blueEnergy
After spending a week in the Dominican Republic with Wine to Water, I came home to a list of unread emails about assignment, campus events, and summer opportunities. One of them specifically, was a forwarded newsletter with three different summer internships opportunities within the area of sustainability. As I followed and clicked different links, I opened a slide presentation with an overview of the organization and their summer internship program. BlueEnergy is a non-profit organization based in Bluefields, Nicaragua that focuses on three sectors: solar energy, clean water, and climate change adaptation. By the end of the presentation, I came found myself saying, “This is everything I want to be involved with”. I sent out my application, and after what seemed like endless weeks of waiting, I was on my way to Managua, the capital, to meet with the other fellows and embark a 6 hour bus ride and 2 hour boat ride to the very caribbean Bluefields.
At first, I was full of mixed emotions about my decision for going there-- I was thrilled to be learning in another country about a potential career interest but I was also experiencing homesickness and culture shock; I had doubts about myself, the impact of my work, and the enjoyment I was
getting from it. Bluefields was not how I had imagined it. All aspects, from food, to language and people were the opposite of what I expected. In my mind, I generalized Nicaragua and expected it to be similar to my home country, Colombia. But it was far from what I believed it to be. Bluefields is home to six different ethnic groups, meaning that Spanish was not the only language spoken. Along with Spanish, English, and English-creole were widely used, and indigenous languages were more often heard in the rural areas. The cuisine was far from the typical Central American, as it was mixed with a variation of seafood and creole dishes. The diversity that I first interpreted as culture shock became what I now admire about Bluefields: its diversity. During my time in Nicaragua, I learned to be mindful about the expectations I may develop about the places I visit. Thus, this now helps me be more open to the new experiences I encounter and adapt more smoothly.
During my time there, I worked with the climate change adaptation team to learn how to help communities improve their access to crops, as their availability was vulnerable to changing climate patters, especially of droughts and floods. Throughout my project with the Climate Change Adaptation group, I learned how to gather data through interviews and previous research done by other interns in order to translate it and build a bio-intensive garden for communities to adopt and grow their own food from. Working with new people lead me to learn the value that diversity brings to overcome obstacles and the fresh ideas that come along with it. The other interns I worked with were from California, and while that is within the states, our ways of thinking and working were not the same. Our supervisors were from Bluefields and France, thus clear communication was key, as language played a role in how well we understood each other as sometimes the language spoken was not our native one. Overall, working with blueEnergy shaped me to be welcoming to change, to embrace being uncomfortable, and to not cherish diversity in every aspect of my daily life.
You can learn more about my experience here:
https://news.fiu.edu/2015/08/internship-abroad-opens-students-eyes-to-new-career/91011
