Privacy, it seems, is something that does not exist down here.
In the houses, the walls dont connect with the roof so you can hear every word people say. Front doors are always open so people can walk in and sit down or come in and join you for dinner whenever they want. During the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, people stood in our doorway most of the day to watch the coverage on the TV.
Bathrooms dont exist inside houses here. Families have something like a porter potty in their garden and their shower consists of a stone ´room´ near their water basin. It sometimes doesnt reach above your head, so when you are showering everyone can see you. Underware, bras and boxers dry freely on the clothes lines for the world to see. The one good thing that has come from this is that things dont embarress me as much as they used to. We are all humans, we all have the same clothes and the same bodily functions so there is nothing to be ashamed of!
The last privacy issue here is that of TV reporters. Talk about ´ín your face news!´ When there is a drug bust (about once a week), the cameras are feet away from the culprits with their faces in the ground and they are sometimes shoved out of the way when the police try to close the car doors as the TV crews are trying to interview those being arrested. A few weeks ago there was a security guard who was shot 2 times in the chest. You saw the up close view of this security guard lying limp in his plastic lawn chair with no sheet covering him up or anything. To make it even better, they were interviewing his family with the dead guy in the background of the shot. Seriously...?! There has to be some point where you cross the line.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Politics...
Tomorrow, July 19 is the 33 aniversary of the sandinista revolution here in Nicaragua, so i figured i would give a little political history lesson.
The Somoza Regime lasted 40 years finally ending in 1978 when the Sandinistas, led by a man named Sandino, rose up and over threw the government. Somoza was a very strict dictator, so much that if you spoke out against him, you were killed. When the sandinistas were gaining force, if you were even thought to support the Sandinistas, your were killed. Education was non existent outside of the few large cities such as Managua, Leon and Granada. Not even elementary school was offered in places out in the country. This is the reason why the older generation here (from my last post) cant read or write. Even those who live here in town.
The Sandinstas overthrew the government on July 19, 1978. The first president was Daniel Ortega, who again is the president. When the Sandinistas first came to power, they started a national literacy campaign. The first school classes were given over the radio as they did not have the funds to build schools fast enough. Many of my parents generation attended school over the radio. Another thing the sandinistas did when they came into power was to nationalize the land that Somoza and his family owned. Somoza had stolen or owned much of the land in the country, and the sandinistas took it back to give to farmers so the could make a living.
Now I dont want to sound like I am in support of the Sandinistas, I think they did a lot of good things for the country and continue to do so, but I still perfer the government in the good US of A.
Politics now... Elections are this year.. i think november 6th. There are 2 major parties vying for the presidency. The Sandinistas (FSLN) and the Liberals (PLC). FSLN stands for Frente Sandinsita de Liberacion Ncacional. PLC stands for Partido Liberal Constitucionalista. There are over 4 million people eligible to vote ( you need to be 16 years old) , but because of distance, time and money only about 3 million show up. i would like to tell you what each party stands for and what they want to do, but my information is limited. The Sandinistas have very extravagant commerials... atleast 2 commercials every commercial break are for the Sandinistas. Including a song to the tune of Stand by Me with the lyrics re written.. It lasts over 5 minutes. They want to have more comemrce, trade, make more jobs, have peace, community, solidarity, remain free, they show the beautiful landscape and traditions of nicaragua. They show videos of 33 years ago when the statue of Somoza fell and the first time people walked in the streets free. They are very big on helping the farmers... although i really havent seen much of that going on.
The Liberals... I have no idea what they stand for.... o, i saw 1 commercial where they said they wanted to make 1,000,000 jobs, but like all good politics, have no plan on how to do that. All the other cmmercials bash the Sandinistas, so i cant tell you what they want
If I were to align the sandinistas with one of our political groups, I would probably say democrats... They want Huge government and low taxes. other they those things, they are very different then our system. Well folks, I hope that wasnt too boring! If you have questions, please ask and I will try to find the answer while im down here.
The Somoza Regime lasted 40 years finally ending in 1978 when the Sandinistas, led by a man named Sandino, rose up and over threw the government. Somoza was a very strict dictator, so much that if you spoke out against him, you were killed. When the sandinistas were gaining force, if you were even thought to support the Sandinistas, your were killed. Education was non existent outside of the few large cities such as Managua, Leon and Granada. Not even elementary school was offered in places out in the country. This is the reason why the older generation here (from my last post) cant read or write. Even those who live here in town.
The Sandinstas overthrew the government on July 19, 1978. The first president was Daniel Ortega, who again is the president. When the Sandinistas first came to power, they started a national literacy campaign. The first school classes were given over the radio as they did not have the funds to build schools fast enough. Many of my parents generation attended school over the radio. Another thing the sandinistas did when they came into power was to nationalize the land that Somoza and his family owned. Somoza had stolen or owned much of the land in the country, and the sandinistas took it back to give to farmers so the could make a living.
Now I dont want to sound like I am in support of the Sandinistas, I think they did a lot of good things for the country and continue to do so, but I still perfer the government in the good US of A.
Politics now... Elections are this year.. i think november 6th. There are 2 major parties vying for the presidency. The Sandinistas (FSLN) and the Liberals (PLC). FSLN stands for Frente Sandinsita de Liberacion Ncacional. PLC stands for Partido Liberal Constitucionalista. There are over 4 million people eligible to vote ( you need to be 16 years old) , but because of distance, time and money only about 3 million show up. i would like to tell you what each party stands for and what they want to do, but my information is limited. The Sandinistas have very extravagant commerials... atleast 2 commercials every commercial break are for the Sandinistas. Including a song to the tune of Stand by Me with the lyrics re written.. It lasts over 5 minutes. They want to have more comemrce, trade, make more jobs, have peace, community, solidarity, remain free, they show the beautiful landscape and traditions of nicaragua. They show videos of 33 years ago when the statue of Somoza fell and the first time people walked in the streets free. They are very big on helping the farmers... although i really havent seen much of that going on.
The Liberals... I have no idea what they stand for.... o, i saw 1 commercial where they said they wanted to make 1,000,000 jobs, but like all good politics, have no plan on how to do that. All the other cmmercials bash the Sandinistas, so i cant tell you what they want
If I were to align the sandinistas with one of our political groups, I would probably say democrats... They want Huge government and low taxes. other they those things, they are very different then our system. Well folks, I hope that wasnt too boring! If you have questions, please ask and I will try to find the answer while im down here.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Illiteracy
The illiteracy rate in nicaragua is over 35%... but it feels higher up here in the rural areas of Nicaragua. It really hit me today when Elmer had to ask a woman picking up food if she could sign her name for records that she got the food. She said yes... but she wrote her name Julia... very slowly. I have seen kindergartners with better handwiriting then her. She also had to write MF... which means mother of the family... but because she doesnt have an M in her name... she couldnt wirte an M. Elmer had to write it for her.
Because of the War in the 70s... my parents generation lost out on education. There was no such thing as a high school education for anyone, and rural area education of elementary school was minimum. I get to work with a wonderful man named Chele but during his high school years, he was fighting in the war and therefore never went to school. He cannot read nor write. he cant even tell you the letters of the alphabet... but he is an extremley hard worker and always has a smile on his face.
I can{t imagine not being able to read or write. There are so man things in life that i would miss out on. books, learning, writing to my friends, reading a menu at a restaurant. An education is such a blessing. I have been SO incredibly blessed to have a quality education, to be able to attend a university. I try to enver complain about having to go to class, but sometimes it will slip out. I want to try to never complain agian. To have an education is such an incredible blessing and if we cannot aprpeciate it, then why dont we give someone else the opportunity to have it? There are millions of people around the world who would give anything to read a book, or even write their name... who are we to complain about the quality education we recieve every day?
Because of the War in the 70s... my parents generation lost out on education. There was no such thing as a high school education for anyone, and rural area education of elementary school was minimum. I get to work with a wonderful man named Chele but during his high school years, he was fighting in the war and therefore never went to school. He cannot read nor write. he cant even tell you the letters of the alphabet... but he is an extremley hard worker and always has a smile on his face.
I can{t imagine not being able to read or write. There are so man things in life that i would miss out on. books, learning, writing to my friends, reading a menu at a restaurant. An education is such a blessing. I have been SO incredibly blessed to have a quality education, to be able to attend a university. I try to enver complain about having to go to class, but sometimes it will slip out. I want to try to never complain agian. To have an education is such an incredible blessing and if we cannot aprpeciate it, then why dont we give someone else the opportunity to have it? There are millions of people around the world who would give anything to read a book, or even write their name... who are we to complain about the quality education we recieve every day?
Monday, June 27, 2011
To Make a difference
When you look around down here all you can think of sometimes is ´what is the point?´You think that you will never be able to make a difference. There wll always be more houses to build. There will always be more mouths to feed. There wiill always be that little girl whose shirt is too small and the little boy running in the streets without shoes. Cometimes you have to ask... Am I even aking a difference?´
When i feel this way, sometimes the only thing that gets me through is thinking of Blessed Mother Theresa. She lived with the pooorest of the poor in a country where poverty voershadows all. How would she ever make a difference or an impact? The difference is, she never looked at the big picture. She looked at the individual person. When she would bathe the open sores of a homeless man or simply sit beside the bed of a dying man so he had company, she was not thinking of the millions of others that she couldnt help, she was thinking of the one she could. Down here, the poverty becomes overwhelming. How will i ever make a difference for the millions of starving children? The reality is, I can´t.
But i can make a difference to a few. I can learn students names to make them feel important and special, I can give them hugs and smile and show them that they are loved not only by me, but by God.
Last week, a little princess, 2 years old, was hanging out with a group that came down. I pulled her into my lap and withink minutes she wasfast asleep against my chest. Her little arms and legs would twitch and i completley fell in love. I can´t begin to imagine the love the God has for us when i loved this little girl that much. We are all part of the Body of Christ and the fact that my heart breaks when i see these whildren is proof of that.
We come down here with big dreams of making a difference and sometimes it feels like we dont even make a dent. But the reality is, is that we do. we build relationships, we do little chores and we show that there are people around the world who care.
A teenage boy was walking along the beach and noticed that thousands of jellyfish had washed up on shore. The further he walked he noticed an elderly man picking up the jellyfish and throwing them back into the ocean. The young boy looked around at the impossible task and and asked the old man ´what is the point? you can´t make a difference.´ The old man looked at the young boy, picked up another jellyfish and threw it into the ocean and said... ´it made a difference to that one.´
When i feel this way, sometimes the only thing that gets me through is thinking of Blessed Mother Theresa. She lived with the pooorest of the poor in a country where poverty voershadows all. How would she ever make a difference or an impact? The difference is, she never looked at the big picture. She looked at the individual person. When she would bathe the open sores of a homeless man or simply sit beside the bed of a dying man so he had company, she was not thinking of the millions of others that she couldnt help, she was thinking of the one she could. Down here, the poverty becomes overwhelming. How will i ever make a difference for the millions of starving children? The reality is, I can´t.
But i can make a difference to a few. I can learn students names to make them feel important and special, I can give them hugs and smile and show them that they are loved not only by me, but by God.
Last week, a little princess, 2 years old, was hanging out with a group that came down. I pulled her into my lap and withink minutes she wasfast asleep against my chest. Her little arms and legs would twitch and i completley fell in love. I can´t begin to imagine the love the God has for us when i loved this little girl that much. We are all part of the Body of Christ and the fact that my heart breaks when i see these whildren is proof of that.
We come down here with big dreams of making a difference and sometimes it feels like we dont even make a dent. But the reality is, is that we do. we build relationships, we do little chores and we show that there are people around the world who care.
A teenage boy was walking along the beach and noticed that thousands of jellyfish had washed up on shore. The further he walked he noticed an elderly man picking up the jellyfish and throwing them back into the ocean. The young boy looked around at the impossible task and and asked the old man ´what is the point? you can´t make a difference.´ The old man looked at the young boy, picked up another jellyfish and threw it into the ocean and said... ´it made a difference to that one.´
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Bucket Showers
Water is delivered to our house once a week. When it comes, we fill up 2 barrels and a couple of trash cans with a hose and the let the rest fill up a tank that sits above the house. This water has to last between 4 and 7 of us a whole week of washing clothes, flushing toliets, showering, washing dishes and drinking water. The hose however does not reach the the barrel in my bathroom, so i have to take my little pail and carry water through the house to fill up another barrel. It is a very slow process. about 100 buckets full will get the barrel close to full.
So, to shower. I drag the blue plastic barrel full of water across the floor so that is is somewhat close to the shower. Then i take that same little bucket, dip it into the barrel and proceed to pour ice cold water on my head to get my hair wet. Talk about take your breath away cold! my roommate dumps the whole bucket really quick on her head but im still not brave enough to do that, so i let it slowly trickle on my hair. then i put shampoo in like normal, and rinse with more ice cold water. It is really hard to fell 100% clean when the water is so cold and you cant wash you whole body... but its what i have. I have gotten my showers down to only using 2 buckets worth of water which i find very impressive. less then 2 gallons to take a shower! Once i am done, the floor is pretty wet and i have to push the full barrel back across the floor to its spot behind the door. It definatley wakes you up in the morning but i perfer to go home at lunch time when its not 50 degrees out, and the sun is up so it can warm me up when im done.
Overall life is really good down here. i leave tomorrow morning to pick up a group in Managua so i wont have internet for over a week while i work with them. I miss everyone back home but i definatley feel at home here too.
So, to shower. I drag the blue plastic barrel full of water across the floor so that is is somewhat close to the shower. Then i take that same little bucket, dip it into the barrel and proceed to pour ice cold water on my head to get my hair wet. Talk about take your breath away cold! my roommate dumps the whole bucket really quick on her head but im still not brave enough to do that, so i let it slowly trickle on my hair. then i put shampoo in like normal, and rinse with more ice cold water. It is really hard to fell 100% clean when the water is so cold and you cant wash you whole body... but its what i have. I have gotten my showers down to only using 2 buckets worth of water which i find very impressive. less then 2 gallons to take a shower! Once i am done, the floor is pretty wet and i have to push the full barrel back across the floor to its spot behind the door. It definatley wakes you up in the morning but i perfer to go home at lunch time when its not 50 degrees out, and the sun is up so it can warm me up when im done.
Overall life is really good down here. i leave tomorrow morning to pick up a group in Managua so i wont have internet for over a week while i work with them. I miss everyone back home but i definatley feel at home here too.
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Hospital
No matter how great a Socialist Health care system looks on paper... its not all its cracked up to be.
I started to feel sick on wednesday morning so i left the school around 10am to go sleep it off. I ended up staying home all day. Elmer tried to force some alkeselzar mixture down me to help with my stomach but because i hadnt eaten anything it just made me feel even more sick. I was supposed to go to Managua at 7am thursday morning to get things prepared for the next group coming up but i called in sick as i didnt think i would make it. I spent all day thursday in the house as well being as lazy as possible and sleeping half the day without any luck of feeling better. Friday morning at 2am, i couldnt breathe because i had such bad cramps in my stomach. I woke my roommate up to ask what time the clinic opened.... its the closest thing to a hospital they have. 6am. Luckily there is an emergency doctor that stays there overnight. after throwing up, curling up in a ball from pain and shivering uncontrollably from fever, a truck from the school came to take me to the hospital.
The hospital. A building on top of the hill that has about 8 rooms. the beds are wood with a ´mattress´ that is about half an inche thick. that is it. Here, there is no one here to take care of you, change sheets on your bed, bring you food. You have to bring someone with you. So 2 of my roommates and Elmer brought with us sheets, a sleeping bag for a blanket, water, toliet paper and a pillow.
After some more throwing up and a quick examination, they put an IV in me with fluid to rehydrate me, medicine to make me sleep and anti'parasite medicine. I then was showed to my room that i shared with another boy who was about 14. It was a long night to say the least. Horrible cramps that i couldnt breathe through, fever, uncontrolable shaking, diaharea and headache. After about an hour and half, my 2 roommates left to go back home to work and Elmer stayed with me. I dont think he slept at all. Every time i woke up he was there to help me as i couldnt sit up, could barley walk and couldnt move my IV stand to the bathroom. I spent all day in the hospital. Tons of people came to visit and bring Elmer food and coffee as he refused to leave my side. At 1pm i was allowed 1 hour to go home and shower but then i had to come back. At 8pm friday night I was allowed to go home so i could sleep in my own bed and i was given medicine to help me continue to feel better.
The ONLY plus side to this type of health care is it was all free. Everything else sucked. in 17 hours, a doctor looked at me 2 times. and a nurse checked my IV maybe 5 times and only asked how i felt and the left again. it smelled, it was dirty, there was no light in the bathroom, there was no water after 3pm friday, the bed was uncomfortable, there were ants crawling on me, i had to bring all of my own stuff. I do not want to have to deal with that ever again! O, and to top it off, i had to go back on saturday to get an injection of more antibiotics... in my BUTT!!! OWWWWWWW!
I started to feel sick on wednesday morning so i left the school around 10am to go sleep it off. I ended up staying home all day. Elmer tried to force some alkeselzar mixture down me to help with my stomach but because i hadnt eaten anything it just made me feel even more sick. I was supposed to go to Managua at 7am thursday morning to get things prepared for the next group coming up but i called in sick as i didnt think i would make it. I spent all day thursday in the house as well being as lazy as possible and sleeping half the day without any luck of feeling better. Friday morning at 2am, i couldnt breathe because i had such bad cramps in my stomach. I woke my roommate up to ask what time the clinic opened.... its the closest thing to a hospital they have. 6am. Luckily there is an emergency doctor that stays there overnight. after throwing up, curling up in a ball from pain and shivering uncontrollably from fever, a truck from the school came to take me to the hospital.
The hospital. A building on top of the hill that has about 8 rooms. the beds are wood with a ´mattress´ that is about half an inche thick. that is it. Here, there is no one here to take care of you, change sheets on your bed, bring you food. You have to bring someone with you. So 2 of my roommates and Elmer brought with us sheets, a sleeping bag for a blanket, water, toliet paper and a pillow.
After some more throwing up and a quick examination, they put an IV in me with fluid to rehydrate me, medicine to make me sleep and anti'parasite medicine. I then was showed to my room that i shared with another boy who was about 14. It was a long night to say the least. Horrible cramps that i couldnt breathe through, fever, uncontrolable shaking, diaharea and headache. After about an hour and half, my 2 roommates left to go back home to work and Elmer stayed with me. I dont think he slept at all. Every time i woke up he was there to help me as i couldnt sit up, could barley walk and couldnt move my IV stand to the bathroom. I spent all day in the hospital. Tons of people came to visit and bring Elmer food and coffee as he refused to leave my side. At 1pm i was allowed 1 hour to go home and shower but then i had to come back. At 8pm friday night I was allowed to go home so i could sleep in my own bed and i was given medicine to help me continue to feel better.
The ONLY plus side to this type of health care is it was all free. Everything else sucked. in 17 hours, a doctor looked at me 2 times. and a nurse checked my IV maybe 5 times and only asked how i felt and the left again. it smelled, it was dirty, there was no light in the bathroom, there was no water after 3pm friday, the bed was uncomfortable, there were ants crawling on me, i had to bring all of my own stuff. I do not want to have to deal with that ever again! O, and to top it off, i had to go back on saturday to get an injection of more antibiotics... in my BUTT!!! OWWWWWWW!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
AAA does not exist...
Hello everyone! I finally got here... but there hasnt been internet for a few weeks so sorry for the delay. Getting here was definatley an adventure! After more then 3 hours on a bus from Managua, the capital to Somoto... the town at the bottom of the hill, Elmer and I took the last bus up the mountain to Cusmapa. About 3 miles out of town, the left side of the bus dropped about 2 feet. I thought the driver had started to drive off a cliff. Elmer pulled me out of the seat and we ran out the back of the bus to find that the back tire was flat. Elmer grabbed my duffle bag and i had my backpack and we started to walk the rest of the way to town... in the pitch black and rain. Luckily he finally got a hold of one of his friends and they met us after about a mile of walking.
The town feels like i never left... except the put in a paved road to the well and stairs to the street above. MUCH easier to get water to wash clothes with! I am living with 3 nicaraguan ladies, one of which is in her 60´s im guessing. She is so sweet and makes really good food! she is going to teach me how to cook nica style and I will teach her american! The roof at the new place is made of metal (as every roof down here is) ... but its rainy season. Last night it poured rain from 12 till 6 this morning. To add to the noise, the bus sits right by the house before it leaves at 5am and honks its horn, and my roommate got up at 6 30 to take a bucket shower which is actually very noisy. Needless to say, i didnt sleep much.
I can already tell that I am loosing weight from the diet here. I have eaten rice and beans almost every day, but it is still delicious, especially with the local cheese! My spanish is already improving also. I can think fairly clearly in the morning and during the day... but late at night, my comprehension drops to almost 0 because im so tired. I think is spanish, count cards in spanish, talk all day in spanish... and its going really well! well folks, im going to head back out. I miss all of you guys muchiiisimo!
The town feels like i never left... except the put in a paved road to the well and stairs to the street above. MUCH easier to get water to wash clothes with! I am living with 3 nicaraguan ladies, one of which is in her 60´s im guessing. She is so sweet and makes really good food! she is going to teach me how to cook nica style and I will teach her american! The roof at the new place is made of metal (as every roof down here is) ... but its rainy season. Last night it poured rain from 12 till 6 this morning. To add to the noise, the bus sits right by the house before it leaves at 5am and honks its horn, and my roommate got up at 6 30 to take a bucket shower which is actually very noisy. Needless to say, i didnt sleep much.
I can already tell that I am loosing weight from the diet here. I have eaten rice and beans almost every day, but it is still delicious, especially with the local cheese! My spanish is already improving also. I can think fairly clearly in the morning and during the day... but late at night, my comprehension drops to almost 0 because im so tired. I think is spanish, count cards in spanish, talk all day in spanish... and its going really well! well folks, im going to head back out. I miss all of you guys muchiiisimo!
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