Teamwork

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.

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.

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.

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.

Success and Failure

The school year is quickly wrapping up, in fact I have less than a month left, since my last day giving class this year will be the 8th of November. I have certainly had my ups and downs this year professionally. The course that I am giving is called “La Empresa Creativa”, or “The Creative Business”. The point of the class is to give high school students other options after high school, since most of them will not be going off to college. We are also trying to teach them to look at something differently and try to make it better, in the process giving them an opportunity to make money.
To say that this whole process has been a challenge is an understatement. To change a culture is next to impossible; it is like carving a marble statue with a Q-tip. One must take seriously the mantra “if you can make better one persons life…”, otherwise time seems to be wasted.
How the course works is that the students form groups, which will become their business partners and they spend time together developing the different aspects of their business such as the idea, organization, production, marketing, budgets, initial capital, etc. The culmination of this course is that Peace Corps has a series of competitions where the students compete against other schools. The final competition has prizes such as scholarships, internships and cash.
In trying not to downplay the circumstances that the other business volunteers are placed in, mine is certainly distinct. They are all working for public high schools that have set teachers and organization. They also have a set of obstacles that I am glad I do not have to contend with, such as enormous class size and office politics. My situation is different because the school I work with is not even a real school, but more so an after school program, run by a NGO (non governmental organization). The issues that I run into are attendance, homework being done and being taken seriously that this information is important.
My students have real school as well, so to have to do extra work for me, understandably, is not high on their priority list. I am not able to have actual grades, since they would not mean anything and carry no weight. I also get very little support from the people who are supposed to be “in charge” of these students. Suffice it to say I was a bit nervous when it came time to prepare for the competitions. I had a few groups tell me that they did not yet have a product, although I had not been privy to this as we were doing the business development of the product they told me they had. I spent about a month giving a crash course on all the information that I had covered prior. I had laid down the hammer in saying if they did not have things done by specific dates, they could not compete.
The day of the competition I was clearly nervous. I had invited judges as well as prominent people from the community to see the work done by the students. I had left it up to some of the people I work with to decorate and help with other aspects of the day. This was a huge leap of faith because I have not met too many people here who I can count on. I figured that they would not want to look bad either, so I crossed my fingers. The day went off without a hitch. It did last longer than I had anticipated, but then again everything takes longer here. Most of the groups really had their acts together and knew their material. The judges were impressed, as was I. Most of the groups had a different product that they had told me two weeks prior, but they had crammed to put together their business plan and prototypes. They actually learned how to do what I taught them to do, remarkable!

Adventures at a concert in Nicaragua

Last weekend I decided an interesting experience to have would be to go to a music concert in Nicaragua. The act was Black Eyes Peas, a fairly popular hip hop/ pop group from the US. I got together with a group of volunteers from various organizations and we bought tickets. Prices of tickets to the concerts here were certainly an indicator of the haves and have nots. Normal tickets were $12 and these were in the bleacher like seats, or you could pay $50 for standing room, much closer to the action. The common consensus between us was that no one really liked the band enough to pay that much and being smashed in a mob of thousands, many of whom were looking to pick your pockets was not very appealing. We all arrived at the stadium together and since the seats were not assigned, we picked out the best we could find. I am sure it’s as much of a shock to you as it was to me, that the section we had purchased were like nosebleeds, but instead of height it was distance that was the issue. The concert was to begin at 8:30pm sharp, but true to Nicaraguan fashion it did not start until about 10pm. A few things worthy of pointing out was that there was a wall of chicken wire separating these seats from the field where the band was as well as all the people who had paid more for closer tickets. The beverages offered were rum by the bottle or by the shot. It was certainly a bit different from selling soft drinks and beers. For food choices in place of hot dogs they had a plastic bucket filled with cold, unwrapped, tacos and enchiladas.
Finally the concert began. I noticed that there were a lot of people crowded against the fence dividing the stands from the field. Suddenly you could see people making a run for it through the fence. It seems that people had cut a big hole and were rushing to blend in with the other fans on the field before the police tackled them. Out of nowhere about 30 police ran towards the hole with batons raised high and were able to deter anyone else from making the dash. I then noticed in another part of the fence there was a police officer guarding another hole, but periodically letting one or two people through onto the field. This sparked my interest so I asked one of the people standing around what was going on. He told me that for an extra 50 cordobas, the equivalent of $2.50 you can pay a police officer to get onto the field. Well due to my rum judgment I though this to be a fun idea. Well I approached a guy on the other end of the fence and asked if we could get through. I handed him a 100 cordoba bill, about $5. He said that I had to wait a few minutes and then the police officer would let me and my friend crawl through the hole in the fence. Well after about 10 minutes of pressing against the fence with a police officer pressing his back to me, he moved out of the way as we snuck in.
As we were walking slowly onto the field to escape being obvious, 6 police were running in our direction. Fortunately they were occupied by carrying off a fan who had apparently gotten a bit aggressive. Well we were able to get into the mass crowd and blend in, well as well as two 6 feet, white, gringos can blend into short Nicaraguans. The concert was a good time, I will certainly be making a repeat appearance.