University students sacrifice spring break for clean water

Hundreds of students leave the stress of school life, their studies, annoying roommates and difficult professors during spring break to party for nine days.

However, for some students, this much-needed break consists of backbreaking labor, rough cots and filthy bug-infested dwellings all in the name of helping the less fortunate.

University students Cedric James, Robert Collier, Dustin Bochert, Kaitlin Brown, Keyontia Miller and Angelica Mendiola along with Dr. D. Harold Doty, the dean of the College of Business and Technology, began their spring break with a trip to Nicaragua.

University students Robert Collier, Cedric James, Kaitlan Brown, Angelica Mendiola and Keyontia Miller gather with some of the children of Chacaraseca, where they assisted in the installation of a clean water source.

The trip is one that has been planned for more than a year by Students In Free Enterprise, a student organization that focuses on improving lives and community through service. “I helped to initiate the trip,” Collier, a SIFE member, said. “It gave me an opportunity this year to engage in some sort of public service outside of the Tyler community.”

SIFE president James said students worked to install a new clean water source for a school in a rural area during their trip, performing intensive labor. 
He said the instillation consisted of digging a 4-foot-deep by 2-foot-wide trench and laying pipe for 200 yards from a clean water source to a school in Chacaraseca.

“We hoped to help out with that, and we also hoped to gain a sense of how the Nicaraguans live and what their needs are in case we want to go back as a student organization in the future to help,” Collier said.

James said the group provided the school with $150 worth of discounted supplies from Walgreens along with providing clean water.

“We took all the supplies to the school and were able to play with the kids for two or three hours,” James said. “It was a great experience. By the smiles of their faces, they seemed like they had never seen a 6-foot-4 gringo just playing with them and loving on them, so it was really cool.”

He said students stayed in rural facilities during their trip, sleeping on cots and using wood burning stoves made of brick and mortar.

James said chances for students to wash their hands were slim because of the need to use the water sparingly.

“You had to take the water that you’d used and recycle it,” he said. “Also, we had to sleep outside and the showers we took had insects all over, and they were climbing on us. It made me appreciate what we have here.”

James said although many citizens of Nicaragua live in similar or worse conditions than the students were subjected to, they were content in their lifestyles.

He said the experience was eye-opening to the needs of those removed from the advantages available in the United States.

“It was cool to see them not have some of the stuff we do, and yet be happier than us,” James said. “I became very thankful for what I have, and I even felt a bit of guilt for being so blessed.”

SIFE hopes to continue working in Nicaragua in future years, opening the trip to any students interested.