My New Life as an Aspirante en el Cuerpo de Paz

Nica 59 - Small Business and Agriculture

 After a long day of technical training, I am happy to be home.  I made it into the house about 90 seconds before the sky started to downpour on top of me.  The strength of the rain is creating a decent breeze through the roof into my little stuffy room, helping to cool me off a bit.  I am still drenched in sweat from the heat of the day.  Running to our bathroom I have to dodge rain pellets because the back half of our house is completely open.  Surprisingly, the water is on this afternoon so instead of having to run back outside into the rain to fill up a bucket of water to flush the toilet, I can just push the handle! 

I am living in a quaint little ceramic town in the department of Masaya.  My host family is wonderful and our house is bright purple with a big covered front porch and a white fence.  Adjusting to the little differences of home life here in Nicaragua was easy, but it is so entirely different than my old life that I was living only 18 days ago.  Here, water only works a few hours a day.  At first I kept trying to ask my family what the water schedule was… ha that doesn’t exist here.  The water turns on when it wants.  And when it does, they fill up the buckets for later, wash a load of laundry, scrub some dishes etc.  So when the water is off, which is about 95% of the time, we use buckets to wash our hands, flush the toilet and take showers.  

Also, the houses here aren’t complete structures.  They are more like puzzle pieces assembled using random supplies of wood, plastic and tin roofing.  There is about a foot of space between the roof and the walls, leaving plenty of room for creatures big and small to find their way into the house.  But don’t worry, I sleep safe and sound under the safety of my green mosquito net that Peace Corps provided and insisted that we all use.  My room is one of the two most structured rooms in the house; the three others bedrooms are made using curtains, wood pieces, and plastic.    

An example of how houses are put together here

My Mosquito Net :-) 

So I am officially finished with my second week of training.  During the past two weeks I have received 5 more vaccines, a 3 month supply of malaria medicine, a mosquito net, medical kit, a diarrhea emergency kit, and a million books and manuals to read. 

Everything we need to survive

My first dose of malaria medicine... it tastes like chalk

Just the books we received at orientation 

All the books I have to read now

 

 My Spanish is improving slightly… One day at a time… 

Spanish Class

This week we received cell phone chips from PC which is Very exciting for the trainees.  Now we can communicate with each other for FREE!  Peace Corps has a great family plan in Nica so we can call anyone in the network for free: the Doctors, the staff, the headquarters and the other volunteers/trainees.  Security and communication is so important to them so providing us with a free chip is a part of the policy.  I also splurged and bought myself an internet USB for $38 USD or C$750… it is funny how rapidly your perception of what “a lot of money” is changes after only a short amount of time.  C$750 is A Ton of money here.  But, I am really happy that I can use my own computer now instead of using the virus infested, crowded computers at the town’s little internet cafe.        

Over the past two weeks, I have learned a ton about Nicaragua’s political and economic history.  Nicaragua is a beautiful country, famous for its volcanoes and lakes but it has struggled through some extremely devastating events.  These events are a large reason why Nicaragua is the 2^nd poorest country in the America’s after Haiti.  Here, 70% of the population is under 30 and sadly, 45% live under $2 a day.  The average Nicaraguan has only a 4^th grade education level and 23% of children are below the average height for their age due to stunting, an effect of undernourishment.   

Nicaragua has two of the largest lakes in Central America, Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua.  Lake Managua is extremely polluted with sewage, pesticides and mercury.  From 1968 to the 1990’s a U.S. based company, Penwalt Corporation, dumped more than 90 tons of mercury into the lake.   This lake is also connected through a river to Lake Nicaragua, so basically all the water from both lakes are polluted with mercury and other horrible toxic waste. 

Lake Managua

They have suffered from 6 devastating earthquakes.    In 1931 an earthquake completely destroyed the capitol city of Managua and it had to be completely rebuilt.  In 1972 another devastating earthquake under Managua destroyed much of the city for a second time.  Since then, Managua hasn’t really been rebuilt.  There is only one tall building in the city now and that is because it is the only one that survived the 1972 earthquake, no other tall buildings have been rebuilt. 

Managua also lacks a city center because they never rebuilt one after the earthquake.  In 1998 Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the infrastructure and killed 10,000 people. 

The United States has a long history with Nicaragua extending all the way back to 1849.  The U.S. military occupied Nicaragua from roughly 1912-1933.  After a nationalist uprising against the U.S. occupation, the U.S. Marines withdraw from the country.  The Somozo family ruled the country for 40 years with the support of the United States.  In 1979 the Sandinista’s overthrew Somozo and took power of the country.  The Contra resistance formed to fight the new Sandinista government.  The Contra’s were supported by President Reagan who organized and armed the Contra’s against the Sandinista’s.  Reagan declared a “low intensity” war against the Sandinistas.  The civil war lasts for 7 years during which rationing occurred and the people greatly suffered.  Our host families all have stories of trying to raise their children during this time with rationed food and guns going off down their streets. 

During the war the CIA placed mines in Nicaraguan harbors damaging 9 ships.  The World Court condemned the mines as a violation of international law but the U.S. ignores the decision of the World Court.  The CIA also carried out commando raids against the Sandinistas, provided extensive supply networks to the contras in an attempt to overthrow the government in the “Iran-contra scandal” and the U.S. enforced a full trade embargo on the country. 

In 1992 Peace accords are implemented.  Since then the country has been plagued with corruption as they struggle to rebuild their country.  In 2011 Daniel Ortega, the former president from 1984-1989 and 2006-2011, was reelected even though the Nicaraguan constitution forbids a president from serving two consecutive terms.  Currently, he is in the process of changing the constitution.  

Politics here are a very touchy subject because everyone directly suffered from the events of the war and have strong opinions.  As members of the Peace Corps, we have to be very careful to be culturally sensitive and apolitical when the subject comes up.  

I can already see that Nicaraguans are strong and positive people, but life here is hard and the struggle to improve economic condition is a difficult and nearly impossible road.  The majority of people support their families by running a small one person business.  People are resourceful and create businesses like selling things in the street or turning a living room into a little convenience store or buying a motor taxi.  Jobs like we know it are extremely limited and hard to access here, so people are basically forced to create businesses in the informal sector.  My family sells ice and juice out of the house which my mom makes in plastic baggies.  I think we are able to sell ice because most people in our town don’t have freezers. 

I’m excited to be here and attempt to make a small difference by educating the youth and assisting small business owners with simple improvements.  Our goal here is sustainable development by building relationships and teaching technical skills that can be taught and used long after we are gone.  These aren’t likely to be the types of improvements that will turn the family business into a large company with huge profits, but the little things like teaching accounting techniques and marketing skills can be enough to maybe make a little bit more money to feed their kids a nutritious meal or maybe even send them to college.  

Nica 59

Small Business Development 59