It's been so long....sorry!
I apologize to anyone who is reading this....it has been such a long time since I wrote. Things got quite busy after Christmas, and then I fell out of the rhythm. Honestly, I can't write much now, but I wanted to document a few things, both for myself and others, of what I have been experiencing lately.
Nicaragua is a complicated and complex place. Often times things seem to happen for no reason, and things that do happen are mismatched and misplaced. The government is corrupt and people are suffering for this fact. Lately I have felt that people's desperation and despair is worse than I used to imagine. I am surely seeing things that help me see that there is hope as well, but in conversations and things that have happened lately I am seeing the desperation that is apparent.
Below I am going to write about a few recent experiences, mostly so I won't forget them, and so that others might have a better idea of what is happening here.
This morning at breakfast my host mom sat behind me in a rocking chair. Usually she sets my breakfast down and walks out of the room with a cursory, 'Buenos dias.' Occasionally she sits to chat, but this has happened maybe 4 times in the whole four months I have lived there. This morning we began chatting about the usual things, the weather, the weather, and the weather. Nicaragua is hot and dry and dusty right now. Somehow the topic changed to life in Nicaragua. She began expressing her frustration with the political system and policies of the government. She talked about how frustrated she felt personally and how what the people of Nicaragua were living was not life. She told me how they couldn't do anything because there weren't enough jobs and there wasn't enough money. I asked her if the upcoming elections in November were hopeful, that didn't it mean that there might be a change soon. She replied that they were all the same, that Nicaragua was sliding downward and she didn't know how to stop it.
Yesterday I was working with one of my Nicaraguan colleagues. I began asking him about where he had grown up and how long he had lived where his family lives now. He told me about how when he was younger they lived in the South of the country, but that it wasn't good because his family never had their own house. I took this to mean that they were renting, although it could also mean that they literally didn't have any place to live. He said they had been in their current house for ten years, and that he felt very very happy there, mostly because it meant that his younger brothers and sisters had a place to live and that their life would be better than his had been at their age.
A few days ago I was working again with this same colleague and I began to talk to him about how I didn't know what kind of work I wanted to do when I returned to the United States. After a while of listening to me go on like this he very gently brought up the point that in fact I was lucky because I could choose what I wanted to do. He started talking about how hard he had worked in his life and how much better his life was now than when he started working at a very young age. Being a very senstitive person, and not wanting to hurt my feelings, he also gently said that he thought life was harder here in Nicaragua than it was in the United States. After these comments I felt incredibly embarassed. I told him I agreed with him wholeheartedly, that absolutely I was lucky to be where I was and that life in Nicaragua was certainly much harder than where I had come from. This conversation served as a small reminder to me. Even as I am in the midst of the poverty and the hardship, that it is still so easy to forget that others don't have the same opportunities as I have been fortunate enough to have. I told my colleague that one of the reasons I was here in Nicaragua was because I didn't think it was fair, and that there wasn't a good reason for things to be the way they are.
The past Sunday two other female volunteers and myself were in our dormitory on the property of the organization where I work. The organization has a high wall with razor wire and security guards and generally is a place where I feel very safe. Both my friend Emily and I were laying on beds resting, while my other friend Alexandra was in the bathroom. All of a sudden i heard Alexandra begin to scream, and as I looked up I saw a man standing not too far from me without a shirt and a machete raised in his hand. I rapidly got out of bed and ran to one side of the dorm while the man quickly excited the building. Luckily help arrived and he scrambled up and over the wall without causing harm to any of us. We were all fairly shaken-up, but were all okay. We all agreed that probably he thought the dorm was empty and finding it open wanted to come steal whatever he could find. People in Nicaragua are desperate, the opportunity to find jobs that will pay enough to feed their families is difficult. People are forced to steal to keep themselves alive. Children are forced to sell fruit in the street and parents are forced to work in the sweatshops to make any money.
The past few months have also brought many strikes. We were in a cab the other day where the cab driver was exhaulting the right to strike, saying that he loved his country because people could go out and strike for what they wanted. While this is true, it also means that times are dire, and that people are striking because they have to. The doctors have been on strike for three months. People cannot go to a public hospital and get care. For a while people could go and get treated for emergencies, but the hospitals have even stopped doing that. I recently read an article about a woman who got a cut in her leg but was turned down at the hospital. As it got worse she finally spent almost a years salary to go to a private hospital to get it taken care of. After this visit it was no better and she went back to the public hospital which finally decided the wound looked bad enough that they would treat her. They had to amputate her leg because the infection was so bad that she had developed gangrene. What will she do now? The public buses were also on strike in Managua a couple of weeks ago. The bus drivers wanted to raise fares because the cost of gasoline is so high that they say they can't make any money. They wanted the government to give them more subsidies to continue to run. While the buses were on strike for more than a week people were forced to take taxis or find other means of transportation to their jobs. Many people took "pirata" trucks, where individuals who owned a truck would drive around and people would pile in the back. Either people would pay their daily wage to take a taxi to work or they would be forced to ride in unsafe conditions in the back of someone's truck.
The final anecdote from recent events here in Nicaragua is about an individual landowner in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. While I don't know a whole lot about this case, I know the basics. This landowner, Vicente, was given land in the 1980's during the Sandanista land reform. It used to belong to a man who is an employee of a US company. The man who works with the US company wants the land back, although there have already been court cases that ruled in favor of Vicente, that said the land was rightfully his. The other man has been terrorizing Vicente ever since. He has hired people to go to Vicente's house and threaten him and his family with violence. They have pulled up fences and tried to find other ways of scaring the family into submission. Eventually gringos here began going to Matagalpa to be a physical presence to keep Vicente's family safe. Vicente took the man to court for damages and just lost a few days ago. My friends and I went with Vicente and others to the National Assembly last week so he could tell his case to the justice committee there. So far none of this has seemed to make a difference, although we are hopeful that the appeal that Vicente is filing will result in justice.
As I said above there are many things which are hopeful here. It just seems that lately there are so many violations being made against the Nicaraguan people that sometimes it is hard to remember those things that are hopeful. I hope this helps people get a feel for and an image for what life is like here. I hope everyone is well.
Nicaragua is a complicated and complex place. Often times things seem to happen for no reason, and things that do happen are mismatched and misplaced. The government is corrupt and people are suffering for this fact. Lately I have felt that people's desperation and despair is worse than I used to imagine. I am surely seeing things that help me see that there is hope as well, but in conversations and things that have happened lately I am seeing the desperation that is apparent.
Below I am going to write about a few recent experiences, mostly so I won't forget them, and so that others might have a better idea of what is happening here.
This morning at breakfast my host mom sat behind me in a rocking chair. Usually she sets my breakfast down and walks out of the room with a cursory, 'Buenos dias.' Occasionally she sits to chat, but this has happened maybe 4 times in the whole four months I have lived there. This morning we began chatting about the usual things, the weather, the weather, and the weather. Nicaragua is hot and dry and dusty right now. Somehow the topic changed to life in Nicaragua. She began expressing her frustration with the political system and policies of the government. She talked about how frustrated she felt personally and how what the people of Nicaragua were living was not life. She told me how they couldn't do anything because there weren't enough jobs and there wasn't enough money. I asked her if the upcoming elections in November were hopeful, that didn't it mean that there might be a change soon. She replied that they were all the same, that Nicaragua was sliding downward and she didn't know how to stop it.
Yesterday I was working with one of my Nicaraguan colleagues. I began asking him about where he had grown up and how long he had lived where his family lives now. He told me about how when he was younger they lived in the South of the country, but that it wasn't good because his family never had their own house. I took this to mean that they were renting, although it could also mean that they literally didn't have any place to live. He said they had been in their current house for ten years, and that he felt very very happy there, mostly because it meant that his younger brothers and sisters had a place to live and that their life would be better than his had been at their age.
A few days ago I was working again with this same colleague and I began to talk to him about how I didn't know what kind of work I wanted to do when I returned to the United States. After a while of listening to me go on like this he very gently brought up the point that in fact I was lucky because I could choose what I wanted to do. He started talking about how hard he had worked in his life and how much better his life was now than when he started working at a very young age. Being a very senstitive person, and not wanting to hurt my feelings, he also gently said that he thought life was harder here in Nicaragua than it was in the United States. After these comments I felt incredibly embarassed. I told him I agreed with him wholeheartedly, that absolutely I was lucky to be where I was and that life in Nicaragua was certainly much harder than where I had come from. This conversation served as a small reminder to me. Even as I am in the midst of the poverty and the hardship, that it is still so easy to forget that others don't have the same opportunities as I have been fortunate enough to have. I told my colleague that one of the reasons I was here in Nicaragua was because I didn't think it was fair, and that there wasn't a good reason for things to be the way they are.
The past Sunday two other female volunteers and myself were in our dormitory on the property of the organization where I work. The organization has a high wall with razor wire and security guards and generally is a place where I feel very safe. Both my friend Emily and I were laying on beds resting, while my other friend Alexandra was in the bathroom. All of a sudden i heard Alexandra begin to scream, and as I looked up I saw a man standing not too far from me without a shirt and a machete raised in his hand. I rapidly got out of bed and ran to one side of the dorm while the man quickly excited the building. Luckily help arrived and he scrambled up and over the wall without causing harm to any of us. We were all fairly shaken-up, but were all okay. We all agreed that probably he thought the dorm was empty and finding it open wanted to come steal whatever he could find. People in Nicaragua are desperate, the opportunity to find jobs that will pay enough to feed their families is difficult. People are forced to steal to keep themselves alive. Children are forced to sell fruit in the street and parents are forced to work in the sweatshops to make any money.
The past few months have also brought many strikes. We were in a cab the other day where the cab driver was exhaulting the right to strike, saying that he loved his country because people could go out and strike for what they wanted. While this is true, it also means that times are dire, and that people are striking because they have to. The doctors have been on strike for three months. People cannot go to a public hospital and get care. For a while people could go and get treated for emergencies, but the hospitals have even stopped doing that. I recently read an article about a woman who got a cut in her leg but was turned down at the hospital. As it got worse she finally spent almost a years salary to go to a private hospital to get it taken care of. After this visit it was no better and she went back to the public hospital which finally decided the wound looked bad enough that they would treat her. They had to amputate her leg because the infection was so bad that she had developed gangrene. What will she do now? The public buses were also on strike in Managua a couple of weeks ago. The bus drivers wanted to raise fares because the cost of gasoline is so high that they say they can't make any money. They wanted the government to give them more subsidies to continue to run. While the buses were on strike for more than a week people were forced to take taxis or find other means of transportation to their jobs. Many people took "pirata" trucks, where individuals who owned a truck would drive around and people would pile in the back. Either people would pay their daily wage to take a taxi to work or they would be forced to ride in unsafe conditions in the back of someone's truck.
The final anecdote from recent events here in Nicaragua is about an individual landowner in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. While I don't know a whole lot about this case, I know the basics. This landowner, Vicente, was given land in the 1980's during the Sandanista land reform. It used to belong to a man who is an employee of a US company. The man who works with the US company wants the land back, although there have already been court cases that ruled in favor of Vicente, that said the land was rightfully his. The other man has been terrorizing Vicente ever since. He has hired people to go to Vicente's house and threaten him and his family with violence. They have pulled up fences and tried to find other ways of scaring the family into submission. Eventually gringos here began going to Matagalpa to be a physical presence to keep Vicente's family safe. Vicente took the man to court for damages and just lost a few days ago. My friends and I went with Vicente and others to the National Assembly last week so he could tell his case to the justice committee there. So far none of this has seemed to make a difference, although we are hopeful that the appeal that Vicente is filing will result in justice.
As I said above there are many things which are hopeful here. It just seems that lately there are so many violations being made against the Nicaraguan people that sometimes it is hard to remember those things that are hopeful. I hope this helps people get a feel for and an image for what life is like here. I hope everyone is well.
posted by Emily at 11:47 AM
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