Blog Post #1

I’ve finally ordered, from various places on the internet, all the gear I’ll need for our trip. Having accomplished this, I can finally allow myself to feel excited. Previously, I felt enormously unprepared, and the task of preparing seemed daunting, overwhelming, and stressful. I’m sure I’ll still feel unprepared right up until our arrival but I am no longer stressed. At least I know I have the essentials; rain boots, bug repellent, and proper shirts and pants.

While I am no longer stressed about preparation, today’s class introduced a new source of stress: botfly maggots. As I learned from a lovely presentation by my classmates, botflies deposit their eggs on mosquitoes, and when the mosquito bites a human, the botfly larvae detaches in the hole made by the mosquito. The botfly then develops inside the skin of the human and pokes a little hole in the skin through which it occasionally emerges to breathe. Botflies are tricky to remove because they have two hooks securing them to their host and these hooks burrow deeper into the skin when pulled. If a botfly dies or breaks off under the skin, it can cause dangerous infection. Most people just have to live with the maggot in their skin until falls off or leaves by itself. While I realize the odds of this happening to me are very small (actually I have no idea what the odds are of this happening) it still freaks me out. I simply do not think I could live with that. I would be in a constant state of panic; I would not be able to stop hyperventilating. In fact, I’d rather just be sedated until the bug emerged.

Aside from preparation and botfly maggots, and maybe accidently drinking dirty water, there is not much I’m nervous about (which is actually king of a lot of things). I’m excited to practice my Spanish and I’m glad for the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone. Mostly I’m looking forward to experiencing a different country not as a tourist. I’ve traveled internationally before but only with my family on vacation and once with a cultural emersion program in high school. The educational component of the cultural emersion program was kind of lost and it really just felt like glorified sight-seeing. I’m excited to see Nicaragua not as a tourist but as a student.

Blog Post #2

Palm oil is a controversial yet relatively new issue in Nicaragua. Palm oil is typically talked about in regards to South East Asia where the issue is not new at all. The industry has been booming there for the past 20 years but it is still in its infancy in Nicaragua. This was apparent in my google search alone. I struggled to find two or three decent articles about the palm oil industry in Nicaragua but came up with a dozen about the palm oil in South East Asia. I even used the databases on AU’s website and even they only came up with one result on the palm oil industry in Nicaragua, which wasn’t actually relevant.

The bottom line is that the palm oil industry is responsible for major deforestation in South East Asia which equates to loss of biodiversity and water pollution. The effects of the palm oil industry on Nicaragua’s rainforests and biodiversity are not fully understood because the industry is so new. One source that I looked pointed to Panama’s palm oil industry as an example of the industry’s potential for sustainability. Palm oil plantations in Panama are planted in old pastureland and banana plantation so they don’t require deforestation.

Palm oil can be used in both vegetable oil and biofuel production. Palm oil has the potential to bring prosperity and economic stimulus to Central and South American countries but it also has the potential to wreak environmental havoc. Clear cutting rainforest and replacing it with palm oil plantations reduces biodiversity and increases water pollution because of pesticides and other industrial chemicals.

T-Minus Two Days

AHHHHH! T-minus two days until this wonderful group of human beings depart for Nicaragua! The amount of work that has been prepared for this trip is astounding and I’m so proud of what we have accomplished so far! But we are ready to continue and expand our knowledge over stay in Makengue and in the various other locations we will be visiting in Nicaragua!

I can say that I am very excited but I am also very wary of all the possible diseases that I could probability get. Though I did get my typhoid vaccine (thanks modern medicine); the World Health Organization has alerted travelers-especially to Central and South America- about the dangers of Zika. I have been reassured that as long as I am not pregnant (I’m not) and do not plan on getting pregnant (definitely not), then contracting the disease is the least of my problems. There are other viruses present in carrying mosquitos such as Chikungunya and Dengue fever. Dengue fever can be transmitted to humans through mosquitos bites; it is more common throughout the day and it is more present in urban areas. Symptoms include fever, headache, bone and muscular pain and there is no vaccine so the only way to avoid it is to prevent mosquito bites. On the other hand, Chikungunya is another virus that is on the World Health Organizations radar. Chikungunya, along with Dengue fever, is transmitted by mosquitos (I hope everyone is bringing mosquito repellent) and the main symptoms include fever and joint pain. It has been found in many parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, Europe and appeared in the Caribbean in 2013. Exactly like Dengue fever and Zika, there is no vaccine and prevention of mosquito bites is the best form of protection. But I trust that everyone is taking all the safety precautions necessary and that this trip will run smoothly!

Understanding the risks of traveling to a foreign country is important but I believe it is important to look on the positive side. As a group, we will be continuing and adding on to previous research (hopefully by finding crabs). That, my friend, is pretty impressive. As a group, we will continue to strengthen our bonds and have the opportunity to create lasting memories through hard work and goofing off (and possibly hiking a volcano). And most importantly, we will have the opportunity to let Makengue have an impact in our personal growth and help us become more worldly people. By stating of all this, I am even more excited to get on that flight on Friday and have an amazing time exploring the beautiful country of Nicaragua.