Hey all,
After being in Nicaragua for over a week now, I have had time to begin to get to know the country. We have only begun to explore the many things that this country has to offer, and only scraped the surface on the some of the problems and delimas faced by its people. We have enjoyed the immense hospitality of people who were stretched already to the limits of providing for their family, and yet they gave us portions of food larger than any home cooked meal we could have ever had back home. We saw people with no formal education pooling together resources, settling disputes, and organizing communities with passion and success like I have rarely seen. It is humbling to me to see the sort of advantages I posses, yet looking back what have I yet done to compare to what these people with no resources, it makes me think about how much more I could be doing. I can’t help it but to be embarrassed by the sole fact that I am from the United States, a place that has helped cause some of the strife here, that goes on living, consuming without regard to the conditions that the people who are making the goods are working in, without regard to how much what I have could affect the lives of so many people in other countries. Whatever happens once I go home will require a lot of thought. To process so much in such a small amount of time I feel is not possible. In talking with people at home, sharing experiences with people, eventually I will figure out what I want to do, what I want my part to be in helping Nicaragua, but it won't happen right away. More thoughts from me and others are sure to follow, and thank you to our dedicated readers, your support is amazing.
Jonathan Waltz

Back from the Campo

Hey everyone! We are back from the campo and we all have some fun, interesting, and moving stories to tell, hopefully we will get to an Internet cafe tonight. Thank you to everyone who is keeping up with the blog. It means a lot to know people care to read what we are writing and experiencing. Miss and love you all!

Britt

Hello Bonners

Hello Bonners-

I am writing from a small home in Batahola, spending the night with Todd's old host family. It is across the street from a basketball court--and a cultural/education center that was started by an American nun many years ago. I feel as if we found our long-term partner for the enrichment grant/project.

Ironically, we toured this Center two days ago. They run a number of amazing progams--including a scholarship program for poor college students, who them complete community service at the Center; sound familiar? I would write more--but I don't want to be rude to my host family. If you get a chance--google Batahola Cultural Center. You may get here sooner than you think:)

Adios.

10 Minutes, 10 Years

How long did it take me to read an article about the Reagan Administration's support of the Contras during the 1980's? I am guessing it took me 10 minutes every once and a while. Now, I have come to see first hand that Nicaragua has never recovered from the damages of that 10 year war. Was that the only way our government could have expressed its displeasure with the direction the Sandinistas (who toppled a ruthless dictator and not a democratic regime) were taking? It is never comfortable stepping out and questioning others--but it becomes alot easier when you meet real people who have to live with the consequences of questionable policies.

So far, so GREAT!

This place has been absolutely amazing. I've enjoyed learning about the political and financial aspects of Nicaragua's history. Our female speakers have provided us with stories that are absolutely mind-blowing. For example, Yamileth who survived several years on a dump, showed her determination and strength while explaining her struggle. When she said that Nica's take care of their problems and are self-providers, I felt nothing but admiration and respect. If we were to look up heart, dedication, and faith in the dictionary, we would certainly see Yamileth's picture besides those words.

Also, we went to Puntos de Encuentro which is a womens' group that films videos (Sexto Sientido) on issues for women. I believe that their films need to be shown globablly, as they are beginning to distribute their videos to other Latin American countries. Sex education is an extremely important aspect of learning for not only Latin Americans, but people everywhere. Hopefully, we'll be seeing the success of these films in the states within the next few years.

Lastly, I would like to explain how humbling this trip has been. In America, we sometimes overlook/underappreciate the things and people that we have in our lives. We become materialistic and undervalue the people who continue to support us. This is a call for us to review our lives, and appreciate what we take for granite each and every day because there are many less fortunate people in this world waiting for the things that we do have.



-Tariq Shabazz

Managua!!!

Hey!!!

So first, Britt has been doing a really good job on providing details and such to help you guys try to visualize what we have seen for our own eyes. It´s Day 3 now, and to be honest it´s quite impossible to really paint a clear picture that would sum up everything. There are so many mixed emotions when thinking about everything I´ve seen thus far....from poverty to miracle stories. As Britt was saying before, yesterday we met with a woman named Yamith. She had such an inspiring story about how she survived living in a dump...LITERALLY...to finally living in what she calls¨home.¨ If there´s one thing I would have to say about this trip so far...it would be that you truly learn the definition of Humbleness. Yamith´s story as well as many others here, have shown that despite disaster...they never lost hope but fought and found ways to survive on their own. People such as Yamith, prove that change is possible anywhere...anyhow...The people of Nicaragua have taken matters into thier own hands and that´s is such an admirable thing.

-Natasha Perez

Why?

When I was a political science professor at Middlesex, I started each semester by asking the students to bring in a political song; one we could use to examine some of the definitions of political science (e.g. the study of struggles and competions for power). To cover all the bases in case they failed to deliver, I would have a few songs in my back pocket--including Tracy Chapman's "Why".

"Why do all the babies starve when there is enough food to feed the world?" These lyrics are swirling in my head as we drive through Managua staring at extreme poverty--words cannot convey the conditions. (This is the second poorest country in the region.) We spend a few hours meeting folks who live in a colossal garbage dump. Yes, their neighborhood is in the dump--and 1000 live off of the garbage that they can glean--in order to survive. It is hot, dirty and desparate.

It is clear we will all complain alot less about our own struggles or challenges when we return home. We will always have a clear reference point to remind us that by sheer luck--by pulling a card from the deck that meant we were born in the United States--we were placed on a very different trajectory.

It is also clear that we will never really leave this place. As we learn more about Nicaragua's history--including America's role--it will be hard for many of us to forget about this country and its people. I suspect TCNJ Bonners and alum will be coming down here trying to support local efforts to improve the quality of life for years to come.

Peace-

Pat

Hola mi amors! I am writing to you from CEPAD in Managua, Nicaragua. I have had the privilege of staying here for the past few days, using it as a post to venture out into a new, wonderful world here in Central America. The more I explore and discover here, the more I grow to love the country. Everything from enjoying multiple discussions with people here who have experienced these things first hand, who have granted us the opportunity to listen to them, and give of us their time to explain why Nicaragua is in the situation it is in, and things that are being done to try to help these people out.
Since I have gotten here, I have felt a vast array of emotions. Sadness, hopelessness, love, respect, hope, fear, guilt, disappointment, joy, anger, and that’s just the beginning. Never have I seen such extensive poverty, despite all of my adventures to different parts of the world, yet still these people are as hopeful and resilient as any I have met. No matter where I turn I can see the need these people have.
Increasingly I feel the need for something to be done here, some policy that needs to be changed, some aid sent, some system that takes so much from these people to be disassembled and reversed. These people who love so much, who know so much joy, and so much pain, should be allowed to, or empowered to help themselves.

Strength

Yesterday we went to a community called “la choleca,” which has about 24,000 people (1,200 families) living in and off the dump in Managua. Try to think for a moment about what that could look like in the US. We have all seen “trash pickers” who take furniture off peoples’ lawns or looking for scrap metal to turn in for money, and maybe once in your life you have seen someone dig recently thrown away food out of the trash to eat, but you could not even imagine a community of people living off the rest of the city’s trash.

As we pull into the entrance of the dump there are a few men at the sides of the street looking through the little bit of trash there, we were told it is usually full of trash but today was an empty day. We continue driving down the dirt road and in the distance you can see the piles of trash in the dump. We don’t get a very clear view of the size of the dump, but we saw enough. There were many people at the gate of the dump going through trash, pulling out anything from plastic bottles, plastic bags, metal, copper, aluminum, paper, food, bones, and toys. There are children from the ages of 2 and up walking around and seeing what they can find too. This was the hardest part to see – very small children, in dirty clothes, with dirty faces, looking through a small pile of trash on the street for something to eat or play with.

People there work very hard, but don’t get much for that work. Today, for every 100lbs of plastic bottles you get 1 cordoba, which is equal to 5 cents. It used to be 24 cordobas ($1.20) but with the falling economy, the price for plastic dropped.

We kept driving into the community where there are houses. This is the section of people who live off the dump, but not in the dump. About 200 of the families actually live inside the dump. Our guide Yamileth, was a single mother, with two daughters, who lived in the dump.
She told us her and her children slept in a barrel.

Yamileth collected copper, metal, and of course food. The hardest part for her, especially in telling the story, was her concern for her two girls. She did not want them to grow up living in the dump. Yamileth looked for a job outside of the dump and finally found one packaging art, which is across town from the dump. She traveled everyday to work, but heard from other women who worked there in the past, that the job did not lead you to anything more than packing. She took this as a challenge to prove herself and show that she was different. Yamileth came up with a way to package the art so that it would not break; kids said they could play soccer with the art after she was done with it, and it still wouldn’t break.

Because of her hard work, Yamileth was slowly moving up the ranks and now is the director of this packing business. She told us that at first it was scary because she didn’t know what to do with all this new money she was making. Then she began building her home now, which she calls a palace. For those of you in the US who think you have a small room to live in, I bet your room is the size of Yamileth’s house. She is so grateful to have a floor and walls, with “the softest beds,” and some electricity.

Yamileth’s story does not stop there. She has become a community organizer also. She is the unofficial pharmacy of the community, where people who are sick can come to her home, day or night, to see what is wrong with them. Yamileth has a box she showed us, which is about 12 inches by 4 inches, and has a few medical supplies in it: hydration packets, blood sampling kit, and the drugs for malaria.

Along with that, she also took the lead in fixing the gang problem in their community. In the beginning 90s there was a lot of violence that came with the gangs, so to the women of the community decided to try and stop it. After the asking the kids what would help them, they said respect and sports. So, Yamileth was elected to be in charge of organizing soccer (having never played in her life). In order to play, all of the kids had to hand in their weapons: guns, slingshots, and knives. Yamileth tells a story about the first soccer game played in the new league where two kids ran into each other which started a uproar of the crowd. The kids, who were supposed to turn in their weapons, took out more. The police that were there were scared and Yamileth said she didn’t know what to do. She thought about running, but decided that she needed to do something more. She said she just screamed, “What are you doing? Is this what you brought me all this way for?” All the kids got quiet, then turned to each other and said she was right and started shaking hands. Since then there haven’t been any more gangs in the community and the one neighborhood was so good at soccer that they won many tournaments outside of their league.

Yamileth’s story was very moving. She started living in a dump with her two children, and even when she made the money to get out of the dump, she stayed and helped the community. It is hard to describe what we saw and felt on this trip; it is almost unbelievable, or incomprehensible for anyone who has not seen it themselves. The experience made me think about what I, and most people in the US, complain about. It is a day and place I will never forget.

Adios,
Britt

Days 1 and 2 in Managua, Nicaragua

Day 1

Hola! We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua on Monday June 8th at about 12:00 CT. Our Witness for Peace(WFP) guides for the stay, Patty and Galen, picked us up and brought us to our home for most of our stay here. CEPAD is a hostel that has about 75 beds, lots of roof covered open space, a few very nice security guards, and a staff who runs and cleans the common space. The girls and boys are split into two rooms right next to each other. In each room there is a bathroom and a bed for each person. So far, everyone has slept very well despite the heat. There is a parrot in the common space here named Jeptio who can say a few things like "hola," "hello," and "aye papi."

Every meal at CEPAD is cooked for us by Blanca - a woman who has been cooking for WFP for a long time. We have had very good food so far (rice, beans, chicken, plantains, potatoes, salad, and fruit juice).

After settling in, Patty and Galen began educating us on the history and culture of Nicaragua. The political and economic history is very important in understanding the people here. Hopefully someone will write a post on this history and the huge influence the US had/has in the politics of Nicaragua, but for now I do not have the time.

The first night Todd, Jon, and I went to visit a community called Batahola, where Todd stayed last time he was here. This was the first chance we had to really talk to Nicaraguans (Nicas). The family he stayed with was so nice and patient with us; they spoke very slow and used many hand motions to help us understand what they were saying. One of my concerns in coming on the trip was my poor Spanish speaking skills, but so far I have been able to communicate when I try (Todd and Natasha have done much of the speaking when needed though).

Day 2

We woke up early, had breakfast, learned a little more, and then headed out on a historical tour of Managua. For our time here, we have a van that will take us everywhere we are scheduled to go with WFP (very nice driver Luis and it is air conditioned). Patty and Galen gave us a tour of some historical sites such as the cathedral, the old and new congress buildings, the "white house" of Nicaragua, the Peace Park, many monuments, and we ended at the site of an old Palace at Lake Tiscapa.

Most interesting for me was the Peace Park (El Parque de Paz), a park developed, in 1990, by President Violeta Chamorro (first woman president in Latin America) after the end of the Contra war. After elected she offered amnesty and money to those who would turn their guns in and cemented all of the weapons into the ground at the park as a symbol that the country would be peaceful. The conditions of the park now are disappointing. It is run down, the fountain has no water, the buildings were abandoned, and some monuments vandalized - so much for peace.

On our way to the sites I really saw how poor some of the people in the country are and what they will do to get a few cordobas (20 cordobas = 1 dollar). A woman came up to the window of our van with a small child in her hands. The windows are tinted so she, and the child, put their faces up to their windows as she tapped gently asking for one minute of our time. It was disheartening to see a woman and child needing money so bad that they were just walking through the streets asking. I know we see begging for money in America, but its not the same here. EVERY corner there is someone working for money (selling water, making grasshoppers out of the long grasses, or just asking).

Today, Day 3, we are going to talk to a woman who is a community organizer at her home and then visit a health clinic. Should be one of the most eye-opening days on the trip. Look for the next post about today (I'm sure we will all have things to say about it) and for some of the history we have learned about what role our country has played in the lives of Nicas.

Thank you for reading!!!!

Adios,
Britt

Welcome

Hello Bonners and the World,

Welcome to Bonneragua! From June 8th to 19th, 2009 5 Bonner Scholars and 2 staff members will be participating in a delegation on international inequalities in Managua, Nicaragua. We are going to bring understanding to why such extreme poverty exists in the developing world and bring back that newly gained knowledge to TCNJ.

Internet access for the group may be limited from time to time but we will be doing our best to keep this blog updated with pictures and journal entries on our adventures.