Billabong

Keala Kennelly brings her travels to Nicaragua to serve and share the sport of surfing as a SYRV volunteer. A few photos & captions from her trip:

Our first stop was in the small village of Jiquilillo where we stayed at Monty’s Surf Camp. Originally started by Monty a native a Canada he partnered with local businessman Jerry to develop volunteer projects in the local community for guests while on vacation. SYRV has been to the area 7 times previously donating individual water purifiers to local families as well as the Elementary schools. We went back to the schools to test the purity of the water as well as water in the surrounding areas.

We set up at the local community centre in Jiquilillo which was built and developed through SYRV. A previous SYRV traveller Laura an architect designed the community centre which is built out of a shipping container that brought over donations for the community. All the travellers on the trip worked hard to gather donations to purchase individual water purifiers at a cost of $30 each. We were able to donate 65 water purifiers to families in Jiquilillo. It was great to see how excited the families were but it was hard when we got to the last of our donations and there were still families lined up to get filters.

Billabong sent over surf trunks and bikinis to sponsor surf lessons for the local kids. The kids were so excited to get in the water and surf and they couldn’t believe they actually got to keep their new Billabong gear. It was a great afternoon spent playing in the water as some of the kids caught their first waves.

Keala worked with a nice young kid Antonio and pushed him into waves and he would pop up and throw his arms up in excitement. At the end of the trip Keala passed on her surf board to be donated personally to Antonio.

Thanks to our Spanish speaking travelers Cameron and Victor we were able to give a presentation on the effects of garbage in our ocean and waters not only contaminated the water we drink but causing sickness and death to all sea life. After the kids joined us for an enthusiastic beach clean up where we collected 15 full trash bags.

While in Jiquilillo we also volunteered at the local orphanage. Most of the children at the orphanage had lost their parents in Hurricane Mitch but they were the sweetest and most loving kids giving us all individual hugs as we arrived. Cameron taught the kids how to play Ukeleles and donated 3. We brought coloring books and crayons to donate and colored with the kids. When we left the kids performed a beautiful song for us.

We enjoyed ourselves on the trip as well. DJ KK was in the house a couple nights to get the dance floor rocking both in Jiquilillo and Playa Gigante.

The Government of Nicaragua’s version of “The Projects” is rows and rows of shacks located right next to the Dump Yard. We sponsored a meal there and donated clothing to hundreds of family. This was definitely one of the hardest stops to see the children and families to desolate and with nothing some not even wearing shoes or more then underwear. They were happy to get all the clothing that sponsors had donated as well as the clothes that each of the travelers had brought on their own to donate.

Keala along with Stephanie and Michelle served up Chicken Feet Stew to the happy and hungry people. It really put things in perspective for Keala that that was one of their best days ever to be able to get a meal of chicken feet stew, it made her realize her “worst day” is actually rather trivial.

Once in Playa Gigante we got to get some surf in. Keala surfed Colorado’s shooting photos while getting barreled on the steep faces of this famed wave. We also surfed Popoyos but Keala wasn’t able to surf as much as she was surrounded by surf fans that just wanted to chat her up!

This was the first time SYRV had brought travellers to Playa Gigante. Although still a small fishing/surf village with development in the surrounding areas of massive beach front homes reminiscent of the coast of California no one had come to help the community to get clean water. Many of the villagers suffered from Kidney problems. On a previous trip Monique had given a family a water purifier as the wife suffered from kidney problems and after only a few weeks of drinking purified water her problems had subsided. We spent an afternoon at the town plaza, we donated 32 water purifiers, taught english to the kids, did another presentation on the effects of garbage and a beach clean up.

We spent our last day in San Juan Del Sur where people either took surf lessons, hung out at Playa Hermosa, surfed and even fished! It was a great trip and experience for everyone on the trip and we celebrated with an amazing meal at El Colibri.