More Nicaragua

Pre-script: This will be my last posting until mid-November, when I'll be back in Argentina and will have regular internet access.

Last week we held a school screening at a local Managua school. They have some kids who are part of the Compassion International program, and the school principal is supportive of CHE. I wrote about this a few postings back, so I won’t go into much detail here.

Here I am interviewing two brothers and their mom (she’s just out of the picture).

Only 59 of the 100 children who’d submitted lab samples were able to make it due to the intense rains. The day of the screening was smack in the middle of a 30-hour non-stop rain-a-thon.

The rains had stopped by the following day and we had a great turn-out for the parents’ meeting. We shared our discoveries first with the whole group, and then individually with the parents. More than a third of the children who’d submitted lab samples had Giardia. We didn’t see any ascaris (an intestinal worm) and aren’t sure if that’s because the lab wasn’t looking for it correctly or if the de-worming campaigns in the area are working. Twenty-seven percent of the children showed signs of chronic malnutrition, and 76% had cavities. We’re hoping that the meeting will serve as a catalyst for a vital CHE program to develop.

Here I am with Shaily, a girl I’d examined the previous day.

And here I am at one of the cyber locations, trying to catch up on the news.

Life at the retreat center

Flor and Dina show us a method the committees can use to determine project feasibility.

Zoila is showing us her group’s “Problem Tree.” We later changed them to “Solution Tree” by working at the root problems.

Here I am with Jody, a pediatrician living in Mexico, and her co-worker Raquel in a “mototaxi”.

Here’s a group pic!

More about Boaco

Here’s our host, Doña Lidia, showing off her kitchen. She and her daughters put really long sticks and logs into the wood-fired stove and as they became coals they progressively pushed them further inside the stove.

In the evening there was a big rain storm (have I mentioned it’s the rainy season?) and with the corrugated metal roof we were yelling to have conversations. I learned that Lidia became a Christian two years ago. She is learning how to weave purses and embroider through “The Master’s Workshop,” volunteers with a prison ministry, and is taking theological classes. She has become a key advocate for health in her village. Her husband is a coffee-grower.

Country living has its challenges, such as climbing the slope behind the house in the mud and rain to the latrine. Oh, and remember to side-step the chickens and goats! Morning started at 4:45 as the family started grinding corn and making the day’s tortillas. Here’s Cristina grinding the corn:

The next day we went to the nearby village of San Juan to give two lessons to the newly formed committee.

The man on the left is part of the Catholic Commission in San Juan, and the woman on the right is the school teacher whose classroom we were in. They are both committee members.

Committee members (and some children, of course) leaving the school after the training, on what seems more like a riverbed than a path!

Gorgeous scenery on the drive back to the retreat center. Unfortunately it started raining and our comfy ride (on a yellow school bus) became incredibly hot as we had to close the windows.

Nicaragua updates

Just over a week ago I traveled with a team to the “department” of Boaco. In the picture below you can see the ever-present yellow school buses -- yes, they are from the US, and sometimes the writing of the former school district is not painted over. They are used as city buses, and for just five cordobas (25 cents) they’ll take you where you want to go.

The city of Boaco, capital of the eponymous (?) department. You can also see a fruit stand and a cool-looking roof with tall weeds growing on it.

Jacob and Adolfo are patiently waiting. Can you read Jacob’s shirt?

We went to the village of San Juan Buenaventura the first day, and one of my first sites at the house where community meetings are held was this very contented pig:

Completely unaware that he is Christmas dinner….

I facilitated a lesson on the uplifting topic of “sadness” for some of the APECS (the perinatal CHEs) and a few committee members.

Here are two budding young actors doing a dramatization about grief. The two kids next to me are neighbors that dropped in.

Sulma, one of my Argentine team-members, gave a lesson on development. Here she is eating the huge supper that our host provided:

Barbecued pork, gallo pinto (rice and beans), cheese curds, cabbage salad, and tortillas.

Nicaragua

Hello from Nicaragua! I’ve completed nearly two weeks of my four-week internship here in a retreat center near the city of Mateare. It’s been really tricky to get to internet cafes since we’re several miles from town and it’s not the safest to travel around here as foreigners, and then once there the electricity isn’t guaranteed….

We are in class all day Monday – Thursday then on Friday and Saturday go to villages for practical experience and to get to know the communities. Last week I went to the department (they’re not states or provinces here, but “departments”) of Boaco and stayed overnight with a family in a small village. I bought a lovely woven purse there – the women with the CHE program have started working with an NGO which teaches them weaving and embroidery alongside spiritual lessons. Once the quality improves to international standards the NGO, “The Master’s Workshop,” will help them to find a market.

This coming weekend I will be part of a team helping with a “school screening.” We will be checking heights and weights on 100 children in an inner city community in Managua and comparing that data to global averages to assess for chronic malnutrition (I printed the WHO charts before coming). The kids have already given blood and stool samples to check for anemia and parasites. There are six of us assigned to this team and we’re hoping to tally the results on Friday and present them to the parents on Saturday. We’ll give the results individually to the parents and then ask them as a group what they would like to do help improve their children’s health.

The group I’m with is super-fun! We are:

• Jacob and Raquel, a Mexican couple who love to teach us games (usually after supper)
• Three of my co-workers from Argentina, trying to survive without fruit after lunch or coffee after supper
• Daniel and Zoila, a Venezuelan couple and their young daughter who are used to traveling with their own hammocks when they visit villages
• Flor, Dalkis, and Hiram, three Dominicans who have taught us that among Spanish-speaking countries words can have very different meanings (the word for “milestone” or “mile marker” in Spanish only means a specific shape of, um, feces in the Dominican Republic, for example!)
• Adolfo, a Honduran who is an agronomist by training and knows a lot about growing coffee
• Mandy, an American woman who’s spending this year living in Mexico and learning about CHE. I’ve really enjoyed talking with her about cultural things and life as an ex-pat.

Nicaragua

Hair-cutting and styling lessons in Baradero this week. You can see that the church is decorated for spring!

Nobody brought a guinea pig, so I'm letting Mayra try her very first haircut on me.

In less than 24 hours I'm heading to Nicaragua for a four-week internship put on by my mission agency. We will also get to spend two to three days per week applying what we learn in small villages which have more advanced programs than we have here in Argentina. If I remember correctly, the participants are coming from the following countries: five of us from Argentina plus Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. I think I'm the only American participant, although the name of the woman coming from El Salvador seems "northern," and the trainer for the Children's CHE portion will an American pediatrician coming from Mexico. I think that's really wonderful since it shows that our programs really are "home-grown" and by definition more sustainable.

After the training I will spend a week with John Knox Presbyterian Church's short-term team in northern Nicaragua. I think I will mostly be interpreting for them for such fun activities as Vacation Bible School and prison ministry. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the church members more in depth, and am also excited because my mother's coming on her first mission trip!

I return from Nicaragua and leave the very next day for Neuquen, a province in western Argentina. I've been invited to give a day of workshops at an evangelism conference for local pastors. The conference is put on by pastors from that province and is sponsored by the Billy Graham Association, which leads to big numbers -- over 400 people are expected. While there are, I think, four of us leading workshops at a time, this potentially places 100 people in my workshop which will be a challenge for our participatory style!

Alejandrina's husband and son came to watch the group -- he's checking out a perfume catalog from one of the participants' new home business. :-)