Buenos días todos!
Espero que todos ustedes se sientan bien donde están en el mundo. Or for those that don't understand Spanish, I hope you are doing well wherever you are in the world. I realized that it has been a really long time since I have written a blog post so I figured I should write one just to give an update on what has been happening in the wonderful land of Nicaragua. I've finally decided that for one, five months is not enough time for sustainable development to happen. You really need a number of months first to get to know people in the community to learn about what the real community needs are as well build trust with the local people and then start the projects that make real impacts. Five months is not enough time to do this. Five months is enough time to do something small but not enough time to do something large. My biggest ideas for the community are building a cinema and a windmill. I can accomplish both of those projects with a lot more time, which I don't have. Money, as it turns out, is not as hard as I thought it would be to receive. The other intern in my program raised more than 2,500 dollars in two weeks so I know that I will be able to raise the money necessary for these projects. Who knows, I may end up coming back to the community after I graduate from college so that I can do these two projects.
Anyways, moving on to what's going on in the community, there's a significant amount to say. I'm just about done with a business plan for my pastry shop I'm making in the community. This project has evolved so much I barely even know where it's at anymore, but I guess I have an idea. haha. What was originally going to be a bakery café with twenty women working in it with month long shifts has now become a small bakery cafe with three women working on it full time, while other women will have the chance to come to the bakery kitchen to make pastries and sell them throughout the community. So I guess in other words, it is more or less a collective pastry shop and with a small restaurant alongside. It didn't really make much sense to have twenty women working in such a small business as this one. The money for this project will potentially come from donors through the internet, when I start my online fundraising campaign this weekend. Overall, while it feels good to have accomplished so much with this project, I also feel disappointed that I know that I'm not going to get to see the final product, which will come a few weeks after I leave the community.
Alongside this project, I have also been working on installing three enormous trash cans in the community. These three trash cans are elevated so that pigs won't get in and have roofs to protect them from rain, which has already begun to come in torrential downpours. It will be a great addition to the community that doesn't have any trash cans of any type at the moment. However, the real work I've accomplished in the community doesn't really come from the projects I've accomplished but rather from the relationships I've made in the community.
I must say that I have learned more than I learned in the last two and half years of college from the relationships I have made in the community. The funny thing about all of this stuff that I feel I have learned is that it is really made up of a bunch of jumbled facts, all of which signify something on a much larger scale. For example, I was talking to my host brother one day about why my host mother's father never comes over to our house even though he lives about two minutes away. My host brother told me that his grandfather doesn't come over that much because he really didn't take care of my host mother, but rather just impregnated her mother and left her a little while later. I soon found out that this is what he's done with basically every woman he's been with, which can testify to the fact that he has 20 children that are almost all from different marriages. Although this is an extreme example because I've never heard of a family that big before, it represents something that seems to occur often throughout the community. The men work and make money to do nothing other than get drunk afterwards while the women work hard to feed their families. On the other hand, a lot of the women are not completely without fault either. I've learned from people in the community that many of them have married foreigners who live on the beach nearby not because they love them or have anything in common with them, but simply because they want to have a better life. Then again I don't know if I can really blame them because I think that it's a fault of society.
One of the girls I met who is in this situation is only a year older than me, but already has a three year-old daughter and is married to a 46 year-old surfer from France. I also met another girl who is 19 and married to a 60 year-old American. I don't think that I would ever be able to live with myself if I ever found myself in this situation: marrying a girl that's more than 40 years younger than me with whom I have not one thing in common, but as I said before I think that it's a failure of society. Foreigners know that they have so much money that any girl will flock to them for a better life, regardless of how much they love them, and so they marry girls who are generations younger than them. The girls often insist that they have kids so that the men will never leave them, and so that they can basically control the men, but I think that they think that this is a better option than marrying a man who only has limited money and will just get drunk with whatever he does have. I mean after all, it does give them power and we all know how much people like power.
Anyways, I think I should stop ranting and talk about some less controversial topics such as my trip with my dad. Last week was Semana Santa, which is the week long vacation that everybody has throughout Nicaragua and one day in this week also happened to be my dad's 60th birthday, so he came to visit me here in Nicaragua for the week. On our trip, we went to Granada, Lake Nicaragua, and la Isla de Ometepe. I've already talked about Ometepe so I'll talk a bit about Granada. I had heard that Granada had way too many tourists, especially on Semana Santa, but I didn't find it to be that at all. I think that it was actually a lot more authentically Nicaraguan than San Juan del Sur, which really does feel like a foreign city in the middle of Nicaragua. I wonder if that's how Alexandria felt when it was a giant Greek city in the middle of Egypt. Haha I think that's kind of an exaggeration. Granada is right alongside Lake Nicaragua, is filled with extremely colorful buildings, and sits in the shadow of the enormous volcano Mombacho. The nightlife there is also wonderful, as you can sit on any table in the middle of the city, feel the wind pass by, and order a two dollar beer. I'm going back there with my mom and my brother in about a month, which I'm so excited for. After my dad and I went to those places, he came with me to visit my community of Las Salinas and the beach nearby, which he said really seems like one of the last beautiful and enormous beaches in the world that is still mostly untouched. He stayed with my host family as well, which I thought was going to be really awkward, but turned out to be fine. Also, a friend of mine from college came to visit, which was awesome as well. I frequently tell people in my community who complain about having not very to do in Las Salinas, that they should appreciate the beautiful beach, which has hardly anybody on it for the majority of the year, because there aren't as many beaches like that in the world as there used to be.
One last thing, throughout the month of May, my community holds a rodeo every weekend that I've now gone to once. I enjoyed going to it just to talk to the other people in the community, but not to see the way in which the treat the bulls, which is so terrible. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a bull and have my horns tied up to a pole, and be let free with people on my back. Or what it would be like to be taunted by a bunch of drunks with pants falling down in the corral. Well anyways, I hope this blog post didn't seem too negative, because I am definitely having a great time here, I just like to think about things and like to use this blog as a way of expressing my thoughts on everything.
Paz y Saludos a todos!
Zack
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
My Reflections
Hello everyone wherever you are in this enormous world of some 6.9 billion people, of which some 40% live in India and China. Everyday I have to wonder what it would be like to live in Bangladesh, which is a country with roughly the same area as Nicaragua, but with an extra 155 million people. Woah, I'm getting carried away with randomness, but I love sharing these facts just because they are so amazing and help me keep my world in check. Anyways, on to my life since the last time I made a blog post about two weeks ago. Almost all of my time since then has been centered on writing a grant to the Foundation for Sustainable Development to start a bakery café in the community. This has involved a million steps, which could fill an entire blog post if I describe them in detail, so I won't, I'll just give a little overview.
In these past two weeks I have interviewed about 30 people on their thoughts about starting a bakery café in the community, met with the board of directors of the Indigenous Community of Las Salinas to request permission to use a vacant house in the community for the bakery café, helped the group of women elect an administrative committee for the management of the bakery café, begun to clean the vacant house to prepare it for remodeling, begun a draft of the grant, talked to members of the government's small business administration to discuss giving workshops on pastry-making and business management to the women that are going to be working in the bakery café, and started a budget for the business. However, I still have to create a business plan, finish the budget, finish writing the grant, remodel the house where the bakery café will be, and supervise the classes on pastry-making and business management. So basically I got a lot in store for me before I'm done with my internship. Also, I'm working on another project of building iron trash cans in the community simply because there aren't any in the community. Hopefully after we build them, the kids who come to the library can help with their beautification by painting them and whatnot.
I haven't left the community in a number of weeks due to the fact that my camera is being fixed and I won't go anywhere I haven't already been to without a camera as well as the fact that I have had a ton of work to do. Anyways, while I've been working I've been doing a lot of thinking about my role in the world of international development. While I was doing the interviews with community members about their thoughts on the demand that exists in the community for a bakery café, I got the chance to get to know all of them and learn about their lives. I ended up falling into conversations that went on for hours and hours with some of the people I interviewed about life in the states and here in Nicaragua and the millions of differences between the two.
In one of my interviews, I talked to a woman who asked me about my family and what my childhood was like. Although I was unsure of how she would respond I decided to be honest and say that I come from a family with a reasonable amount of wealth, but that I have always felt guilty for it. Due to this feeling, I have been given compassion for the developing world and the drive to support it in any way I can as well as help it grow in the future. I'm really not trying to brag about myself, but this woman told me that she had never heard any Americans say that and that it motivated her so much as well as changed her opinions about the US as a whole.
Having that conversation sparked something in my head. So much of development work is based only on projects, projects, projects. All of the work I have done in the developing world has just talked about how you can support the community with different projects and that the sustainability comes when the community members continue these projects on their own. Yes obviously that is sustainable, but I feel like there is something missing with this idea of sustainability. That thing is relationships. There is nothing more sustainable than changing the mindset of people through the creation of profound relationships or just breaking the boundaries that prevent people from different cultures from getting to know each other. The women who I talked to told me that I changed her opinion of Americans forever and that she was motivated to have better relationships with the other Americans who have settled nearby the community. Could there be anything more sustainable than that motivation? And on top of that, what about just improving the relationship between people across cultures, that is so sustainable in itself. So many of the programs that allow people to study and/or volunteer abroad don't give people the chance to create these relationships. They're so structured that you are always required to be doing something and never get the chance to go out and meet new people that aren't necessarily involved in what you're doing. I mean how can you make these types of relationships on any study abroad program when you're always hanging out with other Americans? As I said in my first blog post, no offense to anyone is on a study abroad program, I have this same criticism for the Foundation for Sustainable Development as well. The Foundation for Sustainable Development wanted me to have made a thorough work plan with numerous projects to complete during my internship after only the first week. How can you start sustainable projects if you don't know anyone yet? Is a week enough time to meet new people, build relationships with them, and construct sustainability? I don't think so.
Although I was partially able to this building of relationships through the bakery café project I am working on, I really used this opportunity to not simply interview people, but really to get to know them and hear their opinions as a way of helping myself grow too. I really wish I had done this in the first week instead of simply spending all of my time trying to figure out what types of projects I could do in the community. This is my advice for anyone who is on any program abroad whether it be studying, volunteering, or simply traveling. Go out of your normal routine to take the opportunity to get to know some people you haven't met before. Who knows, you may be able to change their mindset and lead them to do something amazing in their own life even if you never see them again. That is definitely something special.
Miss you all,
Zack
In these past two weeks I have interviewed about 30 people on their thoughts about starting a bakery café in the community, met with the board of directors of the Indigenous Community of Las Salinas to request permission to use a vacant house in the community for the bakery café, helped the group of women elect an administrative committee for the management of the bakery café, begun to clean the vacant house to prepare it for remodeling, begun a draft of the grant, talked to members of the government's small business administration to discuss giving workshops on pastry-making and business management to the women that are going to be working in the bakery café, and started a budget for the business. However, I still have to create a business plan, finish the budget, finish writing the grant, remodel the house where the bakery café will be, and supervise the classes on pastry-making and business management. So basically I got a lot in store for me before I'm done with my internship. Also, I'm working on another project of building iron trash cans in the community simply because there aren't any in the community. Hopefully after we build them, the kids who come to the library can help with their beautification by painting them and whatnot.
I haven't left the community in a number of weeks due to the fact that my camera is being fixed and I won't go anywhere I haven't already been to without a camera as well as the fact that I have had a ton of work to do. Anyways, while I've been working I've been doing a lot of thinking about my role in the world of international development. While I was doing the interviews with community members about their thoughts on the demand that exists in the community for a bakery café, I got the chance to get to know all of them and learn about their lives. I ended up falling into conversations that went on for hours and hours with some of the people I interviewed about life in the states and here in Nicaragua and the millions of differences between the two.
In one of my interviews, I talked to a woman who asked me about my family and what my childhood was like. Although I was unsure of how she would respond I decided to be honest and say that I come from a family with a reasonable amount of wealth, but that I have always felt guilty for it. Due to this feeling, I have been given compassion for the developing world and the drive to support it in any way I can as well as help it grow in the future. I'm really not trying to brag about myself, but this woman told me that she had never heard any Americans say that and that it motivated her so much as well as changed her opinions about the US as a whole.
Having that conversation sparked something in my head. So much of development work is based only on projects, projects, projects. All of the work I have done in the developing world has just talked about how you can support the community with different projects and that the sustainability comes when the community members continue these projects on their own. Yes obviously that is sustainable, but I feel like there is something missing with this idea of sustainability. That thing is relationships. There is nothing more sustainable than changing the mindset of people through the creation of profound relationships or just breaking the boundaries that prevent people from different cultures from getting to know each other. The women who I talked to told me that I changed her opinion of Americans forever and that she was motivated to have better relationships with the other Americans who have settled nearby the community. Could there be anything more sustainable than that motivation? And on top of that, what about just improving the relationship between people across cultures, that is so sustainable in itself. So many of the programs that allow people to study and/or volunteer abroad don't give people the chance to create these relationships. They're so structured that you are always required to be doing something and never get the chance to go out and meet new people that aren't necessarily involved in what you're doing. I mean how can you make these types of relationships on any study abroad program when you're always hanging out with other Americans? As I said in my first blog post, no offense to anyone is on a study abroad program, I have this same criticism for the Foundation for Sustainable Development as well. The Foundation for Sustainable Development wanted me to have made a thorough work plan with numerous projects to complete during my internship after only the first week. How can you start sustainable projects if you don't know anyone yet? Is a week enough time to meet new people, build relationships with them, and construct sustainability? I don't think so.
Although I was partially able to this building of relationships through the bakery café project I am working on, I really used this opportunity to not simply interview people, but really to get to know them and hear their opinions as a way of helping myself grow too. I really wish I had done this in the first week instead of simply spending all of my time trying to figure out what types of projects I could do in the community. This is my advice for anyone who is on any program abroad whether it be studying, volunteering, or simply traveling. Go out of your normal routine to take the opportunity to get to know some people you haven't met before. Who knows, you may be able to change their mindset and lead them to do something amazing in their own life even if you never see them again. That is definitely something special.
Miss you all,
Zack
Saturday, March 5, 2011
En el Campo de Nicaragua
Saludos!
To whoever is reading this blog, I hope you are doing well and enjoying your life. I wonder if it is even worth it to continue writing these blog posts because it seems like my parents are the only ones that read them consistently. Whatever, I'm going to continue them anyways and I don't even know who reads them. Finally things seem to be going really well in this community of Las Salinas. I finally seem to feel happy everyday and not stressed about trying to make myself busy in such a slow placed rural community, which it never fails to prove to me. For example, one day last week I was riding a bike I had borrowed from a community member to go to the health center to do some interviews for the project I am doing in the community, and I was stopped by a herd of cattle going down the road. You guys are probably all wondering how I could actually be stopped by a herd of cattle so I'll tell you exactly. The herd of cattle was probably made up of more than 500 cows that covered every part of the road and it took them ten minutes to pass completely. Also, pigs and chickens roam freely throughout the dirt roads of the community and have to run away from the cars that pass nearby. You would only find these things in somewhere rural in the developing world. However, I must say that I love all of this. Whenever I don't finish all of my food I can easily give the leftovers to the chickens in my host family's house. Speaking of which, I gave up on the vegetarian idea a few days after I got here. There is basically no variety with food here so I would be seriously limiting myself in the amount of food I eat if I didn't eat meat. Have no doubt, I will absolutely return to vegetarianism when I come back to the states, because I really don't like having to eat meat. Anyways, the animals here are awesome. It's so funny that people in the States would cringe at seeing some of the things I have seen animals do here, but here people just laugh. I'm not going to go into it, because this could get pretty crude.
So back to my projects in the community, so much seems to be happening that I have decided to extend my internship another three weeks. The FSD intern grant is due eight weeks before the end of the internship, which if I were to stay until May 14th, would only be about two weeks from now. However, I definitely need about two or three additional weeks to finish writing my grant as there are still a ton of things I need to figure out. What was originally going to be a mini-pulperia has now been changed to a bakery because I convinced the mothers collective that a convenience store that sells cheap products would not bring in very much income to the community and would create competition with other convenience stores that are only minutes away. Meanwhile, the closest bakery is about an hour and a half bus ride from the community and all of the people I have interviewed so far say that they really want to have a bakery in the community. Basically, I need to receive a yes from about fifty people in the community to prove to FSD that the community has a genuine need for a bakery, and right now I have only interviewed fifteen people. Luckily, everyone so far has said yes. After that, I need to figure out a business plan for the bakery, which is going to be difficult because the members of the mothers' group want to have three of the mothers from the collective work in the bakery each month and switch off to three other mothers at the end of the month. In order to do that, we have to create an administrative system to maintain this. On top of this, I have to organize the training workshops that a governmental organization is giving to the mothers so that they can learn how to make bakery goods. I'm not going to even to continue with describing all of the other things I have to do because I just realized that it would take up a whole blog post. Basically, the point is that I need more time to do all of this. Anyways, besides this I'm working on two other projects. One project is a environmental club made up of students from the high school in the community. We've just been picking up trash so far, but soon we are going to start having contests over who can pick up the most trash, as well as forming compost piles throughout the community and designing a sustainable recycling system. The other project is consistently organizing movie nights to raise funds for the library in the community as well as the bakery we're creating.
Besides all of this, I have been having a great time simply traveling around Nicaragua on the weekends. I have stayed in Las Salinas this weekend just because I have some work to do, but last weekend I went to the island of Ometepe, which has got to be one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been to. Ometepe is an island that has two volcanoes and a small isthmus connecting the two, which is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Apparently, it is the largest volcanic island in the middle of a freshwater lake in the world. We climbed about half way up Concepción, which is the larger of the two volcanoes and the one that is still active. The view was absolutely magnificent with the other volcano and the isthmus as well Lake Nicaragua in the background. The whole time I was on the island I had so much trouble believing I was in the middle of just one lake, but what do you know, it is one enormous lake. I couldn't even see the other side of the lake from half way up the volcano. On the way down we passed by monkeys and gorgeous birds. Afterwards, we swam in Lake Nicaragua, which is both warm, clean and just overall beautiful. I forgot to say that I was with Ramiro, the program director, and Steve, the other intern on this trip to Ometepe. People kept on asking me if Steve was my father because he's 55, but I had to keep telling them no we actually are both interns on the same program. It was actually pretty fun to talk to him throughout the trip. Since he has had about 30 years of experience in community work, he definitely has a lot to suggest.
Although this doesn't really have anything to do with anything I've said, I want to share an interesting story I found about one of the Americans who lives nearby the community. From the moment I got here and saw all of the foreigners who have almost invaded this area, I knew that there must be trouble with some of them, and surely my assumption was right. This one American who is a Vietnam War veteran has been living on the edge of the indigenous community of Las Salinas de Nagualapa for about ten years. A little while after he arrived here he bought some 50 plus acres of land right along the ocean and for about eight years he has been trying to steal land from the community of Las Salinas. Apparently, the community has been putting up fences to mark the boundaries of the community and this American has hired people to chop down the fences so he can take the land. This battle has resulted in a court case that has been going for years and years. When I was interviewing one of the women in the community about the bakery, she randomly brought him up and asked me if I could extradite him to the United States because I am an American too. I said, sorry I don't even know the guy and there is no way I would have that ability even if I did know him. Apparently I found out later from one of my host brothers that I did meet him at a fiesta I went to last weekend. All he had to tell me was that he was the one smoking a huge cigar and I immediately remembered him.
Miss you all,
Zack
To whoever is reading this blog, I hope you are doing well and enjoying your life. I wonder if it is even worth it to continue writing these blog posts because it seems like my parents are the only ones that read them consistently. Whatever, I'm going to continue them anyways and I don't even know who reads them. Finally things seem to be going really well in this community of Las Salinas. I finally seem to feel happy everyday and not stressed about trying to make myself busy in such a slow placed rural community, which it never fails to prove to me. For example, one day last week I was riding a bike I had borrowed from a community member to go to the health center to do some interviews for the project I am doing in the community, and I was stopped by a herd of cattle going down the road. You guys are probably all wondering how I could actually be stopped by a herd of cattle so I'll tell you exactly. The herd of cattle was probably made up of more than 500 cows that covered every part of the road and it took them ten minutes to pass completely. Also, pigs and chickens roam freely throughout the dirt roads of the community and have to run away from the cars that pass nearby. You would only find these things in somewhere rural in the developing world. However, I must say that I love all of this. Whenever I don't finish all of my food I can easily give the leftovers to the chickens in my host family's house. Speaking of which, I gave up on the vegetarian idea a few days after I got here. There is basically no variety with food here so I would be seriously limiting myself in the amount of food I eat if I didn't eat meat. Have no doubt, I will absolutely return to vegetarianism when I come back to the states, because I really don't like having to eat meat. Anyways, the animals here are awesome. It's so funny that people in the States would cringe at seeing some of the things I have seen animals do here, but here people just laugh. I'm not going to go into it, because this could get pretty crude.
So back to my projects in the community, so much seems to be happening that I have decided to extend my internship another three weeks. The FSD intern grant is due eight weeks before the end of the internship, which if I were to stay until May 14th, would only be about two weeks from now. However, I definitely need about two or three additional weeks to finish writing my grant as there are still a ton of things I need to figure out. What was originally going to be a mini-pulperia has now been changed to a bakery because I convinced the mothers collective that a convenience store that sells cheap products would not bring in very much income to the community and would create competition with other convenience stores that are only minutes away. Meanwhile, the closest bakery is about an hour and a half bus ride from the community and all of the people I have interviewed so far say that they really want to have a bakery in the community. Basically, I need to receive a yes from about fifty people in the community to prove to FSD that the community has a genuine need for a bakery, and right now I have only interviewed fifteen people. Luckily, everyone so far has said yes. After that, I need to figure out a business plan for the bakery, which is going to be difficult because the members of the mothers' group want to have three of the mothers from the collective work in the bakery each month and switch off to three other mothers at the end of the month. In order to do that, we have to create an administrative system to maintain this. On top of this, I have to organize the training workshops that a governmental organization is giving to the mothers so that they can learn how to make bakery goods. I'm not going to even to continue with describing all of the other things I have to do because I just realized that it would take up a whole blog post. Basically, the point is that I need more time to do all of this. Anyways, besides this I'm working on two other projects. One project is a environmental club made up of students from the high school in the community. We've just been picking up trash so far, but soon we are going to start having contests over who can pick up the most trash, as well as forming compost piles throughout the community and designing a sustainable recycling system. The other project is consistently organizing movie nights to raise funds for the library in the community as well as the bakery we're creating.
Besides all of this, I have been having a great time simply traveling around Nicaragua on the weekends. I have stayed in Las Salinas this weekend just because I have some work to do, but last weekend I went to the island of Ometepe, which has got to be one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been to. Ometepe is an island that has two volcanoes and a small isthmus connecting the two, which is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Apparently, it is the largest volcanic island in the middle of a freshwater lake in the world. We climbed about half way up Concepción, which is the larger of the two volcanoes and the one that is still active. The view was absolutely magnificent with the other volcano and the isthmus as well Lake Nicaragua in the background. The whole time I was on the island I had so much trouble believing I was in the middle of just one lake, but what do you know, it is one enormous lake. I couldn't even see the other side of the lake from half way up the volcano. On the way down we passed by monkeys and gorgeous birds. Afterwards, we swam in Lake Nicaragua, which is both warm, clean and just overall beautiful. I forgot to say that I was with Ramiro, the program director, and Steve, the other intern on this trip to Ometepe. People kept on asking me if Steve was my father because he's 55, but I had to keep telling them no we actually are both interns on the same program. It was actually pretty fun to talk to him throughout the trip. Since he has had about 30 years of experience in community work, he definitely has a lot to suggest.
Although this doesn't really have anything to do with anything I've said, I want to share an interesting story I found about one of the Americans who lives nearby the community. From the moment I got here and saw all of the foreigners who have almost invaded this area, I knew that there must be trouble with some of them, and surely my assumption was right. This one American who is a Vietnam War veteran has been living on the edge of the indigenous community of Las Salinas de Nagualapa for about ten years. A little while after he arrived here he bought some 50 plus acres of land right along the ocean and for about eight years he has been trying to steal land from the community of Las Salinas. Apparently, the community has been putting up fences to mark the boundaries of the community and this American has hired people to chop down the fences so he can take the land. This battle has resulted in a court case that has been going for years and years. When I was interviewing one of the women in the community about the bakery, she randomly brought him up and asked me if I could extradite him to the United States because I am an American too. I said, sorry I don't even know the guy and there is no way I would have that ability even if I did know him. Apparently I found out later from one of my host brothers that I did meet him at a fiesta I went to last weekend. All he had to tell me was that he was the one smoking a huge cigar and I immediately remembered him.
Miss you all,
Zack
Monday, February 21, 2011
Women's Collectives and Toña
Saludos a Todos!
Before I say anything, I'd like to mention that you may want to read this post in a few sittings as there is a ton. It has now been a month since I have been in my community of Las Salinas. It's definitely been a good time so far but I must say, my patience will have reached the level of impenetrable by the time I leave Nicaragua. I have decided that I can't go on the Internet more than once a week or I get seriously overwhelmed. Life in this community is just too slow-paced for me to keep up with anything online and so I'm going to keep it that way. While the slow speed of everything in this community makes me happy a lot of the time it also is where my patience is growing dramatically. So basically the mission of the Foundation for Sustainable Development is to create projects and initiatives that the community members can sustain on their own after the interns leave. Hopefully these projects will improve the environment, generate income, or build capacity. However, while this is definitely the right approach to take, it is also the one that the community members want to take least, because it requires them to actually do something rather than have something done for them, which is what most volunteer organizations do. For example, when my work started the week after I arrived in the community, I started with computer classes, which I finally decided to quit because they were wasting my time in the community and not accomplishing anything. The kids figured out how to use the computers after a few days and then just went to play games. However, I was still giving these classes three days a week for the entire day. So I talked to my supervisor and said that I know I am an intern at the library but just because I am an intern at the library doesn't mean that I need to spend all my time at the library when there isn't very much to do there. They agreed to let me stop the computer classes and focus all of my efforts on other projects in the community. As I had predicted, these projects are different than the ones I tried to start before.
First and foremost, I started work on creating a miscellaneous store with a women's collective in the community of mothers whose children come to the library. None of the women work and so they would like to be able to have something during the day to generate some income. So I held a meeting and told them that I have the ability to write a grant for up to 800 dollars for a sustainable project in the community. Their idea is to create a miscellaneous store where they can sell cheap basic products, bread and other bakery items, and art made by local artisans. With the help of this women's collective, over the next few weeks, I am going to write a grant to the Foundation for Sustainable Development for the funding of this micro-business. FSD's grant-writing process is extremely complex including more than ten pages of justification for the project, a business plan, a budget outline, and resumes of all the members involved. Also they don't approve any projects that don't include any capacity-building so it will be my job to figure out a way for there to be something educational in this business. Hopefully there will be a new business when I leave the community. My second project is based on cleaning up the community and getting the community members to take advantage of the truck that comes every monday to pick up trash in the community so the community members won't have to throw all their trash on the ground or burn it. This project is going to go in conjunction with the daily environmental hour I am starting at the school, where I am going to teach about the importance of protecting the environment. The idea of this project as a whole is to hopefully leave the community with a functioning recycling and compost system to sustain. However, I have a long way to go before that happens. My third project is the photography project I talked about before that will document the history of the community through photography as well as interviews with the owners of the salt mines and the oldest members of the community. There is also talk about two more projects: starting a community garden and selling the produce at the miscellaneous store as well as holding consistent movie nights to raise funds for the store or simply to give people a chance to sell homemade items.
I finally figured out that if I don't make myself a "NEEDS to get done list" every week, I will get lost in the slow-paced life of this community as well as in the Foundation for Sustainable Development's essentially structureless internship program. Looking back at all of this and the fact that that I was able to set up all these projects on my own, I almost feel happy that I was sad last semester because it prompted me to do something new from which I am learning a ton of skills that will be extremely valuable for the rest of my life. Also, this program really seems like the best gap between Amigos and the Peace Corps, which is eventually where it looks like I'm headed. Plus, I've secured my credit for this internship with an independent directed study I'm doing next semester.
Anyways, on to the fascinating stuff, where should I start? So every weekend I've been in the community, I've gone to a discoteca on Saturday night that residents from around the area go to. The dances here are really interesting. Basically, you can't go on the dance floor without a partner and you always keep kissing until you're off the dance floor. Although you guys are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, I think this a lot better than what we have in the states. There isn't any awkwardness and people like me who never get any action don't have to dance by myself and watch miserably while other people hook up on the dance floor. Also, it's nice that beers and the entrance fee are both only a dollar. In fact, the only people who dance by themselves at discotecas here are the other gringos. A bunch of gringos live on the beach nearby, surf every day, and come to the discotecas on the weekends. It makes me laugh because apparently they buy local girls motorcycles or cars so they can get with them. This may be an urban legend, but it is still hilarious. While I have met a few cool foreigners who are working on the organic farm down the road in my community, a lot of the gringos here piss me off majorly. Especially after going to a dinner at the exclusive, gated, beachfront mansion community of Rancho Santana and San Juan del Sur, which is basically a city made up of gringos and enormous houses that I'll mention later, my opinion of gringos here has dropped even lower than it was before. I mean who the fuck do gringos think they are to exploit poverty and build enormous mansions in a country where 50% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day without making even the slightest attempt to give anything decent back to the population? I mean I guess they provide jobs, but still it seems fucked up to build mansions walking distance from dirt roads with chickens, pigs, cattle carts, and beggars. Also, these expatriate communities of Rancho Santana and San Juan del Sur are basically made up of people who barely even make an attempt to integrate into the local culture. They hang out with other expatriates and speak English all the time. I wish I wasn't so judgmental of this, but I just don't understand the point of going to a foreign country if you don't want to integrate into the culture at all. Anyways, I need to stop ranting.
This past weekend I left the community for the first time since I've been here to go to San Juan del Sur, which as I said before, is basically a gringo backpacker harbor town about two hours down the coast. I originally left just with my host brother Franklin but ended up running into the foreigners that work on the organic farm in the community who we tagged along with for the rest of the trip. After getting a room at a guest house in San Juan del Sur, we went down to the beach where we had some Toña, which is the most popular beer in Nicaragua. Afterwards, our group expanded to include some friends of the foreigners I knew. Everybody was going to a huge music festival that was going on that night so they said it was alright for us to just tag along. This brought us to a mansion on the hill overlooking the harbor, where a few of the people in our group were staying with a friend. I later found out that thier friend is the niece of the wife of the last president of Nicaragua who apparently owns the mansion. I could tell the whole time that Franklin was just in awe of everything at the house. Afterwards we went to the music festival in the town and drank a bunch of cheap beer. It was a blast even though the Nicaraguan rock n roll was awful. It was so weird that almost everybody at the concert was a foreigner and everything was in both English and Spanish. Franklin told me that he felt like a total minority there, even though it was in his own country. The next day we walked all the way down the beach and up to the huge statue of Jesus that overlooks the San Juan del Sur harbor. It was absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately I still haven't found the time to upload my pictures because I have over a thousand now and it's gonna take a long time to upload. I forgot to say that I've been working on various photo projects on my own, but I'll get into that on some other post. The next day I did the one thing that really made me so happy to be in Nicaragua, which was riding on the roof of the bus back to Las Salinas. The ride from the provincial town of Rivas to Las Salinas is about an hour and a half down a dirt road so the bus goes pretty slow. The roof is marked on all side by bars to carry fuel, tires, packages of food, chickens, and whatnot. However, due to the fact that there are no police who actually give a shit, people can ride on them as well, which gives the guys a better way to hiss at the girls walking by. Haha. Taking in the wind, the sun, the beautiful scenery, and the branches I had to dodge every once in a while, I felt so unbelievably great to be here in Nicaragua!
Paz a todos,
Zack
Before I say anything, I'd like to mention that you may want to read this post in a few sittings as there is a ton. It has now been a month since I have been in my community of Las Salinas. It's definitely been a good time so far but I must say, my patience will have reached the level of impenetrable by the time I leave Nicaragua. I have decided that I can't go on the Internet more than once a week or I get seriously overwhelmed. Life in this community is just too slow-paced for me to keep up with anything online and so I'm going to keep it that way. While the slow speed of everything in this community makes me happy a lot of the time it also is where my patience is growing dramatically. So basically the mission of the Foundation for Sustainable Development is to create projects and initiatives that the community members can sustain on their own after the interns leave. Hopefully these projects will improve the environment, generate income, or build capacity. However, while this is definitely the right approach to take, it is also the one that the community members want to take least, because it requires them to actually do something rather than have something done for them, which is what most volunteer organizations do. For example, when my work started the week after I arrived in the community, I started with computer classes, which I finally decided to quit because they were wasting my time in the community and not accomplishing anything. The kids figured out how to use the computers after a few days and then just went to play games. However, I was still giving these classes three days a week for the entire day. So I talked to my supervisor and said that I know I am an intern at the library but just because I am an intern at the library doesn't mean that I need to spend all my time at the library when there isn't very much to do there. They agreed to let me stop the computer classes and focus all of my efforts on other projects in the community. As I had predicted, these projects are different than the ones I tried to start before.
First and foremost, I started work on creating a miscellaneous store with a women's collective in the community of mothers whose children come to the library. None of the women work and so they would like to be able to have something during the day to generate some income. So I held a meeting and told them that I have the ability to write a grant for up to 800 dollars for a sustainable project in the community. Their idea is to create a miscellaneous store where they can sell cheap basic products, bread and other bakery items, and art made by local artisans. With the help of this women's collective, over the next few weeks, I am going to write a grant to the Foundation for Sustainable Development for the funding of this micro-business. FSD's grant-writing process is extremely complex including more than ten pages of justification for the project, a business plan, a budget outline, and resumes of all the members involved. Also they don't approve any projects that don't include any capacity-building so it will be my job to figure out a way for there to be something educational in this business. Hopefully there will be a new business when I leave the community. My second project is based on cleaning up the community and getting the community members to take advantage of the truck that comes every monday to pick up trash in the community so the community members won't have to throw all their trash on the ground or burn it. This project is going to go in conjunction with the daily environmental hour I am starting at the school, where I am going to teach about the importance of protecting the environment. The idea of this project as a whole is to hopefully leave the community with a functioning recycling and compost system to sustain. However, I have a long way to go before that happens. My third project is the photography project I talked about before that will document the history of the community through photography as well as interviews with the owners of the salt mines and the oldest members of the community. There is also talk about two more projects: starting a community garden and selling the produce at the miscellaneous store as well as holding consistent movie nights to raise funds for the store or simply to give people a chance to sell homemade items.
I finally figured out that if I don't make myself a "NEEDS to get done list" every week, I will get lost in the slow-paced life of this community as well as in the Foundation for Sustainable Development's essentially structureless internship program. Looking back at all of this and the fact that that I was able to set up all these projects on my own, I almost feel happy that I was sad last semester because it prompted me to do something new from which I am learning a ton of skills that will be extremely valuable for the rest of my life. Also, this program really seems like the best gap between Amigos and the Peace Corps, which is eventually where it looks like I'm headed. Plus, I've secured my credit for this internship with an independent directed study I'm doing next semester.
Anyways, on to the fascinating stuff, where should I start? So every weekend I've been in the community, I've gone to a discoteca on Saturday night that residents from around the area go to. The dances here are really interesting. Basically, you can't go on the dance floor without a partner and you always keep kissing until you're off the dance floor. Although you guys are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, I think this a lot better than what we have in the states. There isn't any awkwardness and people like me who never get any action don't have to dance by myself and watch miserably while other people hook up on the dance floor. Also, it's nice that beers and the entrance fee are both only a dollar. In fact, the only people who dance by themselves at discotecas here are the other gringos. A bunch of gringos live on the beach nearby, surf every day, and come to the discotecas on the weekends. It makes me laugh because apparently they buy local girls motorcycles or cars so they can get with them. This may be an urban legend, but it is still hilarious. While I have met a few cool foreigners who are working on the organic farm down the road in my community, a lot of the gringos here piss me off majorly. Especially after going to a dinner at the exclusive, gated, beachfront mansion community of Rancho Santana and San Juan del Sur, which is basically a city made up of gringos and enormous houses that I'll mention later, my opinion of gringos here has dropped even lower than it was before. I mean who the fuck do gringos think they are to exploit poverty and build enormous mansions in a country where 50% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day without making even the slightest attempt to give anything decent back to the population? I mean I guess they provide jobs, but still it seems fucked up to build mansions walking distance from dirt roads with chickens, pigs, cattle carts, and beggars. Also, these expatriate communities of Rancho Santana and San Juan del Sur are basically made up of people who barely even make an attempt to integrate into the local culture. They hang out with other expatriates and speak English all the time. I wish I wasn't so judgmental of this, but I just don't understand the point of going to a foreign country if you don't want to integrate into the culture at all. Anyways, I need to stop ranting.
This past weekend I left the community for the first time since I've been here to go to San Juan del Sur, which as I said before, is basically a gringo backpacker harbor town about two hours down the coast. I originally left just with my host brother Franklin but ended up running into the foreigners that work on the organic farm in the community who we tagged along with for the rest of the trip. After getting a room at a guest house in San Juan del Sur, we went down to the beach where we had some Toña, which is the most popular beer in Nicaragua. Afterwards, our group expanded to include some friends of the foreigners I knew. Everybody was going to a huge music festival that was going on that night so they said it was alright for us to just tag along. This brought us to a mansion on the hill overlooking the harbor, where a few of the people in our group were staying with a friend. I later found out that thier friend is the niece of the wife of the last president of Nicaragua who apparently owns the mansion. I could tell the whole time that Franklin was just in awe of everything at the house. Afterwards we went to the music festival in the town and drank a bunch of cheap beer. It was a blast even though the Nicaraguan rock n roll was awful. It was so weird that almost everybody at the concert was a foreigner and everything was in both English and Spanish. Franklin told me that he felt like a total minority there, even though it was in his own country. The next day we walked all the way down the beach and up to the huge statue of Jesus that overlooks the San Juan del Sur harbor. It was absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately I still haven't found the time to upload my pictures because I have over a thousand now and it's gonna take a long time to upload. I forgot to say that I've been working on various photo projects on my own, but I'll get into that on some other post. The next day I did the one thing that really made me so happy to be in Nicaragua, which was riding on the roof of the bus back to Las Salinas. The ride from the provincial town of Rivas to Las Salinas is about an hour and a half down a dirt road so the bus goes pretty slow. The roof is marked on all side by bars to carry fuel, tires, packages of food, chickens, and whatnot. However, due to the fact that there are no police who actually give a shit, people can ride on them as well, which gives the guys a better way to hiss at the girls walking by. Haha. Taking in the wind, the sun, the beautiful scenery, and the branches I had to dodge every once in a while, I felt so unbelievably great to be here in Nicaragua!
Paz a todos,
Zack
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Las Salinas de Nagualapa de Rivas de Nicaragua
Saludos a todos!
I would like to welcome you all to my wonderful, small, dusty community of Las Salinas de Nagualapa de Rivas de Nicaragua (or just Las Salinas which is a lot easier). There is going to be a lot in this blog post so you may want to separate the reading into two sessions, if you are that interested in following my blog. Since I don't even know where to start I guess I'll just start by saying a random fact. I have taken almost 600 pictures since I have been in Nicaragua, which has only been since January 15th. I have no doubt that I will surpass the 2000 mark while I am here or maybe even the 3000 mark as one of the projects I am doing in the community is partially based on photography and I have a four gigabyte memory card, which holds about 3500 high quality photos. However, due to the fact that I don't have a personal computer, it is somewhat difficult to get the time to upload all of my photos to the computer so I haven't had the chance to put my photos on this blog. I will definitely put the best photos up on this blog and eventually all of them on facebook.
So speaking of the project I am doing in the community, I am more actually doing a number of different projects. They are all being run through the library I am working at. The library I am working at is about a one minute walk from my host family's house and has been undergoing a few different changes recently. First of all, five old school macs were donated to the library by some organization in the states (I have to ask my supervisor what it is and I'll let you know on my next post) and were just installed the week I arrived in the community. Second of all, the first missionary group to ever come to the library since it was built a number of years ago (again, I have to ask my supervisor and I'll let you know on my next post) was here for three weeks and just left on Monday. Basically this means that the kids who come to this library have been seeing lots of gringos and flashy technology all in a short period of time. The gringas from the Evangelical Christian missionary academy in Arkansas were teaching classes to the kids who come to the library even though hardly any of them spoke a word of Spanish. Although this doesn't make any sense to me, the kids seemed to enjoy it because they received one on one attention from these gringas and were able to learn about five words of English during those three weeks, which I am sure they have forgotten already. I just want to rant for a moment and say that development workers who don't speak a word of the local language should not be teaching English. One, because there is a severe limit to the amount that they can teach and two, because it is a serious waste of time as the ones learning English will forget it immediately as they aren't using it in their daily lives. The only time when teaching English is justifiable is when the people teaching it will be teaching it for a while and those who are learning it can use it regularly, which is not very often in rural communities in the developing world.
So on to where I come into play. The first week starting in the community was really slow because of the missionary group that was working in the library and was taking up all of the time there. However, they left on Monday and I have had the library to myself this whole week. It has been my job to bring the kids who come to the library daily up to par with these computers, which you could imagine is difficult especially consdering that none of them have ever even used a computer before. So I have been working on a manual for them which details everything from what a mouse is to what the icons on the computer are. It's been pretty tedious but hopefully I'll be done with it by the end of the week and library will have a permanent manual in their collection showing people how to use a computer. It's funny that computers are where a vast portion of all the technology that is changing the world lies and billions of people don't know how to use them. I guess I'm doing a good thing by teaching a few people how to use them. Anyways, as I said before, that is not my only project in the community. Currently I'm working on starting a project with the youth in the community based on photography and cleaning this dusty town. The first part is going to document the history of the community by interviewing the owners of the salt mines this community is named after. I will also interview the oldest members of the community who have seen all of the massive changes in the community throughout the past century. Afterwards we are going to make a book putting all of the history and pictures together to put on display at the library I'm working at. Meanwhile, I'm working on another project with the youth that basically encompasses cleaning up the community and showing pictures of the community before and after the clean up to encourage people to not throw their trash on the ground, which is what everyone does. Basically, my idea is that I believe that one of the reasons as to why so many people throw trash on the ground is that they don't see the community as having any aesthetic value. However, if I teach them about how beautiful this community actually is through photography, then they'll be less inclined to throw their trash on the ground. The youth in the community certainly think this is an issue, but I do need to search for more people who want to be involved in the project. As this idea is somewhat idealistic, you'll probably see some changes in exactly what I'm doing by the time I do my next post. PS if you have any old digital cameras sitting around at your house, the library and I would love to see them. Send me an email at ZOstiller@clarku.edu if you would like more information.
The community sits about a mile away from the vast coast line of the Pacific Ocean where numerous surfer joints lie along the beach. It's interesting because the coast line is developing extremely fast while the community still stays in poverty. In fact there is one place called Rancho Santana along the coast about two miles away from my house that is filled with enormous mansions owned by rich expatriates from the Western world. It's about five minutes walking distance from dirt roads with chickens, pigs, and cattle carts. I guess that is Latin America for you. The beach is absolutely gorgeous though. The waves are up to ten feet high and the beaches are mostly spotless with a few surfers here and there. My host brother took me on a hike up to a ledge overlooking the beach and the ocean where we watched the sunset. If only it was a girl I was with...Anyways speaking of sunsets, I have seen the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life here in Las Salinas. Especially looking over the salt mines and watching the sun reflect in their pools of tide water. My host family is wonderful. I have five host siblings. 15, 17, 20, 22, and 28 so there are a bunch that are around my age to keep me company. I have spent a significant amount of time lying on the hammocks at the house feeling the heavy gusts of wind blow through my hair while I read Acts of Faith, a 700 page epic about aid workers in Sudan during Sudanese Civil War that has kept my attention pretty fully since I got to the community. I have read more than 400 pages since I got here. As for the "Viva la Revolucion" and "Viva Daniel" graffiti I have seen everywhere, I finally figured out why there's so much. The government pays people to paint them on building walls even though the government really isn't that popular. Haha.
I love and miss you all,
Zack
I would like to welcome you all to my wonderful, small, dusty community of Las Salinas de Nagualapa de Rivas de Nicaragua (or just Las Salinas which is a lot easier). There is going to be a lot in this blog post so you may want to separate the reading into two sessions, if you are that interested in following my blog. Since I don't even know where to start I guess I'll just start by saying a random fact. I have taken almost 600 pictures since I have been in Nicaragua, which has only been since January 15th. I have no doubt that I will surpass the 2000 mark while I am here or maybe even the 3000 mark as one of the projects I am doing in the community is partially based on photography and I have a four gigabyte memory card, which holds about 3500 high quality photos. However, due to the fact that I don't have a personal computer, it is somewhat difficult to get the time to upload all of my photos to the computer so I haven't had the chance to put my photos on this blog. I will definitely put the best photos up on this blog and eventually all of them on facebook.
So speaking of the project I am doing in the community, I am more actually doing a number of different projects. They are all being run through the library I am working at. The library I am working at is about a one minute walk from my host family's house and has been undergoing a few different changes recently. First of all, five old school macs were donated to the library by some organization in the states (I have to ask my supervisor what it is and I'll let you know on my next post) and were just installed the week I arrived in the community. Second of all, the first missionary group to ever come to the library since it was built a number of years ago (again, I have to ask my supervisor and I'll let you know on my next post) was here for three weeks and just left on Monday. Basically this means that the kids who come to this library have been seeing lots of gringos and flashy technology all in a short period of time. The gringas from the Evangelical Christian missionary academy in Arkansas were teaching classes to the kids who come to the library even though hardly any of them spoke a word of Spanish. Although this doesn't make any sense to me, the kids seemed to enjoy it because they received one on one attention from these gringas and were able to learn about five words of English during those three weeks, which I am sure they have forgotten already. I just want to rant for a moment and say that development workers who don't speak a word of the local language should not be teaching English. One, because there is a severe limit to the amount that they can teach and two, because it is a serious waste of time as the ones learning English will forget it immediately as they aren't using it in their daily lives. The only time when teaching English is justifiable is when the people teaching it will be teaching it for a while and those who are learning it can use it regularly, which is not very often in rural communities in the developing world.
So on to where I come into play. The first week starting in the community was really slow because of the missionary group that was working in the library and was taking up all of the time there. However, they left on Monday and I have had the library to myself this whole week. It has been my job to bring the kids who come to the library daily up to par with these computers, which you could imagine is difficult especially consdering that none of them have ever even used a computer before. So I have been working on a manual for them which details everything from what a mouse is to what the icons on the computer are. It's been pretty tedious but hopefully I'll be done with it by the end of the week and library will have a permanent manual in their collection showing people how to use a computer. It's funny that computers are where a vast portion of all the technology that is changing the world lies and billions of people don't know how to use them. I guess I'm doing a good thing by teaching a few people how to use them. Anyways, as I said before, that is not my only project in the community. Currently I'm working on starting a project with the youth in the community based on photography and cleaning this dusty town. The first part is going to document the history of the community by interviewing the owners of the salt mines this community is named after. I will also interview the oldest members of the community who have seen all of the massive changes in the community throughout the past century. Afterwards we are going to make a book putting all of the history and pictures together to put on display at the library I'm working at. Meanwhile, I'm working on another project with the youth that basically encompasses cleaning up the community and showing pictures of the community before and after the clean up to encourage people to not throw their trash on the ground, which is what everyone does. Basically, my idea is that I believe that one of the reasons as to why so many people throw trash on the ground is that they don't see the community as having any aesthetic value. However, if I teach them about how beautiful this community actually is through photography, then they'll be less inclined to throw their trash on the ground. The youth in the community certainly think this is an issue, but I do need to search for more people who want to be involved in the project. As this idea is somewhat idealistic, you'll probably see some changes in exactly what I'm doing by the time I do my next post. PS if you have any old digital cameras sitting around at your house, the library and I would love to see them. Send me an email at ZOstiller@clarku.edu if you would like more information.
The community sits about a mile away from the vast coast line of the Pacific Ocean where numerous surfer joints lie along the beach. It's interesting because the coast line is developing extremely fast while the community still stays in poverty. In fact there is one place called Rancho Santana along the coast about two miles away from my house that is filled with enormous mansions owned by rich expatriates from the Western world. It's about five minutes walking distance from dirt roads with chickens, pigs, and cattle carts. I guess that is Latin America for you. The beach is absolutely gorgeous though. The waves are up to ten feet high and the beaches are mostly spotless with a few surfers here and there. My host brother took me on a hike up to a ledge overlooking the beach and the ocean where we watched the sunset. If only it was a girl I was with...Anyways speaking of sunsets, I have seen the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life here in Las Salinas. Especially looking over the salt mines and watching the sun reflect in their pools of tide water. My host family is wonderful. I have five host siblings. 15, 17, 20, 22, and 28 so there are a bunch that are around my age to keep me company. I have spent a significant amount of time lying on the hammocks at the house feeling the heavy gusts of wind blow through my hair while I read Acts of Faith, a 700 page epic about aid workers in Sudan during Sudanese Civil War that has kept my attention pretty fully since I got to the community. I have read more than 400 pages since I got here. As for the "Viva la Revolucion" and "Viva Daniel" graffiti I have seen everywhere, I finally figured out why there's so much. The government pays people to paint them on building walls even though the government really isn't that popular. Haha.
I love and miss you all,
Zack
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Ahora Los Padres Son Ellos
"Ahora Los Padres Son Ellos" translates into English as "Now the Parents are Them" and is the name of a bootleg copy of "Little Fockers" that my program coordinator bought at a bootleg DVD place in Rivas, Nicaragua. It's funny that nearly every American movie that you find a bootleg copy of in Latin America has a name that has little to nothing to do with its title in English. It's like they didn't even make an attempt to translate anything. Imagine if you were looking at movies to rent at a movie store just to watch at home and you found one called "Now the Parents are Them." That doesn´t make any sense and I wouldn´t think twice about not getting it simply because the name sounds so awful. Then again all of the translations are always terrible in American movies that have bootleg copies with Spanish subtitles. For example, I was once watching a bootleg copy of Casino Royale that I bought in Mexico and there was this one scene where somebody was saying "Can you hand me the letter?" and the subtitles said "Can you give me the ladder?" I guess there's some resemblance but still, why would anyone holding a letter be asked to give someone else in his hotel room a ladder? I guess we'll never know. Anyways, you'll be hearing a ton from me about all of the funny things in Nicaragua as there tons. For example, throughout my time here I'm gonna be working on a photography project made up of pictures of people wearing clothes with extremely obscure logos. I would say that for the most part, the people probably have no idea as to what they mean. For instance, I saw a vendor on a pier on Lake Nicaragua wearing a shirt that said Needham High School and had a picture of a rocket right below it with the word rockets across it. I assumed that that was Needham High School's mascot and I was right.
Anyways, I guess I'm on to Nicaragua. So far I've just finished my fourth day of orientation, which has been a little slow sometimes. Besides the program coordinator and program director, there's only one other intern who just so happens to be 54, which is equally as old as my mom. The two of us have been listening to a number of different lectures about the history of Nicaragua, the economy of Nicaragua, lifestyles in Nicaragua, and most of all, about sustainable development, which is the type of work I will be doing here. I'm happy that although some of this orientation has been slow, I have definitely learned a lot by doing a number of different practical activities. For example, we were given two dollars, which is the amount that many families live on daily here in Nicaragua, and had to go out and buy what we could following the hypothetical situation we were given. I thought to myself, this can´t be that hard as after all, with two dollars you can actually buy a ton here. So I went out and bought what I could with my two dollars. I even bargained with someone so that I could get a bottle of water for less than the price she had listed so I could fit it into my budget. After I was done buying everyhing I went back to our orientation site and waited a little while for the other intern to get back. However, when he got back I saw that he had bought about four times as much as I had and still had some change. (He's also a little older, which definitely helps) It made me think a lot more about what one needs to buy in order to maintain a living and the best way to do it. Although the lectures about sustainability are somewhat familiar to me, they're still helpful in giving me a good idea about the best ways to brainstorm about different project ideas and implement them as well. I'm so excited to get to the community the day after tomorrow and start working with the organization.
Today we left Tola, which is the town I've been living in since I got to Nicaragua and went to Rivas, the capital city of the province of Rivas (obviously). Tola is a quiet little town with absolutely gorgeous buildings of all different colors. There are tons of people just hanging out in front of their houses and on the street. For the most part, life is so slow paced here that you can pretty much talk to anyone on the street for hours on end. This is awesome but definitely takes some getting used to, especially coming from the United States where there is always something to do at almost every hour of the day. Anyways, Rivas definitely seemed a lot busier simply because it's a much bigger city. We walked around the city and went into a bunch of different places such as the museum of anthropology and the old catholic church. The old catholic church in Rivas definitely has to be the craziest church I have ever been to in my life. Right above the choir of the church, there is an elaborate mural that shows a boat with "Protestantismo" painted across the side sinking. I have never seen a church that is so blatant in its hatred of another religion. After that we took a taxi down to a beach on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua or Lago Cocibolca as they call it here is by far the biggest lake I can remember sticking my feet in (as I did once stick my feet in Lake Michigan, but was way too young to remember it.) There is absolutely no way you can see the other side of the lake. There is an island that is fairly close to the shore I was standing on with two volcanoes, one extinct and one active. Apparently you can climb to the top of the active one, which is what we will be doing for our midterm retreat later on in the program. I am unbelievably excited for that as I can only imagine what the view is gonna be like.
I'll keep all of you guys posted and add some pictures when I get the chance later. Overall I am having an awesome time here and am so happy I decided to do this even though I'll have to graduate a semester late. I am satisfied though that I managed to get some credit for this program if I use it for an independent study at Clark. Still, it won't be enough to graduate on time because I'm not taking any classes. I probably wouldn´t have graduated on time anyways though and this is certainly gonna be a rewarding experience. Anyways, enough of my rambling and you guys will hear from me again in the near future.
Paz a todos,
Zack (Isac como me llaman aqui)
Anyways, I guess I'm on to Nicaragua. So far I've just finished my fourth day of orientation, which has been a little slow sometimes. Besides the program coordinator and program director, there's only one other intern who just so happens to be 54, which is equally as old as my mom. The two of us have been listening to a number of different lectures about the history of Nicaragua, the economy of Nicaragua, lifestyles in Nicaragua, and most of all, about sustainable development, which is the type of work I will be doing here. I'm happy that although some of this orientation has been slow, I have definitely learned a lot by doing a number of different practical activities. For example, we were given two dollars, which is the amount that many families live on daily here in Nicaragua, and had to go out and buy what we could following the hypothetical situation we were given. I thought to myself, this can´t be that hard as after all, with two dollars you can actually buy a ton here. So I went out and bought what I could with my two dollars. I even bargained with someone so that I could get a bottle of water for less than the price she had listed so I could fit it into my budget. After I was done buying everyhing I went back to our orientation site and waited a little while for the other intern to get back. However, when he got back I saw that he had bought about four times as much as I had and still had some change. (He's also a little older, which definitely helps) It made me think a lot more about what one needs to buy in order to maintain a living and the best way to do it. Although the lectures about sustainability are somewhat familiar to me, they're still helpful in giving me a good idea about the best ways to brainstorm about different project ideas and implement them as well. I'm so excited to get to the community the day after tomorrow and start working with the organization.
Today we left Tola, which is the town I've been living in since I got to Nicaragua and went to Rivas, the capital city of the province of Rivas (obviously). Tola is a quiet little town with absolutely gorgeous buildings of all different colors. There are tons of people just hanging out in front of their houses and on the street. For the most part, life is so slow paced here that you can pretty much talk to anyone on the street for hours on end. This is awesome but definitely takes some getting used to, especially coming from the United States where there is always something to do at almost every hour of the day. Anyways, Rivas definitely seemed a lot busier simply because it's a much bigger city. We walked around the city and went into a bunch of different places such as the museum of anthropology and the old catholic church. The old catholic church in Rivas definitely has to be the craziest church I have ever been to in my life. Right above the choir of the church, there is an elaborate mural that shows a boat with "Protestantismo" painted across the side sinking. I have never seen a church that is so blatant in its hatred of another religion. After that we took a taxi down to a beach on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua or Lago Cocibolca as they call it here is by far the biggest lake I can remember sticking my feet in (as I did once stick my feet in Lake Michigan, but was way too young to remember it.) There is absolutely no way you can see the other side of the lake. There is an island that is fairly close to the shore I was standing on with two volcanoes, one extinct and one active. Apparently you can climb to the top of the active one, which is what we will be doing for our midterm retreat later on in the program. I am unbelievably excited for that as I can only imagine what the view is gonna be like.
I'll keep all of you guys posted and add some pictures when I get the chance later. Overall I am having an awesome time here and am so happy I decided to do this even though I'll have to graduate a semester late. I am satisfied though that I managed to get some credit for this program if I use it for an independent study at Clark. Still, it won't be enough to graduate on time because I'm not taking any classes. I probably wouldn´t have graduated on time anyways though and this is certainly gonna be a rewarding experience. Anyways, enough of my rambling and you guys will hear from me again in the near future.
Paz a todos,
Zack (Isac como me llaman aqui)
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Day 1 of I have no idea how many days
Saludos a todos que están leyendo este blog! (Hello to all who are reading this blog)
First I would like to begin by describing exactly why I am here in this beautiful country of Nicaragua. Unfortunately, Clark is extremely limited with its study abroad programs. There are only three options of places to go where you can speak Spanish and only one of these study abroad places can also apply to my major of International Development and Social Change. This place happens to be the Dominican Republic, where I was for 11 weeks over the past summer and did not have the greatest time while I was there. So I decided that I wouldn't do a Clark study abroad program. I may be being picky and/or ungrateful but regardless, I decided to create a study abroad program independently. This program is through a non-profit called the Foundation for Sustainable Development and entails an internship that I will be doing with a local organization called La Biblioteca Tres Ernestos in a small community here in Nicaragua. Although I am not sure exactly what I'll be doing yet, I know that it involves implementing projects based on youth and community development. These projects may include teaching classes, organizing community events, writing grants, etc. I will find out exactly what I'm doing during my orientation, which starts tomorrow. While I was expecting for my faculty adviser at Clark to be frustrated with my choice of doing a non-traditional and non-Clark program abroad, she actually said that she thought I'd probably learn more than on any of Clark's study abroad programs. No offense to anyone who is reading this and is doing a Clark study abroad program. I'm sure you're having an amazing time wherever you are and aren't having to go through the bureaucratic nightmares I'm going through in order to get simply one internship credit. Anyways, enough of my rambling and on to Nicaragua.
I arrived this morning after a red-eye from San Francisco to Houston and then on to Managua, Nicaragua. If I had no idea that I was landing specifically in Nicaragua, I would still be able to tell that I was somewhere in Latin America simply from the way it looks. There are many vibrant colors, vast quantities of motorcycles, and excessively gaudy buildings that just so happen to be right next to shacks with clotheslines. When I got out of the airport and stepped into the insanely humid air, the program coordinator Ramiro was there to meet me with a cab driver. Although I had been worried for a moment about having lost a little bit of my Spanish ability over break, I was able to immediately start speaking to Ramiro when I first saw him. It's funny, I guess that anybody's foreign language ability can usually come back to them when they go to a country where that foreign language is spoken. We went to a busy restaurant in Managua where I had some rice and beans and afterward, Ramiro brought me on a tour of the tourist sights in Managua. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I had been on a red-eye on the way to Managua, I had not had very much sleep and had some trouble listening to the history behind all of the sights. Anyways, I saw the National Palace, the National Theater House, the Cathedral of Managua that is falling apart, the Memorial to the fathers of the Sandinista Revolution, and the extremely polluted Lago de Managua. After that we got on an overcrowded bus to head down the Interamericana (a highway that starts in Alaska and goes all the way to the eastern end of Panama where it becomes a dirt road near the Colombian border) towards Tola, where I'm having my orientation. In both Managua and along the Interamericana, I continuously saw billboards with pictures of Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega and a message below his picture saying "Viva la Revoluci
First I would like to begin by describing exactly why I am here in this beautiful country of Nicaragua. Unfortunately, Clark is extremely limited with its study abroad programs. There are only three options of places to go where you can speak Spanish and only one of these study abroad places can also apply to my major of International Development and Social Change. This place happens to be the Dominican Republic, where I was for 11 weeks over the past summer and did not have the greatest time while I was there. So I decided that I wouldn't do a Clark study abroad program. I may be being picky and/or ungrateful but regardless, I decided to create a study abroad program independently. This program is through a non-profit called the Foundation for Sustainable Development and entails an internship that I will be doing with a local organization called La Biblioteca Tres Ernestos in a small community here in Nicaragua. Although I am not sure exactly what I'll be doing yet, I know that it involves implementing projects based on youth and community development. These projects may include teaching classes, organizing community events, writing grants, etc. I will find out exactly what I'm doing during my orientation, which starts tomorrow. While I was expecting for my faculty adviser at Clark to be frustrated with my choice of doing a non-traditional and non-Clark program abroad, she actually said that she thought I'd probably learn more than on any of Clark's study abroad programs. No offense to anyone who is reading this and is doing a Clark study abroad program. I'm sure you're having an amazing time wherever you are and aren't having to go through the bureaucratic nightmares I'm going through in order to get simply one internship credit. Anyways, enough of my rambling and on to Nicaragua.
I arrived this morning after a red-eye from San Francisco to Houston and then on to Managua, Nicaragua. If I had no idea that I was landing specifically in Nicaragua, I would still be able to tell that I was somewhere in Latin America simply from the way it looks. There are many vibrant colors, vast quantities of motorcycles, and excessively gaudy buildings that just so happen to be right next to shacks with clotheslines. When I got out of the airport and stepped into the insanely humid air, the program coordinator Ramiro was there to meet me with a cab driver. Although I had been worried for a moment about having lost a little bit of my Spanish ability over break, I was able to immediately start speaking to Ramiro when I first saw him. It's funny, I guess that anybody's foreign language ability can usually come back to them when they go to a country where that foreign language is spoken. We went to a busy restaurant in Managua where I had some rice and beans and afterward, Ramiro brought me on a tour of the tourist sights in Managua. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I had been on a red-eye on the way to Managua, I had not had very much sleep and had some trouble listening to the history behind all of the sights. Anyways, I saw the National Palace, the National Theater House, the Cathedral of Managua that is falling apart, the Memorial to the fathers of the Sandinista Revolution, and the extremely polluted Lago de Managua. After that we got on an overcrowded bus to head down the Interamericana (a highway that starts in Alaska and goes all the way to the eastern end of Panama where it becomes a dirt road near the Colombian border) towards Tola, where I'm having my orientation. In both Managua and along the Interamericana, I continuously saw billboards with pictures of Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega and a message below his picture saying "Viva la Revoluci
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