Tuesday, February 22

I LOVED today! It was filled with more discussion and lectures than I've ever sat through in my life. We started out with a lecture by Don Mike about the simplified version of Nicaragua's history. He compared the Sandinista revolution to the American revolution, which was really helpful. After his lecture, we visited the site of Somoza's former palace. There we could see old and new Managua, developed based on Somoza's interests after the earthquake in 1972. We also saw the torture chambers under the palace and lots of Sandinista propaganda placed there by the current presidential administration.

On the way back to our hostile, we stopped at a tent city created by protestors of the use of Nemagon (a harmful pesticide) in banana plantations. While large companies have stopped using this chemical, reparations have not been made to the people who suffered from using it. Members of the community we visited have suffered many illnesses because of their exposure to Nemagon and have been protesting for 19 years. Only in the last 5 years did they move to Managua to establish their tent city in order to be more visible to the politicians they are trying to work with. Their plead is for the government to help them stand up to the corporations that required them to use Nemagon.

Unfortunately, while their claims are likely true (similar cases have been tried in other countries with victory going to the workers), they do not have concrete evidence, such as medical records or records of when they used the chemical and how, so their case has gone no where. The current Ortega administration (vying for votes) has given the Nemagon community food, plastic to build shelters and electricity as well as some healthcare but has been relatively unhelpful in their legal case. This visit sparked some good discussion about cultural dependency, the exploitation power of large companies, and ways to buy fruit (buying locally or through fair trade) in order to avoid enabling this exploitation.

After this visit, we went to a local Catholic church that was very involved with the Sandinista revolution and the development/spread of liberation theology in Nicaragua. There a nun showed us some beautiful murals depicting Nicaraguan history through the eyes of the people. The murals are typically covered because the church leadership has moved away from the activism they represent, but this nun invited us to uncover them and hear their stories. At the end, we saw a beautiful rendering of an indigenous Jesus that was being covered by the traditional European crucifix. It was interesting to note the presence of indigenous gods above the church doors, and on the bus back to the hostile I had an interesting conversation with Don Mike about this type of synchrotism in Latin America.

When we got back to the hostile, Antonio Lacayo, former “vice president” of Nicaragua, was waiting to talk with us. He presented the history of Nicaragua from his right-wing position and proposed some solutions (primarily foreign investment) to the country's current poverty. I really appreciated his view and it was helpful to hear about the logic that brought the country here. We asked him questions for almost an hour after his presentation and then went out for dinner.

It was a long, exhausting day, but I loved gaining a fuller grasp of reality here and trying to piece together perspectives in order to understand how things work and why while throwing in a few conversations about how to fix it all. ;)