Well, I have spent a week in Nicaragua and have (as of yet) not died in the jungle (Sean you owe me five bucks) nor been killed by a hurricane. So good on me! Anyway, classes are from 9-12:30 in the morning and 2-5 (or 6) at night. I have one class that is taught in english (one day a week) and everything else is in Spanish. Yesterday we went to the Asemblea Nacional and spoke to two deputados (the equivilant of a senator in the US). One was from the ALN (a more conservative party) and the other was from the FSLN. Both were nice and very interesting. Both spoke a bit faster than I could quite grasp, but overall it was a great experience.
The day before that we spoke to the Executive Director of the NGO IPADE, which is both a watchdog NGO over the democratic process here (they train and supervise people (like last year's SIT class) in observing elections) as well as monitoring governmental goings on and helping with development progects. The guy was great (yet again he spoke too fast for me, but I got most of it). The biggest obsticle to better democracy in Nicaragua, he said, is poverty. Adding to that, the FSLN depuatado (who was barely 26 years old and told us that he'd had more power in his last job as president of the national student body - almost all social movements are begun by student movements-) was asked what he thought the best way to combat Nicaraguan poverty was, and he responded that only through improved education could unemlployment and poverty be solved.
Anyway, I'm doing great and I love this program. The woman who is (probably) going to teach us history was the woman who when she was 18 took over a building as a member of the FSLN. She led the capture of León as a comandante in the FSLN and held it until the Triumph. She broke away from the FSLN in 96 when she and Sergio Ramirez thought the leadership should be changed and that Ortega shouldn't run for office again, and was the vice president on the ticket under Ramirez in the 2001 elections.
In that way, this program is quite a bit like Bennington.
3 comments:
Well, I have spent a week in Nicaragua and have (as of yet) not died in the jungle (Sean you owe me five bucks) nor been killed by a hurricane
so... wait. How do we know this isn't just some poor Nicaraguan PRETENDING to be you in order to get Sean's $5??
Anyway, it's really good to hear you're doing well.
You never can know. Other than my flawless English, which may just be a clever ruse, you have no clue...
alright, I'll make sure Trina knows that her beloved Chris has died, and that she needs to go down to Nicaragua to avenge his death.
I'm sure she'll be pleased. She's always bitching about how there's no one to kill up in Vermont.
Post a Comment