Sunday July 27, 2008

After a long day of travel, we arrived in Nicaragua last night. We were met at the airport by two vibrant young women who introduced themselves as our guides—Rachel and Patty—and our charming bus driver, Luis. Right away at the airport, I noticed a few differences between here and New York, namely palm trees, Spanish, and guns. Rachel and Patty told us a little about Managua, the capital city where we’re headquartered these next few days, as we drove in through the city. One important thing that the girls tried to teach us is our address. Here in Managua there are no official street names, so everything is known with respect to other reference points (which may or may not still exist). I wish I were kidding, but it is the truth! So, near the Roundabout of the Journalists and down the street from the gas station, you will find CEPAD, the Christian hostile where we are staying. Upon arriving at CEPAD, we were served a delicious meal of fresh vegetables and fried chicken. We knew we were in good hands.

            We woke up this morning, had another delicious meal, and immediately dove into learning about the complex history of Nicaragua, especially politics and economics. Rachel and Patty are great guides—they are super knowledgeable about the country and are able to put it into terms even I can understand (for those of you who don’t know me, history, politics, and economics aren’t exactly my strong suits). The history of Nicaragua is a long and twisted one, fraught with revolution, corruption, fragility, assassination, natural disaster, and la lucha (which means ‘fight’ or ‘struggle’). Today represents just the beginning of understanding these people—their history is so much a part of who they are today. However after our brief lesson, I could make much better sense of the billboards of political propaganda we’ve seen displayed throughout the city of Managua.

            After lunch we piled into the bus and drove to a part of town called Acahualinca, which means Valley of the Sunflowers. This area of town, despite its lovely name, houses one of most disturbing things I’ve ever seen. It’s called la churreca, and simply put, it’s a large, walled-in landfill. Yamileth, our local guide, explained to us that all city garbage is dumped into the churreca, where it is picked through and sorted by many families who find food and earn their livelihood by selling what they can salvage. 189 families live inside the walls of the churreca, and many more adjacent neighborhoods thrive in close proximity to the trash heap that holds their daily bread. I am still trying to understand how in the world God’s people are living in such conditions. It would be one thing if Nicaragua were a country without society, without public services, etc. But, it’s an entirely other and much more devastating thing to see the churreca in the midst of society, infrastructure, and pockets of affluence. With her own personal testimony, Yamileth powerfully explained to us the psychological and spiritual wounds that she and her neighbors have experienced as a result of living off of other people’s trash. The tears Yamileth cried as she spoke have left an imprint on my heart. She is truly an amazing woman, fully embodying what it means to be an advocate.

            Then we went to Betty’s house. Betty is a young woman, wife and mother of 3, who used to (until she got a job cleaning dishes at a fast food joint) make her living cleaning plastic she found in the churreca. She showed us the work involved in cutting large plastic tarps into usable pieces, washing it all down, drying it, and packaging it in the way that pleases the company who buys it from her. This was a laborious task and one that she confessed was not a great source of income; however, she was proud of her skill and proud to show us how to do something.

            Next we went into downtown Managua and saw many government and historical buildings. We saw displays of Managua before the massive earthquake that changed the face of the city in the 70’s. Then we walked through Peace Park which houses a very moving monument—thousands and thousands of weapons, including a tank, Nicaraguan civilians and militia buried in a huge piece of concrete.  After spending some time at the park, we headed up to a lookout point for a debriefing session. We discussed the concept of development—what is it? What does it mean to develop something? What are the best ways to achieve development? Given the past weeks, it was a meaningful discussion and a great time to continue putting it all together. My understanding of this concept has undoubtedly changed. We finished the day by attending a community mass service. It was in Spanish, but it was great. Nicaragua is wonderful so far—I look forward to what Rachel and Patty have in store for us in the next week.

A word from today August 6th: We miss our families and friends and can’t wait to see you all!!

Love,

Fran