My time at La Mariposa!

                                                  

For my third placement I was situated in a small town called San Juan Concepcion, at a spanish school with a huge focus on animal care, organic gardening, environmental conservation and ecological wellbeing.

The school was fantastic, employing over, I believe, 60 people from the local community. There is the spanish school, a local school, a reserve that specialises in rehabillitating horses, and another big reserve with an abundance of forest coverage.

At the school, there were 13 beautiful dogs, all rescues! It was incredible to learn of their stories, and to see how much happier they were at the school! The school provides immunisations to all the dogs, and gets them spayed, and provides funding for local spaying and immunisations to other stray dogs in the area. My favourite dog was called Chispe, a shy, smaller dog, who really took a liking to me!

All food at the school was vegetarian, with an incredible variety! Most of the food eaten at the school was from their organic garden, greatly lessening their environmental impact. Food from the garden is also donated to people in the community who need it the most. Likewise, we would prepare fertiliser and soil to be sold at a greattly reduced rate to the local community.

Wildlife was in sheer abundance around the area of the school, with a huge variety of fauna and flora around! Each morning, squirrels came and ate bananas, and a variety of birds came for the birdseed, and lots of cool insects and arachnid were seen on a daily basis! It was very clear to see the relationship between flora, food availbility and the surrounding wildlife at the school.

The money earned from the volunteers and the spanish lessons goes directly to the care of the animals, and the various eco projects that the school takes part in. I had the oppurtunity to feed a variety of rescued animals, howler and spider monkeys, turtles, rabbits, parrrots and hens. I learned about, and could do myself, many of the local practices of gardening, creation of fertiliser, tree planting, etc. In these parts of the world, the fruit and veg that is available is dependent on the season!

My spanish has improved immensly too, giving me a real oppurtunity to speak to the locals about the state of ecology and conservation in Nicaragua. I learned that in some regions close to the school, people are re-planting particular fruit trees in an attempt to have the bats their return, as sadly, some species have become locally extinct. And for the first time in my life, I encountered turtle eggs being served at a restaurant. This was very sad to see, although it is prohibited and illegal in Nicaragua, it happens.

I had an incredible time at the school, an experience I will forever cherish. The staff were incredible, and I really, truly, got to know them. I learned a lot about pet ownership and the wildlife trade on my placement, as well as many local practices with gardening. Thank you Turing!