finding my way...

So an overdue update. It has almost been a month since I arrived in Nicaragua and I feel like I´ve been here for 3 months. I feel really comfortable here and my Spanish has already improved. Language is soooooo important in terms of feeling you belong to a place. Without it, you lose your connection to other human beings and I already learned in Thailand that I cannot go without that...

What have I been up to, entonces? Starting on September 2nd, I left Managua for Estelí, a small city in the northern part of Nicaragua about 2 hours from Managua by bus. In Estelí I attended a language school called Escuela Horizonte for two weeks. The first week I stayed with a family which consisted of the mother, father, a grandmother, a three year old adorable boy, and a 15-day old baby girl. Living with them was nice and laidback but I felt kinda of lonely in their house. They talked with me and warmed up more after the first 5 days, but in general I was hoping they might involve more in the activities of the family or engage me more in conversation. I guess when you have just had a baby 15 days ago, that would probably be the principal thing on your mind.

Oh and after only a day and a half in Estelí, the category 5 Hurrican Felix crashed with incredible force into Nicaragua´s caribbean coast at Puerto Cabezas, the main port in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (R.A.A.N.) of Nicaragua. The RAAN is one of the regions that Acción Médica Cristiana (AMC) has worked in most for the past 18 years and I knew being in Esteli that everyone in the central office in Managua where I will be working for the next 15 months would immediately be swept into action planning relief efforts. I felt a little useless and disconnected from this historic (in a diasterous sense) event. But during my language classes my professor made sure to bring a copy of the newspaper everyday and we read updates about the conditions on the coast.

(I will attempt in the next few days to construct a summary of the effects of the hurricane here on my blog.)

In the second week however, I decided to move to a different family. During the first week, the only other student in the school, Cam who is from England, introduced me to Olga, his host mom. I knew from the moment I met her that she was the type of person I wanted to spend another week with in Estelí. So I moved in on Saturday, Sept. 8th and my moved immediately changed. I walked into Donaldo José´s 22nd birthday party! The family is made up of Olga and Donaldo (her husband), Donaldo José (son), and Laura (daughter, 13). Donaldo II as we´ll call him came with his girlfriend, Ciclalli (which means star in nahuatl). Ciclalli´s mom, Alicia, and a family friend Don William. They all live in Managua and pretty close to where I will also be living. They entire night was a blast. More friends arrived, the whole lot of them characters just like the family and especially Don William, we had a cake, wonderful food, and opened presents. Then I went out afterwards with Donaldo II, Ciclalli, some of their friends, AND Alicia and Don William who are older than my parents! And we didn´t get home until 4:30am. Don William was the first awake the next day....

After that weekend I started classes again Monday, but with a cold. I was miserable for a few days with a sore throat and awful congestion but it´s finally going away after I made sure to rest and took some medicine. The overall experience in the school was wonderful. My professor, Elvia, was such a pleasure to talk to and was a great teacher. I visited social organizations working in Estelí in the afternoons with someone from the language school. And I met a few new friends from the U.S. and Canada that I was able to relax with. On my last day of language class I also experienced a celebration in Estelí of September 14th-15th, called generally las Fiestas Patrias (something like National Holidays). There was a parade of all the schools in Esteli with bands and dancing girls with batons and short skirts which lined up between 6:30 and 8am and didn´t actually start parading until after noon and was slightly unorganized. If the Nicaraguans hadn´t made this comment themselves I wouldn´t say it, but it was executed in typical Nicaraguan fashion. But it was fun to watch. I also saw after the parade with my host sister, Laura, a dance show in which on a raised stage, young girls and a few boys at times had dance "competitions" to reggaeton music, which if you don´t know what that is, just search "Daddy Yankee" on Google and you´ll find out. Basically, girls about age 10 who shook their butts and hips in a way which will get them in trouble now or later in life with men.

I returned on Sunday, Sept. 16th to Managua by bus. When I got to the bus station in Esteli to buy my ticket about 25 minutes before it left, there weren´t any regular seats left. But here in Nicaragua, instead of saying the bus is full, I was asked if I would like to purchase a "banquito" seat. Well I had to get to Managua by 3:30, this was my bus so I said yes. I realized what I was doing but a "banquito" meant I would be riding for two hours on a bus sitting on a plastic stool in the middle isle with people in the same situation lined up tightly from front to back. It was lovely, let me tell you.

As soon as I got back to Managua, I was put to work at AMC. Even though the damages and conditions on the coast after the hurricane have already stopped being front-page news in Nicaragua, sending the caribbean coast back to the status of being almost forgotten or dismissed by the rest of Nicaragua, the need in the affected territories is DIRE. People that were already living in EXTREME poverty, now have literally NOTHING. I put these words in caps because it is hard to express the pictures I´ve seen. To give you a brief fact, the harvest of the crops these people planted for their own consumption would have a occurred only DAYS after Hurricane Felix hit. This means people there have no food for another year until they can grow more crops. At AMC, they have field teams working on the ground in the RAAN and have been putting out news releases to update the situation on the ground. (Go to http://www.amc.org.ni and click on "Huracan Felix" for updates in English or Spanish) I was able to watch, listen, and then transcribe an interview done in Spanish (45 minutes worth of video) with the woman who is the AMC Coordinator for relief efforts in a municipality called Sahsa, which was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane. It wasn´t easy but I was able to do it pretty quickly because of all my practice transcribing my interviews from my Independent Study in college!

Lastly, although for the past few days I have felt really useful, my situation with AMC is now really up in the air. I was supposed to have gone to work in the field projects with AMC in the RAAN in the municipalities of Waspam and Sahsa. Because of the hurricane however, conditions are extremely difficult for any new volunteer to walk into. It´s still possible that I will go and I want to be able to make a contribution to the relief efforts if I can, but we have to make sure that my presence would actually be beneficial and would not be a burden. I'll let you know when I know...

the beginning continued...

So my first Friday took me on a "tour" of Managua. It wasn't really a full tour of the city but rather focused on "Old Managua" or the part which used to almost be a downtown and has buildings that survived the devastating earthquake that hit the city in 1972. The earthquake destroyed the majority of buildings in the city, killed tens of thousands of people, and Managua was never really rebuilt in the way it should have been. The earthquake hit a couple of days before Christmas that year and aid came in from many countries to help the people of Nicaragua but to no avail....the aid was stolen by the dictator Somoza and for the most part never reached the people who needed it most. But anyway I learned a lot about Nicaraguan history on the tour and ate a wonderful Nicaraguan lunch (a dish called Indio Viejo) in the middle of it.

The rest of my orientation at AMC was a little hectic as I arrived during a week of some turmoil in the organization. AMC´s communuty clinic in Managua which has a long history of providing affordable medical and dental care for people in Managua just closed and the situation has been tense for many. Please keep AMC in your prayers as they decide what to do with the space. But otherwise, I learned a lot in orientation as I watched videos and spoke with employees at AMC about the history of the organization and the current work they are doing in the projects. They are doing some amazing things and I am so excited to be a part of their work.

I also got the chance in the first couple of days at AMC to experience the type of community they have. It is a dynamic and profound community in which people work hard but also know how to celebrate and have fun! There were about 3 birthdays that were all celebrated on my second day there complete with a cake, presents, and singing many different happy birthday songs. Then I was able to attend the monthly event of an "almuerzo comunitario" or community lunch in which all the birthdays in a month are remembered and I was actually put on the spot to sing happy birthday in English on my own! Thankfully I had Belinda to help me out.

Last Tuesday, I left Nery´s house and moved into a house with a young American woman who is the Presbyterian coordinator for Central America (or something like that). She lives with her Nicaraguan boyfriend and another young woman who is on a Fulbright in Nicaragua for another couple of months. It´s a really nice place and it may be a possibility for a permanent living space for me. We´ll see!

I also got the chance to visit a Christian youth group at a university in the city in Leon. The group is called Hosanna, and it is the same group out of which AMC formed in 1984. I was amazed at how organized and dedicated they were! I know my meetings with groups in college were never that organized. The ride to and from Leon was also fun because of the people I was with. Don Salvador was our driver (who is my favorite driver right now with the most fun laugh. He is a true character.) and there were also three other young people who work for AMC: Elizabeth, Judith, and Efrain. We laughed and joked as on the way we stopped for a traditional Nicaraguan snack called quesillo and a drink called cacao. Delicious but so difficult to eat!

Right now I am in Esteli taking language classes for two weeks. It is gray and rainy today but I am glad that it is a lot cooler than Managua! It is also a little lonely here now because there really aren´t that many other students taking classes here. But my teacher Elvia is really cool and has really taken my requests for what I would like to learn to heart. I am slowly learning the daily vocabulary and phrases that Nicaraguans use. After classes in the morning, I am also getting to visit a few historical/cultural sites in Esteli and visiting a few community organizations working for social change in Esteli. It is wonderul to be able to learn more than just Spanish by taking classes here.

Two things about Nicaragua right now to keep in your thoughts and prayers: One is the people affected by Hurricane Felix (a category 5 hurricane) that just hit the caribbean coast of Nicaragua 2 nights ago. I haven´t heard about all the damage it´s done but the caribbean coast (where I´ll be traveling soon!) is very vulnerable. Two is that I have learned a lot recently about a law that was past last October in Nicaragua banning therapeutic abortions, i.e. the type of abortions given when there is a high risk pregnancy to save a mother´s life. Now even young girls who are raped cannot get an abortion. I understand that the subject of abortions in general is a sensitive one, but I believe that there are serious women´s rights issues involved when her life is in danger and there is no other way to save her than to have an abortion. Please keep all those women and other´s in Nicaragua affected by this and/or fighting to overturn the law in your prayers.

I love and miss all of my friends and family very much. More updates soon!