Los Brasiles

Sundays are best in Nicaragua. Everyone's awake and work-free, and no matter how difficult the week may have been, everyone has plans. Church services, birthday parties, baseball games, and beach trips...from early morning the day crackles with excitement, which slowly begins to wane as the afternoon shadows begin to grow. By early evening the churches have been swept and the birthday cake eaten. Winners and losers trudge home together, recalling the calls that were made (or should have been). The beaches are empty, and everyone's at home. And the day's excitement has been replaced by the evening's restful solemnity.

Monday mornings, however, come early, and the climb to Sunday begins anew. At the Los Brasíles vocational school, instructor Mike Deibert and his students are already busy with the day's lesson, a new metalworking technique employed in the creation of ornamental hooks (for hanging keys, towels, plants, etc.) to be sold in local markets. The educational site is a functional mess. On one side piles of raw material – mostly long, unshaped metal rods – await creative hands, while the coal overspilling its bags across the “classroom” is ready to provide the needed heat. Directly in the middle, a late model car gets a well-deserved rest, having donated its innards to the observation of future mechanics, and a bright red welding machine sits restlessly alongside its half-finished, window-shaped security bars. The only observable uniformity is the coal dust spread evenly along the floor from wall to wall. It's a beautiful mess, full of potential.


What's now an established site providing self-esteem, jobs, and income to a community in need of each was an empty space just two years ago. The school's founder, Mike Deibert, has a background in elementary education and a longstanding interest in vocational skills and training. He wanted to combine these passions into a instructional program that would fit into Nicaragua's growing demand for skilled labor, and his search led him to Escuela Faro de Luz, which offered an open space, validity in the community's eyes, and access to qualified students. Mike's program includes training in metalwork, auto mechanics, and welding but remains flexible to further growth. What's stressed, however, isn't solely skill in labor but the development of the individual. Income alone won't change a community, and Mike's lessons are designed to reinforce the importance of work ethic, honesty, integrity, and teamwork so that the benefits are also apparent outside the workplace. On Sundays, for instance.


Nica HOPE's connections to Los Brasíles vocational school are deep indeed. Touring the site and learning of its successes and shortcomings provided the inspiration that eventually led to Nica HOPE's founding, and future schools will be designed based first upon local need but also based upon lessons learned at Los Brasíles. As such, a Nica HOPE representative will be observing classes, asking questions, and taking notes in order to learn first-hand the specifics of vocational training. In the near future, Nica HOPE will provide assistance in the post-instruction, occupational aspect of Mike's charge by developing outlets for product sales and job placement. And the symbiotic nature of the relationship will uplift us all, especially those most in need.

It's Friday afternoon and work week is winding down. Looking forward to Sunday.


Jordan Hooper
Managua, Nicaragua

El Rio

It's good to be home in Managua after a trek to Nicaragua's eastern coast. The trip consisted of two days of chicken busing to and from Rio San Juan and two more exploring in both San Carlos and San Juan del Norte – small, isolated towns at Rio San Juan's source and mouth – plus four days in canoe on the river itself. We surrounded ourselves with unexplored rain forest, rowing stroke after stroke, winding 120 kilometers towards the Caribbean. And there it was! Brown and stormy and not exactly what we expected but fulfilling nonetheless.

So what's this to do with Nica HOPE? As distant from society as I've been, far away from the Managua slums and the out-of-work youngsters, all I could think of was our budding organization. Reminders were everywhere.

We didn't know what to expect planning the trip. Everyone's been camping, but for who-knows-how-long on a mysterious waterway through Amazonian terrain? And that's once there. Twelve rocky hours one way from Managua fighting for dusty air in a recycled American school bus shakes patience bone-deep. Then the river, the river pushes forth and pulls back, pools deep and splashes over shallow rock beds, flows interminably straight before curving nearly back around on itself. Paddle after paddle we went, often struggling but enjoying our work in an environment like we'd never seen. Only few others have (relatively speaking), and many advised us along the way, but with mixed results. Ultimately, the river and our own determination determined our success.

Planning the trip reminded me of Nica HOPE from the beginning. We talked about it casually, passed beliefs, ideas, and hopes around, collected our thoughts, and began collecting resources. Everyone had volunteer experience, but an indefinite commitment to a from-scratch non-profit? And just getting there – and we're not even there yet – to a fully-operational, tax-exempt organization is a storm of forms and expenses, especially of time. Patience is key as progress rushes forward only to halt suddenly, changes direction only to return down a familiar track. Small accomplishments clear a path through a sometimes overwhelming but always interesting and enjoyable challenge to make a difference. And in the end, it's up to us – to everyone involved – to see this through. We may not know when or where we'll arrive, but we're moving in the right direction.

So get moving yourself. Accept a challenge. For more about ours, check back frequently.

Jordan Hooper
Managua, Nicaragua

Next up: Vocational School Los Brasiles

Monte Hermon and more

Buenos dias from Escuela Monte Hermon – my temporary home, Nica HOPE's current Nicaraguan headquarters, and the proposed site for a new vocational school. It's already bright at 7:20am but still cool in the shade. The students are in the classrooms going through their morning lessons and can't wait until the afternoon. Today is the last school day before Semana Santa, Central America's most anticipated holiday, and everyone has plans. I'm leaving for a kayaking trip on the undeveloped Rio San Juan, a perfect opportunity reflect on what we've accomplished here so far and what we're heading toward in the near future.

Most of our in-country work has been done here at Monte Hermon. For those unacquainted, a brief history: Pastor Daniel Aragon and his wife Darling opened Escuela Monte Hermon in 2001, accommodating 46 students between 1st and 3rd grades. Monte Hermon now educates 220 students from preschool through “high school” and next year will graduate its first class. Based upon early projections, however, the administration expects less than 10% of the graduating class to continue at a university. Most will accept traditional roles in the home or search for an opening in the unskilled employment sector, which provides little potential for self-improvement through hard work.

This, of course, is where Nica HOPE comes in. Two weeks ago we helped form Junta Bezaleel, a partnership between Nica HOPE, Monte Hermon, and various local employers and consultants. The association intends to create a vocational training program at Monte Hermon with an emphasis on product-creation and job-placement in order to provide economic opportunity for local families and, eventually, economic self-sustainability for Monte Hermon. The vocational school is to be named Pavet and will provide official certification to all graduating students upon its successful operation and inspection by INITEC, the local vocational school sanctioning organization. Here's a picture from one of our meetings:



Each party involved will have specific responsibilities based on strengths and experience. Nica HOPE's role will consist of fundraising, curriculum design, general management, and business development. Monte Hermon will provide land and students, while Eduard Guardian – a local employer – will provide expertise in curriculum design and job opportunities. Don Carlos Sam, a local economics expert, will teach basic math and accounting and will help design the school's money management system, and Eli Covington, a volunteer from the US with years of vocational training experience, will help design curriculum and may teach classes as well.

So the all-star team is assembled and ready to play. Fundraising has already started, and classroom construction, vocational training, and economic opportunity is just ahead. It's a bright morning and everyone's excited about the future.

Jordan Hooper
Managua, Nicaraguan


Visit often for future blogs: Dia de Luz in La Chureca; Vocational School in Los Brasiles, A Day in the Life of a Nicaraguan Laborer; Pablo's Story – to the U.S. and Back; and more.

Going Home...

...in August (as always) but now with a purpose. The Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University has accepted fully me into their master´s degree program. Good thing considering I´ve been telling everyone about it for months. Looking forward to going home and taking a little Central America with me.

Jordan Hooper
Managua, Nicaragua

Washington D.C. - February 23-26, 2007: "All for one and one for all"

It wasn't quite that dramatic, but the first of many face-to-face encounters of Nica HOPE co-founders was nonetheless a productive meeting and an important symbol of our commitment to one another and the future of the organization. Deanna hosted Ben and I (with the help of some friends – thanks again Wade and Rod), and we began on Friday afternoon by reaffirming our shared vision for the development of Nica HOPE. We reviewed past accomplishments, including the project proposal, organization formation, and the creation of www.nicahope.org. We also addressed the status of pending tasks, such as bylaw creation, tax-exemption application, fundraising stratagems, and in-country development. The three-hour session was a much-needed leap in the right direction.

On Saturday morning we began another productive day by officially establishing ourselves as bank account signatories. Then for lunch we met with Eric Lungren, a good friend of Deanna's who worked two years with Safe Passage (www.safepassage.org), a successful non-profit founded eight years ago in the Guatemala City dump. Eric played a vital role in the development of the fledgling organization and the formation of a new vocational training program. We watched the documentary “Recycled Life,” which exposes the lamentable living conditions of the Guatemala City dump residents, their joys and pains, and the relief efforts of humanitarian organizations. Specifically highlighted is Safe Passage and the successes of its recently-deceased founder Hanley Denning. We highly recommend the film (which received a Grammy nomination this past year) to those of you interested in learning more about the lives of those living amongst a country's waste and the positive change that can be made by just a few motivated individuals. Thanks, Eric, for the guidance – past, present, and (hopefully) future.

Late Saturday night came the snow and when we woke (late) Sunday morning it was piled in fluffy heaps atop roofs and cars and sidewalks and anything or anyone stationary. Movement was all but restricted, which canceled the D.C. tour but gave us plenty time to reassess the weekend and prepare for the near-future. By Monday morning Deanna was studying away for graduate midterms, Ben was leaving for Chicago to continue working on the website, networking, and fundraising, and I was heading south to a capital city far, far removed from our own.

Thanks everyone for the support and please check back regularly for the new blogs (with pictures) that we'll be cranking out once or twice a week.

Jordan Hooper
Managua, Nicaragua

Official Website

We are excited to announce that we have launched our website. Please visit us at www.nicahope.org for more information. For further inquiries on our organization or ways you can support our efforts please email contact@nicahope.org

Update - in less than 24 hours we received the necessary 100 votes to become eligible for tax-free donations through GiveMeaning.com!! Many thanks to all those who voted and made this possible.

To contribute to Nica HOPE, click here:

Donate to Nica HOPE

Many thanks for all your support!!