1996
Long-term volunteers chose to experience Ometepe in all her seasons and possibilities. Jim Starrs spent 7 months teaching English in Balgue’s high school. Jim insisted that his volunteering not deprive a Nicaraguan of a job. The community, in turn,
1995
Drawn by the lush cloud forests of Maderas and a desire to help protect Ometepe’s fragile ecosystem, the “Eco-delegation” brought binoculars and bird books to equip local guides. Delegates helped harvest the coffee crop and identified song birds that
1994
The Sister Islands contingent, the majority of whom were Ometepinos, was the largest at the U.S.-Nicaragua Sister Cities conference. Also, BOSIA health activist Trisha Hennessy participated in the Annual Colloquium on Nicaraguan Health in Managua. Hennessy and Esterberg both
1993
When Alice Mendoza’s class at Wilkes Elementary saw slides of Ometepe, they were touched by the material poverty, yet how happy the children seemed. As the third graders discussed their own fund-raiser for a class field trip, student Andy
1992
Bainbridge coffee aficionados savored the first shipment of Ometepe coffee that Pegasus roasted for the Association. In late 1991, Asha Esterberg and David Mitchell returned to negotiate the purchase of some of the ’91 crop, then being picked. In
1991: The urgent need for clean drinking water
Early on, medical assistance to Ometepe was a high priority of the Sister Islands Association. Though the Sandinistas had established community health clinics, ably supported by Cuban doctors, the US trade embargo left Nicaragua without medicines and supplies.