Merry Christmas I wish you all, although I do not really here then, and a happy new year!
That you over the holidays have to do something, I have my first Unterstuetzerbrief appended, a summary of my previous time here.
Puerto Cabezas / Bilwi, 2 December 2007
Dear supporters, relatives, friends,
volunteer in Nicaragua, I always answered when I asked what I will do after graduation, in Puerto Cabezas, on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. But who knows Nicaragua? Hardly anyone, I also do not, and really imagine how it will be, I could not tell me. Now I am already three months in the distant, unknown land; patter months went by in a flash, so many new experiences on a one; months that it takes to settle.
Much is different, getting used to, but also nice to know how the world and people can still be.
launched in August
started my Peace Service on 25 August middle of the night with a trip to the Frankfurt airport, from where Moritz, my Mitfreiwilliger, and I set off towards Latin America. The farewell to me was relatively easy, but rocked on their anticipation of the "New" and "unknown", and also: I just wanted to leave Germany, see what else to do, to expand my horizons, what meaningful.
but until I should reach my actual location, still went a good month. The trip itself was quite hard to Nicaragua: first, we went nach Amsterdam, dort 5 Stunden Aufenthalt, 12 Stunden Flug nach Miami, ewiges Warten an der Passkontrolle mit indiskreten Fragen und Fingerabdrucknahme der Amis, 2 Stunden Flug nach San José, wo wir abends Ortszeit, nach knapp 30 Stunden „Unterwegssein“ ankamen. Nach einer kurzen Nacht in Costa Rica ging’s weiter mit dem Bus nach Managua, die Hauptstadt Nicaraguas; weitere 10 Stunden Fahrt mit zwischenzeitlichem Warten an der Grenze; am Terminal in Managua erwarteten uns unsere Vorgängerinnen Lisa und Johanna. Gemeinsam ging’s in eine Hospedaje und zum ersten Mal nicaraguanisches Essen kosten; dabei berichteten uns die beiden von ihrer Zeit in Puerto Cabezas, der Arbeit, etc. Am nächsten Tag verließen uns die beiden schon in Richtung Deutschland; wir blieben mit einem unwohlen Gefühl, fertig von der Reise, erschlagen von den ganzen neuen Eindrücken und Informationen, der Hitze, etwas verloren in dieser riesigen, unübersichtlichen und gefährlichen Stadt; der Kulturschock hatte uns schon ein bisschen getroffen. Da waren wir ganz froh um die Gesellschaft von Martin, einem Österreicher der die vergangenen neun Monate in Puerto als Freiwilliger gelebt und uns ebenso viel zu erzählen hatte.
Besonders gewöhnungsbedürftig war am Anfang das ständige Hinterhergepfeife und –gezische, teilweise Katzenlauten ähnlich, begleitet von „Adiós“, „gringa“ (Nordamerikanerin), „chelita“ (White) and "Bonita" (Beautiful)-call. The Machismos is not clear to hear and to see the distribution of roles is in the majority of cases: woman cooks, cleans, washes and fits work on the children while their husbands go (if he has any).
effort was also the first permanent stared at because of the different skin color. As a white one falls down on just because you have to get used to, also because one is always begging for money.
course in Estelí
Two days after our arrival in Managua we went into the 150-km away, Estelí, where we should spend a month, improve English bzw. lernen, eingewöhnen und den Westen Nicaraguas kennen lernen.
In Estelí habe ich mich von Anfang an wohl gefühlt; in der Sprachschule „Los Pipitos“ genauso wie in unseren Gastfamilien wurden wir sehr herzlich empfangen. Die Wochentage verbrachten wir nun morgens mit Spanisch pauken, die Nachmittage nutzen wir Schüler aus USA und Deutschland zum Kaffee oder „fresco“ (selbstgemachte Fruchtsäfte) trinken, reden, Stadt erkunden, planen, chillen,.. An den Wochenenden haben wir Ausflüge gemacht, zu zwei Naturreservaten, Miraflor und Tisey, sowie nach Condega und Granada. Dabei hat mich vieles beeindruckt: die Landschaft und Natur des Landes mit Vulkanen, Kaffeepflanzen, Bananenstauden und wunderbar flowering plants, and people, always friendly and outgoing, willing to answer questions and to Catherine and Gene, a German-Polish couple that we have visited on their house in Miraflores, which have brought us closer to Nicaraguan culture, history and characteristics. In Condega we have looked at a shot down aircraft from the 80s, in Granada, the beautiful colonial houses, where it has us by the atmosphere but otherwise not so pleased, too touristy. We have also closed during our time in Estelí some friendships with Nicas, Americans and Canadians with whom we have explored include the nightlife, Toña drank and danced.
Felix and the Costa
Anfang Oktober ging’s dann endlich in Richtung Costa Atlántica, mit 5-tägigem Zwischenstopp in Managua, wo wir ein paar Sachen erledigen mussten und sehr lustige Tage bei Jakob und Christoph verbrachten, unserer zweiten „Familie“. Wir kannten die beiden schon von einem Seminar in Deutschland und hatten die beiden dann in Granada wiedergetroffen und uns super verstanden. Bei diesem Aufenthalt stellten wir außerdem fest: Managua ist doch nicht so schlimm, wie wir es in Erinnerung hatten.
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Als wir den Flieger nach Puerto Cabezas bestiegen, waren wir dann ziemlich aufgeregt: was würde uns dort erwarten, nachdem der Hurrikan Felix am 4. September eine Schneise der Verwüstung hinterlassen hatte? Viele Menschen waren been killed, houses damaged or destroyed, uprooted thousands of trees, crops destroyed, as I had watched on television in Estelí, and as I could see the landing itself. At which time the situation had calmed in Puerto direct relative, the Comunidades were and still are the problem. Here are the livelihood of the people who harvest was destroyed, self-sufficiency is not possible for the next few months, they have to rely on relief supplies.
receiving we were in our new "home" by leaders of the Iglesia Morava, including Exdel responsible for the volunteers and with whom I now constantly work with. Then we moved into "our house, at the time quite dirty and without electricity, caused by Felix. For us, this meant cleaning brush for the first time, clean, ... but we got the support of youngsters AJECIM, the youth organization of the Iglesia Morava what us feel easier.
"Our" house is part of the area of \u200b\u200bADsim, the social work of the Church, the one half of hospital, the other our current home. As already mentioned, we initially had no electricity, there lacked a power line that had come to the hurricane damage. When we arrived in Puerto, we were told that the lack of leadership to come in 2-3 days. But Nicaragua is not dependent Germany ... after three weeks, we get the long-awaited power. Sure you can live without electricity, but it is a relief that we can see clearly just what relates to light and refrigerator. Here it is that is already dark clock to half past five.
life in a developing country
Otherwise, how are the living conditions here? Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America, unemployment is very high, how high, no one can say exactly (according to oral tradition it is here in Bilwi at about 60 - 70%) and in 2005 almost 80% of the Nicaraguan population lived each under 2 USD day according to the Foreign Office. Here on the Atlantic coast is again the standard of living lower than on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, that there is no running water and electricity is still out more than in the west of the country. For Maurice and me that means, bring water from the well (if it has not just rained, we catch rain water) for the toilet, wash clean dishes, wash clothes, shower. The stream is sometimes several times a day, sometimes briefly, sometimes for several hours. Work on the computer then stand still, because we have to wait. How you can still see that Nicaragua is a developing country? On the large families with many children who live partly in a confined space together, the garbage that everywhere instead of lying around and appropriately disposed of, as in Germany burned the front door, is the extremely large number of stray dogs. The problem also is the medical care, because well-trained doctors are scarce.
The Iglesia Morava and my work
In my volunteer time I work for the Iglesia Morava (Moravian Church), which has its real origin in Germany. In 1849 the first missionaries came from man's hat on the Costa Atlantica and founded the first Moravian Church in Bluefields, many more followed. Meanwhile, there are almost no Comunidad without Iglesia Morava, it is only 14th in Puerto
By 15 January to bundle all the forces of the Church be to solve the problems that have arisen in connection with Hurricane Felix. This also applies to us for volunteers, so parts of the actual voluntary work is currently still on hold, such as English lessons. This is a shame, because I do work on me and there is a demand.
By January I have been working for the youth organization of the Church AJECIM (= Asosiación Juvenil de la Iglesia Morava Esfuerzo Christiano), then we will define the tasks and redistribute.
The first two weeks I've been working on a "Censo, a census, which was carried out after the hurricane in the comunidades. In addition I have statistics on die Bevölkerungszahl- und Zusammensetzung jeder Comunidad erstellt. Ansonsten habe ich Aufgaben übernommen wie Kostenvoranschläge erarbeiten, was abtippen oder ich habe an Versammlungen teilgenommen. Einen Tag bin ich mit in die Comunidades gefahren, um Essen zu verteilen. Diese Reise war ziemlich anstrengend, aufgrund der schlechten Straßen (wir saßen hinten auf dem Transporter drauf) und der Dauer; von morgens bis abends um 10 Uhr. Trotz alle dem war die Reise sehr interessant, aber auch traurig anzusehen, was eine Naturkatastrophe anrichten kann. In der Comunidad Sisin gab es kaum ein Haus mit Dach und man hatte das Gefühl, alle Bäume sind weg; bei einer zweiten Begegnung erzählte eine Frau, sie äßen fast nur noch Reis, which would otherwise not exist. On the other hand, it was such a nice feeling, to know to help people, whether in the form of food, or just by your presence, because many villages had until then no or only once a minimum by the government . learn
Since November, I'm mainly here to Exdel, the Coordinador Pastoral de la Juventud, an international conference ID (= Identidad), which will take place in Puerto Cabezas 29.12.2007-10.01.2007 prepare. In cooperation with Christian youth organizations from India, Sweden and the Congo, this conference is now in its third Plays performed, this time in Nicaragua, participants will be three young per Country. The conference is to provide space to discuss various social issues, to share, to learn about the Christian identity of the Nicaraguan Moravos and strengthen the Christian and social activities among young people. Specifically, I'm sure as the program with updated and translated in French. I was also in mid-November with a group of young people CLAI (Consejo Latinoamericano de las Iglesias =) from Managua to perform in two different Comunidades to activities related to "Cultura de Paz". That is, we together with the children, adolescents and adults have a large linen cloth painted and decorated with fingerprints, sang together, a Bibeltext gelesen und eine kurze Andacht gehalten, verschiedene Leute haben Lieder vorgetragen, außerdem haben wir warme Milch und „picos“ (süße Teilchen“) verteilt. Besonders lustig bei diesem Anlass war mal wieder mein Name. Mein Spitzname Swanny, den ich hier benutze (Swantje ist einfach nicht auszusprechen), bedeutet mit langgezogenem „a“ auf miskito soviel wie „sauer“, was jedes Mal zu vielen Lachern v.a. bei den Kindern führt.
Dieses Wochenende war insgesamt eine sehr schöne Erfahrung! Das einzige, was mich ein bisschen gestört hat, war die Erwartungshaltung der Leute in Awastingni, einer sehr armen Comunidad. Klar haben sich die Menschen über unser Kommen gefreut, es aber auch als selbstverständlich angesehen, dass wir dorthin kommen und ihnen was geben. Insgesamt haben die Leute hier schon diese „Hand-aufhalten-Mentalität“ und zeigen zu wenig Eigeninitiative; das hat man gerade auch im Hinblick auf die Aufräumarbeiten nach dem Hurrikan gemerkt, die auf dem Land ziemlich schleppend vorangehen.
Im Allgemeinen darf man den Begriff Arbeit hier nicht so verstehen wie in Deutschland. Viel Arbeit besteht darin Versammlungen abzuhalten, bei denen zwar viel geredet wird, aber kaum produktives rauskommt. Konkrete Abmachungen und Planungen sind Mangelware, Organisation ist hier gleich Improvisation, was zum Scheitern eigentlich guter Projekte und Ideen führt.
Eine neue Aufgabe, die Moritz and I will begin in January, is given including English lessons in prison. To this end, we had two preparatory meetings, one female with the inmates themselves will not this work be easy, but definitely very useful and I am looking forward to it. Also because we finally have a solid project in which we work continuously. This is not the case so far and has already caused resentment for our predecessors, a problem is that the volunteer work for the church is not well defined and frequently not sufficient. One option would be to work with other local organizations such as the Comisión Antidroga, but by contrast, the Iglesia Morava. Our predecessors have in this regard already begun to initiate changes; Moritz and I now want to continue this task, that the peace service to open and define its mission more closely, so that every / r following volunteers to work / r makes sense here from the beginning.
Culto, culto, culto, ...
What about my work and this one is to go to church and other activities of my employer, the Iglesia Morava, take part, the part very hard, the services take but in some cases several hours and are still mainly held in Miskito, the indigenous language spoken by the majority here. This "CULTOS" are not comparable to the services in Germany, the focus is not on the sermon, but on the many singing and praying.
My first witnessed "culto" (worship) took 3 ½ hours! In this "culto" Moritz and I were also presented, rather, we had to introduce himself, to which belongs also to present anything that you can. Here is the most: singing. Good, that has been previously reported already, so we had "breaks marble, stone and iron" practiced at home, Moritz with guitar, me with singing. But then alone to sing in front of nearly 200 people, is still something different (mainly because I can not really sing). I was so glad when it was unusual at the moment of power, so we were illuminated only by a few candles. But the song was well received, especially the small Füllwörtchen "dam" liked the people very well what to Miskito as much as "old" means.
The church is in Nicaragua and on the Atlantic coast, especially an important body and a focal point for the people who are religious, almost without exception. For my taste, but the church has too great an influence on the lives of each member, as it claims the whole of life and extremely conservative; Moravos can drink and dance as alcohol, smoke or have sex before marriage, if they truly want to be "cristianos", things are quite normal for us in Germany and show me how liberal Europe is old. Women may also attend only with dress or skirt to church.
This conservative attitude, the strong dependence of the church and the "God-wird's-yet-judge" mentality - in my opinion lead to the fact that the people their responsibilities and give to others and develop little initiative.
poverty = more crime
I have already experienced so much, observed, experienced, since it is not easy to accommodate everything. Two things I would like to respond yet, one negative and one positive.
Since the hurricane is how many people worse off than before, what the crime rate has increased here in Puerto Cabezas again, have the Maurice and I already feel his own body to get: a very unpleasant experience. One evening on the way home we were attacked by two teenagers, she held a machete to my throat and have lost 100 Córdoba, the equivalent of nearly $ 5,5 U.S.. For us, not much money, but it has scared the terror and made us even angrier with the government, after nearly two months of Felix, the streetlights still has not repaired, and darkness here invites to rob.
"Mi casa es tu casa ".
But apart from this bad experience I can tell from the people here but good. Wherever you go, you will be warmly received, it is offered to an ever-the best place, eating and drinking, even if the people themselves do not have much. This is the beginning of detachment as in Germany do not, we talk together, laugh together, even if you do not know. I also have a feeling that the interpersonal communication is much more important, it takes time to talk to each other. And that's what makes life worth living but, now without sounding overly philosophical want: the contact with other people.
Dear supporters, Relatives, friends and all their stay here allows me this in Nicaragua, and I want to thank you in this way again for your support. I'm incredibly happy, all these experiences are, make it good or bad, can and I hope I can make my impressions and experiences reasonably well, and pass on to you, so you participate in my service, and may also benefit from my experience can .
For questions on your part, I am of course always available.
Many Greetings,
Aisabe
Swantje
