Week Two Report

Our host family´s dog, Brandy. There really wasn´t any particular occasion...

Things are going well in Somoto. Jess is forming a girls basketball team with some local 10 year olds. Through her work she was able to meet up with a Nicaraguan whose been playing and coaching basketball for some 20 years and just so happens to be available weekly to help her out. Tonight (Sunday) they had their first ¨practice¨with 5 girls and only one basketball. I hung out for a while, but anyone reading this blog should know that I do more harm than good on a basketball court. It was clear there was a lot of enthusiasm from the girls and I´m sure the next time they meet there will be twice as many players. Let´s just say I´m purty durn proud of Jess!

This Saturday we went to Esteli with another Madriz-based volunteer. Esteli is the largest city in Madriz and boasts almost all of the accomidations of Managua. Better yet, it´s only 1.5 hours by express bus from Somoto. In Esteli I continued my quest for a cowboy hat, however, after about 3 or 4 stores, it was clear that my head is about 3 sizes bigger than any Nicaraguan. So, the search continues (sadly)...

Esteli also has a satellite Peace Corps office. It´s basically a bathroom and a couple computers where volunteers in our area can go to relax, do some research on the internet, or pick up and drop off stuff for other volunteers. Probably the greatest thing about the PC office in Esteli is the floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with cheesy airport novels. Since reading is a big part of our lives, it was great to come across this treasure trove. I walked out of there with Dan Brown´s Angels and Demons and Jess took the 5th Harry Potter book.

Speaking of books, I´m just about finished with a really interesting historical account of the 1980´s in Nicaragua. As many of you know, and probably as many of you remember, the Sandanistas, a Nicaraguan political group based in Communist ideals, overthrew a 40 year dictatorship in 1979. After a strong victory with virtually unanimous support from the Nicaraguan population, the Sandanistas began an 11 year experiment/revolution. From as early as 1979, and all the way through the defeat of the Sandanistas in the 1990 presidential elections and beyond, people have viewed this decade in Nicaragua with wonder, praise, disgust, disbelief, confidence, fear, and a million other emotions. The effect of the Sandanistas on Nicaragua, and really the Western Hemisphere, is still being disputed as to whether it was an inherently ¨good¨thing for the people of Nicaragua. It´s a facinating story in and of itself, but it´s also particularly pertinent right now because the unofficial leader of the Sandanistas and President during the 1980´s, Daniel Ortega, won the Presidential Elections in 2006 after failed attempts in, well, every national election since 1990. Depending on who you talk to, Ortega won with somewhere between 32 and 37 percent of the vote, while the other pletheura of parties came in somewhere near the low teens and twenties.

Being volunteers, we´re not supposed to really publicly discuss our political opinions, especially about in country politics, but we certainly are allowed to learn as much about the political process here. I´ve been trying to talk to families about their ideas and experiences during the 1980´s and how it compares to the current situation in Nicaragua.

I´d love to talk more about it here, but I´ll let all of you reading with particular interests in history to head over to wikipedia or some other research site to check it out first. If any particular questions come up that I can help answer (which can include asking your question to a Nicaraguan and translating the response here) please let me know.

¡Adios!