Academia de Atletismo

Looking for another way to help poor Nicaraguan children? I know you can never get enough of it!

This is the afternoon session (kids go to school in the morning or in the afternoon and so Roberto holds training sessions twice a day). Not smiling is still the status quo for most photos here.

The Academia de Atletismo is a running club recently started for impoverished children in Rivas, Nicaragua. It teaches the techniques of running as well as the values that go along with it: discipline, work ethic, health, nutrition, self respect and many others.

The founder and lead trainer, Roberto Delgadillo (yep, the friend who helped me through two years at the orphanage), was able to graduate from college because of his running scholarship and now volunteers hours every weekday planning activities and training children from his and surrounding neighborhoods.

They are able to use the local track (along with all other sports teams at the same time) and are looking to cover only the most basic costs. Shoes are more important than starting blocks at this point.

Operational costs for one year are estimated to be the following for 15 children:

	Total	Per Unit
Register the club with NAF	$ 25
Running shoes	$ 750	$ 25	pair
Spikes for synthetic tracks	$ 450	$ 30	pair
Travel Expenses on a public minibus	$1,200	$ 120	trip
Athlete registration	$ 225	$ 1.50	child
Competition uniforms (shorts and shirt)	$ 210	$ 14	child
Nutrition, doctor visit, vitamins every three months and anti-parasitic every 6 months	$ 400	$ 6.67	child
Food during competitions	$ 900	$ 2	meal

Currently the organization is 100% local volunteer run which is nearly unheard of there. We do eventually hope, however, to add equipment, trainer continuing education and staff compensation at a later date.

If you would like to contribute to meeting the financial needs of this program, please click on the donate button located at the upper right corner of the blog.

Additional important information if you wish to donate -

1. Paypal receives your donation, takes approximately 2.9% (if paying by plastic) and sends the rest to me.

2. I receive the money and send it in a check to Roberto. The bank in Nicaragua charges him $20 to cash a check (it is by far the least expensive method we've found). So I send checks no more frequently than once a month.

3. The Academia de Atletismo is not a certified non-profit in Nicaragua and it may never be (educational programs are not necessarily non-profits there). It is not a registered non-profit here in the US either. Therefore your donations are not tax deductible at this time.

Funnest Job Ever!

Kat, Chloe and Ethan, soon to be homeowners at the duplex.

I am seriously lucky to do what I do (you know, random coordinator of all things my boss doesn't do).

In my construction coordinator hat, I got a call from soon to be homeowner Carisa last week. She's got MS and we're finishing up her house in the next couple months (it was started before I got here).

She had just gone up to her house to grab a paint brush and see what may have happened over the week. When she found the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, toilet and hot water heater installed and trim around the windows and doors started she had to call me.

It was a conversation filled with 'oh my gosh!' and 'wow!' and the most self satisfying one 'thank you!!!'

I like my job.

Not Impoverished in the Least

In the kitchen at the farm in Nicaragua

If you're here visiting from Leigh's excellent amazing blog, welcome! As she wrote, this blog is in a list of broadly defined blogs on poverty.

This blog is a micro micro look at poverty, in other words, my personal experiences and responses to it both internationally and domestically. Try the Social Justice tag for the most relevant entries, although there is more interspersed, I'm not always the best as tagging!

And if you haven't already visited her, I highly recommend checking out Leigh's blog - Poverty in America, part of Change.org and all the others blogs in her most recent post! I'm amazed to find myself in their company!

Ground Breaking + Community Building

In June we are starting construction on a home next door to the one we're currently finishing. It's for the Murphy family, Chuck and Jennifer and their 5 children (three of whom were present for the ground breaking).

When it's Jennifer's turn to speak, she recounts the first thing she'd like to do in the new house. And it's not sit back and relax, it's not wander through the house and look at all that is now hers (both valid things when you've worked as hard as a Habitat homeowner).

She says that she'd like to hang photos, photos of all those involved in making the house a reality, the HfH board, the volunteers.

And it is a wonderful reminder that this process makes so much more than a house. It builds and strengthens a community.

Women Build

So take some paintbrushes...

And some paint...

Add a good organization...

A house with a view...

Don't forget the hardworking Executive Director...
And a Vista Volunteer who didn't make it into her own photos...

Make sure it's a beautiful day...

And MOST importantly, over 50 women volunteers...

Some older, some younger...

Some taller, some shorter...

Some detail oriented, some.... not

And you have yourself Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Bighorn's first Women Build! (And the exterior of a house painted)

Americorps and the PSO

Do you know what a PSO is? Neither did I.

What about TCB, VMSU or VISTA? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Welcome to the world of the US government. Unfortunately, even though I don't receive the benefits (such as all federal holidays off), I still have some of the responsibilities including learning and translating a crazy quantity of acronyms.

Vista (the program I am a part of) was founded in 1965 (Volunteers in Service to America) by President Johnson. The organization was put under a new umbrella of Americorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) by President Clinton in 1993. Other groups which were created in the mid-nineties and put under the CNCS include Teach for America and the Senior Corps.

Vista was created specifically to fight the war on poverty. Every Vista Volunteer works within local organizations which attempt to alleviate poverty within their community.

They also only take on responsibilites which provide indirect service. That means they don't teach kids, feed the hungry or directly serve the poor. We are a capacity building group, we are there to work ourselves out of a job.

We will organize programs, train volunteers, write economic plans. And then we will leave.

We are only there for a year (in most situations). We will come, learn, plan and teach. Then, if all goes well, if we are astute in our observations of need, ability and cultural expectations, if we are careful in our prioritizing and communicating, if we are lucky, our work will be carried on by those in the organization we served and the community we lived.

And the Pre Service Orientation (PSO) is where you learn all that!

Good for America

A house for the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority, built by HOPE VI funding and lots of volunteers!

The Edward Kennedy Serve America Act has been passed by the house and will be signed into law as soon as President Obama returns from the G20 summit!

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the new service bill will (among other things) increase the number of Americorps volunteers from 75,000 to 250,000 over the next eight years.

It also will increase support for social entrepreneurialism. For those of you with short attention spans like me, here is a link of the highlights.

Living Alone is a Luxury

It's not a right.

As plenty of you have probably already realized, the US has been obsessed with the idea of one small nuclear family per McMansion regardless of the consequences. And, well, now we all get to pay.

What is an anomoly in the rest of the world is standard practice here, in part because we're such a mobile society. For me it was Seattle, Nicaragua and Wyoming in the course of four years for work.

In Nicaragua, most everyone assumed I had lived with my parents up until I had moved there. They were shocked to learn that not only had I not lived in their house, or their city, I had even lived in an apartment all by myself for the three previous years.

They couldn't imagine it. Wasn't I scared? Or lonely?

They didn't understand because they had learned the joys (and how to handle the challenges) of living in community, of living with multiple generations in the same home and neighbors whose conversations (and livestock) you could hear while lying in bed (although they were muffled and in Spanish so I never really understood them (the conversations, not the livestock)).

I could have bought a house in Seattle in 2004, 2005, 2006. It would be a house whose value would now be less than the mortgage. I worked for a general contractor who now has had to lay off some employees, maybe I'd be out of a job.

And I could ask you to bail me out, pay my way because I was part of a cultural bust that could ruin you if left undone.

But maybe I got lucky, luckier than getting pulled out of a mess. I learned how to live in community. I lived with roomates all through college to minimize debt. I lived with NPH and in a family home in Nicaragua.

And now I am being welcomed into the home of Dave and Karen in Wyoming who speak with enthusiam for Habitat for Humanity, hiking, their two grown sons and their families.

I will be paying them $300 per month for a bedroom, bathroom, utilities, food and general use of their home (a generous offer anywhere, but especially in Sheridan where just a room in someone's house can cost $500 or more per month). I'm also sure care, hugs and listening to frustrations will also be included free of charge.

And I suppose that is the real luxury so many people miss out on. While looking for privacy, space and a view they miss the joy of shared laughter, the comfort of shared time and the purpose of shared values.

It looks like more people are learning this lesson out of necessity (link to Seattle Times article on shared housing). So maybe there is a silver lining to these hard times.

I Have a Favor to Ask of You

A women selling grave flowers on Memorial Day weekend (it's not actually called that, but it's the day everyone goes to their family graves to picnic).

Correction: When I tried to vote again today it wasn't allowed, so I contacted the company to say hey! what's with that?! Of course I put it better than that :)

They just wrote back to say, Oops! We wrote our rules wrong! Sorry! You can only vote once!

So, I'd love your one vote, and then a vote from every computer you have access to (since you don't have to register, it's really one vote per computer) and if you feel like spreading the joy, feel free to send this to whoever you feel comfortable asking to click their vote!

Thank you so much! I'm already in second place! But I have a ways to go for first!

Original Post:

Business.

It's everywhere.

It touches everything.

Some people think it IS everything.

And it is part of an audacious project I will take on someday.

In the meantime, I am applying to business schools to earn an MBA in non-profit management starting the fall of 2010 (yes, for those of you who don't know me at all, I like to plan ahead).

And you can help me go.

What?!

I hear confusion. Yes, you can help me go. In more ways than one, but the one I am asking for right now is very simple and is free.

Please go to MBA Tour (click on the words to take you there). Click on the picture (the same as the one above) that says 'Developing Countries Skipping Ahead'. Click on the button that says vote.

If you really want to help, you can vote for me EVERY DAY!

I'm not going to tell you how good the chances are that if you vote, I will win a prize worth over $6,000! Ok, I will, chances are very good.

To be accepted into an MBA program at an accredited university, I have to take the GMAT, it's like the SAT for high schoolers. This prize of test preparation help will take me a long way towards getting into the schools I am hoping for.

Here's a hint of how much I'm hoping to win... I already voted for myself! And plan on voting every day until February 10th!

Happy voting!

Here is the web address if the link doesn't work for you - http://thembatourcontest.com/gallery

What do Hurricanes Ike, Hanna, Gustav and Faye Have in Common?

There are times I feel very lucky to been in a country as relatively well off as Nicaragua (no extremely catastrophic natural disasters to affect every corner of the country in almost 10 years!).

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

The Dominican Republic isn't far behind.

They both occupy the island of Hispaniola and they both have been hit by successive hurricanes Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike in the space of a few weeks.


They also both have NPH homes for orphaned and abandoned children and those homes are struggling to meet the needs of the children and their surrounding communities in the wake of such disaster.

For more information and ways you can help, go to www.nph.org. Following is a letter about the desperate situation from Father Rick in Haiti.

The NPH truck of water and supplies.

"Hello to all,

With much difficulty and facing raging nature in the form of winds and rains and flash floods we were able to get to Gonaives to help the sisters of Mother Teresa who are friends of ours as of 20 years they have sent many children to our orphanage over the years and we have helped them with many medical cases.

Some of their patients drowned in their house and the sisters were on the roof for 3 days unable to come down.

In any case we made it to Gonaives with 5 truckloads of help.

(We supplied) Mostly drinking water which is rare we went with 21,000 servings of water it is prepared like a glass of water in a small plastic bag.


We brought a ton of food and dry clothes and a pump, generator and gas to pump the water out of the compound.


We left last night but got caught between 2 raging rivers and spent the night in the trucks wondering what would happen to us and how we would cross but we fought our way through mud and waters today and made it to Port-au-Prince where all the bridges around our hospital are destroyed and there is massive flooding in parts of Port-au-Prince, and cabaret it is a very tragic situation.

As you know our orphanage had extensive damage but no one was harmed we will be without electricity for a few months I am sure.

As you know we had the effects of hurricane Ike last night so even though we left Gonaives it is flooded again to 3 meters as i write and by cell phone we know the sisters are back on the roof.

Tropical storms Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Hurricane Ike have displaced about 1,000,000 people in Haiti due to floods from a government source I heard today.

Best regards your prayers are appreciated.

fr rick"

A Cow, a Chicken and a Cultural Divide?

Cows And a Rooster on my way to work in the morning.

What is the biggest difference between all of us?

As I have lived in Nicaragua over the past while, I find myself explaining similarities and differences to many people in the US, in Europe and here in Latin America as we all ponder the other from afar.

Many of them, both things we have in common, and those that appear foreign I have already documented in this blog. As my eyes become more and more accustomed to what I see, I find less and less to blog about. But that doesn't mean that you'd find it any less surprising.

I've explained that all Americans are not millionaires and that most Nicaraguan children do go to school (and these are not children asking the questions).

But what keeps us from seeing from the world as others see it?

One issue gets down to the very wiring of our brains and how we're socialized from the time we're very young, collective versus individualistic societies.

I remember studying the history of our individualistic culture and the expansion of the west in junior high, but I bet the little girl who sang at the opening ceremony in China a couple weeks ago, and the little girl who lip synched to her voice on the television won't be hearing about anything like that in their schools. Instead they hear about how wonderful it is that they can contribute, and that two people can share in the moment instead of only one.

In an article in the New York Times, David Brooks discusses these differences, how deeply they run, and the potential economic consequences.

So what about Nicaragua? Where does it fall in the spectrum? Where is it's economic forecast?

I conducted a small sociological survey asking people in Nicaragua and the US the cow, chicken, hay question referred to in the article.

Which two of the three belong together: cow, chicken and hay.

My results were somewhat surprising to me and indicative of how difficult studies can be to administer (in other words, I don't think I did so hot at the randomly selected participants section).

The idea is that those in individualistic societies reply cow and chicken because they are categorical thinkers. Those in collective societies reply cow and hay because they consider relationships.

Here are my results, please feel free to post your pick in the comments section.

Nicaragua - Cow and Hay 100%.

One exception was a Chicken and Hay answer from someone who thought that chickens needed hay down more than cows needed it down because their feet were softer, but he was definitely in the 'relationships' thinking mode.

US - Cow and Hay 57%, Cow and Chicken 43%

No Chicken and Hay answers as a first answer, which was all I took because SO many of my friends and family are die hard analysts of whatever comes their way, I would often receive two if not three answers from each person. And does growing up on a farm make a difference? Because that would explain why my grandpa is a collectivist and my grandma an individualist.

Ok, so the study wasn't that successful in indicating a divide between the US and Nicaragua, but it did give me a little food for thought (not a purposeful pun!).

I personally was a Cow and Chicken person having a life long love affair with systematic categorization. And it certainly made me feel slightly more justified in the many frustrations and continued struggles I get to have adjusting to a very different business style here in Nicaragua. Not that one is better than the other, just that, my gosh, it isn't just my imagination that we're different on a very basic level!

At the end, however, I really have simply ended up with even more questions than before. But I suppose all of us continuing to ask questions is the only way we're really ever going to bridge that cultural divide.

An American Store in Rivas

Or at least it's MY kind of American store!

To give you an idea of how much I like shopping for new pants, the last pair I bought was almost a year and a half ago. But when one of the few pairs I have ripped a couple weeks ago, I couldn't really deny it any more.

On top of not really liking the process much in general, I had the challenge knowing that I was in no way shaped like the majority of Latin American women (I'm going to spare you the description, just believe me), so I had no idea how many stores and how many hot stuffy fitting rooms I was going to have to subject myself to.

We hit store #1, store #2, store #3 (where I bought a pair of shorts that are a US brand! But still not what I needed). And then miracle of miracles. Roberto casually mentions that up those stairs is a used clothing store, we could just go to see what they have.

Heaven! Well, at least relatively so!

The only thing missing was air conditioning!

Rack upon racks of cheap American used clothing! I've heard debates about how free clothes donations from the US can devastate local clothing manufacturers in developing countries (regular pants will cost around $15 to $20, shipping costs for free clothes from the US much less), but at the moment, I didn't care.

I just walked out on cloud nine with my $3 Old Navy cargo pants.

Losing Money Every Moment

I have a little 401(k) from where I worked before I came to NPH. Like everyone else's in the last year, it hasn't done so hot. But, I have the advantage that I won't be using it for over thirty more years. So I can afford to let it sit and hopefully someday that compound interest magic that is so heavily touted will kick in.

"Inflacion llega al 5% en tres meses"

"Inflation reaches 5% in three months"

Here in Nicaragua, when you put your money in the bank, or keep it in your hand, or watch your salary on paper, it's buying power does something different. It goes down. And not just a little.

Granted Nicaragua isn't experiencing those soaring interest rates of 36,000% that it experienced during the war with the US during the 1980's. But they shouldn't be, Nicaragua isn't a war torn ravaged country, at the moment, and they've worked hard not to be.

So every month we watch prices of food, gasoline, rebar, concrete, all the same items citizens of the US are worried about tick up in price too, but at a rate about 4% faster annually than in the US (using the rate that the cordoba has fallen against the dollar).

As you can imagine, it's hitting us a little hard on the construction. Between that and the minimum wage hike of 20% in February by the government, it's not easy.

We've talked through several changes in the house plan that wouldn't affect functionality with the contractor who built the last four. But even with these changes, his hope is to not have to charge us any more on the next group than he did on the last. And unfortunately he's not the only contractor telling us so.

But we're not giving up. We're simplifying. Being creative. As the Nicaraguan people have done for a long long time.

Rising Gas Prices

Around the world, gas prices are rising. BIG SURPRISE!!! I know. Here's another one. The poor are more affected than anyone by this surge in costs.

Here in Nicaragua we're a week and a half into a transport work stoppage by taxis and buses. Yes, in a country where the majority of the people are too poor to have a car, their main mode of transport, getting their products to market and generally accomplishing anything has been taken away.

Some of the thousands of buses in Nicaragua parked alongside the road in Granada in the middle of the day.

Basically it breaks down like this. Gas prices have increased incredibly in a very short amount of time. While this is happening in the US, they raise their prices. But the users of the transport system here can't pay anymore (the whole living below the edge of poverty make that tough).

Transport wants subsidies, but the everyone knows that there isn't really anywhere to take the money for the subsidy from. President Ortega decided last week was a good week to go to France, and while he is returning, there is still no solution in sight.

A Nicaraguan 'taxi' that is allowed by the strike. A billboard in the distance shows President Ortega, fist in the air and says 'Power to the Citizen'.

The border with Costa Rica has been effectively shut down in an effort by those involved in the strike to make the government take their efforts seriously. This affects the economy in so many ways, the transport of goods has stopped, but so has the movement of Nicaraguans to their jobs in Costa Rica, a huge source of income here.

The self appointed transport police checking to make sure no one is transporting for profit. The police are present to maintain order and/or stand around and chat with everyone.

While there has been some deaths due to violence and car burnings in the northern part of the country, things here have been peaceful, though tense. I continue to be incredibly fortunate in my work with NPH that they have cars and trucks we can use to get to and from the work site.

We are also at a low point in terms of workers on the jobsite, and the contractor we have is so excellent that he has not once used the transport strike as an excuse not to accomplish his contractual duties (although we have some people on smaller projects who are not doing the same).

My explanation of the situation may not make much sense. But that is representative of the situation we are in. When prices for a necessity go up in this world, who pays? The nonsensical, but true answer is the poor.

Of Food Riots and Starvation

As I write this blog, I am sitting in a nice, simple suburban home near Chicago. I have not yet eaten breakfast, but the possibilities are laid out on the kitchen counter, cereal, oatmeal, toast, granola bars, fruit. Basic, but plentiful.

Multiple restaurants are nearby, fast food, pizza, American, Chinese, and I have enough money, I could eat at any one of them for lunch. I could probably even pay for you to join me!

The grocery stores shelves are full, and on par with American prices, an average serving of fresh fruit or vegetable is less than twenty five cents.

I probably won't eat the American average of 200 pounds of meat this year, but mostly because I don't want to, not because I can't.

So as I look at the newspaper for the first time since I left Nicaragua, I am amazed to find this article 'Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger' on the front page.

I had heard rumors of food riots from the people I've been with over the last week, one from a friend who is in the process of adopting a little girl from Haiti, and another from a friend who is extensively involved in fundraising work for Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic.

But the reason this article brought it home is because you need to realize this is affecting everyone. This isn't just a few countries.

Since last October, the price of beans in Nicaragua has risen above that of meat. Some would say then to simply buy meat, but the reason Nicaraguans didn't do that in the first place is because they can't afford to. They simply don't have the money.

At NPH we have the fortune of being supported by incredible people, so while we've changed our diet, there are new kinds of beans and different recipes are being stretched, we are not, nor are our children suffering from malnutrition.

But what happens to a country that goes hungry is bad for everyone. Economies are dragged down, governments are overthrown, education becomes an unattainable luxury in the daily struggle to survive.

And while I have a secret dream that Americans would help others out of the goodness of their heart and desire to live what they proclaim is a christian life, I would like to point out that if nothing else, Americans need to remember that our destiny is tied to our neighbors. As Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America go up and down, reach stability or overthrow governments, this affects us greatly.

So if you want to, please contribute to one of the many organizations that help feed the hungry in our world like Heifer International or Oxfam.

But no matter what, before you put that bite of food, please be grateful for the incredible gift of privilege you are being given in that small package.

Where Do Habits Come From?

It was a loooooooong day.

On Monday morning we left in a yellow school bus, bouncing the two hours down the road to the US Embassy in Managua. By 7 o'clock that night, interviews and errands later, we reached a fried chicken place for dinner.

We sat on the patio, which fronted a two lane road constantly choked with waiting traffic, 22 of us seated at tables lined up as long as our day had been. We received soda and rice, everyone trying patiently to wait for something more substantial before beginning when a scruffy man stopped on the sidewalk at our end of the table.

Scruffy in Nicaragua is a little more scruffy than scruffy in the States, and while my spanish still isn't excellent, it's not terrible, but I still couldn't really understand more than a word or two of what he said. It was obvious he was homeless, or at least was wanting for quite a bit of basic necessities.

But I've seen it, I've volunteered in homeless shelters, I've spent time with panhandlers. I've got my 'I'm sorry' answer down pat and then I make my donation to my local non-profit. All well and good, but there's something not very merciful about my attitude, merciful in the biblical sense.

Here is a man who clearly is in need, in Nicaragua, no less, where social services are even more lacking than in the US. I'm also thinking about the fact that we're an orphanage! We give! I'm giving my time! The kids are elated that they just received two pairs of pants and two shirts for a two week long trip!

So what do I do? Like any normal person, I wait to see if anyone else will do something first, like the waiter at the restaurant.

And someone else did.

First the little boy to my left gave the 20 cents he had, and then the little girl across the table gave the little that she had. It's not that all children at NPH are perfect little angels, believe me, they're perfectly normal.

It's that they share everything. It's a way of life. And instead of making them selfish and want to hoard everything for themselves, it means that they simply share with those who seem to need it most. We were sitting at a table that was about to be full of food. This man only had a metal bucket with unidentifiable objects inside.

On the flip side, I'm very well acquainted with the mentality of those who have plenty in their life, but still can't seem to acquire enough for their satisfaction, more is always wanted.

So since acquiring easily becomes a habit and sharing eventually through hard work becomes a habit, I know what I am going to try to practice more!

In Memoriam Bryan Johnson

Bryan is at left getting ready to nail a brace. Elizabeth and I are simply being used for our muscle at this Post Falls, Idaho Habitat for Humanity Project!

This week I received word that a friend, Bryan Johnson, had passed away from injuries sustained in a fire in Philadelphia. I haven't seen Bryan in several years, but that doesn't dampen my sorrow now nor diminish my appreciation for having the chance to know him.

I first met Bryan when we were volunteers for the UW Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. My first trip with the group was during our Spring Break 2002 trip to Post Falls. There's nothing quite like spending a week framing a house in rain, melting snow and occasional sunshine, going to the gym to work out afterwards, cooking multi-ethnic dinners, playing musical instruments and having philosophical and political conversations in the evening to help you realize you've found your fellow type 'A'-ers. Easy going, but very assured, Bryan continued on his path from an integral part of this group to complete a doctorate in physical therapy on the East Coast and begin raising a son.

Further information about Bryan can be found at this link. And thoughts of another friend, Elizabeth, who is working on her doctorate in New Zealand can be found here.

It's natural when something like this occurs, to be utterly baffled by the course of life. It is a reminder to me that service and commitment to values may not make life last longer, but it certainly makes each moment fuller and the years sweeter.

Chocolate Fudge

I swear I’m not addicted… depending on your definition of addiction.

In the name of social justice I have given up all sorts of things at various times, bananas, meat, clothing from certain countries, but one thing I never gave up, couldn’t ever give up, was chocolate.

And now, that’s okay!

In the town of Matagalpa resides a chocolate factory, El Castillo, that not only produces the chocolate-iest chocolate that could ever melt in your mouth, but actually respects and tries to help local cocao farmers improve their lives.

I’ll leave them to explain more on their website, but for this site, we continue with our regularly scheduled fudge confab.

I began with what would probably be a great recipe – Nigella’s Fudge. One can of sweetened condensed milk…. 350 grams of chocolate (75% Volcano Mombacho Chocolate)… 30 grams butter… taste check… whoa!

For anyone who loves, as in luuuuuuvs, dark chocolate, it’s probably fine right there. No one in Nicaragua will touch the stuff, though. Their idea of chocolate is a Snickers bar. I knew if I was going to have any help eating this (which is absolutely necessary!), I had to make an adjustment.

So to keep the texture workable while sweetening it up a bit, I alternated between adding cups of powdered sugar and short pours of a donated can of Vanilla Ensure. For some reason, the fudge gods were not offended, and I ended up with gooey, chocolately fudge! Phew!

Now just to liquefy it enough for the needle…

Globalization as War

Coke or Pepsi?

The war in Iraq gets the majority of war coverage in the media, and the people certainly aren’t in danger of being overeducated in what is going on over there. But there are other wars going on, much more quietly for the hearts, minds and money of people around the world.

Globalization is one word that can be used to describe this struggle between cultures and generations. It is a huge subject, much too daunting for one blog post, but while I am hesitant to tackle a responsible analysis of it, I can see its affects everywhere around me.

“We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization.”
Kofi Annan

Here in Nicaragua, the signs of globalization are plenty. Aside from the standard fast food chains Burger King, Pizza Hut and MacDonald’s, we have Purina and Unilever industrial plants, Harley Motorcycle billboards and Pampers at the grocery store (in fact, all disposable diapers are called Pampers, kind of like Kleenex). Coca cola definitely has the larger presence, but Pepsi is in fighting form doing its best to attract a loyal following of younger drinkers.

For three pepsi bottle labels, we went to a concert in Managua where the Nicaraguan bands ranged from Nirvana-esque to Jewel-ish.

American movies are sold on several different street corners, and while the studios are making nothing from these pirated DVDs, due in part to the exposure of the lifestyle exemplified in movies, the expectation of consuming at the same level as Americans is becoming commonplace.

Nicaraguans learn how to buy in bulk at PriceSmart (and yes, you can get a hot dog or a slice of pizza there too).

This, of course, is impossible. And it’s not only because Nicaragua is one of the most impoverished nations in the world. But also because Americans consume one quarter of the world’s energy, while having only one twentieth of the world’s population. It is a physical impossibility for the world to come any where close to living as Americans traditionally do.

So what happens when the culture and values of one place are being replaced by another, without the hope of actual fulfillment? How do the importers make responsible decisions in these areas when they have next to no education? How do the exporters govern themselves responsibly when they don’t understand ramifications?

Yes, I really am going to just leave you with those questions. Because as part of the world, they are yours to answer. As for me, I'm still searching for my response.

Symbols of Your Status

A longtime volunteer visited about a month ago and we spent some of her time here walking around the neighborhood, visiting old friends and generally amusing ourselves.


One of the lessons she imparted to me was that when a family becomes somewhat financially stable, one of the first things they will buy is a large mirror with a highly decorative (or gaudy, depending on your perspective) gold frame. It will be in the first room of the house, often opposite the front door.

The mirror is obviously a status symbol to many in this community. In communities around the world they may be a nice house, more cows than your neighbor, clothing by certain designers or from certain stores, the slickest cell phone or ipod, or the latest “environmentally friendly” gadget that screams “I care about the world”.

In Seattle, not having to dress up for work (or wear any type of uniform) was a status symbol for a long time (“I’m so skilled that I don’t have to worry about how I look”) and having the latest and greatest outdoor equipment from REI too.

Status symbols can be incredibly subtle as well. They may be things that we consider absolutely necessary, an education, a safe and clean home, dental health, simply owning a car regardless of what model it is, anything that separates us from those with less.

Status symbols aren’t inherently evil. It is simply that the less utility they have outside the role of status symbol, the more they exist solely to define us in relation to those around us by our accumulation of material things (or the abstract items they represent, money, intelligence, power).

So how do you present yourself to the world, with what material items do you define yourself? Or, what can you not do without? What would you be embarrassed for others to think you didn’t have? It could be a thing, an attitude, an accomplishment, or many others.

I feel like I can’t expect any answers from you without answering the question myself, but in my current community, there are so many things, it’s almost impossible to list them all. The fact that I have regular work, my camera, my ipod, my ability to speak English are all things that separate me from many of the people here.

Only once I have an idea of what is separating me from people in my community can I begin to figure out how to connect with them.