Batahola Volunteers are young people from the U.S. who accompany the Centro Cultural Batahola Norte in its empowerment of women and youth for social transformation. Volunteers live in the community as friends and co-workers, learning from the CCBN and contributing in the development of new initiatives.
Andrea Kraybill and Samuel Estes are the current volunteers at the Cultural Center of Batahola Norte (CCBN) in Managua, Nicaragua. They arrived in September 2011 and will be living and working in Batahola Norte until October 2013. They are now the third generation of Friends of Batahola Volunteers, originally started by Christine Ruppert and Laura Hopps, both graduates of Boston College. Andrea and Sam are also supported under the wings of VMM–Volunteer Missionary Movement (http://www.vmmusa.org/).
Andrea Kraybill is from Elkhart/Goshen, Indiana, and comes with a wide background of international experiences. As a child, she lived in London for six years and she spent 8 months of a volunteer year after high school in southern Argentina. She comes from an Anabaptist/Mennonite background. While remaining connected to Mennonites, she enjoys learning from other faith traditions!
She graduated in May 2011 from Goshen College with a B.A. in Art and hopes to be involved in arts-related activities at the CCBN. Andrea is the main one in charge of this blog, which is a good chance for her to both write, take photos, and share stories of people here.She loves the fruit in Nicaragua, and also enjoys dancing salsa.
Sam Estes was raised in Arizona, but also spent a significant portion of his life in Minnesota. He graduated fro Carleton College, was a part of Lutheran Volunteer Corps for two years, and lived for a year in a Catholic Worker house called Casa Guadalupana, house for hospitality. He visited Nicaragua once before, spending spending six weeks there as part of a study abroad program. He brings experience in facilitating workshops through the Alternatives to Violence Program.
As far as his religious background, he was raised in the Catholic Church and still identifies as a Catholic. He loves discovering new ways to eat frijoles (beans)–the most basic staple of Nicaraguan diet. He also won a dance-off at the CCBN during our first month here..,
Great pictures! Looks like a most interesting place to live and work!
Uncle Ron
Hello Andrea:
Thank you and your group for all the interesting pictures that you have been sending, which show us what you are doing. We appreciate receiving them. Grandpa and Grandma Kraybill.