¡A La Habana!

Dearest readers,

My apologies that I have been lax on my travel blogging, but I have been so fortunate to have a flexible fall with some awesome travel opportunities that I have not quite found all the time in between them to adequately debrief myself in between adventures. Perhaps in the near future I will get to blog about New York City, my road trip from Minnesota to California, down the coast, and back, and Portland, but tomorrow, I depart for my final international escapade before I need to settle down (at least for a little while!).

And I am so lucky that it is to a country not many Americans get a chance to go to, as we have the whole special political relationship with them. But my boss is the reason I am able to go. I am working for her as an assistant organizer, and our organization Witness for Peace, is how we are able to put together and go on this delegation for professional organizers. To Cuba. The country that has had a special relationship with the U.S. since the earliest years of our country and continues to mystify economists, political scientists, and your average person with opinions. The country that has been of special interest in my own studies, as I minored in Latin American Studies, took a seminar course devoted to Cuban politics, and dedicated a special focus on Cuba in my International Relations senior thesis on sustainable development in Latin America. I am so thankful to have this opportunity to learn from Cubans themselves, to add that piece to my still-limited understanding of our countries' complex relationship, and to see for myself how Cubans are organizing in their own communities.

For a little background, Witness for Peace is a national grassroots organization that started in the 1980s as concerned Americans held peaceful presence in Central American countries rife with conflict and documented many of the human rights abuses and effects of U.S. foreign policy in those nations. Now, Witness has international teams in several countries in Latin America who work in tandem with national and regional staff in the States to work for peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas, mainly focusing on what we can do on the U.S. side of foreign and trade policy. And while a large part of the organization's work in the U.S. is advocacy and awareness, part of today's "witnessing" is taking delegations of U.S. citizens down to Latin American countries to see firsthand the effects of U.S. policies on the peoples of our hemisphere to better know how to advocate for peace and justice here.

Months of hoping, planning, setbacks, coordinating, emails, logistics, proposed date changes, actual date changes, applications, forms, flexibility, and patience later, it has come together. I feel I cannot be truly excited upon excited until I board the plane from Miami to Havana simply because there have been so many complications up to this point. So, 3pm tomorrow I am hoping dearly to be on a plane from Miami to Havana. Wish me suerte!

Oh, and there will be little to no internet access while we are there, so the rundown on my Havana Nights will definitely happen when I get back. No news for a couple weeks is good news!

Hasta Cuba!

8/4: Nicaragua Cries for You

On our last morning in Nicaragua, we were woken up at 7:15 because breakfast was ready, even though they had said 8... I may have been the only groggy one, but I was glad to have basically packed everything the night before so I did not have to think too hard. We were served buffet-style, and I felt bad saying "Sólo arroz para mi," only rice for me, but that was all my stomach could handle. But I could tell I was on the mend!

I had woken up in the middle of the night, though, something around the hour of 5 and from the bathroom I heard a bit of commotion from the girls' house next door. Assuming it was the fun of hanging out like a sleepover on their last night, I smiled and went back to sleep. And then I heard the real story at breakfast. A frightening tale of an invasion in the middle of the night that got all the girls screaming - at a tarantula! I cannot say if tarantulas actually live in Nicaragua, but I can attest to the fact that it was a pretty large spider (they had photo documentation on one of their cell phones) and it gave the girls quite a scare - and a story to tell!

Our crew got all our belongings together and packed up our microbus shortly after breakfast so we could leave Centro Kairos for the Sandino airport, now knowing so much more of the context surrounding his name. We took a different route to the airport this time, passing actual multi-storied buildings (the first ones I have noticed anyway), multitudes of trees and forests, huge sculptures with guards in the roundabouts so nobody could graffiti them, and the slightly rusty national baseball stadium that actually has lights so they can play mainly night games to avoid the heat of the day.

But today it did not seem too hot, in fact, it felt like it was going to rain. I think there was only one night during our whole trip when it rained, and today it decided to do so. Jose, our driver, commented on this coincidence saying, "Nicaragua llora por Ustedes," Nicaragua cries for us that we are leaving. What a sweetheart.

In the airport we had to say goodbye to the wonderful team of Meredith and Francisco, hoping to see them again soon, and we stocked up on gifts, souvenirs, and chocolates with our remaining cordobas. Nicaragua, I have shed a few tears in leaving your beautiful people. May we all have the opportunity to return someday, not to come in to fix everything and overlay our own hubris because we obviously know what they need in order to develop, but to continue to learn and work with them. May they stay safe and content.

Hasta pronto, until soon.

8/3: Coming Full Circle

Today would be the hardest part of our trip: saying goodby to our Nica families for real. I had already said goodbye and expressed my gratitude to my host dad last night because he normally leaves for work before Jenifer and I had to get going in the morning, but he actually got to work later this morning and before he left, welcomed me back anytime. It was a real development, him almost saying four whole sentences to me! (He just doesn't talk much in general, and his manner of speaking was harder for me to understand... so that was extra effort and extra sweet of him). 

We got all the kids ready to go, and Meredith and Don Martin picked us up at 7:30am in the truck to transport our luggage, and we went to go pick up Paul and host mama Jessica, just as we all rode Nica-style to our host homes the first time we met them. From Don Martin's, Jenifer took the boys to Gotitas, so I had to say goodbye to my monitos. They had tested my patience greatly in those two weeks, but I think we got to the point where we would give each other sass more like siblings than as if they were paying no mind to this random stranger in their home. The older one, Diddier wasn't in the mood to really tell me goodbye, but the middle one, Diederich, gave me kisses and hugs. Adios, monitos.

The necessary jumping picture while waiting for the bus.

Maria Mercedes also wanted a picture with me. She is shy, but talented, smart, and athletic. I wish her all the best.

Today would be a day of reflection on our time here in Nicaragua as our hours left here seemed to be disappearing faster by the second. En route to Chacra Seca, we saw some of the adorable one-story homes with porches, garages, and flush toilets and Meredith even pointed out a neighborhood where they usually place delegates. Even the nicest houses were only one story. Perhaps the wealthiest of the wealthy lived in mansions... And there certainly are those with considerable wealth in this country too. But in explaining our trip to people that did not experience it with us, all of us had to remain conscious that these neighborhoods we drove through were the more typical Nicaraguan experience. Certainly many Nicas continue to live in poverty and struggle with unemployment or underemployment, but we in the U.S. may be too quick to picture this poorest Central American nation as if all lived in the conditions of the families we stayed with. And even though we stayed in very humble homes, they always had enough and always had such a willing spirit to share what they had with us.

Even though we had all been thinking and processing and reflecting during the entirety of the trip, we came to the Casa de Paz, the House of Peace, to reflect as a group. It was hard to find the actual place where we would walk a labyrinth, and I think we basically did a labyrinth on the bus just trying to find the place, but our driver Jose came through again.

We first met Jeannette, who has been the administrator here for nine years. La Casa de Paz was founded in 2000 by a monja, a nun, who returned to New York a few years later where her sisters are based. This area started to develop because of her and her work especially with sister-city organizations with the U.S. The idea was for people to just be able to sit in the rocking chair and talk with her, walk the laberinto, and just be here, and La Casa also leads spiritual retreats to other departments (Nicaragua's version of states). Donors help bring houses, water, clean sanitation, electricity, etc. for those in this community that do not have many resources, and the cycle of serving others continues.

She then talked about the importance of the labyrinth and how it works (the entrance to el laberinto here pictured, and if you already know all this, feel free to skip ahead). It is a meditación de nuestra vida (a meditation of our life), lo bueno (the good), lo malo (the bad), y lo futuro (and the future). The entrance is the purgatory path and processing, and then the end is called the path of illumination where you resolve to be better once you cross the threshold. The actual exit is called unidad - unity, or brotherhood and sisterhood as Jeanette added. While walking through it, we would do so watch-less, so as to not be concerned with time frames but to just let the Spirit move you and work through you. After removing our time-keeping devices, we read some prayers to prepare our hearts to walk.

One by one, we entered the labyrinth, thinking, praying, reflecting, softly singing. Many of us lay in the sun in the center circle until we could commit ourselves to healing. I cannot speak for the rest of our crew, but I think I went through a good deal of emotions in that processing. I just thought about those that I came to love in such a short amount of time here, how this experience has changed my perspective in a lot of ways, and how I love and pray for those back home as well. When we returned to our chairs on the deck at our own pace, we were given paper and pens to write about our reflections and then turn them over to La Casa if we chose to. I actually chose to keep mine because it was one of those times where the words just flowed, and I had to get them down and remember them exactly like they came out in that moment.

And indeed as I look at that crinkled and worn sheet as I type this, the first phrase of reflection I wrote was "Letting my thoughts and prayers flow, that our whole group may just be open in heart and spirit so they may connect with nature, connect with God, come to peace. Hearts open to whatever emotion may come, joy, tears, confidence, overflowing of love." I will not share more of the specifics of my writings from that moment because they are deeply personal, but one of my trains of thought was what I wanted to write in a goodbye letter to my host family. I hoped they would continue to show their boys patience and love as they had shown to me, and that they would recognize the intelligence, the helpful spirit, and the potential in their boys, and I wanted them to know how thankful and amazed I was every day by how hard they worked and how they filled me every day with the few resources they had.

When we had all finished writing, we moved into group reflection. We talked about how our awareness of our privilege increased, how open Nicaraguans were to us despite our history of political injustice, how powerful our family stays were especially compared to the traditional mission trip, and how open we all were to living like them and making do in poverty with what we had. For me especially, with International Relations and political science, I had delved into issues of poverty and development in my studies, and it was so key to actually live it. The improvization with few resources, the strength of the women even in traditional gender roles and stereotypes of machismo, and making connections between communities here and in our own country. Beyond better understanding how to serve those in poverty around the world, I think we from suburbia can so quickly forget that poverty exists if not five minutes away, maybe fifteen. There are plenty of communities that do not have the same opportunities and resources all of us on our trip have had, especially in terms of education. All of those opportunities we would want for our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, we can work for in our own communities too, whether it may be helping out with after school sports programs to keep kids off the streets or tutoring or just understanding how inequality in our own education system results in inequality in opportunities for many of our own citizens to-be.

We focused on what nourished us while we were here, and we could use some of these trains of thought for our reflections as a part of Pastor Don's sermon on Sunday, the day after we returned home to Minnesota. And as we were bouncing all of our thoughts off of each other, Meredith added her own powerful reflection. She said she had been worried about the more difficult conditions for this delegation, as PML had never placed a delegation in that community before, and she was thankful for how open we were. I could definitely see how this delegation could have been trying, as some things did not exactly come together as planned, but she was so on top of everything and handled it all with knowledge and grace. She provided a solid mix of history lessons and sass to keep us entertained, but always experiencing the delegation with us, and I am grateful for that.

I do not really know how we went from such deep trains of thought to returning to logistics and normalcy, but we moved through the Casa space where signs of peace were displayed all around, and we all wrote our own personal message of peace with our name on a small, white strip of paper.

We then hung them by their attached strings on this peace tree. Almost every branch was taken, but there's always room for more peace, right?

Looking up to the ceiling to take everything in, I noticed the giant gold star said what - JOY! So of course I had to call our own Joy over to photograph her with her own shining sign.

We stumbled back into the sunlight, got a little snack at the nearby pulpería (Nothing like soda in a plastic bag with a straw! But we learned the vendors keep the bottles for recycling, so that is why there is so much plastic trash on the street but no broken bottles...). Our microbus arrived at Don Martin's at about 12:15, and away with our families we went for the last time. Jenifer came for me with Diederich, who even though he gave me his despedida, his farewell, earlier, finished school at 12 so he could come home with us. Maria Mercedes had Jenifer's babe, Diegmar, in her arms, and another surprise when we got home - Douglas was at the gate! He had said as much of a flowery goodbye and I was going to get from him in the morning, but he showed up again and sweetly fell asleep in the rocking chair while hanging out with the baby.

Jenifer made chicken (and threw the bones to Princesa), rice, beans, and maduros. I told her that "Desgraciadamente, mi estomago no me permitiría comer mucho," unfortunately my stomach would not let me eat much today even though I loved her food. It made me really sad actually that I was still not feeling well and couldn't enjoy all of her delicious food during my last meal with her.

We chatted about airports and airplane experiences, and I discovered I did not quite have the vocab to explain the security process with x-rays and metal detectors! She still wished to be able to come visit someday, hopefully someday soon. Her friend Keilee also came over to hang out for a bit, and I tried to discreetly run off to go finish my thank-you notes to the niños and to my padres. Jenifer in fact had a surprise for me too - a set of turquoise and silver jewelry! I put the bracelet on right then, and I promised I would wear the matching earrings and necklace another day. We only had a few minutes before we had to head back to the group, but I gave them cinco bonbones de coco (5 coconut suckers from the stash I had won with my/Dad's/Francisco's piñata), and Diederich of course grabbed one right away, and when he finished it, he tried to steal his mom's too - what a little sneaker! I tried to convince him to at least share though and that there was one for everybody... I also left with my host mom the rest of my champú and crema (shampoo and hair cream) for her curls, and finally the notes. She folded them and saved them, and I explained I do better in writing especially because I was going to cry - and she was already getting teary.

We walked one last paseo with Jessica and Paul, and almost everybody from our delegation was late to Don Martin's. Jenifer was teary the whole time, and I had little Maria José from another family hanging onto me too. I got a picture with a few of the girls for the last time too, and finally we had all arrived.

In those last few minutes, I helped Joy translate her family's note to her so she could thank them too. We were all supposed to have arrived at 2:45 having said our long drawn-out goodbyes with our families already so that we could leave like ripping off a band-aid, but it perhaps did not happen as planned. We loaded the bus with everything that would come back with us from this beautiful country and then popped off for huge group pictures in front of our beloved microbus. I still need to get those pictures from whoever's camera phone they were taken on unfortunately, but they were great!

Ay, goodbyes. Paul's mama Jessica and I got all teary too as I thanked her for being an auntie to me, and she called me a sobrina (niece) to Meredith, followed by huge hugs and kisses for my host mama. She could not say much because we were both crying, but I wanted my last words to her to be of encouragement for her, her family, and her career path too. My doors are always open to her, and we vowed to stay in contact through email and pictures. As we boarded our microbus, a line of moms and kids had formed leading up to its doors so we could thank and hug all of them on our way. And so much waving from the bus!

We all debriefed on the way to Managua, all of us handling differently the emotions and reflections about leaving our Nica families, perhaps to never to see them again but having forever been changed by our time with them. It also felt good to rest, especially as I was for whatever reason still having a fun time with traveler's digestive issues. We returned to the place where we began our delegation: Centro Kairos. This time we had two female houses with the three girls in one and then Laurie, Jennifer, Meredith, and I in the other. I was thankful for a little spell of free time to lie down until Meredith came in and said gently, "Umm everyone's waiting on you for dinner..." Whoops!

Dinner was nice, with a little veggie soup, hibiscus tea, and a treat of Eskimo ice cream! I only had a teeny spoonful because I had to see how food settled with me, and then as we departed from the dinner table, all of us delegates snuck around taking turns making sure Meredith and Francisco were occupied in conversation so we could all write notes on thank-you signs we made for them.

In anticipation of our final delegation reflection, Jennifer and Laurie and I talked about how our group coalesced, how everyone was so open to the experience, and how amazing the group dynamic came together especially because we all did not really know each other. Nobody came into this experience cliquey, and the whole group was so well-rounded! It's actually pretty amazing how smoothly we all bonded. Amazing.

We were to reconvene at 8:30. Our crew wanted to start by thanking Meredith and Francisco individually, which we did by going around the circle and saying an affirmation for each of them, to be followed by presenting them with the poster we had signed for them. After a round for Francisco and a round for Meredith, we then bestowed upon Jose the humble yellow frisbee he had thrown with our group on the beach in León, this time with all of our signatures on it. He was also one of us.

Then Meredith went around the circle and did affirmations for each of us individually, thanking me for my intense note-taking - I wanted to remember everything, every historical fact, every important or unimportant conversation topic with my host mom, every different smell, every cultural or political reference, every moment of surprise, etc. She did an affirmation for my dad as well as it was too bad he had to go back to work after the first week. Meredith said she was glad to have my papa and was so appreciative of how sincere he was in trying to make the most of his experience, especially with the language piece, saying how hard he tried to speak Spanish even though probably 95% of it was English. She also added that she had this preconception that he would be all serious because he's an accountant, but she learned he is so sweet and just like a big kid, loving to play sports with the youngsters and still learn from everyone around him. It was really nice that she thought to commemorate the presence of my dad's spirit here even though he couldn't be with us on this last night.

We moved on to the final part of our reflection: remembrance. We were to take a piece of blue string and a piece of white string, and we again went around the circle, this time saying what we would think of from our Nica experience every time we looked at that string, as we tied it on the wrist of our choosing. When my turn came, my answer was so clear to me. "My host mom," I said as I tied the knot around my left wrist.

At that moment, though, I had to then run off, not with a case of uncontrollable emotions, but uncontrollable stomach unwellness. I wanted to be a part of those group activities - and it was our final night together! Attempting to not get too graphic here, I had been feeling quite miserably ill even while enjoying these mindful discussions, but after I said my piece I took off in the direction of our room, but I did not quite make it. I at least got to the bushes away from any houses to throw up, and I felt so much better after that. Guess I still could not quite keep food down. As soon as I stood up, I heard a voice call out to me from the nearest house asking if I was okay (funny thing is I really do not remember if this was in English or Spanish, nor do I remember what language I answered in...), which was really sweet of them. I did indeed feel okay at that point, so I went back to the group but they had just finished and were dispersing. So unfortunately I am not capable of recounting what happened for the last bit of our last group talk, and my apologies again for the less-than-pleasant tale.

If I had to get sick, I was so fortunate to have a couple of great moms in the group, and Laurie, being a medical professional, was also a great resource for advice and for pepto-bismol. Thank goodness for a relaxing rest of the evening, hanging out with the ladies, packing, showers, and an early bedtime.

¡Hasta mañana!

8/2: Laughter and Tears

Let's be real, today did not start off so hot. I guess I have had a little bit of traveler's sickness yesterday and today, and when I woke up at 4 am and tried to run outside to the latrine, I tiptoed to the living room but got yelled at simultaneously by the silly rooster and by Douglas' phone alarm that just happened to go off at that exact moment. Plus, the lock on the door was great for our safety but too daunting in my delirious state. Too many signs telling me I should not be up then, so I crawled back into bed and tried to sleep for a couple more hours.

When it was la hora to actually be awake, I watched baby Diegmar while Jenifer took the others to school. He is such an easy baby, he just played with his baby backpack the whole time! I made sure I had my own pack ready to go then because St. Luke was going to Los Alpes, an eco-tourism lodge. We pulled up and it is absolutely gorgeous with a great view out into the hills and forests, and our first stop here was to take a bathroom break. I was not feeling wonderful, but I definitely felt better after I vomité my breakfast (sorry if that is too much information!), so this was a key stop... And Meredith checked on me and made sure to give me pepto and the option of an anti-nausea pill, which was sweet and necessary. Fellow travelers, just take care of yourselves! Meredith offered me the option of staying in the lodge because it would be a home base for our day and did not know if there would be other bathroom options, but I was doing okay just sitting for a little while, and we all hopped back on the bus to learn how to make tortillas! 

Steps to make this staple of the Nica diet:

1) Wash your hands.

2) Kira and Joy washed the kernels (already taken off the ears, other ears were hanging in their husks drying) in the kitchen sink.

3) To make masa, corn flour, all you need is just corn and water and put it through the grinder! Here our Doña (sorry I forgot her name!) demonstrates.

4) Once you have a mass of masa, put a little water on the dough, and knead it like Cody did. 

5) Pat out small balls of masa into a larger circle on top of a circle of wax paper so it does not stick to the table. Kira came out with a pretty perfect one! People ragged on Francisco's because his did not turn out so beautiful, "It's supposed to be in your blood!"

6) You then slap the dough circle down on a hot metal sheet over burning wood and "dele vuelta," flip it over, with the huge knife.

7) Lastly, your cooked tortilla gets tossed onto a palm leaf to eat, nice and warm. Paul and Christopher are enjoying (and perhaps also comparing) their creations.

 Round two: Jennifer and Meredith get in on the action.

Group pic!

We have all gotten pretty cozy with each other on this trip!

 And back at the lodge, more bonding. While Kira and Chris may have preferred to just take naps in the hammock, the group was to take about an hour walk. And I was planning on going, but Luci said she did not feel well either but did not want to stay back in the lodge by herself, and Laurie offered to stay with her but I figured it may be a good idea for me to let my stomach get un-upset too.

Here is the view from the lodge while Luci and I took our needed hammock naps to rest up, and then I gave my camera to the rest of the group to take pictures...

... so this is what their forest walk looked like - apparently they learned about a lot of different species of plants and animals. 

Cool tree.

 Good job getting pictures, crew!

 

The group came back to the lounge and plopped down, but the thing was, if we were going to go ziplining, we had to go before lunch or there was potential for additional upset stomachs. Paul and Laurie decided to stay behind with Meredith and eat lunch, and the rest of us headed out Nica-style, AKA Jennifer, Don, and I sat in the cab while everyone else piled into the truck bed. Good they all like each other!

We all got outfitted with harnesses, which was kind of funny now that I had worn a skirt - oops! Kira and I had to wait on helmets, and what came were a teeny kid-sized for her and a too-big bike helmet for me. But at least we were going to be strapped in safely. While others did practice runs, Jennifer and I gave our cameras to Francisco, who gave up his chance to zipline and vowed to watch our things.

Unfortunately, we only had time to do three out of the eight runs that took us around the course and over the lagoon, but our guide was a character and let us do some tricks. Here's Don on his first run, which we all did normal to get the feel of it. 

Yeah Don!

There he is, that little dot bouncing over the lake.

Joy, showing off some of that alegría!

The second run we could ask for no water or to be dunked in the lagoon, and I think most of us said "poco agua," just a little water - I may have skimmed it a little too intensely, but it was worth it, totally.

The third run was for some crazier stunts - some people did helicopters (I picked this one and nearly bowled the guy over catching us at the other end) and others even did some partner tricks. All in all, I am grateful for the time to rest before because I would not have wanted to miss this!

Back in the truck we went with two guides hanging off the sides, and our almuerzo, lunch, consisted of enchiladas with rice and refried beans and a glass of sweet tea. The beans were not a great idea for me, so I donated them, but I was glad to keep some food in my system. Word to the wise, stick to your rice, corn, and bananas/plantains to settle possible stomach issues. 

Fun and games and exhilaration: over. Time for serious business: dress rehearsal. It's time to dance, folks! We got dropped off at the PML office and Meredith ran off to go pick up our costumes from Xuchialt, but our teacher Marta did not show up for another half hour. However, Sherscka came to hang out with us! We met Sherscka at a pre-trip dinner we had in July at Laurie and Luci's home, as she had flown up with a PML Nica high school delegation to visit Lane and Marion from St. Luke. They have been very involved with PML and so encouraging of our delegation, and if my memory serves me right, they had stayed with Sherscka's grandmother way back and now Sherscka is like family to them. She said she had a great time in Minnesota and it is wild to see us in her country! 

When Marta got there, we ran through our dance a few times as Sherscka looked on, but she threw a different order at us than the choreography we had practiced, but don't worry, we got it all figured out, and then we ran off to change into our costumes. Only, we ran into some issues. Pint-sized Joy and Luci managed to slip on the yellow silk shirts without any problem, and Kira's blue shirt fit her well too, but there was no way Laurie, Jennifer, and I were going to pull those shirts over our heads without pleading for a little stretch in the fabric. So the three of us emerged from our makeshift changing room in the shirts we came wearing, tucked into our Nicaraguan folk skirts, having to make do (which, let's be honest, is totally Nicaraguan custom anyways - make the best of what you've got!). And this was made all the more hilarious by the fact that our guys were only given costume shirts, so we have traditional skirts, and they have traditional shirts and bandanas with the pants they came wearing!

A mis-matched crew we were, but Sherscka taught us how to tie our skirts to avoid wardrobe malfunctions and also how to trace down the side seams and hold our skirts by that first ribbon at the bottom. Perfect for swishing and twirling.

After that brief moment of costume panic, we had some time to breathe and to hang out while the lovely jovenes put on their makeup. Hopping on the bus for Gotitas while in our costumes, Jennifer exclaimed, "There's just so much skirt!" Truth. And we did not own these, we were renting them from Xuchialt, so we had to a) not make fools of ourselves dancing and b) take care of our pretty skirts.

The despedida, going-away party, was off to a late start, as most things are in Nicaragua, social events anyways. Our families trickled in, each having brought a dish for the potluck, which was their responsibility while we provided the entertainment. Meredith started off the night with a huge thank-you to our families and to the community, and then we got to our dance.

Gringos doing a Nicaraguan folk dance after two lessons and a rehearsal, ay! We also were dancing to a song without any lyrics that we had only practiced a couple times through not counting aloud, so when we performed it, we got off in a few places and while fun and our families applauded, we did not think we did it justice. There was just one main part in the middle that portions of the choreography got all mixed around, so we wanted to try to make our families proud, so we asked if we could do it over again. We may have looked a bit sillier, but it really did help us to count it out loud uno to ocho in unison.  This second time was so much better, and when we all got through that middle part together, our audience recognized that and applauded lovingly. We then shared some laughs with our audience, but we did it! And we hopefully did not disappoint our dance teacher too much either.

I think Meredith had my camera at this point so she got some pictures of us (thanks Meredith!). 

Francisco with his imaginary hat.

My partner Francisco, the lovely Francisco, and me.

Yay, we did it!

The next part of this going-away party, which literally translates to "farewell," Meredith kept us up in the front of the room and asked if there were any family members out there who would come up to the microphone and say a little bit about their experience with their delegate. There was an air of uncertainty out there to see if anybody would actually want to, but Johanna, Laurie and Luci's host mom came up to the mike. And after hearing so many lovely stories from Luci and Laurie about Johanna, especially her cooking, it was so clear what a positive experience they had with her. And man, when Johanna started talking, Luci and Laurie started crying, and I started getting teary too! For those of you who know me well, I hate crying. But I couldn't help it. It was amazing how much we all forged such strong bonds with our host families in less than two weeks. Bonds that surpassed language and all. 

Following Johanna, Meredith invited anyone else who wanted to come up and share a little about their delegation experience, so all the families came up one by one. It was really too bad my papa could not be there for this, but it was nice to see his host mom and little host brother Frankie were able to come and hopefully feel included tonight. Each delegate got to have their moment up there with their family, sharing stories, thanksgiving, laughter, and tears, and after their family gave their peace, each of us got to talk about how being with our Nica families has touched us, mostly through Meredith's interpretation. Paul and Jennifer did theirs in Spanish (the Spanish profes they are!), and when my mama Jenifer came up and linked arms with me to get me up there, Meredith whispered, "I hope you'll do yours in Spanish too." 

Jenifer and I were both crying when we got up there, hardly able to look at each other without laughing through our tears. I definitely not expect to be this much of a mess, but we were! And I was thankful she decided to speak first, beginning with an apology for her kids embarrassingly bad behavior towards me and saying I am like another member of her family. Then it was my turn to stumble through tears and Spanish, "Odio las despedidas..." I hate goodbyes... along with public speaking because I wanted to do my host family justice and not forget everything I wanted to thank them for. I just wanted to thank them for the incredible experience, for patience with my Spanish (especially my host brothers for playing with me even if I did not understand their kid-talk at all), and for their welcoming warmth. Conversations with my host mom were hands-down the best part of my homestay, and I also wanted to further encourage her for being so strong and for all of her future goals - she will be a great lawyer, and hopefully soon! I have truly learned so much from her and am so grateful for this entire experience.

Our turn at the mike for thank-yous and goodbyes.

All of us delegates have been touched by personal connections with our Nicaraguan families, surprised by how we could connect even though it was not easy at times. We will treasure how these homestays have impacted us, and even if the Carlos Nuñez community hosts one or twenty more delegations in the future through PML, Meredith said there seems to be always something a little extra special about that first delegation. After the "flowery" thank-yous, we could let all of the sadness and reminiscing go and just enjoy this last night with our families. Food time!

The host mamas had prepared this "caballo grande" for us - apparently the literal translation for potluck is "large horse"! We filled our plates with samplings of lots of dishes from repochetas filled with meat and cheese to boiled yucca, the usual rice and beans, some fried plantains, etc. I tried Johanna's melon fresco, and I of course had to have a glass of my own mama's too because I know from experience that hers is always awesome. I still was feeling a bit sick, but I ignored it because I wanted to dance - it's a fiesta after all! Don grabbed me to make up some merengue and try to encourage others to dance, and the fiesta started moving outside, following the piñata setup in the works.

Don also made my little brother pretty spanking happy by playing a little hot potato with this chimbomba too.

The majority of us flowed outside when the piñatas were ready then, with Luci's brother Jose at the helm, manning the pulley. Paul and Jennifer's clown face piñata got whacked first, with kids taking turns until it burst open. Then the scramble for the dulces, sweets, commenced!

 Dad's/Francisco's/my tomato piñata came next, and here Maria Mercedes, one of the girls that eventually overcame her timidness to play frisbee and soccer with us gringos, takes a swing at it.

A rush for the cracked tomato!

Ignoring piñata pieces all over the ground, the crowd energy shifted to dance party with a mix of Latin dance music and Pitbull in the background. I danced with a few younger girls, some of whom just stared at me like I was crazy, but silly dancing is the best. Here Cody charms a little three-year old with his dance skills.

I danced a little with Paul and Jennifer too, who had picked up some merengue skills with their various Latin America experiences too.

I think Jenifer and the boys got a little overwhelmed with all of the noise and people, so we stayed for a while to help clean up inside Gotitas, and then headed home, with the boys complaining of weary feet and tossing chimbombas (balloons) up in the air. The dancing was maybe not the best idea for my traveler's sickness, but it was worth it. Physically and emotionally, we were all pretty wiped, but thankful for one last night together.

8/1: Getting Schooled Again

"Katarin, ¡es la hora!" Time to get going! Thankfully I had opened my eyes about two seconds before I heard Jenifer calling, so I ran around getting ready for the day and got to throw back a special treat my mama had bought for me: posol. It is mentioned in the song "Hijos del Maiz" that I posted yesterday, and is a drink made out of corn and honey. The texture was slightly gritty, but it was quite sweet and settled nicely in my stomach. I went off with Jessica and Paul so Jenifer could take the kids to school, and got to snap a picture of one of Chris's host family members making tortillas to sell this morning.

Chris said he has gotten quite used to the smacking sounds of the women shaping tortillas at hours such as 3am, preparing them to sell throughout the day.

Our crew took off for Calasanz to experience another side of Nicaraguan education: a private secondary school, one of the best in León. We filed up the stairs to the second level of the huge main complex to watch an asamblea, assembly, from above. Here we learned that today they were celebrating the day it was founded!

 The swarms of students in their uniforms were separated into blocks based on class, and many of them were simply goofing off as kids do. We found it curious that the actual Founder's Day was a couple weeks away, and while they still probably would have had an asamblea to tout the school's history, Meredith gave us the strong hint that they knew we were coming and perhaps wanted to show their stuff a little bit... Oh! We'd better behave ourselves then and be gracious for what they put together for us!

The two student MCs led the asamblea in both Spanish and English, which was pretty incredible of them to do. They opened with a prayer, especially in thanksgiving for the life of José Calasanz and his recognition of the needs of this community. Just before they were done speaking, though, cannons went off on the nearby basketball courts, which presumably were for the commemoration but it seem like they jumped the gun a bit. 

They also gave a list of special dates coming up, including August 9th, International Day of Indigenous Peoples. As they do often in their everyday lives, that day they would especially celebrate el mestizaje, "the mixture" (of mainly Spanish and indigenous heritage) because "That's who we are." Part of their treat for us was a group of seniors danced a traditional number to a song called "El Mestizaje." As the assembly went on, we gazed out into the sea of kids below us, noticing not the same extent of skin tone variation that I had seen in Brazil with more Portuguese and African heritage, but there really is a variety of skin tones here. We even spotted a couple blondies, debunking a stereotype that all Central Americans are mestizo with brown or black hair.

After this performance, they did something that I would probably feel uncomfortable with if it had happened in my education career. They gave out academic awards by calling up the recipients by grade and section and announced their GPA to the entire student body. I tried to work hard for my grades of course but any academic awards were usually presented with the GPA range, and I would rather not have had my entire school know my GPA... But perhaps that is just me and my experience, or perhaps this is just Calasanz, not representative of the Nicaraguan education system as a whole.

Following the awards, the dance group also did a routine to "Hijos del Maiz," making it the third time we had heard that song in two days (see my previous post). Told you it was famous. The asamblea had gone on for too long to keep the kids' attention, though, so the MCs were speaking to the sea without much listening in return. They were finally by dismissed by section to go to their classes, and as students passed us to get to their classrooms, we heard a few whistles and it reeked of hair gel. Mmm, high school.

We were to go into classrooms and observe, and we split into girls and guys to do so. One of the MCs, Christopher, accompanied us girls as we went to see an English teacher in action first. She starts with the youngest grade and then moves around to different rooms. The first thing that was so obvious in comparison to our Gotitas experience yesterday was that the kids were so much better at sitting and listening here! And the teacher could use a firm tone but not have to raise her voice hardly at all. We all sat on the floor with the kids as they did first did a repaso, a review, of what they learned in their last English class.

 The teacher later explained it is really hard to get things to sink into their memory as they are learning basic colors, shapes, animals, etc., but she only has fifteen minutes with them every Tuesday and Wednesday and they are only five years old. So she always starts with a review and then goes over a new list of words. Today they learned some parts of the body, so...

...the St. Luke ladies then led the kids in "Head, shoulders, knees, and feet."

They then broke up into groups to sit and work on their new vocabulary in their workbooks, so we sat at the tables around the room with them. I tried asking some of the kids questions about colors in English and had to do a mix of Spanish and English to see how soon they would get it, and it seemed a few of them had their colors down but vocab is indeed difficult like the teacher said. It is a slow process, and with my love of languages, I definitely understand how vocabulary can just fall out of your brain if you do not use it. We all still bonded over crayons and colors, even if I had to use more Spanish than English in their English class, and then we moved on to more of the upper grades.

Though this class had gotten out, there was a break between periods so we also got to learn more about Chris, and Laurie being the pro at connecting with people and finding out more of their story even with limited Spanish, seemed to have a really great conversation with him in that time.

 

Laurie simply asked him, "What do you dream of doing?" There is an important exam that high schoolers must take and do well on if they want to have even the slimmest shot at going to college, and he said he scored well on this and has good grades but still does not know if he can get into the university in Managua. It is very hard to get into, and he wants to study economics but public universities are not such good quality, and private universities are very expensive, so he would need a scholarship. He seemed intimidated by the system and his prospects, but she put it well, "You do not have to be the best. You just have to work hard." His English is great and he seems so bright, we all hope the best for him!

Our next class visit was to the room of the lovely Lissette, another PML board member and a science and history teacher here. We youths (I guess I am kind of a youth today!) split up to sit with different groups of students to see what they were working on and talk with them a bit.

Joy talking with the student she sat down with.

Lissette put me with a group of four, and their task was to color maps of the terreno, terrain, of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas, but my group was more into talking with me and amongst themselves than doing that project... They multi-tasked and joked they would rather learn about sports and Minnesota than Latin American history.

They also asked if I had Facebook and said they all did, and they all had their own laptops as well. This struck me that while this is the poorest country in Central America, these high schoolers have many of the habits and technological conveniences that your typical student in the U.S. may. Many of the families who can send their kids here are doing okay financially, but the school does offer scholarships as well.

After we left that class, Christopher said the economy is still hard because first, you do not know if you can get into college, and after you graduate you do not know if you will get a job for one to two years - "It's sad!" he said. We noted a similar trend in the U.S., where many college grads (like me!) are finding it hard to get a job in their field right away. But our system gets more kids into college even if we are still waiting somewhat on the economy to keep improving to have jobs for those educated and qualified. I do not know what the options are for Nicas who graduate from college and cannot find work straight out of the gate though because in the U.S. there are still opportunities with your local coffee shop, an unpaid internship, or service work, etc. 

Calasanz is not just providing solid education to those who can afford it though. We got to see more of the large complex that had several buildings, nice athletic facilities, and a snack bar where many of the older kids were hanging out. This place is set up! But they also have a center for at-risk youth, where there are about 120 primary school kids that come after their normal classes for educational reinforcement. "No hay que pagar," they do not have to pay, and the padres, Catholic fathers, from Calasanz go to different countries to raise money for materials and uniforms for these students. There is also a civic education class that many Calasanz students take, and to continue their learning to share with those who have less outside the classroom, a few decide to sponsor a student in this program. Lissette said this is more in line with the beliefs of founder Jose Calasanz who worked with poor children in Rome, and the best students from this program showing interest and ability may get becas, scholarships, to then become students at Calasanz.

The center also keeps getting donations of books and games, so their shelves are overflowing! They have their own little library, but the kids cannot take books home because the teachers help them read here, and many of them go home to parents who cannot read. It is nice to see the sense of social responsibility here, especially members of more privileged classes giving some of their time and money to give second chances to those who need and want them.

The last stop on our tour was a fair set up just for us! The oldest students had split up into groups to give us information on different facets of Nicaraguan culture. The first station let us taste-test some traditional dishes - yum!

Other stations gave us candy and brochures on holidays and myths, with some students speaking mainly in Spanish and others attempting English for us. Here these boys talked about traditional trajes, traditional attire.   

Geography of Nicaragua and its departments, the Nica version of our states. 

One station talked about the national tree, the tamarind, national bird, the guardabarraco, and national flower, which Kira and I put in our hair! Apparently doing so is to "celebrate the natural beauty of a woman."

 A couple groups of students asked to take pictures with us gringos, and then a last group did a dance performance for us featuring the Gigantona and El Cabezón from the Nica legend. With the gigantic characters running around, the other group members in Spanish used rhyming phrases about other myths and traditions, and they even included a couple about Minnesota and León!

After the show, they gave a few of us bags full of fruit pulp as presents, and Meredith reassured us, "Your host moms will know what to do with this." Make fresco! We took our goodies to the bus and heard about our impact at the school - the girls got some whistles, but our boys stole the show! Many chicas today were enamoradas, enamored, after hanging out with Cody, Leif, and Chris with all of their charm for a short while.

On the bus we also learned more of Christopher's amazing story. Only two years ago, he was caught up in the wrong crowd, his parents had split, and his dad was a manual laborer in the fields so he went with the city to live with his mom. He failed nine out of ten classes, and his family gave him one last chance so he decided to clean up his act when they sent him to Calasanz. You would never have guessed, based on his bright, charming, and smart persona he carries now. He is actually a brilliant kid. Lissette herself worked with him and he invested himself, so now he gets to be concerned about college. He set himself on a better path, and he was lucky to have the support that he did because many in his situation may not.

And the amazing Lissette who provides such a strong educator and mentor role at Calasanz joined us for lunch at a gorgeous Cuban place that nobody not looking for it would find. There was a sign about the size of your hand off the side of the highway.

They served a basic, preset meal to our large group, with variations for the vegetarians. We slurped a sweet, pulpy fruit juice and after a salad, scarfed down basically a repocheta (a tortilla with cheese inside, folded over and fried) with frijoles and beef. Lissette sat next to me and chatted with Laurie, Paul, and Don some as well. She has a down-to-earth kind of elegance, with stunning eyes and just a teeny gold sliver on her left front tooth, and while stern in the classroom, she was so warm talking to us. Paul and I helped translate for the conversation as we talked about how tough it would be the only one in Meredith's position (and what a great job she is doing!) as well as more about the education system, and she also asked what I was thinking of doing with my life now that I have graduated. Since I love traveling and serving others, she suggested getting involved with Operation Smile, a well-known organization that does cleft lip and palate repair surgeries around the world (see here: Operation_Smile). Lissette said many young people work for the organization to piece together medical teams to go on delegations to countries like Colombia and it would be something I should think about for my near future - we'll see!

Mainly because we had the chance to relax at a lovely Cuban restaurant, Laurie wonderfully bought a round of mojitos for some of us (no underage drinking or drinking on the job...), and it was nice to just sit and converse for a while. We then went back to the PML office for piñata judging by Carolina and Lissette, and they picked the winners from the clown face teams and the tomato teams to use for the despedida, our going-away party with our families. Leif and Cody's ninja clown was pretty awesome, but Paul and Jennifer's Charlie Chaplin clown came away the winner, so they were awarded suckers shaped like beer mugs. Dad's/Francisco's and my tomato was also chosen to represent our group's piñata efforts, and we were given coconut suckers which I shared with the group and brought some home to my host family.

Next we drove to Gotitas for our craft fair there, with many of our host families bringing their Gotitas-enrolled kids too! Some of our group had forgotten to bring their crafts with them in the morning because we did not have a chance to go home before the fair, but our microbus was able to take a couple home, providing they, uhh, remembered where their home was. Joy in particular had a little bit of a tough time finding her house, and we also had to make a stop at a house to fill three buckets of water because the water has been cut in the neighborhood today and you do not know when it will come back... Later my host mom said it came back after a few hours, but today was her laundry day so it was extra hard. Apparently it is only once a year when the government cuts the water in each locality to clean the wells, but it happened to be when we sort of needed water to run Laurie and Luci's tie-dye station - we made it work though!

With these extra errands, we got to Gotitas about fifteen minutes after we told our families to be there, but we still had a little setup time. On the left, Leif demonstrates his ninja star origami to his host sister Katya, and on the right, Joy hangs out with a family at her face painting station.

 Don and my host brothers (who did a great job of smiling for the camera...!).

Busy busy.

Working with Leif at our tricky origami. It was easier to make the stars along with the kid learning rather than try to explain it without all the Spanish vocab, so we churned out a solid number of ninja stars.

It seemed like the other crafts went well for the most part, and Jessica dove right in to make tie-dye shirts for her family and for my host family, even though my little brothers were being snots most of the time (sorry, I do not have another way to describe their behavior!). But they perked up when we got to take a couple of the extra ninja stars home because they were a little too young to follow the complicated steps, but thankfully we had demo versions.

On the way home, Diddier's chimbomba, balloon, broke so he had a fit, but we were all cheered up by Diederich's antics when he saw a man peddling out of his bread cart and pretended to be selling bread too! 

Jessica and Paul bought huge bags to take home with them and snack a little on their walk home, with Jessica I think poking fun at Paul's hungriness and happiness with the sweet breads she perhaps intended for breakfast.

 

I got to carry Diederich home most of the way so he would not run off as he did when I tried to get him to leave the bread cart, and we all got home eventually! Jenifer had had a tough day, and I was tired too, so I took a little siesta for my unhappy stomach too. The boys played crazily outside with a couple of their neighbors, and Jeni said she likes to have a "casa llena de niños," a house full of kids. 

I joined them when they came in, and I really like Bryan, one of the older ones, because he is bien tranquilo, very chill. It was also the first I have seen my brothers play with a girl, a four year-old neighbor who Diddier claimed was his girlfriend too! So I joked with him about him having two girlfriends and how I was jealous, and also how he should make sure to treat the other girl well if he wants her to stick around. That little boy is four and already a casanova, oh boy! 

My brothers wanted to play monitos before dinner, and I was feeling a little bit better, so we went to my room to go play and Bryan asked if he could join us for the piggyback rides. He really is a sweetheart and had a good time too. I was pretty lucky that Jeni called us for dinner right after I spun so many times with the three of them that I felt like I was going to eruptar, vomit... But I shooed the boys into the kitchen and we settled our stomachs with some rice and beans and maduros, fried sweet bananas.   

It looked like it was going to rain overnight, so we left the dish washing to the boys as they had been such good helpers with that chore, and Jenifer and I took down the dry laundry and hang more of the still mojada, wet, ropa under the roof so it would not get wet. While she was cooking, she had asked me if I was getting aburrida, bored, of Nicaragua yet. Of course not! Even if the kids are a little malportados a veces, a little naughty at times, I love seeing and experiencing here, living and learning with her, and I asked her if she was sick of me yet, to which she replied, "¡No, no, te voy a extrañar!" No, I'm going to miss you. Me too! We plan to stay in touch, send each other photos, and hopefully visit each other. She hopes to come to the U.S. with some English too. 

At this point I wanted to see what her experience with estadounidenses, United Statesians, before our delegation showed up was like. She said she did not have an imagen, a preconceived image, of what we would be like, but now that she has met us, she says we are "gente muy linda," very beautiful people. To hear that given all our country has done to meddle even in Nicaragua's recent history is exactly why cross-cultural trips like these are so important, just to learn from each other and understand each other better. I said there are good people in the U.S. and of course there are others that maybe do not make the best decisions, but that is like anywhere. I do love the Nicaraguan people from what I have learned and those I have met. They are muy bonita y alegre, beautiful and happy, and there is especially so much natural belleza, natural beauty like I see in women with skin the color of café and twinkly eyes and in my host mom with her long curly hair and pestañas, eyelashes, that extend forever. Jenifer said growing up, especially in high school, she had to always tie up her long hair so boys would not try to play with it! 

And she did, after all, get her man while she was in high school, and he came home relatively early tonight with snacks for the kids and time to help put them to bed. I took a shower and shaved in the dark, which was pointed out as necessary by my host brother who exclaimed, "¡Los pelos, me pican!" when he was standing on my legs earlier. Thanks, bud. Sorry my prickly legs "bite" you. It was a pretty early night for me after I cleaned up, but Jenifer was still washing some clothing and making dinner for Douglas while I sat watching the titulares, headline news, on TV and writing. Off to sleep and hopefully feel better in the morning!