Nicaragua

Where do I begin, so much has happened since I have been able to write a blog. Well the week my computer broke was the last week of Core Seminar and the 5 week Spanish classes, so we had a paper due and a final Spanish presentation. After that week we left bright and early Monday morning for Nicaragua.

          We left at like 6 o 7 in the morning, and we got to Nicaragua at like 4ish. Long bus ride with no ipods ( we were told to leave them for group building purposes and so it wouldn’t get stolen). We stayed at a study center called CEPADS Nehemias. It is a center that employs local people and puts its profit back into the surrounding community. The first 3 days we had lectures about Nicaragua history, politics, economy, and religion. We went and visited some important sites in Managua, and got basically a crash course in Nicaragua. By the end of those 3 days, I felt like I had learned enough in just those 3 days to make the trip to Nicaragua worth it. In U.S. history classes in the states, we gloss over so much of what happened in Latin America and our involvement there.

         On Thursday, we left for our homestays in “el campo de Nicaragua” or the countryside or rural Nicaragua. The entire group was divided into groups of 4 or 5 and placed in different communities in Nicaragua. My community was called Patastule, and was about an hour and half outside Managua. Half of the groups left at 3 in the morning on Thursday with their pastors! I was lucky and got to leave at 8:30! Hahaaah  I am trying to think how to correctly relate my homestay experience… I can tell you all the facts about what happened and it would sound like a “good experience” but it wouldn’t correctly portray what I saw and learned and felt there. I feel like there are 2 sides to this story. The simple surface level, and the heart of what changed me there.

        80% of Nicaraguans live on less than $2 a day. And the majority of Nicaraguans are without work.  The people have been passed from oppressive government to oppressive government. I used to ask why thse countries are so poor, what happened? Then I was taught about the history of them, and it’s like no wonder they are in the state they are in! They have had nothing but oppression or political turmoil. They need a period of peace and good government in order to develop and recover.

       My parents in Nicaragua were Gustavo and Patrona. They are an older couple who had 5 grown children. They are farmers. They grow corn, plantains, chiles, watermelon, and tomatoes.  They moved to Patastule 30 years ago. He used to be in a mariachi band in Managua for many years. I am not sure why he stopped or why they moved. I suspect to either care for the family land or because he ran out of music work. They came to Patastule and started the church that is now there, even though neither of them had any pastoral or church training whatsoever. Eventually, the church in Teotepe (close pueblo) began helping them, and they eventually joined the Mennonite or Hermanos in Cristo denomination. I’m not quite sure.. the sign says Mennonite, but LASP said we were all going to Hermanos en Cristo churches. Maybe it’s the same?

       From what I saw my family was probably the most well off in our pueblo, and I from what I saw it’s because they have land that they own and that they can farm. The rest of the pueblo, doesn’t have land. I asked my family about what the rest of the village does for work, and they said some rent land to farm, some help others farm, some women work in maquilas (textile factories), but the majority are just out of work. There are no jobs.

       Basically for 5 days, I just lived with them. I did a few chores, sat around a lot, talked with them, went to church almost everyday( they normally have church like 4 times a week as it is, but we were there during their once a year campaña, which from what I gathered is a revival). We were sent out to the campo with the instructions or recommendation to just be. So I was just being there for 5 days. It was hard. It was very very different. Water from a well, and an outhouse. My house had a cement floor (rare) and was bigger than most of all the other houses there. There was electricity, minimal. I bathed in a river! They did have a bucker showering area, but I never used it.

      Changing thoughts, these people are the most loving and hospitable people. I was thrust into their lives for 5 days, and they loved me and treated me as a real member of their family. The love of Christ permeated every part of their lives. He was and is their center and rock, that was plain to see. Although, their services and forms of expression were very different, more traditional.

      It was really hard to leave, but at the same time all I wanted to do was leave. I was so relieved to leave, but didn’t want to leave the people. Such a strange mix of feelings. I left frustrated with the way the world is. The people in that village have no opportunity for betterment. They don’t have a choice in the way the live or what they do. You can’t ask a teenager what they want to be when they grown up, because they just want a job. That is not to say many do not have dreams of what they want to be, but the reality I they just need work when they finish school. MAny Nicaraguans, don’t even see the value in a university education because once you graduate you can’t get a job, so they have wasted tons of money and time. And I do not know if this is true, but my family told me that it’s really hard to get a scholarship to university because the Sandinista government just gives them as political favors or to those of its own party. Their lack of desire for university education and the lack of ability contributes to a vicious cycle, meaning how does a society improve and develop without a growth of educated individuals.

      We returned from our homestays to Granada, which is Nicaragua’s number one tourist city. It was beautiful, right on Lake Nicaragua, and very touristy. The contrast was a little too much for me. I couldn’t process it all fast enough. We stayed in the nicest place in the entire trip, with ac, hot showers, and a microwave. It was nice, but at the same time like what am I doing here? 4 hours ago I was in the campo of Nicaragua living with people who won’t ever live like this. And by “this” I don’t mean the North American lifestyle. I mean having opportunities, job security, options, education.  One of the hardest things for me was the hopelessness for change in Nicaragua. From an outside perspective, looking at what it would take for real change and real development and betterment to happen in that country… it isn’t going to change anytime soon. The people I met have no way out. And when we talked about it, they know it. They told me point blank they know nothing will change. Ahg! Even now it makes me so upset and so heartbroken and so angry at the corruption in their government! I think their resigned hopelessness is what breaks my heart the most. ( not saying that they should be hopeful, just that they don’t even have hope for their own country right now the way things are) Because the Nicaraguan people are amazing! They have an amazing culture filled with love and hospitality and the value on personal relationships. But at the same time, their government has been destroyed by greed and power.

      Looking back, I never want to forget what I saw and experienced or how I felt/feel. I don’t want it just to be a memory. I am scared of forgetting it, because it would be so easy to go back home and just close my eyes to everything. To pretend I didn’t learn it, and to just continue living the way I’ve always lived. And in one sense that would be so much easier! And a piece of me wishes I could do that! But, I don’t want to do that! And I am so scared of that.