The trip which took placed from March 20 to April 2, had students constructing a room onto a school house in Haulover, a small rural town on Nicaragua's east coast; before going to the capital city of Managua to paint a youth drop-in center.

The trip was not without problems. An outbreak of various illnesses among students and staff plagued the visitors for the first week. See details in the related story.

Haulover students in blue pants, skirts and white shirts watched as the Algonquin workers began their first day of labour by creating reinforcing bars and digging two foot deep holes for the foundation.

The second day was spent carrying the materials to the worksite -- the sand from a riverside quarry and the water from wells -- and then mixing them together by continuously pouring water into a mixture of sand and cement.

Later work had Algonquin students flattening down the sandy soil at the base of the walkway in front of the classroom, in preparation for the cement. The cement was then spread evenly along the path and smoothed out with flat pieces of wood used to scrape off any excess.

Finally, a mural with the Canadian and Nicaraguan flag painted beside each other was done for the last day.

With help from local students and labourers, the students completed half of the class room in the time they had.

"I think I expected to finish the classroom, but that just wasn't humanly possible," third year child and youth worker Angela Hamilton said. "But it was definitely nice to know that we had a part in [building] it."

Algonquin travelers stayed in the houses of local families while in Haulover. Students had to adapt quickly to the foreign living environment which included very different cuisine -- a lot of beans, rice and plantains. There were differences in amenities, like the showers, accomplished by pouring a bucket of water over your head.

"[One of my favourite parts] was sitting and talking to my host 'dad' about the differences between Haulover and Canada. And him trying to make me eat food like turtle," third year child and youth worker Leslie Atkinson said.

Child and youth workers also spent time attempting to overcome language barriers and communicate with the Nicaraguan children.

"I was blown away, touched by the responses of the group in terms of social behaviour," said Franck Portalupi, an Environment Canada employee who accompanied the program on the trip.
"It took me four days to hold the hand of some of the [Nicaraguan children] for some of the girls it took two hours."

In Managua, two days were dedicated to the repainting of a youth drop in center, a safe place at-risk youth can go to relax and participate in activities, like cooking, hammock making, or getting help with their studies.

The work there began with scraping off old paint that would easily chip away and then sanding down the edges where the paint and wall met to ensure the new coat would go on smoothly. Next, paint rollers and brushes were taken out as the walls of the center were painted a salmon colour.

A couple of afternoons were dedicated to visiting NGOs in the country. One was fighting the spread of HIV AIDS along the east coast while the second was a group home for at-risk youth in Managua.