ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors draw on our unique positionalities-insider/ outsider and practitioner/ researcher (Herr & Anderson, 2005) - having each worked in different roles in the same ten-year international service-learning (ISL) partnership between Villanova University Engineering Service Learning (VESL) and the municipality of Waslala, Nicaragua. Reynolds, a Villanova alum, first traveled to Waslala with a group of friends in 2002-a trip that marked the beginning of Water for Waslala (WfW), an organization focused on ensuring access to clean drinking water for everyone living in Waslala. Reynolds currently lives in Philadelphia, but continues to serve as Executive Director of the organization and has travelled to Waslala more than twenty times. Gasparini, originally from Chapeco, Brazil arrived in Waslala in 2004 with a plan to volunteer with La Parroquia, the original community partner, for two years. Over ten years later, he lives in Waslala with his wife and eight year old daughter and currently works as the Director of WfW. Pulling from these different positionalities the authors pursue “the possibility of crafting uniquely complex understandings” of this ISL partnership (Herr & Anderson, 2005, p. 46).
