Well it's been a busy eight weeks since I last wrote! I'm home now -- arrived in Albany around 1am May 31/June 1 -- recovering from the semester and trying to find a job so I can afford school next year... I am in the process of putting all my photos online, and they will be available for viewing soon.
It's hard to believe I haven't written anything about Nicaragua because it feels like it was so long ago! It was an extremely busy seven weeks, and although I had free internet access, I didn't have enough time to sit down and write any updates! Hopefully this series of entries will remedy that.
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Our program structure in Nicaragua was different than it had been in either of the two preceding countries. We were taking two classes: Nicaraguan history with a focus on the role of women, and a political science class about "citizen participation in policy formulation within a globalized economy" (i.e. Nicaragua). Class sessions were held at the Center for Global Education house, Casa Jaime Mayer (which is also where we lived our first and last weeks in Nicaragua). We lived in pairs in homestays, and would be picked up by the CGE bus in the mornings and taken back home at 5pm. It was a very intense schedule! With two classes, there was lots of reading and homework, plus our almost daily excursions to visit organizations and hear speakers.
Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the world, and has one of the highest debts per capita. We lived in the capital city of Managua, which was practically decimated by an earthquake in 1972. Because of this, it does not have a major "downtown" center with tall buildings, and it has lots of open fields and trees in areas where buildings once were, making it feel much less urban than San Salvador or Guatemala City, even a little desolate. It is on the edge of a large, dangerously polluted lake, because of the city dump which is right off the shore.
The revolutionary period from the late 70s through the 80s has also left a physical legacy in the city (and around the country), in the form of bullet- and bomb-damaged buildings, war memorials, and walls covered with murals. Our first day, we visited the Beacon of Hope monument, which was erected by president Violeta Chamorro after the signing of the Peace Accords in 1990. In a powerful and arresting visual statement, the weapons that were turned in by armed fighters were buried underground and cemented into a wall, with the barrels of guns jutting out at various angles. The presidents and mayors since then have done many "apolitical" city beautification projects, making new parks and putting in new artsy sculptures and fountains at intersections -- although what they had to get rid of and the way the money was spent in order to do that certainly was not apolitical.
One of the things I was most amazed to learn about was the difference between the Eastern and Western regions of Nicaragua. When we think of Latin America, we usually think of Spanish- speaking Catholics (or Evangelicals) who are a mix of indigenous and Spanish origins. This is true for the Western half of Nicaragua, which followed the usual pattern of Spanish colonization, but the Eastern half, a.k.a. the Atlantic Coast, is a competely different culture. There, you will find English-speaking Moravians (a Protestant denomination) of African descent. Although we never got to visit the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, I did get a taste of this when I visited my sister on the North Coast of Honduras (these coastlines are actually along the Caribbean Sea).
During our first week, we visited the pottery village of San Juan del Oriente, where they have been making pottery since before the colonization by the Spanish. We also did some touristy things, visiting Volcan Masaya, which is a steamy active volcano that you can see down in to, the artisan market in Masaya, which is the largest in Nicaragua, and spending a couple hours in the popular town of Granada.
Spring break happened after we'd been in Nicaragua for two weeks -- Holy Week, or Semana Santa. My friend Sarah and I decided to spend that time in Leon and at the beach. Leon is one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua, and for 300 years was the stronghold of the Liberal party, trading off being the capital of the country with Granada, which was the Conservatives' stronghold, until Managua was established as the capital in 1852 (In Latin America, the terms Conservative and Liberal have a very different meaning than in the US, stemming from their 19th-century struggles for independence). During the revolutionary period, the FSLN presence (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) was very strong, and the current town shows the effects of that -- murals everywhere, plazas honoring those who died, and the ruins of bombed buildings.
We had heard that Leon was well known for its Holy Week traditions, especially sawdust drawing in the streets, and were pretty disappointed that, just as one would expect in any other town, lots of things were closed or had shortened hours that week. Luckily, we had made plans to spend three days at the beach 45 minutes away, so we weren't stuck in a town with nothing to do. (And we did get to see the sawdust art right before we left.)
We stayed at a hotel on the waterfront -- of an estuary -- at Las Peñitas. It was large, but shallow and easy to cross to reach the ocean. Mostly though, we stayed at our hotel and relaxed in the hammocks and read. Here's a reflection I wrote in my journal while we were there:
"I was out [in the estuary] just sitting in the shallow water looking at the beautiful life around me -- the blue water, the sand bar, the crashing waves, the green-tree-filled nature reserve islands, the birds, the clouds in the blue sky, the boats, the people -- and I felt like I could have stayed there forever and been happy. But I didn't have any company and I felt kind of pointless, so I went back to the hotel... This estuary is amazing. When the tide is in, it's a solid expanse of water all the way to the island, and huge crashing waves at the inlet. It looks daunting to cross. But when the tide is out, there's more land than water, and you can easily walk across to the other side and see all the amazing animal life in the sand underfoot. An estuary is an incerdibly rich and important ecosystem; a place where a river meets a sea; where fresh water meets salt water.
Here, the idyllic tropical beach-front life meets the difficult, poor, fisherman's life. People get up early in the morning to take their fishing boats out--by 8, boats have already started to come back in. A few hours later, boats owners have to go back out and bring their boats in the rest of the way, once the tide is higher. I picked up a rock that was green-brown and sparkly, with red- orange slicing through it. I think maybe it's a lot like this place--the green/brown sparkle for nature, life, beauty; the red for the difficulty and injustice of that life."
That last sentence could be true for all of Nicaragua, and all of Central America...
