Volunteer with Community Development Building in Nicaragua

This was a very important project. Building a house within a week allowed us to engage in a project with very concrete outcomes, and our group had the opportunity to see the impact that its work had on the community with which we worked. The organization engages in valuable, sustainable work within the communities that it serves, and we felt fortunate to have been a part of that. Working on a construction site with a group whose abilities varied, with little training, was challenging, but in the end we were able to build a house and fulfill the goals of a project. Not everyone involved put forth the same amount of effort, but that is to be expected, to some degree. In such a context, flexibility is key; regardless of how well you prepare, you don't fully know what you will encounter. On the whole, it was a very rewarding project and overall experience; it was affordable and, for the most part, well-organized. I would recommend this program to other groups.

The trip as a whole was brilliant. We accomplished building a sturdy, spacious house for a large family that did not have an adequate housing structure before we arrived. The coordinators for PSE had very good intentions but at times lacked initiative, execution and communication. Some members who worked for PSE did not work as hard as others and at times it felt like we could have been doing the work more efficiently to accomplish our goals. While the trip was an enormous learning process for myself and my group, I hope PSE learned as much on there end about improving the program to provide quality service trips to future organizations.

This experience was great as we were able to build a house for a family of four in one week. We were able to see the conditions they were living in previously and complete the house so they could move in! It was awesome to celebrate with them at the end of the week and see their faces as they were imagining the new life they would have in this new place!