Tikkun Olam in Nicaragua

Volcano!

2007-11-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

I'm posting some pics of the hike I took up Volcano Telica in the volcano belt of the West coast of Nicaragua. It was a beautiful scenic hike, through corn and bean fields. We rested under a grapefruit tree where I ate a tart green fruit. When we reached the top I felt like I was on top of the world. We had a beautiful view of the other volcanoes in the distance, fields as far as the eye could see far below, and the open steaming crater of the volcano. Later we climbed up to peer over the edge of the crater. It was like looking straight into the core of the earth. And scary too, because the walls of the crater were steep and it felt like you could just stumble right over the eduge. We camped below the crater in a flat valley strewn with volcanic rocks and watched the sunset from on top of the world.

Living on Coconut bread

2007-11-06T12:03:00.000-06:00

I just spent the last week on the Carribean coast of Nicaragua. There's really too much to tell here, so I'll just post some pictures.

The first picture is of the main street of Bluefields. The others are from Little Corn Island. I went with my friend Leo, who had to go for work. Despite the fact that it rained the first few days, the sun finally came out the last day and we enjoyed the colors of the water. I ate lobster in Bluefields, listened to coastal reggae and socca music on the wharf waiting for the boat to Pearl Lagoon, and learned some Creole sayings. I also took a variety of boat rides, from extremely scary huge waves on open sea to a speedy lolling ride from Bluefields to Pearl Lagoon. And of course, I ate a ton of coco bread.

Religion discussion

2007-10-17T11:25:00.000-06:00

My friend and coworker Maria at the centro bought me a beautiful hardcovered planner for my birthday. It's in Spanish, and it's a bible planner. Normally if someone in the states gave me a bible planner, I'd probably be annoyed about it, either because of the assumption that I'm Christian or that I would want to convert to Christianity. In this case I felt differently.

During the Rosh Hashanah celebration that I organized at the centro, we had a discussion about Christianity and Judaism. One of my coworkers noted when I translated the prayers that they were very similar to the prayers that they say, blessing God for the food and shelter that they enjoy. We talked about how Jesus grew up Jewish and that we share the Old Testament.

Maria told me that she knew that I'd like her gift, based on the discussions we've had about religion. She participated with Gustavo in a project with youth in a neighboring barrio based on liberation theology, and what they call the misa campesina. The misa campesina is a collection of songs, readings and practices based on the values of social justice found in the Bible and in the life of Jesus. Maria and Gustavo organized the youth and encouraged them to take and interpret these texts based on their reality, and to use them to make changes in their neighborhood. I told Maria about Tikkun Olam, and how the base values of our religions are so similar. Gustavo jumped in saying that many people think going to church and passively receiving the words of a priest or of God make them the most devout Christians. But he said that people need to take action on these beliefs to really complete the contract with God.

I hope with this planner that I can learn more about how the Bible propounds these values to build bridges between my faith and that of the community in which I'm working and living.

Rainbow

2007-10-11T16:56:00.000-06:00

It's been raining cats and dogs for about a week. It rained all day yesterday on my birthday, but I like the rain, so it was cool. Apparently October is the rainiest month. I remember when I came last year that it rained every morning, and in the afternoon usually as well. (as a side note, on Oct. 15 I will complete one year of being here!!!)

Today it started raining right when I was getting off the bus. I have to walk about 3 blocks from the bus stop to the Puntos office. At first I waited in the bus shelter, but decided to just run for it. I ended up getting totally soaked, including soaking through my shoes (they stink now).

It let up in the late morning, and started again in the afternoon. After English class with the kids, it had stopped raining and the sun actually showed its face. Reflecting on the clouds and the humidity that remained, a full rainbow stretched over the treeline in front of the classrooms. I think it might be the first time in my life that I've seen a full rainbow.

Whose got the biggest balls?

2007-10-05T10:36:00.000-06:00

No this is not a joke. This was the name of a contest sponsored by the Mayor's office of Managua to raise awareness about waste management and recycling. The youth in Walter Ferretti participated, collecting plastic bags, plastic bottles and cardboard, working tirelessly trying to make huge balls of garbage. They met every afternoon glueing cardboard, tying together plastic bags and rolling them up like a huge ball of string (think aluminum foil ball on Peewee's Playhouse). I was very impressed by how well they worked together, dividing up tasks between the four balls and coordinating the collection of garbage. They ended up winning 3rd place in the contest, which was $100, and they're going to use the money to take a trip to the beach with all who participated.

Leadership

2007-10-02T12:14:00.000-06:00

Gustavo and I planned a leadership workshop for the kids in the youth group that we facilitated on Sunday. It was a true collaboration in the planning process, as I contributed parts of the leadership workshop I did with Gina at Heartland, and he contributed his own ideas based in his 10 years of experience working with Nicaraguan youth. We both got really excited about our ideas and how to make the workshop as participative as possible.

Because we started late (an hour and a half!!), we didn't have nearly enough time to do everything we'd planned. The two activities we started with were fantastic! We did an activity called People and Things. In each group, one person was the "person" and denominated each person as a "thing" that they would use. In the first picture, Marling is sitting on her chair watching her TV, and in the second, the kids are sitting on their sofa. The idea being that they think about how it feels to be used and how it feels to treat others like things.

The next activity was a dramatization of the different kinds of leaders... autocratic, bureaucratic, paternalistic, democratic and passive. I was amazed by the kids' ability to improvise theater. They were hilarious and creative, and they didn't need hardly any props, just dialogues. I've definitely noticed that kids here are able to tell long stories from a young age, like their parents, with all the gestures and comments that adults make. It's pretty incredible.

The only things was that we couldn't really deepen the discussion. The kids started losing interest and didn't have the background knowlege I'd expected. When we asked them to think of a leader and the characteristics they admired in them, most answered their mom or dad because of the support they gave them throughout their life. It was very superficial. There wasn't time to talk more about leadership qualities and have them set their own goals for themselves about how to be better leaders. But the good thing was that they participated and maybe came away with something (including a good lunch!)

Participatory Evaluation

2007-09-27T09:35:00.000-06:00

The other day one of my students at Puntos, who actually works for the Central American Women's Fund across the street (http://www.fcmujeres.org/) said that her boss wanted a complete evaluation of the class, to make sure that the money they were making a good investment in English classes and that the students were making progress. I played it cool, but was panicking a little, because I felt like it was a test of how good of a teacher I am. Ahh!

So I decided to go back to the book that my friend Jana recommended to me, Making Meaning, Making Change about participatory ESL learning. They say that traditional evaluations have been very unsuccessful, and that evaluation is a process of learning and collaboration between the teacher and the students that continues from the beginning to the end, starting with the students' goals. I took a sigh of relief, and gleaned many ideas from the book for ways to involve the students in the evaluation process using activities and excercizes that are applicable to their lives. Today I started by having a discussion about the times that they have needed or will need to speak on the phone in English. Out came some of their fears about speaking on the phone (which is so hard to do in a foreign language!!!). Then they picked one of these situations and wrote a dialogue about it. As one of them was about giving a financial report to their accountant in the states, they had to look up a lot of relevant vocabulary. Hopefully some of these tools will come in handy when I'm teaching English in the states...

Another side of Nicaragua

2007-09-20T09:25:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long! Technological problems.

This weekend I experienced another side of Nicaragua, maybe the real side. It makes life in Managua seem like a shadow. The mountains in the north of the country are where the most intense part of the Contra war was fought. The slopes of the mountain are a patchwork of fields planted with corn, beans, coffee and pastures for cows and horses.

We stayed on a farm, of my friend's sister-in-law's mom, Doña Marta and Don Toño (see picture of Norma and Doña Marta above, mother and daughter). We had to cross a river on foot to get there (see picture). They welcomed us warmly, cooking us special tamales with chicken from the patio, atol, which is a corn-based dessert, and killing a pig for my friend's nephew's birthday party. Doña Marta and her family gave up their beds for our group of 8 people to sleep in, made us delicious breakfasts of gallo pinto with eggs, avocado and cheese, and told us all about work on the farm.

After the piñata (see picture above), my friend and I went to Wiwilí, a small town way up by the border with Honduras on the Rio Coco. I felt like I was in a different country here, in the midst of green folding mountains and farms. It took us 4 hours in a bumpy horrible bus to get there, but it was worth it. We walked 15 km to the tiny community that my friend worked in during his year of social service after medical school (picture of river and mountains). It took 4 hours, and the wife of his friend saved our lives by making us some food, as there was absolutely nowhere to go to buy food. After 4 hrs of walking it was necessary to eat (for those of you who know how I am when I'm hungry)

Despite the extremely long trip, it was amazing to share a piece of life with the people I met up north.

Pictures from Ometepe

2007-09-07T09:40:00.000-06:00

This past weekend my friend Eduardo and I went to Ometepe, the island in the middle of lake Nicaragua. Such a difference from Managua! Peaceful, very green, the people are extremely warm and welcoming. I'll write a little more later, but for now here are some pics...

1. Charco Verde, or green puddle, where we stayed, with Concepción Volcano in the background

2. Bird (for you grandpa!)

3. View of the Concepción Volcano from a little walk we took along the lake in Mayogalpa

4. Sunset on the ferry

5. Me in a little store in San Jorge, where the ferry leaves from

Hurricane Felix

2007-09-07T09:21:00.000-06:00

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about Hurricane Felix in the states. It passed over the Atlantic Coast Region of Nicaragua with force, but in Managua, just lots of rain and thunderstorms. In other words, I'M TOTALLY FINE. The towns it affected most are Puerto Cabezas (the biggest city in the north atlantic region), Bilwi, and Sandy Bay, where they say that all of the houses on the bay were destroyed.

The government today is saying that the death count is at 39 but could reach 70, 105 people missing, 18, 477 evacuated, 70,000 residents affected, and 7,795 houses destroyed. Bodies of those who drowned are appearing on shore. Search teams have found 17 unidentified bodies so far, and Honduran authorities found 12.

Most of the houses in the region are made of wood, and they say that the rooves simply blew right off the houses. Even in the schools that people were staying in as refuges, the rooves blew off. Right now there is a crisis because there is no electricity, no water and very little food. There's also the risk of disease spreading through contaminated wells and mosquitos.

People are organizing around the country to provide support to their fellow citizens, sending food, water, clothes, hygiene supplies and blankets, among other things. The centro is throwing a fundraiser with a raffle, music and dance performances. The Red Cross has been helping too.. (A lot of this info and the pictures come from today's La Prensa).

Photos of Cleanup Day

2007-08-29T16:10:00.000-06:00

Community Cleanup

2007-08-27T09:51:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I feel so inspired. Nowhere in the world are things perfect, but in some moments parts of life just seem to click so sweetly that you feel like there's some hope for the future. Organizing the jornada de limpieza (neighborhood cleanup day) this week, the strength of community amazed me. A group of about 15 or 20 kids from the Solidaridad de los Pueblos school and the youth group went door to door in their community, informing their neighbors about the cleanup day on Saturday and encouraging them to put out their garbage. To clarify, the garbage truck rarely passes in many areas of the neighborhood. How do people get rid of their garbage then? Burning it, throwing it in the drainage ditch, carrying it to places where the truck does pass, throwing it on the street. It sits in pools of water when it rains, becoming bloated and rotten. So we called and asked the mayors office to send a truck to the neighborhood to collect the garbage and they agreed. It's actually ridiculous that you have to arrange for the truck to come. It should pass regularly and help people manage their waste situation better. But very often here you have to call and demand to receive basic services, particularly when you happen to live in a poor area. So this was actually nothing of a sustainable solution, but a way to start dialogue in the community.

But the most beautiful part was wandering from street to street and seeing the kids really energized about talking to people about how to make the neighborhood cleaner. They ran from house to house, in the ridiculously hot sun of midday, racing to see who could reach the most number of houses. Kids inspire adults to action more than other adults... I mean who can resist an eleven year old engaged in positive activities. People have such a propensity to complain about the bad behavior of youth... But this day they couldn't complain...

Update

2007-08-22T09:19:00.000-06:00

Here is an update I wrote to my contacts at AJWS about how things are going at work. I have some pictures but am not so excited about carrying my camera around right now- I don't want it to get stolen...

I hope all is well with you. I wanted to send you an update on how things have been going in Managua at AMUCOBU.

I have been very pleased with how work has been progressing since I returned from the United States. I proposed to the staff here some of the ideas I had discussed with you when I was in NYC, and they were very open to implementing them. Last week I gave the first in a series of workshops to the staff on how to work with youth with drug and alcohol problems. First we discussed the nature of addictions, and then moved into treatment methods, particularly Harm Reduction, which I have extensive experience with from my past job. This week we will continue discussing Harm Reduction as well as practice some practical tools that they can use when working with groups of youth or individuals in counseling. Next I think we'll do some planning about how they can structure their programs here to include youth with drug and alcohol problems, because now they are not really invited to youth group events.

Also, we have had a series of activities related to the environment. I posted about one of them on my blog, with pictures, where we planted trees donated by the mayor's office. Last week I planned and facilitated a workshop with my counterpart, Gustavo, about the environmental impacts of garbage and ways to keep the neighborhood clean. This Saturday we will have a neighborhood cleanup day, with the help of the mayor's office who are providing a truck and 20 workers to help throw away and recycle trash. We formed an ecological brigade with the youth, who will go around the neighborhood on Thurs and Fri alerting families to put out their garbage, and to separate the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. Hopefully it will go well.

I'm also continuing with English classes. I have a group of dedicated students who are motivated and perseverent. Today one of them sang a song by herself in front of the class, and another presented her, in English, using a marker as a fake microphone. It was fantastic, and very spur of the moment. Some things you just can't plan, and they turn out better than if you had planned them.

Tree planting day

2007-08-13T09:20:00.000-06:00

Even though ants are tiny little things, they do a lot of damage! Invade your shoes, bite like needle pricks, and inflame your foot like an air mattress. Then it goes away, like nothing ever happened. I ignored the warnings of Damaris, one of the youth involved in our tree planting day, as I filled up the hole she had made to plant her tree with dirt. When you talk about working collectively, the kids did a great job. Some brought tree saplings, others broke up the hard dry earth, others dug out the holes with shovels, and still others planted. Someone filled up the water bucked and watered the tree. In front of the centro, we cleared the grass and the garbage from the narrow strip of earth between the sidewalk and the wall (accidentally damaging a water pipe- just a minor unexpected crisis), put all the garbage in big sacks and planted a row of trees. Despite being hot, sweaty and hungry, all 35 of us worked on until our quesillos and tiste arrived and we had a chance to sit down and take a break. 100% difference between before and after. .. from garbage strewn to pure earth and trees.

2007-08-07T09:27:00.000-06:00

Here's some snapshots of my neighborhood and my neighbors. The first picture is of the houses across the street and the mango tree in front of the house. The second is my porch in the early morning light. The third are my friends Nico and Gladioska who live down the street. And the last one is a street late afternoon in the neighborhood (la Colonia Centroamerica)

electricity problems

2007-08-05T15:08:00.000-06:00

The barrio, among other places, has been experiencing some serious energy shortages recently. As I said in the last posting, there has been no electricity in the centro for over a week. Not only the centro, but other parts of the barrio as well have been without electricity. In Managua as a whole, we've been experiencing rolling blackouts for about 2 months, and it appears that there's no end in sight for the energy crisis.

Many people asked me about how Daniel Ortega's new government has been doing since they took power in January, and this is a story that came up often in these conversations. He's been building partnerships with the president of Iran and with Hugo Chavez, making plans to build more hydroelectric plants funded by their oil revenues. Today I read in La Prensa that Daniel met with the president of Iran yesterday to solidify and move forward on these plans, also including funding the building of 10,000 houses, a plastics factory, and a large health center. The projects wouldn't start though for at least a year, leaving citizens struggling to get by without basic necessities.

The barrio residents, having a tradition of organizing themselves when facing problems such as these, called Union Fenosa, the spanish-owned electric company, to send out a representative to the neighborhood to get some honest answers. Apparently, at the meeting on Thursday, some wanted to surround the UF truck and make their demands while others wanted to simply talk with the rep. I don't really know what ended up happening because I didn´t get the full story, but we'll have to see if the people will get their electricity back soon. In the meantime, we'll be trying to work in the office without lights, air conditioning or computers. This may mean going home at noon every day... we'll see.

Santo Domingo

2007-08-03T14:30:00.000-06:00

Even though I´ve only been gone for two weeks, it´s funny being back. I´ve traveled many times, but never come back home in the middle of my stay. I so quickly fell back into my Chicago life, my comfort zone, that it was strange to jump back to the chaos of Managua.

I ended up coming back the day of the patron saint festival. There was a procession across the city with a big altar of Santo Domingo, and an hipico, which is a kind of parade of horses. People come from all over the country with their horses, dressed in traditional costume, and march through the streets, making horses dance to the strains of music blasting from competing speaker systems. The city closed off some of the main arteries, the roads I take in the mornings to Puntos on the bus. It was cool to see them lined on all sides by food vendors and beer vendors, shouting out their competing prices for cans of Toña and Victoria. Collapsable stages every 20 feet tried to drown out their neighbors with strains of ranchera, reggaeton, or live music. One stage had some MTV-esque dancers shaking it on platforms. Vendors walked through the crowds selling straw and leather cowboy hats that I was very tempted to buy. The whole festival had this cowboy feel to it.

I of course came back to find my house a complete disaster and have been working on cleaning it little by little, including the nasty broken fridge, which is cleaner now than I´ve ever seen it before, thank god! And today I battled with Managuan traffic and heat again walking from my house to the centro, where I arrived to find that there hasn´t been electricity there for a week! (more about that later). But I felt more ready to enter this battle now that i had 2 weeks of just having to deal with Chicago and New York traffic, nothing compared to here!

Back in Chicago

2007-07-16T08:28:00.000-06:00

Being back home is great and weird at the same time. I knew it would be this way, but wasn't sure how it would play out. I've been dreaming about the food I would eat when I came home for months. Now I'm totally overwhelmed by it all. I've been to 3 grocery stores in 4 days, and pretty much bought out Trader Joe's yesterday. My mom and I cooked kale with raisins garlic and quinoa last night, and I fried up some tofu and put that Soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's on it. Delicious! I can't tell you all how much I've been craving kale.

But anyways, when I was in Caputo's supermarket with my mom, I suddenly became overwhelmed. Seeing all the produce made me think about all the things I wanted to cook, and made me jump back to my life of last summer, suddenly. Chicago summers are so amazing, so much going on, and I was feeling like I wouldn't be able to do everything. But I think I've chilled a little since then, and realized that I can just do what I can fit in, and I'll be back here next summer.

Great things about Chicago...

1. Hot showers!!!!

2. My bike

3. Kale

4. being able to talk to people on the phone whenever I want

5. the weather... who thought I'd ever say that? but it's been 80 degrees sunny and perfect!

6. green leafy salads

7. soul and hip hop music

8. parks

I'll probably think of more...

La señora next door

2007-07-06T14:21:00.000-06:00

(The photos are from Doña Telma's birthday)

My neighbor is crazy. I think she's probably diagnosably schizophrenic. It can be endearing, entertaining and infuriating sometimes. I actually have no idea what her name is. But she owns about 7 dogs, all of which are tiny and bark a lot. She spends most of the day screaming at them to get in the house or to stop making a mess, and threatens to hit them. As if they were little children. Let me set the stage. You're sitting peacefully in the hammock in your front patio reading a book, when suddenly 3 dogs start barking and the señora starts screaming. She also likes to play her music really loudly. Usually the music isn't bad... ranchera, bachata, even reggaeton. The problem is the volume and the time of day. She often starts at 6:30am, waking up my poor roommate who's window opens onto her porch.

Yesterday, she started talking to people who weren't actually there and laughing hysterically when she found a fallen branch from the mango tree in front of our house and brought it into her house. I have no idea what she wanted to do with it. She also has a fun habit of calling the police whenever someone she doesn't know walks by the house. One time, a guy wanted to pick some of the mangos from our tree, and we said sure. She got in a fight with him, saying he shouldn't be there, and proceeded to call the police. The police must know her phone number and ignore it. I usually find her to be entertaining, but my other roommates think otherwise...

The best students ever

2007-06-29T11:19:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I was at home all day recovering from the flu. In the afternoon, I was surprised when 4 of my English students showed up at my front gate. I usually have class on Thursdays and they had planned a surprise party for Teacher's day. So because I wasn't in class, they decided to bring the party to my house. They brought me little gifts, a loaf of bread to make sandwiches and a bottle of coke. We sat around the table on the front patio, ate, chatted and laughed. I think I have the best students ever!

2007-06-27T16:38:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the lapse in writing! I've been a little under the weather but am hopefully on the mend!

Currently I'm drinking orange-papaya juice out of aplastic bag with a straw, which definitely has to be one of those quintessential Nicaragua experiences... One of the things that I'm going to miss when I'm in Chicago... But there's so many things I'm excited about seeing, eating and doing in Chicago that I don't think I'll have too much time to think about my juice cravings...

Last week my favorite bus entertainment gave a little concert in the 119 on my way from Puntos to the centro. It's a duo, consisting of a boy about 12 yrs old with a guitar and agirl about 10, probably siblings... He strums the melodies of popular ranchera songs and the girl sings in a crooning voice that expresses a sadness that I hope she hasn't experienced yet in her life. One of the songs is Puño de Tierra, which means fist of dirt, that's about dying. My friend Tere says she wants a mariachi band to play this song at her funeral. The boy harmonizes with the girl while he's playing his guitar, and it really makes the ride a lot more enjoyable (you forget about the heat, that you're sticking to your seat, or that there's a bar sticking into your back).

Speaking of Mariachis, doña Esmeralda took all of the ladies (and one of the men) from the office out last week to celebrate Doña Thelmita's birthday in the Rotunda Bello Horizonte. The Rotunda is a traffic circle lined with fast food chicken restaurants, where mariachi bands ask you if you want them to play you songs. One of the groups played 4 songs for Doña Thelma as we sat outside of the Tip-Top chicken joint drinking beers, and she cried... We then went to a bar where a lot of people from the atlantic coast hang out and ate fish soup in coconut milk broth. It was amazing!

Little Snippets

2007-06-20T12:24:00.001-06:00

1. Fruit vendors. Every morning, I buy little baggies of cut up fruit from a woman at the bus stop in front of the Police station. From about 6:30 in the morning, she expertly wields her knife and cuts through the thick skin of a pineapple like it was butter. The fruit salad usually includes watermelon on the bottom, then pineapple, then banana then either cantelope or papaya. It's really an ingenious business. Who wants to buy an entire watermelon, lug it home, cut it up and then transport it with you wherever you're going? This way, you pay 5 cordobas for a variety of fruit already cut for you. Great deal!

2. Folklore. This is the traditional dancing of Nicaragua. For many events, groups of girls and teenagers will perform the dances in costumes like those in the picture... long wide dresses and flowers in their tightly wound hairbuns. The steps are simple, calculated and involve holding the ends of the skirt and swirling them around as you turn. Or having the ends of the skirt drawn in to the hips as you step ball change on one side. The event in the picture above is from the International Day of the Child event we had a couple of weeks ago.

3. Garbage. People throw it everywhere. Out of bus windows, on the floor of their house, into the lake. The little girls in my house in the barrio used to throw their used fruit peels, cookies and wrappers all over the floor, with the idea that someone was going to clean up after them, (ie, Ana). In the centro, people do the same, throwing their garbage everywhere... It makes for dirty streets, sticky floors and general pollution.

4. Fritangas. These are also everywhere... Little sidewalk eateries, sometimes just a table set up in front of someone's house, and some an entire restaurant in an actual building. The typical fare is carne asada, pollo asado (grilled meat or chicken), that comes with gallo pinto (red beans and rice), cabbage salad, fried plantain chips, and sometimes fried cheese. When I don't feel like cooking, I usually eat something here.

Play dates

2007-06-15T13:47:00.000-06:00

I finally can listen to Chicago Public Radio at the centro with our new turbonet!!! So I was listening just now to The Story, and they were interviewing a stay at home dad. The interview accentuated for me cultural differences in child raising between Nicaragua and the states. First, the phenomenon of stay at home dad. I would say that more common here is the stay at home grandpa. Even unemployed dads, like the dad in the story, usually find somewhere to be besides the house taking care of kids all day, even if it means hanging out with buddies at the local convenience store. Also, the dad in the story mentioned setting up play dates. The play date I think is a unique north american phenomenon. Here, kids are always on play dates. They play in the streets together all the time, play in the house with their cousins or neighbors, play soccer on the basketball court... There is no need to set up a date because there are always friends nearby. Another example of how in Nicaragua, it's really the whole community that raises the kids, as opposed to the states where kids are isolated in their houses much of the time and have to arrange special times to play with their friends.

Siuna

2007-06-13T12:52:00.000-06:00

Although the very back seat of the school bus was the coveted location of the cool kids in elementary school, it's not the best for a trip across Nicaragua. The overnight trip to Siuna took 8 hours and the pavement turned to gravel halfway through. My butt and back felt every bump! We arrived at 4am and went straight to the house where all the doctors live right next door to the health center.

In the morning Eduardo showed me around the city. It reminded me of being in the Wild West... lots of horses, houses made of wood planks like Little House on the Prairie and set up on stilts that prevent flooding during the rainy season. There are more horses than cars, and pigs roam around the streets (there was a pig hanging out eating garbage behind the health center... see picture). We saw the old gold mine which is full of water now(see picture) and ate at a little eatery across from the airport (which is pretty much just a strip where the 15-seater airplanes land.)

On Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party with Eduardo's doctor friends and then to the disco, which is the best disco I've been to yet in Nicaragua! They played socca, palo de mayo, merengue and reggaeton... so mostly music from the Atlantic Coast, which has significant African influence (now you see why I liked it!). There was also an act by a guy imitating a famous gay Mexican ranchera singer which was hilarious. The next morning we walked 4 km through greenery and farmland to a river where we went swimming (although most of the community uses it to wash clothes by scrubbing them on the rocks).

I wanted to go all the way to the coast, but the trip to Puerto Cabezas is another 14 hours away by bus... My body was not up for that ride!

Media bias

2007-06-04T17:19:00.000-06:00

So I happened to be on the Chicago Trib website today and came across this editorial, dated June 2nd, about the Eric Volz case in Nicaragua http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0602edit3jun02,0,5369321.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed. The 28 year old was accused of murdering his Nicaraguan girlfriend and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Honestly, I have no idea about whether the guy is innocent or guilty. But I have to say that this editorial is part of the media manipulation that Volz' family has been pushing across the US to try to free him. They are capitalizing on the ignorance of the American public about the situation in Nicaragua, raising up alarms that a communist Sandinista country is unjustly imprisoning innocent Americans. Also, saying that local hatred for Volz is "fueled by anti-American sentiment" is ridiculous. San Juan del Sur is a tourist town that thrives on American dollars. They warmly accept Americans to stay there and spend their money that helps to provide a living for their residents (although I don't think that American retirees buying up the coast and building huge homes in the second poorest country in the hemisphere is that laudable).

I read a couple of months ago in El Nuevo Diario that american journalists have been harassing residents of San Juan del Sur, witnesses and family and friends of the victim, trying to get them to change their position or say something to Volz' innocence. The article said that residents were sick of this harassment and wanted these journalists to stop bothering them and let them grieve in peace. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the guy killed his girlfriend and is trying to manipulate the media to show his innocence.

Rainy season

2007-05-31T15:06:00.000-06:00

So rainy season has started full force, and I must say that I love it! This morning I was stuck at Puntos because it was pouring and I lost my umbrella the other day. I finally grabbed a taxi and got to the centro relatively dry. The roads in the barrio have been converted into muddy rivers. The water literally runs down the sides of the streets, and sometimes right down the middle, dragging rocks and garbage with it. The drainage ditch, which also serves as a garbage dump, has turned into a churning brown river of garbage that runs directly into the lake. On rainy days lots of kids skip school...

The first day of rainy season is officially May 15. Eduardo were cooking in my house, and about a million bugs were crawling all over the sink and in the kitchen. They kept landing on me and I was swatting them away. ¨Where did all these bugs come from¨I asked him, and he said they were the winter bugs and that it was a sure sign that it was going to start raining. Sure enough, about an hour later it started to pour, lightening and everything.

The rain has brought a cool breeze that lasts all day. The oppressive heat has lifted and the intense sun is hidden a lot of the time (my skin is very thankful for this). Although when the sun does come out, it's very humid.

Mother's Day Event

2007-05-28T11:50:00.000-06:00

This Saturday we took

the mothers of the youth in the youth group to the beach at Pochomil for Mother's Day, which is a very important holiday here and is celebrated on May 30th. As you can see from the pictures, the moms really had a chance to let loose and just enjoy themselves, without kids around or any obligations. We began celebrating as soon as we arrived at around 10.30am, when the first case of Toña beer was brought out, and continued until 6.30pm. Doña Esperanza, who appears in 2 of the pictures dancing, definitely wins the prize for being the most festive. In the bus on the way to the beach, she had everyone in stitches telling jokes. She was either dancing or swimming the entire time. We drank, ate arroz a la valenciana (an enormous pot full of it that could've fed 100 people), danced barefoot in the sand and swam. It was windy and cloudy, so the waves were huge, but the water was warm and shallow. The women laughed and cried, remembering children and other loved ones who had passed away. But as Gustavo said, this is the way that Nicaraguans celebrate... mixing happiness with sadness.

Garifuna

2007-05-24T09:13:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night my roommate Nico invited me to a free dance performance... Garifuna dancing from the Atlantic coast. The Garifuna are people of African and indigenous American descent. It was pouring when the bus dropped us off in front of the Spanish-Nicaraguan Cultural Institute, and the power was out. The place was full though. Lit by candles, the drummers came out on the small stage and began playing, so you could imagine being on a Caribbean beach. After about 20 minutes of drumming, the lights came on and the dancers came out. They spoke about the history of their people. They had come on slave ships to St. Vincent island in the 1500´s from west Africa, intermarrying and living together with the indigenous Arawaks who already lived on the island. in the late 18th century, as a result of fighting between the English and the French over control of St. Vincent, the Garifuna were deported to an island off the coast of Honduras, and then to the mainland. Today they live on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The main dance form that they presented was Punta, which involves really fast and furious hip shaking. The dances they presented used symbolic movements representing important activities of daily life. My favorite part was when they called up people from the audience to participate. The volunteers (including me.. how could I resist?) did a dance called AEIOU, each one doing the dance in turn. Then there was a Punta dance party. I'm going to get to the Atlantic coast before I leave no matter what!

Matagalpa

2007-05-22T09:18:00.000-06:00

Karina

and I went to Matagalpa this weekend, a town up north in the mountains. (he mountain picure is a view from our hotel. Because of my Sunday english class, it's hard for me to get away sometimes.

Matagalpa is an interesting city. The climate was extremely refreshing after being in the intense unrelenting heat of Managua all the time. (The heat has really been unbearable... I take the bus every day at 9:30AM across the city and then have to walk to catch the connecting bus that takes me to the centro. Although I don't have to walk far, I'm covered in sweat and completely worn out. Then I teach english in the afternoon in a furnace of a classroom with no air flow, where extremely loud buses pass every few minutes raising up a cloud of dust that could kill you.)

So back to Matagalpa, we went to a delicious Italian restaurant with a beautiful back patio full of plants and bright blue walls. We ate a huge salad and spaghetti with broccoli and olive oil, just like you make at home, mom! We wandered around the city, running into an AIDS prevention festival and a micro-producers fair where we bought black pottery and locally made chocolate bars. In the evening, we ate Mexican tacos (so much better than the fried Nica tacos) and went to the Grupo Venancia cultural center where a bohemian crowd was listening to a group play Silvio Rodriguez music and singing along. It is apparently the place to be on Saturdays.

On Sunday we woke up early and went to Selva Negra (I think they have a website if you google it), a coffee plantation owned by a German family that was the first immigrant family to start growing coffee in Nicaragua. We hiked in the forest on their land and just enjoyed being in fresh air...

party!

2007-05-14T09:41:00.000-06:00

On Friday we had a party at the centro. A woman who has supported the centro financially for over 14 years came to visit. Gustavo's band Nectawara played, we ate delicious food and danced. It was really interesting getting Jean's perspective on the history of AMUCOBU. Doña Esmeralda was going to move to Miami to find work 14 years ago, but Jean thought that it was crazy for her to leave the neighborhood, where she was such an important community leader, so she told Doña Esmeralda that she'd fund her salary. Also, for the past few years she has been funding the medical post through her own fundraising. She holds multiple fundraisers throughout the year, such as bailathons and house concerts, where all music and services are donated and 100% of the proceeds go to the centro. This she does in her spare time, as her day job is a neuropsychologist. It's amazing to hear the stories of gringas who have been working in solidarity with Nicaraguans since the 80's and makes me want to do an oral history research project talking with them and the people they have collaborated with... Maybe something for grad school?

2007-05-14T09:25:00.000-06:00

In class last week we started a community mapping project. It's an idea I've had for a long time but have been waiting for the right moment to start. First the students came up with an enormous list of all the places and things that one might find in a neighborhood (I found it interesting that one of the first ten things they mentioned was the local Alcoholics Anonymous chapter). Then they analyzed the list, mentioning the things that there are and are not in their actual neighborhood. On Thursday, we went out and took pictures of places in the neighborhood. They came out very nicely (the kids took almost all of them...) Here are a few.

Snapshots

2007-05-04T13:02:00.000-06:00

I bought a bed in the Mercado Oriental on Monday, the biggest market in Central America. It was a classic experience of market shopping. Without the help of Tere and her daughter Jania, I would have been smothered in swindling. When we got out of the taxi, vendors swarmed us, saying, que busca chelita, veni ver sin compromiso. We ignored them and entered a store at the end of the row, overflowing with wooden bed frames, hutches, dressers, shelves and the classic Nicaraguan rocking chairs. An employee followed us, showing us the options for mattresses and ensuring us of their quality. Tere and Jania cunningly worked him down to the lowest price he would go to, and made no promises to come back for the bed. In the meantime, the guy who transports furniture in the back of his pickup whispered in Tere's ear that he could help find her a better deal, so we snuck out and followed him to about 5 other stores, all saying that they are always honest with their customers about the quality of their beds, which made me mistrust them even more. I finally chose a beautiful carved wood-framed bed, but the mattress is really bad so I'm going to have to buy another one with the next paycheck...

···

The new house is amazing! There's two hammocks strung up in the front patio and 2 rocking chairs. The breeze comes in and out freely and it's always nice and cool. There's political posters up all over the main room, including one about the life of revolutionary El Salvadoran leader Farabundo Martí and the schedule for a film festival from last fall. Nico and Roberto are active in what is called the Social Movement (of students I think) which is basically a social justice group, and have a huge group of friends who are also involved. Roberto teaches computers in the University. One of the greatest parts about living in this house is cooking for myself. Last night I made nicaraguan style rice and beans with an asian veggie stir fry with peanut sauce. I was very excited to eat veggies! The other great thing about the house is that my room is very well ventilated and I can leave the window open... it's almost cool enough that I don't need to keep the fan on all the time!

···

This week I started a mapping project with the youth in my daily English class. The first step of the project was to think of all the places in their neighborhood, and then learn the words in English. I thought it was amusing that one of the first ten things that came up was the local Alcoholics Anonymous. Next week we're going to walk around the neighborhood noting where all of the important places are and taking pictures. Then we'll later draw out the map and add the pictures to it. I'll take pictures of the finished product and the process too...

2007-04-27T14:10:00.001-06:00

Here's a thank you letter written by my English class to Ada's Sunday School class for raising $500... And some picture of her class selling their jewelry...

Hi! How are you? We were happy to learn that your class raised such a large amount of money for this noble cause. We want to congratulate you for 3 reasons. The first reason is because you worked together as a team demonstrating that if we all contribute something we can reach our goals. The second reason is that you set an example for other youth to follow. The third reason is because through your work you are bringing opportunities to youth with few resources to be able to better themselves. This is very important and will change the lives of these youth. If they take advantage of the opportunity that you open up for them, they will be able to contribute to constructing a more just society.
The English class in Barrio Walter Ferretti feels happy that we have friends to look up to that show their solidarity with others without asking for anything in return.

Thank you and hope that we hear from you soon!

Your friends in Barrio Walter Ferretti, Nicaragua

Impromptu Clothing Store

2007-04-27T09:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had a great English class at the centro. All this week we learned vocabulary for clothing and numbers greater than twenty. They learned how to say How much does this cost? and That's expensive or That's cheap. Yesterday everyone brought in some clothes from home and we set them up all over the classroom, mostly hanging off of desks. Each person had their market stall and had the chance to be both a customer and a saleswoman/man. Damaris was the saleswoman from hell.... her jewelry cost a lot of money, but she refused to accept credit cards or let anyone try anything on. She also wouldn't reduce the price of anything. She and Erick got into a fight (in english!!) when he accused her of trying to pass off plastic earrings as gold. Sylvillita and Xochilt both really enjoyed asking to try on everything and put together different outfits. (very unfortunately the batteries of my camera weren't charged so I couldn't take any pictures!). Silvillita was wearing my hat and Damaris' sunglasses, and Xochilt was wearing my long denim skirt with a sequined tank top. I think the phrase of the day was, "I'll take it."

The really exciting part about the class was that it was really the first time that the students have improvised conversations in English. And even one of my students who has a really hard time remembering things day to day learned some of the clothing vocab.

News

2007-04-24T12:34:00.000-06:00

I started a new job working at Puntos de Encuentro last week, teaching English to their staff in the mornings from 7:30AM-9AM. My students are amazing… They are all very accomplished and talented and are working really hard to further the women’s movement in Nicaragua. I’m really excited about getting to know them and learning more about their work. I still don’t know exactly all of what they do, but you all should check out their website (www.puntos.org.ni), which I heard is very extensive (sadly, I haven’t done this yet…). I suppose it’s in Spanish though. The one thing I know they’ve done is put on a novela type show for teenagers to talk about issues like power, civic participation, violence, sexuality, etc. One of my students, Ikscra, is an actress for the program. Her character is named Martha, and is a divorced woman with HIV. There’s like 80 episodes, and they’re still making more. I have yet to watch it, but apparently you can download them on the website as well.

The other really amazing piece of news I got today is that my friend Ada, who is teaching the Sunday school class in Oak Park temple that has been doing the letter exchange with my students, raised $500 for a scholarship fund for kids in the barrio who can’t afford their monthly school fees!!!!!! Shout out to Ada and her 5th graders for doing such an amazing job! I’ll post some pictures of them selling the jewelry they made when I get them.

The other piece of news I have is that I'm moving! I found a great living situation with 2 Italian NGO workers. They live in a huge house in Colonia Centroamerica, which is the neighborhood I've been wanting to move to. There's tons of other youth living there, and it's a bit safer than where I am now. It will definitely be a change to live with other foreigners, but I'm looking forward to it!

When I grow up, I want to have a mango tree in my backyard

2007-04-17T11:08:00.000-06:00

Pictures... Me Rhea and Karina in Masaya

Me and my friend Eduardo at his nephew's baptism.

A few little things...

The other day, I saw The Love Machine bus on the main street in the Fuente again.

Having a mango tree in your backyard during mango season is a heavenly experience. They fall on the roof, and since it's metal, you think that someone's trying to break into your house. They roll onto the ground, and get a little bruised, but they're perfectly yellow, ripe and sweet, ready to eat. Or make mango juice from (way better than the thick Jumex stuff they sell in the Mexican grocery store...)

I went swimming at the airforce pool on Sunday. First sight of the pool... as we were walking down the highway to the entrance, I saw a guy changing out of his bathing suit behind a camoflage painted helicopter. Although out of sight of the pool dwellers, he wasn't out of our sight. The pool was CROWDED! The whole shallow end was packed, people's heads like ants. A DJ played bachata, salsa and palo de mayo music. Boys and kids dove into the deep end over the heads of people clutching the sides of the pool. Trying to swim laps in the deep end was like trying to maneuver through rush hour traffic in Managua. People diving on top of you or coming up out of the water under you, a kid with a kickboard running into me, people swimming frantically without looking up to see where they're going on a diagonal... A group of youth were making towers in the water,3 levels, that came crashing down when the skinny 10 year old made it to the top... I'm definitely going back next weekend!

Rainy season

2007-04-12T16:46:00.000-06:00

Picture of Erick and Ludis, two of my students.

The heat in Managua is oppressive. Walking up the hill next to the centro past the garbage-sewage ditch at noon to go home for lunch, I feel like the sun is burning the hairs off of my head and melting me from the inside out. My legs inside my jeans are bathed in sweat within seconds of leaving the air conditioned office. This week, the heat broke. I woke up on Tuesday to a cloudy and threatening sky. Instead of the sun beginning to bake the earth at 8am, there was a cool breeze. Later on, the cool breeze disintegrated into a swampy humid heat like Florida summers. I had class at 2pm, probably the hottest time of day, and all of my students were sweating and lethargic. Since we were learning about animals, I decided to start a game of duck duck goose outside on the patio. As we sat down in a circle, a few drops of rain began to fall. We played a number of rounds of the game, and the clouds broke, letting out a sweet deluge. My students ran for cover in the classroom (but played enough duck duck goose to never forget how to say duck or goose!!). A group of kids played soccer on the concrete playground in the rain, as it continued for at least an hour. Although it felt great getting wet, it resulted only in thickening the air even further, so I felt like I was breathing pure water. Welcome Nicaraguan winter!

Stuck in the rainforest

2007-04-05T16:38:00.000-06:00

So it turns out that transportation is really light on the Thursday and Friday of the Semana Santa, so Rhea and I have been a bit stranded in La Fortuna. Really there could be worse places to be stuck. Today we made a delicious rum drink with fresh pineapple and some pasta and walked to a local swimming hole-water fall that's by the side of the road. There were a ton of locals there, since everyone's off of work and bored. We climbed down a muddy path completely protected high overhead by a green canopy. If you climb up the side of the muddy bank there's a tarzan rope hanging from a branch over the pool, and people swinging into the churning water. After watching a few people go, Rhea climbed up the ravine, got a quick lesson, and jumped in. I wanted to do it, but was scared, but she convinced me to climb up the ravine and take a shot. It looked even higher from this perspective and I was really nervous, but some of the other guys standing around were encouraging, so I just hung onto the rope and plunged in. I honestly don't remember the fall, just being in the water and gasping for air when I emerged. I was shaking when I got out, but decided when I calmed down that I had to do it again.

Update from Costa Rica

2007-04-03T13:24:00.000-06:00

Hi all! Just wanted to let everyone know that about 11 hours after leaving Managua, Rhea and I made it safely to Tilarán Costa Rica last night. This morning we took a beautiful bus ride from Tilarán to La Fortuna around Lake Arenal. The bus went through lush green rainforest and cloudforest, brightly colored flower gardens, rolling hills, and German chalet looking hotel-resorts. The cloud cover over the lake allowed stray rays of sun through to illuminate isolated circles of the water, like an early morning smile. I was only semi-concious the whole way, which made the landscape even more dreamlike.

Today we're going on a night hike around Volcano Arenál and a dip in the nearby thermal hotsprings. I'll send some pictures along when I can!

Estelí

2007-03-26T10:43:00.000-06:00

Although bus rides are sometimes long and tiring, I always find them exciting. There’s something about being in transit that is thrilling, that I’m going to arrive in a new place with an entirely different feel to it. While it’s new to me, the people who live there don’t think anything of it, immersed in their daily lives. Watching the countryside roll by and change dramatically from one minute to the next. The mountains rise soon after traveling north from Managua. Although we were sweating horribly in the bus (a school bus!), the mountain landscape was a welcome change from the smog of Managua. With one piece of my IPod headphone in my ear, I listened to Jill Scott, Silvio Rodriguez, Interpol and Etta James. Halfway through the trip we realized we’d taken a regular bus rather than an express, which takes twice as long… Instead of 2 hours, it was four. We passed through towns, dropping all the passengers who started out with us in Managua and picking up new ones. The produce in the markets looked freshly picked from nearby farms. The sunset was even more impressive over the mountains than in San Juan del Sur, lighting up the clouds in pink and purple.

We finally got into Estelí at 7:30, dropped our bags at the hotel and went out to dinner at a Cuban restaurant. There seemed to be a significant Cuban population in Estelí, possibly because of the revolutionary history of the city, being in the north where most of the war played out… The next day when it was light out, we walked around the Parque Central, ate breakfast in a fritanga and were able to appreciate the murals that paint both the history of the Sandinistas and the current work that people are doing, particularly with women and children. A collage of brightly colored figures in primitivist style, working in the fields, wielding guns, holding signs, children playing, arms and legs contorted like in waves and heads at awkward angles.

We decided to take a hike to the Salto Estanzuelo. It said in my guide that it was 5 km from the road, but it ended up being a bit more than that, with lots of inclines. My friend was sweating horribly by the time we got to the point where all of Estelí spread below us, couched in dry deserty mountains, the ring of cicadas and the breeze, much cooler than that of Managua. The falls were less impressive than I though, but nice and cool compared to the dusty walk in direct midday sunlight. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to a norteña bar where all the men wear cowboy boots, cowboy hats and big leather belts with silver buckles and settled for a Managua-style disco playing mostly reggaeton. The only difference was the cool breeze coming off the mountains rather than the oppressive humid heat of the night in Managua.

A very cute exchange

2007-03-26T10:18:00.000-06:00

Cultural exchange between an American Jewish girl and a Nicaraguan girl.

Dear Silvia,

Hello, my name is Hannah Verman and I would love to be one of your friends in the United States! I am ten years old but will be 11 in April. I live in River Forest, Illinois and go to school at Roosevelt Middle School. I have one older sister named Rachel and one younger brother named Zach. It is funny you are learning English in school because I am learning Spanish in school. I do not have a favourite type of music, but I do like to listen to pop. Another thing in common that we share is that we both play soccer. I play on a team called Strikers that travels around Illinois. I also like to hang out with my friends when I have free time from playing soccer, volleyball and tennis. I am so excited that I have made a new friend so write back soon! Adios amiga!

Hannah Verman

Hi Hannah! Thank you for writing. I liked your letter very much. It surprised me that you like pop music too! What is your favourite group? I like a group with two singers named William and Fergi. They sing a song called “My Hump.” Do you know a group called Rebelde? I like them very much. They also sing pop music and are very popular in Nicaragua.

My birthday is December 20th. I will turn twelve. I want to eat pizza on my birthday with my family.

I would like to be on a soccer team like yours. In my neighbourhood we have a team called el Arsenal. They are very good and win a lot.

I would love (little drawing of a heart here) it if you write me again. Me gustaría mirarte algun dia.

Adios amiga

making a phone call

2007-03-20T13:32:00.000-06:00

Walking during the daytime to Huembes market is a challenge, but at night it’s even worse. Let’s just call it an adventure. First of all, rounding the first corner to the main road of the Fuente, which is the road that goes to my house, there’s a man selling pastries out of a wide wicker basket set up on a stand, swatting flies away with something that looks like a pom pom with strands of straw. Squeezing between the basket and the lamp pole, you immediately come to a hamburger joint that sets up it’s grill on the sidewalk. You have to slide by the grill and the chicken rotisserie without burning yourself, and emerge on the other side covered in sweat, like you’d just been put through the oven. Next door to the rotisserie is a bar, so the stumbling drunks smelling of Toña beer are the next obstacle. At this point in my journey, I noticed that it was particularly dark… No street lights, no lights coming out of people’s houses…a power outage, so I could only see the sidewalk when cars passed by. There were no shortage of cars and buses, but they tended to blind me first before illuminating the sidewalk. I slipped past commuters on their way home from work, vendors coming home from the market, and teenagers walking home from school. But it was virtually impossible to see the sidewalk so I was at risk of falling in the huge holes in the street that people mistake for garbage cans, cracks, and places where there simply was no sidewalk. The advantage to the darkness was that I received fewer catcalls of “chela” (gringa, essentially), because no one could see me. So aside from tripping a little on a crack in the road and almost running into a woman and her kid that I didn’t see coming, I made it home fine! And this was all so I could make a phone call to the states!!

Barrio parents

2007-03-20T13:05:00.000-06:00

Not only the youth in the barrio are in need of support, but their parents as well. On Sunday the youth team did a workshop for parents. I wasn’t actually there, but from the evaluation yesterday, it sounded like a lot of important issues came out. A lot of the parents ended up crying when talking about their kids and the difficulties they have with them. Doña Sonia was there, and her son dying so recently was still an open wound. During the workshop she asked him for forgiveness for the hardships he had to live through. I think this got everyone crying. In the evaluation, the team was mentioning how normally adults are hesitant about unloading all of their burdens with others because they don’t trust the people they’re talking to, think they might judge them or spread rumors about them or are scared to start the process of healing. Many of the single mothers here live under enormous stress and pressure. Even though many don’t have jobs and are bored being in their houses all day, they don’t actually relax at home. They have to do all the housework, deal with fighting children and problems with husbands or partners. Also, Doña Esmeralda said that there’s not a woman in the neighorhood who hasn’t experienced violence. Maybe not just getting a black eye, but having a husband come home drunk and yelling at her and her kids, or having him spend all of his income at the bar. Oftentimes, not dealing with their own trauma results in them taking things out on their kids. I think that this guilt was coming to the surface during the workshop on Sunday.

The staff thought there were a lot of successes… That the participants began to ready themselves for talking about the problems they have with their kids and the burdens they have been swallowing their whole lives. They also developed solidarity among each other, supporting each other as they spoke about their problems and consoling each other as well. Participating in the evaluation also made me want to go to Social Work school again, to be able to learn more therapy skills to be able to bring back here.

Emily & I in San Juan

2007-03-16T10:50:00.000-06:00

I think the pictures speak for themselves...

Workshop

2007-03-16T10:21:00.000-06:00

This Sunday I participated in my first workshop with the youth in the youth group. The theme was personal responsibility and meeting your goals. I helped to plan the workshop with the other facilitators during the week, where we had a long argument about the difference between a goal and an objective. In the end, it didn’t really matter. We had the kids write down a goal that was specific, achievable and personal to them. They did a meditation activity where they laid on the floor and listened to a Pablo Neruda poem about how people shouldn’t feel bad about who they are, everyone has problems and difficulties to overcome to reach their goals and that people improve themselves by learning from their mistakes. Gustavo sang a song about the challenges of being a youth, and gave a motivational talk about how they had to determine small steps to take in order to reach their final goal. At the end we split into small groups and they discussed specifically what their goals were with each other. In my group, many had the goal of finishing their studies. One is studying accounting, a few were finishing high school, and one is in medical school. Nancy already finished high school and university and is focusing on finding work. A couple of the guys have started studying auto-mechanics and had the goal of finding work in their field when finished. Jania, one of the youth, facilitated the small group, and did a fantastic job! I was really impressed by her ability to keep the discussion focused and ask questions to deepen their exploration of their objectives. To evaluate the workshop, we played a fun game called Pass the Balloon. We blew up balloons and put little pieces of paper inside with questions written on them. Hidden among the regular evaluation questions like how were the facilitators, were things like Do the funky chicken dance (see photo). We had a good time and the youth seemed to get something out of it as well…

Death in the Family

2007-03-16T10:14:00.000-06:00

Last week Doña Sonia’s son Danilo died. Doña Sonia is the teacher of the sewing workshop and Doña Esmeralda’s sister. I was staying over at Tere’s house the night before, and at 6am Fatima came by and told us the news. He was only 26. He had some problems managing his alcohol use and did not take very good care of his health. But everyone commented on how he was a sweet guy and never bothered anyone. Traditionally when someone dies, the family holds an all night vigil (vela) that evening. Family and friends come and sit with the bereaved, sharing food with them, comforting them, praying and making sure they’re not alone. Maria and I walked together to the vela which was at Doña Sonia’s mother’s house in Reparto Schick, a neighboring barrio. They had set up plastic chairs on the front patio, which were mostly occupied by children, one of whom was Doña Sonia’s 10 year old daughter. As the sun set, people continued to join the vela, greeting Doña Sonia and offering condolences. The chairs overflowed onto the sidewalk and the house next door. The 108, 109 and 164 buses rumbled by periodically and groups of men hung out in front of their houses chatting and playing cards. Doña Esmeralda arrived soon after in a truck with the food that they’d been preparing all day. Doña Thelma and Sonia served all the guests a plate of food and a cup of Coke, and Doña Sonia’s mother delivered food to the neighbors on a platter. The guests sat chatting with each other quietly. After the food had been served, Danilo’s father arrived. He had been working in Panama and had to fly in. Everyone quieted down as he greeted his mother, sisters and Doña Sonia, and proceeded to go into the house. They had set up the casket inside for viewing… It was surrounded by elaborate flower arrangements. I left at nine, but people stayed all night. Doña Sonia is still grieving, but when she comes to the centro during the day, there's many people here to console her.

International Women's Day

2007-03-16T09:17:00.000-06:00

(picture, left to right... Doctor Eduardo, Maria, Sonia, Tere and Doña Thelma)

I don’t think I’ve ever participated in an IWD march before. Fitting that my first one would be in Managua with it’s strong feminist legacy. Every year, women congratulate each other, like it was their birthday, wishing each other a Happy International Women’s Day. Radio DJ’s send out special messages to women as well and banners hung up all over the city celebrating the day.

Doña Esmeralda mandated on Wednesday that all the staff would go to the march. At 8am we waited for the bus sent by the Collectivo Feminista Xochilt to pick us up and take us to their office, which was the point of departure for the march. About 10 of us went, sporting our new AMUCOBU t-shirts. When we arrived, hundreds of women filled the street in front of the office. They wore t-shirts that said Movimiento Feminista on the front and a message about abortion on the back… Prosecuting abortion is illegal, unconstitutional and immoral. We then walked to the Supreme Court building along the Carretera Norte, shutting down traffic in our wake. This is one of the main arteries of the city, so it caused some disruption. A small brass and drum band walked with us, and a few women led chants on bullhorns. The point of the march was to advocate for reinstating therapeutic abortion (for only the most severe cases of rape and danger to the life of the mother) which was made illegal in October. There have been many women who have died since the law was put in place in a political maneuver by Daniel Ortega to win the favor of the powerful Catholic authorities before the election. Although various groups have been fighting to reinstate therapeutic abortion, it’s still illegal.

Jews in Nicaragua

2007-03-05T10:20:00.000-06:00

My friend Karina and I discovered a part of the small Jewish community in Nicaragua on Friday. Although we've both noticed small signs of Judaism here and there (for instance, the presence of the Star of David in strange places like auto garages and the tiles in the floor of my friend's house in the barrio) I had yet to encounter any Jews, aside from other expats like myself. Karina found out about a Shabbat dinner that happens weekly at the home of an elderly Jewish couple. Max and Sarah reminded me of my grandparents, except that they speak Spanish and were born and raised Nicaraguan. I still don't know what the story of their family is, but am very curious. Others who came to the dinner were a Russian woman and her son, 2 Israelis, and a Nicaraguan couple who seemed to be in their 30's. It felt good to come together from all different cultures as Jews to chant the same prayers, eat the Nicaraguan version of Jewish food (egg salad with lime and avocado, rice and beans, fish, salad, candied plantains), drink Toña (the national beer) and talk about politics. Karina also went to the Purim party on Sunday, which I didn't end up going to, where apparently they were going to serve kosher hot dogs and Hammentashen!!

Mom and Dad in Managua

2007-03-01T16:34:00.000-06:00

These are my mom's first impressions of Managua from the party we had last week, and some pictures too! Gustavo playing guitar, us in San Juan del Sur and mom and I dancing at the party...

Our first day was a trip to the barrio and Maddy’s “centro”. We drove out of the city, at first glance it could have been any city, and into a third world country with corrugated steel houses and dirt roads. There was to be a party to celebrate our visit, but first a trip to the market to buy more yucca, vegetables, flip flops, toothbrushes and a tee shirt (our luggage was held up in Houston). Therese led us round and round the market looking for the best deals, an opportunity to see the real Managua not open to most gringos. Back in the Centro it was time to join the women and prepare the yucca and vegetables. With Maddy translating, I settled in with the women and felt less like an outsider. I understood well enough as they chastised me for holding the knife the wrong way-it sounded like “oy vay”. A cake mixing machine like my father (the baker) once used was whirling in the corner of the room. The finished cake was a work of art and delicious. We enjoyed a full day of eating, drinking and dancing. Despite the hardships and lack of resources, these good people made us feel so welcome, worried about our comfort and so clearly watch out for Maddy. I will carry the memories of this day forever.

Field trip

2007-02-26T09:05:00.000-06:00

Last week the youth group took a field trip to El Velero, a Pacific Ocean beach. It was the first event of the year for the group, and a chance to get out of the barrio. We left the centro at 6am, in 2 buses. The mini bus I was riding in was in sad shape, so it took us 2 and a half hours of funny noises and backfiring to get there. After letting the kids release their pent up energy, Gustavo led a meditation activity, where the kids had to quiet their minds and not talk while visualizing an animal from the water, air or earth. We then split into groups based on the animal they chose and reflected on how these elements sustain and protect us. I led the earth group… Although some of the kids were throwing wet sand at each other, the rest had some good contributions to make about how the earth provides us shelter, food, animals to help us with our work, etc. We then read an anecdote about friendship, as the outing was celebrating Valentine’s day, also known here as the day of love and friendship. We ended with a group hug, which turned into a pig pile (see picture).

The other activity we did was a secret friend gift exchange. All the kids and the staff brought fruit of some kind. We all picked one half of a traditional Nicaraguan saying, and had to match up with the person who had the other half. I ended up getting a huge papaya that rotted in the sun (sad!).

After that, we ate and swam all day. I took a long walk on the beach and collected tamarind seeds with Fatima and Kenia, two of my students. We cracked some open and ate them… they’re very sour, and probably burned a hole in my stomach… Which reminds me that between swimming, sitting on the beach for an hour during the reflection and walking on the beach, I got a horrible sunburn on my back, which is still peeling after 10 days!

We left at around 5, sunburned, tired, covered in sand and salt. Besides the minibus breaking down on the way home, we made it fine, and I was off to the airport to pick up mom and dad!

Beach, San Juan del Sur

2007-02-22T20:04:00.000-06:00

I've been hanging out with my parents this week, living the other side of Nicaragua... beach tourism! While it's been quite a shock to the system leaving behind the barrio for a luxurious resort in San Juan del Sur, I can't say I'm not enjoying it. We've been staying at this place called Pelican Eyes, up on a hill in the San Juan del Sur bay, with the most amazing view of the sunset. In the mornings, we've visited two different beaches, both completely isolated. Yesterday was Playa Remanso. We had to park and walk about a kilometer down a little dirt road to access the beach, and when we got there, we had our own private beach, white sand rippled with black, the tide almost completely out, baring volcanic rocks in the surf. We found a little shade by the stratified rock cliffs, and I set out to swim in the blue-green water. It was freezing but amazing. Dad and I took a walk around the cliff to the other side, where we could see the next beach over. The rocks were remnants of some ancient lavaflow, very flat, and there were little tidepools in the spots where the rocks had been eroded away, breeding algae and tadpoles. The beach we visited today was super windy, blowing sand in our faces and burning our legs. I jumped in the water twice, and the wind blew the spray from the waves back in my face. We walked again on the rocks, which were twisted and eroded away like a Salvador Dali painting, some like moon rocks. Dad and I found a cove that sheltered little sea urchin/anemones in the holes in the rocks. It smelled like salt and fish life. After swimming in the pool here that looks out over the bay, we walked into town for a fish dinner at sunset. I got to try the fish chowder that I've been hearing about for so long, while getting sand blown in my face from the strong winds on the beach. Tomorrow it's back to Managua, and I'll send some pictures along next week!

Brenda's Story

2007-02-14T09:42:00.001-06:00

Another letter....

My name is Brenda Guevara. I live in Managua. I am Nicaraguan. I have two brothers and four sisters. I am the youngest, I am twenty two years old. My mother is a housewife. I go to english class in the afternoon and take care of my nieces in the morning. I like to watch television. I like to go out with my friends. I like to play volleyball. I also like to watch baseball. My favorite hobby is to listen to romantic music.

Brenda's Story

2007-02-14T09:42:00.000-06:00

Pictures of the School

2007-02-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

Gustavo just took some great pictures of the preschool kids! He also took some pictures of my class on Sunday. The other gringas are the 2 volunteers, Jessie and Kathleen (shout out to both of them!!)

The kids working in a circle are writing the letters about themselves to Ada's hebrew school class.

More letters

2007-02-12T18:14:00.000-06:00

Class has been going really well!! The kids in my Sunday class got really excited about writing letters about themselves to kids in the United States, and were working really hard for the last half hour on their letters. I think they were also excited just to be able to formulate sentences, using the letter I gave them as a model. We've been singing lots of songs, including Is This Love by Bob Marley, Lady in Red, and Woman by John Lennon. There have been requests from the kids for Total Ecclipse of the Heart and more Beatles songs, so I'm sure we'll be singing more. The kids love music... They hear these songs all the time on the radio (particularly 80's love songs) and really want to know what the lyrics mean.

Here's another letter from one of my students:

My name is Erick David. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I have five brothers and two nephews. I am nineteen years old. My mother is a housewife. My father is a supervisor. Now I am studying at high school in the morning. I am going to study English. I like to study English.

Also I study computers. I play drums. I like ot have friends.

My favorite sport is soccer and baseball too. I am a good player. I would like to compete with you someday. My favorite music is 80's music, reggae and ranchera.

Goodbye
Erick David

Letters

2007-02-09T11:12:00.000-06:00

These letters are specifically to Ada’s 5th grade Hebrew school class, but if anyone else is a teacher, or knows adolescents who would be interested in a letter exchange, please use these! If your kids want to write back, the snail mail address here is:

Maddy Brigell
Centro de Salud Walter Ferretti
De la Duya Magica, 3 c. abajo, 10 c. al sur
Distrito V
Barrio Walter Ferretti
Managua, NICARAGUA

Letter 1

Hi. My name is Damaris Lopez. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I am 20 years old. I have one brother. My mother works in the hospital. My father lives and works in the United States. I go to high school in the morning. I’m a senior. In the afternoon I study English. My favorite music is romantic. I like to play soccer.

Letter 2

My name is América Moraga. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I have two brothers and one sister. I’m the oldest. I’m nineteen years old. My mother is a housewife. She can cook very well. My father lives in New York with my uncles, aunts and cousins since two years ago. I like to listen to music. My favorite music is alternative rock and I also like hip hop and other rhythms. I like to talk and play sports, dance and know other places.

I have a lot of friends. Everyone lives in different parts of the city. My best friend is Karla Nárvaez. She is from El Salvador, but now lives in a village named Chiquilistawa. Me nad her like to go to the moies and party with the other guys. We like to play basketball.

But I don’t study wih her because I finished high school and in March will start College or University. I wanna be a lawyer.

That’s all. I hope you like my story.

All the best,

América Moraga.

Kids everywhere!

2007-02-06T10:33:00.000-06:00

The baking workshop started yesterday. Every afternoon, the whole centro is filled with the smell of sweets. Yesterday when I finished up English class, I smelled something sweet and citrusy, and identified it as pineapple. I asked Doña Thelma if they were making pineapple cake, but she told me they were making Hawaiian pizza… This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were selling individual pizza’s for 5 cordobas (about 30 cents) apiece, and that they’re going to be selling something different every morning. I think tomorrow they’re making croissants…

Yesterday was also the first day of school at the centro. For Itzia and Leddys, the girls in my house, it was their first day of pre-school. Ana helped them bathe, put on their white button down shirts tucked into pleated blue skirts, white knee socks and black Mary Janes. She slicked back their curls and sprayed them with Strawberry Shortcake perfume. They put on their backpacks (one blue and one pink with cartoon cats on them) and went off. I arrived later on. The teacher was leading all the preschoolers around the different parts of the centro… They were in 2 lines, one the boys, another the girls, each one had their hands on the shoulders of the kid in front of them. As I was sitting in the office planning my class, I could hear some of the kids crying. Apparently a pretty large percentage of the kids don’t make it through the first week because they can’t adapt to being away from their moms, so they have to wait for the following year to start school… It’s really funny to see the kids in the schoolyard, all under the age of 12, dressed up, hair slicked back, wearing perfume (the boys too!)… It’s like a fashion show for the parents to show off their kids in. Although when they get home, they immediately strip off the uniform, put on their playclothes and forget all about school.

Update-20 days of Daniel Ortega

2007-02-02T15:11:00.000-06:00

(Old Cathedral of Managua, one of the few buildings left standing after the 1972 earthquake, and a storefront in Leon, where I went to visit a couple of weeks ago)

After completing his first 20 days in office, Daniel Ortega met with the vice president of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribean and a representative from the World Bank's Central American office. It seemed to be a sign of his willingness to work with the World Bank in combatting poverty in country. However, with the World Bank's record of pressuring countries into privatizing public services like water and electricity and prioritizing fiscal measures that take money away from education and health, this could be a step in the wrong direction in eliminating hunger, public health crises and illiteracy. (just today the staff in the centro wrote a letter to their representative in the mayor's office about cleaning up the drainage ditch that separates Walter Ferretti from 18 de Mayo, the neighboring barrio, for the rampant health problems it causes from mosquitos and garbage) Apparently Daniel took a stand on this, saying that he was skeptical of how much the WB could help here, seeing as it's been involved in the Nicaragan economy for 16 years and it remains at "the bottom of the barrel (of the poorest countries in the hemisphere) next to Haiti." It seems that although Daniel acknowledges that he's going to need the support of US investors (who dominate the WB) to address the infrastructural problems in the country, he's not going to bow down to their every request. We'll have to see how successful he is in negotiating with them...

English class isn't just English class

2007-02-02T14:31:00.001-06:00

I never thought that teaching an English class would involve me so deeply in some of the personal problems and home life of my students. Last week, on my way to the centro, one of my students was sitting outside of her house and she called me over. She told me that she couldn't keep coming to class and started to cry. Apparently her mom had beat her the night before for coming to class and not asking for permission. This girl is 14, is the oldest of her siblings and does all the house work- cleaning, cooking, ironing, washing, shining shoes, helping her siblings take baths, etc. She also goes to school in the mornings and has to do all her homework. Her mom beats her regularly and her dad used to beat her when he lived with them. Despite all this, she's a great student and eager to learn. I've been working with the youth educators to mediate the problem between her and her mom, at least so she can continue coming to class.

Yesterday, another student of mine (16 years old) came in looking down. She left partway through the class and her friend went out with her. After class I asked Gustavo if he knew what was going on. He told me that the girl's mother had decided to leave the house. She fought with the father to make him leave, but he refused. Apparently the last time there were major problems between her parents, she took a bunch of pills and had to be taken to the hospital. Her friend, another student in the class, has been very supportive of her during the past few days. There's also a meeting tonight of the youth that she should be coming to, and hopefully this can be a source of support for her too, and a distraction from what's going on at home.

English class isn't just English class

2007-02-02T14:31:00.000-06:00

the '80's

2007-01-30T12:16:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-30T11:54:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-19T09:59:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-16T14:04:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-12T13:35:00.000-06:00

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!!

2007-01-12T12:00:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-08T19:06:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-06T14:19:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-06T14:13:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-02T15:18:00.000-06:00

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...)

Christmas etc.

2006-12-28T10:52:00.000-06:00

Although I missed going to the movies and dinner with Mom, Dad and Jake this year, I was glad to be able to celebrate Christmas here in Managua with my friends and family nicaraguense. People here celebrate on the 24th more than the 25th, and it's kind of like New Year's... Everyone stays up until midnight and then wish each other a merry Christmas as fireworks are going off all over the city. I went over to Tere's house and had a few Toña's with her, Miriam and José, another friend. Tere is an amazing cook, and made a delicious carne and pollo asada with rice, cabbage salad and tostones. Her 13 year old daughter Lindsey is in love with bachata music, so we danced a bit. Later, I went to Maria's house, where at midnight we all wished each other a merry christmas. We went to Brenda's, then to Doña Esmeralda's, then back to Ana's house.

On the 25th, I slept late and then went back to Maria´s, who had invited a bunch of people over to eat tripe soup. On their back patio was set up a coal fire with an enormous pot of boiling soup (probably about 3x bigger than the enormous pot you're picturing). I wouldn't have eaten it if it weren't for the vegetables, because tripe definitely makes me want to gag. We sqeezed around the table in the kitchen, had some shots of rum, and gorged ourselves on soup. Maria's mom Isabelle was smoking a cigarette and singing songs of lost love to Tere, who was lamenting the sadness of Lindsey and Alonso, her two youngest, who miss their father who lives in New Jersey (also the love of Tere's life). Isabelle later on told stories about seeing her dead aunt walking around her house soon after her death, and other times when the dead didn't really die. I sat with them on the front patio until around 9, when I was starting to fall asleep.

Happy New Year to all!!

Back home!

2006-12-23T10:21:00.000-06:00

Photos: Me on top of Tajamulco at sunrise, our group of hikers with the mountain in the background, and nacatamale-making at the centro

I made it back to Managua safe and sound on Thursday night. The trip back from xela to guatemala city to Managua was long! But I had the chance to see some beautiful countryside. Guatemala is more mountainous than I imagined. My bus wound through the Western Highlands, past farms with a patchwork of fields, roughly rectangular, conforming to the sides of the mountains. The bus careened around a switchback turn and into a patch of fog that looked like wisps of smoke. We rose higher and the fog was below us, blanketing the villages below, breaking up into rain. Indigenous women wearing huipiles (skirts made of thick strips of woven fabric that are wrapped around their waist) worked in the fields, alongside their children and husbands. In Xela and in San Marcos, where we left for the hiking trip, indigenous women worked in the markets, restaurants, corner stores, tortillerias and selling fresh squeezed orange juice in the streets. They wore fabric around tightly knotted braids on their heads and carried baskets of breads and fruit on top, covered in another piece of fabric. They spoke to each other in K'itche or Mam, with a bit of spanish thrown in here and there. Indigenous culture seemed more a part of life in Guatemala than in Nicaragua. The government is now allowing indigenous law to supercede the national law in some cases. I also learned about some interesting ecotourism projects between foreign travelers and rural indigenous communities. And if anyone reading this is looking for a spanish school, xela is a great place to go. One of the schools is on a farm, where students learn about rural life and support the collective through their study.

It's really nice to be back in Managua, which feels like home now! I washed a mountain of laundry by hand and got caught up on all of the gossip. Ana and I went to the market to buy food for the week (and some vigorón packed in banana leaves, and cacao drinks in plastic bags) and I made spaghetti with veggies and loads of garlic for dinner. I also visited with Brenda to see how the little girl is doing. She had 5 chemo treatments this week and took them all very well. She's playing like normal and still her cute self. Brenda is still not doing that well, but is making it through day by day. Elipsia will have the surgery to have her eye removed Jan 8th and then have one more chemo after that. Things are looking better.

Have a great holiday for all of you who celebrate!!

Okay, I'm ready to write now

2006-12-18T15:46:00.000-06:00

Man did I sleep well last night! It felt so good to wake up and be underneath 3 blankets... It gets cold here in Xela, as we're at a pretty high altitude (I don't know exactly how high...) After sleeping in a 6-person tent with 7 people in sub-freezing cold the night before, my bed in Casa Argentina was like heaven!

In any case, I want to try to give you some highlights from the trip. We met at the Quetzal Trekkers office at 4:45am with our backpacks all ready to go (they lend out equipment to the trekkers). Each bag weighed about 50-60 pounds. We rode in the back of a pickup truck through the dark streets of Xela to the bus station, where we got onto a chicken bus to San Marcos, where we ate breakfast. We then took another bus to the entrance of the hike. The first 15 minutes was tough, just getting used to the altitude. It was really hard to breathe, and I felt a bit nauseous the whole time. The trail leveled out at many points, so it wasn't straight up the whole time. We started pretty high up in the mountains, and had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains the entire time. There were clouds nestled in between them. At one point we walked through a foggy ridge with really tall thin pine trees. Later on in the afternoon, the sun beat out the fog and made the purple, yellow, and rust-red flowers shine brilliantly. We stopped for trail mix and then lunch later on. The QT guides cooked everything for us... potato salad, cabbage salad, guacamole, peanut butter and jelly from a local collective, bread and tortilla chips. The last ascent before we reached our campsite was the hardest... right after I thought I couldn't go any farther, it ended and we reached the campsite. After dinner everyone crashed, but no one really slept well.

The guides woke us at 4am, and we hiked in the dark 220 meters to the top of the volcano. It was really steep and again just when I thought I couldn't go much farther, we reached the top. There was a biting cold wind, so I wrapped up in a sleeping bag with Ana, another trekker, facing the volcanos to the east that you can see in the picture I posted yesterday. As we sat there, Santiaguito, all the way to the right, errupted twice. It felt like we were on top of the world... Behind us was Mexico, but all we could see was mist. Above us a million stars, and a crecent moon sat low above the volcanos. A few groups of Guatemaltecos joined us on top of the crater, and when the sun finally rose, everyone cheered. Our group then hiked around the crater, taking in spectacular views of the mountains around us, and the shadow of Tajamulco cast on the mist to the west.

The entire hike down was unbelievably beautiful... everything that had been couched in fog the day before was completely visible. We could see all the little towns in the mountains, forests, trees and farms, plus the spectacular mountains themselves. By the end my quads were shot. I can see how hiking can become addicting, although I'm ready for a break before I try another volcano... This trip was inspiring for many reasons... the people I met, the time I had to reflect, the physical challenge of hiking in high altitudes, and the exhileration of walking around the crater of the highest volcano in Central America.

Volcán Tajamulco

2006-12-17T17:49:00.000-06:00

Í decided last minute, at the suggestion of some folks I met in San Pedro on Lake Atitlán, to join a hiking trip to climb the highest peak in Central America, Volcán Tajamulco. I went with a group called Quetzal Trekkers (check out the link). It was really hard but beautiful. We just got back a few hours ago, and I'm very tired, so I'll write more in a couple of days. In the meantime, enjoy the photos!

Guatemala

2006-12-13T13:58:00.000-06:00

After a long and tiring journey across Central America, I arrived last night in Antigua. I travelled with my friend Brian, who I met at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Casa Ben Linder in Managua. Our bus left Managua at 2:30am. We crossed the Honduran border at sunrise, and soon after crossed into El Salvador where we wound through the mountains, past amazing vistas of green rolling valleys, sparse trees, villages nestled in between and layers of peaks in the background, the farthest ones looking like purplish-blue shadows. Crossing over to Guatemala, the mountains seemed to grow larger. We saw more indigenous people on the roadsides dressed in the colorful fabrics that you see in import stores in the states. Guatemala City seemed enormous... It reminded me of LA, encircled by mountains. The city has more tall buildings than Managua, and much of it reminded me of run down business districts of US cities. We drove by one of the markets, some municipal buildings with fountains and stone-etchings that resembled Mayan iconography, and this huge reflective glass shopping center-office building bedecked with Christmas lights spelling out FELIZ NAVIDAD. I was exhausted by the time we got to Antigua, but the first impressions I got from the dark were the cobblestone streets, little artisan´s workshops, and brightly colored houses a la Granada. Today we ate breakfast in this little Bohemian cafe where I had granola yogurt honey bananas and raisins. We then wandered around looking at the ruins. It´s really beautiful here and there´s tons of gringos... very relaxing, but tomorrow I´ll be moving on to either Lake Atitlán or Maya Pedal (www.mayapedal.org). Will keep you posted!!

2006-12-11T13:02:00.000-06:00

There´s been sad stuff going on in Walter Ferrety recently. One of the ladies in the office, Brenda, has a 2 year old granddaughter who´s been diagnosed with this rare form of eye cancer. She needs to get chemo, and probably have her eye removed. Her parents are really young, 20 and 22, and totally destroyed, as is Brenda and pretty much everyone else. This kid is spunky and a bubble of light wherever she goes. She´s one of those kids who captures everyone´s heart when she enters a room. She was chatting with all the adults in the hospital, and lightening their experience, I´m sure. On the last day of Purisima, Brenda traditionally invites the neighborhood to her house to pray at an altar to Maria. The songs of prayer are really pretty and often incorporate elements of Liberation Theology. After singing them all night the previous evening, I knew the words and melodies pretty well and was able to sing with everyone else. After praying, all of the children lined up to receive their nacatamales (yes, we made 200 more nacatamales for this occasion). When everyone had left but friends and family, Brenda called everyone into a prayer circle, where each person had a chance to personally pray for the health of Elipsia and all of the other children in the cancer hospital. Everyone was crying, but found strength in looking up at the statue of Maria encircled in flowers, lights, balloons, candles and incense smoke. (The first picture is Elipsia and Itsita, the little girl who I live with. The second is Elipsia with her dad Nager, Doña Esmeralda´s youngest son).

Nacatamales

2006-12-07T08:35:00.000-06:00

Pictures from the graduation... The woman in pink is Theres, and the girl is part of the youth group.

Today is Purisima, the holiday celebrating the patron saint of Nicaragua, Maria. People will be roaming the streets singing songs of praise from house to house. The people in the houses then give gifts, usually bananas, or sugarcane, or other little toys for the kids. I´m going to ¨gritar" as it's called, with Gabriela, Doña Esmeralda's niece. Yesterday, we prepared for Purisima at the centro. Every year, they make 700+ nacatamales (like regular mexican tamales, but bigger and softer, and they have pork, chile, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and whatever else you decide to put in). Gloria, Aida and Chilo came at 5am to start peeling and chopping vegetables. by 9:30, there were about 8 people at work. Doña Thelma was preparing the masa (the dough) in the kitchen, and everyone else was in the rancho in the schoolyard working at big tables. When I came back from running an errand with Fatima at 3, they had just started assembling the nacatamales. A few people washed the banana leaves. A few picked out 3 leaves, arranged them, put a handful of masa in the center, rice, a piece of pork, a piece of pork fat and potatoes. Then they passed it along to the next person, who added tomato, onions, chile, raisins, an olive, a slice of pepper, and a sprig of mint on top. The next person wrapped up the banana leaves, much like a burrito, and finally someone tied up the package. I spent a majority of the time adding the peppers and tomatoes. By 5pm, we were really just getting started. When Theres got back from her son´s graduation, she set up the fire to cook the nacatamales. She put about 60 wrapped nacatamales in a huge metal barrel, set it on top of the fire, added a couple of buckets of water, covered it with plastic to keep the steam in, and let it cook for an hour. By around 9pm, everyone was slap happy, giggling uncontrollably. I understood little of what they said at this point, a combination of being tired and not catching all the slang and plays on words that were setting people off. I looked up to the kitchen and could see Theres, her adopted daughter Karen and Maria's faces reflected the orange light of the fire as they cooked more masa. It was getting chilly, so I sat next to the steaming barrel of nacatamales while Maria and Theres were transferring them to a huge plastic bin with tongs. Gabriela was half asleep on a piece of plastic on the cement steps, and Theres' mom, sister and niece were testing out a cooked nacatamale in the rancho. I think we finally left at around midnight, but there´s still a lot more to make today!

Graduation

2006-12-05T10:36:00.000-06:00

The graduation ceremonies went very smoothly this weekend. The one for the 6th graders and preschool was held in the church in the barrio. At one end is a pulpit and a picture of Santa Maria behind it. The national anthem played as each student walked down the aisle accompanied by a parent or sibling, dressed in their school uniforms. The parents dressed up for the occasion, some wearing what seemed like evening gowns. Even though none of the kids are mine, I felt proud of all of them, and could feel the pride emanating from everyone there. On Sunday was the graduation of the three workshops- Sewing, Baking and Arts & Crafts. We spent the morning decorating and preparing the rancho in the yard of the centro- hanging the board with the letters cut out of construction paper welcoming the graduates, red and green fabric, the red and green bows we´ve been working on all week, a makeshift christmas tree, floral arrangements, and the display case with the baked goods prepared by the participants of the workshops. After each student was called up to receive their diploma, 6 of the students from the sewing workshop modeled the clothes they made in the class. I was really impressed by what the ladies had made… (you can see in the picture). After the festivities were over, we ate one of the cakes in the display, some pasteles, which are like pastries filled with spiced chicken, drank a little beer and listened to some palo de mayo music, which is the carribean-soca type music from the people who live on the Atlantic Coast. The picture is of Doña Esmeralda giving the opening greeting at the graduation of the workshops...

Pictures

2006-11-29T16:40:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-24T17:38:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-23T11:20:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-21T11:41:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-17T16:40:00.000-06:00

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...

2006-11-15T09:59:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-14T10:53:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-12T13:18:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-10T16:25:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-09T09:26:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-11-08T09:58:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-06T08:50:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-03T12:13:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-02T15:37:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-01T14:46:00.000-06:00

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...

Bad news about abortion in Nicaragua

2006-10-27T15:12:00.000-06:00

A friend sent this to me from the Nicaraguan women's movement...

Hi all,Greetings from Nicaragua, where the women's movement is in absolute shock. I can confirm that a group of Catholic priests and representatives fromEvangelical groups were let into the National Assembly in Managua this morning (my colleagues watched them go in), and women were shut out. Theoriginal request to change the penal code and criminalize abortion in allits forms came from a closed-door meeting between legislators and representatives of the Catholic and Evangelical hierarchies, during whichlegislators agreed to "fast-track" the request, the whole thing has gonedown in less than a month. Meanwhile, NO representatives from the women's movement have been allowed to participate in any stage of this abominablelegislative process, despite repeated requests. The whole thing has been ablantantly political gentlemen's agreement between influential members of the church, the current president, and three out of the four politicalparties currently vying for support from the Catholic church. TheSandinistas, the historic party of Nicaragua's revolution, have reversedtheir position and completely sold women out.Bear in mind that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the WesternHemisphere with among the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy and maternalmortality in the region, sex ed virtually does not exist here, and women can rarely afford contraception and need a permission slip from their husbandsto get sterilized. Women of all ages from women's collectives acrossNicaragua (joined by many men in solidarity) mobilized earlier in October demanding to have a say in the legislative process (their request wasdenied), then held an all-night vigil last night and an all-day protesttoday. At no point were their demands heard by anyone in the government. Spanish speakers can read more at http://www.puntos.org.ni/default.php ,there are also links to Latin American feminist radio vignettes athttp://www.puntos.org.ni/servicios/actividades/noticias/default.php?acti=932 . Andrea

Graduation

2006-10-26T10:41:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday, Carita Feliz had their trimester graduation ceremony. I just learned today that the place is owned by this retired Danish businessman. They have 1500 students (not all of them come every day) and it only costs $4-month per student, for food, class, supplies and everything else. Here´s one of my students, Joël, with his diploma. The other photo is a view from the tower of one of the churches near my house.

Histories

2006-10-25T17:02:00.000-06:00

I had an interesting conversation with one of the teachers at Casa Xalteva the other day (they have a website by the way... http://www.casaxalteva.org). I'm always trying to ask people about Nicaraguan history because, as many of you know, I'm a pretty big history nerd, especially when it comes to the history of Latin American wars/revolution. I started asking him a bunch of questions about the time of Somoza (the dictator that the Sandinistas overthrew in July 1979), the time of Sandinista rule, and how it compares to today. He said that when he was a kid, during the time of Somoza, he remembers some military guards coming into his house with guns pointed, looking for people they thought were guerillas. Juan Carlos started crying, and he remembers the guards telling his sisters to make him shut up. He said there were people hiding in the house, but they weren't found. Sergio, my teacher, said that when his mom was pregnant with his older sister in early '79, before the triumph of the revolution, a soldier came into his mother's house and hit her with the butt of his gun. He said that if his mother had been murdered, neither he or his sister would have been born. According to Juan Carlos, the time of the Sandinistas wasn't great either- with the contra war going on and the Sandinistas becoming just as corrupt as their predecessors. Juan Carlos' brother, also named Juan (!), said that even though people have the choice, they so often choose their own oppressors. Juan is a poet, writing about his struggles with addiction to alcohol and his political beliefs. I went to his house and read a couple of the poems, which a friend of his had published...

This conversation took place as a march against the national energy company, Union Fenosa, took place in the rain on Calle Xalteva. They were protesting the privatisation of energy, as there are blackouts every day, which have been getting worse in the past 6 months. Almost every day in class, the lights and fan turn off for at least a couple of hours because of this. Juan says that in the Somoza and Sandinista days, anyone who tried a protest like this would be killed or arrested and jailed. Today things are better.

Volcán Mombacho

2006-10-22T17:30:00.000-06:00

It rained all day, but we had a blast! I took a truck up the mountain with Sara, Aldo (from Utah) and Mariko (from Japan). We hiked around the crater of the Volcano (3rd photo), and ¨fumedores¨, where the steam comes out from the active part of the volcano. Everything was wet and glowed, despite the clouds. I felt like I was in a rainforest- but they call it a cloud forest, which describes it really well- at first all we could see was clouds. After eating a snack, we decided to try to walk down the mountain, not realizing that it would kill our quads! We half ran down the mountain, and had some amazing views along the way (last photo). Partway down it started to pour... Luckily we were close to the hostel, where we took shelter and waited for the next truck (top). Needless to say, I was soaked by the time we trekked back into Granada.

Market

2006-10-21T16:17:00.000-06:00

I've always been drawn to the markets in all of the developing countries I've been in. There's something more down to earth and organic about buying food or kitchen supplies or anything you might need from a small entrepreneur. The market sprawls out through the streets near the Parque Central. Turning off to the left onto a smaller road south of the park, the booths become more tightly packed. In the wooden structures, merchandise seems to overflow into the streets... candy, bags of chips, notebooks, towels, flourescent plastic strainers, pots and pans, school supplies, soap- all brightly colored. Umbrellas protect wooden tables piled with plantains, tomatoes, carrots, melons, pineapples, green onions and yucca from the rain. Some of the vendors only sell cheese and yogurt in small plastic baggies (farmer cheese for all you Sternbergs out there! Gog would be in heaven :). Others sell small fried pasteles out of large metal buckets, and still others a colorful array of juices in plastic baggies, which people walk away drinking with a straw. You can turn off of this road to the right, into a dark passageway that will take you into the bowels of the market. People squeeze by each other down the stone passageways that run into each other with no clear order. Apparently, the building used to be a huge church- who knew that one day it would hold piles of meat, clothes, shoes and kitchen supplies. Walking through and seeing all of these things definitely triggers my grocery shopping addiction and makes me wish I had my own kitchen. Today I trekked to the market with my new friend Sara from Switzerland. I bought a few pencils for the students at Carita Feliz, a screw to fix my backpack with, a couple of postcards and soap for laundry (which is another story!). When it started to pour, we ducked into a panaderia (bakery) to try out a piece of marble pound cake and an apricot pastry. I hope this gives y'all an idea of the market, because as much as I'd liked to, I probaby won't be taking any pictures in there- I think my looking-like-a-tourist complex is too strong for the market.

Gladys

2006-10-20T17:26:00.000-06:00

Today I went to my second day of volunteering at Carita Feliz. I walked down Calle Xalteva at 7:30am, and the skies threatened to open up any second. Kids in their school uniforms sauntered along the sidewalks, and some on bikes as well. As I got closer to Carita Feliz, the sidewalk became dirt puddles, but the houses remained brightly colored, though smaller. CR is on a mud-dirt road. A man had swept up the garbage so the dirt was raked into neat geometrical patterns. I got there early and had a chance to chat with Gladys, the teacher. She described the programs of CR a bit more. They have all kinds of classes- Spanish, English, cooking, dance, music, art, and a preschool. They serve lunch and dinner to the kids, who all come from very poor families. Gladys often brings small gifts for the kids, to motivate them and make them feel good about their work- school supplies, cookies, candy, etc. She bought a piñata today from the kids in the art class to give to kids in her neighborhood who don´t have enough money to buy their own.

I worked with Maria Jose today. She´s in 2nd grade and needs practice reading, so we read La Gigante Egoïste together and she taught me about the seasons in Nicaragua. After class, there was a torrential rainstorm. Gladys sat with me and shared a Rubén Darío poem with me, patiently explaining to me the words I didn´t know. She then said I could borrow the book for the weekend and lent me her umbrella. I feel so lucky to have the chance to work with her.

In the water

2006-10-19T19:45:00.000-06:00

So today I had spanish class while swimming in the Laguna de Apoyo. We all went together, all the profesores and students in a truck... I sat in the back with five others on a wooden bench and held on for my life. Class mostly consisted of learning the word "to splash" (salpicar) and puna (fist) while teaching Sergio how to swim. I ate plantains for all 3 meals today. Heaven, I say.

Anyone with ideas or knowledge about teaching kids how to read and write, let me know!! I would love suggestions... I hope all is well in the North!