Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
3rd and Last Letter Home, March 25, 2009
Well, this will be my third and last letter home this trip to central American. I left Managua on February 14, flying to Guatemala City and then traveled to Antigua for a couple of days before going up into the Western Highlands to Xela. The days in Antigua were uneventful, and all I did was say hello to a few people and get a haircut, recaptured my coffee grinder, went to brunch at a beautiful hotel in Antigua with a friend, and generally just drank in the beauty of Antigua.
The night before I left Managua, I went out with Susan, Richard, Douglas and a friend from Seattle who was visiting some old friends of hers in Nica and was having mixed feelings, but I always get this way when leaving some place. I had had very mixed feelings about leaving this fall for central America from Seattle. So I guess that says that there is enough good about every place that I feel nostalgic about leaving.
I was happy to arrive in Xela and immediately took up residence in barrio San Bartolomé, southeast of the center of town. I am renting a small efficiency apartment that is very pretty and also very much of a fish bowl, with windows opening onto the hotel’s indoor courtyard and into my neighbor’s courtyard, so I keep the drapes drawn much of the time, unfortunately. But it is really convenient, with a pila outside and a lot of clothesline up over the upper patio and in the back, so I have continued to wash my clothes by hand, although not forced to here, as there are even auto laundries. I had become so used to washing by hand in various forms over the past few months that it actually seemed like a luxury to have a pila right outside my door and a clothesline that actually works! (the line I used in the countryside of Nicaragua was either of barbed wire – not too great for the clothes – or was a metal line on which my prensa ropas (clothes pins) slid and often I would find various pieces of clothing way out at the end of the line, up in a tree, basically. It was funny).
Anyhow, I settled into this very cute, tiny apartment quickly and got started doing work for AIDG, which is only a couple of blocks from here. It is an organization based in the states, very small, that has an office here in Xela, and one in Haiti, and its aim is to help start small appropriate technology businesses to serve the rural poor. It has done that with a group called Xela Teco here in Xela. I am doing research on microfinance orgs for Xela Teco, so they can place their high efficiency wood stoves. The stoves are $130 and people don´t have that upfront. The problem is that almost all micro-financing is for people´s businesses, not to finance their buying a high efficiency stove, or anything else, for that matter.
This work experience with AIDG has turned out to be very limited in scope and not at all rewarding. Part of this is my fault, I guess. Because I have wifi here at the apartment and it is very comfortable and convenient to stay here and work, I have done my work mostly in the apartment. It has been very boring because it required no interaction with anyone. Moreover, the times I did go to the office, the people there were glued to their computers and really didn’t seem to have any time to talk or make friends. No one offered to tell me about or show me what projects were going on, nor did anyone offer any opportunity to take a trip into the countryside with folks doing real things . . . and so I didn’t make an effort, either. There were random invites to a couple of AIDG parties at the intern house (not formally made to me but I sort of found out about them from one person), two of which I went to, but the sameness of them (people standing or sitting around a fire outside freezing to death and drinking too much) led me to not go to a 3rd one and eventually I just stopped going to AIDG at all, except to meet with someone to hand over my work. I was glad I went to the second party, however, because there I met a guy from Michigan who grew up and worked for many years very near to where I grew up. He is a volunteer in San Lucas Tomilán near Lake Atitlán and had sold out of his family business early. He spends quite a bit of the year working as a volunteer at a Catholic mission in San Lucas. He is a very nice man and he was here taking Spanish for a couple of weeks to try to improve, and we fell in together and did a lot of things together during those two weeks. It was great to have someone to hike with, explore and go out to dinner and events with.
Although AIDG has been a bust, I continued to work with Grupo Fenix in Nicaragua via internet, mostly on copy and design for the website but also on other random things, and that is fun for me. I also encountered happier work here with another organization called Entremundos, the director of which grabbed me immediately upon finding out that I was an environmental lawyer. She is a lovely person and I have worked pretty steadily with a small group of four of us on the problem of plastic bag litter and what could be done. Entremundos would like to get national legislation passed to address the problem. Having just seen this whole thing develop in Seattle was a help, and now I know more than I thought possible about bans, green fees, and other types of remedies for this problem. It is of course complex, like anything else. In some places, especially where there are no good solid waste management strategies in place, as is the case in many developing countries, it is a very serious problem and results in infrastructure and health issues when storm drains are blocked, for instance. In any event, I really like the people I have been working on this and while I think that there are LOTS worse problems to get a grip on here in Guatemala – air pollution being one of them, and of course the things that everyone knows about Guatemala – the violence, the mob killings, the drug violence, the poverty of the indigenous communities, huge mining issues, on and on and on – indeed, just yesterday in Guate, 4 bus drivers were killed in the same day --- I still agreed to work on it and have been working this issue quite a bit. If I come back here, I would like to be involved in issues that I find more basic, more important. On the environment score, just thinking about the health of the population (and, selfishly, my own health, as I have developed some asthma just as a result of living here), air pollution is a very big one for me. It is just awful here in Xela, and what a shame, because I really like this town and the people here and everything about the way it feels, except the air pollution is killing me, probably literally. I cannot go out without a handkerchief to stem my running nose and eyes. I cough all morning every day, and when I go out, I often find myself having a hard time getting my breath. The pollution is partially from cars and buses in these incredibly narrow streets, from which black toxic smoke spews right onto the people who are squished up against the cars and buses. You simply cannot get away from it. Antigua is better because the streets are much wider and the buses are not in the center of town. Here, they run everywhere. But the pollution is from other sources as well. There is a ton of particulate matter from open construction areas, from garbage burning and burning to clear fields for cropping. In adddtion, I was told by one local friend yesterday, the cobblestone streets are held together by a lime like substance instead of cement, and it dries out and becomes airborne with the slightest touch. Xela is also subject to inversions, as it sits in a high mountain valley surrounded by volcanoes, and boy, is that a mess.
I have told you before that Xela is in the Western highlands of Guatemala, at 7,600 feet. It is cold in the am and evening and sunny and warm, usually, during the day, but no more than the 70s during the time I am here, and often the breeze makes it feel cooler. People here are very friendly and I get on with folks very well. Although it is the second biggest in Guatemala, it is NOTHING like Guatemala City. Nothing. People are lovely, it feels like a very small town (I think it is actually about 300,000), and I am situated about as well as one could hope for for the work I am doing, in the southeast part of town and only about 10 blocks to central park.
My experience here, though, is very different from my time in Nicaragua where I lived much of the times in the community of Sabana Grande. First, I am living alone, which is very different from the fun (and dirt) of living with Alejandra and Marcio and the kids in Sabana Grande and the constant stream of visitors at the house, people passing by, etc. I miss that a lot. I wish it were possible to live in the community in a little house that I could somehow keep clean and yet be a part of all of that activity. I love going by Marta’s and talking to Rosita the parrot, or going up to someone’s birthday party celebration – everyone in the community is related -- and the thought of growing my own papaya and banana trees.
It is SO hard to find the right balance in life, but being here alone in Xela maybe is what the universe planned for me to realize that it is important for me to be with people in a very real way. When I went to “get away” in Nicaragua, I was also with people all of the time as well, at the Laguna. And that was great, too. I love the Laguna and the way one could be with people or not, as one liked. But I have to admit that the BOREDOM factor in the countryside was great, too, and the fact that you just don´t talk on the same level with folks about the things that are swirling around in my head all of the time, the great questions of life, the bigger world issues, the workings of the development projects, all of that more intellectual stuff. The people there are just so removed from that . . . in the daily work of getting food grown and on the table, so much work to do to keep the kids feed. And there is the constant of the TV, one channel, filled with trash, and many of the middle age people there are not very educated.
So each place has its pluses and minuses. And if I come back to Xela I will try to live more communally and it will be cheaper, too. I like very much having my own kitchen and 24 hour wifi, but some things must be sacrificed for community and price! I LOVE the market here, the one known as La Democracía, which is just sprawled out in the streets several blocks north of central park. One of my largest treats is my weekly journey there to get pineapple, avocados, tomatoes, onion, garlic, eggplant, cilantro, blackberries, strawberries, carrots – the most amazing tasting carrots imaginable – squash, little potatoes, limes for my potato salad dressing (which I use instead of vinegar to put in the olive oil-mayonnaise dressing I make, with a spot of honey), red peppers, melons, you name it, La Democracía has it, along with a ton of other fruits and vegetables that I am ignorant of. I haven’t had a bad interaction or one that hasn’t been very positive. The people are beautiful, as you know, and the mix of the city with people in their native dress is gorgeous.
For the first 3 weeks or so here, I walked up in the high hills in back of my neighborhood, straight up a steep way from 7,600 ft, through deep dust areas and then by two houses with dogs that snarled after me almost every time I went up there. I quickly made friends with everyone in one house and all of those dogs, who then left me alone. But no matter how many times I went by the other house, and how much I talked to the people in that house and tried to get the dogs to quit terrorizing me, it never stopped. Finally, after facing that fear every day for weeks and never having it improve, I gave up that hike, to my chagrin but to my relief as well! At first I had this philosophical argument ready for myself every morning about how important it is to face and overcome your fears. And then I realized I could take another walk that would not be quite as steep and probably not as helpful to my heart, but at least I didn’t dread it every day! So much for facing fears. I was attacked by a German shepherd as a kid alone in the woods, and of course one never gets over that. Every day I went up in the hills, chills ran up and down my body as I approached the houses with the dogs.
One major plus for me here in addition to Rick and work with Entremundos was the fact that I was able to attend 4 different performances of an international jazz festival that Xela was lucky enough to have happen here. They were really excellent and the tickets were free and the performances held in this wonderful old municipal theater. It was quite the thing, and really gave me something wonderful to look forward to. Apparently while the jazz fest came to Guate many years in the past, it never before brought the performers here to Xela. I hope the audience response, which was wildly enthusiastic, will mean that the Jazz fest will be here again next March.
I have met a mix of foreigners and Guatemalans and all have been good. I like it so much when I am able to mix with Guatemalans and one family that I have gotten to know a bit because they run the coffee shop where we have many meetings now has a family member who lives up north of me in Everett, WA and she has been visiting the family this past week, so I met her. We say we will go out to salsa. We shall see! She comes down to go to China Harbor on occasion, so . . .
Well, I don´t have anything profound to say, dammit. Just that I always find it rewarding to meet Chivos here and talk or just say hey when I see someone riding his bike up the huge hill up to the Baul, the lookout high above the city, where I like to hike, or in the street, or wherever we interact. Or when I get to play peek a boo with little Enrique down the street from me. These kids are so damned adorable, it is ridiculous. Or just wandering around a street fair thrown up for the weekend near the church that is having a procession that weekend in preparation for Semana Santa, sampling the roasted whole pig with a Washington state apple in its mouth, or the incredibly greasy and delicious fried sweet dough and any number of other tempting treats for sale in the makeshift booths lining the streets, bringing everyone out of their houses to talk, eat, and generally enjoy the afternoon and evening. I love the way people are out, interacting in the streets. This is what small towns with small streets do for people, at least when people are not in their cars. And boy, do we need much more of that in the US.
Well, that’s it for this season in Central America. I hope to see many of you soon and at least communicate with those of you too far from Seattle to see in person.
XOXOXO,
Katherine
The night before I left Managua, I went out with Susan, Richard, Douglas and a friend from Seattle who was visiting some old friends of hers in Nica and was having mixed feelings, but I always get this way when leaving some place. I had had very mixed feelings about leaving this fall for central America from Seattle. So I guess that says that there is enough good about every place that I feel nostalgic about leaving.
I was happy to arrive in Xela and immediately took up residence in barrio San Bartolomé, southeast of the center of town. I am renting a small efficiency apartment that is very pretty and also very much of a fish bowl, with windows opening onto the hotel’s indoor courtyard and into my neighbor’s courtyard, so I keep the drapes drawn much of the time, unfortunately. But it is really convenient, with a pila outside and a lot of clothesline up over the upper patio and in the back, so I have continued to wash my clothes by hand, although not forced to here, as there are even auto laundries. I had become so used to washing by hand in various forms over the past few months that it actually seemed like a luxury to have a pila right outside my door and a clothesline that actually works! (the line I used in the countryside of Nicaragua was either of barbed wire – not too great for the clothes – or was a metal line on which my prensa ropas (clothes pins) slid and often I would find various pieces of clothing way out at the end of the line, up in a tree, basically. It was funny).
Anyhow, I settled into this very cute, tiny apartment quickly and got started doing work for AIDG, which is only a couple of blocks from here. It is an organization based in the states, very small, that has an office here in Xela, and one in Haiti, and its aim is to help start small appropriate technology businesses to serve the rural poor. It has done that with a group called Xela Teco here in Xela. I am doing research on microfinance orgs for Xela Teco, so they can place their high efficiency wood stoves. The stoves are $130 and people don´t have that upfront. The problem is that almost all micro-financing is for people´s businesses, not to finance their buying a high efficiency stove, or anything else, for that matter.
This work experience with AIDG has turned out to be very limited in scope and not at all rewarding. Part of this is my fault, I guess. Because I have wifi here at the apartment and it is very comfortable and convenient to stay here and work, I have done my work mostly in the apartment. It has been very boring because it required no interaction with anyone. Moreover, the times I did go to the office, the people there were glued to their computers and really didn’t seem to have any time to talk or make friends. No one offered to tell me about or show me what projects were going on, nor did anyone offer any opportunity to take a trip into the countryside with folks doing real things . . . and so I didn’t make an effort, either. There were random invites to a couple of AIDG parties at the intern house (not formally made to me but I sort of found out about them from one person), two of which I went to, but the sameness of them (people standing or sitting around a fire outside freezing to death and drinking too much) led me to not go to a 3rd one and eventually I just stopped going to AIDG at all, except to meet with someone to hand over my work. I was glad I went to the second party, however, because there I met a guy from Michigan who grew up and worked for many years very near to where I grew up. He is a volunteer in San Lucas Tomilán near Lake Atitlán and had sold out of his family business early. He spends quite a bit of the year working as a volunteer at a Catholic mission in San Lucas. He is a very nice man and he was here taking Spanish for a couple of weeks to try to improve, and we fell in together and did a lot of things together during those two weeks. It was great to have someone to hike with, explore and go out to dinner and events with.
Although AIDG has been a bust, I continued to work with Grupo Fenix in Nicaragua via internet, mostly on copy and design for the website but also on other random things, and that is fun for me. I also encountered happier work here with another organization called Entremundos, the director of which grabbed me immediately upon finding out that I was an environmental lawyer. She is a lovely person and I have worked pretty steadily with a small group of four of us on the problem of plastic bag litter and what could be done. Entremundos would like to get national legislation passed to address the problem. Having just seen this whole thing develop in Seattle was a help, and now I know more than I thought possible about bans, green fees, and other types of remedies for this problem. It is of course complex, like anything else. In some places, especially where there are no good solid waste management strategies in place, as is the case in many developing countries, it is a very serious problem and results in infrastructure and health issues when storm drains are blocked, for instance. In any event, I really like the people I have been working on this and while I think that there are LOTS worse problems to get a grip on here in Guatemala – air pollution being one of them, and of course the things that everyone knows about Guatemala – the violence, the mob killings, the drug violence, the poverty of the indigenous communities, huge mining issues, on and on and on – indeed, just yesterday in Guate, 4 bus drivers were killed in the same day --- I still agreed to work on it and have been working this issue quite a bit. If I come back here, I would like to be involved in issues that I find more basic, more important. On the environment score, just thinking about the health of the population (and, selfishly, my own health, as I have developed some asthma just as a result of living here), air pollution is a very big one for me. It is just awful here in Xela, and what a shame, because I really like this town and the people here and everything about the way it feels, except the air pollution is killing me, probably literally. I cannot go out without a handkerchief to stem my running nose and eyes. I cough all morning every day, and when I go out, I often find myself having a hard time getting my breath. The pollution is partially from cars and buses in these incredibly narrow streets, from which black toxic smoke spews right onto the people who are squished up against the cars and buses. You simply cannot get away from it. Antigua is better because the streets are much wider and the buses are not in the center of town. Here, they run everywhere. But the pollution is from other sources as well. There is a ton of particulate matter from open construction areas, from garbage burning and burning to clear fields for cropping. In adddtion, I was told by one local friend yesterday, the cobblestone streets are held together by a lime like substance instead of cement, and it dries out and becomes airborne with the slightest touch. Xela is also subject to inversions, as it sits in a high mountain valley surrounded by volcanoes, and boy, is that a mess.
I have told you before that Xela is in the Western highlands of Guatemala, at 7,600 feet. It is cold in the am and evening and sunny and warm, usually, during the day, but no more than the 70s during the time I am here, and often the breeze makes it feel cooler. People here are very friendly and I get on with folks very well. Although it is the second biggest in Guatemala, it is NOTHING like Guatemala City. Nothing. People are lovely, it feels like a very small town (I think it is actually about 300,000), and I am situated about as well as one could hope for for the work I am doing, in the southeast part of town and only about 10 blocks to central park.
My experience here, though, is very different from my time in Nicaragua where I lived much of the times in the community of Sabana Grande. First, I am living alone, which is very different from the fun (and dirt) of living with Alejandra and Marcio and the kids in Sabana Grande and the constant stream of visitors at the house, people passing by, etc. I miss that a lot. I wish it were possible to live in the community in a little house that I could somehow keep clean and yet be a part of all of that activity. I love going by Marta’s and talking to Rosita the parrot, or going up to someone’s birthday party celebration – everyone in the community is related -- and the thought of growing my own papaya and banana trees.
It is SO hard to find the right balance in life, but being here alone in Xela maybe is what the universe planned for me to realize that it is important for me to be with people in a very real way. When I went to “get away” in Nicaragua, I was also with people all of the time as well, at the Laguna. And that was great, too. I love the Laguna and the way one could be with people or not, as one liked. But I have to admit that the BOREDOM factor in the countryside was great, too, and the fact that you just don´t talk on the same level with folks about the things that are swirling around in my head all of the time, the great questions of life, the bigger world issues, the workings of the development projects, all of that more intellectual stuff. The people there are just so removed from that . . . in the daily work of getting food grown and on the table, so much work to do to keep the kids feed. And there is the constant of the TV, one channel, filled with trash, and many of the middle age people there are not very educated.
So each place has its pluses and minuses. And if I come back to Xela I will try to live more communally and it will be cheaper, too. I like very much having my own kitchen and 24 hour wifi, but some things must be sacrificed for community and price! I LOVE the market here, the one known as La Democracía, which is just sprawled out in the streets several blocks north of central park. One of my largest treats is my weekly journey there to get pineapple, avocados, tomatoes, onion, garlic, eggplant, cilantro, blackberries, strawberries, carrots – the most amazing tasting carrots imaginable – squash, little potatoes, limes for my potato salad dressing (which I use instead of vinegar to put in the olive oil-mayonnaise dressing I make, with a spot of honey), red peppers, melons, you name it, La Democracía has it, along with a ton of other fruits and vegetables that I am ignorant of. I haven’t had a bad interaction or one that hasn’t been very positive. The people are beautiful, as you know, and the mix of the city with people in their native dress is gorgeous.
For the first 3 weeks or so here, I walked up in the high hills in back of my neighborhood, straight up a steep way from 7,600 ft, through deep dust areas and then by two houses with dogs that snarled after me almost every time I went up there. I quickly made friends with everyone in one house and all of those dogs, who then left me alone. But no matter how many times I went by the other house, and how much I talked to the people in that house and tried to get the dogs to quit terrorizing me, it never stopped. Finally, after facing that fear every day for weeks and never having it improve, I gave up that hike, to my chagrin but to my relief as well! At first I had this philosophical argument ready for myself every morning about how important it is to face and overcome your fears. And then I realized I could take another walk that would not be quite as steep and probably not as helpful to my heart, but at least I didn’t dread it every day! So much for facing fears. I was attacked by a German shepherd as a kid alone in the woods, and of course one never gets over that. Every day I went up in the hills, chills ran up and down my body as I approached the houses with the dogs.
One major plus for me here in addition to Rick and work with Entremundos was the fact that I was able to attend 4 different performances of an international jazz festival that Xela was lucky enough to have happen here. They were really excellent and the tickets were free and the performances held in this wonderful old municipal theater. It was quite the thing, and really gave me something wonderful to look forward to. Apparently while the jazz fest came to Guate many years in the past, it never before brought the performers here to Xela. I hope the audience response, which was wildly enthusiastic, will mean that the Jazz fest will be here again next March.
I have met a mix of foreigners and Guatemalans and all have been good. I like it so much when I am able to mix with Guatemalans and one family that I have gotten to know a bit because they run the coffee shop where we have many meetings now has a family member who lives up north of me in Everett, WA and she has been visiting the family this past week, so I met her. We say we will go out to salsa. We shall see! She comes down to go to China Harbor on occasion, so . . .
Well, I don´t have anything profound to say, dammit. Just that I always find it rewarding to meet Chivos here and talk or just say hey when I see someone riding his bike up the huge hill up to the Baul, the lookout high above the city, where I like to hike, or in the street, or wherever we interact. Or when I get to play peek a boo with little Enrique down the street from me. These kids are so damned adorable, it is ridiculous. Or just wandering around a street fair thrown up for the weekend near the church that is having a procession that weekend in preparation for Semana Santa, sampling the roasted whole pig with a Washington state apple in its mouth, or the incredibly greasy and delicious fried sweet dough and any number of other tempting treats for sale in the makeshift booths lining the streets, bringing everyone out of their houses to talk, eat, and generally enjoy the afternoon and evening. I love the way people are out, interacting in the streets. This is what small towns with small streets do for people, at least when people are not in their cars. And boy, do we need much more of that in the US.
Well, that’s it for this season in Central America. I hope to see many of you soon and at least communicate with those of you too far from Seattle to see in person.
XOXOXO,
Katherine
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
First Letter Home, Winter, 2008, Nicaragua
First Letter Home . . . . Nov 23 until December 21, the first month of four, this in Nicaragua
I arrived in Managua after 9 pm on November 23, 2008, and was greeted by a smiling Susan waiting outside the controlled area of the airport. As usual, I appreciated the welcome of free carts to manage my luggage, which included my guitar, a large and very full backpack, and a stuffed daypack with the computer and a thousand other things in it . . . And best of all there was George with a little car to take us back to Managua and the neighborhood. George is this early 50s guy, with wife and kids back in Maine, who is considering being on the board of Suni Solar (one of the spin offs of Susan’s efforts, the second largest solar business in Nicaragua (which isn’t saying much, but it is growing with the help of microloans to customers and its ethic is to serve the rural poor. It is taking other business to support this side, as solar is becoming more and more popular in places like San Juan del Sur, a place where people from the US have been buying up coastal property). He is also a surfer and has been to a solar course and got hooked on the whole Grupo Fenix scene. He is a very open guy and we had a great time talking about love and sex and the whole darn mess. Basically, he told me his life’s secrets in one day.
I stayed in the Eduardo Munga barrio again, near Susan, for the first couple of nights. REAL basic, and REAL hot, with a man named Juan, who apparently has a million kids, but one of his kids, Elvis, and Elvis’ family of 4 others, lives with Susan in her tiny house in the barrio, which says a lot about what kind of father he is. Elvis has birth defect that looks like he may have been a thalidomide baby. He sells things in the busy thoroughfare-carretera that rings the barrio. Very dangerous. He is a father of three. His wife is a sweetie and is going to secondary school and to trade school to learn how to be a seamstress. I am sure that Susan is probably helping in that as well.
Susan had planned for me to go to the beach with her, thinking, I guess, that this would be a treat. And it was okay, but the trip there was hot and difficult, and the beach was not good to me. It is about a half hour west of León, at Las Peñitas. Apparently there is malaria there, so when I found out, I was a bit chagrined. I ate the inside of orange seeds, which Susan is convinced protects against malaria. I hope she is right. One is supposed to take chloroquine one to two weeks before going into an area with malaria, which clearly I hadn’t. I am taking it now and will for a couple of more weeks, I guess. The place had mosquitos and lots of other nasty little biters which left me with red spots and swollen legs and feet for a while after we returned to Managua. It was very hot for me, although people in Managua thought it was cool. At the beach, there was way too much sun during the say (that is after about 7:30 am), and because I have developed an allergy to the sun, I really didn’t leave the shade of the hotelito much. I adjusted by going to bed at 9 and getting up at 5 am, and then taking an hour walk on the beach from dawn until 7 am . . . . Basically this was time Susan wanted for herself with her soon-to-be, it is hoped, adopted granddaughter (a little Nica whose family can´t afford to feed her, really), and her daughter plans to take her to the states, but there is a bit of a problem, perhaps, as taking children out of Nicaragua is not favored. In the past, it was allowed for reasons of extreme poverty, but Ortega has said now that Nicaragua can and should take care of its own children. Well, that is right, but in this case, the mother cannot and does not want to take care of this child, so we will see.
Being with Susan at the beach provided a chance to leisurely catch up with what is going on with the UN grant and with the new crop of volunteers, and some reorganization in the jobs at UNI and at the Solar Center in Sabana Grande.
I stayed at Suni Solar for a few days when we got back to Managua as opposed to with the nuns or Juan again. It is a business but has two bedrooms, one with just a bed but it worked for me with a fan, which kept the mosquitos at bay somewhat. The reason there are mosquitos is that it is at the tail end of the rainy season when I arrived.
We left for upcountry, Sabana Grande, on December first and there was a series of meetings about the UN grant. They are just now getting to writing up the plan for how the UN prize will help them. It isn´t a lot of money, and it will be in the form of services, but it is a fair amount, and the women really need to zero in on what their immediate and most pressing needs are. The plan for expert help should be written by the beginning of the year.
As opposed to my last stay here, I am doing less hard thinking work and much more socializing, in the context of family. I think this is a product of the fact that Susan is so burned out. I see my role as more of a shoulder and ear even more than last time and an advisor regarding the need for her to redesign her life and role in this whole endeavor. It is hard, because she doesn’t want to see all she has worked on crumble if she moves aside before someone else can take her place as director, or at least as administrative director, and also there is a question of how she will earn money in the future if she doesn´t proceed carefully. Since she has given so much of her meager earnings to the project and what little she inherited for buying land that will no doubt be the community’s and not hers, she does have to make some provision for herself. She is now 60. She breaks down in tears at times, and so it is clear that she is a mess, poor thing. Too much over the years, not enough rest time, no space of her own. She was kind of counting on social security from her dead Guatemalan husband who worked in the states for many years, apparently. They were married for 5 or 7 years, but he was killed by a car after they were here together not that long. Very sad. But I had to deliver the message that I didn’t think you can collect from a former husband unless you had been married 10 years. Can anyone look this up for me? I would love to deliver happier news to her. KAL, I bet you are a good candidate to ask for this research!
I am living with a wonderful family in Sabana Grande. Joyous, industrious, fun and sweet. Alejandra is one of the Mujeres Solares and is just a pure joy. Marcio is a carpenter and works like blue blazes from the crack of dawn. He has been getting so much work in the past few days, it is amazing and wonderful. Alejandra works all day and Jenny, the 13 year old girl who I love, also does a bit. Marcel, 15, is off picking coffee for two weeks, bless his heart – he and his brother Harold, 10, are about as cute as any two boys could be. Harold fell from a mango tree when he was three and was in the hospital for well over a month, and the fall left him with some damage to his neck and tongue, which is not evident at all. Alejandra says he has a hard time forming some of his vowels, but I haven’t noticed. He is precious. They are unfailingly kind and sweet to me, all of them, and generous with their time and help. Marcio is the most employed of almost anyone here, or so it seems. He has so much business coming in these days that even on Sundays he is visiting customers in the countryside who need a piece of furniture built. Yesterday he brought in a huge caned chair and a tabernacle from a parish priest in Totogalpa. And some other folks visited to talk about things they needed, bringing much appreciated sweet bread with them. There was also a new order for 13 doors and windows, along with an order the day before for some doors for a church in Ocotal I think. Business for Marcio seems to be booming at the moment and he is a happy man. He employs Silvio and occasionally someone else, while he does a lot of the actual work himself and also handles the very amable negociations of the work agreements with clients. It sounds very business-like but actually is so casual and he weaves everything in and out of his life with the family seamlessly. He and Alejandra have a happy marriage and it is very apparent. Every day I become closer with all of them and truly feel like a part of the family. They are just the best, the best, the best, and I am so lucky to be living with them.
Everything is fine, if very dirty, in the countryside, and I come to value it more and more because the time is slower and more full of people than my life at home. People take time for each other. I had told you that I was staying in Ocotal last weekend, and it was my intention to go every weekend for a break from Sabana Grande – I thought I would need to get away from the campo a bit --, and to start with that first weekend. But I had all of my money stolen – probably at least $60, and not only could I not stay, but I had to beg to get the copies of the English book out of hock for my classes last week, and if I hadn’t paid the hotel in advance, I wouldn’t even had had money to get home on the bus. I felt so stupid for letting that happen, and of course I was disappointed. But after coming back, I realized I wanted to be here, as I am now much happier to be with the family on the weekends and hanging out with various other of the campesino families. They are so sweet, and it is fun to be with them. It is also fun to spend time with the families as a whole, especially if they have young adults from about 13 on – I have always liked teenagers. Like today, I spent a while with the family I lived with back in January and February when I was in the country, and we had such a nice time. The mother, who seems like a sister, almost, to her three kids because she is so little, is growing so much in confidence just from the last time I was here, and really likes the English class. One problem is that the women are so busy with domestic chores, with their roles at the Solar Center and then add in church obligations, it is crazy. How they manage all that they do is beyond me. And all is done with perfect grace. They are an amazing bunch. They have very little, we do everything by hand, from schucking the corn before cooking at night for the next day’s tortillas to washing the clothes. There is much heavy work, no indoor plumbing, and things are dirty all of the time because we are living on the ground, and the housing, while there are walls, is still open at the top of the walls, and the winds are such that now during the dry season dirt blows. There are tarantulas and scorpions, and frogs and other insects and spiders. We have a cat, Jackie Chan, and a dog, Vandan. They are named after actors in action films. I know Jackie Chan, but not Vandan. I like these two very much. Both like me too, which is nice. We also have a pig who gets moved every evening so he won’t be disturbed by passers by on the road, a few hens, and couple of roosters, but one is a fighter who was given to Harold, and is more trouble than he is worth. They are very good to the animals. We are surrounded by lots of plants that Alejandra takes great care to grow, and I am eating right now the first ripe papaya from the yard. There are some squash like things growing in the yard and lots of herbs and then just pretty flowers. Marcio and the kids just harvested a ton of beans from some land that they farm away from the house somewhere. I have yet to see it. And they grow their own corn. It is not easy – then Alejandra cooks it for a long time, and then in the morning, Jenny takes it to the molina, where it is ground into corn meal for making a bunch of tortillas. This ritual goes on, day in and day out.
I sleep under a mosquito net, of course, like before. I have arranged my room by building little shelves close to the floor with bricks and boards I found about (lucky to live with a carpenter), and arrange my clothes on two lines I have strung across the room. It is like an aerial armoire.
Today I washed clothes all day after my special walk up to my favorite hill. Usually in the morning I go a shorter route, before work. This happens from 6 until 7 on weekdays. Today, Saturday, I started a bit later and stayed for a bit longer, but the wash was calling. I also wash dishes for Alejandra (finally got gloves for this – my hands are a mess with excema at the moment, probably from some lotion I bought to help them, which only hurt them. It is hard to get pure stuff here), and sweep the room and patio a lot. So much dirt gets in everywhere, it is a constant occupation. I am clearly in one of the nicest situations, though, because it is quite lovely in so many ways, because of the people. I prefer being away from the house when all the work on the cabinets, doors, or whatever is happening because the noise is deafening. They are used to it, but today, as I was not at the Solar Center because it was Saturday, I had to put in ear plugs because the noise from the electric table saw was constant and incredibly hard on one’s ears. But the rhythm of hand washing lots of dirty clothes helps to keep ones mind off the noise. I use the solar shower I brought down some times and some times the cold shower. It is actually quite a nice jolt in the morning before work and after the hike. We are so fortunate to have a shower, as last time, I had to get water to bring in the very dirty enclosure and wash with a pan.
Today I put in three large concrete-able nails in the cold shower area to hang towels and bathrobes. It is always a challenge to stay clean when one is balancing a towel on a dirty shelf, etc. One thing I will mention is that there is another volunteer living here at the house as well, a young man named Brian, from the states. He is likeable, but a little clueless, and doesn’t help out much. He is generous, though. But what is a bit bugging about the culture is that Alejandra washes his clothes for him. He thinks its great, of course, but there was never an attempt or mention of washing my clothes. I talked about this a bit with Alejandra . . . I know it is cultural. It is not that I want my clothes washed. Not at all. I would not allow it and I actually enjoy it. It is that he doesn’t have to wash his clothes that is annoying. Women clearly are the workhorses in this community, and Marcio appears to be an exception to the rule. Theirs is an equal marriage, with mutual respect. They have different roles, but there is no question that both roles are equally essential and respected.
My friend Ignacio said to me a couple of weeks ago that after I had been here a while I wouldn’t want to leave. I said, no, I would not stay for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it is hard for me to live in the climate, the sun, and especially the dirt, because my skin breaks down when it is dirty. But now, even after a couple of weeks, I see his point. And every day, it gets easier for me, as I am figuring out what to do to live in dirt and sun and protect myself from its effects on me pathetically white and fragile skin. It will be hard to leave the family, which includes me in everything, and with whom the interactions all day and evening are easy, intimate, fun, but when I want my space to think, to read, to work, I can just go in my little room and do those things and no one cares. I am not one for TV and they watch in the evening sometimes, which makes time for me to TRY to play the guitar a little or do other things that might be a problem later on when people go to bed. Everything is open, one room to the next, at the top, so one cannot make noise after others have gone to bed, which is usually around 9 or so . . . I stay up working until 10 and then reading sometimes until 10:30 and up at 5:45 or 6. I have had time to try to work in yoga on some days and it is a blessing. Without the gym, I really need to do more than just my hour walk up the hills and back in the morning and the walks to and from the Center, which probably amount to another 3 miles every day.
Today I went to multiple baptisms in Totogalpa at the church. We took the bus which threatened never to come but arrived on time for mass and the baptisms were afterward. A LOT of crying babies, dressed to the nines in white. I have included some fotos for you of this event. These folks don’t have much of anything, but for these events, their children could not be more beautifully decked out. It is something. I took pictures of my family being madrina and padrino, and of course of the baby, Dani, and then Marcio’s brother had a baptism, and some other relative. We spent all day walking around the region of Sabana Grande visiting houses open for the celebration of baptisms and at the end, Marcio’s mother’s house, at which were three other of his siblings and their kids, also had a pudissima, which is a way they celebrate the virgin Mary from anywhere around the Immaculate Conception (of Mary, by Elizabeth, which few Catholics seem to remember – they think it is the virgin birth of Jesus) – until Christmas. People come from all around and sing traditional songs and say prayers to Mary at an altar built in the house. There were tons of people at Marcio’s mother’s house, and they were celebrating her birthday (69 tomorrow), a baptism, and were having a pudissima. We are having a pudissima on Tuesday and I am expected to play the guitar for Tu Gloria, Tu Gloria, which I can do, as it only involves 2 chords, really. I am adding another for interest. We were fed at every house. I finally had to say no to more food.
Picking up the thread of these thoughts, we did indeed today have our pudissima at our house, which the family has every year, to thank the virgin for a good year. Marcio was telling me tonight how pleased he was with the pudissima this afternoon because he has been so fortunate with his work and everyone is healthy (I rearranged my teaching schedule to accommodate this, as I couldn’t envision not being here, even though we had just arranged yesterday to have the class during the time that the pudissima was being held (the time of which I didn’t know about until last night). I wouldn’t have not been here. It seems natural that the family and these important social/religious celebrations are every bit as important as work, and we easily move things around to accommodate both. No one had a problem with my asking to have the class at a different time because of my family’s pudissima. This is also something I admire about the way we do things here. No one doubts that what we are doing at the center is important and good, but no one would think of working through these important socials events, either. And also, the physical closeness is great, too. One woman holds my hand when she talks to me. People are constantly saying, “Katia, this and Katia, that, including you in, asking you things. I understand a bit more as time goes by.
So, now I understand more what Ignacio was saying. I now know I will indeed miss many parts of life here, primarily, the closeness of being with people who you know intimately in a rhythm of life. It is just more fun being surrounded by that rhythm of life, especially when you can have some private space as well. It is like the communal living that we all talk about having, but so far haven’t gotten around to. The one we envision where we have our private space, but can commune when we choose. . . . . I am living that on a very simple, humble scale. But of course it is much easier, because Alejandra is cooking for all of us all day. It is, though, some test of whether I might want to go live in some similar kind of situation, somewhere, someday.
I started teaching two weeks ago or so, and the classes I have had so far have been a lot of fun. We laugh a LOT, and the 5 or 6 people who are doing it with me are very interested and have fun with it. They need it for their developing businesses because the hope is that when they start their little restaurant, tourists will stop by, as it is right off the highway. Moreover, volunteers from the states, Canada, and Europe come, as well as international participants in the Solar Courses that keep the place afloat come, and the common language of all is English. They think it is fun, we all howl laughing when I mix Spanish and English, or when they are trying to pronounce things. I of course don’t laugh at them, but they laugh at each and thoroughly enjoy it. They always want more time than we had originally decided. I love that.
I have also figured out other things on the organizational development end thatrI can help with beyond the obvious grant writing and organization of potential foundations, which I have not started yet and which may be easier once I get home. There is a desperate need for fact sheets on various aspects of the organizations (UNI, PFAE, Grupo Fenix and the Solar Women, and what each does, what each is, how they are connected, etc. Because I love to write, I look forward to this work and I hope my dear friend Laure Elise Eklund Dunne might have some time to help design the fact sheet format so they look good. The Solar Women might also like to have a logo, Laure! I will ask at the next Monday meeting in January – right now the Center is off for two weeks and I am going to Managua for a week around Christmas to work there on the internet and I hope to go to the Laguna for 2 or 3 days, if there is space. I can work there, too, as there is WIFI.
There are other volunteers here, four young guys, at this time. One is friendly and we talk about the organization, etc. because he may stay and work here for a year with a modest salary. He is Canadian, as is another guy who is making benches for the center. The latter is not friendly, at least to me. Another is from New Zealand, Paul, a real surfer kind of guy, and he is fine, but we don’t do anything together – he is trying to create a more efficient LED system for casitas that would cost less than the system we use now, and then there is Brian, who I mentioned above, from the states. He is making a sign for the Center for the highway. I thought of you, Pete, and that he could have done a much better job with your guidance, but we will see what the finished product looks like after the new year.
A word about politics on the micro and more macro level. Micro-wise, my family is firmly Sandinista. They have a huge FSLN flag flying over the house, as do several other families in the neighborhood. Marcio was in the war at the age of about 14 through 16. Thankfully, he survived. Their view is that under the FSLN, there has been free secondary education for everyone (things cost but it is the accessories of education that cost I think), and according to Marcio, every poor family now has a pig. I don’t know for sure, but I think also there may be free health clinics. Macro-wise, the flip side of this for me is that Ortega appears to be accumulating more and more power and wants to change laws to accumulate more. He has put his wife in charge of neighborhood councils, replicating an already in place and according to some, well functioning system because he wants to consolidate power. Because of changes he wanted to make in the laws, several parties came together in a coalition to oppose the FSLN in the municipal elections held last month. The coalition formed in the spring when I was here, and as a consequence, the FSLN and its ally the PLC, via the elections board, started challenging the legitimacy of the strongest opposition parties. Two of them were declared illegal during the summer. There were hunger strikes by famous former Sandinistas, and pressure mounted leading to the elections. Then, apparently, Ortega would not allow international observers for the elections (maybe the excuse was that they were only for national elections? I do not know for sure), but in any event, it laid the ground for claims of fraud in the elections. There were lots of scary demonstrations in Managua and recently in León. My sense from trying to figure it out (I just missed them in Managua) is that the FSLN was primarily out in the streets being angry that there were claims of fraud, and protesting that the elections were validly won by the FSLN, but I really don’t know. Some people died in the demonstrations. And now it appears the states may withdraw all financial support from Nicaragua because the states are saying the elections were corrupt. The news tonight was all about the pending decision on the aid. I didn’t understand everything on the tube, for sure. And I rarely see it.
Duglas, my friend at Suni, was reported to have said at the time of the demonstrations in Managua, looking onto the streets below (much happened right by our neighborhood because we are near University of Central America and the National Engineering University and students have historically always, everywhere been the instigators of demonstrations), that he thought the country was on the verge of civil war. I will have to talk to Duglas more when I get back to Managua.
I don’t really know what is going on in the world or at home. I would like to know how the rest of the Latino world is doing in the wake of the world financial crisis. How is Brazil doing? What is happening in Venezuela now that the price of oil is so low? What is happening in Bolivia with all of the trouble that Evo Morales has been having with the ricos, etc.?
Keep me informed! And I love receiving news about each one of you, honestly, I do. I get to download the email, and then I get to pour over it in the evening to learn of everyone’s lives, and this keeps me up with all of you so that when I return, I will know about you all! It is really good to read of what you are doing. I suppose by now I have no savings left, but because I don´t know, I think it is better. What could I do if I knew how bad things are, anyhow? Nothing but worry. Here, I don’t worry.
I apologize for the length of the letter. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be moved to write, but the desire finally came. I will include a few fotos on the blog when I get to the internet again . . . . It is: http://guatemalanicaragua20072008.blogspot.com/
FINALLY, I have a book to recommend very highly. It is called Ancient Futures, Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge. Get from the library, or buy if from Sierra Club books, but do get it somehow, and do read it. You won’t be sorry. There is so much to relearn in it. Ladakh is a traditionally Buddhist community high high up in the mountains of northern India. In the introduction by Peter Matthiessen, he says it for me:
“The celebration here of traditional Ladakhi life induces exhilaration but also sadness, as if some half-remembered paradise known in another life had now been lost. So evocative is it that I felt – I don’t know what – homesickeness?”
This is the life I am living, really, although much of the modern world has intruded, as it has now, unfortunatey, in Ladahk. But the mujeres solares understand the value of food grown close to home and organically, of using everything and wasting nothing, of cooking with solar ovens, and lighting with PVs -- and this much more than we can say. If it isn’t what Ladakh was, neither is it the industrial society-- with all of its waste, pollution, greed, isolation and crime – that we live in.
I wish you all blessed holidays and a new beginning, remembering paradise lost and working to bring it back into our lives.
Love to everyone,
Katherine
I arrived in Managua after 9 pm on November 23, 2008, and was greeted by a smiling Susan waiting outside the controlled area of the airport. As usual, I appreciated the welcome of free carts to manage my luggage, which included my guitar, a large and very full backpack, and a stuffed daypack with the computer and a thousand other things in it . . . And best of all there was George with a little car to take us back to Managua and the neighborhood. George is this early 50s guy, with wife and kids back in Maine, who is considering being on the board of Suni Solar (one of the spin offs of Susan’s efforts, the second largest solar business in Nicaragua (which isn’t saying much, but it is growing with the help of microloans to customers and its ethic is to serve the rural poor. It is taking other business to support this side, as solar is becoming more and more popular in places like San Juan del Sur, a place where people from the US have been buying up coastal property). He is also a surfer and has been to a solar course and got hooked on the whole Grupo Fenix scene. He is a very open guy and we had a great time talking about love and sex and the whole darn mess. Basically, he told me his life’s secrets in one day.
I stayed in the Eduardo Munga barrio again, near Susan, for the first couple of nights. REAL basic, and REAL hot, with a man named Juan, who apparently has a million kids, but one of his kids, Elvis, and Elvis’ family of 4 others, lives with Susan in her tiny house in the barrio, which says a lot about what kind of father he is. Elvis has birth defect that looks like he may have been a thalidomide baby. He sells things in the busy thoroughfare-carretera that rings the barrio. Very dangerous. He is a father of three. His wife is a sweetie and is going to secondary school and to trade school to learn how to be a seamstress. I am sure that Susan is probably helping in that as well.
Susan had planned for me to go to the beach with her, thinking, I guess, that this would be a treat. And it was okay, but the trip there was hot and difficult, and the beach was not good to me. It is about a half hour west of León, at Las Peñitas. Apparently there is malaria there, so when I found out, I was a bit chagrined. I ate the inside of orange seeds, which Susan is convinced protects against malaria. I hope she is right. One is supposed to take chloroquine one to two weeks before going into an area with malaria, which clearly I hadn’t. I am taking it now and will for a couple of more weeks, I guess. The place had mosquitos and lots of other nasty little biters which left me with red spots and swollen legs and feet for a while after we returned to Managua. It was very hot for me, although people in Managua thought it was cool. At the beach, there was way too much sun during the say (that is after about 7:30 am), and because I have developed an allergy to the sun, I really didn’t leave the shade of the hotelito much. I adjusted by going to bed at 9 and getting up at 5 am, and then taking an hour walk on the beach from dawn until 7 am . . . . Basically this was time Susan wanted for herself with her soon-to-be, it is hoped, adopted granddaughter (a little Nica whose family can´t afford to feed her, really), and her daughter plans to take her to the states, but there is a bit of a problem, perhaps, as taking children out of Nicaragua is not favored. In the past, it was allowed for reasons of extreme poverty, but Ortega has said now that Nicaragua can and should take care of its own children. Well, that is right, but in this case, the mother cannot and does not want to take care of this child, so we will see.
Being with Susan at the beach provided a chance to leisurely catch up with what is going on with the UN grant and with the new crop of volunteers, and some reorganization in the jobs at UNI and at the Solar Center in Sabana Grande.
I stayed at Suni Solar for a few days when we got back to Managua as opposed to with the nuns or Juan again. It is a business but has two bedrooms, one with just a bed but it worked for me with a fan, which kept the mosquitos at bay somewhat. The reason there are mosquitos is that it is at the tail end of the rainy season when I arrived.
We left for upcountry, Sabana Grande, on December first and there was a series of meetings about the UN grant. They are just now getting to writing up the plan for how the UN prize will help them. It isn´t a lot of money, and it will be in the form of services, but it is a fair amount, and the women really need to zero in on what their immediate and most pressing needs are. The plan for expert help should be written by the beginning of the year.
As opposed to my last stay here, I am doing less hard thinking work and much more socializing, in the context of family. I think this is a product of the fact that Susan is so burned out. I see my role as more of a shoulder and ear even more than last time and an advisor regarding the need for her to redesign her life and role in this whole endeavor. It is hard, because she doesn’t want to see all she has worked on crumble if she moves aside before someone else can take her place as director, or at least as administrative director, and also there is a question of how she will earn money in the future if she doesn´t proceed carefully. Since she has given so much of her meager earnings to the project and what little she inherited for buying land that will no doubt be the community’s and not hers, she does have to make some provision for herself. She is now 60. She breaks down in tears at times, and so it is clear that she is a mess, poor thing. Too much over the years, not enough rest time, no space of her own. She was kind of counting on social security from her dead Guatemalan husband who worked in the states for many years, apparently. They were married for 5 or 7 years, but he was killed by a car after they were here together not that long. Very sad. But I had to deliver the message that I didn’t think you can collect from a former husband unless you had been married 10 years. Can anyone look this up for me? I would love to deliver happier news to her. KAL, I bet you are a good candidate to ask for this research!
I am living with a wonderful family in Sabana Grande. Joyous, industrious, fun and sweet. Alejandra is one of the Mujeres Solares and is just a pure joy. Marcio is a carpenter and works like blue blazes from the crack of dawn. He has been getting so much work in the past few days, it is amazing and wonderful. Alejandra works all day and Jenny, the 13 year old girl who I love, also does a bit. Marcel, 15, is off picking coffee for two weeks, bless his heart – he and his brother Harold, 10, are about as cute as any two boys could be. Harold fell from a mango tree when he was three and was in the hospital for well over a month, and the fall left him with some damage to his neck and tongue, which is not evident at all. Alejandra says he has a hard time forming some of his vowels, but I haven’t noticed. He is precious. They are unfailingly kind and sweet to me, all of them, and generous with their time and help. Marcio is the most employed of almost anyone here, or so it seems. He has so much business coming in these days that even on Sundays he is visiting customers in the countryside who need a piece of furniture built. Yesterday he brought in a huge caned chair and a tabernacle from a parish priest in Totogalpa. And some other folks visited to talk about things they needed, bringing much appreciated sweet bread with them. There was also a new order for 13 doors and windows, along with an order the day before for some doors for a church in Ocotal I think. Business for Marcio seems to be booming at the moment and he is a happy man. He employs Silvio and occasionally someone else, while he does a lot of the actual work himself and also handles the very amable negociations of the work agreements with clients. It sounds very business-like but actually is so casual and he weaves everything in and out of his life with the family seamlessly. He and Alejandra have a happy marriage and it is very apparent. Every day I become closer with all of them and truly feel like a part of the family. They are just the best, the best, the best, and I am so lucky to be living with them.
Everything is fine, if very dirty, in the countryside, and I come to value it more and more because the time is slower and more full of people than my life at home. People take time for each other. I had told you that I was staying in Ocotal last weekend, and it was my intention to go every weekend for a break from Sabana Grande – I thought I would need to get away from the campo a bit --, and to start with that first weekend. But I had all of my money stolen – probably at least $60, and not only could I not stay, but I had to beg to get the copies of the English book out of hock for my classes last week, and if I hadn’t paid the hotel in advance, I wouldn’t even had had money to get home on the bus. I felt so stupid for letting that happen, and of course I was disappointed. But after coming back, I realized I wanted to be here, as I am now much happier to be with the family on the weekends and hanging out with various other of the campesino families. They are so sweet, and it is fun to be with them. It is also fun to spend time with the families as a whole, especially if they have young adults from about 13 on – I have always liked teenagers. Like today, I spent a while with the family I lived with back in January and February when I was in the country, and we had such a nice time. The mother, who seems like a sister, almost, to her three kids because she is so little, is growing so much in confidence just from the last time I was here, and really likes the English class. One problem is that the women are so busy with domestic chores, with their roles at the Solar Center and then add in church obligations, it is crazy. How they manage all that they do is beyond me. And all is done with perfect grace. They are an amazing bunch. They have very little, we do everything by hand, from schucking the corn before cooking at night for the next day’s tortillas to washing the clothes. There is much heavy work, no indoor plumbing, and things are dirty all of the time because we are living on the ground, and the housing, while there are walls, is still open at the top of the walls, and the winds are such that now during the dry season dirt blows. There are tarantulas and scorpions, and frogs and other insects and spiders. We have a cat, Jackie Chan, and a dog, Vandan. They are named after actors in action films. I know Jackie Chan, but not Vandan. I like these two very much. Both like me too, which is nice. We also have a pig who gets moved every evening so he won’t be disturbed by passers by on the road, a few hens, and couple of roosters, but one is a fighter who was given to Harold, and is more trouble than he is worth. They are very good to the animals. We are surrounded by lots of plants that Alejandra takes great care to grow, and I am eating right now the first ripe papaya from the yard. There are some squash like things growing in the yard and lots of herbs and then just pretty flowers. Marcio and the kids just harvested a ton of beans from some land that they farm away from the house somewhere. I have yet to see it. And they grow their own corn. It is not easy – then Alejandra cooks it for a long time, and then in the morning, Jenny takes it to the molina, where it is ground into corn meal for making a bunch of tortillas. This ritual goes on, day in and day out.
I sleep under a mosquito net, of course, like before. I have arranged my room by building little shelves close to the floor with bricks and boards I found about (lucky to live with a carpenter), and arrange my clothes on two lines I have strung across the room. It is like an aerial armoire.
Today I washed clothes all day after my special walk up to my favorite hill. Usually in the morning I go a shorter route, before work. This happens from 6 until 7 on weekdays. Today, Saturday, I started a bit later and stayed for a bit longer, but the wash was calling. I also wash dishes for Alejandra (finally got gloves for this – my hands are a mess with excema at the moment, probably from some lotion I bought to help them, which only hurt them. It is hard to get pure stuff here), and sweep the room and patio a lot. So much dirt gets in everywhere, it is a constant occupation. I am clearly in one of the nicest situations, though, because it is quite lovely in so many ways, because of the people. I prefer being away from the house when all the work on the cabinets, doors, or whatever is happening because the noise is deafening. They are used to it, but today, as I was not at the Solar Center because it was Saturday, I had to put in ear plugs because the noise from the electric table saw was constant and incredibly hard on one’s ears. But the rhythm of hand washing lots of dirty clothes helps to keep ones mind off the noise. I use the solar shower I brought down some times and some times the cold shower. It is actually quite a nice jolt in the morning before work and after the hike. We are so fortunate to have a shower, as last time, I had to get water to bring in the very dirty enclosure and wash with a pan.
Today I put in three large concrete-able nails in the cold shower area to hang towels and bathrobes. It is always a challenge to stay clean when one is balancing a towel on a dirty shelf, etc. One thing I will mention is that there is another volunteer living here at the house as well, a young man named Brian, from the states. He is likeable, but a little clueless, and doesn’t help out much. He is generous, though. But what is a bit bugging about the culture is that Alejandra washes his clothes for him. He thinks its great, of course, but there was never an attempt or mention of washing my clothes. I talked about this a bit with Alejandra . . . I know it is cultural. It is not that I want my clothes washed. Not at all. I would not allow it and I actually enjoy it. It is that he doesn’t have to wash his clothes that is annoying. Women clearly are the workhorses in this community, and Marcio appears to be an exception to the rule. Theirs is an equal marriage, with mutual respect. They have different roles, but there is no question that both roles are equally essential and respected.
My friend Ignacio said to me a couple of weeks ago that after I had been here a while I wouldn’t want to leave. I said, no, I would not stay for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it is hard for me to live in the climate, the sun, and especially the dirt, because my skin breaks down when it is dirty. But now, even after a couple of weeks, I see his point. And every day, it gets easier for me, as I am figuring out what to do to live in dirt and sun and protect myself from its effects on me pathetically white and fragile skin. It will be hard to leave the family, which includes me in everything, and with whom the interactions all day and evening are easy, intimate, fun, but when I want my space to think, to read, to work, I can just go in my little room and do those things and no one cares. I am not one for TV and they watch in the evening sometimes, which makes time for me to TRY to play the guitar a little or do other things that might be a problem later on when people go to bed. Everything is open, one room to the next, at the top, so one cannot make noise after others have gone to bed, which is usually around 9 or so . . . I stay up working until 10 and then reading sometimes until 10:30 and up at 5:45 or 6. I have had time to try to work in yoga on some days and it is a blessing. Without the gym, I really need to do more than just my hour walk up the hills and back in the morning and the walks to and from the Center, which probably amount to another 3 miles every day.
Today I went to multiple baptisms in Totogalpa at the church. We took the bus which threatened never to come but arrived on time for mass and the baptisms were afterward. A LOT of crying babies, dressed to the nines in white. I have included some fotos for you of this event. These folks don’t have much of anything, but for these events, their children could not be more beautifully decked out. It is something. I took pictures of my family being madrina and padrino, and of course of the baby, Dani, and then Marcio’s brother had a baptism, and some other relative. We spent all day walking around the region of Sabana Grande visiting houses open for the celebration of baptisms and at the end, Marcio’s mother’s house, at which were three other of his siblings and their kids, also had a pudissima, which is a way they celebrate the virgin Mary from anywhere around the Immaculate Conception (of Mary, by Elizabeth, which few Catholics seem to remember – they think it is the virgin birth of Jesus) – until Christmas. People come from all around and sing traditional songs and say prayers to Mary at an altar built in the house. There were tons of people at Marcio’s mother’s house, and they were celebrating her birthday (69 tomorrow), a baptism, and were having a pudissima. We are having a pudissima on Tuesday and I am expected to play the guitar for Tu Gloria, Tu Gloria, which I can do, as it only involves 2 chords, really. I am adding another for interest. We were fed at every house. I finally had to say no to more food.
Picking up the thread of these thoughts, we did indeed today have our pudissima at our house, which the family has every year, to thank the virgin for a good year. Marcio was telling me tonight how pleased he was with the pudissima this afternoon because he has been so fortunate with his work and everyone is healthy (I rearranged my teaching schedule to accommodate this, as I couldn’t envision not being here, even though we had just arranged yesterday to have the class during the time that the pudissima was being held (the time of which I didn’t know about until last night). I wouldn’t have not been here. It seems natural that the family and these important social/religious celebrations are every bit as important as work, and we easily move things around to accommodate both. No one had a problem with my asking to have the class at a different time because of my family’s pudissima. This is also something I admire about the way we do things here. No one doubts that what we are doing at the center is important and good, but no one would think of working through these important socials events, either. And also, the physical closeness is great, too. One woman holds my hand when she talks to me. People are constantly saying, “Katia, this and Katia, that, including you in, asking you things. I understand a bit more as time goes by.
So, now I understand more what Ignacio was saying. I now know I will indeed miss many parts of life here, primarily, the closeness of being with people who you know intimately in a rhythm of life. It is just more fun being surrounded by that rhythm of life, especially when you can have some private space as well. It is like the communal living that we all talk about having, but so far haven’t gotten around to. The one we envision where we have our private space, but can commune when we choose. . . . . I am living that on a very simple, humble scale. But of course it is much easier, because Alejandra is cooking for all of us all day. It is, though, some test of whether I might want to go live in some similar kind of situation, somewhere, someday.
I started teaching two weeks ago or so, and the classes I have had so far have been a lot of fun. We laugh a LOT, and the 5 or 6 people who are doing it with me are very interested and have fun with it. They need it for their developing businesses because the hope is that when they start their little restaurant, tourists will stop by, as it is right off the highway. Moreover, volunteers from the states, Canada, and Europe come, as well as international participants in the Solar Courses that keep the place afloat come, and the common language of all is English. They think it is fun, we all howl laughing when I mix Spanish and English, or when they are trying to pronounce things. I of course don’t laugh at them, but they laugh at each and thoroughly enjoy it. They always want more time than we had originally decided. I love that.
I have also figured out other things on the organizational development end thatrI can help with beyond the obvious grant writing and organization of potential foundations, which I have not started yet and which may be easier once I get home. There is a desperate need for fact sheets on various aspects of the organizations (UNI, PFAE, Grupo Fenix and the Solar Women, and what each does, what each is, how they are connected, etc. Because I love to write, I look forward to this work and I hope my dear friend Laure Elise Eklund Dunne might have some time to help design the fact sheet format so they look good. The Solar Women might also like to have a logo, Laure! I will ask at the next Monday meeting in January – right now the Center is off for two weeks and I am going to Managua for a week around Christmas to work there on the internet and I hope to go to the Laguna for 2 or 3 days, if there is space. I can work there, too, as there is WIFI.
There are other volunteers here, four young guys, at this time. One is friendly and we talk about the organization, etc. because he may stay and work here for a year with a modest salary. He is Canadian, as is another guy who is making benches for the center. The latter is not friendly, at least to me. Another is from New Zealand, Paul, a real surfer kind of guy, and he is fine, but we don’t do anything together – he is trying to create a more efficient LED system for casitas that would cost less than the system we use now, and then there is Brian, who I mentioned above, from the states. He is making a sign for the Center for the highway. I thought of you, Pete, and that he could have done a much better job with your guidance, but we will see what the finished product looks like after the new year.
A word about politics on the micro and more macro level. Micro-wise, my family is firmly Sandinista. They have a huge FSLN flag flying over the house, as do several other families in the neighborhood. Marcio was in the war at the age of about 14 through 16. Thankfully, he survived. Their view is that under the FSLN, there has been free secondary education for everyone (things cost but it is the accessories of education that cost I think), and according to Marcio, every poor family now has a pig. I don’t know for sure, but I think also there may be free health clinics. Macro-wise, the flip side of this for me is that Ortega appears to be accumulating more and more power and wants to change laws to accumulate more. He has put his wife in charge of neighborhood councils, replicating an already in place and according to some, well functioning system because he wants to consolidate power. Because of changes he wanted to make in the laws, several parties came together in a coalition to oppose the FSLN in the municipal elections held last month. The coalition formed in the spring when I was here, and as a consequence, the FSLN and its ally the PLC, via the elections board, started challenging the legitimacy of the strongest opposition parties. Two of them were declared illegal during the summer. There were hunger strikes by famous former Sandinistas, and pressure mounted leading to the elections. Then, apparently, Ortega would not allow international observers for the elections (maybe the excuse was that they were only for national elections? I do not know for sure), but in any event, it laid the ground for claims of fraud in the elections. There were lots of scary demonstrations in Managua and recently in León. My sense from trying to figure it out (I just missed them in Managua) is that the FSLN was primarily out in the streets being angry that there were claims of fraud, and protesting that the elections were validly won by the FSLN, but I really don’t know. Some people died in the demonstrations. And now it appears the states may withdraw all financial support from Nicaragua because the states are saying the elections were corrupt. The news tonight was all about the pending decision on the aid. I didn’t understand everything on the tube, for sure. And I rarely see it.
Duglas, my friend at Suni, was reported to have said at the time of the demonstrations in Managua, looking onto the streets below (much happened right by our neighborhood because we are near University of Central America and the National Engineering University and students have historically always, everywhere been the instigators of demonstrations), that he thought the country was on the verge of civil war. I will have to talk to Duglas more when I get back to Managua.
I don’t really know what is going on in the world or at home. I would like to know how the rest of the Latino world is doing in the wake of the world financial crisis. How is Brazil doing? What is happening in Venezuela now that the price of oil is so low? What is happening in Bolivia with all of the trouble that Evo Morales has been having with the ricos, etc.?
Keep me informed! And I love receiving news about each one of you, honestly, I do. I get to download the email, and then I get to pour over it in the evening to learn of everyone’s lives, and this keeps me up with all of you so that when I return, I will know about you all! It is really good to read of what you are doing. I suppose by now I have no savings left, but because I don´t know, I think it is better. What could I do if I knew how bad things are, anyhow? Nothing but worry. Here, I don’t worry.
I apologize for the length of the letter. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be moved to write, but the desire finally came. I will include a few fotos on the blog when I get to the internet again . . . . It is: http://guatemalanicaragua20072008.blogspot.com/
FINALLY, I have a book to recommend very highly. It is called Ancient Futures, Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge. Get from the library, or buy if from Sierra Club books, but do get it somehow, and do read it. You won’t be sorry. There is so much to relearn in it. Ladakh is a traditionally Buddhist community high high up in the mountains of northern India. In the introduction by Peter Matthiessen, he says it for me:
“The celebration here of traditional Ladakhi life induces exhilaration but also sadness, as if some half-remembered paradise known in another life had now been lost. So evocative is it that I felt – I don’t know what – homesickeness?”
This is the life I am living, really, although much of the modern world has intruded, as it has now, unfortunatey, in Ladahk. But the mujeres solares understand the value of food grown close to home and organically, of using everything and wasting nothing, of cooking with solar ovens, and lighting with PVs -- and this much more than we can say. If it isn’t what Ladakh was, neither is it the industrial society-- with all of its waste, pollution, greed, isolation and crime – that we live in.
I wish you all blessed holidays and a new beginning, remembering paradise lost and working to bring it back into our lives.
Love to everyone,
Katherine
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