This was published in the quarterly magazine for Peace Corps Nicaragua. It is a publication written for volunteers by volunteers. Filling this out also means that my service is coming to an end. I can not believe that it has been two years. I am due to leave here in July.
1) Name: Oliver Dunn
2) Site: Somoto, Madriz
3) Nicknames: Chele (whitey), Profe (Professor), Oliver Cann, Oliver Garza
4) Favorite Dicho (saying): “Que me la vaya bien” (“Go well for me”), why am I going well for you? , “Si dios quiere” (If God wants it”), a great way to not have to do anything, apparently God didn’t want it.
5) Any advice on dating a Nica? If you get more attention here then you did in the states, then I am sure it is true love.
6) What did you do during your service? Helped build Primary Schools, Tried to teach kids to think originally, Tried to help restaurants with their business, traveled all over Nicaragua. Read tons of books.
7) If you could change one aspect of your service what would it be? I did it pretty much the way I thought I would and wanted to.
8) What will you miss? Having so much free time to relax, read, write, reflect, and hang out. I will certainly miss being able to get sauced off of $5.
9) What would BRING YOU BACK to Nicaragua? If I receive the following phone call within my lifetime: “Oliver, this is Danny Ortega calling. We have a bit of a situation. Nicaragua, as you are well aware, is going through some growing pains. Well, as it turns out the Nicaraguan people have banded together to develop their tourism trade by organizing themselves and their resources. We have decided it is about time that Costa Rica stop taking all of the tourists in Central America. The reason I am calling you is that your President has made me aware that you are well versed in this field. In fact you are the only person in the world who can make this happen. Without you there will never be a possibility for Nicaragua to reach “developed nation” status. The future of Nicaragua, its culture and people rest on you. We are willing to pay you whatever it takes for you to lend us your services. Please, please, come back to Nicaragua to help us. You are our last hope, without you we will surely fall.” So yeah if I received this phone call then I would at least flip a coin, heads being that I come back.
10) Your most pinche (cheap) moment? I lived 2 weeks on 500 cords ($25) to see if I could do it, I guess this is not that big of a feat for an Agriculture Volunteer, what do you people spend your money on?
11) How has the PC changed you? I will certainly be much nicer to and more patient with people who can not speak English very well. I have even more of an appreciation for the US then I already had. I am much more realistic on the effectiveness of “development work”.
12) Favorite Nica food or drink? Gallo Pinto (Rice and Beans) with Ketchup, Tacos with ketchup and cream, Fresco de Naranja (Fresh Squeezed orange juice).
13) Most random care package item? A box of baby wipes, however they came in handy.
14) How many times did you have to poo in a cup? Never, I am the bionic man, I imagine all the lead and arsenic I had in my local drinking water helped me.
15) Best/worst memory? My best memories were the times I spent with other volunteers, too many to count. My worst memory was almost dying when a truck I had hired nearly fell off a cliff when the brakes gave out.
16) Bus stories? A fond memory I have riding a bus was when a friend and I rode on top of one. We were heading to a rural mountain community and we took turns passing a bottle of rum and coke, while dodging the low laying branches and power lines. The views just kept getting better. (If this is not permitted then I was just making it up, but I did have a helmet on.)
17) Most embarrassing moment? It was kind of embarrassing coming back to site after the two consolidations during the threats of hurricanes. It never got worse than a torrential drizzle in my site and they could not understand why I had to be emergency evacuated.
18) Would you do it all over again? If I were to be transported back two years, I would do it again. That is to say I am glad that I did it. Would I do another 2.25 years after this? Ni quiere a dios (Even god wouldn’t want it).
19) Did you ever think about quitting? Never seriously, the idea of working 10 hour days, having to wake up at 6am, and sitting at a desk seemed worse.
20) Conveniences/commodities/creature comforts you missed the most? Choices at a bar, food from all over the world, being surrounded by people who “get you”, peace and quiet, not having to cross my fingers every time I eat, warm showers, not being bored out of my mind, not being asked for money or visas every day, common courtesy….shall I continue?
21) What's next? Travel through South and Central America for as long as the readjustment allowance allows. I suppose after that I will look for a job that I can make a lot of money so that I can buy a bunch of crap to make myself feel better about all the time I spend at work. Have a family, sacrifice for my children so that they can have more than I did growing up. Have them grow up to be unappreciative, resentful and tell me how I ruined their lives. Eventually retire, move to an old folks home, have my mind slowly slip away and call my family, who only come to visit twice a year out of guilt, the wrong names. Sit staring out of a window muttering nonsense to myself and then one day become mulch.
22) Advice for remaining volunteers? If given a choice, most people would not choose to do this. Don’t let someone make you feel guilty for not doing enough. Do what you need to do to keep your head. Make sure you keep a good sense of humor about things.
23) Parting words: Roses are red, violets are blue, you’re still in Nicaragua, sucks for you! Thanks for the memories.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Development Work in the 3rd World
Visions of poor naked children playing in the dirt usually come to mind when one thinks of the 3rd world. Houses made of mud brick, straw or corrugated tin roofs dominate the landscape. Well this is not too far off, but certainly not the rule. There are disparities in wealth just as we have the in the United States, the most wealthy nation in the world. We certainly have all of the modern conveniences at our finger tips, if we have the means to take advantage of it. Often there is a bit of guilt for the people who have “everything”, and our benevolent conscious grips us when we see the commercials about what 20 cents a day can do if we were only to make the phone call to pledge this meager tithe. Millions of people around the world do try to help by donating tens of millions of dollars worth of money, clothes and food. Clearly it is the duty of humanity who can afford it to be socially responsible. It is not as if one chooses at conception where they wish to be born, into what family, or socio economic level. There has been a lot of good done and a plethora of good to be done.
The problem that seems to exist though is that the inefficiencies in development work are such that no person in their right mind would invest in a public company with similar practices. In effect that is what we are doing when we put money into a development project, investing. The goal is not to see financial returns, but rather to see that people are better off than before.
Currently countless dollars are poured into projects that do not have clearly defined goals and objectives. Many religious groups are to blame for this fact. They think that to give gifts are the way to better an underdeveloped nation. This has created a culture of the open palm. People will wait around for years for someone to rebuild buildings, roads, bridges, schools, homes, latrines, wells etc. There are very few non governmental organizations (NGOs) that will teach people how to do the work that will offer them the opportunity to better their own lives.
What is happening is that the open palms have replaced people willing to break a sweat. It is much easier for both parties to throw money at a problem, but never effective. How can people in developing nations be trusted with lump sums of money? Clearly they have not learned the skill of using it to grow and develop or else they would not be in the predicament they are in. Government officials in the US are corrupt; do we honestly think that they would not be here?
An issue that I have seen is that there are too many NGOs. They tend to overlap in many areas and think it beneficial to reinvent the wheel at every step. Understandably they have to have something to sell the investors, but why aren’t there NGOs who are able to direct finances towards programs that exist and have proven effective. How many different English programs are needed? This is the case in most niches of development work. Everyone want to have their name stamped on a product and none of them are very good products. It seems that the type of people who go into development work are scattered. They may begin with an idea and then see need in other areas as well. They then try to reach 6 or 7 different issues and do then all poorly. Could any company be effective if they begin making bicycles and then see the need for t-shirts, bubble gum, couches, light bulbs and cement? Possibly with the work force of the US government this would be possible, but in the real world this is not efficient.
The problem that seems to exist though is that the inefficiencies in development work are such that no person in their right mind would invest in a public company with similar practices. In effect that is what we are doing when we put money into a development project, investing. The goal is not to see financial returns, but rather to see that people are better off than before.
Currently countless dollars are poured into projects that do not have clearly defined goals and objectives. Many religious groups are to blame for this fact. They think that to give gifts are the way to better an underdeveloped nation. This has created a culture of the open palm. People will wait around for years for someone to rebuild buildings, roads, bridges, schools, homes, latrines, wells etc. There are very few non governmental organizations (NGOs) that will teach people how to do the work that will offer them the opportunity to better their own lives.
What is happening is that the open palms have replaced people willing to break a sweat. It is much easier for both parties to throw money at a problem, but never effective. How can people in developing nations be trusted with lump sums of money? Clearly they have not learned the skill of using it to grow and develop or else they would not be in the predicament they are in. Government officials in the US are corrupt; do we honestly think that they would not be here?
An issue that I have seen is that there are too many NGOs. They tend to overlap in many areas and think it beneficial to reinvent the wheel at every step. Understandably they have to have something to sell the investors, but why aren’t there NGOs who are able to direct finances towards programs that exist and have proven effective. How many different English programs are needed? This is the case in most niches of development work. Everyone want to have their name stamped on a product and none of them are very good products. It seems that the type of people who go into development work are scattered. They may begin with an idea and then see need in other areas as well. They then try to reach 6 or 7 different issues and do then all poorly. Could any company be effective if they begin making bicycles and then see the need for t-shirts, bubble gum, couches, light bulbs and cement? Possibly with the work force of the US government this would be possible, but in the real world this is not efficient.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Give Me a Break
Well I’ve just returned from my most recent brush with death. I’d received a phone call early in the morning asking if I’d be so kind as to get out to a rural community where we’d built a school and take photos of it. The donors for the school like to have a nice picture in their office to prove that they are good people. Well as I’m also a very good person I jumped at the opportunity. I hired a truck to take me out there which cost the equivalent of $60 for the entire day. To a Nicaraguan this is a small fortune, but I was in a time crunch so I did what needed to be done.
Things got off to a great start. I had to borrow a camera from a friend of mine, but he decided to join me on my quest. The mission was to drive to the school, take happy smiling pictures of the students in front of their new school, then drive home and send these pictures back to the states. It seemed, at first, like a fairly straight forward task, something even I could accomplish. We ran into some early luck. I did not know exactly how to get to the school since I’d only been there once. I stopped by the mayor’s office, interrupting his meeting to get directions. As luck would have it there was a member of the destination community at the meeting. I was able to take him with me, therefore avoiding the whole “getting lost” problem.
Well more or less that was the last of our good luck and the beginning of our “find the good fortune in this” luck. It began to rain. Never mind the fact that we are currently in “dry season”. Since I was in the back of a pickup truck I was exposed to the elements. Fortunately it was cold too, so I was cold and wet as the wind pelted me. We passed by the teacher of the school as he was leaving the community on his bike. Needing help gathering the students, since school is currently out of session, we picked him up to, promising that we would drive him to where he needed to go afterwards.
We got to the final stretch of our trip there, rain still going strong. To our astonishment we came upon a truck that was stuck in the mud on the one lane bridge. The owner was nowhere to be found. From this point on me and a few others had to walk the rest of the way, about 3 miles to the school. Uphill, 3 miles in the rain sucks! I convinced my driver to wait for me to return, which was to be about 5 hours later from our guess. At this point I was glad that I never pay anyone the full amount until I reach my destination. He also sent one of his two helpers with us, from what I can gather for confidence purposes. I am just glad that he did not send the chatty one with us.
Being confident that we were not going to be stranded 35 miles from the nearest town with a phone line, we began our hike. It was not all that bad, but just a bit slippery and wet. Once in town we had lunch at the teacher’s house while the other person we had picked up in the community let the students know there was to be picture time. Now I would like to spend a moment on this. I am at a loss how they are able to get information around in these towns. People live in a radius of about 10 kilometers, but somehow everyone gets the message within an hour. Since Nicaraguans do not move too fast and having “runners” is out of the question, I will just assume that it is mental telepathy.
We sat around waiting out the rains and found our 10 minute window for happy, smiley, picture time. Nicaraguans in general do not smile in photos. They take it as a very serious occasion. A donor does not want a picture of 20 kids who look like they are pissed. People who live in rural communities are the hardest to get to smile. They are self-conscious, timid and nervous. I had to act like a moron for 10 minutes to get any reaction out of these kids. I know that me acting like a moron is a stretch for the imagination, but seriously I can pull it off.
Mission accomplished we wrapped up and headed back. The rain began again, this time harder than before. It was an easier trip back being that it was down hill, but more slippery. Back at the truck that had fortunately waited for us, the guys, whom had not eaten all day, were stealing unripe plantains from a farm. We piled in back, with shoes squishing and underwear dripping. We were given a plastic sheet to put over our heads to help us dry out.
I have to say that I had a bad feeling about the ride back, but I was thrilled to have pulled off this feat. We were going fine for most of the way until we got to a hill where we could not quite make it. This is not a rare occurrence, usually you just back up, get everyone out of the truck and then they give it another shot, if successful then everyone just walks up the hill and continue on. Well this was not the usual case. We stalled and then began backing up. Something did not feel right since we were coasting backwards at an uncontrolled pace. In fact it felt as if the driver did not have any control. In fact the driver did not have any control. We were going backwards, without breaks on a mountain road. Since we were in the back of the truck we could see what was coming. Right in our line was a tree on the side of the road. Narrowly missing the tree we began rolling backwards off the side of the road. We began taking out a barbed wire fence until we came to a crashing stop in a ditch on the side of the road.
I would like to touch on when I said earlier about how the “find the good fortune in this” luck began. Well this was truly the case. Had we gone off the other side of the road, I would have found myself careening down a 50 foot cliff. As it was we were half in this ditch and teetering, had we gone any father a good couple of rolls would have been on the menu. If I were to be asked what I do in an emergency situation the answer is nothing. I just sat there frozen, hoping to hit the tree so it would stop us.
Here we were about 20 miles from the nearest town with electricity. Our truck stuck in a ditch. At this point it was about 4:30pm, the sun sets at about 5:30pm. Fortunately we had cell phones, but we were so far from town that to find a signal we had to walk around finding higher ground with the phones over our heads. I was the only one with signal, but low on minutes. Once minutes run out the phone is useless other then to receive calls. We were able to get in touch with the mayor, but they were sketchy about the details of coming to help us. I called Peace Corps as a backup. I was hoping to have them dispatch the helicopter, but no such luck. At around 8pm, with the help of the mayor we had gotten the truck out of the ditch and they drove us back into town. We left the old truck on the side of the road, it not being reliable to trust. The driver and one of his helpers spent the night inside of it so that it was not stolen. We all spent the night in a hostel in town.
Well I feel fortunate that things did not end up worse as they could have. I have now developed a terror of being in a truck as it is climbing a hill. I am waiting for this to happen again. I think I will have to place myself in a spot where I can make a jump for it if need be. All I know is that I had better be racking up some major “get into heaven” points.
Things got off to a great start. I had to borrow a camera from a friend of mine, but he decided to join me on my quest. The mission was to drive to the school, take happy smiling pictures of the students in front of their new school, then drive home and send these pictures back to the states. It seemed, at first, like a fairly straight forward task, something even I could accomplish. We ran into some early luck. I did not know exactly how to get to the school since I’d only been there once. I stopped by the mayor’s office, interrupting his meeting to get directions. As luck would have it there was a member of the destination community at the meeting. I was able to take him with me, therefore avoiding the whole “getting lost” problem.
Well more or less that was the last of our good luck and the beginning of our “find the good fortune in this” luck. It began to rain. Never mind the fact that we are currently in “dry season”. Since I was in the back of a pickup truck I was exposed to the elements. Fortunately it was cold too, so I was cold and wet as the wind pelted me. We passed by the teacher of the school as he was leaving the community on his bike. Needing help gathering the students, since school is currently out of session, we picked him up to, promising that we would drive him to where he needed to go afterwards.
We got to the final stretch of our trip there, rain still going strong. To our astonishment we came upon a truck that was stuck in the mud on the one lane bridge. The owner was nowhere to be found. From this point on me and a few others had to walk the rest of the way, about 3 miles to the school. Uphill, 3 miles in the rain sucks! I convinced my driver to wait for me to return, which was to be about 5 hours later from our guess. At this point I was glad that I never pay anyone the full amount until I reach my destination. He also sent one of his two helpers with us, from what I can gather for confidence purposes. I am just glad that he did not send the chatty one with us.
Being confident that we were not going to be stranded 35 miles from the nearest town with a phone line, we began our hike. It was not all that bad, but just a bit slippery and wet. Once in town we had lunch at the teacher’s house while the other person we had picked up in the community let the students know there was to be picture time. Now I would like to spend a moment on this. I am at a loss how they are able to get information around in these towns. People live in a radius of about 10 kilometers, but somehow everyone gets the message within an hour. Since Nicaraguans do not move too fast and having “runners” is out of the question, I will just assume that it is mental telepathy.
We sat around waiting out the rains and found our 10 minute window for happy, smiley, picture time. Nicaraguans in general do not smile in photos. They take it as a very serious occasion. A donor does not want a picture of 20 kids who look like they are pissed. People who live in rural communities are the hardest to get to smile. They are self-conscious, timid and nervous. I had to act like a moron for 10 minutes to get any reaction out of these kids. I know that me acting like a moron is a stretch for the imagination, but seriously I can pull it off.
Mission accomplished we wrapped up and headed back. The rain began again, this time harder than before. It was an easier trip back being that it was down hill, but more slippery. Back at the truck that had fortunately waited for us, the guys, whom had not eaten all day, were stealing unripe plantains from a farm. We piled in back, with shoes squishing and underwear dripping. We were given a plastic sheet to put over our heads to help us dry out.
I have to say that I had a bad feeling about the ride back, but I was thrilled to have pulled off this feat. We were going fine for most of the way until we got to a hill where we could not quite make it. This is not a rare occurrence, usually you just back up, get everyone out of the truck and then they give it another shot, if successful then everyone just walks up the hill and continue on. Well this was not the usual case. We stalled and then began backing up. Something did not feel right since we were coasting backwards at an uncontrolled pace. In fact it felt as if the driver did not have any control. In fact the driver did not have any control. We were going backwards, without breaks on a mountain road. Since we were in the back of the truck we could see what was coming. Right in our line was a tree on the side of the road. Narrowly missing the tree we began rolling backwards off the side of the road. We began taking out a barbed wire fence until we came to a crashing stop in a ditch on the side of the road.
I would like to touch on when I said earlier about how the “find the good fortune in this” luck began. Well this was truly the case. Had we gone off the other side of the road, I would have found myself careening down a 50 foot cliff. As it was we were half in this ditch and teetering, had we gone any father a good couple of rolls would have been on the menu. If I were to be asked what I do in an emergency situation the answer is nothing. I just sat there frozen, hoping to hit the tree so it would stop us.
Here we were about 20 miles from the nearest town with electricity. Our truck stuck in a ditch. At this point it was about 4:30pm, the sun sets at about 5:30pm. Fortunately we had cell phones, but we were so far from town that to find a signal we had to walk around finding higher ground with the phones over our heads. I was the only one with signal, but low on minutes. Once minutes run out the phone is useless other then to receive calls. We were able to get in touch with the mayor, but they were sketchy about the details of coming to help us. I called Peace Corps as a backup. I was hoping to have them dispatch the helicopter, but no such luck. At around 8pm, with the help of the mayor we had gotten the truck out of the ditch and they drove us back into town. We left the old truck on the side of the road, it not being reliable to trust. The driver and one of his helpers spent the night inside of it so that it was not stolen. We all spent the night in a hostel in town.
Well I feel fortunate that things did not end up worse as they could have. I have now developed a terror of being in a truck as it is climbing a hill. I am waiting for this to happen again. I think I will have to place myself in a spot where I can make a jump for it if need be. All I know is that I had better be racking up some major “get into heaven” points.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Easily Pleased Gastronomically
I have taken for granted, working for restaurants, how spoiled I was with good food. I used to have a menu to chose from, daily, anything from sushi to a 24 oz bone in rib eye, while working with Shaw’s, or Red Curry Chicken Pad Thai to Duck with hoisin sauce, while working at Vong’s Thai Kitchen. The main concern that I would have would be to not eat too much and obtain what people think of as Midwestern girth. I have been fortunate to be able to come home from time to time and calm my cravings, but I also think that this is making it harder to let go of what I am missing. I certainly do not have the choices that I once had, but I think this helps me to enjoy it when I can make something reminiscent of home.
The other day I got together with another volunteer and we made fajitas. This was no small task because to get those ingredients together was a challenge. First off the tortillas they sell here are corn and are more or less flavorless. As everyone knows the only tortilla worthy of fajita is flour. We were able to score these in the capital city, but it was only one piece of the puzzle. Another important aspect of fajita is the spices. When I was home last time I stocked up on spice packets of taco, fajita, fried rice, kung pao, sloppy joes, etc. I was literally like a kid in a candy store filling my shopping cart with these; I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. Between the two of us we were able to locate onions, tomatoes and bell peppers. Rice and beans were the easiest part, since that is all they eat here.
As we were at his house we were in such a good mood with the reward that was to come. We kept saying “I am so happy right now”. I have a shit eating grin on right now just writing about it. We made quite a bit of food and our theory was that we wanted to break this up into shifts. We had one fajita each at around 6, another at 8 and finished off the rest at 10. We wanted to delay the satisfaction as long as was possible.
Now I do realize that this whole experience would have been a lot better with a Jose Cuervo Margarita, but I will take what I can get. I fear that it is the little experiences like this that will stick out most vividly in my mind years from now. I also know that I will have a serious eating disorder when I come home for good. It is things like this that I plan and I look forward to the entire week, it is pretty pathetic.
The other day I got together with another volunteer and we made fajitas. This was no small task because to get those ingredients together was a challenge. First off the tortillas they sell here are corn and are more or less flavorless. As everyone knows the only tortilla worthy of fajita is flour. We were able to score these in the capital city, but it was only one piece of the puzzle. Another important aspect of fajita is the spices. When I was home last time I stocked up on spice packets of taco, fajita, fried rice, kung pao, sloppy joes, etc. I was literally like a kid in a candy store filling my shopping cart with these; I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. Between the two of us we were able to locate onions, tomatoes and bell peppers. Rice and beans were the easiest part, since that is all they eat here.
As we were at his house we were in such a good mood with the reward that was to come. We kept saying “I am so happy right now”. I have a shit eating grin on right now just writing about it. We made quite a bit of food and our theory was that we wanted to break this up into shifts. We had one fajita each at around 6, another at 8 and finished off the rest at 10. We wanted to delay the satisfaction as long as was possible.
Now I do realize that this whole experience would have been a lot better with a Jose Cuervo Margarita, but I will take what I can get. I fear that it is the little experiences like this that will stick out most vividly in my mind years from now. I also know that I will have a serious eating disorder when I come home for good. It is things like this that I plan and I look forward to the entire week, it is pretty pathetic.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Turtles
The school year has come to an end and it is quite a relief to have the hardest part of my service behind me. As a small vacation I went with a group of volunteers to the beach. We rented a house on the beach and relaxed for a few days. One of the highlights of the weekend was going to see the turtles. Every year around October and November the sea turtles climb onto the beach to lay their eggs in the sand. The amazing thing is that they all come to the original beach in which they were born. Unfortunately the time in which they lay the eggs is in October, which me missed by a month. I did however come just in time for the hatching of the turtle lings. It was a pretty cool experience. It was also much less regulated than it would be in the states. It was nice to see that there have been some efforts to protect the area in which they nest, since they are an endangered species.
They really had no rules other than to not take the turtles home with you, which I was quite tempted to do, since they were like little toys. As I walked out onto the beach there were circles drawn into the sand where turtles had laid their eggs. In hundreds of spots there were circles and tiny turtles climbing out of the sand. It is said that flashlights should not be used, but rather to use red lights, since once the turtles come out the white light is harsh on their eyes as well as it disorients them. Apparently they use the reflection of light off of the water to find their way. The problem with the flashlights are that no one has red light, nor do they supply anything for us to use. Light is a necessity since there are thousands of these little creatures crawling all over the place, if you have no light you will end up stepping on them.
When I say that there is little regulation the thought of them allowing us to pick them up seemed impossible. On the contrary they invited us to do so as well as take pictures, which I had imagined would not have been allowed. There was no one watching us either, we had free reign on the beach and there were no restrictions.
An interesting experience was when they let us release all of the turtles that had hatched during the day. Since naturally the success rate of a baby turtle to mature to adulthood is less than 1% due to crabs, birds and fish picking them off on their entrance into the sea. To help their odds a bit the rangers collect all the turtles that hatch during the day and then release them later in the night. So we had the honor of releasing about 100 turtles into the sea. The important thing is that they have to be released about 50 yards from the water because they have to learn the beach so they can return to lay their own eggs. It was so frustrating watching these poor things. They would flap there way to the waters edge and then a wave would come and push them back 50 feet. I had to hold back the urge to throw them into the water. It is amazing that from the moment they hatch they have to fight to survive. It was certainly an interesting spectacle to witness.
They really had no rules other than to not take the turtles home with you, which I was quite tempted to do, since they were like little toys. As I walked out onto the beach there were circles drawn into the sand where turtles had laid their eggs. In hundreds of spots there were circles and tiny turtles climbing out of the sand. It is said that flashlights should not be used, but rather to use red lights, since once the turtles come out the white light is harsh on their eyes as well as it disorients them. Apparently they use the reflection of light off of the water to find their way. The problem with the flashlights are that no one has red light, nor do they supply anything for us to use. Light is a necessity since there are thousands of these little creatures crawling all over the place, if you have no light you will end up stepping on them.
When I say that there is little regulation the thought of them allowing us to pick them up seemed impossible. On the contrary they invited us to do so as well as take pictures, which I had imagined would not have been allowed. There was no one watching us either, we had free reign on the beach and there were no restrictions.
An interesting experience was when they let us release all of the turtles that had hatched during the day. Since naturally the success rate of a baby turtle to mature to adulthood is less than 1% due to crabs, birds and fish picking them off on their entrance into the sea. To help their odds a bit the rangers collect all the turtles that hatch during the day and then release them later in the night. So we had the honor of releasing about 100 turtles into the sea. The important thing is that they have to be released about 50 yards from the water because they have to learn the beach so they can return to lay their own eggs. It was so frustrating watching these poor things. They would flap there way to the waters edge and then a wave would come and push them back 50 feet. I had to hold back the urge to throw them into the water. It is amazing that from the moment they hatch they have to fight to survive. It was certainly an interesting spectacle to witness.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
More Troubles for Nicaragua: Flooding
I have just come off of almost a week spent in the capital city of Managua. The reason I am here is that there has been wave after wave of rain storms inundating Nicaragua. We are in the middle of rainy season, as well as hurricane season, but normally rains run like clockwork, coming in the afternoon and then quitting. Well the rains began last Monday, the 8th and now writing this on the following Tuesday the 16th it has been raining in some part of the country ever since. In the mountains this is creating landslides, avalanches and roads being washed away.
Last Friday, the 12th, I received a phone call from Peace Corps saying that I had to come to the capital of the country. It was no longer safe for me to stay in my village. While on the way, we passed a section of the road that had fallen away. The two lane Pan American Highway, was reduced to one lane. This is an issue for the country because it is their main highway. I have to admit that it was a bit nerve racking to have in the back of my mind that I am traveling through mountain highways and pieces were crumbling.
Once in the capital we were put up in hotels. We were glued to satellite weather reports to see how long it would last and how bad it would get. The strangest part was that there was very little rain where we were, but we kept getting reports of severe flooding, families losing their homes and mass evacuations. It is strange to think that some of this was going on where we were previously living. The low lying areas in the north were the hardest hit. All of the water that was falling in the mountains were I live was filtering down and flooding the rivers in the low lands.
Fortunately the rains should be stopping, so things can begin to dry out. Other than the obvious immediate damage for the country there is going to be problems to come. A lot of the bean harvest has been destroyed. A majority of this country relies on beans and rice to survive; this will be devastating for thousands of families. The price will be rising to actually surpass the price of chicken per pound. Since most people eat beans in place of chicken because they can not afford it, we shall see what happens.
Another issue that will be emerging will be the drinking water. At this point it is mostly contaminated. This has not even been an issue discussed in the news at this point, but it is an inevitable side effect of massive flooding.
Last Friday, the 12th, I received a phone call from Peace Corps saying that I had to come to the capital of the country. It was no longer safe for me to stay in my village. While on the way, we passed a section of the road that had fallen away. The two lane Pan American Highway, was reduced to one lane. This is an issue for the country because it is their main highway. I have to admit that it was a bit nerve racking to have in the back of my mind that I am traveling through mountain highways and pieces were crumbling.
Once in the capital we were put up in hotels. We were glued to satellite weather reports to see how long it would last and how bad it would get. The strangest part was that there was very little rain where we were, but we kept getting reports of severe flooding, families losing their homes and mass evacuations. It is strange to think that some of this was going on where we were previously living. The low lying areas in the north were the hardest hit. All of the water that was falling in the mountains were I live was filtering down and flooding the rivers in the low lands.
Fortunately the rains should be stopping, so things can begin to dry out. Other than the obvious immediate damage for the country there is going to be problems to come. A lot of the bean harvest has been destroyed. A majority of this country relies on beans and rice to survive; this will be devastating for thousands of families. The price will be rising to actually surpass the price of chicken per pound. Since most people eat beans in place of chicken because they can not afford it, we shall see what happens.
Another issue that will be emerging will be the drinking water. At this point it is mostly contaminated. This has not even been an issue discussed in the news at this point, but it is an inevitable side effect of massive flooding.
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