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)

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 Revolución!" I also saw graffiti all over the place saying "Viva Daniel!" As I was looking at these billboards and graffiti I couldn't help thinking no wonder the USA bought arms from Iran and sold them to the Contras who were fighting against the Marxist Sandinistas in the early 1980's. Daniel Ortega is the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and if we were currently living in the 1980's, the US would have taken him out in an instant due to his "Marxist" ideals. Anyways considering that this is the first day I don't really have a ton to say yet, but please stay tuned for more posts in the near future.