Fifth Letter Home

Fifth Letter Home – January 20, 2008, Domingo

New Fotos of trip around Nica are posted, too, but that story will have to wait until the 6th letter home . . . . .

Yesterday I arrived at the offices of Suni Solar, in Managua, where several lovely men greeted me as I exited a cab that carried Laure Dunne, my companion for the past two weeks in our whirlwind trip around Nicaragua (well, at least some parts of it!) in chicken buses, to the airport. Que mujeres! One with no Spanish, and one with a struggling familiarity, on their own, figuring everything out, without a major hitch, and, really, only one one minor hitch. I will explain the details of our trip later, but first, I am compelled to tell you of my psychological transformation from the oppression I felt in Guatemala from my experience their with Nahual Foundation to the renewed hope I feel for realizing some small part of my goal in coming to this most unfortunate part of the world, if you count pollution, poverty, noise, heat (Nica = heat) among the factors that define unfortunate.

For those I haven’t already told a hundred times, Nicaragua is among the poorest nations in the world, and the second poorest in the Western hemisphere, after Haiti. Yet I feel much safer here and happier and I have connected with Nicaraguans in a short short time in ways that I was unable to connect with almost all Guatemalas that I came to know, some on a much more regular basis.

In the two weeks that Laure and I traveled by chicken bus in Nicaragua, we never once encountered any situation that made us uncomfortable (for our safety, that is!). That is amazing. I cannot imagine having done the same thing in Guatemala and not feeling fear and not having an incident, frankly. But it is hard to know how much what you hear influences the psychological reaction you have to a place, a county. I have read and heard that Nicaragua is the safest country in central America (one has to keep in mind we are comparing places in Central America), with the exception of Managua (where I will be working now . . . I will be in Totogalpa, in the department of Madriz, north of Estelí) for my project work with Grupofenix, and will be rotating between there and Managua. Totgalpa, and specifically, the pueblo of Sabana Grande in that municipalidad (which is kind of like a city center with a lot of surrounding pueblos or afueras, suburbs, kind of, although as in Antigua and its surrounding pueblos, there is povery, and then more so in the pueblos. In Guatemala, though, there is the added insult of the richer ladinos in the city centers and the indigenous surrounding pueblos, which are incredibly poor by comparision, The radical difference between Antigua and its surrounding pueblos is something that many tourists never experience. I did not experience it in my almost month last year in Guatemala. This time, however, I went to many of the surrounding pueblos and experienced indigenous villages up close and personal.

It has been exactly 24 hours since I arrived at the doorstep of Suni Solar, 80 meters south of the stop light at Enel, in the barrio of Edgar Munega, an incredibly poor neighborhood near the Jesuit University of Central America and the National Engineering University where Grupo Fenix’s wonderful director teaches, heads the department of renewable energy, and from which she has spawned a number of projects all related to clean, renewable, solar energy and the betterment of Nicaragua’s poor communities and the creation of business opportunities in solar energy production and installation. The guys here at Suni Solar, which grew out of a student project of Susan’s at the university and now is a fully functioning, independent business, has lovely guys associated with it who have been treating me like a sister and I am currently on one of my three pelotas (my huge exercise balls that I use as chairs, as that is the only chair I like and they are so versatile and everyone loves them –I left two others in Guatemala with Letty and Luis). The big purple one that I bought in Antigua I brought with me and it is the only way I can get high enough off the ground to reach the keys on the lap top when it is sitting on a table, not to mention it is good for the back!).

ANYHOW, these guys are great. I am currently sitting typing away with two of them who are working on their masters in renewable energy and their thesis project. Douglas and Claudio. They are wonderful. Douglas is young and sweet and speaks great English and is very very kind, and Claudio is old, more serious, has a lovely family. Both are working like dogs on this thesis project, day and night, Saturday and Sunday. Douglas, who I wish was 30 years older, is going up country to do some installations on Tuesday and will be in Totogalpa on Thursday, and I look forward to our having another opportunity to sing and play guitar together. . . .

Nicaragua is hot. Just plain hot. It is the only reason I still think about Guatemala and the highlands. Really. Because I like the country better, always did, because it isn´t as violent. Here is a "for instance." In Guatemala, everywhere there are police and soldiers dressed in black from head to toe, looking sinister in every way. They have huge rifles or submachine guns, I don’t know what they are. And they look at you with dead faces but also burning eyes, and often, as is so often the case there, with undisguised lust mixed with a knowing superiority of strength. At least this is how I would describe it. The way they hold their bodies almost feels arrogant.

By contrast, in our travel around Nica, I don’t remember seeing but a handful of national police officers, who never looked at us that way, and indeed, our one face to face encounter was delightful. Laure and I were trying to figure out where a connection to another bus was and we were wandering around the highway and very quickly these two guys who were young and incredibly friendly came to us and put us on the right spot for our next bus, and continued to chat us up until they made sure we got on the right bus. They were smiling, curious about us, and so non’threatening and helpful in the way police are supposed to be that I was just knocked out. And I told them so. I talked about how the police in Guate carried these huge guns, and were sinister, etc. and then one turned around and showed me he had a rather long gun tucked into the back of his pants, laughing and loving the favorable comparison.


I am still curious about Xela, however (Quetzeltenango, Guatemala) and what goes on there further up in the highlands (and it is a great climate, cold in the morning and night and sunny and 80 degrees F during the day), which is really the political center of the guerilla movement and where there are a lot more projects of a political nature, I think, than in Antigua. So, I guess I will still try to investigate this when I go back. Also, I am still attracted to Guatemala because of its huge indigenous population and the division between the Ladino and indigenous populations. But that is also the flip side of the reason that I prefer Nicaragua – precisely because there are few indigenous issues here – fact of the matter is that many of the indigenous people were wiped out long ago, except those on the coast, more or less. And they have been left pretty much to themselves, for good or, in the case of getting any hurricane relief from the government, for ill. I understand that there are still some Chorotega people here, and people tell me there is really no discrimination nor a society divided ,as there is in Guatemala. Who knows. I will learn more I hope.

In the last 24 hours I have learned so much about Susan Kinne, the woman who started Grupo Fenix, who spawned Suni Solar, and who has created a renewable energy program at the Engineering University here, it is really incredible. She is originally from Burbank, California, but at some point wound up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a wonderful person, a wonderful role model for me, and has already been teaching me by example of how to live like a human being. I don’t think it is right to say too much about her personal life, but suffice it to say that she has had many, many challenges and instead of taking them in a negative direction, she has developed herself as a human to a level that I haven’t really known before. One example is that she was married to a Guatemalteco, who she met in the states doing labor work, I think. Anyhow, they came down to Nicaragua many years ago, I can’t remember how many now, and after about 5 years or so here, he was hit by a car and killed. It has been 14 years since he died. She was very much in love with him.

She has about the humblest little house you can imagine in this poor neighborhood around the two universities (UCA and UNI, the former a Jesuit university found in the major cities in the region, and the other the engineering university), of concrete, with only two rooms and an open space for a kitchen, basically, and then an open space out back with some trees. It is the way the poorest of the poor live, although I am sure it is not as poor as it gets, but it is putting it too mildly to say it is humble beyond belief, and she shares this place with a family of 5 people. I am not sure how it came about . . . but it has been about 4 years and she says she loves having them there to experience having grandchildren, which her own two children in the states, which she had very young and before meeting her Guatemalteco husband, have not had for her yet. This kind of life is impossible for almost any American to imagine. That a person would, first, voluntarily come to Nicaragua for work, and then spend all of her capital, both monetary and personal, on creating a situation that would improve the lives of Nicas, and then share what little personal space she has, and believe me, it is little, with 5 other people, three of them children, is remarkable.

I feel so privileged to have spent almost all of my time in the last 24 hours with her . . . . I am living right next door with Benedictine nuns, by the way, right now, at least . . . and discover her story bit by bit – but really, quite quickly! And that tomorrow, we are going up country, with a three or four other volunteers (but they are very short term) where I will stay at least until the end of the month, if not longer. During this time, Susan just wants me to observe. Her organizational complications may be beyond me. I hope not. I hope that I can rise to the occasion. But she has a lot of things going on, a lot of structural issues associated with her affiliation with the university. Right now, volunteer fees and courses in solar cooking, PVs, etc. given to interested people from around the world are the GrupoFenix’s income support 5 people in Sabana Grande who administer the community solar center, and there are 6 people at the university dedicated to this project, I believe, 4 of which are also supported in this way. Susan’s salary and that of another person for the project, which I think at this time is really a project of the University (but I need to learn more) are supported by the University, and the space Susan has at the University is also gratis, so, as universities go, she is in a great position.

I am not sure what I can do, or what Susan will want me to do, but one issue for sure is that she thinks they need to become a real NGO. Right now, there exists an organization in the US that Richard, the consulting scientist here for Susan (who has also bought a building in which he lives and which houses Suni Solar, for which these guys are eternally grateful). It is called Sky Heat, and acts for Susan and GrupoFenix like Friends of Nahual would have acted for Ignacio’s organization, as a way to get donations from US citizens, foundations, companies, etc. recognized as tax deductible. She has received a few grants from US corporations that she didn’t even solicit for the community solar center. She has also set up an accounting system whereby the people, I think women, of Sabana Grande can work for credit in a Green Store, where they can buy things that are donated, like solar panels, or other green things for their homes. The women make these credits by hours and hours of work making adobe bricks for the construction of the solar center and they were feeling so rich from this credit that they bought a PV for the center.

Volunteers pay about $350 a month? I really cannot remember, for food and housing. I do think that it breaks down to $5 a day for housing and $3 a meal. I also paid an orientation fee of $150 I think. This is a requirement of a volunteer, to pay these fees and live in the community either in Managua or up north in the “experiment” pueblo. This supports families and the program and integrates the volunteers into the community, of course.

So, folks, I think I have been blessed to land here. I love the community of people involved, Susan is clearly loved by everyone, everyone in the street and it is crystal clear why. She wears her crown lightly, however, and is genuinely warm and loving to everyone. This is her whole life, her every waking hour, when she is not in her humble, 2 room house with her adopted Nica family. And she has made me feel completely at home, and shared so much of herself and her time with me. She is generous with herself beyond what she should be, probably, but what does that mean???? Douglas and I had to insist that she did not go out to the dance place with the volunteers (who she knows from before) just because they wanted her to go . . . . she was literally falling asleep at dinner, almost, so we guided her back home. I know her feelings of being responsible to the volunteers, but she has enough sense to know that even she has limits. She is an ardent practitioner of TiKwanDo, which she founded in Nicaragua, and had done two hours of it earlier in the day. She took me and I have to say that I was afraid to try even the first roll! It keeps her centered. She seems to have the joy that must come to those who just give.

We take off very early tomorrow morning for the country. Wish me luck and that I might find a way to contribute. More of all of this later . . . .

I am going to end this letter now, because, really, my 2-week trip with Laure through Nicaragua is really a different chapter. And if somehow I get to it quickly and get an internet connection, then great. If not, it will come after I get back to Managua. Until then, I hope everyone is surviving the winter. I am working on surviving the heat here in Managua, and thank god the wind hasn’t stopped!