The European Union, complete with camera crew, are in town and it´s all systems go.
This morning banners have been erected, display boards are covering the unsightly and extremely smelly toilets, everyone has donned their branded caps and t-shirts and for once the staff in the coffee shop actually look like they work here - they're wearing aprons. Even the military popped in for a visit complete with fatigues and desert boots. They either fear a coup or an MP is in on the party.
Meanwhile two of our students have been plucked out to be interviewed. But first they had to be briefed for half an hour. If they weren't nervous before they certainly are now.
As for the workshop, due to said interruptions we seem to have ground to a halt as teachers are called out to do their bit. Fear not though, someone always has a dodgy DVD in their bag, yesterday it was Kung Fu and Spiderman, today someone has the brand new Harry Potter - straight to DVD.
Tomorrow is the big performance of 'Mother Earth' the play the kids have been working on aimed at raising awareness about pollution.
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Thursday, 19 July 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
El Campo
This last week I've been out to the countryside - El Campo in Spanish - which entailed sitting side saddle for 1.5 hours as we drove through driving rains on dirt tracks to visit small yet highly productive fincas. Just when you think you're in the middle of nowhere all of a sudden you're in a huge finca complete with schools, churches and usually a pool hall.
The organisation I deal with though deals with the smaller fincas, the ones that are cooperatives - owned and run by the communities.
It's absolutely incredible to see that in these remote communities there is electricity, running water people wearing the latest cut of jeans or Nikes trainers - albeit imitations.
The thing is, these people aren't wealthy but thanks to the fair price they receive, medical assistance from the US and the charities who are helping them to diversify their range of crops, they can continue the modest lifestyle they are used to and enjoy. Maybe I was naive but it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.
What's more, from the adults I've spoken to, they have no desire to move to the bigger towns. They go in get what they need and are relieved to get back. Next week the organisation is running a workshop for some of the youngsters from the coops, teaching them about environmental responsibility with some drama thrown in. I shall be asking them if they're happy to carry on with the family business.
And finally, apologies for the lack of pics and the fact that the updates aren't coming think and fast. Every evening as soon as I sit to write the nightly power cuts kick in.
Hasta luego
The organisation I deal with though deals with the smaller fincas, the ones that are cooperatives - owned and run by the communities.
It's absolutely incredible to see that in these remote communities there is electricity, running water people wearing the latest cut of jeans or Nikes trainers - albeit imitations.
The thing is, these people aren't wealthy but thanks to the fair price they receive, medical assistance from the US and the charities who are helping them to diversify their range of crops, they can continue the modest lifestyle they are used to and enjoy. Maybe I was naive but it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.
What's more, from the adults I've spoken to, they have no desire to move to the bigger towns. They go in get what they need and are relieved to get back. Next week the organisation is running a workshop for some of the youngsters from the coops, teaching them about environmental responsibility with some drama thrown in. I shall be asking them if they're happy to carry on with the family business.
And finally, apologies for the lack of pics and the fact that the updates aren't coming think and fast. Every evening as soon as I sit to write the nightly power cuts kick in.
Hasta luego
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Repeta por favor
Greetings from a cold and wet Jinotega.
Being here is incredible if not extremely challenging.
From day one when I was greeted in the office I struggle to comprehend what was being said to me. I was really dissapointed of how limited my Spanish was and the fact that it is very basic for real life situations. I can ask for many thinks, get from A to B and complain when the hot shower isn´t hot (tough luck) but when it comes to talking and understanding in an office with several people I´m lost.
But, I´ll allow myself one excuse - the dialect is so different to what I have ever heard before. There are is so much slang, letters are dropped off words and verbs are conjugated in ways I never thought possible. I imagine it´s like an English language student volunteering with a bunch of jordies.
What it is doing though is really helping me to practice what I´ve learnt. As before, in León, everything I want has to be done in Spanish. So I´m begining to think in Spanish again. Also, because there are so few foreigners here, people in the shops and bars are really keen to talk which again is a help.
The other slight problem is, there´s not actaully anything to do at the moment. As mentioned in the last post, the cooperative works with young children, but because the countryside is so vast they don´t see them every day, they select a group of them and bring them in to town for a few weeks where they´re taught about coffee production, organic farming as well as information such as alcohol and drugs awareness and social responsibility. There is a class being taught next week so I look forward to seeing how it goes down.
And to make this volunteering worthwhile I´ve decided to interview as many people as possible in order to write and article, or more, when I return the UK in an effort to promote and stress just how much of a difference Fair Trade makes. Because in reality I can't help these people here. They have a perfectly good smooth running organisation and they don't really need a do-gooder getting in the way. I sort of knew that would be the case anyway, I just thought there might have been something for me to do.
Being here is incredible if not extremely challenging.
From day one when I was greeted in the office I struggle to comprehend what was being said to me. I was really dissapointed of how limited my Spanish was and the fact that it is very basic for real life situations. I can ask for many thinks, get from A to B and complain when the hot shower isn´t hot (tough luck) but when it comes to talking and understanding in an office with several people I´m lost.
But, I´ll allow myself one excuse - the dialect is so different to what I have ever heard before. There are is so much slang, letters are dropped off words and verbs are conjugated in ways I never thought possible. I imagine it´s like an English language student volunteering with a bunch of jordies.
What it is doing though is really helping me to practice what I´ve learnt. As before, in León, everything I want has to be done in Spanish. So I´m begining to think in Spanish again. Also, because there are so few foreigners here, people in the shops and bars are really keen to talk which again is a help.
The other slight problem is, there´s not actaully anything to do at the moment. As mentioned in the last post, the cooperative works with young children, but because the countryside is so vast they don´t see them every day, they select a group of them and bring them in to town for a few weeks where they´re taught about coffee production, organic farming as well as information such as alcohol and drugs awareness and social responsibility. There is a class being taught next week so I look forward to seeing how it goes down.
And to make this volunteering worthwhile I´ve decided to interview as many people as possible in order to write and article, or more, when I return the UK in an effort to promote and stress just how much of a difference Fair Trade makes. Because in reality I can't help these people here. They have a perfectly good smooth running organisation and they don't really need a do-gooder getting in the way. I sort of knew that would be the case anyway, I just thought there might have been something for me to do.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Back to work - sort of
Apologies for the belated update. I meant to post an update of my progress and write a huge critique of Nicaragua after my course. Instead I fled to to the quiet and fairly remote Isla Ometepe where the urge to blog strangely left me. After that I met my girlfriend for a lovely 2.5 week sojoun in Costa Rica. So, after a month´s break it´s time to get back to blogging and start speaking Spanish.
Here´s a brief update of what´s happened since my last post.
School´s out
After completing my 160 hours of tuition I spent one week on Isla Ometepe, an island on the middle of Lake Nicaragua - the largest lake in the world. Because of their distance from the mainland they remained largely untouched by the civil war and with water from the mountains and extremely fertile volcanic soil they were virtually self sufficient. Now in peacetime the island has plenty of cars and consumer goods, but the residents still feel that they are quite different from those on the mainland.
On the island I stayed in a hostel - formerly the holiday home of the late dictator Somoza - run by Alvaro who also doubles as an internet entrepreneur. He´s currently working on a project to bring fast free internet to all the schools and rural communities on the island. And in addition provide every school child with a laptop. Once the network is set up the fee local companies, tourists, and government offices pay will fund the schools and rural ares. Having just received substantial funding from the government he believes he can change the future of the island giving people a choice to do something other than agriculture. I belive he has the knowledge and charisma to suceed with it I just hope the government follow through on their promise because on the whole people seem to feel let down with the new government.
The state of Nicaragua
Throughout my time in Nicaragua I have met many young people trying to get somewhere in business and continually being frustrated by beauracracy, high prices and poor services.
The electricity company is run by a Spanish company who continue to hike the prices while power cuts become more a part of everyday life than ever before. During my time in Leon we would pretty much have a least one brief power cut every evening and occasionally they would last 1-2 hours. In the last weeks before I left they were also happening most mornings.
Broadband interent is too expensive for most people so they have to settle for an over priced slow dial-up connection for around $30. This is what most people pay in the UK for super fast broadband.
And the reasons for these high prices? One family has a monopoly on some of Nicaragua´s most important goods and services. Without competition prices have got out of control. The 2nd poorest country in Central America is paying for utilities at first world prices. I was shocked to hear about the monolopoly and how the family/companies retain it but for fear of libel I should probably say no more until I can get all the facts.
So having been to the vastly developed countries of Costa Rica and Panama - they have their problems but everything seems to work - I am now looking forward to returning to Nicaragua for stage 2.
The city of mists
The next stop is to the mountains of Jinotega, near the Honduran border, where I´m going to volunteer with a coffee cooperative. They´re fair trade certified and supply coffee to the UK and beyond.
What I´ll be doing there I don´t actually know. There was a mention of machinery and another of teaching the workers´ children. As long as I´m not risking any of my limbs I´m easy. As for the other arrangements such as accommodation and food, in true Nicaraguan style, everything is pretty vague. My main concern is whether I´ll be able to understand them and vice versa. Given that I had great help in writing my introductory email in Spanish they probably think I´m a native.
So, if I´m not sacked on day one I hope to be updating you more frequently on my progress.
Here´s a brief update of what´s happened since my last post.
School´s out
After completing my 160 hours of tuition I spent one week on Isla Ometepe, an island on the middle of Lake Nicaragua - the largest lake in the world. Because of their distance from the mainland they remained largely untouched by the civil war and with water from the mountains and extremely fertile volcanic soil they were virtually self sufficient. Now in peacetime the island has plenty of cars and consumer goods, but the residents still feel that they are quite different from those on the mainland.
On the island I stayed in a hostel - formerly the holiday home of the late dictator Somoza - run by Alvaro who also doubles as an internet entrepreneur. He´s currently working on a project to bring fast free internet to all the schools and rural communities on the island. And in addition provide every school child with a laptop. Once the network is set up the fee local companies, tourists, and government offices pay will fund the schools and rural ares. Having just received substantial funding from the government he believes he can change the future of the island giving people a choice to do something other than agriculture. I belive he has the knowledge and charisma to suceed with it I just hope the government follow through on their promise because on the whole people seem to feel let down with the new government.
The state of Nicaragua
Throughout my time in Nicaragua I have met many young people trying to get somewhere in business and continually being frustrated by beauracracy, high prices and poor services.
The electricity company is run by a Spanish company who continue to hike the prices while power cuts become more a part of everyday life than ever before. During my time in Leon we would pretty much have a least one brief power cut every evening and occasionally they would last 1-2 hours. In the last weeks before I left they were also happening most mornings.
Broadband interent is too expensive for most people so they have to settle for an over priced slow dial-up connection for around $30. This is what most people pay in the UK for super fast broadband.
And the reasons for these high prices? One family has a monopoly on some of Nicaragua´s most important goods and services. Without competition prices have got out of control. The 2nd poorest country in Central America is paying for utilities at first world prices. I was shocked to hear about the monolopoly and how the family/companies retain it but for fear of libel I should probably say no more until I can get all the facts.
So having been to the vastly developed countries of Costa Rica and Panama - they have their problems but everything seems to work - I am now looking forward to returning to Nicaragua for stage 2.
The city of mists
The next stop is to the mountains of Jinotega, near the Honduran border, where I´m going to volunteer with a coffee cooperative. They´re fair trade certified and supply coffee to the UK and beyond.
What I´ll be doing there I don´t actually know. There was a mention of machinery and another of teaching the workers´ children. As long as I´m not risking any of my limbs I´m easy. As for the other arrangements such as accommodation and food, in true Nicaraguan style, everything is pretty vague. My main concern is whether I´ll be able to understand them and vice versa. Given that I had great help in writing my introductory email in Spanish they probably think I´m a native.
So, if I´m not sacked on day one I hope to be updating you more frequently on my progress.
Sunday, 27 May 2007
Friday, 25 May 2007
For want of a better word.
Made my first big faux pas this week.
There´s a man - about 60 - who sits in front of our house every afternoon. Sometimes he carries out DIY for Hilda - the landlady - but most of the time he just sits with a cup of coffee that Hilda sells him for 1 cordoba a cup (3p). He always says hello to me and we try and have a chat but for me his accent is so indecipherable I usually just nod and get on my way.
The other day he was asking for something but I couldn´t work out what. I concluded that it was most likely to be coffee or Hilda.
So I asked him if he wanted more coffee.
´Quiere mas cafe?´He didn´t.
´Quiere Hilda?´ I asked, to which he shook his head and gave me a puzzled ´I don´t understand look´.
I repeated it again slowly using the friendly familiar version of the verb, rather than the formal.
´Do you want Hilda´. He shook his head emphatically.
I couldn't work out what he wanted so said goodbye and assumed he´d knock on the door if it was important.
You´re no doubt ahead of me here.
The following day I went to school and asked my teacher if he could demonstrate the difference between the formal and the informal. He did and I told him I´d been using it that way but was receiving confused looks.
´How did you use it´ he asked.
I explained the situation and he burst out laughing.
´Quiere Hilda means: Do you love Hilda?´
I see. I should have said ´Busca Hilda´. Are you searching for Hilda.
The following day the man wasn´t on the step. I felt terrible but couldn´t find the right words to explain my faux pas to Hilda. Thankfully the following day he returned smiling away and giving me firm handshakes as before. I assume a day away from the doorstep was enough to show me that he´s only after Hilda´s Nescafe and nothing more.
There´s a man - about 60 - who sits in front of our house every afternoon. Sometimes he carries out DIY for Hilda - the landlady - but most of the time he just sits with a cup of coffee that Hilda sells him for 1 cordoba a cup (3p). He always says hello to me and we try and have a chat but for me his accent is so indecipherable I usually just nod and get on my way.
The other day he was asking for something but I couldn´t work out what. I concluded that it was most likely to be coffee or Hilda.
So I asked him if he wanted more coffee.
´Quiere mas cafe?´He didn´t.
´Quiere Hilda?´ I asked, to which he shook his head and gave me a puzzled ´I don´t understand look´.
I repeated it again slowly using the friendly familiar version of the verb, rather than the formal.
´Do you want Hilda´. He shook his head emphatically.
I couldn't work out what he wanted so said goodbye and assumed he´d knock on the door if it was important.
You´re no doubt ahead of me here.
The following day I went to school and asked my teacher if he could demonstrate the difference between the formal and the informal. He did and I told him I´d been using it that way but was receiving confused looks.
´How did you use it´ he asked.
I explained the situation and he burst out laughing.
´Quiere Hilda means: Do you love Hilda?´
I see. I should have said ´Busca Hilda´. Are you searching for Hilda.
The following day the man wasn´t on the step. I felt terrible but couldn´t find the right words to explain my faux pas to Hilda. Thankfully the following day he returned smiling away and giving me firm handshakes as before. I assume a day away from the doorstep was enough to show me that he´s only after Hilda´s Nescafe and nothing more.
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