The event that prompted such a response actually happened two days ago. I didn’t really want to write about it, I mainly wanted to get past it and move on. Two days ago, I was asked by my supervisor to gather some information from our community leaders for a grant that could greatly benefit us in building the preschool Maria Jesus members greatly desire. One of my partners and I made sure to go talk to him early in the day. We learned from past experiences that if we hope to accomplish anything with Don Roy, we should ask very early. So we went to his house early that Sunday (my partner and I agreed that while working him, I should probably be the main one conversing with him; again we learned this from past experiences). This conversation started with me describing/explaining the Bevil grant and how it could greatly benefit the community. I then explained that the information we were there to collect had to be gathered ASAP due to the competiveness of the grant. Still, even with all of these explanations, it still was so difficult to get him to focus and work with me. After an hour of me and Estrella continuously trying to get to the point, we agreed that he would talk to a man (Don Manuel) about a job and that a joven (Arlen) would gather a concrete list of people willing to help with the construction of the school. I gave him a deadline of 5 pm (which really meant 8 or 9 pm) by when we needed the information. He agreed to meet us at 3 pm at his house to collect all the info. By this point, I was frustrated because we literally had to repeat the same explanations over and over. Not only that, but he was getting frustrated with me and giving me attitude because of the immediacy I was pushing for. This frustrated me because the info Estrella and I were there for was a grant, a grant that was not for our benefit, but for the community, his community, a community he’s responsible for. That’s what really upset me. But anyway, the story goes on. Later, Estrella and I returned a little past 3 pm to his house. When we got there, his wife told us he was at his grandma’s house, visiting; he’s be back at 4 pm she said. Estrella and I decided to go talk to one of our other youth members about an educational meeting we were planning, instead of just waiting for him there (time management!) When we returned at 4 pm, he still wasn’t there; we waited until 5 pm and then it started raining, hard. Estrella and I joked (half-heartedly) that the weather was displaying our frustrations/emotions. After the rain stopped, I told Don Roy’s son to please tell Toy to come by my host mom’s house when we got back. Later that night, his son came by and told me his dad was home. I asked him if he could tell him to drop by, but the kid didn’t go (he was watching WWE, which my host-dad on the TV). After 5 minutes of waiting for him to go, I put on my boots and headed to Roy’s. I should’ve known he wouldn’t be there, but I was thinking positively I guess. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t there; his wife said he had left to visit a friend. This was my breaking point. I literally just started laughing to myself, attempting to make myself feel better and make the situation seem light-hearted. I just didn’t know what else I could’ve done. So I just returned to my host family’s house, updated my partner and proceeded to play cards with my family. We did our part, now we could just wait for Roy to do his. To make the situation even funnier, the next morning (at like 6 or 7 am) Roy told my host-mom to tell me that Don Manuel was going to go into the city (Matagalpa) to price materials. I’m not sure why he couldn’t have told me and my partner this the day before like we agreed on. Maybe he was trying to show me who’s the boss and that he does things on his own time, but I just realized that I can’t let my emotions towards him get to me so much that they don’ t allow me to do my work here in Maria Jesus. At the 7/19/11

The event that prompted such a response actually happened two days ago. I didn’t really want to write about it, I mainly wanted to get past it and move on. Two days ago, I was asked by my supervisor to gather some information from our community leaders for a grant that could greatly benefit us in building the preschool Maria Jesus members greatly desire. One of my partners and I made sure to go talk to him early in the day. We learned from past experiences that if we hope to accomplish anything with Don Roy, we should ask very early. So we went to his house early that Sunday (my partner and I agreed that while working him, I should probably be the main one conversing with him; again we learned this from past experiences). This conversation started with me describing/explaining the Bevil grant and how it could greatly benefit the community. I then explained that the information we were there to collect had to be gathered ASAP due to the competiveness of the grant. Still, even with all of these explanations, it still was so difficult to get him to focus and work with me. After an hour of me and Estrella continuously trying to get to the point, we agreed that he would talk to a man (Don Manuel) about a job and that a joven (Arlen) would gather a concrete list of people willing to help with the construction of the school. I gave him a deadline of 5 pm (which really meant 8 or 9 pm) by when we needed the information. He agreed to meet us at 3 pm at his house to collect all the info. By this point, I was frustrated because we literally had to repeat the same explanations over and over. Not only that, but he was getting frustrated with me and giving me attitude because of the immediacy I was pushing for. This frustrated me because the info Estrella and I were there for was a grant, a grant that was not for our benefit, but for the community, his community, a community he’s responsible for. That’s what really upset me. But anyway, the story goes on. Later, Estrella and I returned a little past 3 pm to his house. When we got there, his wife told us he was at his grandma’s house, visiting; he’s be back at 4 pm she said. Estrella and I decided to go talk to one of our other youth members about an educational meeting we were planning, instead of just waiting for him there (time management!) When we returned at 4 pm, he still wasn’t there; we waited until 5 pm and then it started raining, hard. Estrella and I joked (half-heartedly) that the weather was displaying our frustrations/emotions. After the rain stopped, I told Don Roy’s son to please tell Toy to come by my host mom’s house when we got back. Later that night, his son came by and told me his dad was home. I asked him if he could tell him to drop by, but the kid didn’t go (he was watching WWE, which my host-dad on the TV). After 5 minutes of waiting for him to go, I put on my boots and headed to Roy’s. I should’ve known he wouldn’t be there, but I was thinking positively I guess. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t there; his wife said he had left to visit a friend. This was my breaking point. I literally just started laughing to myself, attempting to make myself feel better and make the situation seem light-hearted. I just didn’t know what else I could’ve done. So I just returned to my host family’s house, updated my partner and proceeded to play cards with my family. We did our part, now we could just wait for Roy to do his. To make the situation even funnier, the next morning (at like 6 or 7 am) Roy told my host-mom to tell me that Don Manuel was going to go into the city (Matagalpa) to price materials. I’m not sure why he couldn’t have told me and my partner this the day before like we agreed on. Maybe he was trying to show me who’s the boss and that he does things on his own time, but I just realized that I can’t let my emotions towards him get to me so much that they don’ t allow me to do my work here in Maria Jesus. At the 7/19/11

The event that prompted such a response actually happened two days ago. I didn’t really want to write about it, I mainly wanted to get past it and move on. Two days ago, I was asked by my supervisor to gather some information from our community leaders for a grant that could greatly benefit us in building the preschool Maria Jesus members greatly desire. One of my partners and I made sure to go talk to him early in the day. We learned from past experiences that if we hope to accomplish anything with Don Roy, we should ask very early. So we went to his house early that Sunday (my partner and I agreed that while working him, I should probably be the main one conversing with him; again we learned this from past experiences). This conversation started with me describing/explaining the Bevil grant and how it could greatly benefit the community. I then explained that the information we were there to collect had to be gathered ASAP due to the competiveness of the grant. Still, even with all of these explanations, it still was so difficult to get him to focus and work with me. After an hour of me and Estrella continuously trying to get to the point, we agreed that he would talk to a man (Don Manuel) about a job and that a joven (Arlen) would gather a concrete list of people willing to help with the construction of the school. I gave him a deadline of 5 pm (which really meant 8 or 9 pm) by when we needed the information. He agreed to meet us at 3 pm at his house to collect all the info. By this point, I was frustrated because we literally had to repeat the same explanations over and over. Not only that, but he was getting frustrated with me and giving me attitude because of the immediacy I was pushing for. This frustrated me because the info Estrella and I were there for was a grant, a grant that was not for our benefit, but for the community, his community, a community he’s responsible for. That’s what really upset me. But anyway, the story goes on. Later, Estrella and I returned a little past 3 pm to his house. When we got there, his wife told us he was at his grandma’s house, visiting; he’s be back at 4 pm she said. Estrella and I decided to go talk to one of our other youth members about an educational meeting we were planning, instead of just waiting for him there (time management!) When we returned at 4 pm, he still wasn’t there; we waited until 5 pm and then it started raining, hard. Estrella and I joked (half-heartedly) that the weather was displaying our frustrations/emotions. After the rain stopped, I told Don Roy’s son to please tell Toy to come by my host mom’s house when we got back. Later that night, his son came by and told me his dad was home. I asked him if he could tell him to drop by, but the kid didn’t go (he was watching WWE, which my host-dad on the TV). After 5 minutes of waiting for him to go, I put on my boots and headed to Roy’s. I should’ve known he wouldn’t be there, but I was thinking positively I guess. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t there; his wife said he had left to visit a friend. This was my breaking point. I literally just started laughing to myself, attempting to make myself feel better and make the situation seem light-hearted. I just didn’t know what else I could’ve done. So I just returned to my host family’s house, updated my partner and proceeded to play cards with my family. We did our part, now we could just wait for Roy to do his. To make the situation even funnier, the next morning (at like 6 or 7 am) Roy told my host-mom to tell me that Don Manuel was going to go into the city (Matagalpa) to price materials. I’m not sure why he couldn’t have told me and my partner this the day before like we agreed on. Maybe he was trying to show me who’s the boss and that he does things on his own time, but I just realized that I can’t let my emotions towards him get to me so much that they don’ t allow me to do my work here in Maria Jesus. 7/19/11

The event that prompted such a response actually happened two days ago. I didn’t really want to write about it, I mainly wanted to get past it and move on. Two days ago, I was asked by my supervisor to gather some information from our community leaders for a grant that could greatly benefit us in building the preschool Maria Jesus members greatly desire. One of my partners and I made sure to go talk to him early in the day. We learned from past experiences that if we hope to accomplish anything with the town leader, we should ask very early. So we went to his house early that Sunday (my partner and I agreed that while working him, I should probably be the main one conversing with him; again we learned this from past experiences). This conversation started with me describing/explaining the Bevil grant and how it could greatly benefit the community. I then explained that the information we were there to collect had to be gathered ASAP due to the competiveness of the grant. Still, even with all of these explanations, it still was so difficult to get him to focus and work with me. After an hour of me and Estrella continuously trying to get to the point, we agreed that he would talk to a man (Don Manuel) about a job and that a joven (Arlen) would gather a concrete list of people willing to help with the construction of the school. I gave him a deadline of 5 pm (which really meant 8 or 9 pm) by when we needed the information. He agreed to meet us at 3 pm at his house to collect all the info. By this point, I was frustrated because we literally had to repeat the same explanations over and over. Not only that, but he was getting frustrated with me and giving me attitude because of the immediacy I was pushing for. This frustrated me because the info Estrella and I were there for was a grant, a grant that was not for our benefit, but for the community, his community, a community he’s responsible for. That’s what really upset me. But anyway, the story goes on. Later, Estrella and I returned a little past 3 pm to his house. When we got there, his wife told us he was at his grandma’s house, visiting; he’s be back at 4 pm she said. Estrella and I decided to go talk to one of our other youth members about an educational meeting we were planning, instead of just waiting for him there (time management!) When we returned at 4 pm, he still wasn’t there; we waited until 5 pm and then it started raining, hard. Estrella and I joked (half-heartedly) that the weather was displaying our frustrations/emotions. After the rain stopped, I told the town leader’s son to please tell him to come by my host mom’s house when we got back. Later that night, his son came by and told me his dad was home. I asked him if he could tell him to drop by, but the kid didn’t go (he was watching WWE, which my host-dad on the TV). After 5 minutes of waiting for him to go, I put on my boots and headed to the town leader’s house. I should’ve known he wouldn’t be there, but I was thinking positively I guess. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t there; his wife said he had left to visit a friend. This was my breaking point. I literally just started laughing to myself, attempting to make myself feel better and make the situation seem light-hearted. I just didn’t know what else I could’ve done. So I just returned to my host family’s house, updated my partner and proceeded to play cards with my family. We did our part, now we could just wait for the town leader to do his. To make the situation even funnier, the next morning (at like 6 or 7 am) the town leader told my host-mom to tell me that Don Manuel was going to go into the city (Matagalpa) to price materials. I’m not sure why he couldn’t have told me and my partner this the day before like we agreed on. Maybe he was trying to show me who’s the boss and that he does things on his own time, but I just realized that I can’t let my emotions towards him get to me so much that they don’ t allow me to do my work here in Maria Jesus. At the end of all this, I was proud of myself for doing what I could and letting the rest take its course. As long as I know I’m putting 100% of my energy into this, then I feel accomplished. I think this event won’t change my relationship with the town leader, it will only change my reactions to his questionable/unreasonable actions.

So far this experience has met a lot of my expectations. One of my goals was to get to know the community and sort of integrate myself into their daily life. I think today has been a great example. I just got back from a festival in a neighboring community. It was hosted by an organization called Movimiento Comunal, who works to educate kids on environmental issues through the use of art and theater. Today they focused on climate change and they had older kids from community perform a play titled “El Ciclo.” It was really great to see different communities come together and support a cause. My partner and I went with some jovenes from our community and the town leader’s wife and kids. The jovenes from the community were invited and told us to come along. I love that they felt comfortable and consider us more as friends rather than just as volunteers. Also, our “campamentos” (classes) have been going really well; and as of this Monday we’re starting to co-facilitate classes with a joven from the community. Arlen (the joven) has been trained by CARE and we believe she is such a strong resource. I think the fact that we’ve located and started forming friendships with involved and motivated jovenes. I think the only think I intend to change is how I deal with the leadership style in the community. At first (and currently) I became very frustrated with the way the leader handled things. But after discussing it with my supervisor, I realize I need to focus on his strengths. For example, the fact that he welcomes AMIGOS with open arms is a very strong positive. I need to focus on that and keep attempting to work in a respectful manner.

I think in the beginning I had very specific goals that I wanted to accomplish in such a short time. My group of three had made a tentative schedule for our first week here, and after taking a look at it yesterday, we realized we were very behind. At first this disappointed me. To add to my initial disappointment, when visiting my host-dad’s mother, she began telling me about past volunteers from other organizations and how they brought things to the community and taught English among other things. She then asked if my group was here for more of a cultural experience; to live in a different country as a vacation type thing. This made me sad. I explained that while yes exchanging cultural is a personal goal for each volunteer, AMIGOS, is about collaborating with communities, fostering relationships and only after decide together what projects can be accomplished. I told her that’s why it may have seemed like we were here to solely learn about a community and its culture. Luckily, she understood where I was coming from and seemed to appreciate the fact that my group and I genuinely wanted to get to know the community. As I mentioned, I was a bit disappointed by our lack of concrete accomplishments. But after explaining to Harvey’s mom what we were about, in a way I reassured myself that my group and I were taking the right steps, slow as they may seem to US. Now, I think that by remembering that it will definitely take time to reach our biggest goals, but it’s just as important to recognize the small goals we accomplish in the meantime.

I chose to talk to my host mom about the social issue of safe water and the environment. I guess this would fall under the umbrella of poverty… not quite sure. Either way, while we were washing clothes I began to ask her where the water we were using came from. She told me that her mother-in-law has a well at her house and with the use of tubing Tania and her family get water. I asked her if that’s how everyone in Maria Jesus de Olivas received water. She replied that no, even though the community has electricity, most people do not have access to running or other source of water (besides the river). I then asked what she thought about that. She said it’s okay most of the time but at times people do get sick from using the river water as drinking water. I asked her to elaborate and she did; she mentioned diarrhea among other things. Tania then began to talk about CARE’s new water project that hopes to provide running water with a new piping system. She talk very graciously about CARE. After talking to her I realized that while clean water is very much appreciated; it’s not necessarily the number one issue in this community.

Hi everyone!

I am so exited to be back in the states with my family.=) I had a really great/crazy summer and I can’t wait to hear about everyone else’s too!! I want to apologize for anyone who kept up with my blog (Lilita) and noticed that I wasn’t updating it. My host community, Maria Jesus, was far from anykind of technology let alone any internet access. I didn’t know this before going. I guess I expected it to be like in Guatemala when we were given the chance to email almost every day. But I will be posting journal entries that I did for my Loewenstern that give you a clear/sometimes too detailed account of my summer. I’ll post them asap, and I hope you guys find them interesting!