RBR's World Challenge Team Returns from Epic Summer Vacation in Central America

Most social studies classes are taught from a book, but the excitement and maturity displayed by the ten students who recently returned from a four-week adventure in Central America as part of the World Challenge program suggests a better approach might be to let kids jump inside the pages and explore.

“The goal of this trip was not only to see another part of the world,” said Cassandra Dorn, of West Long Branch, who teaches English at RBR and chaperoned the group on their journey. “The journey developed problem-solving, teamwork and leadership skills. Basically, every facet of the trip involved student decision-making and planning."

The students, who will all be juniors in the fall, trekked through the tropical rainforests and cities of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, making their own travel arrangements for the most part. They also made a special weeklong stop in the village of El Pastal, Nicaragua to construct a building for a kindergarten class that had been meeting under a makeshift tin lean-to.

"The students were in charge of all the money," said Dorn. "The company handed them $9,000 to have, and they divvied it up and they were responsible for it. I didn't touch group money once."

For 18 months leading up to the trip, , and some worked part-time to afford the cost. Most of the group learned Spanish, which presented Sarah "Smurph" Murphy, of Shrewsbury, with a real-world challenge when she had to book the group's reservations in youth hostels in the first week.

"You had to talk on the phone and it's so hard, you can't use hand signals, you can't point to things... and then the next week I made another reservation on the phone and I actually did fine."

The group left the comforts of the Jersey Shore for Managua, Nicaragua in late June. Shortly after arriving, Seamus Smith received a warm welcome from the local gnat population.

"For some reason, all the gnats just came to me, I was just covered in a cloud of them," said Smith.

The first great challenge met the team on an extremely steep half-mile climb up Volcan Concepcion, a volcanic mountain on Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua.

"We were literally scrambling up the side of the mountain on our hands and knees," said Pat Schroll, of Red Bank, who reached the summit of the mountain along with Trey Peterson, of Shrewsbury. "The climb was on a 25-30 degree angle most of the way up."

The group worked together as a team to avoid the pitfalls of the hike. Schroll recounted that they would turn back and yell to warn each other of holes and other hazards ahead.

When they arrived in El Pastal the second week to do their community service project, they were greeted by a chorus of kindergartners that sang songs to them in English.

"They gave us cornbread and Cokes," said Scott Zackman, of Little Silver.

The team worked together to demolish the tin structure that served as a kindergarten classroom, then mixed concrete, laid the foundation, and painted the new building's walls. They built everything but the structure's roof using $500 they raised from a pizza night for construction supplies, and used another $500 they received from World Challenge to give the class school supplies.

Over the course of the week, the group alternated between building the school, playing with the children, and painting games on the playground concrete, which included a half basketball court, hopscotch, stick figures, and a giant mural with trees and flowers.

"We bought the bricks and the local people had a design for the school," said Zackman.

"They wanted to make their own mark on it," Gunnar Wainwright, of Little Silver, explained.

Aisling "Ling" Howley, of Brick, said it was a bit difficult for the girls of the group to get involved because the local men had different views on women's roles than the girls were used to in the United States.

"Smurph (Sarah Murphy, of Shrewsbury), Skylar (Haugenes, of Little Silver) and I, we tried laying concrete and [the men of the village] would push us out of the way and say 'you can't do that' and we're like 'no, we can.'"

Murphy said that though the language and culture differed, they were able to find common ground.

"[The kids] were just like us, all they wanted was someone to play with them," said Murphy. "I met this one girl there and I smiled at her and she immediately wanted to give me a hug just because she knew what we were there to do and she was grateful."

Peterson said volcanic ash took the place of grass on the El Pastal playground.

"Everywhere was this black dust, so all the kids would always be dirty from rolling around in that," said Peterson.

"And they didn't seem to care," Dorn added. "We were pretty dirty too, by the end of the days."

El Pastal's system of eliminating daily grime was a bit antiquated, as Murphy explained, "it's so completely different there, their water source, they take it from a well and then they dump it into this giant tub outside their house. The way they take showers is they take a big bucket and pour it over their heads and that's a shower for them for the day."

Dorn said she was impressed with the way her group adapted to the culture shock of a week of Nicaraguan village life in which they camped out inside the school's elementary building, which had screenless windows divided by open bars.

"Honestly I thought that 15 and 16-year-old girls would not be able to cope with not taking a shower for a week, and the bucket shower was like 'sweet, alright bucket shower I'm clean now let's keep working'" said Dorn.

Save for one monster snack run, the group traded in American comforts such as McDonald's for local fare, which Zackman said included yucca, cabbage and pig ears.

"We weren't American pretty much, we ate where all the locals ate, shopped where all the locals shopped," said Howley. "It wasn't like we were American tourists."

However, the bucket of cow that sloshed around with them on a crowded hour and a half bus ride through Nicaragua took a bit of getting used to.

"This guy put a big bucket of cow on the bus, not cooked or anything," said Schroll. "You could see its hoof and it smelled disgusting."

"Nicaragua's public transport system is school buses," said Wainwright, recalling a "Ghostbusters" themed bus, along with another bus that had been designated a name and decorated with Mercedes emblems and flames. "And if you ever thought a bus was full -- it wasn't," added Howley.

Students noted the lack of waste management they observed when they arrived in Granada, Nicaragua. Peterson recounted that "if you weren't careful, you might fall into a giant hole up to five feet deep either filled with garbage or water."

Heading south to Costa Rica, the team crossed narrow suspension bridges into the cloud forest (a tropical rainforest capped in fog), and ziplined down through the canopy. They took a dip in a local swimming hole, and saw several mountain waterfalls in preparation for their biggest challenge yet -- a 3,000 meter climb to the summit of Cerro Ena.

The group helped each other carefully traverse rushing water streams and offered each encouragement as they battled torrential rain and ankle-deep mud on their nine and a half hour hike to the peak. At the top, the team met with another World Challenge team from England, got a change of clothing, and Zackman said they could see both Panama and the Caribbean Sea.

The trip did not proceed without its mishaps. Almost everyone on the team took ill at various points. Petersen suffered mild hyperthermia on the final mountain trek. Abby Gerth, of Shrewsbury, was momentarily lost on a hike but was reunited with her group by several Norwegian tourists. There was also a moment when Zackman and Wainwright, who volunteered to handle the group’s accounting, briefly misplaced $1,000 for about an hour during one budgeting meeting.

"It was in my jacket pocket," admitted Wainwright, who felt budgeting was the greatest challenge of the trip. "We had to make very shrewd decisions on where to go and how much to spend so we had enough left for all the remaining activities.”

The students returned at the end of July exuberant and ready for their next adventure. Peterson said he'd like to go to Africa. Haugenes is thinking about the Peace Corps.

Murphy perhaps captured the essence of the experience best, remarking, “You grow as the trip goes on. I feel so much more independent.”

Returning home from the summer vacation of a lifetime, the group of former acquaintances found themselves with new bonds of friendship, as Gerth remarked “We first went on a plane sensing a little awkwardness between us and now, wow. There is no awkwardness anymore.”

"By the end of the trip we all kind of learned each other's sense of humor and worked together pretty well," added Howley.

The full group included Alex Gorry, of Bradley Beach, Aisling "Ling" Howley, of Brick, Skylar Haugenes, Seamus Smith, Gunnar Wainwright, and Scott Zackman, of Little Silver, Pat Schroll, of Red Bank, Abby Gerth, Sarah Murphy and Trey Peterson, of Shrewsbury.

For more information on the World Challenge Expeditions, visit their website at http://www.world-challenge.co.uk.