Since Nicaragua...

With ANF (American Nicaraguan Foundation)
Since returning from Nicaragua in late January, I have continued to work part-time with ANF, assisting them to make a transition and continue the momentum that this project has begun. ANF recently hired Nicolas Arguello as the Coordinator of Sustainable Development Projects. He is stationed in the Managua office, and has already done some amazing work! I have been very impressed that they happened to hire someone who could very naturally step in, and take on a leadership role in this developing area for ANF. Nicolas is from Nicaragua, went to college in the United States, and now is returning to help his people through ANF. He is bi-lingual, and has already strengthened the relationship we began with the United Nations Development Program by identifying 9 villages destined to become Millennium Communites, and setting forth a plan of work with Project Director Neyda Pierera for the UN, ANF, and local government to achieve their goals by the year 2015.

In El Menco
El Menco's community continues to grow stronger. Their Committee for the Sustainable Development of El Menco meets every Friday, and sometimes ANF Staff attend and support these meetings. ANF has identified funding for houses for the sections of Santa Barbara, El Ceritto, and El Islote. They are currently pricing the cost for transporting supplies to El Islote by boat.
I have spoken to Warren, the Director of the Committee (who is only 19!) several times on the phone, and he remains in great spirits and is very excited about the changes!
Nicolas Arguello writes:
I’ve got some good news for you. Juan de Dios has been travelling a lot to El Menco and he’s been getting things done. A full-time doctor has been assigned to the clinic at El Menco, along with 2 full-time assistants (nurses?). They’re staying in the casa modelo, which is where you stayed, I believe. Roberto Jereze, Gerente de Programas, is going to visit El Menco next week to include it as a recipient for medicines. And the community members won’t have to pay for the transportation to pick up the medicines and medicinal equipment; the alcaldía agreed to pay for transportation costs.Juan de Dios is also trying to send them school supplies, on a continuous basis.
Thanks for all of your support – the fruit of your work in El Menco is very clear.

On Bringing it Home
Remember those folks from Rotary International whom I visited with in El Menco? With their assistance, I've managed to get our local Rotary Chapter involved here in Ashland. I've presented to them twice, and two weeks ago they approved some funding to assist 2 members and our Mayor, Ed Monroe to travel to Nicaragua and El Menco in December with the Rotarians that I met on their annual trip. We are now working on the goal of joining the Partners of the Americas and creating a partner city relationship between Ashland and El Menco. A member of the Appleton, WI and Chinandega partnership is visiting Ashland this Tuesday to present to the Rotary Club and to our City Council on what it means to be a partner city, and how it's been successful for them. In the near future, we're hoping for the endorsement of our council, and the formal proposal for the partner city to be accepted through the Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners program. From that point, many projects and programs could take place. It is really up to the support of the community of Ashland.

United Nations come to El Menco

In the last few days, the Millennium Village Project has transformed into action, and I can only hope that the wonderful momentum it has at the moment continues. Wednesday I spent the better part of the day in Managua meeting with ANF’s project coordinator, Neyda Pierera.

El Menco recently identified it’s priorities for development. The list is as follows:

1. Wells for the whole community
2. New houses for the whole community
3. A new school and a teacher for El Islote
4. A doctor
5. A better health center
6. Employment for women

Neyda and I both identified organizations both governmental and non-governmental that could assist with each of these priorities. Next month she is going to call all of these people together including the newly formed Committee for the Sustainable Development of El Menco, to formulate a 1 year plan, which is very exciting.

We went through a report that I had written in December, point for point, and had some great discussions for action.

Today, perhaps one of the moments I feel very glad to be a part of, the Committee presented their process to Semia Tapia and Maribel Castillo from the United Nations, as well as the Mayor, and the potential next Mayor of this Municipality, and two other staff members. I think the leaders were shocked that everyone actually came, and I was very impressed with their presentation. While they were nervous, they explained many of the activities that we learned through together quite well. Now the biggest part is discovering what kind of support they might be able to give to the project.

Kai celebrates 5th birthday in Nicaragua

Kai recently celebrated his 5th birthday in El Menco. Although his birthday was on the 8th, we celebrated on the 18th, to coordinate with his buddy's birthday- Carlos. We had a good time- everyone got pirate tatoos and Kai successfully knocked tons of candy and school supplies out of Batman here!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

As my days here dwindle, I am filled with hope and despair in the same moment. This past Saturday, our newly formed Committee for the Sustainable Development of El Menco planned for their meeting with the United Nations this Friday. The United Nations is sending 2-3 people to El Menco to see the community and hear about the project. Several people from the ANF, including Neyda, the Project Coordinator and the Mayor of the municipality of Buenos Aires are also attending. This is all a huge event for El Menco, and I only hope that they can offer some support to this community, who at this moment, has momentum and needs encouragement and real resources to develop better.

El Menco is a difficult community to work in when you don’t have immediate, tangible benefits for the people. I realized this wasn’t unique to my project when I witnessed another meeting concerning a project very beneficial to the community. Three young men came to my house last Friday morning, and asked for my support. They work for the national government and have a program that teaches people how to read and write. This is the way it works: they have books and a video that they provide to volunteers that offer to teach others in their community. Not only does this seem like a great approach to a huge problem using a minimum of resourses, but it is much needed here. They asked me to please invite any of the people I worked with to a meeting later that afternoon. The meeting was held at the basketball court across the street from my house. Despite the potential benefit, very few people showed up, and those who did I believe were people who the men talked directly to. Maybe about 20 people were there. It was painful to watch. The men had to talk over kids playing soccer, and when they asked for volunteers to teach, it was like pulling teeth. The community simply doesn’t respond well to outsiders that need something from them first. The fellows were also asking for volunteers to conduct a census from house to house, asking how many children were in each house, how many were in school, and if some weren’t, the reasons why they weren’t going. Another great idea- and not a person volunteered, after they tried to convince people for half an hour. I felt for them, as did the nurse, who was sitting next to me and has had similar disheartening experiences. Even though she and I both live here, we still struggle. I think that it is better to be here in the community though, but if it’s anything that I’ve learned from this experience, it’s that this will take a long time to truly take hold in this community. Now that I understand better the daily struggles here, I realize the oddity of what I’m asking. Planning for development in a community that is very isolated and that simply wants accessible water, and dignified functional houses is difficult. I think that I am lucky to have a strong group of leaders at this moment that are dedicated and motivated. I only hope we can keep their momentum going.

I will write more after I meet this week with the ANF, and hopefully will have more updates.

January 12, 2008

This morning I wandered over to Dona Carmen’s for a breakfast of rice, beans, eggs, and bread. On the agenda for lunch: crispy lizard. I figured it was time to add another entry and update you all on things here in El Menco, Nicaragua.

First of all, the lizards are about the size of huge iguana’s and live in holes in trees. I’m not sure exactly what they are, but they’re basically like a grey iguana, without the really long tails. She says she boils down the whole lizard and then mixes the meat with corn. I opted out of crispy lizard corn surprise.

Kai and I have been back in El Menco for a little over a week. We had a great trip to Costa Rica for Christmas, and visited friends that we haven’t seen for years. We also took a trip to Monteverde, the cloud forest where I lived the summers of my 18^th and 19^th years, and taught environmental education. The place still takes your breath away, despite many developments for tourism. Kai was very excited to be in the rainforest, as we saw monkeys, sloths, tarantulas, and so on. We hiked in three different forests- two cloud forests and a lower rainforest, and took a night hike. Overall the trip was very refreshing. It was a big privledge just to be able to travel there, as many people in Nicaragua only dream of going to Costa Rica. The relationship between these countries is very similar to that of the United States and Mexico. Costa Rica is one of the richest nations in Central America, and Nicaragua is the poorest. Many people in Nicaragua enter Costa Rica in search of better paying jobs, mostly for wages that are not acceptable to most Costa Ricans. Thus there is tension between the countries, as well as racism between the citizens. Costa Rica has done more to tighten their borders over the past few years (sound familiar yet?), and now they require that anyone entering have a valid passport, while other countries only require a national i.d. I read in the paper that over Christmas, over 630 Nicaraguans were caught illegally crossing the border. I have no idea of the penalty.

We arrived back in El Menco on the 3^rd of January, to hear news that a 7 year old boy had been killed in an accident the day before. He had been sitting on a wooden cart with his father that was loaded with watermelon, pulled by two huge cattle. A watermelon fell off and the boy went to catch it, and fell under the wheel, which crushed his skull. People went running to the health center, which was empty- the nurses were out on vacation, but the boy had died by the time they got there. That same day they had a service, dug a hole in the cemetery, and buried him. When I arrived, the mood was somber, and some of the kids were sad, but life continued as usual, and more carts rolled through the streets either driven by little kids, or with kids riding.

Several days after arriving in El Menco, we headed into Managua to meet with Neyda, the Project Coodinator to discuss next steps for the ANF and the Millennium Village Project with El Menco. We stayed at the Managua Backpackers, and were told that we’d be picked up the next morning at 8:30am. At llam Neyda called and said that she wouldn’t have time to meet until 3pm. By 11:30 we were picked up and went to the office. 3pm passed, and finally at 4:30 Neyda came and talked for about five minutes to explain that she didn’t have time, and that she really couldn’t make decisions on some of the proposals until the Executive Director, Alvaro, communicated with her. He had been on vacation for the holidays. It was too late to get a bus all the way back to El Menco, so we paid for another night at the hostel. I understand that it isn’t personal- they had 30 people flying in from their largest donor the next day, who were staying for 3 days of events. It was simply poor timing. Nonetheless, it affects me in the sense that in some ways my hands are tied. I have been awaiting approval for many proposals, and it is hard to return to the community without answers.

I did get approval for funding for a Youth Encuentro to be held here next Saturday, and now we are working out some of the details. Next week in general will be busy, as we’ll celebrate Kai’s birthday on the 17^th, the United Nations are coming on the 18^th, (that’s the plan anyway), and the Encuentro is the 19^th. On the 20^th, Sunday, we will head back to Managua and prepare to leave early Tuesday morning for the United States. So little time, when there is so much more to do.

Another big event for the project is that the group of leaders here formed an official organization, named the Committee for Sustainable Development for El Menco. The elected a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. It was very important for them that they have representation from each of four sectors, which they accomplished through nominations, and a democratic vote. I am very hopeful for this group, and at the same time very fearful. This is the first time in their known history that they’ve organized into a group with representation from all sectors, and I worry that without support, they won’t have anything that they want to talk about at meetings, and the group may dissolve. The next time they may attempt to organize, it may be very difficult.

This is perhaps the most crucial part of the fellowship- ensuring that your work is sustained, and any projects are followed up on. I am hoping to see some action on behalf of the ANF for this, as I meet with Neyda again this week.

I am sorry to say that my digital camera is broken, perhaps for good, so you will all have to suffice with words. We will continue to write long after we are back with any updates on the project.

Much love,

Elizabeth and Kai

Christmas in Costa Rica Pictures