Basic Information
Full Name: Morgan Eberle
Title of Project: Amigos for Christ Service Trip
Thematic Areas: Community Engagement and Global Studies
Expected Start Date: January 2nd
Expected End Date: January 9th
1) Abstract
During the last week of winter break 2016, I will be traveling to Chinandega, Nicaragua. I
will be performing service work through the organization Amigos for Christ. Amigos for
Christ works on many different projects in the Chinandega community. Specifically, the
organization focuses on sustaining life by providing residents with clean water. Our group
will be primarily building wells and laying pipeline in order to transport water from wells to
homes. In addition to serving the community throughout the week, my group and I will be
learning more about the culture and lifestyle of Chinandega, Nicaragua. Amigos for Christ
focuses on immersing the volunteer participants into the community by having us work handin-hand with residents of the community.
This experience is personally meaningful to me because after the first time I went abroad for
service, I better understood my personal privilege. Going abroad for spring break last year to
Chimaltenango, Guatemala, was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. After
observing the living conditions in the area we were serving, I became very aware of how
good I had it at home. After that experience, I knew that I wanted to continue serving others
who did not grow up with as much privilege as myself. I believe that partaking in this trip
with Amigos for Christ will allow me to do this.
One of my major goals of this service trip is to learn more about the culture in Chinandega. I
hope to accomplish this goal by getting to know the residents of the community we are
serving. I believe that forming relationships with those you are serving is another meaningful
aspect of going abroad for this trip. I hope to brush up on my Spanish skills before departure,
in order to be able to communicate to those around me. I hope to be able to ask the residents
about their family relationships and other aspects of their everyday lives. I want to be able to
discuss the differences between life in America and life in Nicaragua with them in order to
gain a better perspective and understanding of the culture of the community I am serving.
A tentative itinerary for the week of service is as follows:
January 2nd: Fly from Cincinnati (CVG) to Managua (MGN). Travel from Managua to
Chinandega (approx. 2-3 hours). Get settled at the Amigos for Christ housing facility.
January 3rd: Visiting a local community and/or climbing Cerro Negro volcano.
January 4th: Community work. Since Amigos for Christ is very focused on providing clean
and available water to the residents of the community, I imagine we will be working on
building wells and laying pipeline during our “community work” days.
January 5th: Community work.
January 6th: Visiting a retirement home and special activity.
January 7th: Community work.
January 8th: Community work and special activity.
January 9th: Travel from Chinandega to Managua. Stay overnight in Managua.
January 10th: Depart MGN and return to CVG.
This itinerary is available on the Amigos for Christ website. As with all service trips, there is
an element of ambiguity in the itinerary, and therefore I have written it as a “tentative”
itinerary for the week.
2) Experience Advisor
Stephanie Walker
(309)-231-1803
swalk9101@hotmail.com
I have used Stephanie Walker as my experience advisor in the past and because of the
positive experience I had, I am choosing her again. Stephanie is a family friend that has taken
part in multiple service trips to Central America through her church. I believe Stephanie will
be a great resource for organizing and planning my service trip. She will also be of assistance
to me after the trip, because I can use her as a resource to reflect. I believe she will help me
to better understand the impact of this trip on myself, as well as the residents of the
community I am serving.
I plan to meet with Steph the next time I am home, which will be the weekend of October
16th (fall reading days). At this meeting, I will provide her with my full itinerary and begin to
discuss some reflection techniques with her. In addition, I will have a phone call with
Stephanie within my first week back in America. I believe that this phone call will serve as a
way for me to disseminate and reflect on the experience I took part in.
3) Connection to Learning Outcomes
A) The first leaning outcome that I wish to achieve from my trip to Nicaragua is to
develop a thorough understanding of the world view, beliefs, experiences, selfconsciousness, or history community members through collaboration. I alluded to this
learning outcome in my abstract above when I described the relationships I hope to
form with the residents of Chinandega. Understanding the culture of this country is
one of my major goals upon embarking on this trip. I hope to use the week to soak up
as much information about Nicaragua and the lifestyles of the country as I can. One
of my major passions is to learn about the individual experiences of others and be
able to use this knowledge to help guide my own life. I am anticipating that the
members of the Chinandega community will work with our student group on the
service projects we are working on. Working with members of the community will
help me to learn more about their personal experiences. Learning about personal
experiences of individuals can help me better see and understand the social issues that
are effecting this geographical area. This way, I am able to use collaboration with the
community members as a means to educate myself on the beliefs and norms of the
culture and lifestyle of Chinandega. In regards to time commitment, I will be working
on achieving this outcome during my entire time in Nicaragua. Even on the days we
are not performing service work, I will be learning more about the culture and
lifestyle of the community and will therefore be working toward understanding the
different beliefs and experiences of the country.
B) The second learning outcome that I will work toward achieving on my trip is to
demonstrate a sense of empathy, respect, and appreciation for others to build
meaningful cross-cultural collaborations toward mutual growth and prosperity. A key
aspect of the Amigos for Christ organization is that they focus on promoting
economic development within the country they are serving. This means that the
members of the community work with volunteers from Amigos for Christ to improve
their community. I believe that working alongside members of the community I am
serving will help achieve the “cross-cultural collaboration toward mutual growth and
prosperity” aspect of this learning outcome. During my trip, I plan to treat every
person in the Chinandega community with the same respect and appreciation that I
would toward anyone else. I believe that respecting and appreciating people for who
they are as individuals, rather than what they can do for me is a means by which I try
to live my life. I think that traveling to Nicaragua for service will allow me to really
focus on this idea and will allow me to further develop my personal character. The
time commitment for this learning outcome will be about 32 hours during the week of
work. I am estimating 32 hours because I believe that will be the amount of time we
perform service work during the week.
C) The third learning outcome that I plan to work toward on my trip to Nicaragua is to
articulate the purpose of service on a social issue or public policy and how service
mutually enhances individual growth and the common good. After going on a service
trip to Guatemala last spring break, I have realized the true value of service trips
because the influence that service work has on a person influences the person
receiving, as well as the person performing the service. While in Nicaragua, I hope to
discuss with members of the community the impact that service has on them and ask
them how they feel the work is contributing to their society. As stated in my second
learning outcome, Amigos for Christ is very focused on collaboration while
performing service work. Participating in service work through this organization will
allow my group and me the chance to empower residents of the community by
encouraging them to take part in the service work with our group. Members of the
community will be developing their personal leadership, while improving the
community they live in. As stated above, Amigos for Christ is primarily concerned
with is accessibility to clean water for the residents. By building wells and water
pipelines, my group and I will be able to see the tangible impact our service is making
on a social issue that Nicaragua faces.
4) Academic Resources Connected to the Learning Outcomes
A) Jose Blanco, Panorama: Introduccion a la lengua Espanola, 4th edition
The first academic resource that I will use in order to achieve my learning outcomes is
my Spanish textbook from freshman year. All of my learning outcomes revolve around
and involve communicating with members of the Chinandega. Because of this, I will
need to brush up on my Spanish skills, just as I had done when I served in Guatemala.
While in Guatemala, I was able to use the little Spanish I knew to communicate to
members of the community and I think that having that skill made my trip more
meaningful than if I had not been able to talk to people. However, I wish to learn more of
the language from now until my trip and will reference my Spanish textbook in order to
do so.
B) Tim Merrill, ed. Nicaragua: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of
Congress
The second academic resource I will refer to is the Nicaragua Country Study from the
Library of Congress. This resource will help me gain background knowledge on the
country and help me to connect the country’s history to their current hardships. One of
my learning outcomes involves developing meaningful cross-cultural relationships, and I
believe that learning more about the history and culture of the country will allow me to
relate better to the residents. After skimming the website, some of the cultural
information it includes are things like how women are seen and treated, how society is
structured, and how the education system is structured.
5) On-going Reflection
Throughout the duration of my trip, I plan to keep a journal, as I did when I went on my last
service trip. Journaling is a great method of reflection for me because it helps me to better
articulate my thoughts and think about my day. In addition, I have a terrible memory when it
comes to details, so keeping a journal will help me remember the small details and
interactions of my trip- aspects that are usually the most meaningful. Some of the questions
and topics that I will reflect on throughout the duration of my trip include the following:
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What was the high point of my day? Why?
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What was the low point of my day? Why?
Details about the community (i.e. what do the homes look like? What are popular
modes of transportation?)
How did I make an effort to better understand the culture of the community?
Surprises and/or things I was not surprised about
How did reality differ from my expectations of the trip?
6) Sharing Your Learning
I plan on disseminating my experience in Nicaragua with the members of my
sorority Chapter. One of our recent initiatives as a Chapter is to offer a service trip to
interested members. Since I am working to plan this trip through Amigos for Christ, I
think that sharing my experience with my Chapter will help encourage members to
participate in our group’s service trip. In addition, I can share my knowledge and advice
about trip planning and logistics with my Chapter.
I will also share my experience with the first year Circle of Excellence business
students. I am going to ask Jen Lewis, the CoE Business Pathways instructor, if I can
give a brief presentation of what I did in Nicaragua and what I learned. This way, I can
serve another organization I am passionate about and help capitalize on the Character
component of the PACE curriculum of the Lindner College of Business.
7) Budget
Program Fee: the program fee for serving through Amigos for Christ is $275 for the
week. This cost covers materials and lodging for the week. Amigos for Christ has their
own facility in Chinandega where we will be staying. This program fee can be found on
the Amigos for Christ website.
Travel Cost: A member of our group has been constantly checking Kayak for optimal
flight times and prices. Our flights will be booked by the end of the week of October 9th.
We are budgeting $800 for the round-trip flight from Cincinnati (CVG) to Managua,
Nicaragua (MGN). The flights are higher in cost due to the fact that we will be traveling
around the New Year.
I will be funding this trip through an Honors Grant, as well as my personal funds. I now
have a student worker position and therefore am able to use my money earned in this
position to pay for a portion of my flight and trip fee. My group has also discussed
fundraising options for the trip and we will be looking into that in more detail soon.