2d visit: What is this tool?

¿El mico o la escoba?

2d visit: A Rubén

"... and in the sea of his psaltery he mocked the cemetery with a verse on each cross."

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2d visit: I can't stop going back

“Es un lujo,” said Pepe.

I didn’t know the translation, so asked him to elaborate so I could get the context. He tried several times. It was frustrating not to figure it out. I made a mental note to look up lujo when I got back to my host home. I had a Spanish dictionary there.

Of course I had a Spanish dictionary there. I had other things there too: a fancy headlamp, water-resistant sunscreen, well-designed underwear that dried quickly, chewable imodium.  I had everything I needed to be an intrepid traveler in Central America. Lugarteniente, lugarejo, luir -- I skimmed down the column and found it. Opulence, the English word for lujo.

My conversation with Pepe made me think about the opulence that swaddles my life. It made me also consider the things we trade for opulence: things like resourcefulness, spontaneity, and generosity.

I have come to love the simple way that people live in El Sauce. Because they live without opulence, they solve problems without spending money. They know how to fix things, not just replace them. They have parties that are more about dancing and laughter than about wine-pairings and color schemes.

The people of El Sauce remind me of a lifestyle that existed a long time ago in the U.S., a lifestyle that was not about stuff -- about lujo. The people of El Sauce are the reason I can’t stop going back. I admire their values. They give me hope for humanity. There is so much to learn from them.

2d visit: At the airport in Managua

Going home

Without my burden

Going home

Behind the curtain

Going home

Without the costume

That I wore.

(More here.)

2d visit: Johana's house is finished!

Here is Johana and some of her family. The photo was taken last October when the committee in El Sauce chose them for a house.

New house in front of the old house.

Pepe adding the 4 Walls logo at the front door.

Dinner served inside the new house. We had flowers on our table.

2d visit: "Por favor. Una foto con la virgen?"

This is Daniela. She is six. Yesterday she was baptized at the church in El Sauce, the Shrine of the Miracles of El Cristo Negro de Esquipulas.

2d visit: It’s been hard to blog on this trip

Last year I found the little town of El Sauce and fell in love with it. I wrote about what that was like -- the Spanish language, the amazing food, the friendly people who were never angry, the fun of working on a 4 Walls house. When I planned this trip I worried that it couldn’t be as satisfying as last year's. I was right.

Yes, I’ve done what I loved last year. I’ve blushed when people told me my Spanish was good. I’ve gorged on my favorite foods with my favorite people. I’ve hauled bricks, blown my nose on my collar, and stunk of sweat. But, no. These six weeks in El Sauce have been hard. Unsatisfying. 

The staggering disparity of wealth between me and them makes me sick. I don't know what to do with it, except cry a little and try to figure out my next step.

The little girl who needs notebooks has a mom who needs an asthma inhaler. A baby has diarrhea and not enough diapers. A visa application to the U.S. costs $160 and everyone wants one. Friends who planned to go to the beach bow out because they can’t contribute for gas. A guy works in his bare feet. There are pens with no ink and classrooms with no blackboards. There is a new bank with an ATM, but only gringos use it.

Many people know me now and call me by name. Es feo to write about them from my shiny MacBook.

2d visit: On this Monday, February 18, 2013

• I awoke to roosters and tropical birdsong.
• I answered questions from people who need houses.
• I read a book in Spanish.
• I ate watermelon, papaya, banana, and avocado.
• I planned a trip to Matagalpa.
• I drank exquisite ice water carried reverently to me by this woman, Doña Maria.

2d visit: This is where I want to build my house

Looking at these mountains, with many friends as neighbors.  And maybe I'll be able to get my laundry this clean.

2d visit: I never met Wes Kennison, but I want to

U.S. politics as seen through a Central American lens

June 21, 2012 by Wes Kennison

We have once again completed a successful one-month college course in Nicaragua among our friends in the town of El Sauce. The relationship between Geneseo and El Sauce continues to grow and flourish bringing benefits to both communities.

While in El Sauce, I took a month off from listening to the ridiculous blather bubbling up from the open sewer that is otherwise known as the 2012 Presidential Election. It was great to take a break. It was hard to come home.

My time in Nicaragua was an opportunity to think about political labels and sound bites and how fraudulent and meaningless they can be.

Throughout my careers as teacher, minister, elected official, and journalist, I have had a consistent response to those who might come at me, trying to convince me with labels and sound bites. My response always begins, “In reality, the issue is more complicated than that.”

Years ago, a student in my class was making a political argument by repeating the talking points of her favorite politician. Another student challenged her to support the argument with facts. She steadfastly refused. She said, “I believe this because I don’t have time to check the facts. I believe this because it’s easier.”

Let’s face it folks. That very honest student speaks for us all, whether or not we choose to admit it. We believe things that are easy to believe. We reject ideas that require time and energy to research.

Political labels and sound bites allow us to have opinions on subjects that we know nothing about. That would be less harmful if our opinions didn’t turn into votes and our votes turn into policies that come back to bite us in the behind.

Take Nicaragua for example. Last year, I spoke on the phone with a father of a student who had applied to my course in Nicaragua. He told me that he would not send his child to a terrorist, communist country like Nicaragua.

First of all, if we check the facts, Nicaragua is one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere. This is ironic because it is one of the poorest. Secondly, the ruling Sandinista Party makes no secret that it includes Marxist principles in its policies. But, as I often say, life is more complicated than that.

Marx said that religion is the opiate of the people. The Sandinista’s have billboards all over the country proclaiming that they are both Socialist and Christian. In fact, Nicaragua is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. El Sauce is a town about the size of Geneseo. The Catholic Church is three times the size of St. Mary’s and is full for three Masses on a Sunday. Some folks walk two hours to get to Church.

In homage to the church, the leftist Sandinista’s passed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws on the planet earth. It is a law that the Rick Santorum wing of the Republican Party would love to have passed in the United States. That wing of the party also hates communists with a passion. Strange bedfellows indeed! Politics, like life itself, can be very complicated.

So we bad-mouth Nicaragua, we execute an embargo against Cuba for half a century, and we run begging to the Communist Chinese to loan us trillions to fund our national debt. Sound bites are easy. Reality is complicated.

The Nicaraguan Sandinistas are socialist in that they believe education and health care should be available to all. Unlike Marx, they believe that private property, private enterprise, and free elections are necessary in a free society. They make deals with religious authorities, even when they disagree with them.

A wise teacher of politics once said, “Public policy is never determined by the facts, but rather, by our impression of the facts. The success of public policy is not tested by our impression of the facts, but by the facts themselves.”

You and I can stand on top of a building and argue whether or not a human being can flap his arms and fly. We are just two people with two different opinions until somebody decides to jump off the building and flap his arms. Facts are powerful things.

Between now and November, some very rich people are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to pepper-spray our nation with political labels and sound bites. (Remember the good old days when rich people used to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building hospitals and libraries.) Even when we don't take the time to research every issue, let's at least close our eyes now and again and acknowledge that the realities are more complicated than they seem.

2d visit: Kevin

2d visit: A day at the worksite

2d visit: The old roof comes off

So the new one can go on.

This house is being built around the old adobe one.
When you factor in that the family needs a place to live while the building takes place -- es complicado!

2d visit: A pig in a puddle

For when it's really really hot.

2d visit: ¡Estoy aquí!

2d visit: It's January. It's Rochester

Get me out of here.

First time: Adiós, Nicaragüita

You have replenished me.

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaragüita

La flor mas linda de mi querer

Abonada con la bendita, Nicaragüita,

Sangre de Diriangen.

Ay Nicaragua sos mas dulcita

Que la mielita de Tamagas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas.

First time: Semana Santa

Semana Santa (Holy Week) = processions through the streets, a trip to the river, and the three-hour Vigilia Pascual complete with fireworks.

First time: Fire

Imagine a fire in this beloved church. At Christmastime in 1996, it burned. And since the town has no fire department, the blaze was fought with buckets of water carried from the river on horseback. The church was destroyed, but rebuilt.  One of the largest churches in Central America, it is called El Santuario Nacional Nuestro Señor de los Milagros (The National Shrine of Our Lord of the Miracles), built to honor the Black Christ of Esquipulas.

First time: Another house

The day after we finished construction on the first house, we began another. 

First time: The gringo in the group

The gringa in the group is the one with the camera

The gringa in the group gets the jobs in the shade

The gringa in the group drinks imported water

The gringa in the group can’t solve a problem without using money

The gringa in the group has a fancy backpack and clothes made of high-tech fabric

The gringa in the group longs for a pedicure

The gringa in the group doesn’t remember what she paid for her water

The gringa in the group doesn’t know what she paid for her plane ticket

The gringa in the group has a visa

First time: I've been to the mountain top

This is Los Altos de Ocotal, a place I visited on Sunday.  Until I figure out words to describe it sufficiently, all I can do is post a few pictures.

(Mas fotos en Facebook.)

First time: Logo

A plaque identifies every 4 Walls house.  Pepe took me to visit some houses that were completed recently and also gave me a souvenir to take home.