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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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Trivial Pursuits

Trivial Pursuits
 
Student assists with orphanage in Nicaragua


 


By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, January 6, 2006

Taylor Green’s family is well-acquainted with Latin America. His grandparents served as missionaries in Colombia, where his father and aunt grew up. His aunt, Sandy Carter, now operates an orphanage and several programs that distribute food to 700-900 children in Nicaragua. Green, a sophomore in the film and television program at the Savannah College of Art and Design, studied Spanish in school and also learned from his father, who is fluent in the language.

So it was fairly natural for his father to suggest last spring that Green spend part of the summer in Nicaragua helping Carter prepare to open a second orphanage. While the orphanage she operates in Jinotega, located in the mountains near the Honduras border, houses about 21 children, the second facility will house infants and children up to age 5.

According to Carter’s Web site, www.childrenofdestinynicaragua.org, “Abandonment of children, especially infants, is one of the biggest problems in Nicaragua … We receive requests from individuals and from government officials regularly to receive abandoned infants. A recent study stated that there are 170,000 abandoned or orphaned children in Nicaragua now.”

The infant orphanage is located in a small community called Los Cedros about 20 minutes outside Managua, the country’s capital. It opened in November 2005 and includes about 100 acres of land that will be used for various agricultural initiatives. Both orphanages and Carter’s feeding programs are operated through Global Missionary Evangelism and Evangel Fellowship International.

Green spent June and July in Nicaragua, where he served as a translator and liaison for visiting church groups, provided transportation and lessons for the orphans, and helped with the feeding programs in Managua.

“We did some construction, going out and having church groups share their message, and went to a community of people living in the city dump,” he said. “That was very intense because people and cows and trash and buzzards are everywhere, and it smells terrible.”

Green said that while the quality of life in Nicaragua is far different than in the United States, the people themselves are surprisingly similar.

“There’s nothing anywhere close to the level of comfort and living we have here,” he said. “There are always people asking for money; if you’re an American, they assume you’re rich.”

However, he added, “It wasn’t really as different as I expected it to be. The orphans are just regular good kids who need opportunities to be fed and taught Christian values. They’re cheerful even though they’ve lost their parents.”

He recommends similar experiences to other students, though he added, “It helps to know the language or at least have some grasp of the language before you leave.”

“It’s good to have another perspective than our relatively pampered American life,” he said. “Plus it makes you feel really good “

He plans to continue his international experience with a work-study position for the SCAD English as a Second Language department this quarter, he said.

Green, who chose writing as a minor and hopes to someday become a screenwriter, found the experience not only rewarding but also inspirational. “I wrote a lot when I was down there,” he said. “It was definitely a bit of a muse.”