The following was written by a team member on the 2004 Construction and Agriculture about his experiences with the program;
Throughout the fall quarter at school all the members of our team participated in a weekly seminar to prepare us for the trip. We listened to many speakers including Paul Farmer, a physician and author who is implementing his vision of world-class medical care in the third world; the Nicaraguan Ambassador to the UN; and the head of the Dartmouth Organic Farm. We read extensively about the political history of Nicaragua and United States' intervention. We discussed different approaches to development and varying attempts to improve healthcare in the third world. We weighed the costs and benefits of short-term service trips and discussed the characteristics of trips that benefit both participants and local people.
After a hectic finals period, we all jumped on a bus for Boston with our masses of team luggage (including medical supplies and tools for the construction project). A flight to Miami and a 2-hour flight to Managua brought us to Nicaragua (it was incredibly striking how close we are to this place so incredibly different from our world). From Managua it's either a 50-minute flight or a 13-18 hour bus ride to the town of Siuna in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region. Our flight over the beautiful mountains of central Nicaragua set us down on the dirt runway in the center of Siuna.
Immediately the children began to appear. The malnutrition was one of the first things I noticed. Just after our arrival, Stan, one of the fourth year med students on the trip, asked one of the little boys who was hanging around how old he was. Judging from his size I would have guessed he was about 5 years old; he told us he was 10.
While in Siuna (a bustling little town of about 10,000) we stayed at the University of URACCAN. It was very inspiring to see the way the University had been built from the ground up by people who know that improvement has to start with education. URACCAN focuses its teaching and research in sustainable resource management, education, community health, and community development. Several URACCAN students came with us for the rest of our trip, often serving as our guides, and adding to our cross-cultural experience immensely. Most students that I met were studying agro forestry engineering, and planned on returning to their hometowns to help build more sustainable natural resource management plans.
From Siuna, we piled into old military style trucks and made the hour trip on the rough dirt road to the URACCAN farm in Santa Rosa, which would be our home. The medical team continued a couple miles farther up the road to the town of Hormiguero where they did most of their work at the local clinic. The URACCAN farm is a beautiful place where the live-in caretaker/farmer raises everything from sugar cane and coconuts to pigs and chickens. Just down the hill is the picturesque river we crossed every day to go into the town of Santa Rosa.
We worked at the URACCAN farm, helping in the fields and building a water storage tank. Everything is done by hand or with the help of livestock. We dug sand out of the river, loaded it in bags and hauled it up the hill to mix with the cement. I had a great time doing this-it was my first chance to really work alongside some of the locals, sweating together, and laughing together when we dropped a bag of sand in the water because it was too heavy to lift. We jumped in the river with our clothes and boots on because it just did not matter anymore. I realized that to know somebody you have to experience what he or she struggles with. I was moved by how fast people were willing to open up to us.
We spent the rest of our time in Santa Rosa helping build the new school, and visiting people's farms. One of the first things I noticed as we worked with the Nicaraguans is their ability to work hard. I realized quickly that if there is one thing they do not need in this community, it is Americans to come and try to do work for them. They have many able, willing hands that can do any work much faster than any of us. Does this mean I do not think we should have been there working, or even bothered to help? Certainly not. However, I quickly came to realize that if I was going to make an impact on this trip I would have to look to more than just the bricks I could lay or the cement I could mix while I was there.
I spent most of my time in Santa Rosa visiting different families and working with them on their farms. I realized that the greatest impact I could have would come through getting to know people, sharing in their lives, sharing in their happiness and their sorrow. The time I spent with people was incredible. I have never met people with so few material possessions, but such big hearts. The people were willing to share anything with us, just complete strangers that they welcomed into their homes. The women would cook our meals of beans and rice and plantains over a fire in a smoky kitchen. They would insist we eat off their few dishes. They were so happy to just sit and talk when we were too tired to keep planting beans (the most common chore on the farms).
For me, one of the most inspiring things about the town of Santa Rosa was the truly communal aspect of life there. I assume there is a word for trespassing in Spanish, but I doubt anyone in this town knows the word or would even understand the concept. To get to anyone's house (each is spaced between 15-30 minute walk from the next) we followed the paths through each family's property. We would always stop and chat when we passed someone's house. If anybody in the town needs something, their neighbors help them out if they can. This communal support system is a necessary part of their way of life.
Some of my most memorable moments came in visiting two particular farms. The first was the farm of Don Felix, one of the more wealthy members of the community (evident by his possession of TWO saddles). We spent the day helping him dig holes for a fence he was building. We ate a great lunch cooked by his wife, and we napped a little. As we were about to leave he told us he wanted to ask us one question before we left. He asked us whether coming here made us happy or sad. It was an incredibly insightful question, from a man who never even had a chance to go to a day of school in his life. I think in looking for an answer to that question each of us could discover a lot about the value of the trip, and why we had come. I told him that it made me happy to get a chance to come and share just a little bit of his family's life, and hear about them, but it also made me sad and angry to see how little their government (and our government) cared for them. It is hard to see such inequality and not let it break you down. He listened intently to our answers and then continued to thank us for coming to his farm. He told us of his frustrations with the municipal governments and their national government that consistently ignore them. He sincerely and genuinely thanked us for coming from such a long way to share a bit with him. He said it meant a lot to know that there were people out there who cared, and wanted to help the people of this town move forward. It was one of the most touching moments of my trip, one that really convinced me that this was worthwhile.
Another memorable moments occurred at the farm of Don Juan. Don Juan's family is one of the poorest in all of Santa Rosa. Something about their poverty made them incredibly shy, and we had a really difficult time interacting with them. I would try to ask the kids what their names were and they would not say a word to me. Fortunately, that day I had brought my guitar to the farm. I pulled it out and started to play. The kids were fixated. They slowly came around closer and began to smile. When it was time to go out and plant beans, Don Juan insisted that I sit and play guitar instead of planting so they could listen to music. By the end of the day I even had some of the kids strumming on the guitar themselves, enjoying it thoroughly. The day as a whole was incredibly trying. This farm showed me true poverty. I went away not really knowing how to feel, just a mass of emotions stirring around. It made me sad, it made me feel helpless, but it also lifted me up to realize that I was able to bring just a little happiness to their lives through my music. I will never forget that day.
At the end of our time in Santa Rosa we had a community party. The town of Santa Rosa challenges the members of our trip to a baseball game every year, and they destroy us every year. They produce some very good ball players in this part of the world. As I was sitting watching the game I talked to Don Felix again. He again thanked me very graciously as seems to be his way. He was so happy to now have a school in his town. He told me they had spent the last 10 years asking the government to build a school for them and they got nothing until we came and helped fund the construction. It was really inspiring to see the dedication the older people of Santa Rosa had to improving their community. They are actively working with Bridges to Community (the non-profit organization we worked through for this trip) on a 9 point plan over the next 3 years to improve healthcare, nutrition, and education and help families advance their economic standing. I asked Don Felix what he would like to see next. Without hesitation he told me they need better healthcare. He told me you can go to the hospital in Siuna and see a doctor for free, but all you get is a prescription without any way to fill it. There is clearly much more to be done, but it will all happen little by little.
I asked Don Felix about his experience with the war. He told me terrible stories of how both the Sandinistas and the Contras would come into anybody's house and take men to serve with them or take people prisoner or kill them. Everyone I talked to, even the URACCAN students had a story to tell about how they were affected by the war. They all will tell you that they want nothing more in the world than peace. Peace must come before anything else. I asked Don Felix about politics in his country. He had very little good to say about the situation. They have elections and they can only choose between corrupt politicians. He kept telling me how much they are just ignored.
It was very hard to leave the town, to feel like we were walking away from this place. Don Felix insisted that we had to go home though so we could spend Christmas with our families. This is necessary he told me.
Our journey back took us slowly into the more developed world we know well. As I returned to Managua the paved roads, cars and electricity astounded me. I could remember two weeks earlier when we first arrived in the city I had looked around astounded at the poverty. Now I looked at the same place impressed by the affluence.
Many of my thoughts and observations throughout the trip were further explored during our evening "reflections." It was a time to ask the hard questions about what we were seeing, and how it made us feel. I would like to share a few additional thoughts.
Throughout the course of the trip as I became more impressed with the vision of the organization Bridges to Community. They are really focused on creating sustainable improvements in Santa Rosa. When they first approached the community leaders and inquired about what they wanted, they asked for loans to buy rice and beans. Bridges worked with them to come up with more effective methods of community development that would serve as more than band-aids. We discussed these ideas a lot. Many short-term service trips serve as band-aids (and poor ones at that) instead of addressing the real problems at hand. I was very glad to be a part of a long-term relationship between Dartmouth and this community.
We discussed and admired the sense of community in Santa Rosa-there everyone is like family. We explored the differences between our homes and this place that make it possible. The most crucial ingredient in creating community is trust. I think the greater the necessities the more willing people are to trust others. This willingness to share does exist in our own country, but I had never seen anything like the sense of community I saw in rural Nicaragua. It was truly inspiring.
At some point I think we all questioned whether the people we were getting to know would want to live lives like our own. It is easy to romanticize their lifestyle-so pure and simple. However, it is good to remember that only those who can afford a car will tell you that walking is good for you. I do not think it is our place to decide for them that they are happier living the way they do. It may be true that their sense of family and community is stronger. But the truth is, having decent education is pretty good, as is healthcare, and knowing you will get to eat each day, and even a hot shower and a TV sometimes. There is nothing innate in anyone that makes him or her more or less deserving of these things.
We discussed personal obligation. Many people had varied feelings about what our own obligations were after this trip. I do feel a strong obligation to do something more now that I have returned to the United States. I do not know what that will be yet, but it will be something. I just cannot look away from a place that suffered so greatly due to the US funded contra-war. It definitely was not the Nicaraguan people's obligation to endure our government's intervention in the region for our own selfish interests. One of my fellow students DJ observed when discussing America's domination of Central American politics, "American foreign policy is just domestic policy for other countries." This notion applies as well to the Middle East today as it did to Central America. The poverty in Nicaragua is at least partially a direct result of things the United States has done there. There is nothing that makes me more upset than this. If we do not feel an obligation to help improve things, then who will? I also feel an obligation because every American will not have the opportunity to experience what I experienced. I feel obligated to share what I have learned with others so that we can all move forward. There is a lot to be done out there and every one of us can act in our own ways. The hardest and most important thing to remember is that you cannot just do nothing because you realize you cannot do everything.
Some of the most difficult observations I made while in Nicaragua involved the treatment of women. With respect to most aspects of life, you walk back in time as you travel from the US to Nicaragua. Managua seems to set you somewhere in the 1970's, Siuna takes you to the '50's, and Santa Rosa seems to be somewhere around the 1920's. It's hard to know where our place in changing gender roles in Nicaragua should be (assuming we can have any effect). First I suppose we must strive for understanding. It is still hard to see 14-year-old girls pregnant in Nicaragua and not get extremely upset at the whole situation. Indeed I am wary of our invasion of another country, and our imposition of American values on other cultures. However, I still believe that equality is more of human right than just another American cultural value. Birth control is becoming more available so I can hope that this will give women more power to control their own lives. As with most issues, I believe that improving education is a crucial step.
As I alluded to earlier, we spent a great deal of time weighing the cost of us being there against other potential uses of this money. It is a stunning fact that it costs $350 to put a kid through high school for a year. Schoolteachers get paid $2 a day, not even a living wage in this country. Could the money we spent to go to Nicaragua really be money well spent or is it just a feel-good trip for us? It is a tough question to answer, and everyone will see it differently.
I came away from my experience valuing it greatly, and I saw the value for myself. It is true that all that money could go far if we sent it in the mail to Santa Rosa. However, the first problem is that it would not be sustainable. It would be another band-aid that does not address the systems that are holding these people down. Secondly and more importantly, giving money to Nicaraguans would only re-enforce the already heavily ingrained paternalistic relationship with the United States. I believe this is a devastating image for the Nicaraguan people to live with. Our country should not treat the people of Nicaragua as if they were poor orphans that we give money to because we feel sorry for them.
We need to create dignified legitimate relationships with these people. We all have something to learn through this kind of exchange. Additionally I think it is important to embrace the personal growth in the trip. Going to Nicaragua did more to me than just confirm what I already knew-that there were poor people there. I still cannot explain it all, but right now it is something I cannot stop thinking about. Being in this place pushed me, and I still do not know what to make of it all, but I know it will not stop here.
Throughout my time in Nicaragua I kept thinking again and again of an African proverb I learned of many years ago: When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. It just seems to apply all too well to the world I encountered in Nicaragua. It is something I hope we can remember as the lucky few that hold great power in this world.
Sincerely,
Nate Monnig
Dartmouth College '05
Hernan Ortiz (Chief of Construction) *
Natalie Koch (Chief of Operations) *
Therisa Perrin (TA for fall Seminar) *
Carrie O’Neil (Reflections Officer)
Charles Kircher
Nate Monnig *
Elizabeth Yepsen
Ashley Halpin
Christian Weeks
Nancy Zhao *
Caitlin Potratz
Monica Barrera*
Ameya Paradkar
Lili Peacock (Project Officer) *
Sourav Chaudhuri (Chief of Finance)
Brandon Morris (Chief of Health) *
Marie Louise-Meng (Assistant Chief of Health) *
Carmen Springer
Karla Kingsley *
Anne Harsch
Collen Kinneen
Alison Reed
Neal Sarkar
Catherine (Kate) Lenkoski
Stan Weinberger
Joi Carter
Peter Mason
Alice Werbel
Dj Wolff
Susan Linsey
Sally Ricketts
Stuart Lord
(*) Indicates Spanish translators
