Time to ante up...

Warning: I am on my soapbox here, if you don't want to listen, check a later post when I'm feeling less contemplative.

You know, the longer I am here, the more I realize that the problems that are faced here are brought into sharp relief because of the poverty that exists here on levels that we don't really understand in the US. But, they are the same problems that we face back home, the people are the same, they hold the same values that we do and they want the same things that we do happiness, security, a good life for their children.

Before coming here, I expected to find it different, alien, foreign, and that would be the reason for the problems that are here, but it's not. Believe me, Nicaragua is all of those things to me, but in some ways it is also so very familiar. I catch site of things that remind me of family, of my abuelita, of my kids back home and I realize, no matter how disconnected American can seem from the rest of the world we are not. We are all interrelated and at our most fundamental levels we are connected by our common needs.

On Thursday, I caught a ride to Managua to spend some time at my mom's cousin's house. During the trip I had the opportunity to talk education with a veteran teacher (over 27 years experience). The issues that she raised as being fundamental to educational problems in her country are the same problems that I have discussed countless times with other teachers in the US. Teachers here are not paid enough, classes have too many students, and often teachers have to pay for the classroom supplies or not have them at all. Sound familiar?

A teacher here makes about 2,000 cordobas a month. That's roughly $100 per month. Even counting experience and specialty degrees a teacher can't make more than 3,000 cordobas per month or $160. For each year of experience you only get a really raise of 10 cordobas or 50 cents a month.

Since I have been here, I have had plenty of opportunity for reflection, and it seems to me that this is the real issue facing education, we talk about the importance of education, but we are not willing to put our money where our mouth is. Education is a critical need for any country. To be successful a country must have a highly educated populace, yet it seems that in so many places, including the US, we are failing in our duty to our children. Education is fundamental not only to democracy but also to self. A people must be educated before they can understand their fundamental rights and fight for them. They must be educated to create new opportunities for themselves and their country. And, they must be educated so that they understand how to be responsible citizens.

At its heart, the idea of education is that we are preserving our future. Not for our sake, but for the generations that are to come. We teach our children our values, our history, our culture, and we hope that they continue to pass all that on, but fundamentally we are failing our children because it seems like we want to push all responsibility for educating them onto them. And now, instead of understanding that it is our responsibility to educate our children we now seem to promote that it is our children's responsibility to learn.

And, whether you agree with me or not, I have to say that I believe that the most critical needed education reform today is funding. Having worked in the Arkansas Delta and now in rural Nicaragua, I have to say that the fundamental issues are the same. Without adequate funding highly qualified teachers here or in other parts of the world will continue to be lost through attrition as they seek possibly less rewarding but more lucrative jobs in other fields.

The teacher that I spoke to on the ride down to Managua was highly qualified and a kind and compassionate individual who spoke about having a heart to work with children. She said, and I agreed, that not everyone can work with children. Some people come just for a paycheck and that hurts everyone. But, those who have the heart are hard to find and maintain because everyone has to work. People know that teaching doesn't pay well so the number of students enrolled in teaching courses has continually decreased leading to teacher shortages. Also familiar from our talks in Hughes.

So. I have to say that its time that we are willing to go "all in" with education. We need to start paying teachers what they are worth for helping to form our future, we need to seek people with heart and direct them towards education as a career, and we need to return to the idea of teaching as a respectable profession instead of just a job. If we fail to do this, its our future that will be bleak, our kids who won't be able to pass on our democratic ideals and values, and our society that will suffer.

No amount of standardized testing requirements, or quality standards, or smaller school sizes will fix the inherent problems in our schools unless we are willing to address the fundamental issue at the heart of education: teachers. Without qualified teachers our children don't have a chance and the only way to recruit and retain these teachers is to start by valuing them and their role in shaping our democracy.

So, I ask what are we willing to give up to fully fund education and the teachers that are so central to this idea? How much are we willing to pay? Big Eric has told me plenty of times, that people value more that which they have to pay for, and I agree. So how much are we willing to pay to ensure our future?

Profe...

Yeah, that's me profe. Its short for professora which the kids call all the staff here. It's kind of funny because they will yell it out and then everyone has to turn because they don't know who they are calling.

Last night it rained, bad! The power went out right after 6 and stayed out until around 10 sometime. Unfortunately before I went to bed I forgot to turn the light switch off so when the power came back on it woke me up! Oh well. It was really hard to sleep because of the rain, thunder, and lightning. The sound of rain on a tin roof contrary to some people's false perception is not relaxing! Haha! Plus it was so hot last night that between the storm and the heat, sleep didn't come easily or last long. I think I got 3 hours maybe total before I heard the cleaning lady come knocking on the door at 5:30 in the morning. I am so tired right now, that its hard to see straight!

I finally was able to get the mosquitero as they call it here installed. Unfortunately, I have realized a previously unknown fear of small spaces. If I wake up in the night sometimes the tent surrounding me freaks me out! Isn't that nice to know about yourself all at the last minute?!? I am still being eaten alive by mosquitos, sancullos, and also I think fleas! There are so many strange animals rooming around, I think there must be fleas and with the cat getting in the house, I think we got some too.

The net has kept the pesky bugs from getting me at night. However, if anyone remembers the travel commercial with the people inside of the net who turn on the light and there are thousands of bugs trying to get in, sometimes it feels that way. Note to everyone sleeping in a mosquito net: never turn off the light, get in bed, and use the computer! The screen draws them to you like crazy and they will flap their wings on and on outside the net! Not cool!

I long for the easy days of laying on my pillow top mattress with my adjustable thermostat and I dreamed fondly last night of pizza and cold drinks. Soon friends I will be able to go outside and have every convenience I can think of close by. So that reminds me that this experience has surely taught me to count my blessings and appreciate all that I have so I hope that all of my fellow students are learning the same.

The cat in the house…

These are the kids playing some version of Simon says where if you mess up you have to pay a penalty. This girl was embarrassed because she had to squak like a chicken!

So, when I was first moved to this house, one of the education team members warned me that I would be very bored here. He even went so far as to say that he had spent one weekend in Somoto and that it made him cry from boredom because he was all alone in the house all the time.

Thankfully, I can say that I haven’t been pushed to tears from loneliness. In fact, in the week and a half since I have been in the house, it has been anything but empty. I think that I only spent one night out of the whole time alone! There are visitors every day passing through this region from various groups with the organization and they often stay with me at the house. Since I have been here there have already been 21 guests! Somoto is apparently the rocking place to be!

So, now onto the cat in the title of this post. On Saturday morning I woke up to find that my malaria pill from Friday night had made feel very sick in every kind of very yuckie way! I don’t want to go into details, but why is it that we can’t create a medication whose side effects aren’t nearly as bad as what we are taking the medication for? I mean is it too much to ask that a pill that is supposed to keep you well doesn't make you sick?

I didn’t get much sleep either so at 5 when I woke up I took a shower and then went back to bed. At 7 I was startled awake by a sound from the roof and I when I gazed drowsily up there was a cat climbing on the top of my walls inside of the house (the roof is not connected directly to the ceiling so open air gets in and apparently now cats). The cat literally scared me so much that I was shaking. I had to get out of bed because I started to imagine that other things were going to get in the house!

Although I had plenty of visitors this weekend (8!) it was pretty peaceful for the most part. I did some work, walked around town with one of the women from the center, saw the church (finally) and sat in the gardens in the middle of town.

I plan to definitely make it to Managua this weekend so that I can visit my mom’s cousin’s grandson (if that makes any sense). I also have to say that I am contemplating doing a canopy tour! If I don’t chicken out that is! Here's hoping that I regain the good sense that I normally have about such things and decide to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. Well friends, its raining in Somoto now, so I face another muddy walk through town, and I should get started.

Note to self...

Keep eyes tightly shut while walking to the center.

Today a suicidal fly flew into my open eye! Yuck!

Hip hop Nica style...

Flat Stanley says, "Call me please. Maricella's backpack is super boring!"

So, while I am sitting in my room preparing to write today’s blog, the ongoing loudest noisemaker competition from the houses surrounding mine begins. The first to enter the fray today is the café oasis next door which surprisingly enough has chosen to lead off with “Crossroads” by Bone Thugs and Harmony. I can’t fully describe to you the truly surreal feeling that I had when I first understood what I was hearing…

“Hey, and we pray and we pray and we pray and we pray
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday…
See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads
So you won't be lonely”

in Somoto, Nicaragua. Craziness! Even more absurd is that next door has decided to enter the fray by blaring (literally I can hear every word) of Shrek! And of course across the street has to join in by bumping Suavemente! It’s like I’m on some strange reality tv show, but nobody decided to tell me in advance. I can only say at least it’s lively and I like most (but definitely not all) of the local music choices.

So yesterday, kind of out of nowhere, the sky opened up and poured out enormous buckets of rain like an hour before I was supposed to leave from work. Thank God that one of my spontaneous not sure if I need it purchases was to buy a travel umbrella. However, the storm lasted only about 45 minutes and by the time I left, the roads were full of mud, but at least it wasn’t raining anymore. I didn’t even get to use my pretty pink umbrella which one of the little girls assures me is too small to stop the rain!

So, my goal was to go to Pali and buy more water and make it to the cell phone store before it closed. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t cool anything down, if anything it made things ten times more hot plus added the fun component of mud. So by the time I made it to the street where the authorized phone dealer sign was I decided that would be my last stop of the night. However, even though they had a six foot sign that said Claro! autorizado, apparently they were not authorized to sell phones. That’s what I get for putting my faith in a sign. But, they were kind enough to give me the directions to the real dealer and after another brief walk I made it to the store.

Since it was close to closing there weren’t any people in there so that was good they could help me right away. I got my new very tiny Motorola phone for 500 cordobas (like 40 dollars). I also had to buy minutes because they don’t have contracts over here for the short term. The sales guy was very nice and explained everything to me like I was slow because I told him I didn’t know anything about how the cell phone system worked here and he took that to mean I had a mental impairment so he spoke very slowly and very loudly! Why does that happen in all cultures? Just because you don't understand doesn't mean more volume will help!

After being sure that he wrote everything down for me and paying I was on my way to the house. By the time I reached the house, my shoes were once again covered in mud. It’s a common thing here, since we are entering the rainy season, I only hope that my shoes make it the duration. I have already had to wash them twice by hand. Thank goodness that I bought them because they’re specially made to go in water!

At the center today, I worked on translating the completed evaluations. That part is a headache in Word, for some reason it keeps changing the set language so everything that I type in Spanish gets highlighted as misspelled, which then keeps you from finding things that really are misspelled. Oh, well such is the trial of computers, they think they’re helping you, but they really aren’t.

I had a traditional Nica sopa (soup) today for lunch, it was very hot and reminded me of something that my lita used to make. And, we had havena today. And for my mom if she’s reading, ha ha! I had pinot lio ayer! I sat with one of the other staff Sonia who is really nice and who is going to take me around Somoto and show me what I missed while walking in circles last weekend!

I wish I could say that walking to work has gotten easier, but really it hasn’t. In the morning after a cold shower, I feel good, but once I get about a half a block uphill and it starts to feel like working out! For Kelley, if she’s reading, I gotta say the hair is holding up better than you might imagine, but the main problem is that its so hot here, that my hair is pretty dry! I can’t wait to have a full treatment done when I get back!

Seriously though, I think I’m starting to get into the groove of things here. Last night I slept really good! I only woke up at 4:50 once the animals began their morning chorus. I am starting to get used to the various sounds that occur on my block. I am also getting used to my work schedule. Today we set a time for me to do the parent evaluations during a monthly meeting they have with parents in a couple of weeks so I will be working on making sure that the staff know how to administer the evaluation and how to assist the parents if they need help.

This weekend is the big trip to Managua. I will be going to visit my mom’s cousin Lynda’s house and meet Lynda’s grandson. I hope to get some good rest and hopefully get to enjoy some time in the city. On Monday I will make my way back to Somoto and hopefully have the information that I need to get the evaluations for the students underway by the end of the week.

Well, that’s all I have to report for now, I will be heading to the Pali tonight again since I definitely need water and sugar (for my café leche) and now a flashlight! The power went out the other night for over an hour and I didn’t have anything to light the house with, not even a candle. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone, and apparently the custom is when the power goes out to sit on the stoop and talk which is what we did. But, if it happens again, I definitely need a flashlight. I was in the middle of eating dinner, and if it wasn’t for one of the volunteers passing through Somoto having a light I would have to sit in the dark eating my sandwich! And, today, the power went out very briefly when big gusting winds shot through town! So, flashlight is a priority, wish me luck on finding a flashlight and batteries that will fit it!

Buenas...

That’s the first thing that I learned here. The most common greeting here is Buenas…not hola, but Buenas like Buenas dias or tardes or noches…but the rest is just left unsaid with the understanding of what is meant by the greeting. Often when you enter the classroom or see large groups of students grouped together you will hear a loud shout of “¡Buenas!” I really like to hear the sound of the kids yelling it out! It’s like if you walked into a classroom and the kids yelled out Good!

On Friday, I went to work and spent most of the day trying to format the evaluation for the youth into some kind of codified document. It was “El dia de los niños” (kids day) at the center, so there were really any classes. There was dancing and music and other events, but two youth were put in charge of the center as directors and so there wasn’t any classes for me to follow up on. So mostly, I listed and watched the kids having a great time. I took some video of some of the kids competing in a Kid’s Day. What they are doing, I can’t really describe, I think its some sort of fashion show, but I am not really sure since I didn’t catch the instructions in the beginning. But basically each girl parades down the line and tells her message. The one that gets the biggest applause says, “My message is that all boys and girls have the right to live!” I can't get the video to load onto you tube so when I can I will showcase it here for you. But, here is a picture of the kids in the lunch room enjoying the show:

I had a great weekend. On Friday after work, one of the staff here dropped me off at Pali, the local supermercado. I know grocery shopping is not very exciting, and Pali is really small compared to the supermarkets back home, but it was exciting for me. Everything in the store that was American brand like Nestle, Coke, Oreo, etc. are more expensive (like three times their counterparts), but the other brands are not local but mostly imported from Mexico.

I didn’t really have a list so I just sort of bought some random items that looked appealing for that night realizing that since I still had to walk back three or four blocks to the house, I couldn’t buy everything in one day. So when I went home, I started working on sorting all my stuff out so that I could be sure that I had everything in order. I couldn’t eat my dinner of choice (Ramen noodles) because I couldn’t get the gas stove to light and I couldn’t find the fosforos (matches), so I settled for a small snack and tried to finish up some work that I needed to complete. That night there were tons of bugs in the house and ants all over the place and I got eaten alive. I have twenty bug bits just on one leg! There is a mosquito net, but the ceiling is too high to reach so I can’t hang it. But one of the volunteers is going to try to come by tonight and hang it for me. Last night I sprayed myself with OFF and sprayed my pajamas too just for good luck! So hopefully, I won’t get malaria, especially if the net gets put up.

For Saturday, I woke to the sound of roosters, dogs, donkeys, etc. all competing for the prize of being the loudest and most obnoxious. This is the view from my house at 5:30 in the morning:

For the day, my plan was to a) find a cell phone and b) make it back to Pali. The first part of my plan did not fare well at all. All the shops here have signs that say “Si venden Click aqui” which is their brand of cell phone, but unfortunately that only means that they sell the prepaid cards for the phones, not the phones themselves. I went walking all around looking for the shop and finally found it, but unfortunately it was closed on the weekends, so I guess I’ll try to go back today after work.

In wandering around looking for the cell phone store, I became hopelessly lost, so I figured that I would walk around in circles until finding something reasonably familiar. I walked all through town and I do mean all through town before finally seeing Pali! It was like a great sigh of relief to know that I had made it to where I wanted to be but also that I knew how to get to the house from there.

So this time in Pali, I had a plan. I bought things that don’t have to be cooked and of course more water. There is no limit to the amount of water that I drink in a day. It’s really kind of healthy, but since I really don’t like water, its not making me happy. But, I did have a major cramp in my leg on Friday and I realized that I need to be sure to drink enough water to avoid that again. Plus it is so hot here, that I don’t want to eat that much, but am thirsty all the time. So I drink like two liters of water a day.

After Pali, I successfully made it home in one piece although some young teenage boys did stop to whistle and make stupid comments at me assuming that I couldn’t speak Spanish, but I set them straight pretty fast. All in all I spent about an hour or more wandering around the City which is good exercise in itself as well as being a good exercise in figuring out where everything is.

*At this point I have to stop to point out that the music that was playing outside has just changed from some sort of Christian Spanish Gospel hybrid to 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. there is a wealth of contradictions aqui!

At the house, I got down to cleaning the house, washing dishes, and washing my tennies which were covered in dried mud because of the rain on Friday. Later that night two volunteers came down from Cusmapa to visit Somoto. They invited me to go with them to the Grand Cañon de Somoto and we went on Sunday. We left early in the morning and it was a beautiful day out. The rainy season has just started here so the guide kept telling us, “El Rio es bravo” (the river is mad) and that we couldn’t cross with out truck. That pretty much decided it for me, so I stayed on this side of the River while the others crossed over to the other side, took a hike, then a boat, then another hike before making it to the other side of the Cañon. Maybe before I leave when it’s calmer water like in August, I will try to make the trek, but yesterday it was good just to sit on the rocks talking and watching the washer women cleaning clothes in the river on a rock. And here is a picture of the angry river:

And, I got my first real quality time in the sun, so of course I got burned! When I got back to the house I couldn’t figure out why it was so hot in the house when it wasn’t that hot outside. Well, the answer is that it wasn’t it was me. My skin was starting to feel the impact of the sun and so now instead of my usual peachy color, I am almost a coral color, but hopefully that will fade out into beautiful brown.

Today I walked the 9 blocks to the center uphill! Let me tell you there is no mascara that does not run in this kind of hot! But it was nice trip I got to see some different stores that you wouldn’t see in the US like the Doctor’s office also say he’s some sort of faith healer! I stopped at a small store to buy matches so I should be set for tonight! Ramen it is! Yeah baby, good times. Well now that I know the stove works and I have matches, I can make café leche in the morning. I haven’t had any coffee since I have been in Somoto and its kind of wearing me out! Well friends, I have to work now so I will talk with you all soon. Tonight I try to find the cell phone store once again. Wish me luck!

The fear of dying

Ok, so I am officially in my home away from home in Somoto now. The house where I am staying is a sort of crash pad for all staff traveling in this region. Last night there were 8 people including me staying in the two bedroom house (so basically there were mattresses all over the place including the living room!) Still no hot water; and the water shoots out all over the place. Now there are giant ants which one of the other staff assures me are not peligroso (bad), moths, and some sort of giant flying insect much scarier looking than a wasp that is in fact muy peligroso and bites!

Before leaving Managua, I got a mini tour of the city that included the Presidential Palace (somewhat like our white house, but pink), the park where they burned the guns after the end of the revolution, and the memorial where Pope John Paul II first visited Nicaragua and won over the people. Apparently, the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega is not using the Presidential Palace at this time, so its pretty much empty. Instead, he is running everything out of his own home. After the tour I went briefly to the center before setting off on the road to Somoto.

We traveled from Managua to Somoto in about 4 hours through a beautiful landscape up into the mountains. And, contrary to what I thought, the road was very well paved for the majority of the trip and the view was beautiful. During the trip my guide and I spoke about a variety of topics including the difference between the US and here, politics, children, God, religion, corruption, etc. It was a great opportunity for me to practice my Spanish! When we got to Somoto we visited briefly with the Director and I had lunch. I am getting very used to having gallo pinto at every meal! Then we went to visit Quebrada Honda which although is only 30 kilometers away is more than an hour of driving time up, up, up, (I really mean up) a steep hill that turned from cobblestone to dirt.

It was really beautiful, something like driving up through a land untouched by time and bare of man’s machinations. I wish that I could have gotten some pictures for you, but unfortunately, as anyone who knows anything about me knows, I have a serious, terrifying, very horrible, really shockingly overwhelming fear of heights. Since for most of the trip I was on the side of the car that tipped precariously off the side of the cliff, I couldn’t make myself let go of the hand bar in order to grab my camera and catch that exquisite view. At the top of the very large mountain we met with the Director of Quebrada Honda and talked about what I would do when I come back in a couple of weeks.

The ride back down the mountain was much more scary (even though I was on the mountain side) because it had started to rain. I have to say that I am terrified of the driving here and as it was explained to me by my guide, that driving here is not defensive but offensive! You fight to get the right of way and only give it up if absolutely imperative. I think that I will have to get some Pepto Bismal for any future rides because I seriously get queasy just thinking about it. People here honk all the time and it seems like there are a few different kinds of honks:

1. “I’m here” (this is used to notify others that you are coming around a curve, your passing them, or your just passing an intersection, this is a sort of light tap on the horn).

2. “Hey, I’m here!” (this is used when someone doesn’t respect your right of way and you have to remind them that you are there, and is a little bit stronger).

3. “Get out of the way!” (this is a more rapid form of honking used to encourage cars that strop in the middle of the street, which they do all the time to move out of your way) .

4. And, finally, “You’re an idiot!” (this is used a lot and is a long blaring of the horn that signals that the other driver has done something really offensive such as stopping to let a pedestrian go by!)

Driving here is a highly elevated art form, which I am terrified to even think about trying. They wanted me to drive to the house last night, but I was like no way! I am not that good a driver and I would likely get very lost (since everyone knows I have a poor sense of direction) and I would crash or get stuck in the mud.

Finally, we got a ride to the house and then we went looking for food. In Somoto it is much harder to find prepared food because there are not a lot of people who buy premade food. We went to three different places before we finally lucked out on one that had burritos and frozen slushes in various flavors. I will have to go shopping this weekend at the Supermercado up the street to buy some essentials such as bottled water. The house doesn’t have internet, but it is right next to an internet café, so I think that I will be able to have some access when I am not at work. I will be working at the Somoto office for now, and once my evaluation tool is complete, I will be administering it here and at Quebrada Honda. Possibly also at Cusmapa depending on how long it takes to get everything approved and done. Things here move very slowly and it’s a little bit frustrating, but apparently I just need to get used to Nica time.

Last night I was so tired I tried (note the word tried) to crash at 7:30. Unfortunately for me there are loud cars and trucks and donkey buggies (yes, you read that right, donkey buggies) that go up and down the street. There is also light that comes through the windows from the streetlights and no air conditioning. It’s really not that bad at night once it gets dark but I will have to get used to it. You know I love my automatic air conditioner! In addition to all of that I was woken up several times during the night by the chorale of dogs, roosters, and some other assorted animals that I am not sure what they were. Finally, I got up and at 5:30 and took a shower. I was shocked every time I looked at the alarm to see what time it really was because I didn't hardly get any sleep. If it wasn't a car it was a dog or other assorted animal every 30 minutes making noise!

One of the staff here, Arturo informs me that Somoto is the capital of a districto here Madriz (like a state) that is one of the most historic regions in Nicaragua. It's about 500 years old, I was told. The city has rows of cobblestone roads in a neat line and rows and rows of colorful houses that look like something out of a movie. The house has a gas burner in the kitchen and dishes for me to use and there is a lady who comes to clean once a week who I can apparently bargain with to do my laundry. A load of laundry here is like less than a dollar and to ride the Express bus to Managua is only three dollars! I have to provide the laundress with soap though and for extra money they will iron for you.

The walk from the house to the center is 9 blocks, so I will be getting a lot of exercise. And, when I move to Quebrada Honda, the walk is all up a mountain! Oh boy, I can feel the Aleve calling me already! So for now that is it everybody. This weekend I am going to explore the city a little and hopefully find the church. According to Arturo it’s beautiful and historic to this area.

Well friends, there will be more later; as tonight I will try to brave the supermercado!