"Study History! Study History!"

To attempt development work prior to understanding its historical context could be equated to lifeguarding before learning to swim. Here's to swimming lessons!

"In no country is it possible to trace the cycle of rebellion and American-sponsored reaction as clearly as it is in Nicaragua. After the United States deposed President Zelaya, patriots rose up in arms against the new regime. The regime defeated them with the help of U.S. Marines. That intervention stirred the conscience of Augusto César Sandino, who launched another revolt and fought the Marines to a standstill in the 1920s and 30s. Sandino was assassinated at the orders of General Anastasio Somoza García, whose family ruled the country with unstinting American support for the next forty years. Its repression sparked the revolution that brought the Sandinistas to power in 1979. Their embrace of Marxism set off the next American intervention, the contra war of the 1980s. That war tore the country apart so completely that voters, given an unexpected chance to express their will, threw the Sandinistas out of office in 1990.

"This reversal gave the United States a chance to redeem itself in Nicaragua by helping pro-American leaders rebuild their shattered country. Instead, the United States turned its back on the country where it had sowed so much pain. This shortsightedness led to a result that shocked many people in Washington and beyond: the decision of voters in 2006 to give the Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega, another chance at power.

"[Nicaraguans] agree that their country did not suffer because its leaders were passionately committed to hostile ideologies, as it seemed at the time. The war, they now say, was an old-fashioned Nicaraguan power rivalry that had spun horribly out of control after it was swept up into the Soviet-American conflict."

Blood of Brothers is the most accessible and expansive book on Nicaraguan history and culture that I have seen printed in the English language. It is authored by former New York Times bureau chief Stephen Kinzer. It comes with strong recommendations to anyone curious to better understand Nicaragua and its people.

Transforming Chureca

Managua's municipal dump, La Chureca, has sat on the shore of Lake Managua since 1973.  Each of those 37 years has seen the refuse pile and conditions worsen... until now.

In August 2007 María Teresa Fernández, the Vice President of Spain, was so moved by a visit to Chureca that she committed US$45 million to transform, in her words, "garbage to human dignity."  After an extended legal battle with Chureca's owners over purchasing the property, we are finally seeing action.

The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) has partnered with Managua's mayorship to enact a sweeping plan to transform Chureca.  The plan will cover the trash, creating a landfill.  More impressively, though, a recycling plant will be built, which will employ 2,000 workers living in Chureca.  New homes will be built, a bit farther from the landfill, and families will be moved out of the slums adjacent to the trash.

For more information about the AECI program, read The "New" Chureca.

Dirt movers are now a common sight, pushing mounds of earth over the trash

Project workers (in construction vests) rest as tractors clear a space for new homes (background)

Temporary houses have been built for families living too close to construction 

Chureca from a nearby vantage point

The Three Sectors

My undergraduate studies focused on governments' ability to enact change.  Though that capacity is great,  it is often misguided by political leaders' ambitions providing an incentive to maintain the status quo, and on a global scale is inhibited by nations' territorial sovereignty.  Even the political body with the most extensive multilateral support, the UN, has had its hands tied by China's unmoving commitment to noninterference.

Deciding that large-scale political change moved far too slowly for me, I committed to a year in the non-profit sector, hoping a small-scale operation, if limited in geographical impact, could at least enact change more quickly than government bureaucracy.  Working with Manna Project, I have seen, by absence rather than example, that if an NGO is adequately focused in its mission, and governed well, it can indeed see a measurable impact (preferably, impact would be measured).

Yet, I cannot help but think that there must be a manner to address global poverty that has the scope of the public sector and the intimate impact of a focused non-profit.  It is with a desire to find such a vehicle of comprehensive change that I turn my hopes to mobilizing that final sector, by far the largest and most dynamic.  If consumers and investors are encouraged to view private capital as mutually inclusive with social responsibility, the world may see some unbelievable results.

Six Months In

After a three-week holiday break, MPI Nicaragua's Program Directors (PDs) have returned to the Manna house.  Returning to a place that is at once foreign and familiar has been a surreal experience.  By now, we are accustomed to dodging ox carts, potholes, and horses on the highway.  Here, it is completely normal to be offered a duck for 20 córdobas ($1) while waiting at a red light.  It is also accepted to ignore those lights when convenient.

Six months in, we know that no explanation is necessary when you don't feel a stoplight clown or windshield wash is deserving of a cookie or a few cents; a smile and a joke will do just fine.  We know that no offense is meant by a public observation of weight gained or the shade of your skin, and that none is taken when the answer to a request is "no."

Here, when your instinct is to feel you and your country are judged when you deny a dollar to someone who begs it, you may be called "pinche," or stingy, but follow with a high-five and a laugh and you will find it reciprocated.  When a family appears intimidating, know that they would gladly welcome you into their home and offer you the national dish and drink of gallo pinto and pinolillo.  If you are fortunate enough one day to find yourself in Nicaragua, save a bit a mental stress and trust in the frankness, the humor, the resilience, and the kindness of its people.