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The following trip report was written by Rob Bell after a trip from March 1-6, 2001 to Nicaragua from his home base in neighbouring Costa Rica. To skip ahead to the section that pertains specifically to El Recreo, click here.]

Nicaragua Trip - March 1-6, 2001

My scheduled bi-monthly trip to Nicaragua in February was delayed by an unexpected trip to Canada so I went in March instead. Coincidentally, two friends were leaving Costa Rica by land, heading North. I suggested that they travel with me, so our adventure began. Before long I had a group of seven friends (all from work - Youth Challenge International - 2 Costa Ricans, 4 Canadians and one Australian. Click here for more info about YCI) that were accompanying me to Managua. We arrived on Ticabus, a bit disappointed that their VCR was broken, but we played guitar a bit in any case.

El Recreo

We arrived early enough, and ate dinner of pizza together. We crashed on the floor (mostly) in the pulperia (corner store) that earns money for the projects in the community. The next morning, we took a tour of the projects in the neighbourhood amidst the smoke of the municipality burning the garbage that had accumulated in the ditch separating El Recreo from its neighbouring barrio, Rene Cisneros. My friends seemed impressed by the work that the community does in El Recreo. There are 16 or 17 projects currently. These include the library, which received some more books from us; the education/tutoring program, the pharmacy, the computer classes, the eyeglasses program, the elderly program, the youth at risk house and farm, and more. The project is going extremely well.

Impressions from the group:

"Nicaragua is a very poor country and the riches are very poorly distributed, that is much more evident [to me] now. Any kind of work that can be done to help them on social, economic and human relations levels is useful. These people are hard workers and have suffered a lot. The project is good, although it needs more work, like everything else in life."
- Heidy Jiménez, Costa Rica

"I am really impressed with FOG's humble and respectful presence. I appreciate the thought that goes into the projects and the issues related to them. You seem to be making some real differences in some desperate places in an unassuming and modest fashion."
- Mark Shorter, Australia

I also met with Ana Maria briefly to discuss the five scholarships that we are supporting in El Recreo. We are ready to give them the money, but unfortunately, the nuns' bank became the third bank in recent months to collapse. We have to look for another way to send them the money. It is becoming urgent, as classes have already started - we had been waiting to see if another NGO was going to be able to help us with tax receipts for the scholarships in this community, but we cannot afford to wait any longer...

Another reason why we only had a brief amount of time to spend with Ana Maria was because Marielos' (another nun in the barrio) father died while we were there and they had to rush off to Cuba to be with Marielos' family. The family is sad, but they are happy that he did not suffer and had lived a long and full life.

Reparto Schick

With our somewhat tentative relationship with Reparto Schick, I had been a little apprehensive about meeting Xavier and the scholarship students. Last year we had a lot of problems getting the receipts for tuition fees from them. We have agreed to support them until at least June. If the reporting is better (providing us with receipts for their expenses, their grades and a letter each semester) and we can avoid the problems of the last two years then we will support them for the rest of the year.

There are eight students. Berj and I met with them on Sunday morning. All of them except one showed, and we were fairly impressed by their commitment to the projects in Reparto Schick. We had a good meeting where I explained the entire situation to them and gave them a letter to that effect as well. They agreed to work together to make sure that we received all of the receipts and grades on time, so that we could look into expanding the program next year. One student is going to be in charge of paying for everyone and collecting all the receipts in one place to make the reporting easier. They are also going to meet monthly to discuss any problems they are having to work together on them. It looks very promising.

El Bosque

I had my first visit to the library project (click here for a description of this project) in El Bosque, Posoltega. The initial phase of this project is complete and the library in now in operation. The houses have all been completed - 130 built by the Spanish Red Cross and 19 built by Maria Elena Cuadra, our partner organisation there for the library - and all the people have now occupied their homes. The houses are nice, but it is a bit strange to see, the neighbourhood is set up in a North American or European style - it looks a bit like a suburb at home. The families like it though, there are street lights and the kids can play with each other at night. Many are still suffering from the trauma of the landslide and this is good therapy for them.

The library has just a few books, but enough to serve. About 32 children use the library daily from the local school (which is actually held in the community centre until the school can be built).

One strange thing was the a rule that the Spanish Red Cross had made that these people (mostly farmers) could not bring their animals with them, not even dogs or anything. They are also being forced to give up their old land, which has supported them for generations. It is a strange attitude, although there is some logic behind it. However, it doesn't really take the needs or desires of the community into account. Many of the people walk the 6 km to their old land to plant and tend the fields anyway. I hope they will reconsider.

Politics

The politics in Nicaragua continue to be a bit crazy as I have mentioned in previous reports. Only three parties have been officially registered to run in the November elections. Several parties have been rejected for various underhanded reasons; the electoral board is the under control of the current governing party.

An alliance party is trying to be recognised and also trying to get former president Violeta Chamorro to run as their candidate. That is keeping a lot of people in suspense as they wait for her response. Their are several attempted alliances and counter-alliances between the three official parties that makes it all very confusing. In the next few months, hopefully things will become more clear...