Again, the theme of our project in Nicaragua is “safe water and the environment”. I believe the responsibility lies on those who are most informed. I came to this conclusion by thinking about this theme in both developing and developed countries. For instance, in the U.S. most people are well informed on what constitutes clean water and why it’s important. The government has laws that lay out these facts for those who need a reminder. Laws have been instituted for water. For the environment, laws have also been enacted, but some of these laws are less clear and sometimes people interpret them differently. Also, not all environmental areas are covered under the law. For example, there is debate on whether carbon dioxide levels should be regulated and if yes, how it would be regulated. With countries similar to the U.S. the government has already laid out laws for the most part for the theme “safe water and the environment”. It’s up to the people to follow the laws that have been enacted. Also, in developed countries we have constantly been told and reminded about the benefits of recycling and composting. It’s up to us to do it. In developing countries, most people are not well informed on the theme. Culture and family history has ingrained in them customs and habits that aren’t necessarily the healthiest for their bodies. However, most people don’t know any better. In these cases, I believe it’s the responsibility of well-informed organizations, such as CARE or the government to educate the uninformed and to install programs to ease people into a different way of living that they aren’t use to. This may take a long time to successfully be completed, because there are more problems beyond economic limitations. As I mentioned, history and social customs lay a big part. But I stay firm on my statement those that are most well-informed on the social issue and have the means to educate have the responsibility to alleviate these conditions.

One thing I definitely noticed was that here in Nicaragua the approach that CARE takes is a very basic introduction to hygiene, sanitation and clean water. For example, I met two girls from Matagalpa that work with CARE. They both attend university there, studying agricultural/forestation engineering. They are in their last year (5th year) and part of their requirements (at least to my understanding) is completing some type of internship. They currently are involved in a CARE hygiene project where they visit homes to check and ensure the homes are meeting hygiene “standards”. I put the last word in quotation marks because CARE has no actual control over these homes. It’s more of a helpful suggestion/education that CARE teaches. The jovenes also told me that they are installing some kind of faucet or a similar device, but most of their energy is being spent on teaching (or reinforcing) people how to wash their hands, how to bathe and why it’s important to drink clean water. These lessons are almost instinct or common knowledge in the states. There are no non-profits (that I am currently aware of) that go around the country and teach adults and children how to wash their hands. In the states, it’s more about new technologies used to purify water, or more on new products to help you stay clean. In the states, the basics of hygiene and safe water are usually common knowledge. I don’t think one approach is necessarily bad; I just that that a country’s level of development calls for a different approach. One advantage I see with teaching and reinforcing the basics is that once people start applying these lessons to their daily lives without having to be reminded, they can move on and start learning about another important and necessary topic, for example nutrition. The disadvantage I see appears when we, as a community or country, develop so much that we start learning about new, unnecessary technologies or products to aid us in our efforts to keep good hygiene or further purify our water. This is when we face a problem; when communities and countries continue to buy and buy and buy. I don’t have a solution for this problem, I just see this as a huge disadvantage with a variety of repercussions for developed countries such as the United States. What’s going to happen when developing countries catch up to our wasteful ways?

It’s taken me a while to get to this journal entry. These past days have been pretty busy and I haven’t gotten much alone time. I believe my service is making a difference. I really want to invest more time on the CBI, now that we’ve gotten started. Also, after talking to my supervisor, I really want to make a list of activities that I haven’t done or people I haven’t talked to in Maria Jesus and make an effort to take advantage of those opportunities. One thing is going to see a water system up in the mountains that community members have been working on. We weren’t able to go because the day before we were scheduled to go, I sprained my toe during a soccer game. Also, I’d like to get to know my host-mom’s grandfather. He’s such a sweet man and I would like to have a conversation with him that goes beyond, “Buenos dias, senor.” I’m sure he has great stories to tell about his life. In regards to improving my service, I’m excited to compile all the fun lessons we’ve done into a binder and leave with the jovenes of the community. It’s our way of (hopefully) leaving a little bit of us in Maria Jesus. As of now, I have nine days left in community, so I better get started on that Maria Jesus bucket list.

I honestly can’t believe that I’m writing this entry, the very day after I wrote about doubting the value of my service. Last night, my partner (Estrella) spoke to our supervisor. Estrella was mainly updating Emilia on some personal matters. I was eating dinner with my host-mom when Estrella ran into the kitchen and exclaimed, “We got the grant, we got the grant!” I literally almost spilled the delicious fideo soup Tania made that night. We both just hugged and screamed and threw out about one-hundred “Oh my gosh!” After the difficult talk with our town leader and days of uncertainty, we finally got word that our application for the construction of the preschool was accepted! To make the news even more exciting, we could start as soon as the next day! I was without words, but full of squeals that whole night. We celebrated with buying a coke and sharing it (I know, a little silly). The grant means a lot to me and my partners; all three of us spoke to many community members who all expressed a great need for the preschool. Yes, this is a success for us but it is so much more for the community. The town leader didn’t really want the preschool project; this worried community members because most of the time what he says goes. But every member we spoke to talked about how it would not only help parents and children now, but it would be something that would benefit future generations as well. This is the main reason why I feel productive, but there is more! =) This Thursday we are having a workshop on teen pregnancy for all the young people of the community; and next Monday, we are having a workshop on human right for the community as well. Both workshops are being facilitated by great and reputable non-profits. On top of that, today is our first day including our second young person in our campamentos. She knows the two other jovenes we were hoping to include, so hopefully we can get them for the last three days of campamentos this week. All in all, I’m really looking forward to these last 14 days; even though it seems like a short time, I believe there is still so much to do and I can’t wait!

Well there are only 14 more days left until I leave Maria Jesus. I keep changing my mind on whether 2 weeks is a long or short time. In regards to seeing my family back at home, it honestly seems like a long time. But in regards to my service, 2 weeks just doesn’t seem like enough. The campamentos (our educational classes) we’ve been having are my own personal measure of success on a daily basis. At first, these campamentos were great; we had high attendance and full participation. But as the weeks have past, our attendance has greatly decreased. But on the other hand, the small classes we had did have its advantages. For one thing, we were able to do more one on one work in addition to less physically intensive activities, like poems and songs. The kids were more focused and we got feedback right then and there. The success of the other main project is a bit more difficult to measure. Like I said, we have 14 days left in community and we are still waiting for confirmation on a grant. I keep reminding myself that AMIGOS doesn’t define a CBI as a completed project. They look more at the process you’ve taken. For example, our construction project of a preschool is expensive, but the whole community is in full support of it. So instead of scrapping the expensive project and completing a more affordable and smaller scale project, our supervisor and our group decided to go for a grant that will hopefully allow us to build the school. Although we haven’t built anything yet, we have been taking all the possible steps to get the money for this project. We also have plan B in case the money falls through. Also, my group and I have really tried to use the resources of the community. For example, this Thursday we are having a lady, Aleida, from a local non-profit called CESEMA co-facilitate a “taller” (workshop) on pregnancy prevention with Efrain, a guy who works for another non-profit named Movimiento Comunal. I believe our small successes such as these make the community more unified and in a way more responsive to AMIGOS and the presence of its volunteers. If the community sees that we are actively pushing and fighting for a project they want and are genuinely incorporating their human resources, they will know that AMIGOS volunteers are here to collaborate with them, not simply to impose our ideas and our projects on them. At the end of the day, this is the goal, so even though we don’t have as many kids attend our campamentos and even if we don’t see a finished pre-school, I have the satisfaction of knowing that we’ve gained the respect and warmth of the members of Maria Jesus.

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!