The empowered empowers.

March 31st, 2009

I think this day may go down as one of the longest days of my life. My thoughts may come out a little jumbled and illogical, but I’m not trying to write a Pulitzer here, just trying to recall the day.

Breakfast. The hotel has a full scale breakfast with cereal, pancakes, eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and even a guy that will make omelets for you. We don’t have plans for lunch, or time, so breakfast is extremely important. Needless to say, we eat a lot in the morning.

Ryan and I have our own vehicle, as we are on a different schedule than everybody else here. We are driving around in a Toyota SUV, can’t remember the name of it but I know they don’t sell in the US. Anyways, so we headed out to the main office to pick up our translator, Hiro. On the way out, we passed by the old cathedral that is here. If you google Managua, the cathedral will be one the first things you come across.

Once we got outside of town we drove past Lake Managua. It’s a huge body of water with volcanoes and the whole bit. We came to one of those ‘scenic views’ along the highway and stopped. When I got out, I was amazed at what I saw. Lake Managua didn’t look too pretty. The water looked like antifreeze. Sure enough, there were some major industrial companies along the waterfront several years ago, including Kodak, and they basically polluted the lake beyond imagination. The fury that built up in me as I looked at this huge source of water and resource ruined in party by ‘western society’ I just wanted to punch someone.

Redemption. In the middle of this lake stands an active volcano. At the base of this volcano is a geo-thermal energy plant. So, amidst destruction, modern science is taking advantage of the natural heat to create energy. This made me forget about punching for a while.

From here, we headed to check out the school program that they run down here. They have child sponsorships that support people to go to school. We were at a high school where 15 graduates of the program met us. They all shared their names, year of graduation and plans for the future or in most cases what they are already doing. We also talked with the school director and one of the teachers at length about the work of the school and the impact on the community.

The most amazing story from this day was of a young girl; again memory has failed me for her name, which was supported medically by the rainbow network when she was a child. She had a very serious heart condition that nearly ended her life. Rainbow stepped in and she had heart surgery that saver her life. She later became a sponsored child by Rainbow and graduated from high school. She is now apart of another program called “Young Entrepreneurs.” This program is for people who want to start a business. So, long story short, as she was describing her past, she began to weep as she told us about how thankful she was for the help she had received, and announced that she is now trying to start a pharmacy in her community. Her sweet spirit, her compassion, her determination and her miracle filled life will surely lead her to success. After we spoke with her at the school, we followed her to her house where she showed us around and her very proud mother and family gave us a tour of their community.

Another aspect of the work that is being done here is housing. Over 300 (I think) houses have been built in the last few years by rainbow. They build them in communities, around 35 houses in a community. She lives in one of these and we were able to see the many families living in secure, concrete homes, as opposed to the mud homes that dominate the land. As you can imagine, during the rain season, the mud homes don’t last long.

I know it doesn’t sound like a very hard day, but in the heat and following people around all day juggling a camera, microphones, cables and two backpacks…you get worn quick. I filmed exactly three hours of footage today.

I am learning a lot about this culture and the problems here in a very short amount of time. And I am learning it from experts who have been working here for almost 20 years. I feel like I am grasping well the rural struggles of the areas I have been in and I must say it is no easy thing to live in rural Nicaragua.