Who says its been a month and a half? August 15, 2009

A little slice of paradise.

The calendar seems to think that I’ve been here for a little over a month now, and several people have been asking for updates, as I readily admit that I have been lacking in posts.  I tend to think that the normal every day things that happen here arent that exciting, but then again, when the last post was about a woman being shot in the old neighborhood, I suppose its probably better to inform you all that nothing crazy is happening rather than let you wonder whether I’ve been abducted (I have not).  With that said, I’m sure there are some things worth mentioning.

*note – wrote this paragraph 10 days ago, see update at end of paragraph* At this very moment I have some lovely kind of flu – I think it’s one of those 24 hour things that leaves you feeling terrible one day, and then just a little crap the next.  I’m on day 2. I think I would be mostly okay if it werent for the heat and the fact that I have to work extra hard to stay hydrated.   Panchita was also sick yesterday, and she says her whole family is sick now too, so that actually makes me feel better and I dont have to worry about having malaria or dengue or some other kind of strange bacteria. *it was just some kind of48 hour virus, i’m fine now*

A little Nicaraguan rain storm

Miss Maddie Jalandoni flew home  after a year and a month working here in Managua.  For those of you who don’t know about Maddie, she was a student with my group of SIT, and she graduated early and came back to work with Manna Project here in Managua.  Also, in the next couple of weeks Maura, another former SIT student who came back to live and work several years ago, and whose wedding I attended in December, will be moving back to the States with her Nicaraguan husband Silvio.

Aaaaanyhow, home is feeling very home-like now. I’ve been getting to know my boss a bit better lately, and had a very depressing chat with her about a friend of hers who was murdered two years ago by his crazy nicaraguan girlfriend.  The weird part is that I remember reading about this guy either right before I came to Nicaragua the first time or some time after I got here and thinking the whole thing was very freaky.  Turned out that Lillian and her friend Carmen were two of his closest (and really only) friends while he was working here.  I’m just now realizing that a lot of news I tend to share with you guys is kind of depressing or disturbing, but the  thing is that’s just the stuff that I write because I’m still processing it.  You know, it’s not the kind of stuff you hear about happening to people you know in the States very much.  Life can be a lot more extreme here for some people, but it makes you realize what is important and all of the stuff that we should be grateful for that maybe we don’t always think about.

Last depressing news – a girl on one of Lillian’s delegations ended up in the hospital about a week ago with a gastrointestinal infection, severe fever and dehydration and blood pressure of about 40/20.  She was very ill and the whole experience was very eye opening.  3 days later she was well enough to fly home and all is well with her now.  So let me give you all a little insight into the positive side of this story.  She was really worried about going to the hospital even though she was so sick she couldn’t even walk herself to the car without help.  Why was she so worried? Because she has only experienced US hospitals, and from those experiences she knows how much a visit to the emergency room can cost, plus a night in the hospital, plus tests, plus medication.  She could have died if she had waited any longer to go the hospital – and the biggest thing holding her back was the fact that she couldn’t afford to pay the kind of bill she would have ended up with in the states.  Finally some one convinced her not to worry about it because her health was far more important. She went to the hospital 5 minutes from our house where she was told that all of the tests and medication were free.  The doctors at this public hospital saved her life. For free.  And she isnt even Nicaraguan.  Then of course the fact that it was a public hospital and the doctors and nurses didn’t have time to be there for her emotionally and the fact that she didn’t have a private room and was sharing a space with a lot of other sick and freaked out people became too overwhelming for her and she was moved to the private hospital in the neighborhood about 10 minutes from here.  She felt much better emotionally in that hospital. And for 2 nights stay plus medication in this hospital she paid I think less than 300 dollars.   Because of her unfortunate illness, I now feel much better about the kind of health care I can receive in this country only minutes from my house.  That feeling is something I do not have in my own country.  Because the truth is, I would have done the same thing she did and refused care for as long as I could knowing that I can’t afford the hospital bill.  With this in mind, please consider what that says about our health care system in the states, and for those of you who are adamantly against health care reform, maybe you can give a bit more thought to the potential advantages.  And if this isnt enough to convince you, think about the fact that I can get my teeth cleaned here for 10 dollars.  I could get several teeth capped for 150.   Doesn’t that seem like that’s how it should be?  And yes, this is high quality dental work.

Word, got the photo at last!

Right-o.  Now, let me tell you about some of our guests.  The United Students for Fair Trade planning committee was here for several days.  There were 12 of them, and at one point we ended up with a full house, which was not a little bit overwhelming, but it’s pretty cool to have so many interesting and motivated people here.  Right now we’ve got a musician from Texas named Edward.  As we speak he is playing with some Nicaraguans on Canal 11.  He is good friends with Philip Montalban, who is a famous Nicaraguan Reggae star, and who has been over to the Quaker House several times – Got a picture with him!  Every weekend we have a Czech woman who stays at the Q House so that she can go to her Shiatsu classes in Managua.  And then lots of young volunteers and former volunteers for ProNica.  Including one young woman from Vermont.

This is a long post, and it doesnt nearly contain all that has happened to me in the last month, but it’s a start.  Promise to try to be better about this.  And my last little note is, please pay attention to the news about the coup in Honduras.  There is a solidarity group from Nicaragua (of Americans) over there right now to act as peaceful witnesses to the protesting that is going on.  They, along with a crowd of Hondurands, were attacked by police forces the other day.  This behavior is tried and true in Central America, and as much as we might hope that the region has been moving forward and away from violent conflict in recent years, this latest news shows that there is still a long way to go.  But the people of these countries and peaceful witnesses to the conflict should not be the ones to suffer this kind of injustice.  Please take the time to read this message from one of the women who was in Honduras during the lates round of protests:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/casabenlinder/message/5316

Love you all, miss you too!

Day before the big 30th celebration. July 18, 2009

YES I know you want an update with pictures, but I have yet to whip out the old camera here, and I have no real excuse, but it’s the truth, so I promise to get on that soon and give you a little visual peak at my life.  In the meantime, tomorrow is the 19th of July which is the day on which Nicaraguans celebrate the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship and tomorrow is even more important than usual because it is the 30th anniversary of the revolution.  So far all I really know is that there will be major celebrations all day long in la Plaza de la Revolucion (makes sense), and I want to go check it out but I think I will just have to make a quick appearance and get my butt out of there, because I hear its a wild zoo of a place to be and also not a little bit dangerous.

Now, I’ve been debating whether or not I should write this next piece of information on my blog or whether it might freak some of you out too much. So here is my warning: if you are apt to worry yourself to death about my health or safety, you might be better off skipping this paragraph.  With that note, early on Monday morning in la Maximo (the old neighborhood where Luis and his family and my old host family live) a woman was shot near the park (about 3 blocks from Luis’ house).  It was pretty tragic.  She was an empleada of one of the families there and she was delivering something to another family across the park when she was robbed of her cell phone and wallet.  From here there are two versions of the story.  One (and what I consider to be the more likely of the two) is that she got really freaked out and started yelling at which point one of the men who robbed her panicked and shot her.  The other story is that she had been cheating on her husband and the whole thing happened so that the husband could heal his pride – and while this would not be unheard of, it seems a bit far-fetched in this case.  In any case, later that day when Luis and I were heading back to my neighborhood we decided to take a taxi instead of the bus since it was getting later, and it turned out that our taxi driver had been the one to take this woman to the hospital – after about 15 other taxis and cars refused to stop for her (as it was clear that she was bleeding and in distress).  The whole thing was very upsetting and at this point nobody is even sure whether she is alive or not.  In any case, this seems to be the reality around Managua these days, and even though it can be scary at times, you all know me very well and you know that I am a smart girl and will always be as safe as possible, so please instead of worrying about me it would be more helpful to send out a little prayer to your chosen deity that Managua and Nicaragua for that matter might be able to pull itself out of this violent state of being and get in touch with it’s humanity.  That’s what I’m praying for, and I have hope that things can improve.

Aside from that unfortunate news, things have been going fairly well for me here.  Of course, I’m taking my time adjusting.  I’ve had my really good days and some not so awesome days, but I’m certainly doing my best to be fair with myself and realize that this is a pretty big change and it will take a while to adjust.  At the moment my biggest challenge seems to be the fact that at the moment I don’t have anything to keep me really busy these days and because I am new to this neighborhood I really don’t know anyone here, so it can get a bit lonely at times.  On the other hand, it’s good to know that I can just relax and do whatever I want for a while and not have to worry about work or homework while I get used to my new surroundings.  And there have been some interesting people that have come through the Quaker House in the last couple of weeks, so I am definitely learning to appreciate being able to meet the guests and hear where they come from and what they are doing in these parts.

That’s the bulk of the what’s what for now.  Hopefully soon I will get my act together and take some pictures so you all can see where I’m living and such.  I’m also guessing that if I come up with something else to be doing during the day – like volunteering or teaching English or who knows what other sort of job I might come across – hopefully then I will have more interesting news to report.  In the meantime, if you have any other questions or just want to check in with me and tell me how you are all doing, I would love to hear what you have to say.  Later gaters.

Greetings from the Quaker House Caretaker July 4, 2009

Muy buenos días a todos y todas.  So I moved in two days ago to the Quaker House and the place itself is really lovely.  There’s a lot of communal space and rocking chairs and a hammock and all that jazz and a fully equipped kitchen.  There are three rooms where guests stay (up to 20 at a time in total) and there are three bathrooms (2 in 2 of the rooms and one common bathroom).  That was certainly a relief to know that 20 people would not have to share one bathroom.  The back patio is about the best thing in the whole house because it has a high tin roof to shade you from the sun and an outdoor ceiling fan plus a decent breeze, so when it gets unbearably hot that’s a nice place to take refuge.

Finally my room.  It’s small for sure, but it fits me and my stuff comfortably. Probably the most important feature is the large chest of drawers.  It’s probably pretty ironic that while I am living in the Quaker House where simplicity is highly valued over material possessions, I couldn’t stop myself from bringing every article of warm weather clothing known to man.  But it makes me happy, so we’ll just go with it.  I finally finished completely unpacking yesterday and put up some decorations on the walls so the place is starting to feel like my own.  The only part which is a little less than desirable is that my room is immediately in front of the entrance to the house and at the moment the lock on my door está fregada (it’s messed up).  Lillian says that will be fixed as soon as they can find a guy who will come in and put in a new door handle/locking system on all of the rooms – because the guest rooms so far do not have locks on them, and as of about 2 months ago they had to deal with some major theft by some faux guests who only checked into the place so they could rob it.  Now, I’m really not trying to freak you all out, because I feel secure here and I’ve made the executive decision that nothing is going to happen to me or this house while I live here.  For those of you who like to pray, I would be super grateful if you could keep that in your thoughts for me as well.

A word about Lillian (mi jefa).  She has been living in Managua for almost 25 years and she has a son who is about to start applying for colleges in the States.  Not sure why that second part is necessary to tell, but she was mentioning that he was looking into Dartmouth and yeah, that’s close to home. She has been working with ProNica for nearly as long.  So far, she seems like a really nice woman who wants things to go well for all of her little birdies but is also quite busy and has learned how to set boundaries so that she still has energy to take care of herself.

Now my job.  I’m slowly getting more info every day.  I now know how to enter info into the books to keep track of Quaker House expenses and room payments and the like.  I also have all the keys to the whole world.  And I’m only slightly exaggerating.  I have a key to: the front gate, my room, the front door to the house, the door to the supply closet, the filing cabinet (acting as a safe), the money box, the PO Box, the two gate doors leading into the back patio, and a few others whose uses I have yet to discover.  There are a couple of other things I’ve learned as well, but it’s looking like once I get the hang of keeping track of finances and checking people in an out and making reservations for people, the majority of my job will be complete.  The rest of the logistical stuff here is mainly left up to the housekeeper and lady of the house Panchita, who has been here 18 years and knows her stuff.

I realize this is a long post, and so I congratulate you if you’ve made it this far, and you will deserve some kind of prize if you make it to the end.  I’ll figure that one out later.  MY INFORMATION:

• email (easiest to contact me this way) – kdimercurio@gmail.com
• cell phone (sometimes requires adding a 9 somewhere that i can’t remember) – 011.505.8.375.4308
• mailing (still not sure how reliable sending mail is, but as long as its a relatively small package or letter with nothing of major value it should be fine, and I love letters) – Apt. 5391, Managua, Nicaragua

Now just a bit of Nicaraguan News to keep everyone up to speed.  I’m sure you all heard about the coup in Honduras, which isn’t quite Nica news, but it’s our neighbor so everyone here is concerned about what might come of this, if only because there’s a lot of international pressure right not to fix things and that could end up affecting Nicaragua as well.  But here in Managua, the very controversial mayor (who was elected in the midst of major accusations of electoral fraud which resulted in the cutting of large amounts of international aid to Nicaragua) was found dead in his house in the early morning Jul 1st.  They are saying it was a suicide.  Before he was the mayor he was a national boxing champion.  Weird, right? It’s still unclear who will be taking over now.  Keep an ear open.

OOOOOkay, then.  I think that’s the most important stuff for now.  Will do my best to keep you all updated fairly often.  Hope everyone is well and that you are all celebrating on this lovely 4th of July.  Besos.

A Little Nica in the NY Times June 11, 2009

…just a little slideshow of the more attractive bits of the Atlantic Coast…

For you non-SIT folks, our study abroad group spent about a week on the coast, half in Pearl Lagoon and half (my half) in Orinoco, then all reconvened in Bluefields.  Beautiful place, really.  Certainly has more than it’s share of political issues and natural disasters (see Hurrican Felix), but it’s nice the Times decided to pick up on it’s charm to do a little travel slide show.  But beware, the Corn Islands (featured heavily here) are easily the center of tourism on the coast, so we are talking about a little more luxury and a little less struggle here.

Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/10/travel/20090610-nicaragua-slide-show_index.html