Casi el fin

My time on the Caribbean Coast is coming to an end. I head back to Managua this afternoon by plane this time to finish up some research and interviews and of course continue the writing of this ISP. I have met some amazing people in Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas. Port, as it is commonly known, is a 45 minute plane ride up the coast from Bluefields close to the boarder of Honduras. It is much smaller than Bluefields...or at least not as city like. THere are only about 3 main cobblestone roads and the rest are a red dirt giving th ewhole place a warm glow. It unfortunately rained a bunch (the rains are coming earlier this year) so I wasn´t able to check out any of the beaches. The majority of the people there are Mestizo (pacific coasteans) and Miskito, one of the 3 indigenous groups of the coast and the one with the most population. I went to Port to learn more about MIskito culture, identity and how autonomy effects them. I had about 10 interviews over 3 days and a mountain of information and opinions to sift through. It was nice to come back to Bluefields because I don´t stand out quite as much and therefore feel much safer. I am also excited to go back to Managua to spend more time with my host family and the comfort of my own bed and bucket baths....I mean, I will miss the luxury of the trickle showers I have here in Bluefields. It´s both exciting and sad that this trip is nearing its end. Sad because I would like to spend more time with my family here and travelling around without thinking about school work or having a focus. But exciting because when I get back to the states it will be summer. And I know that I will be coming abck to visit here as soon as possible so it´s not like I am leaving forever...I now have family here. I will try to get in one more blog entry upon my return...probably to procrastinate typing the 25 page paper....

Beginning of the End

I am currently in Bluefields sharing a cubicle with a cockroach and commencing my indpendent study project on the cultural expression of autonomy by the people on the Caribbean Coast as well as identity in general. It is much cooler here than in Managua and I have AC in my hotel room which is nice (although the door to the bathroom is a shower curtain and sometimes there isn´t running water...). I took an overnight bus and 5am panga ride to get here with 2 other girls...a journey I hope to never take again as it was hot and uncomfortable. I´m getting myself organized and starting to make contact with people to do some interviews as I really only have next week here in Bluefields. Then I will be flying up north to Bilwi (aka Puerto Cabezas) to interview Miskito people on their own turf. Then it is back to Managua for revisions and last minute interviews and such. It´s all going by so fast! At least I have fresh fruit and pan de coco to relieve my anxieties!

Semana Santa

Semana Santa has finally arrived. It looked so far away when we plopped down here in Nicaragua but alas it has come. Semana Santa is the Holy Week which means that the entire country shuts down. Kids don´t go to school, adults don´t go to work and from Thursday to Saturday night all the bars and people head to the beaches to party and drink. For us SITers it also means our last week before we are cut loose for our month long independent study projects that for some of us are one of the primary reasons we are here. My Semana Santa weekend starting Thursday will be relaxing as I am going with a couple other people to the town of Altagracia on the island of Ometepe. It is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua a couple hours from Managua that holds a volcano which we might hike one of the days. It will be nice to have some time for relaxation before I embark on my quasi solo journey back out to the Caribbean Coast (I will travel with people out there but then will be on my own). I know I keep saying it, but time really is flying so fast and it does feel weird not experiencing the seasonal changes I am used to!

La Costa Caribe

We have returned from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and I am extremely excited to be going back there for three weeks to do my independent study project (which is on how the people of the Atlantic Coast express and have expressed their need and want for autonomy as well as how autonomy is culturally manifested...culturally means art, music, dance, writings, etc). Anyway, we drove across the southern part of the country for about 4 or 5 hours to El Rama where we all hopped into pangas, little motor boats, to drive through the river to Bluefields one of the main "cities" in the southern part of the Atlantic Coast. We arrived to our hotel on the water and ate some delicious rondown which is a fish, potato, yucca stew served with rice and beans that are cooked with coconut milk. And pan de coco which is the best bread in the whole world and I ate a lot of it over the past week. The next morning (Wed) we set sail to two different communities. 10 of us went to Orinoco and the other 10 went to Pearl Lagoon. Our panga ride to Orinoco was smooth for the first hour when we dropped the other group off in Pearl Lagoon. From Pearl Lagoon to Orinoco it was another 45 minutes across the Lagoon and they were a loooooong 45 minutes. We ran into a storm and the panga was tossed back and forth and out of the water--like an amusement park ride. We made it safely to the dock albeit sopping wet. We stayed in teh guest house of Miss Rebecca in the main part of Orinoco. She has been a nurse in Orinoco for 23 years.

Orinoco is a town of about 1500 inhabitants many of whom live out in the bush. The majority of the people are Garifuna, an ethnic group who are descendents from Africans who never actually became slaves because they escaped. It is one of the few Garifuna communities in Nicaragua as most Garifunas live on the coast of Honduras. THere are two schools--one primary and one secondary. They are bilingual schools because most people there speak Creole English but the national language is Spanish. They also recently began some classes in Garifuna. There is one main narrow cement walkway parallel to the watersedge and smaller ones going off to houses. THere are no cars or motorcycles--only bikes, horses and your feet to get around. THere are no stores except for a pulperia (minibodega in someones house) or two and another hotel and a bar. And a basketball court with only one hoop ring and a baseball field right next to it that the cows and horses pasture in once the sun goes down. There is no running water--bucket showers like Managua--but a couple of wells to get water from. Electricity is only available from about 4pm to 10pm by generator. Reggae and Island rhythms are the preferred music although some reggaeton, hip hop, 80´s songs, and country music can be heard. The place is alive with people and animals and well, life. It is not economically rich but because of the food from the sea and lagoon, the people get more nutrients and don´t physically manifest their poverty as much as on the Pacific Coast. Everyone seems to know each other in the community. One of the local guys became our tour guide. His name is Kevin and he is 26 years old. He plays in a Garifuna drumming group and dances in the same group. He also writes his own music about the land, his community, his culture. He has travelled all over to different countries and always greets the tourists who come into Orinoco. He thrives on sharing his culture with new people and learning new things in return.

Our first night he took us to the bar to sample some of their homegrown rum--cuzusa--the Nicaraguan form of Moonshine. They apparently drink it more than beer because it comes out to be about a buck for a pint while one beer costs about 75 cents to a dollar. It is an awful tasting liquid and a taste of it was quite enough for me. We did dance a bunch and for the 3 nights we were there I danced every single night. One night we got to hear some drumming and watch and learn some traditional dances. Then we went out to a bar to practice what we had learned. During the day we had some interviews with local teachers and the community president. One day we took a 2 hour panga ride to a community further down the river westward that houses a school for campesino kids (farmer kids) to learn about sustainable agricultivation and use of land. Teaching farmer kids how to better use the plethora of natural resources they have. A smart smart idea. The kids spoke spanish and were either of indigenous or mestizo descent.

I could go on forever with sotries and things I learned and experienced but I will stop here. Except to mention that the food we ate for each meal was absolutely delicious and some form of fish or shrimp or eggs and of course pan de coco...coconut bread. Suffice it to say I loved what I saw, heard, smelled, felt, experienced of the Costa Caribe and am very excited to go back. For now 2 more weeks of swealtering heat in Managua, lots of work and the relief from all of it in the form of my entertaining host family.

Latin America News Update

I´m not sure how much information everyone back in the states is getting about Latin American news. Because Bush is currently here in the southern part of the western hemisphere, I am going to give a little "coyuntura" as we call news updates here. Not only is Bush touring the region but one of his favorite people, Hugo Chavez is as well.
First Bush:
When he spend only 6 hours in Colombia, there were over 20,000 military and police there to protect him. Usually Bogota shuts down their roads on Sundays for people to walk around and roller blade. Not this past Sunday. There was no fun in the the streets for Bogoteños. In Guatemala there were hge protests on Saturday against the arrival of Bush in the region. The theme of the protests was to compare Bush to Hitler. In fact, they spelled his name with a swastika in place of the "s". The seemingly ridiculous amounts of security protecting Bush are not so ridiculous if he wants to maintain his count of zero assassination attempts. My brothers are surely not fans of Bush and have expressed the fact that they would in no way be sad if Bush happened to disappear. They don´t however, have anti-American sentiments and my general feeling here is that people differentiate between the Bush government and the USAmericans as individuals with seperate sentaments and political views.
Second Chavez:
Two nights ago Chavez came to Leon (a city north of Managua) and gave a very long speech that I watched live with my host mom, Lucy. He was wearing a lot of red. He tended to repeat himself with his favorite phrase being " Viva la revolucion Sandinista" (the Sandinistas are back in power with Daniel Ortega but calling them true Sandinistas is open for debate...but that is a whole other topic). He also blamed all of the poverty and horrible things happening in the region and world on Capitalism. A Socialist world is the type of world that we need. Apparently, also, Daniel Ortega gave Chavez original manuscripts from one of Ruben Dario´s writings and has not given them back. (Ruben Dario is a national icon. He was a famous author by the age of 12 and became an embassador for Nicaragua and anyone in their right mind would give back the manuscripts). Giving him those manuscripts was basically like giving the man part of the Nicaraguan national treasure. I asked Lucy what she thought of Chavez as she is a strong Sandinista supporter. Her answer was first that he is a bit crazy. Second, he continually criticizes Bush for his "God" complex but she said that he is acting the exact same way, if not more so. She also said that while it is very nice that Chavez is offering economic support to Nicaragua, he needs to look in his own backyard at the intense poverty in Venezuela. (This is only one Nicaraguan point of view as there are many Chavez supporters here)

This is only a little bit of what is going on in Latin America right now. A couple of weeks ago in Guatemala there was an assassination of 4 El Salvadorian diplomats on their way to a conference for the countries of Central America. The assassins were found (men affiliated with drug gangs) and incarcerated and then assassinated in jail by supporters of the diplomats who took over the prison where the gang members were.

To end on a lighter note, Nicaragua i s one of the safest of the Central American countries--random acts of violence are very very rare. Also, Miss Nicaragua competition is finally occurring on Saturday after weeks of TV interviews with the young women on Canal 2 (the national news station). There is also a Mister Nicaragua but it does not get quite as much hype. Also, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes...I am juggling two languages here....!

Two More Stamps in My Passport

I have just returned from our 2 week excursion to El Salvador and Honduras. It was amazing to see two different Central American countries and to be able to compare them to Nicaragua and with a Nicaraguan lens. Suffice it to say, all 3 countries are completely different and not just in geography but their histories, politics, people, food, everything.

El Salvador

We went to El Salvador first, one of the smaller C.A. countries but also one of the ones with the most recent violent history. We stayed in a hotel in San Salvador one of the most dangerous cities. We were not allowed to really go exploring because of that which did not become a problem considering our time was very structured with meetings and activities. We met with officials from the National Assembly in San Salvador--one man from the more conservative, USA friendly party which is in power right now and one man from the FMLN, or the Sandinista party of El Salvador. They were separate meetings and really interesting to see the contrasting views of the parties. We also went to see the wall dedicated to the people who disappeared and were massacreduring the "civil" war that happened in the late 1980´s and into the 1990´s. We then went to the campo of El Salvador, Santa Marta, where there is a popular radio station run by the youth living in the area. We lived in the houses of the kids for 2 nights and worked at the radio station during the day. One of the days I went around with one of the girls doing interviews for an article on nutrition in the schools in Victoria (the town right above Santa Marta) and the second day I helped build a fence. We left Santa Marta and headed back to San Salvador where we visited the university where 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women were murdered during the civil war by the side that was funded by the united states. It was really intense to go see the rooms in which they had stayed, the bullet holes that are still in the building and there were pictures from the morning after that were incredibly graphic. We also watched a movie "Voces Inocentes" about the war and based on a true story about the recruitment of young boys for both the national army and the guerillas. It´s an amazing movie to watch if you are interested in understanding more about the El Salvadorian war.

Honduras

Then we went to Honduras which was basically our spring break. We went to the Atlantic/Caribbean Coast and were guided around by a group of young women who are part of a women´s youth organization that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness as well as equal rights for women. We spent the first 2 nights in Omoa right on the beach swimming in the ocean and pool and lying in the sun. During the day we had meetings with some local women who talked about their experiences being HIV positive and the issues involved both socially and culturally. The morning we left Omoa for Tela, another beachside town, the storm that had hit the northeast with snow hit the coast of honduras with tons and tons of rain. We made it to our hotel safely but then had to basically cancel all of our plans because of the rain flooding the streets. Our hotel did have kitchens in the rooms so we were able to make food, have pot lucks, catch up on television, and just in general relax after the intensity of El Salvador. The day before we left it began to clear up and we went to a Garifuna community (they are descendents of the slaves that came over with the conquistadors) and met with a man who has written 8 books on his community. We ate a marvelous meal and hung out on the beach after our meeting with him.

I have so much more to say about both of the trips but this is already ridiculously long! I loved them both and am excited now for my project on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua which we are visiting in 2 weeks for our last excursion. Hope all is well!

El Campo

So I am finally back in Managua after surviving 4 nights and days in the campo (countryside) of Nicaragua. They were not kidding when they said the campo and that we would be roughing it. We were split up into 3 different communities. I stayed in a house that had a dirt floor, walls of mud and sticks, and it was one room..."oven", bed, "sink", everything. It was like stepping back into time. There is no potable water in the area and all their water comes from the river so I also had a Filtron (a ceramic filter) in the house. The community is situated amongst the mountains and for me to get to other group members houses I literally had to hike up mountains for at least half an hour. On small foot trails. My house had no electricity (or running water) so at night once it got dark the we would sit outside staring at the millions and millions of clear stars, so clear and plentiful that finding Orions belt was difficult. I slept in a hammock which was not too bad but also not the most sleep condusive environment. Nor were the gabillion roosters that would crow at all hours of the morning night and day and the howler monkeys that really liked to be loud at about 3am. Suffice it to say I never got out of the hammock later than 5am. I ate tons of food even though I could rarely finish all they gave me which I felt bad about and I learned how to make corn tortillas (for every meal) including the grinding of the corn.

I lived with an older woman, Sra. Antonia, and a 50 yr old man, Esteban, who is somehow related. Around my house were 3 other little houses with their family members and grand children. Oh, and tons of chickens and roosters that wandered in and out of the house and pigs too...and sad looking dogs. I thought the hardest part was going to be battling the bugs (not so bad at all) but it turned out that communication was the most difficult. The women I encountered (this is all just my own experience and other people had different ones and similar ones...) rarely gave me long answers to questions I asked. The Spanish accent is also more difficult to understand. I did find out that the Sra. has lived in the same town her whole life and has never left to work. For her entire life she has been working the house, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes in the river on the stones, and bathing. For her entire life. We would sometimes sit in silence for long periods of time until I would ask a question and get a short answer or she would point to a plant or tree or fruit and tell me its name and how it can be used as medicine. We also cooked together. When Esteban would come home at night we would sit outside and talk. The campesinos were told that they were our teachers for the 4 days and he took his job very seriously. The first 2 nights we talked about the indigenous culture, poverty, agriculture, his situation. The last 2 nights he told me bible stories. Not trying to convert me, but just feeling the need to inform me of them. Even when I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere he went back to the bible which was frustrating. But he was very nice and enthusiastic. We were there during their "vacation" as they are unable to harvest or get their land ready yet so there was lots and lots of just sitting around. It was also an extremely eye opening experience...especially when they asked me where Canada was and what it was and questions that are so obvious to me but not to people without a TV or radio or newspapers and with an hour and a half walk to the closest "city". It was really relaxing and tranquil and the views were gorgeous. I have yet to figure out how to load up my pictures but I will do that sometime this week hopefully so wait for those.

I have so much more to say but neither the space nor the energy to be able to tell you all my experiences in a blog. You will all be able to hear more in person....or email me and ask me specific questions! This week we are in Managua but next week we leave for a 2 week trip to El Salvador and Honduras. Time is starting to go by much faster.