Rayel was in a group of 25 from all across Canada and one from the United States. “I was the only Saskatchewan participant on this excursion,” Rayel says. “The only other person I know of that has taken part in this program is Kaylee Thomas from Landis who went to Kenya two years ago.” A facilitator, Natalia, met the group in Toronto and another, Jon, was waiting for them in Managua. “Surprisingly the language barrier wasn’t a big deal, especially when it came to talking to kids,” Rayel reports. “Smiles and laughs is a communication all in its own. It was difficult trying to communicate in the market as everything is on the barter system so we all knew numbers in Spanish however the vendors would ignore us because they thought we just didn’t understand.”