Hola otra vez,
I can't believe it's July and I haven't finished my updates yet -- I've now been home for over a month! Here goes--the marathon to the end (we're almost there!)...I want to mention some other interesting things we did in Nicaragua and how we finished up the semester.
1) There was a group of girls who decided that for their final project they wanted to do something hands-on that would make a difference, so they volunteered with an organization that works with kids. Dos Generaciones runs programs on Saturday mornings for poor children who help their families eke out a living by working at the city dump. The children who are selected by the organization come every Saturday to play games and do arts and crafts, and for three weeks these were organized by the girls from our group with others of us volunteering. I went one of the weeks to help out, playing soccer and making piñatas with these fun, bright children who have so much potential but whose possibilities are thwarted by poverty, hunger, and the embarrassing necessity to work at the dump.
2) Near Sébaco and Ciudad Darío, we visited a small rural community where they have developed an irrigation system with the help of funds from Switzerland. This enables them to grow crops all year round, have a more stable income, and send their children to school, but it is projected that the water supply will only last for 13 years. I guess the hope is that by things will have changed enough that they will have new ways to support their families...
3) The next day, we paid a visit to Jubilee House, a project that was started near Ciudad Sandino (20 min. from Managua) in 1979. The Jubilee House is the headquarters of the organization "Center for Development in Central America", which tries to help and support the community in the way of health, jobs, and education. Their website can explain it all a whole lot better than I can: www.jhc-cdca.org. One of their big projects is a maquila, which is run as a cooperative and makes organic cotton clothing which is sold to the U.S. on the free trade market. Their other major project is a health center in Nueva Vida, right next to Ciudad Sandino. Nueva Vida and Ciudad Sandino are extremely poor communities (the poorest and most dense in the country), with unemployment rates up around 80-90 percent. Ciudad Sandino was started in 1973 as a place for people displaced by the earthquake to relocate. Since then, it has been a depository for those left without homes because of the war and natural disasters. The people of Nueva Vida were moved there after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Jessenia's boyfriend--the father of Miurell--is currently living in Ciudad Sandino in order that his sister's home there be occupied while she is out of the country--because if it were to remain vacant, someone might decide to make use of it and she wouldn't be able to move back in when she returns.
4) The last day at our host house, a Sunday, was not spent at our house. Instead, our two host sisters took Angelica and I along with their children to go visit their grandparents, Doña Rosa's mother and father, who essentially raised Jessenia unti she was 10. They live in the little town of Santa Teresa, about an hour and a half's drive through beautiful countryside near the city of Jinotepe in the department of Carazo, along with two of Jessenia and Marilet's aunts (Doña Rosa is one of nine children) and some cousins. It was an enjoyable and relaxing day, getting to learn a little more about the family, watching the children play together and climb the starfruit tree like monkeys, eating ice cream and sliding down the concrete stair sides in the park. Back in Managua that evening, we bought them pizza for dinner, took photos, and said our goodbyes. On Monday morning, Miurell and Jeffrey came into our room as we were waking up and gave us goodbye hugs before they left for school, since we would be moving back into Casa Jaime Mayer that day.
5) The very last week was a marathon of finishing final projects, visiting host families, having anxiety about leaving soon, doing project presentations, and, for me, my mom arriving. On Monday morning, the eminent Fernando Cardenal, who is now 72, came and spoke to us. A Jesuit priest, he was the minister of Education during the 1980s, coordinated the 1980 Literacy Crusade, and was for a long time the vice-chair of the national young people's association. On Wednesday, Angelica and I returned to our host home to give them the family tree that she had made for them. They gave us the most jaw- dropping and unbelievable gift--a painting by Juan Carlos for each of us. That night, my mom arrived from the U.S., which complicated things a bit, but was wonderful nonetheless.
At the end of it all, after the last presentations and class evaluations were done on Thursday, we took off for a 24-hour retreat on the shore of the beautiful Laguna de Apoyo, a lake formed in a volcanic mountain crater. The purpose was to de-stress, decompress, say goodbye, and have some fun with this group of 20 people that we had come to know so well over the preceding three and half months. It was difficult to face the fact that we would all be leaving soon, going off in different directions and eventually (some sooner that others) out of Central America and back to the U.S.; to realize that we wouldn't be surrounded by these people, this community, with which had experienced so many new and different things. Most of us were excited for home and/or family, but none of us were excited to leave.
On Friday after my group returned, Mom and I went to the artisan market together, and then visited my host family again so I could introduce them. The first thing Doña Rosa said to my mother was to gesture towards me and say "Ella es mi hija (she is my daughter)."
The next morning, most of our group left for the airport at 5am, and at 9:45, the six of us that were left boarded the bus, which dropped mom and me off at the King Quality bus station. I said goodbye, and so ended my semester in Central America and began my adventures with Mom to Prairie's house in Honduras...
