Metamorfósis: Girls Growing Together

So there are three projects I am excited about working on during my additional 6 months of Peace Corps service: 1) additional workshops for English teachers; 2) Youth Leadership Camp for a second year; 3) an eco-efficient stove project (starting next week); and 4) an all-girls camp in Altagracia. A few weeks ago, working with my two Peace Corps sitemates Katie and Lindsay, we made the girls’ camp a reality! A camp is something I had wanted to organize for the first two years of my service, but my summer vacation month of January filled up last year with other camps and Peace Corps trainings, and I chose to spend the one-week vacations of April (Holy Week) and July (winter vacation) either traveling or relaxing. When my friend Katie mentioned the idea of organizing a girls’ camp to me last November, I responded enthusiastically.

The need for female empowerment is something that I think is evident to all Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua. The society here is very machista, or chauvinist. Not uncommon are the cases of girls who get pregnant early on and leave school to become poor, unemployed, stay-at-home single mothers, a role they are never able to break out of. The root causes of this are poverty and lack of education, specifically about risks and consequences of sexual activities. A lot of sensitive topics are considered taboo, and some girls feel they have no one to talk to about important personal issues, consequently leaving them unprepared when the time comes to make important decisions. Our goal with planning this camp was to give the girls the tools and education they needed to make responsible decisions and lead successful lives.

We recruited our newest island volunteer: an environmental volunteer from Balgue named Lindsay, who also responded enthusiastically to the idea. We met several times before Christmas to brainstorm ideas and draft schedules and budgets. Then in January, the real work began. I took on the challenge of writing the grant. We didn’t need much money, only $250 for everything, and we decided to apply for VAST funds, which are allocated to support projects combating HIV/AIDS. Since our project contained a significant amount of material related to this topic, it qualified to apply for funding. Writing the grant was tricky, because we need to hold ourselves responsible for results, so we had to write our objectives, the indicators that would measure if we met the objectives, and how we would measure the indicators. I had done this before for my oven projects, but the health sector’s objectives and indicators that need to be met are a whole other kettle of fish (as they say), and it took me a long time and many conversations with incredibly helpful Peace Corps staff to write it correctly. Katie took on coordinating with several local professionals to donate their time and expertise. We talked to the principals of the local primary schools and asked for their support in rounding up the best female students in 4^th-6^th grades to participate in the camp. We had everything ready to go for the first week in February, the final week of summer vacation for the girls. We decided to name the camp ‘Metamorfósis: Creciendo Juntas’ (Metamorphosis: Growing Together), using the metaphor of the caterpillar (the young girls) going through a transformative period in their lives (puberty, upcoming high school years) and becoming empowered to become strong and beautiful butterflies. I’m pretty sure the girls got the metaphor…

Katie, Lindsay, and I with our camp sign and butterfly hands

We had 60 girls participate from Altagracia and the surrounding communities, ranging in age from 9-13. We met in a local primary school. I was really proud of the synergy of my work in the past two years that I achieved: for example, of invaluable help to us throughout the week were my youth group kids (high school seniors from Altagracia) whom I had recently taken to Youth Leadership Camp with me, and were eager to give something back to their community by helping us out. Volunteering is a bit of a foreign concept in Nicaragua; sure they see foreign volunteers come in all the time, but the idea of a person volunteering for their community is not common, so my youth group kids are really special in that sense. I want to take a brief moment to summarize my youth group project, since I know my blog has not been too detailed. It started when I was able to take 4 students from Altagracia to Youth Leadership Camp last year, a national project organized by Peace Corps volunteers every year. Each participant is required to carry out some sort of community project after returning from the camp, so my kids and I decided to organize a youth group to share the information they had learned at the camp. They recruited about 2 friends each to participate and presented workshops on topics such as HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, the environment, public speaking, and writing a personal budget (definitely a needed skill). Some of the participants then decided to give the workshops to the younger students in the high schools, and to a group in one of the outlying communities of Altagracia. It was one of the projects I was really proud of, watching the kids I had trained go give the workshops and educate their community members with very little assistance from me. When I had the opportunity to invite kids to Youth Leadership Camp this year, I brought 3 who had been participating in that group with me throughout the year.

          So, the point of that brief aside story is that my youth group kids were an invaluable support during the camp, helping maintain order, play games, run errands when necessary, and even give one of the workshops.

When planning our camp, we decided to give each day a unifying theme, with each theme accompanied by an empowering Beyoncé song to listen to and reflect on. Day one was Empowerment Day, accompanied by ‘Run the World’ by Beyoncé (Who runs the world? GIRLS!) We divided the girls into three groups and had them cycle through three rotations of 45 minutes each: Self-Esteem with me, Gender Roles with Lindsay, and Life Goals with Katie. Each day included a 30-minute snack break, which represented my second synergy component: every day I had one of the women who had built an oven through my previous project provide the snack, thus putting their ovens to good use to make a profit.

I think our camp went pretty well, but we were plagued by technical difficulties. The internet wasn’t working well (not surprising), so we couldn’t stream any of the Beyoncé videos with subtitles like we’d hoped, and Katie couldn’t access a lot of material for her presentation. Then for the rest of the week the school director showed up late, so we didn’t have access to the projector and had to cut all technological components, including a yoga session L Also Lindsay had come down with a nasty case of giardia the week before and was still weakened and in the process of recovery for most of the week. But these little setbacks didn’t keep us from having a great week!

The theme for the second day was Sexuality and Personal Health. Theme song: If I Were a Boy by Beyoncé in Spanish (Si Yo Fuera un Chico). For this day, we had a local psychologist named Karla come in to do a 2-hour group therapy session with half of the girls, focused on combined themes such as self-discovery, self-esteem, and empowerment. While she was doing this, the other half of the group attended two sessions. The first was on HIV/AIDS, given by some of my youth group kids who had attended Youth Leadership Camp the previous year. They did a fantastic job sharing information about HIV/AIDS with the girls: what it is, how it spreads, and its effects. The session was mostly a series of illustrative games: for example, they began with a game called ‘The Full House’, in which they read a story about two couples. One couple had good communication, practiced family planning, and finished their education before getting married and starting a family. The other couple, meanwhile, had a man who wouldn’t let his girlfriend use contraceptives, and they ended up having many children before they were prepared and had the resources to maintain them. The girls participating in the session had to act out each part of the story by squeezing all the family members into a 2 foot x 2 foot square marked by tape on the floor, then divide 1 or 2 packets of crackers amongst themselves, representing the family’s economic resources and distribution. There was another called ‘The Dance of the White Blood Cells’, demonstrating how HIV and AIDS affect the body’s immune system. One called ‘The Glitter Party’ demonstrated how one’s decisions regarding sexual activity affect their likelihood of contracting HIV, represented by one person with glitter on their hand who went around shaking the hands of others. The most entertaining, of course, was the Condom Race, where participants first competed to put in order the steps of using a condom, then had to demonstrate on a plantain.

 One of my favorite camp pictures. Look at the reaction of the girl in the middle when asked to grab the plantain (representing a man's sexual organ, of course). Priceless!

 Learning about family planning and safe sex through the game 'The Full House'. The couple on the left practiced family planning, finished their educations, got married, and had their first child when they were readu. Meanwhile, the couple on the right did none of those things and have way more children in their 'house' (2 foot x 2 foot square on the floor) than they can manage or feed!

Learning about HIV through the game 'The White Blood Cells'. The girls with the balloons are the white blood cells who are protecting the human, but when they are weakened by HIV (balloons popped, girls drop to knees), various illnesses can enter until finally AIDS comes and takes life away. AIDS was one of my youth group kids in a black cloak, all the girls screamed in terror when he entered.

Following this topic, I presented a session I am particularly proud of on male and female sexual anatomy. I made giant, color-coded diagrams of both (and learned a lot in the process, lol) then as a group we stuck labels on each part and discussed its function. After we did a game in which I read the description of the function, and one girl from each team had to run across the room and touch the correct part. This game went so-so, I think a lot of them got so caught up in the competition aspect that they weren’t processing the information, and a lot of times went to the incorrect sex (No girls, the eggs are NOT found in the man!) Then the girls had to correctly put the labels on each of the diagrams in groups, an activity I am happy to say they were able to do successfully.

Labeling the male reproductive system.

Our theme for Wednesday was Beauty, both inner and outer. Our planned theme song was Beyoncé’s ‘Pretty Hurts’, a song about the sadder side of being a model, but we unfortunately didn’t get to do it with the girls due to technological difficulties. One aspect of beauty that we focused on was keeping the earth beautiful. Katie opened the day by reading the book ‘The Giving Tree’ by Shel Silverstein, which she happened to have a copy of in Spanish. We then divided the girls into three groups and sent them through rotations. The first was with another local psychologist named Liliam. Unfortunately I didn’t get to spend a lot of time watching her presentation, but her focus was on inner beauty and discovering talents. The second rotation was given by a young woman from my community, Ana Gabriela, who recently graduated from university with a degree in Industrial Engineering (#rolemodel), though she was actually there because she had participated in a class given by a previous Peace Corps Volunteer on jewelry making, and is now selling earrings in some major tourist spots on the island. Her earrings are cool because they incorporate elements from nature found on the island, such as seeds, shells, and feathers, and recycled materials such as beads made from magazine pictures and plastic. She made a pair of earrings with all the girls, who were thrilled. The third session was given by Lindsay and focused on trash and recycling. She has a cool activity in which the girls have to guess how many years it takes specific materials to decompose (If my grandpa threw out a shoe when he was a child, it would just about be decomposed now. Glass takes a looooonnnnnngggggg time). Most of the guesses were nowhere close, but the ‘oh, wow!’ factor made an impression, I think. As a final activity for the day, we gave each girl a bag to fill with dirt and a seed of a tree called Madero for them to take home, care for, and hopefully plant in their yards. We weren’t able to follow up on this project very well, we can only hope that they followed through!

Thursday’s them was Sexuality and Sexual Health. It started off the same as Tuesday, with the groups switched. Then at the end of the day, we invited a German woman who has been a longtime resident of Ometepe and is known for traveling to different schools to give presentations on teenage pregnancy. Her presentation was hilarious and effective. Her manner of related to the girls and making them laugh while addressing serious topics is something very special and wonderful to behold, as she walked them through changes that occur during puberty, the appearance of sexual urges, how to prevent pregnancy, and consequences of pregnancy. She showed them a couple of fantastic videos developed by a Nicaragua NGO featuring Nicaraguans in Nicaraguan settings. One was a documentary following the stories of two teenage mothers, one from the city and one from a very rural setting, interviewing them around the time the baby was born and again about 4 years later. Hearing from their mouths how their lives were changed and how much they regret their decision was very powerful. The other short videos that she showed were staged with actors, but still powerful: one was a teenage boy talking to another teenage boy about using protection and not ruining a girl’s life, and the other one was a girlfriend successfully arguing against her boyfriend’s pressure to have sex and even become pregnant (‘Don’t you want to feel what it’s like? You’ll look so beautiful with your baby belly that represents the product of our love.’ To which the girls replies that her studies and her future are much more important to her, that she is a unique person not like everyone else, etc.)

Learning about teenage pregnancy with Karen

Our final day, Friday, culminated in a Water Safety Day that was a trip to Ojo de Agua, a local natural spring converted into a swimming hole and tourist attraction. After going over rules and how to properly use a life jacket, we were on our way! At Ojo de Agua, we divided into three rotations, with each group of girls accompanied by two of the youth group kids. Katie gave a basic swimming lesson, since she was a lifeguard and swim instructor in the US. Lindsay did a basic CPR class using a CPR dummy Katie had brought from the US and was so excited to finally get the chance to use, and I manned (wo-manned) the free swim station. The time passed all too fast; the girls were complaining that they wanted more swim time. But we were against the clock, we gave them their certificates of participation and dropped them off around noon, thus concluding a very busy, yet satisfying and fulfilling, week.

A group of girls during free swim time at Ojo de Agua

As a said before, this was a project I had wanted to do for a long time. However, it can be difficult to measure impacts of projects like this. They listen to us during the sessions, and we can check comprehension and understanding through basic questions, but how are we ever going to know if the information they learned from us is going to pop into their minds when they have to make important choices? And the impacts of presentations on self-esteem are even more difficult to measure, because self-worth is such an intangible thing.  But I think that overall our camp was a success that greatly benefitted a generation of girls, as it is our hope that they share what they learned with their families and friends.

Group photo. Probably should have told the photographer to get a little closer...

Observations on Religion in Nicaragua

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wrote this blog while I was in the US over Christmas and New Year's. I have applied for, and been granted, an extension of my Peace Corps service until May of 2015 to complete some additional projects I have in mind and wait while my graduate school application is being processed. 

While I was home, the pastor of my church asked me to say a few words to my congregation about my experience in Nicaragua. I initially had no idea what I was going to say, but after brainstorming a bit during a car ride to see my grandfather, I came up with a mix of personal observations and experiences, history, and politics, with the idea of teaching the listeners a little bit about Nicaragua (NOT in Africa) and what religion is like there. Since I hand-wrote out everything I wanted to say so I wouldn’t be nervous (our pastor usually uses her ipad, I am behind the times!) I thought it would be nice to share as a blog post. So here goes!

God and Religion in Nicaragua

Two years and four months ago, I set off for Nicaragua to begin two years of Peace Corps service. As I’m sure you’ve no doubt hears, it is a challenging experience, yet also the most rewarding and fulfilling imaginable. As the old slogan proclaims, it is indeed ‘the toughest job you’ll ever love’.

Linda has asked me to say a few words about my experiences over the past two years, so I want to talk a little bit about the presence of God and religion in Nicaragua. But before I begin, I want to present a contrast from the headlines this week. The news story told of a man traveling on Christmas day, who was greeting by the American Airlines ticket checker with a cheerful ‘Merry Christmas’. He gruffly told her not to say that and stormed past her. Waiting for him at the door to the plane was a second flight attendant who issued a similar greeting. (Keep in mind, these employees were working on Christmas day, so it is remarkable in itself that they were of such good cheer.) The passenger again reprimanded the flight attendant and brushed by her. When a third flight attendant had the gall to again wish him a Merry Christmas, he completely lost it and began raving. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to calm him down, American Airlines decided to escort him off the plane, amidst cheering from the other passengers. This story saddens us, yet it reflects the current state of the continual debate in the United States today about the separation of church and state. Our government was founded in part to protect religious freedom, and has since evolved to become almost completely sterilized of all vestiges of religion; some people choose to take this to extremes, such as the passenger previously mentioned. In Nicaragua, this is NOT the case.

Let me give you a little orientation about Nicaragua before continuing, since more than one person thought I was going to Africa 28 months ago. It is actually located in Central America, bordered by El Salvador and Honduras to the north and Costa Rica (its more well-known neighbor) to the south. Nicaragua is known as the ‘Land of Lakes and Volcanoes’, for its two gigantic lakes and chain of volcanoes on the western coast. In the place where I live, I have both of these: I live in the middle of the bigger lake (Lake Nicaragua, or Cocibolca in the indigenous language of Nahuatl) on an island comprised of two volcanoes called Ometepe. Nicaragua shares a similar history with much of Latin America: discovered by Columbus around 1492 and subsequently conquered by the Spaniards. This clash of civilizations gave birth to a mixed race ‘mestiza’ culture that speaks Spanish. I need to add a disclaimer here that I am referring to the Hispanic part of Nicaragua, which is the western part of the country. The Atlantic Coast is a completely different story, which I unfortunately do not have time to address here, as it is not part of my direct experience.

One thing that the conquerors brought with them to the ‘New World’ was Catholicism. This was, of course, in the times of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and the Spanish Inquisition, and spreading Catholicism to all corners of the earth was item number one on the royal agenda. One of the strategies that early Catholic missionaries employed to help the religion gain acceptance among the indigenous population was to co-opt their religious practices in a process called syncretism. I have a theory that this is what led to the birth of a tradition called ‘La Purisima’ or ‘La Gritería’, though sometimes it is hard for me to distinguish between purely Catholic traditions and those unique to Nicaragua. La Purisima is celebrated the 9 days leading up to the Day of the Immaculate Conception, which I believe is on December 8^th. Every night, a different neighborhood in the community takes a turn to host the event. Those who wish attend a mass at 4:00 in the morning, after which they process with an idol of the Virgen Mary to the designated location for the day. The neighbors then work all day decorating the altar. They set up speakers which blast religious songs all day, letting the people know where the prayers will be that night. They string up wires and hang light bulbs and decorate the altar with flowers, branches, decorative vines, Christmas lights, paintings, fabrics, etc. One night when it was threatening rain, the Virgin sported an umbrella. The most impressive altar I’ve seen was a replica of the two volcanoes that comprise the island, with the active one lit up with red light and a fan blowing tissue paper so that it seemed to be erupting. The women in the neighborhood work all day preparing something to distribute to the people in attendance at the prayer in the evening. These offerings run the gamut from simple candies and chips purchased at the corner store, to a variety of typical foods in plastic baggies: tajadas (fried plantain slices with shredded cabbage salad and a chunk of either meat or cheese), fresco (fresh fruit juice), arroz a la valenciana (rice mixed with diced vegetables, hot dog chunks, and shredded chicken), nacatamales (homemade corn dough wrapped in plantain leaves with pork and vegetables and steamed for hours), and vigorón (fried pork skin with yucca and cabbage salad). On the last day of the celebration, even toys were distributed to the children.  Unfortunately for the virgin, I think more people attend these events for the food than for religious reasons, as I only observe a handful of people actually praying. At the appropriate time, the designated church elder takes up the microphone and begins the prayer, which usually includes the rosary, the Lord’s prayer, and other recited and extemporaneous prayers which I am unfamiliar with. This usually lasts between 30-45 minutes, and afterwards the music resumes while the people pass through the crowds distributing their foods. At this point firecrackers are also set off in great numbers, usually in a highly unsafe manner that on occasion sends onlookers dunning for cover. Occasionally you see el toro, which a friend of mine once dubbed ‘the most unsafe thing I’ve ever seen’. This consists of a cardboard covering that one holds over one’s head with horns, so that it vaguely resembles a bull. The surface of this box is then covered with a net of explosives that will instantly burst into sparks when lit, at which point the designated ‘bull’ will start running around dangerously close to the spectators and causing mayhem. Finally, the people process, usually accompanied by a small band, with the Virgin back to the church, where she waits to be brought to her next destination the following morning.

Another tradition that can be found in every community in Nicaragua is the celebration of the patron saints. Each community has a slightly unique way of celebrating, but there are some general themes. I enjoy the traditions from the community of Altagracia, whose patron saint is San Diego. On November 11^th, the idol of San Diego is moved from his home in the cathedral of Altagracia to another location on the island, which changes every year and can be up to 10 km away. There, those who wish maintain a vigil all night long, praying and eating intermittently. The following afternoon, San Diego heads back to Altagracia, accompanied by a tireless band, an endless amount of fancy ‘dancing’ horses with well-dressed riders (I still have no idea where they come from and when/how they come to the island), and hundreds of people on foot. The walkers dance the zompopo dance, which consists of holding a branch in the air and shaking it in rhythm. The zompopo is a type of insect that comes in plagues and devastates crops, and it is told that the people implored San Diego to stop a horrible plague one year by performing the dance, and he did so. Along the way, San Diego encounters a saint from a nearby community called Saint Marcos (from the community of Saint Marcos, fittingly) where they meet and dance joyfully, then continue on their way together. This procession signals the beginning of a week of parties which include bull riding every afternoon in the central plaza. Makeshift bullriding arenas are set up with bleachers to accommodate spectators, and an entry fee is charged. Bulls from surrounding communities are brought in, tied to a post, and brought to their knees while a brave soul (usually drunk) mounts, at which time it is released and expected to buck its rider. The bulls are not treated particularly badly (except the ones that get their balls tied up to make them angry, something I’m told is commonplace in the US) but I feel bad for them because all they want to do is get out of there. And the arena is always filled with scores of drunks who attempt to get the bull to go after them by waving things in its face and throwing trash at it, and when it feints toward them they rapidly climb the walls in terror.  In Altagracia, a small carnival with rides and games is set up, as is a makeshift discoteca. Always present are the chinamos, small establishments that sell food and more importantly alcohol, with plenty of tables and chairs to accommodate revelers.  So, in conclusion, the patron saint holidays are not terribly religiously-focused events, but they are very much a part of the tradition of every community.

As for how God and prayer are incorporated into everyday life, I have yet to attend an official gathering in which the first item on the agenda was NOT an invocation to God. Thanks are always given to God at the beginning of any speech, presentation, or competition. My soccer team always huddled to say a prayer before taking the field. A mass is always held before graduation ceremonies and to mark the infamous 15^th birthday parties of young girls. A whole night of praying, singing, and sharing food is held the night a person dies, followed by 8 additional nights of praying. Speaking of praying, something interesting I learned about the Spanish language is that there are two translations for the word ‘pray’: rezar refers to recited prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer, while orar refers to either extemporaneous or written prayers. Another interesting observation is that prayers are never recited in unison as they are in the United States; instead, each person says them individually as fast as possible in a sort of breathless race.

Nicaragua is not 100% Catholic, however. Following the global trend, evangelical churches have gained a foothold and are steadily growing. Most are started and sponsored by foreign churches, many from the US. Consequently, they have many of the characteristics of nondenominational churches here: bands, lots of contemporary music, and active youth groups. However, they also have a lot of stereotypical characteristics that might surprise some Americans; for example, some churches forbid women from wearing pants. Others completely ban dancing and alcohol consumption, by default thus branding Catholics as the fun, party-loving religion. Strange, right? Other denominations are also making inroads; I’ve seen churches for Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists on the island, was recently approached by Mormon missionaries while headed to the beach, and was on a ferry one time with some women in antiquated clothes and head coverings who were clearly missionaries of some sort. I even recently found out that there is a mosque in the capital city of Managua!

Moving outside of activities in which the main focus is religion, Christianity is something that has seeped into every aspect of life in Nicaragua, especially politics. The current ruling Socialist party of Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, are masters of propaganda, and have plastered slogans and images of President Daniel Ortega all over the country. One of  the most prominent displays are the massive billboards extolling the ‘regime’ and its slogan of ‘socialism, Christianity, prosperity’, something I’d sure would never fly over here. If you take the time to read the political slogans graffitied everywhere, you come across phrases such as ‘if God is with is, who could be against us?’ The Party has clearly recognized that  Christianity is an essential element in Nicaraguan culture, and that not appeal for the hearts and minds of the people could ever be successful without including God.

In everyday speech, ALL references to future plans or events are followed by the phrase si Diós quiere (God-willing) or Diós primero (God first), as if not to say one of these phrases would jinx the event. I admit I rolled my eyes at first every time I heard these phrases, because they seemed to belie a very pessimistic outlook on life when even a plan as simple as ‘see you tomorrow’ must be commended into the hands of God. But with time my perspective has changed and I’ve come to embrace the saying as a sort of protection against life’s many surprises and uncertainties, and it gives me a certain degree of comfort; it’s as if to show God that you really recognize that He has power over every aspect of our lives, and it is a continual reminder of this fact to both the speaker and the listener. Another common phrase in Nicaragua that’s used to bid farewell is Que Diós te bendiga’ (May God bless you). Even those with no religious inclinations whatsoever have no choice but to invoke God when they bid even the simplest of farewells, for the word adios contains the word for God, diós, within it. And it is absolutely impossible to avoid the religious bumper stickers etc that adorn ALL public buses and trucks, both inside and out (and often with atrocious spelling).

Peace Corps has been nothing if not an opportunity to learn and grow, and I have learned a LOT about the culture and its religious dimensions. I know I must say ‘God-willing’ when making references to the future. I know that it will be impossible to travel on religious holidays such s Good Friday and the Day of the Immaculate Conception because all of the bus drivers will be on holiday. I’ve learned to include a prayer at the beginning of all events I organize. I recognize that all scheduled events, including school, will be cancelled on the day that the bishop comes to visit. I’ve learned that a couple will have either one or two wedding ceremonies, one civil and one religious, with the religious one considered much more binding. I’ve learned to postpone all plans the night a community member dies so as to be able to attend their wake. I’ve memorized the rosary and the Lords’s Prayer in Spanish, even though I don’t fully know the rosary in English! I’ve discovered the futility of attempting to explain MY religion in a country where the words ‘evangelical’ and ‘Protestant’ are used interchangeably. And finally, I’ve discovered that participation in religious activities is the key to cultural integration, acquiring a deeper understanding of a culture, and truly knowing the heart and soul of a community.