The toxic tango

Week 2 and I'm based in the office sitting in on a two week workshop with some of the youth from the cooperatives. The aim of this specific workshop is to educate the kids about their relationship with the earth.

Anyone who's been to Nicaragua will have seen the litter strewn towns and highways. The people either don't care or aren't aware that much today's rubbish isn't biodegradable. Rubbish though is just a start, the course deals with the damaging effects of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and so on. Effects such as water pollution, cancer and birth defects in the population. All things that the next generation of farmers need to be aware of.

The workshop brings two extremes together, some heavy theory about the laws relating to the environment and then two hours later, the whole class - and often me - will be doing the samba around the room, followed by some papier mache mask making.

And the reason for all this: at the end of the fortnight the kids will be performing a play called Mother Earth. The drama teacher's plan is to bring storytelling through theatre back to life. Since the Somoza era - the family who ran the country as a dictatorship from 1937 to 1979 - drama has'nt been taught in schools and the 4000+ drama groups have been reduced to 4. Which is one reason the teachers feel that information such as caring for the land for the next generation is no longer taught by most parents, because they weren't taught themselves.

What's interesting is that the so called children are actually aged 16-22 yet seem so much more innocent than their western counterparts. They're also extremely weary of me and try and avoid my questions at all costs. However, as the days go by I'm beginning to sense a little warmth. I think a few more tangos and the conga will soon have them at ease.