A Journey to Nicaragua
The Brothers of the Alpha Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at Indiana University are wishing everyone a successful start to their new year and new semester. Our past semester here has been absolutely fantastic and we are looking forward to doing even more to better serve the bands. Many Brothers went with The Marching Hundred went to San Francisco to participate in the Foster Farms Bowl game, and that wasn't the only place they went this Winter. We had Brothers in England, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and even all the way in New Zealand; however, there was one Brother’s story that we wanted to share with all of you. Amanda Tinkey, a senior from St.Joseph, Michigan spent a portion of her winter vacation in los encuentros de San Gabriel, Nicaragua. Amanda went to Nicaragua with a Global Brigade from Ball State to build latrines. A latrine is a structure with a door for a bathroom, a door for a shower, and also contains a sanitation station. Over the course of a week, she was able to help build two latrines with the families that live there. By building with the community rather than for themp, a sense of responsibility was created so that if something were to break in the latrine, the family will be able to repair it themselves. Amanda and the brigade raised almost two thousand dollars to build latrines and the families were responsible for twenty percent of the cost as well. They were invested in the project and wanted to fix the structure.
When asked why she participated she replied “I wanted to go somewhere to help other people. It’s important to work side by side with someone and show them how to build a latrine; not just to build it for them and then leave. It was also meaningful to me because there was a language gap. It makes me more appreciative of interpersonal communication.” Amanda even said how Kappa Kappa Psi was able to contribute to an organization like Global Brigades. “I’ve really learned a lot of transferable skills over the past four years, the biggest one being leadership. Being in a new country, where I didn’t speak the language, I had more comfort stepping up and taking responsibility for things that weren’t required of me.” Amanda is looking forward to the opportunity to return to Nicaragua not only to continue to help change the culture of poverty, but to experience traditional Nicaraguan music.
