Well we are well into the "School Year" and still my classes have not begun and will not begin until early March. I have been traveling around a bit visiting other volunteers, making sure that the local rum is quality checked for not only consistency, but also effectiveness. Currently there is alot going on politically in this country with the new Sandinista government headed by Daniel Ortega. In the past administrations, since the revolution, things were put into place to limit the power of presidents and to safeguard against the possibility of sliding back into a communisitc leadership. One such piece was the parliament which limited the presidents power. Well currently he is slowly, but surely gaining power of the parliament as well as the military. He continues to, in public, reasure the people that he is for peace and reconciliation and does not have plans to change anything in terms of foreign investment and development. A piece of news we received the other day was that next year he will be bringing over teachers and doctors from Cuba. This is concerning for business volunteers like myself because I am basically teaching capitalistic values in my classes by having my students learn to start small businesses and the power of thinking of creatively. As can be imagined there will be a bit of a conflict of interest. He will also be inviting over Iranian workers, this I am not so sure what the effects will be, but it seems odd because we have so many people unemployed here already. The schools here are very political which lends to a very interesting time when the parties change. Typically the Directors of the schools are of a political party and when things change new Directors are put in who have the current party affiliations. This is the case with most governmental jobs, putting alot of people out of work and giving work to people who are less experienced. In talking to other volunteers working in schools, the common consensus is that things are very disorganized at the beginning of the year because the Directors are wating to be let go. So it is a very interesting time to be here.
-OD
