On Wednesday (July 9) Maria and Lisa left Jinotega for Esteli to visit Libby, Karla M, and Joshua R. The “short-cut” via back roads took 4.5 hours, which they did standing up on a bus with no empty seats. But they say the back-country mountain scenery made it worth the extra time.

The students also like the mountain countryside around Esteli. “Esteli is much more beautiful compared to Carazo,” writes Joshua. “I can look down my street and see mountains in the background. The city is surrounded by nature reserves and more generally accessible mountains.” Some of that beauty, however, is threatened by deforestation, which is affecting the local climate. “My host dad says he remembers 30 years ago when Esteli was about 10 degrees cooler on average.”

In the indigenous Nahuatl language Esteli means “river of blood.” That has been apt for this part of country for much of the past hundred years, starting with the occupation by the U.S. Marines, followed by Sandino’s guerrilla war against the Marines, then the Sandinista guerrilla movement decades later, the Contra war in the 1980’s, and sporadically in the early 1990’s were attacks led by former Contras or Sandinista army members. It has been quiet the past 15 years, and locals want it to stay that way.

With peace the local economy has been growing. Joshua writes that compared to Carazo, “there are an insane number of stores filled with clothes and other things. Additionally, there are computer stores, cell phone shops, car dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, rent-a-car places, and many more commercial services than could be found in Carazo. Some of the stores are multiple stories and air-conditioned.” Local cigar factories are producing one of Esteli’s fastest growing exports, and Joshua reports that those factory workers “can make more money in a week than teachers can make in a month.”

On Thursday morning Maria and Lisa went to the local office of AMNLAE, the largest women’s organization in Nicaragua, where Libby and Karla work at a variety of tasks. They label and file folders, enter data into AMNLAE’s computer database, and help make information posters for the walls of the center. Sometimes they help give charlas (informative talks) about women’s rights in local schools. They also like observing the many different roles and contributions of different workers at the center.

Joshua works at the local chapter of Los Pipitos, the same organization that Alli and Lindsey work for in Jinotega. The Esteli chapter of Los Pipitos has many older students, as well as students without disabilities, and they do a number of fundraising activities. Joshua works in their carpentry shop with previous students from the center and other paid workers (not people with disabilities) sanding, painting, drilling and putting string on wooden birds, as well as making some furniture. They have an order from Germany for 7,000 wooden doves; so far they’ve made 4,000. Libby and Karla had also worked at Los Pipitos earlier, but later switched to AMNLAE, which has been a better assignment for them.

One of the things Joshua likes seeing (and coveting) around rugged Esteli are dirt bikes. “They would be so convenient and nice to have around in a place like this. They are fast enough to ride on the road, rugged enough to zip you through unpaved paths, and economical enough to use regularly. Many times when I am walking around Esteli or on the dirt path to work, one of those beautiful machines zips by and sprays me with a layer of dust. …the college should just buy dirt bikes for everyone.” Well, maybe next year.

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A journal entry from Libby, “Lights Out”

I have been in Nicaragua for over nine weeks now, and there are certain things I think I will miss; for example, the wonderful fresh fruits and refrescos, hearing and smelling the rain come across the mountains, and the familiar rhythm of greetings in the street. Perhaps most of all (besides the people I’ve come to know), I think I will miss the power outages….

Strange, I know, but they are part of the regular life here. People take them in stride, saying, “Oh, there went the lights again.” In the States, if you lose power, it isn’t more than an hour before you complain to the power company and begin to flip breakers in your basement hoping the lights will come on so life as you know it can continue. That’s if you lose power at all, with all the generators and back up generators, thanks to the Y2K scare.

But here in Nicaragua what I like best about the power outages is the chance it gives you to slow down, to stop, and to engage other people. During the first six weeks in Carazo losing power was a weekly event, if not more. The business of my mom and brothers running around, or TV or radio always on, all of that stopped when the lights went out. We would sit and light a candle for a little light, or I would break out the adored flashlights and we would talk and laugh without a care as to when the lights would return.

Here in Esteli today at my service location, AMNLAE, the lights were off all morning. In the building there are few windows, so it was pretty dark and the computers didn’t work. No lights meant little work. The other staff and I ended up sitting in the conference room waiting for the lights. I was grateful for some time to be able to visit with my co-workers. I asked questions I had wondered about the organization, and they were happy to talk about their work. They also asked us questions about our lives and poked fun at my Spanish. It was nice to have a relaxing morning visiting.

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A journal entry from Karla M, “Women in Nicaragua” [Karla, an advanced Spanish student, wrote her entry in Spanish. This is an English translation.]

I’m reading the book The Country Beneath My Skin [in Spanish], by Gioconda Belli, and it has inspired me to write my own story about the revolution. Her life is very interesting, and I imagine very difficult in some periods. I want to read more of her books, and I will. It is very fascinating to see the history of the Sandinista revolution from a woman’s point of view. I like to see the changes that she lived through and how they affected her. For example, how she changed from being a docile woman to such an important feminist in Nicaraguan history.

It seems to me that in the revolution many strong women came forward and started working for women’s rights, such as in the organization AMNLAE. Now that I am working here at an AMNLAE office, I am more happy. I like to see how women are working together to improve the lives of other women. Even though we don’t do much, I like to think that we are helping. I hope that next year students will want to work here, because I think that it is a good thing to see, especially for students that want to work with women in the future.

The office organization is not like it is in offices in the U.S., but for me it is important to see that yes, it works. There are many things I’d like to change, such as the way that filing is done, but it works for them. I believe that will help me in the future with working in a business. I believe that for us it can look less organized than a U.S. office, but for them it is the best they can do with the resources they have. It is a good experience for Libby and me.