 "Photo: photo provided by Andrea Tappmeyer")
"Your nose is broken."
Hearing this in English is painful enough.
"Tu nariz se rompio."
Hearing it in Spanish, during the second week of job training in a new town - in a country which happens to be the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, can take pain to another threshold.
One of the first cultural connections Maryville native Andrea Tappmeyer made during her initial days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua was between her nose and a two-by-four being carried upon a local's head.
"Quirky" is how she describes this day of playing street soccer with children which almost sent her away from her Peace Corps mission of serving America for the purpose of peace by working in a developing county.
Despite being medically evacuated to Panama for a month, Tappmeyer wasn't deterred. She had made a commitment to her new community, a nation where years of political and economic disorder have hindered development, leaving more than half the population unemployed or underemployed.
Seizing opportunity, Tappmeyer wasted no time: while recovering from surgery in Panama, she hooked up with the creator of Northwest's Panamanian student exchange, Debbie Psychoyos. The new friendship sparked the idea for a similar partnership between Maryville and Villa Sandino, Nicaragua, two towns that share a special place in Tappmeyer's heart - and a striking parallel in nicknames.
Plans for the "Villa 2 Ville Initiative" have sharpened in the eight months that passed.
Tappmeyer said that upon returning to Nicaragua to teach language and small business development skills, she has witnessed a culture that can't think in terms of the future due to the severity of its past.
Working with the help of university contact Jeffery Foot, Tappmeyer is proposing an intensive two-week leadership and language-training program at Northwest for 12 high school students from Nicaragua. While staying with Maryville host families, the students would enhance their English skills and graduate from a specialized workshop at the Missouri Academy with tools that can help them step out of complacency and take charge of their future.
"With 53 percent of the country's population under the age of 18, the youth of Nicaragua are one of its best untapped resources," said Tappmeyer.
For now, Tappmeyer is keeping the project a secret from the 4,000 residents in her small town until she can guarantee the program will meet fund raising goals of $50,000.
"Without the money, I don't want to offer this program to the students and have to negate it," said Tappmeyer. "I don't want to get their hopes up."
Currently, Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Mu have committed to raising funds for one student. Ideally, Tappmeyer would like to see 11 more pledges like this.
According to Foot, the project is gaining momentum in the community but is still in the proposal phase with no finalizations set.
Tappmeyer hopes that with more funding the project can move forward within the next couple months in order to reach the anticipated program date of January 2010. She believes the intercultural exchange will benefit both communities who would learn not only from their diversity, but also their likeness.
"I do kind of feel the town that I'm living in is like a little Maryville: it's stuck in the middle of the country, kind of like Missouri," said Tappmeyer. "Like Maryville, it's a small farming town and the people even call it 'La Villa' which is 'The Ville' in Spanish."
Tappmeyer has fallen for the contrasting vibrancy and simple nature she finds in the warmth of the Nicaraguan culture. The way 'La Villa' has fully accepted her in a community where she is one of two Anglo-Saxons, reminds her of home.
"Maryville is always my community and I always felt embraced by it," she said. "I'd love to do an exchange and with all the community resources together we can make that happen."
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