Calle 13 Concert

Oh how I have missed my live music down here!  I'm not sure if you've heard of Calle 13, I hadn't until I came down to Nica, but they are a Puerto Rican band that has cleaned up over the past several years at the Latin American Music awards.  Last November they released Entre los Que Quieran, which highlights the bands controversial style of addressing Latin American cultural and issues.  They are known for their satirical lyrics which are usually accompanied by unconventional instruments.  I was lucky enough that they included Managua in their concert tour!  Last Thursday night several volunteers and I gathered in the capitol to attend the concert which was held in Managua's nicest mall's parking lot. They put on an amazing show and drew a eclectic crowd of foreigners and Nicaraguans alike.  My fellow volunteer buddy Julian was born and raised in Puerto Rico and you can see him representing with his homemade flag below.  It was a true display of latino culture.  One of their bigger hits is Latinoamerica which has an amazing music video to accompany it and the lyrics are great as well.  I recommend viewing even if you can't understand the lyrics, but here is the translation in to English.

Julian representing with his Puerto Rican flag.  He even made it on their official Facebook page here.

I was also fortunate enough the weekend before last to catch some acoustic live music by Luis Enrique in Esteli with some friends.  His music is also full of Nicarguan history as he touches on the contra war and how to assemble an AK 47 which was broadcast to Nicaraguan troops from Honduras during the war to educate the soldiers.  It was my buddy Nelson's b-day so at one point we actually got him to do a shout out and dedicate a song to the volunteers of Chinandega.  Live music is something that has always been such a huge part of my life and I have really been missing it.  I think I got a good fix for the time being, but there is always room for more!  If you think of it, send some new music my way if there is anything new out that you know I'd like.  I hate being behind on the music scene down here.

International Women's Day

Here in Nicaragua International Women's Day or "Dia de la mujer" is a national holiday and rightfully so.  The women of this country prove over and over to be survivors where they are by no means the dominant  sex.  Nicaraguan women usually take sole responsibility for taking care of the children, providing food for their families, all the while they are usually expected to bring in additional income to the household.  Here women are typically told what to do and never have the right to complain about their work load or the lack of their own personal needs being met.   Yet the women of this country are the ones that will have the largest influence on bringing us out of poverty.  Studies have shown that when women are given control over the family finances, that more funds are spent on such things as education, healthy foods and typically result in a higher standard of living.  If we can empower more women to stand up and make healthy decisions for their families we can take one giant leap in the right direction.

 It has been a personal goal for me, as you probably already gathered, to empower and work with women during my service.   Some of the training we do with our women at Pro Mujer focuses on women's rights.  We cover their rights in a sexual relationship, for instance the right to choose the number of children they want to have and to realize its ok to walk away from an unhealthy abusive relationship.  Self-esteem has also worked it's way in to many of the talks I give to women.

To celebrate this holiday I organized a Women's Empowerment Fair along with an organization called Movimiento de Mujeres de Chinandega.  This organization is a non profit aiming to fight and eliminate violence towards women.  The goal of this fair was to present women with all the possible resources they could take advantage of in our community to empower themselves and better their lives.  We had presence from healthcare organizations, microfinance institutions like Pro Mujer, women artisans, as well as other NGOs to educate on topics such as HIV/AIDS protection.

I invited my women artisans who make the jewelry from shells, which now has the official name of Artesania del Mar.  They sold a lot of jewelry and gained some confidence in their products as well as some sales skills.  The different booths were set up with flyers and different tid bits of information along side the central park here in Chinandega.  We also had guest appearances from a youth folklore dance team, a local orchestra, as well as skits depicting violence in the household and how it can be handled.  My site mate Nelson designed a game to create awareness about HIV/AIDs by creating a wheel of fortune like contraption where players had to answer certain questions about HIV/AIDs prevention and transmission to win a prize.

Over all it was a great success and I am definitely doing it again next year!  Wear that purple ribbon with pride ladies!  Felicidades a las mujeres!

Artesania del Mar- my women and their jewelry

My Pro Mujer team

Nelson and his HIV/AIDs game

me sporting a prize sponsored by Pro Mujer

Jinotega Marathon

These last couple of weeks have been solid full of work while I bounce between the beaches and mountains for my weekend fun.

Two weekends ago I found myself on the beaches of Leon celebrating my good friend Kate's birthday with a pinata, grilled fish, bonfires and surfing.  The department of Chinandega has a reputation for being very social and taking advantage of the wonderful beaches that surround us.  We planned a fun filled weekend for about 15 of us all in honor of Kate, well also just in honor of having a darn good time together.  We happened to come across five Peace Corps volunteers from Costa Rica whom made us realize just how awesome Nicaragua is.  Don't get me wrong, these guys were a ton of fun, but at the end of the day we have great people in the Nica program and some beautiful undiscovered and undeveloped land that we get to frolic in for two years.

Cheers to Kate!

During the week I have been diligently planning with my teachers to make sure my high school seniors start the school year off with a bang.  We are covering such topics as Entrepreneurship, types of businesses, and the creativity needed to create a new and interesting product.  At Pro Mujer I created and distributed a survey to identify women small business owners who have big dreams for their business, but just need a little guidance to realize those goals.  My project is to select a handful of women who I can really spend some quality time advising them on their business plan and future goals.  I have also been working with my women who make the jewelry out of shells on their marketing strategy and packaging while successfully putting their products in  two new stores, one in Leon and one in Chinandga.  This past week also served as a training week in Chinandega for new health volunteers where I got to take part in HIV/AIDS talks at events such as mens billiards tournaments.

The next weekend was spent on my very own Chinandega beach surfing, just the guys and I.  The five of them are all agriculture volunteers so it was no surprise that each night we had a massive bonfire on the beach to grill our fish over.  I had an awesome time just taking in the sun, surfing and catching up with good friends.  On Saturday I made the trip with my buddy Maclaine to the northern city of Jinotega to run a half marathon that the Peace Corps was helping organize.

The northern mountainous regions of Nicaragua are known to be much cooler and the people boast about their beautiful vistas.  I got a chance to breathe in some of this fresh crisp mountainous air last  weekend at the Jinotega half marathon.  I realized just how accustomed I had become to the heat when the cold morning air of about 60 degrees was almost unbearable.  We ran the 13.1 miles through valleys and up and down mountains, which I was totally not trained for.  The beautiful views and cool weather made up for the challenging terrain.  I was really impressed with the amount of Nicaraguan participation in the actual race, but a bit less impressed with the logistics of the race.  We stayed in a church that had been remodeled in to dorm style living where I slept on the floor on a thin mattress the night before the race.  We were woken up at 5 am to bus the entire length of the race to turn around and run back the direction we just came, very counter intuitive if you ask me.  Over all it was a ton of fun and I would do it all over again next year.  The other volunteers that were a part of the event really made it an experience to remember.  The next evening we headed to yet another mountainous city called Matagalpa where we rewarded ourselves with the comfort of great Italian food, wine and a cozy hostel.

Couple of us half marathoners before the race

Starting the trek through the mountains

Post race wine with my buddy Andrew

This week is the women's empowerment fair that I have been working on for quite some time.  Peace Corps along with Pro Mujer and several other NGOs in Chinandega are getting together in the central park to display all the different services for women in our community.   The event is in honor of International Women's Day on March 8th.  We will have representation from women's right organizations, health NGOs, and microfinance institutions.  I have also invited women artisans in the community to come sell their products including my jewelry ladies from the beaches.  To top it off there will be entertainment consisting of a performance by a youth orchestra and a folklore dance number as well.

Today I ate my first mango of the season which made me oh so happy.  One of my teachers and I spent some quality time together picking the ripe mangos from our high schools trees after the kids all left.  Not a bad way to spend an hour or so after lunch.  We were a good team.  Silvia had the ten foot long stick and I was designated mango catcher.  I know I know, always so hard at work.

I'm going to leave you with a song that I just can't get out of my head.  I think I'm obsessed.  It's in portugese, but oh so catchy! Ai Se Eu Te Pego by Michel Telo.