Ashley and Anna

We are in our third week in Nicaragua. We started our time in Managua, the capital city, where we mainly heard from speakers.  One man lectured about Daniel Ortega and the realities of the re-empowered Sandinista party and what that meant for the country in terms of economics and development.  We also heard from a pro-CAFTA development agency and then from an economist who is opposed to CAFTA. We went to the house of a union organizer for maquilas, which are the big factories that produce a lot of the clothes we buy in the U.S. (the worker conditions are really harsh, and the people aren’t very empowered in terms of organizing and demanding rights). We visited a micro-loan agency and two small business owners who had received loans from them, and, finally, we visited the American embassy to talk policy with a diplomat.

 The next week we left Managua and went up into the more mountainous region of Miraflor, to stay in a village called Sontule.  We split into small groups and lived with local families for four days. The village is very poor (Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas), but the people are doing a lot to improve their situation. They've formed two cooperatives in the town, and one of them is a women’s co-op, which has been really empowering for the women who live there. In Central American culture machismo is a huge problem; women have a limited voice in the family, and many men leave their wives and families and pay no child support. So in a situation where women are marginalized, things like women’s co-ops are making a huge difference. The women met with us one day to talk about how the co-op has affected them. On top of this, the people of the village were just incredibly inspiring. During the contra war of the ’80s, the contra forces ambushed this village three times, killing several village members and burning houses, crops, and what little machinery there was. All of this was because people were trying to form a cooperative. Some people were forced to flee and live in the mountains for years, and others, like one man we talked to, were drafted into the army while they were still teenagers. Despite all of this pain and fear, which finally ended in the ’90s, the people have continued on, and still have so much joy and love to share. What makes it even more incredible is how welcoming they are to us as citizens of the country which funded the war that caused them so much hardship. These people are certainly a testimony to resiliency and grace.

After leaving Sontule, we went to Cuidad Dario to work with a development agency called Seeds of Learning. It is focused on working in solidarity with the people. This was a new experience, because rather than just bringing us onto the development site as a large group of gringos ready ¨to give so much¨ to the village people, Seeds of Learning did everything with the people of the village as partners. Before a development project starts, the town gathers and decides to present a certain request to the agency. In our case, it was the maintenance of their school. Then they have several town meetings, discussing their vision for the project with the agency, deciding how the whole thing is meant to go. When the work begins, it involves the local people working side-by-side with the outsiders who have come to help. We spent three days on the worksite helping to paint a school and desks and chairs. It was good to spend the time with that community, and get to know the people we worked with. One great moment with the organization was the first day of our work.   Everyone went around and said their name, and the students also shared what grade they were in.   We probably spent about half-an-hour hearing every pre-schooler, teacher, parent, etc., say something about themselves, followed by applause.   Even though there was no way we could remember all those names, it was a moment of acknowledging equality amongst one another and that each person involved in the project mattered. The organization also has a learning resource center in the city, where we stayed, and it is used to give free after-school courses to kids from the city, and to tutor people. The children can take courses in music, dance, or art, and they're all incredibly talented.  This was a hopeful moment for all of us, to be able to see a development organization  that seemed to be going about things in a healthy, holistic manner.  This is something that we have learned is a rarity here in Central America, where dependency is prevalent.

 Now we're back in Managua for another week of lectures and activities, the first of which was today. We drove through the dump here in Managua, which was hard to see – the man who gave a lecture before we went described it as the hell of Nicaragua, and he wasn't exaggerating. People live there, right in the middle of the trash, in little tin shacks that they've thrown together (I think there are 1,300 people living in or near the dump). Their livelihood is picking through the trash brought in by the dump trucks, and pulling out all useful or recyclable things, which they then sell to a middleman, who in turn sells it to recycling plants. A lot of children work as well. On average a child can make up to 50 cents a day and an adult $1 or $1.50. There was trash burning all over the place, so the air was permeated with smoke almost constantly. We saw a truck come in with a fresh batch of trash – someone likened it to the aid trucks you see on TV, filled with rice giving out food in villages, where everyone is pushing shoving and grabbing. It was like that, only over trash. We couldn't get out of the bus – it probably would have been too dangerous – so we found ourselves driving through these mountains of trash and the people who live amongst it, in our clean white van with ¨tourismo¨ written on the side, and cooled by our air-conditioning. Needless to say, it wasn't the best feeling. This is what Eddy Perez, our guide, said to us before we left:  His organization is working to help the people who live there, to facilitate and cultivate change. He told us that he didn't want us to enter the dump seeing this with eyes of pity, but rather seeing what this reality is, and what the potential of the people of Nicaragua is to change this situation. And he is right - this country has been through so much, yet the people remain so joyful and resilient.

Friday morning will see us on our way to El Salvador, the last stop in our trip.  We will see you all in May. . .