The Nicaragua update

A week has passed since our return from our week-long Nicaragua trip, and I am just now making the time to compose an update of sorts. I will try to highlight some of the events of the trip, which was overall a great success! (You might want to take reading this in chunks, cuz I know it's gonna be long, though I'm really restraining myself on what to detail. Broken up and enhanced by photos, but long all the same.)


Departure: Sat. Mar. 12, 3:45am. Picked up our students and headed to San José to catch TicaBus to Nicaragua. Freezing cold air conditioned ride, with amazingly annoying music and violent movies narrating our attempts to sleep. We crossed the border around 11:30 and were in Managua by 3:00pm.

Border crossing on TicaBus!

Welcome to Nicaragua!

Windmills in Nicaragua

During the week, we stayed at Villa Esperanza, a beautiful refuge and ministry to young at-risk girls who have moved there from a nearby garbage city, La Chureca (literally, a settlement in the local garbage dump). This is such an amazing ministry. (http://de-de.facebook.com/villaesperanza?sk=info or http://www.forwardedge.org/childsponsorship/ourprogram.shtml) Really, please check it out or ask me more about it! Hammocks, gorgeous lawns, great cabinas with nice bathrooms and a large, open-air comedor (dining hall). The best part of Villa Esperanza at this time of year is the ripe mangoes that thud on the aluminum rooftops as they fall from the trees overhead!

The comedor.
(Photo credit: Bree Riddle)

Hammocks in front of the cabins.
(Photo credit: Aaron Farance)

Mango trees (and freshly fallen fruit!)
(Photo credit: Heather Kennison)

Looking towards the office and front landscaping of the Villa.
(Photo credit: Aaron Farance)

Sunday morning, we attended two misas (masses) in comunidades de base (base community churches), which followed Catholic liturgy, but the services manifested themselves very differently in atmosphere. It was very interesting to observe the different styles, and to participate in conversation and Bible study-esque conversations with the other congregation members.

During one of the base services, an elderly woman grabbed one of the
men in the congregation and started dancing with him! SO precious!

We had a traditional lunch (comida típica: ensalada con pollo frito y tortillas) at Freddy's brother's house (Freddy is the man who is our contact in Nicaragua; he and his niece-in-law Raquel coordinated and organized the majority of our trip for us). Then we went and played with about 180 children in an impoverished community around la Iglesia René Polanco. Running around playing sports with kids for hours was SO much fun (baseball, fútbol, jumping rope, running around on the playground, playing semáforo (red light-green light), trying to teach them the ninja (hay-ya!) game, etc.)! Due to the fact that this is such a poor (and rough) area, we left all of our bags and cameras and belongings on the bus. I think we all benefitted from just pure playing with and relating to the kids, without the distraction of taking photos. We carry the images and memories of these children in our minds and hearts, and I know the students journaled about their interactions and observations. We returned to Villa Esperanza sticky, tired, and very hungry!


Monday we went to La Chureca, the dump city, with a Pastor from the area, named Ramón, and his wife Miriam, who led us through the city and introduced us to a number of people (some of the 1,250 families who inhabit the area). I interpreted the experience for our group, which was quite taxing for most (mentally and emotionally draining). Though only one student brought her camera in to photograph the conditions of La Chureca for the memory of the collective group, again, this is an experience wherein the mental pictures will endure in our minds for much time to come. (Photo credit: Britta Howard)

An example of some of the homes in La Chureca.

Many of the families have received micro loans to finance
family businesses, such as pig raising.

Looking out over some of the homes in La Chureca.

This is a stream of grey water that runs along the back sides of the settlement; I slipped into it while distractedly walking and interpreting at the same time, wetting my Toms shoes and tarnishing the underside of my white pants with the splash of the dirty water. Surprisingly, as wet as I got, the pants are unstained after washing.
(I do not know WHY I ever decided to wear white pants knowingly to a garbage dump that day, but the memory stands out symbolically in my mind, serving as a reminder of the stark contrast between my (at times) lifestyle of pristine, unblemished, cleanliness in comparison to that of living in the midst of dirt and garbage.)

Here I am walking behind Miriam. She and her husband Ramón pastor
La Chureca and the surrounding area through their church and outreach ministry.

In observation of a political advertisement for the re-election of
Presidente Daniel Ortega, I find it odd that such impoverished people
give their support to such leader who has characteristically changed;
it seems to me, in my observations, that Daniel, rich as can be now,
is not walking the talk anymore, in regards for his support for
the plebeian, everyday Sandinista man.

One of the nearby lakes, created by a flood from last October/November,
when the water wiped out the previously existing homes of the inhabitants of La Chureca.
This black water, though not ingested directly, is a source from which locals bathe and wash their laundry.

This trash along the roadside at the entrance of La Chureca
is a part of a sorting project that is a small business,
the result of one of the micro-loans that are being granted.

Aside from the images of endless garbage, the trash that is used to craft shelters for human and animal alike, the puddles and runoff streams of grey water, and dusty smoke that came off of the mountains of trash surrounding the settlement, the image that permeates my memory the most is a mental one of a five or six-year-old girl. Looking She picked up a candy wrapper from a pile of trash and, without hesitation, started sucking off the remnants of the candy from that dusty, dirty packaging. It is impressions such as these, no matter where in the world I've seen it firsthand in my lifetime--Mexico, South Africa, Poland, Costa Rica, or Chile--the reality of some conditions of humanity leaves an imprint on one's mind and heart.  We prayed with some of the inhabitants--one who had AIDS and another who had just had his eye operated on when a speck of dust from the burning garbage got in his eye. I could write a book about encounters with these people.



That afternoon, we visited Centro Nehemías (Nehemiah Center), where Freddy works. I interpreted for a talk that was delivered about the work that this nonprofit cooperative (it's a center where eight or nine nonprofit organizations all cohabitate together, benefitting financially from their cooperation and networking: http://www.nehemiahcenter.net/English/index.asp).

This is the gazebo inside the center courtyard area of the Centro Nehemías.

Tuesday was Día de la Mujer (Women's Day). There was much talk about machísmo and women's rights throughout the week, in part attributed to the sentido (feeling/sentiment) of Día de la Mujer that seemed to be in the air. We went to Volcán Masaya in the morning (a steaming, sulfrus volcano where it was VERY windy, but with a wonderful view!). During the Samoza dicatatorship, political prisoners were dropped from helicopter down into the inner core of the earth!

Alexandria (one of our students), me, and Emily (fellow 24/7)
up at the lookout with the abyss of the volcano behind and below us.

From another lookout point (appropriately named "Wind's Lookout"),
you can see the cross lookout (from where the above photo was taken).
The volcano pit is down and to the left.

In honor of Día de la Mujer that week,
I took this photo of a sign found in an Italian restaurant in Matagalpa.
It translates, "Careful! Machísmo kills"

Then we went to Masaya's artisan market in the afternoon, where I was able to purchase an awesome bohemian bag and a new fanny pack! Good investments in local vendors and Central American products, I'd say (we ask where products come from, who made them, etc. in the interest of supporting local with our purchases).


Our visit to the U.S. Embassy in Managua happened during the afternoon. A lively panel of men--representing political, economic, and consular services--shared and interacted with our group.


That evening after dinner back at Villa Esperanza, we interacted with the Villa Esperanza girls during a youth group gathering that the Forward Edge team, comprised of college students from Tennessee, was leading (Forward Edge is the short-term mission organization that brings teams down to work with the Villa Esperanza ministry). We danced, sang, listened to a testimony by one of the Tennessee girls, and shared a time of prayer. What a beautiful time that night was!

In the open-aire comedor area, starting youth group for the night.

Wednesday, we headed out of Managua very early for a two-day trip to Matagalpa (see the starred location on the map below). The purpose of the trip was to learn about an organization called PAC (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Partido-Acción-Ciudadana-PAC-Nicaragua/113517158710880?sk=info). PAC stands for Partido Acción Ciudadana (the Community Action Party), which is a non-profit organization that works to represent, support, encourage and help small growers to develop their means of income and thus support local communities. It was about a three-hour bus ride.

We explored Matagalpa for an hour, got some refreshing ice cream (already at 9-10am it was a warm 80ºF outside), sat around and people watched on the church steps, and then headed out up further north through Jinotega to the campo (countryside).

Matagalpa

Downtown Matagalpa; the hills are Seattle or San Francisco-esque,
only with shoddier (or nonexistent) roads.

We arrived in downtown (small town) San Rafael Norte just in time for a noontime lunch at the Hotel Casita San Payo, and were back on the road again by 1:00 for a 45-minute drive out to the campo, which included riding in the back of a pickup truck, campo-style, and fording a small river. We'd climbed to an elevation of around 1,200m (Managua is at about 82m), and were in prime high-altitude coffee growing campo.

Some of the landscape on our way further north from Matagalpa
to the campo in San Rafael Norte (pop. ~1,000).

The hotel where we had lunch in San Rafael Norte.

Fording the river.

I interpreted an hour-long talk by the grower's organization and local cooperative workers in a dark, hot, and stuffy room. Then we continued the tour of the cafetal (coffee plantation), listening in on a training session for the coffee growers from the organization's agronomist supervisor. On our way back out of the campo, we hopped out of the truck bed to learn about malanga (taro), how it is grown and harvested, and even got to taste some homemade taro and treats from one of the campesinas (the wife of the taro farmer)!

Fresh coffee berries, in different levels of their (cáscaras) shells.
(Photo credit: Heather Kennison)

José, PAC agronomist, teaches the group about the stages of coffee growing and harvesting;
students in the background also learn from local co-op growers about the plants and process.
(Photo credit: Bree Riddle)

Coffee grower and head of this local co-op organization, Don Daniel,
explains to us their cafetal's apparatus in processing the harvested coffee beans.
(Photo credit: Bree Riddle)

A gallina (hen) pecks at the drying coffee beans.
(Photo credit: Bree Riddle)

José, age 12, shows us how malanga (taro) is harvested in the campo.

José proceeds to groom the malanga once it's been taken from the field.

At the "Hostal La Buena Onda" there was
this cute bunny rabbit hanging out!
(Photo credit: Heather Kennison)

We headed back to Matagalpa to stay in a (nice and clean) hostel for the night. Thursday morning, we were provided with breakfast, then toured the PAC organization's offices and were off to visit their malanga processing plant. Though there were no workers (for a lack of  product to be processed), we were still guided through the vegetable processing, and then delivered a lecture on the inner workings and idea of what PAC is and does. It was very educational, and I would go into more detail if it wasn't for the length that this post is now reaching.

PAC presentation. The tagline reads,
"If your vision is for a year, you'll grow grain.
If your vision is for 10 years, you'll grow trees.
If your vision is for a lifetime, you'll grow people."
(Photo credit: Bree Riddle)

Thursday afternoon, we made it back to the Villa in Managua for an afternoon of rest and a light, late-afternoon picnic on the lawn there before a late-evening dinner and then heading out into Managua to go to a concert by the hermanos Mejía Godoy, a group of family musicians that compose and play traditional Nicaraguan folkloric music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Mej%C3%ADa_Godoy).


Friday was our last day. We started the morning hearing a talk from a lady who worked at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Managua. She shared her own moving story about her journey as an HIV-positive mother. Then we went to the historic part of Managua. There really is no "downtown" or city center in Managua since the 1972 earthquake. Within the Plaza de la Revolución, we toured the Museum of Culture (the old governmental office building) heard the Minister of Culture speak, and after lunch at the Plaza Inter mall, we heard from the Minister of Music. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring some of the historic monuments: the Old Cathedral, the tomb of Carlos Fonseca (founder of the ruling political party, the FSLN), the remarkable Monumento a la Paz (Monument for Peace) that is located in a very dangerous part of town (we had a close encounter with a gang as we were boarding our bus), and then the Sandino Monument that sits on the hill overlooking Managua and the lake. (Read more of an overview on historic Managua and some of the sites we saw there on the following Wikipedia page; it's really quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managua#Plaza_de_la_Revoluci.C3.B3n)

One of our students snuck a few pictures on his iPod, though the rest of us
left all our belongings on the bus. If we had brought things along with us,
we probably would have been robbed. (Photo credit: Derek Martin)
The 1990 Peace Park is one of Managua's most interesting monuments. 
Its reflection pool is empty and the light rarely shines, but what remains are 
weapons (machine guns, pistols, even a tank) - forever encased in concrete
by former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

In Parque a la Paz, over 15,000 armas (guns/weapons) have been cemented
into the banks around the monument of a lighthouse, symbolizing
the beacon of peace over revolutionized Nicaragua.
Ironically, the park is now central territory for gangs and robberies.

Friday night for dinner and a closing time with Freddy, Raquel and Eli, and our driver Don Salvador, we went to a pupusería (a local restaurant that serves the famous El Salvadorian bean, cheese, and meat (if you choose) tortillas with salsa chilero on top).

Pupusas (Photo credit: Alexandria Roullier)

On the TicaBus (like a Greyhound busline) back to Costa Rica.

We headed back to Costa Rica early Saturday morning (left Villa Esperanza at 4:30, caught the 6:00am TicaBus). We had a two-hour border crossing to break up the cold, nauseating bus ride (TicaBuses need suggestion boxes, I've decided, so that the passengers can let the drivers know how they're doing and that the A/C is unnecessarily strong and cold, the music is the most annoying, the volume needs to be turned down, and whether the visual displays are appropriate for all audiences). It's hard to sleep under such conditions, or enjoy the view out the window even, for that matter! We arrived back in San José around 3:15pm, back in San Rafael de Heredia around 5:00pm to drop our students off, and were home at the CRC by around 6:00pm.


Ask me about any of these events and certain parts of the trip if you want; I've only just touched on some of the topics; it really was a fantastic trip for the students as well as for myself. In this experience and my capacity as a CRC Volunteer, I am so grateful that I get to see some things I'd never experienced before, as well as things I've seen before, learning with the students, from their questions, and being amazed as I watch them learn for themselves. I'm so proud of them, as I watch them struggle and go through asking the hard questions and figuring out things for themselves as they experience parts of Central America that I have been touched by in my past as well. It makes me nostalgic for the experiences I've had before, as well as grateful that I've learned from them and don't have to go through the struggle again. I watch the students learn. (Though I continue to be confronted with tough issues over and over again, having to face poverty, corruption, and humanity in situations of deprivation and figure out how I feel/what I think about it all.) It's really a wonderful capacity to serve in, leading groups and interpreting for talks on topics that I'm already familiar with (or not, for that matter. I'm still learning and questioning a lot for myself!). I just love the process of traveling and discovering new places, people, their stories, their places of work and livelihood, learning about ways of life and practices that make me a more informed consumer and citizen of this globalized world, and sharing that joy with these students and others I am blessed to travel through life with.