Welcome to El Menco

10/30/07

Today is our third day in El Menco, the community we’ll be working in for the next three months. Our first days have been just settling in, and learning about the community. Kai is doing well, and is so excited to have kids to play with. Life here is very slow, and we’re adjusting from the fast pace in Managua and the United States. Many of the people in the community don’t have work, so they pass the day visiting and sitting around. The kids go to school from 7am to 12pm, with a ½ hour break at 9am. El Menco is about 480 people and growing. Although the community is growing, it still remains very impoverished. Many of the children are malnourished, as there is not enough employment to feed the families. Apparently there was a large farm that employed a lot of men from El Menco, but it had financial problems and failed. Now many are looking for ways to make an income.

Our house is right at the entrance to the community, next to one of the leaders’ houses, Dona Carmen. Dona Carmen is an amazingly strong woman, who has lived a tough life. Her house is the first you come to, and is always full of people coming to visit or get something to eat. She is like our mother here. She cooks for us and is basically our gateway into the community. Our house is a pre-fabricated house designed here in Nicaragua. It has cement fiber walls with three rooms and a cement floor. There are windows in every room, with no screens but bars, as is typical. When I leave the house, I close and lock the windows and padlock the door. Strange coming from leaving my keys in my car and my house open. When we moved in, ANF had a septic tank installed, and plumbing hooked up. We’re the only house that has it. However there are problems that come with this situation. Toilet paper can’t go in these systems, and Kai was flushing the paper. Before we knew it, the toilet was clogged, and the valve got stuck and stayed open, so the entire septic tank is full. In a matter of 24 hours, we shut down the entire system. Now the only solution is to have someone from the capital come and empty the tank- something not common in el campo. The ANF has taken much precaution to ensure that we have a good experience here. I know they were trying to do a good thing, but now we use the outhouse of Dona Carmen, which was what we expected anyway. This is the first time ANF has put a volunteer out in the field to work on a project, and I know they just want it to go well.

Today we went to the school, and delivered the school supplies to the school here in El Menco. All of the kids in our section of the community have made themselves comfortable in the house, which is always full. Legos are a big hit! As I write there are 2 boys, legos in hand, watching. Another girl is dancing to my iTunes, and about 5 are playing hide and seek outside with Kai. When we went to the school today we carried the huge bag during recess, so all of the kids followed us and were elated to get new things. The teachers are going to divide the supplies amongst this school and another. The kids were disappointed that they didn’t get something individually, and right away, but there were way more kids than we had supplies. It turns out that there is preschool here, and Kai has decided that he’d like to try it. His official first day of school will be Thursday. I’ll go with him, and we’ll see what he thinks. Kai’s best friend here is a boy about 12 years old that doesn’t go to school. When I asked why, I was told he has phycological problems, but I don’t see that. He is one of 6 boys in his family, all of which go to school but him. When everyone goes, he comes and plays with Kai. Mostly legos, but in the afternoon I take them to the beach. Lake Nicaragua, the only place in the world with freshwater sharks (it’s true!) is a sandy road and a sand dune away. The beach looks beautiful, but a closer look reveals all of the animal waste. Overall the water is relatively clean. Kai has developed small bumps on his skin from swimming there, but I don’t consider them serious. Most women do their laundry and wash here. All of the kids are great swimmers. We brought a ball attatched to a kite tail (foxtail) which has also been a big hit- especially in the water. At night we sleep under our mosquito nets and are awoken by the torrential sounds of a storm on a metal roof. Other than that, we have already grown accustomed to all of the cows, horses, pigs, chickens, spiders, lizards, and such that inhabit our house and yard on a regular basis. More news next week!