I love being here. Every morning I wake up at 6am to study, eat a huge plate of papaya, piña, bananos, sandía (watermelon), huevos (eggs) and tortillas. I have been walking a lot in Granada - I don't have access to a bike, and I didn't drive here :) The walk to class in the morning is pleasant, as the air is still cool and still, and sometimes the breeze from the lake is channeled up the narrow streets. I see women opening the shutters and sweeping the sidewalks, hosing the trash down the street, and men opening the doors to their businesses. Being here almost a week, I am learning the faces on my street and the "regulars", and I am certain that the Granadino/as notice me as I make my way on my daily route through the streets to the Convento.
Granada has been the base of the "conservadors" in Nicaragua - the conservatives. Conservative in Nicaragua does not carry the same connotation as the American definition - the conservatives have stood to defend, or "conserve" Catholic values. There are many churches and buildings with past and present religious ties, and our class is in the morning from 8-9am is held the Covento de San Francisco - an old convent that has been converted into a museum (and our classroom).
My Spanish class is one of the best parts of the day, but I find that I gain the most personal fulfillment from our work in the schools. One of the reasons I chose to participate in the Global Academy is because of our service work in the schools. After class, I walk for 20 minutes with four of my classmates to Las Camillias, a primary school, to help teach first graders. It is difficult and frustrating work because of the language barrier, but I love to teach because of the challenge it presents. Every day is a new day, and if what I am doing is not effective, I try something different. Yesterday I played a memory game teaching colors and shapes (colores y formas) with the children that I am working with, and I learned the shapes in Spanish! I only hope that the children get as much from me as I get from them.
Despite the general poverty and the lack of resources in Granada, I don't think that the lives of the people here are better are worse, just different. I am looking forward to working more with the children and helping them further their education. One of the things that I am struggling with is educational expections in the United States vs. educational expectations in Nicaragua. What constitutes a good education in Nicaragua? Yo no se (I don't know). It is difficult for me to ask because of the language barrier and my 23 years of enculturation in the United States of what an education should include. I am trying to suspend my ethnocentric ideas of a "good education" in order to actually help the children I am working with. Although I came to Nicaragua as part of the Global Academy, which is an academic course, we are not in the schools for ourselves. How can I help the children and remain respectful of Nicaraguan culture? Balance of all kinds is a theme that has been running through my mind ever since I got here - environmental, cultural, economic, political, personal... the list goes on.
I love all of the work that we have been doing here. The day after we arrived, we planted trees for conservation and tomorrow morning we are off to Playa la Flor for sea turtle conservation with Dra. Theodora Pinou. We are also going Mombacho Cloud Forest, and in preparation I have been reading The Naturalist in Nicaragua by Thomas Belt, a book written in the 1880s during Belt's travels in Nicaragua by mule. Obviously, the Nicaragua that Belt traveled of over 100 years ago no longer exists, but his vivid descriptions of the florid and lush tropical landscape jump off the page and provide important information for biologists in the present day. I read it before I arrived here, but rereading it upon my arrival is like unfolding a whole new delicious experience, now that I have (somewhat) have firsthand knowledge of the land that Belt traveled through.
We live on a beautiful planet and I feel blessed to be able to have experienced as much of it as I have. When I write here, I am not trying to make myself seem like a saint or a sinner, I am just trying to be honest about what I am experiencing here, for better or worse. I wish that I could bring everyone who is reading to Nicaragua so you could see how it is for yourself, for better or for worse. Thanks for reading what all of us write here. It means a lot to me.
-Mercedes
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What does it mean to be from a place where others arrive and depart, whose faces you recognize for a short time? And what does it mean to be from a place from which you can leave and return, experience differences in "other" contexts? How does cultural contact occur in both experiences differently? And in spaces, such as Granada, where residents, travelers, and immigrants coexist, how is local culture defined?
ReplyDeleteHola,
ReplyDeleteThere are many connections here to experiences in the Las Camelias school, in the community, and in the natural world. That is great. I look forward to reading more in Diarios, Blogs, and Final Projects about the continued integration of these topics. Thank you for referring specifically to the reading.
Saludos,
Dra. Skar
I am reading and imagining - and so proud of all of you for this important experience and your insights and questions. Abrazos - Missy
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say that when I was told that los conservadores in Nicaragua are not in the way we label conservatives, that here they are seeking to conserve Catholic tradition, I thought to myself how is that different from conservatives at home? Because when I think of conservatives, I usually think of Republicans although I know there can be conservative Democrats, but I think of people that want prayer in schools, are against stem cell research and abortion, and people who´s beliefs are deeply rooted in religion. So I´m still trying to see the difference between Nicaraguense conservatism and American conservatism..
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