kill your television

today i experienced the most extreme levels of poverty that i have ever been exposed to.

i felt a pit sinking deeper and deeper in my stomach as we drove into the La Solidaridad housing project, just outside of Granada. the "streets," littered with mounds of rubble, dirt, and burning garbage, were almost all flooded, mosquitoes breeding in the small lakes where half-naked children played. occasional ghastly, lone horses occupied some corners, trying to find what grass was left to fill their skin-and-bones figure. men and boys worked without pause, hauling large concrete blocks to new houses in construction where others stirred cement mixture in the street, most covered head to toe in dirt and bits of dried concrete. in between houses in the midst of construction stood, and leaned, small one-room homes made of uneven wood and scraps of metal and plastic.

though a large percentage of the 200+ families in the community have already received help to build a new concrete home, over 40 are still without, living in the small shacks, most of which are not more than 8x8 feet. the ground, dirt, is the floor. the roofs are made of straw and whatever other scraps they could throw together. the bathrooms, for the houses that have them, are small outhouses, also made of similar wood scraps and plastic.

however, almost without exception, save for a few of the unfinished homes, a television glowed its sickeningly-blue glare through the window of every house. they even shone through the cracks between the wood and metal of a number of the casitas. some presented the evening news, some presented happy, well-clad white people, grinning ear-to-ear, eager to win Gameshow X. others played movies from the shiny, sleek DVD player that rested beneath the devilish-looking, square black box.

one can't help but wonder what the hell has happened when a family that doesn't have a floor, nor a bathroom, nor a stove, is sitting together, being brainwashed by an inanimate, sadistic box of glass and plastic. what have we done? we, as people of the developed world, who have exported countless lifeless, unnecessary consumer electronics to nations that have yet to reach economic stability, gender equality, or even sufficient literacy rates. we have exacerbated a completely and utterly sickening distortion of priorities among the people who most need our help.

globalization has taken its deadly toll on this country in ways that make me sick to my stomach. as a result of thousands of lives lost in revolutionary war, a complete lack of development, sheer poverty, and ridiculously unequal distribution of wealth, the cultural norm revolves around instant gratification. candy and cigarette vendors, cheap ice cream, restuarants specializing in deep-fried chicken and other meats, and slot machines line the streets. with their pointless products, unhealthy habits, and unnecessary reverance for plastic, mass-produced consumer goods, the capitalist United States have helped institute a philosophy of "one-time use," instant satisfaction, and short-term goals.

...and so the environment, and the people, continue to suffer. it pains me to see people, countless times every day, walk by the public garbage cans, so generously donated by Rotary International, and instead throw their trash on the ground. it collects everywhere. instead of picking it up and disposing of it, it is rather just shifted from one location to another. it has now made it outside of the city and contaminated the beautiful lake nicaragua where locals used to be able to swim. now no one dares to enter, save for the few that don't have any other choice if they need to bathe.

i can't really explain how much it hurts me to see all this happen. most of the time i really have no idea what to do with myself. because such beliefs and actions are now so deeply rooted in the culture, the hope for positive change within the near future is slim to none. while the roots of the issue lie in the extreme levels of poverty, ridiculous distrubution of wealth, and the generous support of the capitalist state that is the entire developed, globalizing world, i feel the need to do something to provoke change. although all of our others focus on gender, health, and community unity, i plan on doing my last workshop later this month on the direct and indirect environmental effects of their careless actions.

in the meantime, think about someone or something besides yourself next time you consider buying something you don't need, biting into a big juicy burger, or driving when could walk instead. you're not seeing or feeling the direct effects of your actions

...but we are down here.

Ay, que calor

You'd probably be surprised to know that, despite the intense heat and humidity (that's totally kicking my ass), we actually have been working and getting things done down here. I visited Paz y Vida, one of the three women's housing projects that I'm working on, Saturday morning for an hour or so. They meet about once every couple weeks now but set up a special meeting in order to get acquainted with Alli and I so that we could start our work with them. About 30 members that will potentially live in the community met us on their land, where they have a small structure that provides shelter from the rain and sun but not much else. The construction has yet to begin and they have a long way to go before its a completely functional community. Its been in the works for about two years now and its surprising that they're still so motivated.

This picture shows their land, which they just recently divided into equal plots on which each family will have a small concrete home with indoor, potable, running water, a kitchen, bathroom, and the like.

After we introduced ourselves and spoke a little about the projects we'll be working on, we split them up into groups and handed out nice little cards we made so that they could think together of some ideals and goals for their future community. While there were the obvious answers like running water, good lighting, and places for children to play, we were also surprised at the number of people who solely wished for a safe place where they could live in harmony, unity, and peace and work with one another to overcome their many challenges. After they shared their goals and ideas for their community with the group, they had a nice little presentation for us where a few of their daughters danced along to typical Nicaraguan music. It was cute.

Yesterday we had the day off and Pedro, Alli, and I went on a little trip to the nearby Volcano, Mombacho. It's a fairly decent size and only took about an hour and a half to hike to the top. Although most of the area around Granada where I'm living is pretty dusty and practically infertile, the volcano almost always gets rain and has a cloudforest at the top, which is basically a small rainforest. It was beautiful, much more luscious than the rainforest surrounding the Mayan ruins in Tikal.

At the top there are a few paths that circle the craters that were once the volcano's main outlets for its hot, sulfery, greatness. Now they are just breeding grounds for tons of beautiful trees and other plants. Beyond the crater you can see where the land drops back down to reveal the beautiful Lake Nicaragua and the hundreds of small islands that surround the penninsula near the edge of Granada.

We're meeting tomorrow first thing in the morning to visit the other two communities we'll be working with, El Fortin and La Solidaridad, both of which have already begun construction but still have many squatters and many people living in extreme poverty. We'll just be meeting the community members tomorrow, then planning workshops for next week on women's health, gender equality, and overall community cohesion. It should be quite the experience.

Wish me luck. Hope to hear from you all soon.

All the best,

w

Travels of a Godless Vegetarian

Hey all,

I'm here. It was pretty late when I finally got in last night so I didn't get a chance to write until now. My flight out of Miami didn't end up leaving until an hour after the scheduled time because some joker checked their bags but forgot to show up for their flight. Apparently its federal law that a plane can't fly with someone's luggage and without the passenger so we had to wait for them to unload everything they had just loaded and find the two bags. It took forever.

Luckily my ride from Managua to Granada wasn't nearly as long as I expected and my boss picked me up at the airport, which was really nice as I didn't really have to think about transportation. I met most of my host family last night except for my host brother, who won't be back until sometime tomorrow evening. He went to the island of Ometepe for a few days and got trapped there as a result of a nationwide strike against public transportation. Nearly all the bus and taxi drivers are on strike in order to lower the price of gas, which as actually almost twice as expensive as ours in New York. Which is ridiculous considering practically everyone is living off of about $100/month.

In addition to my host mother and her son and daughter, there's also another volunteer staying here as well. Pedro's probably in his early thirties and is from Seville. It's really nice to have him here as he functions as a translator between my family and I. I can understand his Spanish just fine but so far, Nicaraguans prove pretty damn difficult to understand. In addition to their slurred, sloppy version of the language, most of them speak pretty softly and I just have a hard enough time hearing them.

When I woke up this morning I had breakfast with my family and Pedro and then met with my boss, a local woman from one of the communities I'll be working with, and another volunteer who will be working closely with me on a couple of my projects. We spoke a little about one of my communities, Paz y Vida, which I'll get to meet tomorrow and start developing a program. It's a pretty small community, consisting of about 50 single mothers and their kids who are currently displaced and are living in various places throughout Granada and the surrounding area. They've received a grant to help them begin building their homes but as part of the project to create appreciation for the community, as well as self-sufficiency, they have to contribute two workers and help pay for the installation of plumbing and electricity, both of which are pretty out of their price range.

Although I obviously can't really help them out with their financial troubles, I'll be doing my part to try to get them to work together and work towards a common goal. At this point in time, as a result of the cultural norm as well as their extreme state of poverty, none of them really work together, are ridiculously competitive and, needless to say, thus moving in the wrong direction. Many of them don't even know the other women in the community and have lost motivation. So I'll be heading over there tomorrow with Allie to just do a small introduction workshop, get them acquainted with one another, and facilitate a constructive conversation so that they, as well as myself and the non-profit I'm working for, can figure out what their true goals for the community are and how to go about accomplishing them. I'm not too nervous about facilitating the workshop except for possible communication and confrontation issues that could result from our inability to understand their Spanish as well as their highly competitive nature.

Everything has gone fairly well with my family so far. My host mother and her 12 year old daughter are pretty nice and accommodating but I always fear that I'll create problems as a result of two things: my vegetarianism and my complete lack of religion. She has been pretty accepting of my disinterest in eating meat but I fear that I may have sparked some aggression and discontent when she asked me if I was religious and I said 'no.' As my only two reoccurring issues that keep me from completely relating to people in Latin America, it'd be nice if they could somehow be avoided but...yeah, that's pretty near impossible I guess. Everybody here is so damn religious that I feel like they take personal offense when they find out that I am not. I don't really know what to do about it. I don't want to lie and say that I am for fear that they'll later call me out and then just accuse me of being a liar. Ah well, guess I'll just stick it out and hope that all continues to go well with Doña Xiamara.

Hope all is well at your comfy little computer where you're reading this. It's a hell of a lot hotter and more humid here than I was imagining. Not sure when I'll make it back to write to ya'll, but I'll try to keep in touch. Judging by what I have experienced thus far in the last two days and the sheer level of poverty that I'll be working with, I think this will prove to be quite the adventure.

If you want to keep in touch, email me at wra2@cornell.edu and I'll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Love and peace to all.

En solidaridad,

Wren René