El Nispero...

I spent a few days early in December visiting my friend and fellow volunteer, Erin, to work on a project in her town of El Nispero, Santa Barbara. This small colonial village of a few thousand is set in the beautiful Santa Barbara Mountains and can be reached in about an hour by bus on a bumpy dirt road heading south out of the department capital. El Nispero is known for its traditional handicraft of rugs, bags, and small gifts made of reeds from the local Junco Palm, but due to NGO investment in the department capital, El Nispero has little other resources to generate income. Despite lack of local resources, Erin is working hard to bring a new kindergarten and soccer fields to the community, which at current has no space for children to play and an overcrowded kindergarten for the growing population. While Erin manages the organizational and funding of this project, engineers from Plan International are helping on site and drainage issues, and I am assisting her in the design of the new kindergarten.