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The Cross Cultural construction team tests the strength of the new clinic wall

TThe rain poured in the open windows of the rusty yellow pickup, somehow still running after decades of wear on Siuna's rocky roads. Mario — our guide, friend, and resident engineer — held a plastic tarp over the driver-side door where the glass used to be. We could barely see the muddy wash of road in front of us through the torrents that swept in sheets across the windshield. People stood watching from their porches as coffee-colored rivers rushed past their wooden houses. Stepping out of the truck our legs sank knee deep into the rivers of rain that coursed down the road. Well before we had unloaded our four suitcases, bulging with hundreds of water samples, we were completely drenched.

It seemed an ironic departure. Water everywhere, and here we were in Siuna, Nicaragua, studying why there’s so little that’s fit to drink. Last year, the Tucker Foundation introduced the Cross Cultural Service Education Program. In December, 2001, a team of undergraduates, professors and medical school faculty and students traveled to Siuna, an isolated town of 18,000 in north-eastern Nicaragua. In the dry season, it’s a 12 hour drive on a treacherous dirt highway to Managua, the capital. In the wet season, you better bring a canoe.

Attending to kids with diarrhea and skin rashes and adults with chronic infections in the makeshift clinics the Dartmouth team set up on December’s trip, Joel Wickre ’03 saw firsthand the gravity of the water issue in Siuna. In January he approached Tucker Foundation Dean, Stuart Lord, about a thesis project. This spring we spent our leave term in Nicaragua as the inaugural Cross Cultural Service Education Fellows. The goal of the Program is to create common ground between Dartmouth and other communities through a service exchange that emphasizes academic research.

As part of Tucker's Cross Cultural Service Education Program, we came to Siuna to investigate the town’s water problem, a problem complicated by extensive contamination from a defunct gold mine in the town center. Siuna’s foundational health problem is contaminated water. Our main objective was to collect data for a biomarker study that Joel developed with Dartmouth Medical School epidemiologists Margaret Karagas, Angeline Andrew and Madeline Dalton, and Dartmouth Geologist Stefan Sturup to investigate toxic metal contamination and uptake from the mine waste. This entailed gallivanting through the surrounding region in Mario’s yellow truck, wading in various lakes and rivers to perform tests and collect samples for further testing. It also included an extensive survey of the town.

Each morning we would pair up with students from URACCAN — the University of the Atlantic Coast that had hosted us and helped us with our project. Together we would go door to door in the town, asking questions about water use and purification, food consumption and health history.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the entire experience was walking to the houses with our Nicaraguan guides. They taught us local tongue twisters, jokes and explained their history and politics to us. We would walk away from each house with a little better understanding of Siuna’s life and culture, of the way the people think. We also walked away from each home with a bag full of water, dust, hair and toenail samples to be tested for toxic metals back at Dartmouth.

By giving Siuna and URACCAN a ten-year commitment, Dartmouth can begin to understand and respond to the community’s real needs, while providing excellent opportunities for study of the myriad issues surrounding development. A Dartmouth alumnus will begin full time work in Siuna in September, and the Tuck School of Business will send a team to Siuna in November to further evaluate the community’s needs and forge a plan for Dartmouth to serve most effectively.

We stood on the porch of the rickety airport waiting for our plane with a group of students who had eagerly piled into the back of the pickup despite the driving rain to say goodbye to us. It was clear that we were taking much more than samples with us. What we learned from them in language and culture was invaluable. Living with them, we gained a very real understanding of what life in Siuna is like. We washed our clothes with them, we played volleyball with them and we too learned the words "no hay luz" — there isn't light — and "no hay agua" — there isn't water.

Our Fellowship was a building block, developing a better idea of how Dartmouth can cultivate a relationship with this complex place, rich with educational opportunities and wonderful people. As representatives of the Tucker Foundation, we’re building an understanding of the health problems they face and a plan for how Dartmouth students as world citizens can help alleviate them. For now, we’re back in Hanover, analyzing the samples and beginning the long process of writing our theses. Between the two of us we’ll cover the science of environmental contamination and the social, political and economic aspects of water in Siuna. We’re returning to URACCAN in December, to share the results of our study, to further develop relationships with community leaders and groups, and to see our friends again.