out that I will spend my summer in Matagalpa, Nicaragua as the project director . I have a trip planned in February 16 - February 27 to set up some logistics, then training in March and finally summer which starts early June.

First, all the posts on here before 2009 are from my stint in Honduras/Costa Rica.

Second, the slideshow at the right will be of only Nicaragua pictures after February once I return from survey.

And third, I have been thinking about the summer quite a bit mostly because I am really looking forward to it, and also because I really want this to be a positive experience for everyone involved: from the team, to the communities, the youth (North American and Nicaraguan), locals and families in Matagapa, etc. If I am travelling down to Nicaragua, I want it to be for something positive, and of course that is why I chose to go down with Amigos. And of my many goals this summer, one is to empower the staff team and help foster an environment of growth over the course of the summer. Imagine a team where all members are capable of being project director (PD), all are empowered to make decisions when warranted and all have the confidence to step up when needed. I think knowledge is power and so one way I am going to help achieve this goal is by sharing the information that I have.

Sometimes, leaders can keep information to themselves, whether intentionally or not, and that leads to the effect of having that one person required to make all the decisions, thus becoming a crutch for the team. I believe in transparency (as haughtily liberal that may sound) and through the dissimenation of information (when applicable, because of course there are exceptions!)empowers others to make their own decisions and allows them to rely on their own knowledge to act. As the PD, I have all the information from last year at my disposal, I have contacts from the prevoius projects and I will be on survey meeting with local partners. Sharing all this information is difficult and maybe even impractical, but I will try to have most of it available for those who are interested - currently in gdocs.

Maybe I am coming into this from a different perspective, as I was a little older as a project supervisor, I was already thinking about the next step, the next growing opportunity, so I wanted to access all the information my project director had. This is why I am sharing the information now, even if no one on the team decides to read it, it is completely fine as it is not imperative, but for those who are thinking about growth opportunities, it is my goal to provide no barriers for anyone to achieve their goals!

Also, as a side note, I have been in contact with many local NGO's in Matagalpa and I am exteremly excited about the connections the team and the program will have during the summer.