Second Mass Email

I've been very busy lately, and I haven't been able to post on my blog. So, here's the recap email I just sent out.

Thank you so much for the warm responses to my first email. It was great to hear from everyone who wrote back, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to respond to many of you. I've now been in Nicaragua for over six weeks, and I'm not sure how to communicate all of my experiences over the medium of email, but I'll certainly try. (Edit: the email is quite long. Sorry. :) )

In the last six weeks, we've had crash courses in Spanish, Nicaraguan political, social, and cultural history, Nicaraguan social movements, and field study methods, we've spent a week each in the countryside in Matagalpa and on the Carribien coast, and we've gotten acclimated to the social life here. It's been a lot! Spanish is a struggle, but I've improved a lot. I think I got placed a level above where I belong, but I've gotten through it ok. My two Spanish professors are great. Our Spanish classes have only 4-5 students each, so we get a lot of personal attention and get to know the teachers pretty well. Both of my professors were officers in the Sandinista army, one during the 70s before and during the insurrection and one during the contra war in the 80s. We learn a lot from them about what the historical trends and events we're learning about actually meant to people's lives and the different feelings the public has about them now. It's a great set up, and though my grammer is still attrocious, I am much more able to discuss things I care about as a result of the class.

Our Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society seminar is incredible. It's almost entirely guest lecturers, with Aynn and Guillermo providing recaps, interpretation, and filling in the gaps. I'm not sure how, but we're getting lectures from many major political and social figures here, from Dora Maria Tellez, who was the woman who led the insurrection in Leon in 1979 and is now one of the leading critics of the current FSLN, to Maria Teresa Blandon, the incredible feminist leader who is an incredible activist and civil society scholar, to Antonio Locayo, the minister of the Presidency from 1990-1996 who ran the country with Violeta Chamorro as a figure head, to other major party figures, activists, and scholars. It's painting an amazing picture of Nicaragua, past and present. With each lecture, conversation and day that passes, my understanding of the country grows deeper and more complicated. It's a tremendously messed up place that is heartbreaking, eye-opening, outrageous, hope filled, oppressed, and more complex than I can possibly comminicate in an email.

I went to a talk to coincide with the re-release of "Nicaragua," a book by US photographer Susan Meiselas of photos of the insurrection in 1978 and 1979 (for some of the pictures, check here: http://www.susanmeiselas.com/nicaragua/). There was a talk/discussion with Susan, Dora Maria Tellez, and numberous people who were protagonists in the photographs. If I had been to the event two months ago, it would have been a fascinating piece of journalism and some incredible pictures, but after living with multiple Nicaraguan families and having traveled to many of the locations where the photographs were taken, the event felt much more powerful and grounded in experience. Susan also made a movie ten years after the insurrection entitled "Pictures of a Revolution" that shows the country in the depths of the contra war and is also very recognizable. I can't wait to share the book and movie with y'all when I get back so I that I can share some of the visuals of my experience (of course with my own pictures as well!).

The Field Study Seminar, my other class besides the RTCS seminar and Spanish, is also very interesting. Aynn teaches it, and it's preparing us for our independent study project that is our only assigned activity for the month of November. I have never done field work before, so I find the content of the class really helpful and interesting, but it's a discussion class as well. Most of the other 17 students have focuses and priorities that are quite different than my own, and it's very interesting to discuss things like Ivan Illich's "To Hell with Good Intentions" (which is amazing, short, and definitely worth the thought-provoking read) with them. One of our assignments is also to collaborate with two other students and take an hour to present something we feel is pertinent and useful from our own respective studies. I collaborated with two other students to facilitate a short anti-oppression discussion with interesting, and mixed, results. What the other students have chosen to present is quite interesting as well. The group of students is mostly white, mostly female, and all students at US colleges and universities. As my friend Hannah would say, we're "interesting."

In mid-September, we spent a week in the Nicaraguan countryside, in a small community a few hours outside Matagalpa called "Horno Dos" (literally: Oven Two). It wasn't very hot, but it was intense. About half of the population of Nicaragua are rural campesinos and campesinas. Because of the reversal of land reform after 1990, the exploitation of resources and labor by transnational corporations, and the draconian provisions of Free Trade, most campesinos and campesinas live on less than a dollar a day, do not own their own land, and work 10-12 hours a day six days a week. (The national numbers are that about 80% of the population lives on less than US$2/day and about 45% lives on less than US$1/day.) I stayed with a family of bean pickers with five other students living in the same community. The community leaders set up activities for us to do during the days and we'd spend time with our families at night. We learned that the community was well organized against transgenics and pesticides and were parts of networks of communites dedicated to organic and sustainable farming. The community was also organized against domestic violence and stressed education, though most kids dropped out to start work or get married by the time they were 15 or so. One of my host brothers was 15 and had been working as a bean picker since he was 12. It was a lifestyle quite different from the one I am used to.

Last week, we took another excursion, this time out to the Carribean Coast. The coast is technically two autonomous regions that suffered a different colonial history than the rest of Nicaragua. The the Pacific region was colonized from the west by Spanish conquistadors coming up from Peru, and they didn't make it to the east coast before the British had come down from the carribean and turned it into a protectorate. The region has only been a part of Nicaragua since the late 1800s when it was conquered by a Nicaraguan dictator named Zelaya (who was later deposed by the US Marines and replaced with someone worse). The region has languished in under-development with the colonial powers stripping its resources and providing nothing in return. The region is multiethnic, with Miskitos, Mestizos, Suma, Rama, Creoles, and Garifuna making up the population. The struggle for autonomy is fascinating and something I could write pages and pages about, so I'll just say that if you're interested, you should ask me when I get back.

I stayed, with 8 other students in Orinoco, the only major Garifuna community in Nicaragua. The Garifuna are an ethnic group that are a mix of escaped Ghanaian slaves and the Arawak native people who originated on St. Vincent Island, but were forcably relocated by the British all of the carribean coast of Central America, including Hondurus, Belieze, Guatamala, and Nicaragua. The Garifuna in Nicaragua have lost their language, and are now partnering with Garifuna communities in other countries to try and rescue their language and culture. Orinoco is a farming and fishing community two hours by motor boat from the nearest significant infrastructure (which means much longer for the majority who don't have access to a motor boat) and who's local infrastructure is supported almost entirely by international NGOs rather than the government. The people are very proud of their Garifuna culture, and were very excited to share their food, music, medicina popular and dances with us. They spoke Creole English, and only a few in the community who were formally educated spoke Spanish. Again, there's too much to right about here, but I'd love to tell you more later. The week was affecting and showed a completely different side of Nicaragua one wouldn't know existed if they only spent time on the Pacific coast.

Amidst all of this, I've been living with my host family in Managua, learning more about them and their local community. My dad was one of the leaders of the literacy brigades in 1980 which raised literacy from around 40% to nearly 90%. My grandma has been hosting guests since the revolution through various programs (hence all of the amazing folks I mentioned last time) and is the leader of the local catholic prayer group. My siblings are nice, and my 2 year old brother is a hand full. We've gone to see murals in the community and around Managua, including the Third World Nativity with Carlos Fonseca, Sandino, Che, and Oscar Romero as the Magi that was on the cover of my Liberation Theology syllabus last semester (I'll send you the picture, Charlie!).

I'm now preparing to finish our Spanish unit, turn in my proposal for my ISP and go on another excursion to El Salvador for 9 days. I'm busy, exhausted, but excited and learning more than I though possible. Though I could easily write about my experiences for the rest of the day, I have other things to do, as I'm sure y'all do, too, and this email is too long as is. I miss all of you terribly. Though I'm enjoying meeting new people here, I've realized how much of myself I'm missing when I'm not with people I love. So, know that I'm thinking of all of you, I love you, and that I expect a full recap of the madness that's been going on in the US when I return, as well!

Be well, do good work, and stay in touch,
Sam