AMESBURY — The thought of sleeping on dirt floors and showering with just a bucket of water and pail isn't something most teenagers would look forward to, but some Sparhawk High School students who had that experience would do it again in a heartbeat.
Ten students and three teachers spent part of their winter break in Nicaragua, where they worked alongside men and women on coffee plantations and doing projects for them in the community.
"We were there to experience the culture of Nicaragua," senior Jacob Marsden said. "It wasn't so much a service trip as in: 'We're here to spread love and joy.'"
The trip to the tiny Central American country was a first for the private school.
In the past, the trips — known as winterim — would take students to San Francisco, London or Boston, where they would stay in hotels, visit museums and monuments and learn about the history and culture, much like a tourist would.
But when the trip to Nicaragua was offered, the students jumped at the chance, teachers Emily White and Daniela Currie-Gutierrez said.
Sparhawk joined with the program called Compas de Nicaragua, which promotes cultural exchanges through service trips and sustainable community development, and the local group divided its time between La Paz and the capital, Managua.
The students quickly got their hands dirty helping to pick coffee beans at a coffee plantation, working in a refinery where animal waste is transformed into biofuel and volunteering with disadvantaged women who run their own micro businesses.
The students and teachers didn't stay at hotels, but instead slept on the floor and ate meals that typically revolved around rice and beans. The hearty meals were necessary for the amount of work they did.
In La Paz, the students spent days picking coffee beans, mirroring the routine of most people in that small coastal town.
"Our host mom told me that everyone in town and the community has picked coffee beans at some point. It's just something they do," student Rachel Perry said.
Senior Mary Kelley said picking coffee beans, which resemble berries on the bushes, is much like what New Englanders would associate with picking blueberries or strawberries.
The students learned the amount of work that goes into turning coffee beans into what everyone is familiar with.
"There's a huge list of what it takes to prepare coffee for roasting: You have to pick it, de-pulp it, de-husk it and let it dry in the sun, clean it and then start roasting," Marsden said.
In Managua, the students spent time sorting the beans after they were picked.
"We had to sort the good beans and the bad beans, so any bad beans that had mold or black on them or weren't completely white, we had to throw into a bad-bean bucket," Kelley said.
Also while in Managua, the students spent a day building a home using plywood, with tin for a roof.
They also helped the women there with a variety of chores, ranging from cleaning the home and cooking dinner to even chopping down a large tree.
It only seemed fitting that the Sparhawk group brought home 300 pounds of coffee beans from Nicaragua.
The teachers are planning to roast the beans and sell them for $8 a pound, with proceeds going back to Compas de Nicaragua.
"All the profits go straight to them," Currie-Gutierrez said. "We're not charging for carrying it, transporting it or distributing it."
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