UNAN – Creator of memories and dreams…

Our visit to the Unan (Universidad Nacional de Nicaragua) was more than just informative, it was a revealing experience.

The University shows on its walls its commitment to the history of the country and to education. It is visibly committed in maintaining the memory of the revolution alive and the social-transforming power the Nicaraguan people had and still have on their hands.

Among the many murals I could observe and appreciate, there were some poems of Ruben Dario, quotations from Sandino, paintings of protests, and the Nicaraguan reverence and respect towards nature. A very interesting mural showed symbols of the Sandinista Revolution grouped inside a drawing of the country of Nicaragua. I could read the symbols as representations of: the proletariat (the campesino), the armed fight (the fist and weapons), the labor (tools) and the education (book). This last one was in the center of them all, and to me, it said that real freedom is just accomplished with education and critical thinking. This mural spoke without words about the restoration of human dignity and real Democracy.

Another mural represented the call from the FSLN party to the students with -proletariat conscious- for a crusade against illiteracy. I learned then, that although the fight for democracy during the revolution used communist ideas, it could not be considered Marxist, nor Lenist or Socialist, neither Communist! It was a movement of its own. It had singular characteristics, such as its intense consideration for education and its alliance with the Catholic Church.

The call for the Literacy Crusade meant a two way process of learning: one where the illiterate learned its words, another where the militant learned about the reality of its own surroundings, which cannot be taught with words, it has to be felt! According to the reading of Jose Luis Rocha (Revista Envio ) the militants learned to become conscious by experiencing different life conditions, by overcoming prejudices and discriminations, and by dealing with its human task open minded and open hearted. And Paulo Freire’s educational philosophy helped in this fight for basic human rights, where education becomes a fundamental weapon against repression.

I believe that to a certain extent we, Westconn students, are doing something similar to that. We came to Nicaragua to learn not only from words but also from experiences. While we are teaching words and numbers when volunteering, we are learning firsthand about the kids’ lives, needs and dreams. We are learning to dream with them. We are dreaming of a better world. We are learning to become conscious.

Y todo comienza con un sueño...