In 2014, Jase Davis, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, traveled to Nicaragua with the Dartmouth Men’s Lacrosse team on a trip organized by Bridges to Community. In Nicaragua, the team helped build a kitchen at a local school in the Masaya area.

On October 29th, I interviewed Jase about his experience in Nicaragua. Please find the audio below:

 

Please find highlights from the interview below:

Do you think the fact that you didn’t know much about the country or that you didn’t go on a service trip before took away from or added to your experience?

At some point, it was all very new to me. I wasn’t sure how to act, I wasn’t really sure how what do. It was my first time in a different kind of culture. I had been abroad to England before but that doesn’t really compare to going to rural Nicaragua. At some level, it was tough because I had never been on a [service] trip before. But at the same time, it was very cool, very exciting to step into this new environment, this new situation, and see what it’s all about and get me hands dirty.

For my LACS class, some of my classmates are going to Nicaragua through Bridges to Community, the same organization that created your trip. One thing they emphasize is that they are “bridges to community,” meaning they are trying to make a connection with community and the group that goes. Do you feel like you were working with the Nicaraguans rather than building something and leaving?

Most certainly. Some people on our trip had gone to other work sites, but what was special for us was that we were building a kitchen for the school, so it affected the whole community. One thing that the [Dartmouth members who had gone on trips before] had never seen before was the giant outpouring of support that came from the community. We had people coming out of the woodwork to support us. We had old ladies picking up shovels and mixing concrete; men coming for four hours out of their day to help take down trees…it was really cool interacting with the community. Seeing how they interacted with each other and how they interacted with us.

Did you feel any negativity towards you because [the Nicaraguans] felt you were helping them in a demeaning way or that you were looking down upon them?

One thing they kept asking was: Why are you coming down? And I mean they understood that we were coming from a very privileged background here in Hanover. And they kept asking: Why are you doing this? And we told them that it’s because we care about you guys and want to help. It wasn’t that they saw us paternalistically, or that we were trying to help them because better than them. But they were just legitimately curious and slightly confused, but at the end of the day very appreciative that we were coming to help them build their school [kitchen] and help them make their the community better.

So have you or other members of the lacrosse team kept in touch with any Nicaraguans?

…[Some of the lacrosse team] had another “go-round” [in Masaya] and they saw a lot of the same people, constructions workers, and members of the community came out. One of the coolest moments for me was actually this past September. So when we went down in December [2014] the first day I spent probably about eight hours removing a tree stump. And apparently I just kept at it and wouldn’t give up on this tree stump. Some of the locals tried to get me off and told me to “take a break man, get some water.” In a very cool moment we were removing the last of the tree stump after somebody brought a chainsaw and they said “you get to take the last piece out of here.” So the trip went down this past September to go build a house in the same community…there was another tree in the lot and the locals all started asking “where is the redhead [Jase], he needs to come take down this tree!”

Do you feel the Nicaraguans had an impact on you?

Most certinaly. Of course this was my first trip to see anything like Nicaragua and the different socioeconomic background and just how different life is. So in that regard it was really eyeopening. It really helps to puts in perspective your situation and your hardship as compared to theirs. So, just staying humble. But really one of the things it taught me was that I can’t view myself as better than any person. On that service trip, I realized working with these people that they aren’t someone on a television ad asking…to send twenty-five cents a day. These are very real people with real lives and real ambitions. We can’t go down to Nicaragua feeling like we have to help them because they need help, or that they can’t do it themselves. But that they are very real people who deserve an extra hand, an extra leg up…

Do you feel that you made a lasting impact [on the Nicaraguans]?

I would say so. Just the amount of community members that came out to help, that were asking us questions. That were trying to interact with us, and talk to us, and see why we were down here and how our day was going. It was a very real connection we made with them, a very honest one. And so, in that way, I feel like I did make a real connection…

Would you consider doing this again?

…the trip was amazing and I wouldn’t hesitate to do this again.