the '80's

It's really funny how when you talk about the '80's here, it's a totally different thing than in the states. When I think of the '80's, I think of the Cold War, Ronald Reagan (and his crappy politics), conservativism, backlash against the political movements of the '70's, and Madonna and Michael Jackson, of course... (Being a historian, I want to make the side note that I know the struggles of previous decades continued in the '80's despite the dominant culture of backlash and that many new struggles of solidarity were also born. The stuff I mention above is like the VH1 flashback version of the '80's that many of us middle class Americans grew up with...).

So anyways, when people here talk about the '80's, they have a totally different picture in their heads, and a totally different feeling. They may also think of Ronald Reagan, but from the other side of his policies. They'll think of the war between the Sandinista army and the CIA funded Contras. Some who were in the army look back with pain and nostalgia to their days in the mountains-listening to breakdance/disco music brings these days back with clarity. Some look back with pride on the Sandinista government, and how their policies helped the country more than the neo-liberal policies of the succeeding administrations. Some are reminded of the '80's by the revolutionary folk songs sung by Carlos Mejía Godoy, and when they first learned to dance folklore when they were kids.

When people talk about the '80's here, I have to change my VH1 flashback to a revolutionary one...

First week of class

Wanted to update everyone on how the class is going... I've been busy planning the lessons, which is why I haven't had time to write... The first week of a class is critical, I think, for setting the tone of the year. So the most important idea I wanted to convey was that the class will be participatory and based on their interests and goals. In both the Sunday class and the daily class, we did an activity I got out of Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Augusto Boal, the founder of the Theater of the Oppressed methodology (word to Gina and Cory if you're reading this!!). It's called the Hypnotist and got the students running around and thinking about communication and leadership. They also wrote out their goals for learning English. Most of the students are truly interested in learning English and have significant reasons for this. One is the opportunity to find better jobs, as unemployment is a HUGE issue for youth here, leaving them bored, with little hope for the future and no money. Other reasons they want to learn are to help them with their regular school courses, talk with family in the states, read product labels-medicine instructions, talk with visitors, understand music and movies shown in English, and understand things they see on the internet. All in all, I think they have been having fun so far, and so have I! The more prepared I am for the class, the more fun I feel I can have, so I've been preparing a lot. Any creative lesson plan ideas anyone has, let me know!!

Participatory research

The girl in the photo is Xochilt (one of the members of the Youth group) at the rally. This guy was spray painting tattoos of Ché and Sandino in red and black, the Sandinista colors.

I went to a very interesting discussion yesterday at the Casa Ben Linder (www.casabenlinder.org). Two representatives from an organization called Health Unlimited spoke about their work with indigenous women on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. This region of the country has it's own culture- more like the Caribbean islands. People speak a Creole mix of indigenous languages and English, and many are of African descent. One of their projects is to help indigenous women advocate for better and more culturally sensitive health care services. They conducted a participatory research project to help identify the issues that they found to be the most important to address. Some of these included lack of medications, lack of funds to travel to the doctor and insensitive treatment by medical staff. Participatory research for community development is such an exciting way of counteracting the top-down development models enacted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund who enact projects that often hurt communities more than they help. Although the process is long, each community member feels that their input is heard and also feels empowered to change the conditions in their own lives. It's a team approach, wth the help of NGO's, universities and other officials involved. I'm hoping to do some participatory research with the kids in the English class. I'll let you all know how it goes...

Domestic Violence

Today I got the chance to chat a bit with one of the women who cleans the centro, A. She actually lives here in the building with her boyfriend (who's the security guard) and her two daughters. The girls are cute and always say hi to me every morning when I come through the gate into the school yard. This morning she was in the room where the sewing workshop is held sweeping out the dust and leaves that had blown in overnight (there is an insane amount of dust that blows around all the time here, getting into everything). I had heard that she might be moving, so I asked her about it. She said that for the past year, she's been having problems with Doña Esmeralda who says she doesn't want her to work here anymore. From what I see every day, A works harder than most of the staff. She wakes up early in the morning to fill up the barrels of water and sweep out the office and internet cafe. I don't even know everything she does, but she is responsible for cleaning everything, including the school yard, washing dishes, running little errands, keeping the dust under control, etc. She also helps take care of the building at night.

In any case, she told me how she was married to Doña Esmeralda's nephew for 9 years (the father of the girls). He treated her badly... coming home drunk, hitting her, threatening her, yelling at the girls. She used to run to Doña Esmeralda's house in the middle of the night for protection. Once, he followed her and cut her with a knife. Finally, she left him and Doña Esmeralda said she could live here at the centro. The dude apparently has threatened to kill her a number of times. I don't completely understand why D. Esmeralda wants her to leave and was seemingly angry with her, but A said she has nowhere to go if she can't live here... She doesn't even have the wood and metal to build herself a room to live in (people's homes here in the barrio generally start with whatever pieces of wood or other material that can be bought or found). I think I'm going to look into what DV services there are here, just to know what people's options are when they get into similar situations... I just don't have any idea...

Inauguration

Here are some pictures from the inauguration of Daniel Ortega (from the Nuevo Diario... I'll post mine later). I went with a group from the centro and am kicking myself that I didn't stay for the speeches!!! When's the next time Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega will be in the same place at the same time giving speeches about creating a latin american bolivarian union, challenging US imperialism and building socialist republics? Chanting "el pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido" with hundreds of thousands of nicaraguans as they play the hymn of the Sandinistas, black and white FSLN flags waving, fireworks going off. We left early because we'd already been waiting for 3 hours... Hugo Chavez was late, having had his own inauguration earlier the same day, so the activity didn't start until 8PM, when it was supposed to start at 3!!

It's hard to tell what direction Daniel is going in. It seems like he's making alliances with the other leftist presidents in Latin America, but also has an interest in not pissing off the United States, for economic reasons. Chavez is promising to help out the economy, building some electric plants and providing oil at cheaper prices. But Daniel is also inviting US companies to build more maquiladoras (factories) here, which basically use people here as slaves, paying virtually nothing and treating them poorly. See this article from the Guardian for some more background-info http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6333672,00.html

Good News!!

I just wanted to update everyone about the little girl Elipsia. After getting treated with chemotherapy, the tumor in her eye reduced 70% and they won't have to remove her eye! Everyone here has been crying with happiness. They have been praying very hard for her all of this time and visiting various saints, so we just finished with a prayer of thanks. First we held hands and sang 2 Evangelical songs and did an Evangelical prayer where everyone individually prayed their thanks to God and cried. Then Maria gave a prayer, thanking God, who is both mother and father, recalling the strong love of mothers that must be present in God as well. She said that we will continue praying for all children and people who are sick, that the same miracle will happen to them as to Elipsia. A few other people followed their prayers, including Nager, Elipsia's father, who thanked everyone who had prayed for her and been present for her through this whole time. Jorge added that everyone had been supportive like a family, and the unity that we felt was powerful.

I found it beautiful that both Evangelicals and Catholics were unified praying together for the health and well-being not only of Elipsia, but for everyone present and all people who are sick. It reminded me of the Kaddish when everyone stands and says the name of a loved one who is sick, and everyone prays for the health of all. No one present was thinking only of Elipsia, but how the happiness we were feeling at her recovery could be brought to all who suffer similar pain or illness. When I pray with people here, I feel even more connected to the values of Judaism even though we're of different faiths.

Baking in the backyard

I still have the aftertaste of orange zest in my mouth... Gustavo and I went to visit Doña Janet and Doña Gilma. They participated in the Baking workshop at the centro a couple of years ago. Since then they've partnered up to bake cakes for sale in the neighborhood. We were sent to take pictures of the baking process. Doña Janet and Doña Gilma are outgoing, talkative and funny, not to mention fiery, opinionated and hardcore Sandinistas. Doña Janet's house is one large room, divided by furniture and sheets hung from the ceiling. It's constructed of corrugated metal and scrap wood. We sat in the backyard, where the outdoor oven is (the backyard and oven are in the pictures). Doña Janet is fascinated by flowers... she has plants growing in every corner of the yard, some seedlings growing in halved coke bottles and coffee tins. The two women told us how they learned to use their outdoor oven correctly... After burning a few cakes and undercooking a few more, they learned exactly when to put the cake in the oven using the paper test... When you throw a piece of newspaper in the coals and it slowly smokes, rather than bursting into flame, the oven is ready. After about 5 minutes of being in the oven, the sweet smell of orange pound cake permeated the air. They told us that when they're baking, you can smell the cakes all over the neighborhood. The neighbors mouths start watering and come by begging to taste them. While we waited for the cake to bake, the time passed quickly as the two women and Gustavo traded stories of the war and revolution. Doña Janet volunteered as part of the police force during the war against the contras both in the mountains and the city, and also as a midwife (which she still does). She also taught literacy classes in the mountains as part of the literacy campaign of the Sandinistas during the early '80's. Gustavo told a story about when he was living and working in the mountains of the north. One night he heard gunshots. He was freaked out, as he was living on his own, and hit the floor. One of the neighbors came and told him that the reContras (the former Contras who were against the new gov't of Violeta Chamorro and terrorizing the countryside) were killing other liberation theology affiliated workers nearby, and he should get out of there fast. He packed up and left.

So after smelling the wonderful smells of baking cake for 40 minutes, they took the cake out of the oven, let it cool, and gave each of us a big piece. Tangy and sweet at the same time, I savored the cake slowly, as I had savored the smell, and washed it down with a couple of sips of Coke. I think I could have stayed there all night listening to their stories...

Life goes on

While things are generally really good here, I feel like I’m entering another stage of my time here. At first everything is great. Meeting new people who are interested in meeting you, learning about their lives, the community, the new job. You see problems, but you also idealize the good things. Then at some point, the differences and problems grow. Despite the warmth and welcoming that everyone has given me here, which definitely continues, the novelties have worn off, both ways. The differences between us, that we come from radically different backgrounds and life experiences, grow. There ceases to be new things to talk about.

One of the problems that have superseded others is the phenomenon of gossip, both in the community and in the office. Usually the biggest topic of conversation is other people, what they’ve done, what their kids have done, and whatever their particular judgement of the situation is. I’ve found myself getting involved in the gossip circle too, as my life is sometimes the topic of discussion, and people sometimes have judgements of my life and actions. Also, since these are the main topics of conversation, in order to be friends with people and bond with them, this is what you talk about. So trying to integrate into the community and make friends, I’ve started gossiping about other people too. Although nothing bad has come of this so far, I’m making a pact not to do this anymore, because I don’t want to become involved in the disputes and alliances within different sectors of the community or in the office.

The other is the kids in my house, particularly the youngest. I love them to death (seriously, I do!), but they can be really crazy sometimes! Itzia throws temper tantrums all the time over nothing. She’s really demanding that people give her what she wants immediately, and I think the fact that she usually gets the things she wants when she screams and cries makes her continue to do it. Sometimes Leddys, the 4 year old, will lose control and just start hitting you or climbing all over you if she’s angry about something. When we went to the mall one day, we were in the food court, and Leddys got angry about the kind of drink we ordered so she sat in the middle of the floor yelling and took her shoes off. Meanwhile, Itzia was throwing a tantrum because she couldn’t go on any more rides.

The other problem that just came up yesterday is Karen’s disappearance. She was taken in by one of the staff (W) here when her mother abandoned her. I think she was about 9 when taken in, and now she’s 14. The staff person has taken care of all of her basic needs and helped her throughout her adolescence. However, from what I’ve seen, it seems like it’s obvious that she’s not treated like her other kids. W orders her around, makes her fill up the barrels of water, cook, wash the clothes, etc, then criticizes what she’s done, saying the soup is bad, you did this wrong, or too slow, cut the onions too small, don’t take care of your clothes, etc. When her other daughter, the same age, isn’t expected to do anything around the house. Karen has to stay home and take care of the house when everyone else is out. But I’ve never seen her yell back or complain. Recently, W has been complaining about how she has to follow Karen around to make sure she doesn’t sleep with any boys, that there’s tons who she’s going out with and she’s really promiscuous. I have no idea whether she has boyfriends or not, but to have your mom criticize you and basically call you a whore must hurt.

W arrived at Doña Esmeralda’s house crying yesterday because Karen hadn’t come home. She had supposedly left to give some shoes to a friend of W’s at around 5 and never returned. She didn’t take anything with her. All last night she was worried and waiting for Karen to call, but she never did. They don’t know whether she went of her own will or just disappeared. This morning I went by the house to see what happened, if she’d called during the night. I just pictured the kid wandering the streets, or kidnapped, or dead by the side of the road. It’s not safe out there, with gangs and violence and predators. So when I arrived, T said that she didn’t want Karen back. If she was so ungrateful to leave without a trace, she wasn’t welcome anymore. She made her decision, now she has to deal with the consequences. I was just sad, almost to tears, at her jumping to conclusions and lack of worry over the other possibilities… that she could be hurt, or in danger. Poor kid. I just really hope she’s alright or that there could have been some intervention beforehand to prevent this...

Pictures

http://bochanica.spaces.live.com/

Gustavo posted a bunch of pictures from past youth group events on this site. Check it out!!

History of gangs in Managua

Gustavo was just telling me a little bit about how gangs really became a problem in Managua. He said it started when Doña Violetta Chamorro took power in 1992, when Daniel Ortega and the revolutionary government were voted out. At this time, many of those who fled Nicaragua during the revolutionary government returned home, bringing the youth culture of the US with them... clothes, music, etc. They also introduced new drugs to youth in Nicaragua, including cocaine and crack. Chamorro changed many things. She reduced the military, putting many people out of work, people with experience with firearms and violence. They sold much of the equipment of the military as well, although the money wasn't kept track of and none of it went to good use. Also, apparently, a tribunal ruled against the US and CIA for their involvement in the war, and the US was to pay millions of dollars to the Nicaraguan government. However, Chamorro refused the money to maintain good foreign relations with their neighbor. In addition, the school system changed. While previously you didn't have to pay, Chamorro decreased the budget for schools, forcing them to charge families monthly for each student enrolled. Many youth stopped going to school for this reason. There was inflation as well. Although many new goods flooded the markets from the United States, people couldn't afford them, as the value of their money decreased more and more every day. Unemployment also grew. So youth, with few prospects for employment and education turned to using and selling drugs, robbery, and other illegal ways to survive. Since then gangs have grown, particularly in many of the poor neighborhoods.

Pictures... One from New Year's Eve in front of Doña Esmeralda's house with a bunch of the grandkids, Ana and Sonia, and the other is from the wedding of Tere's daughter Jania, with her husband Holmer (lots of dancing, good food, and excitement... I helped cook and serve the food all day...)