The Nicaraguan Jungle School

Young Workers Eager to Learn!

All Images by Stephen F. Dennstedt — Unless Otherwise Noted

My brother and I have come to Nicaragua.

We sleep in jungle huts located far downriver from civilization.

The huts are home to bats and frogs and beetles.

Now home for us, as well.

One morning we are chatting with our host, Marvin.

“Do you want to see our school?” he asks. “We’ll be back in five minutes.”

But he is talking Nicaraguan time.

Marvin brings us to a jungle clearing.

We’ve already hiked for two grueling hours, through dense and murky terrain, hot and humid, our earlier coconut milk hydration long sweated from our pores. My brother and I stand resting, wiping our brows, and thinking about all the monkeys we’ve seen high above: Capuchin, Spider, and somewhere in that canopy of intricate, interlaced foliage, Howlers wait for us unobserved.

Marvin’s helper, Samuel, has macheted our way to this spot. There is a path of sorts, but the muck is too deep and cloying for us to risk. So he cuts a pathway all our own, until we look upon a pasture green…