Pictures

I´ve had a backlog of pictures, since the internet connection hasn´t been the best recently, so this is kind of a mosaic of the past week or so. AMUCOBU is deep into the preparations for the gr

aduation of the sewing and baking workshops as well as the elementary school. For me, this has meant spending many hours making bows out of ribbon. I´m definitely getting sick of ribbon! But it´s been fun gossiping and laughing with the women in the office. I´m feeling like I´m understanding a lot more Spanish, although it´s still frustrating when everyone´s laughing hysterically and I didn´t catch the joke. It will come though. The first picture is of Theres hard at work on a bow. I went to her house on Friday to drink liter bottles of Toña (the local Old Style), dance, sing and learn dirty words from her friends. Her daughter Jania sings exactly like Shakira, and her friend (also named Theres), has the throaty voice of a Mexican folk singer.The sunset is from my weekend at the Laguna de Apoyo, to say goodbye to my friend Sarah. I went kayaking for the first time, cooked pasta and veggie sauce, spent a lot of time swinging in the hammock on the porch of our cabaña and climbed up the side of the crater to the Catarina lookout, where our group ate carne asada, gallo pinto, tostones and salad. The other picture is the front gate of AMUCOBU. It faces the dirt road where the 165 bus passes (every 15 minutes or so), squeezing past oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and over ditches.

Election de Reina

One of the youth, America, invited me to the last day of her technical school before the holiday vacation for the Election de Reina ceremony (reina means queen). Picture a mix between prom and a quinceñera party, with hundreds of screaming teenagers in a tight semicircle around a stage. A panel of judges sitting behind a table in front of the stage. Entering stage left in a cloud of gasoline fumes is a scantily clad teenage beauty on a motorcycle behind a macho-looking guy, wearing a black t-shirt, jeans and sunglasses. Reggaeton music is blasting from huge speakers set up in the front, and a dozen girls dressed in shiny black pants and florescent colored shirts with sequins are doing a choreographed dance with an equal number of guys. The dance involves lots of shaking, thrusting, shimmying and slapping (if you´ve ever watched reggaeton music videos, you´ll understand what I´m talking about). The queen, dancing in the middle is lifted into the air repeatedly by 3 of the guys to the screeches of her compañeras who elected her as their candidate. When she wins, she smiles and waves continuously at the crowd who are chanting her name SARAH, SARAH, SARAH. This was the final presentation of 5, which became subsequently more dramatic. At the end, each candidate gave a speech while standing coquetishly with a hand on her thrust-out hip. Idolatry of the beauty queen. America told me that they elected Sarah party because of her white skin. All of the students had a blast and it seemed like the girls put a lot of planning into their presentations. I felt like I was watching American Idol on Telemundo (have you ever seen those shows from Mexico that go on for hours??) Maybe I won´t give my rant about beauty contests here, and appreciate that the youth were just celebrating the end of the year and having fun (I also won´t deny that I loved the dancing!!)

Women abandoned

The longer I´m here and the more I get to know people, the more I learn about their lives. I´ve had a lot of lingering questions about the stories of the women who work at AMUCOBU. I learn bits and pieces of their lives, like Fatima´s been separated from her husband for awhile, Alicia has one daughter and lives alone, Theres has 3 daughters and no husband... Suddenly this week, almost all of the women who work here opened up to me and shared something of their past. On Tuesday after work, I walked over to Doña Esmeralda's house around the corner. She was sitting on the couch chatting with Ana about Leddys, who´d been crying all day because her aunt had left for a trip to Panama (Leddys sleeps with her aunt Judy and uncle Gustavo every night). Alicia, who lives across the street came over and we started chatting about her daughter´s birthday piñata party this past weekend. She talked about how she and her sister had been crying together about their father, who abandoned their mother and 3 children for another woman when she was 2, cutting off pretty much all contact and support until Alicia was 12. When she was 15 he moved to LA and again cut off all aid and contact, but continued to support the children he had with his other girlfriend. She said that it really hurt her and her sister that he wasn´t at all interested in their lives and left their mother to struggle alone, despite her pleas for assistance from him. She said it hurt her even more that her own daughter also doesn´t have a father and that she only has one last name instead of the normal two (kids take the names of both their father and mother here). Her daughter constantly asks about her father, and asked if he was going to come to her piñata party. Alicia can´t bear to tell her the truth, that her father is not going to be a part of her life (someone else told me that the father of her daughter was married at the time and promised to leave his wife, but didn´t). Theres´husband also abandoned her for the US, but he still calls and sends money for their 4 children. He left one day without telling her... Only after 4 days did she realize he was gone. Every day this week someone has told me a story of abandonment... You can imagine how many more stories there are...

Kids like to argue

This past Sunday was the first gathering of the barrio´s youth group that I´ve gotten a chance to participate in. We organized a recreational activity day. About 50 kids came and split into two teams. We then played 5 or 6 games. I competed in the bottle competition, where you have a pencil hanging from between your legs and you have to squat to get it in the bottle. There was a soccer and kickball game, where the most exciting part of the game was arguing with the referee about how he was wrong and should take back his decision. In fact, this was the most exciting part of all of the games. The last competition was a monopoly-type game testing their knowledge of issues they´d covered in workshops, from self-esteem and sex-ed to communication and leadership. My favorite part was when you could move ahead 5 spaces if you scream ¨Soy bonita!! (I´m beautiful)¨ at the top of your lungs. I was really impressed with how the girls took care of each other´s babies so they could all fully participate in the games. One of the mothers played a fierce game of kickball, while her baby was passed from one person to the next. All of the youth were really enthusiastic about all of the games, cheering on their teams and being really competitive with each other. They enjoyed being with their friends, challenging all of the authority figures, taking leadership roles on their teams and taking over as DJ. It was definitely a fun diversion from daily responsibility.

Guerilla history

Today I went to the Mercado Orientale again with Esmeralda, Fatima and Brenda. I had to go to the bank, and they had to buy Christmas presents for all of the staff. Mercado Orientale is huge... We went to a corner of the market where they sell plastic goods. The store sells all sizes of tupperware, plastic chairs, colanders (for making juice), garbage cans, barrels, buckets, dishes, cups, baskets, etc., in all different colors. Esmerelda bought large buckets, that they´ll fill with rice, beans, sugar and oil for all the staff members. We took a taxi to the other end of the market to a Comedor (little outdoor restaurant), owned by a woman named Linda. It looks like one of the carts that sell Puerto Rican food in Humboldt Park, except made of cement and painted blue. She grills a different kind of meat every day, and today was chicken. While marinated chicken was smoking on her grill, I casually asked Esmeralda if she´d known any guerillas during the war. She said, ¨my husband fought in the war and died in the mountains on October 15, 1987. He worked in a bank, and was called to duty, where he died.¨ She´d told me before that she'd been a widow for 19 years, but didn´t go into any more detail. Esmeralda then recounted that her nephew had fought in the war and her sister. When the Sanidinistas los power in 1990, she lost her job and moved to Miami, where she knew no one. She hasn´t been back since. Also, Esmeralda's son Mario was called to duty at the age of 13 to fight the contras (Mario lives in the barrio too and just finished putting ceramic tile on the floor of our bathroom. His daughter Judy, 7, is hanging out in the cyber right now.) Esmeralda went into the mountains with a group of women looking for him, to take him home. A truck drove them to a certain point, and she walked the rest of the way. Doña Brenda`s husband also went to fight for the guerillas (Doña Brenda is my spanish teacher, but only of dirty words-I won´t tell you what she´s taught me so far...). He survived, although I have yet to meet him...

Esmeralda said that many families in the barrio fought against the contras or have loved ones who died fighting. These memories are vivid still, and seem to live on in the younger generation as well who are very politically concious. Che t-shirts are everywhere, but you get the sense that they actually mean something here, that people take action on his ideals rather than hold him up merely as a symbol. I think I´m going to hear more of these stories as I get to know more people here...

The family...

Yesterday we had a little dance party in our house. Thelma is dancing in front, and Sonia behind her.

The little girl holding the Santa is Itzia, the 2 year old. The other picture is from this past April- Ana, Leddys and Itzia at the beach.

Visiting the kids

The main project I´m going to be working on with AMUCOBU is their Youth Education Team. Since 2000, Maria Lopez and Gustavo Araica have been organizing youth in the community to address problems that they experience having to do with sexuality, pregnancy, STD prevention, self esteem, communication, domestic violence and drug-alcohol use. Initially, they visited each house in the barrio, introducing themselves to the youth and parents, and inviting them to attend recreational events, meetings and workshops. It´s grown since then, from their initial group of 20 youth to over 80 that are currently involved. Friday and Monday, Maria, Gustavo and I walked around the neighborhood visiting some of the youth in the group. We took a shortcut up a rocky, garbage-strewn corridor between corrugated metal fences across the street from the office and turned to the right. A few houses down, we met Sochi, a 15-year old chica who was sitting outside her house in her school uniform on a plastic chair. Maria invited her to the recreational activity on Sunday and we went on our way. We stopped at at least a dozen homes, some in better condition than others. Some of the youth were at work, and we spoke to their parents or siblings. Some had younger babies walking around the house half-naked. We stopped by Fatima's house, one of the staff at the office, and met her 3 sons. Miguel Angel, the oldest, is a grafitti and tattoo artist. Their front wall was painted with grafitti letters and an image of Che Guevara. He and his brother were both wearing Che shirts and they had FSLN posters pasted to the front doorway. It struck me as we were walking around the grassroots nature of the youth organizing project. The 2 organizers are both from this neighborhood and can identify with the troubles that the youth experience growing up in poverty. They also are able to connect with the parents of the youth and help them support their kids through some of the struggles that they´re going through. I´m really excited to learn more about youth organizing from the youth and the team...

Hammocks

I didn´t realize how great hammocks were until I came here. Sitting in a hammock feels like being cradled, that every part of your body is being supported and you don´t have to work a single muscle. Maybe the ultimate laziness... This morning I swung in a Nicaraguan-made hammock at the Crater, a little hotel on the shore of the Laguna de Apoyo. My friends from Granada got up to see the sunrise at 5AM, but I was still sleeping. I did catch a glimpse of it from my top bunk in the dormitory, that looks right out to the lake. I think the Laguna is going to be a great weekend getaway when I need some time to myself...

First few days of work

I didn´t imagine when I came to Nicaragua that I´d be spending an hour and a half in Cost-co! Today Esmeralda, Fatima and I went supply shopping- first to the Centro Commercio (aka, the mall) and then to Price Savers, which is Nicaragua´s Cost-co. I was totally disoriented and thought that I was going back to Logan Square afterwards. Instead, we climbed into a taxi with our purchases and the leftovers of a rotisserie chicken and went back to the barrio.

Things have been going well so far at the office. I´ve spent a lot of time chatting with Gustavo, who I´ll be working closely with on the youth organizing project. He studied anthropology, loves revolutionary Latin American folk music from the 60´s and 70´s, has his own band, and is married to Esmeralda´s daughter Judy. He´s been involved in environmental justice organizing and is really interested in studying the power of music in affecting social change, particularly in rural areas.

The barrio is pretty poor, and doesn´t have any paved roads. Any time a car goes by, a cloud of dust is raised- apparently the dust will get worse in a couple of months. There is only water between 3AM and 7AM, meaning that families fill huge barrels full of water during these hours to use throughout the day, and it´s back to shower in a bucket! Some houses are built sturdily with concrete, and others from scrap metal and found wood. I have felt really welcomed by everyone at the office (most of whom live on the same block). I haven´t gotten the chance to take any pictures yet though...

Carlos Fonseca

Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Carlos Fonseca. Everyone from the AMUCOBU piled into 2 taxis to attend the celebration. It was my first time in the central plaza of Managua. Because of the many earthquakes that have plagued the city, there aren´t a lot of historical buildings still standing. Only one towering cathedral (or the ruins of the cathedral), the presidential palace, the national museum, and a few others. A crowd of people in red and black greeted us (the colors of the Sandinistas). Many waved huge black and red striped Sandinista flags, others wore bandanas with FSLN painted on them. Others wore the pink hats and t-shirts of Ortega's campaign. It seemed to be not only a celebration of Fonseca, but of the recent Sandinista victory in the election. Booming firecrackers went off every few minutes. We pushed through the wall of people surrounding Fonseca´s memorial monument, built during the rule of the Sandinista´s in the ´80´s. Crowned by an eternal flame, the monument was covered with flowers, and stray petals floated in the moat surrounding it. We then stood aside waiting for the parade to pass. I watched people walk by- elderly, babies, young kids with FSLN t-shirts, teenagers wearing tight jeans and black and red bandanas. The parade never passed, so we met up with the rest of our group and squeezed onto an overcrowded schoolbus... The top of the bus was full of youth waving flags and cheering. The bus never actually made it to the barrio, so we had to take a couple of taxis to get home. Celebrating radical history in the streets , with such widespread participation and sense of the revolution being carried on today, is not something I´ve ever experienced in the states.

Managua!

I just arrived in Managua yesterday afternoon. I settled into my room in the barrio Walter Ferrety, which is in the South-east section of Managua. My room is huge! I'm living with Ana, who is 28 and has 3 kids- Cesar (8), Leddys (4) and Itsia (3). I already feel like I'm at home. We hung out at the house chatting and watching reggaeton videos from a bootleg DVD (sold really cheaply at the markets). Later in the evening, we went to the supermarket (Cesar ran around the market with his sisters in the cart while Ana and got some chicken from the deli counter). We cooked dinner together (gallo pinto, fried sweet plantains, cheese and broccoli!) and then went to Esmeralda's house. Esmeralda is the Executive Director of AMUCOBU and lives right around the corner. She's a fiery woman who has strong opinions about everything. We discussed the elections, and what might happen when Daniel takes power. She then told me that today, Nov. 8th, is the anniversary of Carlos Fonseca's death (the leader of the Sandinista revolution in the '70's who was killed in the war). Traditionally, people visit the memorial dedicated to him in central Managua and put flowers on it. We're going there later, and I'm excited to see central Managua for the first time!! (hopefully pictures are to come...)

Sandinista victory

Looks like Daniel Ortega won the election with around 38% of the vote- Eduardo Montealegre, the favorite of the US free-trade proponents, got about 24%. The results aren't final yet. The election seemed to go very smoothly. There were thousands of international observers from all over the world. There didn't seem to be many problems, although some of the polling places closed before 6PM and some opened late. Also, people who were waiting in line to vote at 6PM did not all get a chance to vote. Sarah and I visited our friend Mauricio, a 20-year old who works at the local supermarket and is a friend of one of the kids who lives at Casa Xalteva. He was volunteering at one of the polling places, checking people's ID's and finding them on the list of registered voters taped to the wall of the 7th Day Adventist church. The line wasn't too long. Voters deposited their ballots in cardboard boxes. Sarah and I tried to vote, but they didn't believe I was nicaraguense!! Although the energy company promised, there were some electricity cut-offs throughout the country, but I'm not sure if this impeded the vote counting. I'm very interested to see how the US will respond to the Ortega victory.

The other 2 pictures here are of me and my profesor, Sergio, and me dancing with Mauricio at Cafe Nuit on Friday night- probably salsa...

Election is this sunday

The US has been making various threats that would have serious consequences for Nicaraguans in both the US and Nicaragua if Daniel Ortega wins the election this Sunday. Various Nicaraguan groups are asking for solidarity from people in the US (read below). This is long, but to take action or see links to articles in the Washington Post, scroll down below...

ACTION ALERT - Call Congress to oppose 11th hour sanction threats!

Dear Friend of Nicaragua,
Yesterday, Bush administration officials threatened Nicaraguan voters with economic sanctions on the eve of the presidential campaign, assuring that they would have the last word in the media before Nicaraguans go to the polls *this Sunday*. In Managua, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kristin Stewart, threatened economic sanctions in the event of an Ortega victory. She was joined by four Republican congressmen threatening Nicaraguan voters with a cut off of remittances from the United States. Rep. Tancredo, (R-CO) issued histhreat in a letter to Nicaragua's Ambassador to the U.S. while Rep.Rohrabacher, (R-CA) wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking him "to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent toNicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government." Rep. Royce,(R-CA) and Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) wrote a similar letter to Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice. Yesterday's volley of threats are the strongest yet by the US government warning Nicaraguan people of dire consequences if the FSLN wins. Thepeople of Nicaragua who endured the U.S. sponsored war and economic embargo during the 1980s understand all too well the devastating impactsof U.S. economic sanctions.*We can't let these scare tactics go unchallenged! We need to hold ourgovernment accountable for the abuses against democracy that we are seeing unfold in these last hours. *We have allies in congress who areleading the way:In a strongly worded response, Rep. José Serrano, NY stated, "I amparticularly troubled by the statements of Embassy spokesperson Kristin Stewart. She publicly linked Ortega with terrorist groups and said that the U.S. would revise its policy toward the Nicaraguan government should he win. I believe her words were unfortunate and wrong, and merit awithdrawal.. . I pledge that I will do everything in my power to make sure that the government of the Unites States will respect the wishes ofthe Nicaraguan people regardless of who wins their presidentialelections." Rep. Barbara Lee, CA stated, "Our nation's commitment to democracy means that our government has a solemn obligation to remain neutral inmatters regarding the sovereignty and elections of other countries, especially in the western hemisphere, given our history in the region. No individual lawmaker has the right or the authority to suggest that our government will interfere with the elections of one of our neighbors."*WE MUST BUILD MOMENTUM BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT! WE URGE YOU TO TAKE THEFOLLOWING ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY: **FIRST*: CALL your Congressional Representatives and demand they:

1. Join Representatives Serrano, D-NY and Lee D-CA by issuing astrong statement demanding that U.S. officials remain neutral regarding theelections in Nicaragua and

2. Pledge to respect the outcome of the Nicaraguan elections,*whatever they might be!* GET THE PHONE NUMBER FOR YOUR CONGRESSPERSON/<http://www.democrac yinaction. org/dia/organiza tionsORG/ quixote/getLocal .jsp

YOUR ACTIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE! *We will make clear to Congress thatabusive behavior will not be tolerated, and demand that they must stop undermining democracy in Nicaragua.
Numerous articles - by the Washington Post<http://www.washingt onpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2006/ 11/01/AR20061101 02971.html>, Common Dreams <http://www.commondr eams.org/ views06/1031- 23.htm> and the Washington Office on Latin America<http://www.wola. org/central_ america/nicaragu a/memo_elections _nov_06.htm>- have noted the interference by the Bush administration officialsthroughout this election season. Our website<http://quest. quixote.org/> also provides a report from our electiondelegation <http://quest. quixote.org/ handsoff/ delegationreport> that interviewed actors across the Nicaraguan political spectrum to documentthe unrelenting interference by US officials.*How dare they speak for us as Americans?

Thank you for all you have done.
In Solidarity,
*The Quest for Peace Team,*Bill, Dolly, Tom, Carol, Jenny

Baby Shower

There's a few words and phrases from English that people here use, and one of them is baby shower. One of the teachers at Casa Xalteva, Maria, is pregant, and about to give birth any day. Sarah, our teacher Vanessa (in the picture with the cake) and I went to the market yesterday to buy everything we needed for a fiesta at the school- we got a tiger-shaped piñata (which I learned that women in prisons make and sell to market vendors), and the fixings for tacos with guacamole, beans, cheese, tamales (already prepared in banana leaves), salad and a pink cake that said Felicitaciones on it. Maria thought she was coming to the school for a meeting, but we all jumped out and said Surprise. Jose, a 17-year old who lives at Casa Xalteva, put on some Merengue music and got some of the crowd dancing... including me and Georgina. Maria's other 2 kids also started dancing- the 2 year old was grabbing his crotch and shakin' it. It's going to be sad to leave everyone when I go to Managua, but Granada's only an hour away, so I can visit pretty much anytime... (The other photo is from the Finca Magdalena, the view from our 2nd floor barn room.)

Ometepe

Imagine... I was on the last leg of an 11 hour trip to Omatepe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. My friend Sarah and I were waiting around in Altagracia, a sleepy little town for the 1:30PM bus to Balgue, the nearest town to Finca Magdalena, where we were going to stay. We climbed into the back of the blue and white striped school bus and the only seats left were a pile of bags of cement lined up along the back. We sat down, and 2 gringos came in, a couple. The woman tried to sit on the two stalks of green plantains on the seat in front of us, but decided it best to move them first. Her boyfriend sat next to me on the cement bags. As we slowly began chugging away from the park, we began chatting... the usual, where are you from, how long are you traveling. Not only did we have the same destination, we found that we were both from Chicago, and both from Logan Square!!! Only 2 blocks away... The bus ride, which should have taken an hour, ended up taking 2.5. We slowly bumped along a rocky pot-holed dirt road, at angles that made me question just how much a bus can tip without falling over. At one point, everyone filed out of the bus as they tried to pull it out of a huge hole. We drove by farms of banana and cacao, an isthmus with black sandy beaches, small villages, a river where women were scrubbing their clothes on rocks, until we finally reached Balgue. From there, the four of us climbed a winding dirt road to the farm, stopping to watch some howler monkeys in the trees above us. When we finally reached the farm and turned to look behind us, my jaw dropped at the breathtaking view... Beyond the red, pink and orange hibiscus flowers and orange tiled rooves of the white stucco buildings of the farms we could see the misty waters of the Lake, beyond which lay the Volcan Concepcion, circled by a ring of clouds at the top. A green peninsula dotted with trees jutted out into the lake... an image straight out of paradise. This picture really doesn't do it justice...

Sarah and I stayed in a barn on the second floor, on cots. Talking further with our new friends, I discovered that we have many of the same friends in common... Crazy small world!! The next day we all hiked up to the top of the volcano Maderas- 4 hours up and 3 hours down. At the top was a lake, with black sands. We were in a cloud forest and it looked like we had reached the end of the world...