Turning on the Light
Thacher students enact environmental sustainability in Nicaragua.
While many see spring break as an opportunity to catch up on their favorite TV shows and sleep, some Thacher students and faculty had more ambitious plans for the short break between the winter and spring trimesters.
Faculty members Kurt and Alice Meyer led a group of six seniors on a service trip to Nicaragua where they paired up with blueEnergy, a local non-profit whose mission is "to deliver energy, water, and sanitation to some of the world’s most isolated, marginalized communities, providing a foundation for health, education, and economic opportunity within the context of a changing climate."
While there, the Thacher group installed a solar panel that provided energy to a household for the first time, dug trenches and a septic tank (by hand) to provide drainage of the community wash basin, and constructed a garden.
Kipper Berven '15 was particularly moved by the installation of the solar panel. He remarked, "After spending the entire day erecting a solar panel and connecting wire circuitry, turning on the lights for the first time in this family's life was pretty amazing."
Mr. Meyer provided some context for their work: "We were on the Caribbean coast, which is very poor and, in fact, separated into two autonomous regions that have only a loose connection to the Nicaraguan government (and also very few services from them). The result is what we've seen so many times in South and Central America: crowded, infrastructure-less towns/cities of squalor and near-squalor that are overwhelmed by plastic refuse and other forms of trash. Pollution abounds. They get 11 feet of rain annually, yet there is barely a potable ounce available—after all, the latrines (each house has one) are just meters from the wells. It boggles the mind. In the outlying "villages" there are "houses" consisting of boards slapped together in tree-house fashion in the middle of the rain forest. Not a faucet or lightbulb within miles."
These Thacher representatives weren't afraid to dig in and get their hands dirty. Their work in Nicaragua made a tangible difference in the lives of the families and communities they helps. "We were very proud of our students," said Mr. Meyer. "They were positive, cooperative, thoughtful, and hardworking throughout."
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Faculty members Kurt and Alice Meyer led a group of six seniors on a service trip to Nicaragua where they paired up with blueEnergy, a local non-profit whose mission is "to deliver energy, water, and sanitation to some of the world’s most isolated, marginalized communities, providing a foundation for health, education, and economic opportunity within the context of a changing climate."
While there, the Thacher group installed a solar panel that provided energy to a household for the first time, dug trenches and a septic tank (by hand) to provide drainage of the community wash basin, and constructed a garden.
Kipper Berven '15 was particularly moved by the installation of the solar panel. He remarked, "After spending the entire day erecting a solar panel and connecting wire circuitry, turning on the lights for the first time in this family's life was pretty amazing."
Mr. Meyer provided some context for their work: "We were on the Caribbean coast, which is very poor and, in fact, separated into two autonomous regions that have only a loose connection to the Nicaraguan government (and also very few services from them). The result is what we've seen so many times in South and Central America: crowded, infrastructure-less towns/cities of squalor and near-squalor that are overwhelmed by plastic refuse and other forms of trash. Pollution abounds. They get 11 feet of rain annually, yet there is barely a potable ounce available—after all, the latrines (each house has one) are just meters from the wells. It boggles the mind. In the outlying "villages" there are "houses" consisting of boards slapped together in tree-house fashion in the middle of the rain forest. Not a faucet or lightbulb within miles."
These Thacher representatives weren't afraid to dig in and get their hands dirty. Their work in Nicaragua made a tangible difference in the lives of the families and communities they helps. "We were very proud of our students," said Mr. Meyer. "They were positive, cooperative, thoughtful, and hardworking throughout."
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A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
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