A Bridge to Saint Peter

On 3/6/08, Dan and Hannah followed up on their November visit to San Pedro (see below). We went by moto, reducing the trip from 5 hours by mule to about 2 ½ hours. We left the bike at a pulperia (convenience store) about an hour’s walk from San Pedro and surveyed the trail as we went.

We met at Juan Quintero’s home, where we stayed in December, and met with several of his family members and the Alcaldito, or “Little Mayor,” of the town, who is San Pedro’s CPC representative at the Municipal Assembly. We discussed our ideas and expectations, and we were surprised to hear that many people expected us to build a highway- rumors are circulating that the Danish want to fund a real road between Jalapa and San Pedro. They assumed we were a part of this, as the first NGO people to visit San Pedro in 10 years or more. We clarified that we intend to focus only on what they reported as the “most grave” section of trail. We want to reduce the river crossings from 3 to 1, and construct a primitive mule-wide bridge that would clear the high water mark and make the trail passable during the rainy season. This disappointed them but they admitted it would be an improvement, since with the current trail they are cut off from Jalapa for several months during the rains.

They told us it’d be cheaper do the construction with machines from the mayor’s office, but we’d need 5 barrels of gas- at a cost of about $700. When asked where they’d get this money, they said they expected us to bring it. They were surprised when we told them that we don’t have that kind of funding, and we proposed doing raffles and other fundraisers, but they said they were “too poor.” We had assumed that the town would donate the labor (as all other communities have with FCP’s past projects) to build the bridge and gather raw materials (wood, stones, etc.), and when we proposed this, they again replied “we’re too poor;” they wanted us to give them money for gas or pay for their labor.

This was frustrating- whenever we proposed that the community share a stake in the investment, they responded, “we’re too poor.” I wanted to shake them and ask, “are you telling me you’re too poor to donate a couple of work days from your unemployed life to build a bridge, so that your children won’t drown crossing the river; so you can bring your sick to the hospital; that will connect your town to commerce and provide (literally!) a road out of poverty?!” Instead, took some deep breaths and explained this sentiment in calmer terms, adding that we chose this community because in fact they are quite organized and we could envision good work happening here. I also reminded myself that people are used to receiving projects part and parcel, with no personal investment. Many orgs actually pay people to work on their own projects, and this is exactly what happened in San Pedro with the school 10 years ago, so they had reason to hope for it. We left town feeling disenheartened but as we thought through it, we realized how valuable FCP’s Huertos program is. Most communities are like San Pedro at first- completely disempowered by their poverty, waiting for NGOs to bring them projects-- paying them to work . . . and feeding them. . . for 6 months while the project happens. We don’t experience this with new projects in the Huertos communities- they already understand that if they want something they’ll have to work for it- unpaid. We bring an initial investment of seeds and tools, and (with educational workshops) expect the beneficiaries to do the labor themselves. If they don’t follow through, their garden fails and we take the tools back. People learn that from a single seed, things can grow- this is the great metaphor of the Huertos. This idea empowers them in other ways and facilitates work on future projects, as people understand that our role is to provide a seed that they will nurture and then reap. Not having gone through this in San Pedro , we are beginning at square 1.

We scheduled another meeting for mid-April; we will invite all of the community leaders and members of prominent families in town. We took names from Juan and We hope that the ideas we planted on Friday will grow and that people will begin to think creatively about what they can contribute, enabling us to move forward with the project.

Women's Foundation trip to Quilali for Treatment

On January 18, Hannah accompanied a group of women to the Hospital in Quilali, as part of her work on behalf of the Women’s Foundation. Quilali is another municipality in the department of Nueva Segovia, 2-3 hours from Jalapa on bumpy dirt roads. We transported the women in one of the converted Land-Rovers that are the Jalapa ambulances.

FMJ coordinates with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) to bring women who need pap-smear follow up and cervical cancer treatment to the gynecologist in Quilali, as there is not a gynecologist in Jalapa. Women also go to Ocotal, Esteli, and Managua, in extremely grave cases. For the Quilali trips, the Jalapa hospital donates an ambulance to bring the women to Jicaro, a neighboring municipality about an hour and a half away. Ramon Iban, the director of Jalapa’s hospital, coordinates with the hospital director in Jicaro to use one Jicaro’s ambulances for the second leg of the trip.

When we arrived in Quilali, the hospital was nearly empty so they attended to us right away. We were luck with this, as women from the foundation told me stories of waiting up to 5 hours in the hospital before being seen. . . We were also lucky, because the 5 women who went that day didn’t need any major treatments- some just needed a consult on their most recent results, and/or follow up paps. Everything went well; we were blessed with all good news!

Although I am a stranger and not technically part of FMJ, I felt the women lean on me for support, as I checked them in at the hospital, helped them read (and explain) their results, and had to track down the hospital director in Jicaro, who forgot to tell his staff we could take the ambulance- never taking “no” for an answer- even when I had to personally go to his house and pull him out of bed on a Sunday morning. That is another story in itself, but each step of the way, walking in FMJ’s shoes, I realized how much of a difference their work makes.

Everyone was relieved on the long ride home, and we passed the time telling stories and discussing our experiences. The women agreed that FMJ’s work was invaluable to their comfort dealing with their health problems, and that they felt personally cared for by the foundation, who hunt them down, making sure they know when their appointments are, and ensure they arrive for them, and coordinating with MINSA to make getting there easier.

Huertos- Worm Composting Workshop

On 1/29, Karla gave a workshop in Santa Rosa on worm composting. Dan and Hannah attended to support her and to learn about the process. Karla discussed the characteristics and basic biology of the worms, and referred to a sample that she brought, of both the dried compost and the live worms in their moist, poopy environment. She talked about how to care for one’s worms, and noted dangers from common barnyard predators, such as chickens and ants, as well as easy preventions. Some of the people in the group had experience with worm composting, and offered other advice about how to handle and prevent predator attacks.

The worm farmer must check her worms daily; if not, she could return the following day to find them all dead! For example, one can give worms banana peels to eat, but don’t give them too much, or ants will sense the sweet sugar in the rinds, and invade the worm-box, eating the peels and worms alike. Additionally, one must give water and fresh “food” to the worms regularly, so they stay comfortable and happy. Interestingly, if one gives them too much food, they become lethargic and their compost productivity (ie eating and digesting) goes way down. One must be diligent to reap the full benefits of a worm box.

Karla ensured that everyone would have their worm boxes ready for her to deliver a “starter batch” of worms the following week, with elevated, covered wooden boxes in the shade to put the worms in. The people of Pasmata, where FCP did the pilot Huertos program a couple of years ago, donated the worms for this community to get started.

The workshop was well organized and informative, and people were eager to learn about the benefits of worm composting for their Huertos, and excited that someday they could sell the compost, bringing income to their households. There was even discussion of coming together to form a worm cooperative, once the worms reproduce and fill everyone’s boxes. A healthy worm box can produce over 200 pounds of compost every month, if managed correctly, which can be sold at a very good price, as it is rich in nutrients that help with foliage, fruit and root development.

ISLA VISIT

We spent the last two weeks working almost exclusively with the Women’s Foundation of Jalapa (FMJ), in anticipation of one of ISLA’s quarterly visits. ISLA (Interfaith Service to Latin America) is another NGO that works in Jalapa, and they do cervical cancer screening follow-up for Jalapeña women, as cervical cancer incidence is very high here, due to a largely untreated HPV epidemic. Cervical cancer is often preventable if women follow-up on abnormal paps. ISLA’s medical goal for the visit was to perform 500 paps, and administer care for women whose previous paps were abnormal.

To meet this goal, ISLA called upon the Women’s Foundation to mount an advertising campaign in 139 communities, some 20 km or more outside of Jalapa, on bumpy, washed out dirt roads, off of bus routes. The Foundation arranged ads with radio stations, and made and posted hundreds of posters (using their own $$ to pay for supplies and transportation) inviting women to come. They travelled by bus, moto, bicycle, taxi, and on foot, walking around communities, asking business owners to let them hang posters. Since the women of the foundation are all small business owners themselves, they must close their shops to do this work. Dan and Hannah decided to pause other FCP operations for the week to help out, so the women would only have to sacrifice 1-2 days each, as they would also be closed to work with ISLA the following week.

We also delivered normal results from ISLA’s October visit (See 10/19 blog for a full report) and “citas,” for follow-up to women with abnormal results, from both ISLA and MINSA, (the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health). Since addresses here are, “from the Catholic Church, 30 paces north,” etc. finding women can be tough, but it’s generally possible. If you ask around, people point you in the right direction.

When ISLA arrived on 1/15, we had a lovely dinner and meeting at Cafetin Mama Chunga. We created a work plan for the ISLA medical team, FMJ, and the FCP reps for the week. In addition to the pap drive, FMJ and ISLA coordinated a series of educational Charlas, or “Chats,” about cervical cancer screening, in hopes of mitigating the fear and embarrassment that prevents women from coming in. FMJ planned each Charla to occur before a captive audience- at Preindustrias, or tobacco processing centers, as women worked.

Beginning the 16^th, part of the medical brigade worked at Jalapa’s hospital, and 2 other groups piled into the back of a big truck, with trunks full of gear, and headed to different community health centers to bring services to people who live out of town. FMJ women took patient data, answered questions, and checked people in. Hannah worked as a “floater,” so each day was different. She spent time alternately checking people in, taking patient data and translating for the ISLA doctors as they administered paps, and one day attended a Charla in one of the tobacco barns.

Hannah and Dan attended a Charla in San Judas, (about 10k south of Jalapa) with Heather Danckwart, a med student at The University of Minnesota. We arrived feeling lost, but we checked with the supervisor and he allowed us to enter and “do whatever we wanted,” as long as we didn’t interrupt the work. We wandered into the dark structure, lit by fluorescent lights and sparse, small windows, and were immediately stunned by the dense, musky, presence of mountains of dried tobacco. It was unlike anything we’d ever experienced-- though Dan is an avid smoker—there was a thick chemical quality to the air that penetrated one’s lungs, as if we were inhaling raw gasoline fumes.

From the middle of the room, Heather discussed HPV and cervical cancer. She encouraged women to come in to get screened. Hannah translated and afterword, they took questions. The women were shy at first, but they warmed up to us as we walked around. We were aware of how important it is to have someone from FMJ at these events, as women are more comfortable asking questions to people who share a common background and culture. Just the same, we felt like we reached a lot of women, many of whom had never had a pap before.

In the end, the brigade did over 475 paps, as well as many colposcopies and general consults. The ISLA doctors were very pleased with FMJ, and continue gaining confidence in their integrity and organization as a group, as this is a relatively new relationship. They noted that the trip’s success was largely due to FMJ’S work, and they were also very grateful for Dan and Hannah’s help.

Investigating. . .

We spent a lot of time in the last month or so getting to know people and exploring the Jalapa Valley. In order to better understand the lives of Jalapeños, Dan worked with people in their daily jobs- repairing busses with our host family, harvesting beans, etc. Dan spent a day with Alejandro Aguirre (from ACADIS) checking on a solar-panel project for communities without electricity. Dan continues to study Spanish as much as possible with Javier, and he and two other friends now work together in a conversational Spanish/English exchange. On 11/15, CCAJ (Cooperative of Active Campesinos of Jalapa) invited us to observe their annual election and report. We were honored and excited to participate.

Karla’s work in the Huertos program is moving along well. She delivered seeds this month and Huertos are growing again, after waiting out the rainy season. She also led a successful vermiculture workshop in Santa Martha (former FCP Huertos beneficiaries donated the worms for this community). Unfortunately, the people in Santa Rosa are somewhat dis-animated at the moment, but Karla noted that after about 9 months in Pasmata, people lost interest after a harvest. She says this is common but surmountable with care and attention; she plans to visit Santa Rosa 2x/week until people get back into it. As we decided to pause program expansion, she has more time to do this than she would have otherwise. Impressively, upon our request to conserve funding, she cut the cost of each workshop in ½, asking communities provide some of the refreshments- things like bananas, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. People were very understanding, happy and proud to contribute.

PU currently has very few active members- from the 3 Huertos communities, and a couple of friends from organizations around town. Attendance has been low at recent meetings, and after much discussion, the three reps decided that we need to reinvigorate the group. We hope to do so by bringing in new and old FCP comrades and writing organizational by-laws, to clarify the goals and diversify the representative base. At the 12/5 PU meeting, we asked each PU member to invite members from their community who worked with FCP in the past, and to seek out other people from new communities who may like to work with us. We understand that this process will have to be handled delicately and with a view to the future.

Doña Carmen acted immediately, and on 12/10, we met various folks at her house in Santa Martha- people who worked on FCP’s water projects, who are still active members of the El Corozo Water Board, as well as other leaders from communities near Santa Martha. Incidentally as we walked home, a man pulled over the big cargo truck he was driving, jumped out and asked us, “Ustedes son de Colorado- Are you from Colorado?” We told him we were, and he excitedly told us that Colorado are “his people--” that he worked with Brendan on the water project in Teotecacinte, and to hop in so we could chat along the way. This was wonderfully uncanny, as not an hour before, we were all lamenting that we’d lost touch with FCP’s collaborators in Teotecacinte, and didn’t know where to begin to find them, as this town has grown exponentially since we completed the water project.

Dan is researching grant opportunities for FMJ. At an FMJ meeting on 11/24, all recognized the need to formalize the organization with the government to secure such an opportunity. We need come up with a document of legal statutes for FMJ and send it to Managua for approval. The process could take 6 months or more, but Hannah is working with the women to prepare the document. Each woman is also looking for cheap or rent-free places to set up an office. If we can find such a space, FMJ will have a secure, centralized place to base their activities, counsel women and store confidential documents. While room rentals are not more than $100/month, this is currently impossible for FMJ, as the women are all unpaid volunteers and the organization has zero funding.

Hannah has also been researching setting up a fair trade market in the States to sell artisanal pine baskets, made by local women. The baskets are beautiful and a learnable craft, as well as inexpensive to make, using mostly locally sourced pine needles that fall from the trees. We plan to hold workshops in the new year to expand this skill to other women, campesina a campesina as a form of income for Jalapeña families.

Poco Falta la Gloria, Anduvimos en San Pedro.

(Just short of the Glory, we walked in Saint Peter.)
Dan and Hannah spent the final days of November (through 12/3) in San Pedro (Terrerios). This is a remote community, five hours’ ride from Jalapa by mule. There is no electricity and no road into town. The nearest town is Terrerios, which is about an hour’s ride away on a steep, up-and-down trail. Most people grow coffee and depend on this and excess corn and beans for income. As they are currently harvesting coffee, we spent much of our time here saturated with learning about how coffee is initially picked and processed. Hannah was completely fascinated with the entire process and we were both delighted to help in any way we could.

We planned to spend the week picking coffee, but our hosts found this option impermissible- for fear of Coloradillas, little animalitos (bugs) that live in the coffee fields and bite the workers. We said we were willing to risk it, but they would have none of it. They did let us pick coffee for about an hour, a couple of times. We helped dis-pulp the fleshy part of the fruit from the beans, and picked out malos (“bad” beans- damaged from bugs or otherwise malformed) from semi-dry coffee that after sorting, goes to market in Jalapa (5 hours away) at about .41 cents a pound.

This community is organized and people work together to solve their problems, in a way we have not witnessed in Jalapa and other communities sobre la carretera (along the highway), where FCP focuses much of its work. The first morning we were there, we went with Don Juan Quintero (who we stayed with) to a neighbor whose cow had expelled her uterus. Don Juan and others worked on the cow to get the uterus back into its proper place, while others looked on and helped in whatever way possible. Afterword, we drank divine coffee and discussed community issues.

The most pressing issue for San Pedro is that the road to Jalapa is actually a single-track trail, impassible by anything but a horse/mule, bicycles or one’s own feet. The 4 river crossings become dangerous when it rains, severing the community from healthcare and all other basic amenities, available only in Jalapa. Also, there is no high school in Terrerios, so many students in San Pedro receive primary education only, as commuting is impossible. We could potentially work to improve the camino into town, with Dan’s trail building skills and the labor of the community to reduce the river crossing to one (instead of 4), for a start. The idea behind trail work is to use local resources, along the proposed trail. Costs would be limited mostly to labor, to be provided by community itself. This community shows a clear disposition to hard work, demonstrable coherence and internal organization necessary for such a project.

Final note: one morning in San Pedro, Don Juan and Dan went with the rest of the men of the community to a swamp in the middle of the jungle to slaughter another injured cow, weigh it and divide it among the community, taking tabs in a book about who owed what to the cow’s owner. Each man did his part chopping up the cow with machetes and axes until there was nothing left.

Workshops, Elections, Pause.

We spent much of the second half of October 2008 in the office, discussing logistics, creating a quarterly budget proposal, and Karla continued to show us her work system and give us background on FCP’s current projects and community engagements. We also met with some of the many organizations that FCP works with in Jalapa, and we are realizing that we have a lot of work ahead; that the need here pervades most conceivable sectors of life, from basic things like food and water, to other, less obvious issues like access to community activities, art and cultural events, health care, and education.

On 10/27, we went to Champigny for a meeting with community leaders. This is a barrio in Jalapa that is notoriously divided and with whom FCP has had issues working with in the past. We planned to meet with several people, but few came. Ultimately, we confirmed that there is a lot of burning anger in the community, especially within the leadership. There are also problems with the water system, and service is intermittent. We feel some responsibility to this community, though FCP’s work formally ended when we completed the water project. One of the people we met with pushed for a community-wide assembly to discuss the issues, and we suggested revisiting this option after local elections on 11/9, when the political situation would hopefully be calmer.

We share hope with Champigny because while this community is divided and disorganized, there is a tangible interest among people to improve the situation. During our meeting, people crowded around the windows of the Casa Comunal to see what was going on, adding insight to the conversation. We’re not sure what we can do, but we hope that we can facilitate something
positive, working with the leaders to build bridges between the many “islands” of influence here— to help them work together to facilitate the changes their community longs for.

Dan now attends classes four afternoons a week with Javier Aguilar, ISLA’s in-country coordinator. We met Javier through our work with ISLA and the Women’s Foundation (FMJ). Javier speaks excellent English and shares this knowledge with Jalapeño youth by offering English classes Monday through Thursday. Dan helps the students with pronunciation of English words, and in turn, they help him to learn Spanish. He comes home from each class with a homework assignment!

On 10/29, we met with Don Isidro Traña, the head of UNICAFE, an Nica org. that works to improve conditions for small coffee producers in Nicaragua. UNICAFE hopes to liberate cafeteleros from dependence on unpredictable coffee markets by diversifying their income base and improving the quality of their coffee to bring a better price. UNICAFE’s work in Jalapa is currently focused on Santa Rosa and another community, as the needs are most profound there. Since Santa Rosa is also a Huertos community, it is natural that FCP would work with UNICAFE
to serve the joint ends of both organizations.

Don Isidro invited us to a coffee-quality workshop the next day in Santa Rosa. There were representatives from UNICAFE, CATIE, CCAJ,and Café Nica, as well as 20ish campesinos from Santa Rosa and other communities. We learned about standards for coffee production and quality rating in Nicaragua. Some producers gave samples of their coffee to Café Nica earlier, and the rep. from Café Nica went over the quality report for each of the samples and described how to improve quality. We did a coffee tasting that took about 2 hours. Overall, the workshop was very informative, and it was exciting to see campesino a campesino (a methodology based on horizontal learning, where people exchange knowledge, instead of learning from lecture) in action.

On Friday, Karla and Hannah went to a women’s health/STD workshop with FMJ. We learned about HIV/AIDS epidemic, HPV, and how people can protect themselves. There is an ever-growing movement here, mostly directed at youth and women, to promote better sexual health practices and raise awareness about the risks posed by STDs.

On 11/3 and 11/4, Karla went to a workshop on behalf of FMJ in Matagalpa. This workshop was the last of 5 workshops , hoping to educate organizers on different themes, enabling them to more effectively work in their world. The program is specifically focused on women’s groups, as they often become targets for sabotage and are attacked as “money launderers” for receiving the funding they do while employing imperfect accounting practices. In many ways, Nica women suffer prejudice- the more empowered they become, the more trouble they recieve from machista men who are threatened by them. The people giving the workshop invited FMJ to participate, in hopes of augmenting the workshops they give to the women of Jalapa. These workshops remain pending.

The early days of November were slow, with Karla in Matagalpa for the workshop, and Dan and Hannah out of town for about a week to catch the US presidential election with other American friends on holiday. The two days following our return were consumed by the local elections, which are critically important to Nicaraguans, and only occur every five years. Sandinista caravans have been blazing the streets at all hours bearing flags, music blaring, and trucks, bikes, motos, cars, horses, and all other imaginable modes of transportation laden with excited people triumphantly declaring victory. To look at it, one would never know that the election in Jalapa was actually very close.

At any rate, we look forward to getting busy again tomorrow.