Jeopardy, Nicaraguan-style

Answer. A three month full-time volunteering stint being a teacher's assistant in a Nicaraguan elementary school.

Question. What is the BECA Brigade?

To receive earn a scholarship, all candidates must do this "gig." And if they show up late more than three times, they're out. That's three times in three months.

It isn't easy. It's tough. And almost none of the participants are happy about it. In the first week, it's fair to say most consider quitting. (How do you say "shock treatment" in Spanish?)

But -- if I may dare say so -- it remains one of my best ideas since showing up here in Nicaragua almost five years ago.

Words don't do the BECA Brigade justice.

Pictures can begin to tell the story.

So hang in there you guys! All of us at BECA believe in you.

Becados Patricia and Sergio (in the blue shirts) with some of their clients (June 2012)