By BROOKE HATCHETT

Houston Chronicle

June 25, 2008 — Five Montgomery County teens are heading south for the summer, but it's no vacation.

They will spend their school breaks doing some teaching of their own in another country and in a foreign language. The teens are the inaugural envoys of The Woodlands chapter of Amigos de las Américas. The nonprofit is a Houston-based, nationwide organization that sends teenagers to carry out humanitarian projects in Latin American countries across the map.

"It's an opportunity for young people to make a difference in another part of the world," said Celdie Sanabria, coordinator of The Woodlands chapter.

Some of the teenagers will teach residents about hygiene, nutrition and disease prevention while others construct sanitary latrines. Two to three teens will be stationed in each community and will have five to eight weeks to complete their projects. Working alongside community members, the teens will help determine needs and meet them.

"It's not us going in there saying, 'you need this.' Instead we say, 'what do you need,'" Sanabria said.

To foster community involvement, the teen volunteers will live in host homes.

"You actually live with the people," said Claire LeBlanc, an 18-year-old volunteer from Spring. "You don't just go down there and stay in a hotel."

The recent Tomball High School graduate said what makes it even more interesting is the volunteers won't know who their host homes are until they reach their destination.

"You can find yourself completely roughing it or having all the amenities that you have at home," she said.

Program history

Amigos began in 1965 with several hundred Houston-area teens that traveled to Honduras to administer polio vaccines. The nonprofit has gradually taken on other health-related projects like latrine construction and hygiene education. Now, the organization sends out about 700 teens a summer to Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Mexico and Panama, Sanabria said.

She saw the needs Amigos works to provide while she was a volunteer in Panama in the 1980s. Basic necessities like clean water and ample food weren't a given there like they are for most Americans, she said.

"I almost got sick to my stomach thinking of what all we have here," she said.

Many residents also knew little about sanitation and maintainingpersonal hygiene to keep them healthy, she said.

"In Latin America, a 20-year-old may be missing all of his teeth because dental hygiene is not as much of a priority as here. You're basically born with a toothbrush in your hand (here)," she said.

For many volunteers, those cultural differences and a rural environment can be a lot to handle.

"We call it culture shock, but it's more of culture adjustment," Sanabria said.

To help with that adjustment, the teens attend training sessions for months before the trip, and will be debriefed on their projects when they arrive at their assigned community.

"Then it's up to the volunteers to make it happen," Sanabria said.

The teens have 24-hour access to nearby supervisors who check on project progress about once a week, but for the most part, they are on their own.

"They're in charge. There's no daily supervision," Sanabria said. Volunteers are also responsible for their own funds for the trip. The price varies depending on the type of volunteer the teens want to be, but the cost for the five Montgomery County teens was about $4,500 apiece, she said. That amount covers airfare and all expenses, she said.

Learning experience

Sydni Tomblin, an 18-year-old Montgomery resident, isn't too worried she will receive little hand-holding during her trip. She left earlier this month for her stint in Nicaragua.

"It just sounds like an amazing trip," she said.

The recent Klein Collins High School graduate has been to Mexico and Spain for study abroad programs and attended four years of Spanish classes, so she doesn't anticipate any problems with a language barrier either. Amigos volunteers are required to have at least two years of high school Spanish or equivalent experience.

Connor Fox, 16, of The Woodlands Cochran's Crossing neighborhood, signed up partly to work on his Spanish. The John Cooper High School student is heading to Costa Rica for six weeks July 1.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity to immerse myself in another culture and learn the language better," he said.

Even as the youngest of the group, Fox has few concerns about the trip.

"I'm nervous, but I think it'll all work out because we'll have a game plan as far as what to do," he said.

LeBlanc gained a little experience with going out of country for humanitarian projects after a week-long church mission trip to Mexico.

"Right before you take the plunge you're terrified, but once you spend a week in the country, I'm sure it'll be fine," she said.

LeBlanc is heading for Paraguay, one of her five top destination preferences she listed on her application. She was pleased with her assignment, but would have taken anything she was given.

"I really didn't care where I went. Just going is joy enough and privilege enough," she said.

Want to be an Amigo?