By Terra Bianchi

1. Rise and fall of Winnie the Pooh

Winnie became our mascot and travelled with us to Ometepe. We took pictures with him, he sat watching us all during lunch, and even enjoyed our first big dinner and introductions with some of the Nicaraguan librarians.? On the third day, we brought him to the Ometepe library, where the culmination of the library celebration was the loss of our poor mascot and though some of us cried inside, the happiness the Nicaraguan children had from Winnie and the contents inside the pi?ata made it all worth it J

2. Mario Montenegro

From day one when Mario sang El Gato Garabato, the song was stuck in our heads the entire trip. Mario brought something fun and unique to our trip. He engaged the children, our group, and all the librarians and teachers whenever it was his turn to present. It was like travelling with a superstar, people knew him and his music everywhere we went, and we were just along for the ride. Mario brought a fun way to inspire a reading culture in Nicaragua by singing and getting everyone involved in dancing along.

3. The Volcano Erupts

Our first day in Nicaragua we visited a volcano with a sign that read ?this is an active volcano that can present phenomena without advertisement?, which we all thought was hilarious. It wasn?t actually until our arrival on Ometepe when we realized just how true that statement can be. Concepcion erupted only about an hour after we first docked on Ometepe Island, and though we were sure that meant evacuation, Jane assured us that it wasn?t anything to be overly worried about. We later found out that Concepcion is one of Nicaragua?s most fickle volcanoes.

4. Mobile Project/Library in a box
We spent Friday morning on the mobile project, delivering supplies and uniforms. It also gave us a chance to have some fun doing crafts with the students. I can?t imagine how far the students have to travel to school every day, but they were all in high spirits. After caterpillar and butterfly crafts, Alissa led our group in a game of Simon Says, and then everyone joined for a game of soccer. Later that afternoon we set up the library in a box project, which was a lot of work, but a great experience. We all worked together, accessioning and organizing thousands of books to be donated to a new library in Nicaragua.? We learned that Nicaraguan teachers and librarians don?t need complicated structures and rules to follow, a simple system is easiest to implement and most comfortably used by all.