SCARBOROUGH – Oftentimes the most important lessons do not involve a lecture or a test. These lessons come in classrooms that do not have four walls and are not given by a single teacher.

For a group of 11 Scarborough High School students, the last week and a half has been one of those lessons, in the form of a mission trip to Nicaragua. While not run by the school, the trip was spread through it, especially within Spanish classrooms. These 11 high school students were part of a 32-person, nine-day trip.

The trip was run by ADios Ministries (it is a play on words – A Dios, when translated to English, means “To God”), which is a nonprofit organization that has been bringing teams to Nicaragua for about 10 years. The group has developed and sponsored tutoring for children and life skills training for teenagers, and also helped sponsor seven orphans and children of impoverished families in universities.

“We are currently focused in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,” said trip leader Pete Atherton, “and strongly encourage all people to serve.”

The group’s work there is based at an orphanage called CICRIN on the island Ometepe, where the participants stay. This year, the trip included construction projects to control soil erosion, tiling a floor, teaching English, and working at a school for deaf children. Participants also helped rebuild a single–room home that recently burned down for a family of eight.

The students would work until about 4 in the afternoon, when the children would return from school, and would then spend the rest of the evening playing with children. There are currently about 20 children living at the orphanage.

“In addition to providing a critical need to those we serve, a mission service trip can be a life-changing experience for those on the team,” said Atherton. “Our goal is to change lives – those we serve and those who serve with us.”

Hearing from the students themselves, that last bit is clear.

“It’s so hard to explain in words,” said Evon Li, a junior at Scarborough High School who participated. “It’s one of those experiences you can’t explain to someone, you just have to be there.”

For her, the greatest shock was the poverty level. “It really humbles you,” she said, describing houses made of tin, roads filled with trash, and children with just a few items of clothing.

Still, she insisted that it has been the best experience of her life. “I was excited when I signed up,” she said. But after a long day of travelling there, Li said, “I was thinking why did I come. I didn’t think I could do it. But every day I got more comfortable. On the last day it was the complete opposite of the day we got there.”

“The kids get really excited over the smallest things,” she added. In her case, this came into play with her fear of bugs, which the kids discovered and turned into a game, throwing beetles and other small objects that they pretended were beetles not only at her, but down her shirt as well.

“It wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but it makes me happy thinking about how my reaction to the bugs gave the kids quite a laugh,” Li said.

Bugs aside, she loved it so much that she wishes she could have stayed longer and does hope to return next year to keep building the relationships that she has created- and continue to help.

“I survived a week without Facebook and my cell phone,” she said. “It just shows how much you don’t need those things in your life. Seeing the poverty level down there and how they do everything manually, and don’t rely on electronics and things such as computer and TV, it just shows how grateful we should be for the things that we have.”

Ali Pelczar is a junior at Scarborough High School.

Evon Li, a junior at Scarborough High School, was one of 11 Scarborough students to travel to Nicaragua with ADios Ministries, a nonprofit aid group. Samantha Albert, another student in the group, snapped this photo. (Courtesy photo)