Not missing winter in Canada

Another week has gone by, and I'm wondering how I can get out of a cold winter next year too...

Right now I'm keeping a busy schedule. I start my day by going to work in the morning. After lunch, I head to my Spanish class (which I am really enjoying). Then it’s home, some more MEDA work and Spanish homework. The lessons are going well. However, I find my knowledge of French both helps and hinders. There are many similar words. But on the other hand, words that are spelled the same are not pronounced the same...and I continually use the French pronounciation (for example, with the words "de" and "en").

So far I’ve been using taxis to get to where I want to go. They are cheap ($1.00-$2.00/ ride depending on where you need to go). I leave my apartment and start walking. When I hear a beep, it’s (usually) a taxi wondering if I’d like a ride. I wave him down, tell him where I need to go, settle on a price and I’m off. But the taxi doesn’t always stay my own. The driver will take as many as he can fit in if they happen to be going the same way.

Managua is a noisy place. At any moment, you'll hear dogs barking, roosters crowing, music playing, birds chirping, whistles blowing and cars honking. Drivers honk all the time...to say "get out of my way" or "coming through" or "I'm a taxi, do you need a ride?" or "Hey, muchacha--looking good!" (had to throw that one in) or "get a move on -- the light is green and you took a whole second to start moving!". Try that in Canada...and you get the finger.

There are vendors and often beggars at every intersection. They sell fruit, dried plaintain chips, meringue cookies, gum (by the pack or stick), water in bags, cloth rags, cigarettes, newspapers...you name it. But vendors here take "no" for an answer. Unlike in Peru. There, I found if you even looked at one they became annoyingly persistent. Right, Grace?

Last week I went to a baseball game. Nicaragua is the only Latin American country where people are more passionate about baseball than soccer. And it was something else! I had a hard time focusing on the game because of everything going on around me. People are selling food, drinks, gum, cigarettes, baseball paraphernalia, etc. Bands are in the stands belting out theme songs, people are cheering and booing...some were even burning the other team's pendant. It was all very loud and chaotic!

Some tidbits about Nicaragua:

• Known as the “land of lakes and volcanoes,” it boasts volcanoes on the Pacific coast, beaches on the Caribbean, tracts of untouched rainforest in the Atlantic Lowlands.
• It is largely undiscovered by tourists, but the tourism sector is growing. Primary attractions are tropical beaches, culture, ecotourism, colonial architecture and other activities such as volcano climbing, volcano skiing and boarding, sailing, fishing and scuba diving.
• Population: 5,000,000—90% of which is the Pacific Lowlands (includes Managua, where I live)
• Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the region, partly due to political unrest over the past few decades, and devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
• Major exports include bananas, coffee, tobacco.

And a brief political history:

• ruled by military dictatorship (Somoza family) from the late 1920s until 1979
• Nicaragua’s capital, Managua, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1972. Mishandled relief efforts, refusal to rebuild the city, brazen corruption and economic troubles propelled leftist Sandinista party to power
• Sandinistas put into effect some good reforms (literacy campaign and land reform), but were criticized over their economic policies. Also, they supported rebels in El Salvador, and allied themselves with Cuba and the Soviet Union…so, U.S. trained and financed the Contra army to fight against them
• Sandinistas ousted by Liberal party in 1990 (people tired of war and U.S. sanctions)
• Liberals brought stability and economic growth, but brought in economic policies favouring foreign investment, basically serving to make the rich richer
• Daniel Ortega, who had been Sandinista president from 1984-1990, was again elected to power last November—he claims to be more religious and moderate now. The Sandinista party looks a lot different now (consisting of Liberals and contras), so some doubt that they are still a party of the people, and Ortega has some been accused of disreputable conduct, yet poor people love him and are full of hope that he will bring in reforms that will benefit them.

Nicaragua

It’s been two weeks since I arrived in Nicaragua. A very full two weeks! During my first week, I went along with MEDA member Conrad Brenneman who was conducting an internal audit of MEDA’s credit program (MiCredito which stands for “My Credit”). Visiting the clients was a great experience. We enjoyed meeting them, seeing their businesses and homes, and experiencing their hospitality. I guess we were a bit intimidating to some however. One client hid from us and afterwards went to make his loan payment! We had a translator who accompanied us and not only translated the client interviews, but gave us lots of information about Nicaragua and its people. The photo above is Momotombo volcano.

I’ll be doing a lot more client visits during my time here. I’m stationed in Managua until August…working for a new MEDA project called MEDA Trust. It is marketing initiative that will allow donors to see how Microfinance works. MiCredito’s database of clients is linked into the MEDA Trust website, so people can donate money then select the loans they’d like to “sponsor”. When the loan is paid back by the client, that money is put back into the donor’s portfolio for them to re-lend (you don’t get your money back!).

On Wednesday, January 10th, we went to the inauguration of Nicaragua's new president, Daniel Ortega. There had to be half a million people gathered into the main city square/grandstand area. They had party flags waving all over, and when Mr. Ortega made his first address to the people, they cheered passionately. A little different from Canadian politics!

I’m settled into an apartment (simply furnished...and came with pets too!). It's in a very convenient area…close to everything I’ll need, and not far from the MEDA office. I hope to walk around and get to know where things are, however, in Managua, there are no street names. People use landmarks, for example: from the Margarita Restaurant, 2 blocks east, then 1 block towards the Lake (which is north). That makes it tricky for foreigners who aren’t familiar with landmarks!

I’ve already had three Spanish lessons…2 informal and 1 formal. My first was with some kids playing baseball (or at least a version of it). I was sitting on a park bench getting my sandals shined by one of the kids, and soon they were all around checking out my camera…and teaching me some vocabulary! As payment, I bought them treats from a nearby vendor. My other lesson was with some MEDA staff, Veronica and Alexia, while driving from Leon to Managua. I felt like a little kid—repeating after them and when I came out with correct conjugations or pronunciations, they’d say, “Wow! Good!” I had my first formal lesson today at Viva Spanish language school. It was good...gotta work on rolling my r's and pronouncing v's like b's (or some kind of sound inbetween the two). I hope to keep up the informal lessons too....they're much more fun!