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Blog Post 1

I have traveled outside the United States a total of three times.

The first time I left the States, I was 8 years old. It wasn't so much a tourist trip though because it was mainly to go visit my relatives who are still in Mexico. While I had been there before, I was too young to really remember much of anything and so I always count this as the first time I visited Mexico; so far it has also been the last time. I am really fond of this memory because it allowed me to see the places I had always heard my parents describe to me in the stories of their childhoods. It also let me meet the relatives that I occasionally talked to on the phone during the holidays when my parents made international calls to wish them a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year. And even though I wasn't really old enough to be thinking about it yet, this trip allowed me to have a brief glance and a better understanding of where I come from.

The second time I was able to see life outside the United States, was in the summer of 2014 when I got the chance to visit Africa. This was through a service trip that is run by my high school. Every summer, they send about eight students and two faculty members to Malawi. During the year I went on this trip, we helped paint a clinic as well as a chief's house. After this portion of the trip, we volunteered at an orphanage,  taught English at an elementary school, and visited a local high school (to whom we donated lab equipment to). Finally, on the last section we ran an eye glass clinic. I really enjoyed this trip, however, it also raised a lot of questions and skepticism surrounding service trips.

A few of the concerns I had was how the buildings we were helping to paint were in pretty rough shape, and instead of fixing the damages, we were simply covering them up with paint. While it did make the buildings look better and made the people happy, it felt more like we were doing something that did not address their actual needs as well as something that would be so temporary. The other big concern I had regarding our actions was our time in the orphanage. Although it is fun to play with the children, you are only forming connections that will be broken rather quickly. This is especially problematic at an orphanage because the children there should not have another person in their life that they grow close with and then that person suddenly leaves. But, not all parts of this trip were negative; in fact, this is far from the case. I learned a lot from this experience and cherish seeing and interacting in a different culture. Seeing how happy everyone is with so little, changed my outlook on life in the United States, as well as showed me the importance of being a global citizen. My experience in Malawi is a major reason I am going to Nicaragua in the winter.

The third and most recent time I ventured outside U.S borders, was this past summer. I went to Germany with a friend of mine to visit some of our high school friends. Out of all the three times that I have been outside the U.S, this is the only time I would consider myself a complete tourist. We were there for about a month and focused a lot on seeing the sights and just enjoying our time as we tried to soak it all in. Although I had a really great time, I think that being a tourist isn't the best way to travel. You miss out on the deeper interactions you make on a service trip. And its easier to forget that time you spent trying to get the perfect picture in front of a monument than it is to forget the connections you make when you are working side by side with someone to hopefully make a difference.

 

Blog Post 2

A lot of what this class does is force us to be critical of service learning trips and organizations. It makes us take a step back and ask if what we are doing is actually helpful; it also reinforces the idea that we aren't there to teach or save anyone because this would mean we are somehow above/better than them. However, this does not mean that we can't find ways to lend a hand-we simply must do so consciously. Guest speaker Michael Boudreau of Compas de Nicaragua came to our class to share his experiences in Nicaragua and with this organization.

Compas de Nicaragua (translates to Friends of Nicaragua) is a service learning organization centered in La Primavera, Nicaragua. It began with a small group of people visiting Nicaragua each year to do community service work; however since then has grown and now includes programs for women in La Primavera (Women in Action or WIA) as well as a community center. Compas de Nicaragua now also partners with schools and other groups to offer service trips and promote cross cultural exchange.

Boudreau story really fascinated me because he wasn't just involved in the program, but he lived it. The first time Boudreau went to Nicaragua he didn't even know Spanish. Yet, he didn't let this stop him from interacting with the people and after coming and going several times he eventually picked it up. Furthermore, he fell in love with La Primavera and what Compas de Nicaragua was doing so he decided to live in Nicaragua help solidify the organizations presence and outcomes.

What I really admire about Boudreau's story is how dedicated he was to these people and how he really felt as though he was making some sort of difference. More importantly, his decision to move and live in Nicaragua shows just how much trips such as these also help the volunteers. Additionally, it shows how just because the locals might have less materially, it does not mean that there way of life is less than ours. I believe Boudreau's experience also exemplifies the importance of cross cultural exchange and how service organizations such as Compas de Nicaragua and Bridges to Community, are important because it allows for these exchanges.

One important thing Boudreau told us was that it is important to realize that Nicaragua isn't poor, but rather impoverished. Meaning that other countries such as the U.S. have made them poor through things such as imperialism and other forms of exploitation. Because of this I believe that it is even more of our responsibility to help them become self-sustained so that this cannot happen again.

 

To Learn More About Compas de Nicaragua Visit: http://compas1.org/

 

Blog Post 3

Once we are in Tadazna, Nicaragua, we will interview several of the community members to learn more about them personally, Tadazna, and Nicaragua as a whole. These interviews will be added to a collection from past years and previous trips to Nicaragua. In order to practice how to conduct these interviews, we were asked to interview people who have been to Nicaragua on service trips with Dartmouth in the past. I interviewed Rafael A. Nunez Jr. (to read more about the actual interview I conducted see the 'Oral History Project' page).

Through this interview, I was able to learn more about the approach that Bridges to Community has on service trips. Bridges to Community aims to help impoverished people, but they do so in a way that ensures that the communities they aid do not become dependent on them. One way they accomplish this is by limiting the amount of time that they are directly involved with a community. However, in that time they target some of the most crucial problems that this community has such as lack of access to clean water. While working on their projects they also hire local workers to get the job done so that not only are they helping the local economy, but they also provide them with the experience and knowledge to expand or repair the problem once Bridges to Community is no longer there. I think this is what service organizations should strive to do.

This interview also got me more excited to go on this trip and to conduct interviews with the community members once we are there. Rafael stressed how amazing the people are and being able to sit down and hear there stories is something that I look forward to doing. Furthermore, allowing community members to tell their own story and how they see the community is something that I think is extremely important. This is because I think it is easy to hear stories of Latin America and impoverished places and hold these as examples of what a place is like simply because you think it fits into this mold that has been put into your head. Allowing these people to tell their stories makes it possible to hear a rawer and more authentic version of their story.

 

Blog Post 4

One component of this class was to watch a film about Nicaragua, my group was assigned the documentary: Pictures From a Revolution. 

Pictures From a Revolution is a film by Susan Meiselas, Richard P. Rogers, and Alfred Guzzetti. It is a documentary that is centered around the photos taken by Susan Meiselas during the Nicaraguan Revolution/Contra War. Photographer Susan Meiselas was in Nicaragua in the late 1970's/ early 1980's. She saw the beginnings of the Contra War and photographed the country, including both people and places during this time. In the documentary, Susan returns ten years later to try to reconnect with the people she photographed and figure out what happened to them during these tough times.

I personally found this documentary very powerful. This is because this film was very raw and real. It dealt with real events, real consequences, and real people, there was no Hollywood-esque message or ending that left viewers with a happy ending. Instead, it simply reported what became of everything and everyone regardless if this was for the better or worse. Even the narration given to viewers by Susan is dejected. As she describes what it took to get each shot, even at times risking her life to capture a moment, she tells viewers how looking back even these photos fail to really capture the feeling of it all. And as the film keeps playing, you begin to realize that Susan herself needed to go back to gain some closure on everything she witnessed and that this documentary allowed her to reflect on it all.

At on point, our group began to question and discuss the ethics of this documentary. This is because as Susan asks these individuals to recount their experiences during the revolution some of them begin to cry half way through it. Seeing this really struck a cord with all of us and made us question whether she really should have been asking them to relive these painful times. I have continued to wrestle with this idea since I watched Pictures From a Revolution. While, I am still not entirely sure how ethical it is, I do believe that their stories were important to hear. This is because it gives for a closer and more personally view on the history of the Nicaraguan Revolution. It allows outsiders to access the emotions and individual stories rather than simply read a text-book or wikipedia version of the history. It also humanizes both sides and allows individuals to not only express their stance on the outcomes, but also explain why they fought or whose side they fought on. There is no bad guy or good guy simply people.

 

Blog Post 5

Upon my initial research on healthcare in Nicaragua, I found several articles praising its quality and affordability. At first this surprised me because in class we often discussed global health and Nicaragua always came up as one of the countries facing lots of problems with tuberculosis and malaria. Upon closer reading of the articles that were praising Nicaragua's healthcare system, I realized that they were almost exclusively referring to hospitals centered in or around Managua.This would make more sense as Managua is the capital city and one of Nicaragua's most industrial/urban centers. They also seemed to appeal more to readers who were looking to retire somewhere outside the United States, thus money would probably not be an issue. It was then that I began focusing my research on two main things, access to healthcare and healthcare in rural areas.

The topic of healthcare and access to it specifically in rural areas is extremely important to consider in Nicaragua because nearly half of its population lives in rural areas. In these areas, access to healthcare especially at the caliber that Managua offers, is rare. In fact, Doctors for Doctors state that only about a third of the population has access to healthcare and only a little over 6% of the population are insured. One can only imagine, how many of the remaining in that one third can actually afford the healthcare. This lack of access to medical attention is reflected in the causes of death and the types of disease that exist in these parts of the country. For example, in rural Nicaragua maternal death is still a fairly big issue, as is malnutrition and dangerous cases of diarrhea especially with infants.

There are several organizations that work in impoverished countries to try and strengthen there healthcare systems such as Doctors for Doctors or Doctors Without Borders. It is also similar to what our Community Health team will be doing in partnership with a local clinic at Nicaragua. Upon reading, "A Model for Sustainable Short-Term International Medical Trips" to evaluate how effective a trip as short as ours (roughly 2 weeks) can actually be, I found myself agreeing strongly with one point this reading brought up. This point was that in order for short-term programs to make an impact, they have to continuously work with/at one site. This means that other programs should be at this same site after another one leaves, so that collectively the site is getting lots of attention even though it may only be getting volunteers for a short period of time.

Blog Post 6 and 7

Thoughts on the Final Presentations:

This last week of classes we have been presenting our final group projects. There have been a variety of projects, to name a few: The Role of Alcohol Consumption in Nicaragua, Cross-Cultural Maternal Mental Health, and Cooperatives in Nicaragua. This blog post however will be focusing on the latter of these three; this presentation was given by Eric Greenlee and Titus Kabega.

A cooperative is an organization that is run together by several members who also distribute the profits amongst themselves. In the case of this presentation, the cooperatives they focused on were specifically joint run farms. Because agriculture is so engrained in Nicaragua's economy this is a very important topic. Many individual's make their living and get food for themselves and their families through farming, thus being able to make and maximize profits is crucial to their wellbeing. Titus and Eric spoke a lot about the difficulties that come with being a smallholder farmer and ways in which the cooperative model can be improved.

A few of the major problems that smallholder farmers in Nicaragua face are: their lack of access to credit, the amount of land they possess, and the distribution of their profits. To elaborate a little more, their data showed that most of the money they were making was going towards buying food for themselves and family. This makes their life harder because it means that they have little wiggle room to dedicate money to anything else, but food. Due to this it becomes difficult to afford things that would otherwise improve their quality of life. Their lack of access to credit furthers this problem because it keeps them stuck in this constant cycle of barely making ends meet. Another related problem is that they do not possess enough land to dedicate their farms to both sustaining themselves and selling crops. Instead, they often have to make a choice about how they will utilize the land they have.

Titus and Eric explained that the issue of having small amounts of land is an interesting one. This is because the cooperative model of business allows for a fix that works perfectly in an agricultural economy such as the one in Nicaragua. By having several smallholder farmers team up, they collectively have more land to cultivate and dedicate to making profits. However, this alone cannot solve the issue because through the distribution of profits they would most likely still be getting the same income as they would alone. This is where Eric and Titus said that the cooperative model could be tweaked to maximize the amount of profits made for crops. For example, they could combine another portion of their money to afford a unified storage of their crops once they have been harvested. This would not only allow them to keep them fresh and sellable for longer, but they could also look at market trends and pick the best time to sell these crops. A similar approach could be taken for the purchasing of agricultural products such as seeds and fertilizer because buying in bulk would lower the cost of these items.

While they did state that their data was not as specific as they would have liked to the parts of Nicaragua that we will be visiting in December (this is mainly due to issues of lack of research into these small towns), I found their insights to be interesting and hopeful. This is because it suggests that Nicaraguans do not have to heavily industrialize in order to improve their quality of life. This is great because it means that they do not have to wait on tons of government money/funding and it also means that they could avoid things such as pollution and deforestation.

Final Reflections

I came into this class to not only be more prepared for the upcoming trip to Nicaragua, but also because I was hoping that it would help me understand if service trips were in fact some type of solution. I believe that The Politics and Ethics of Development in Latin America: The Nicaraguan Context has allowed me to gain more clarity on this subject. While I do not have a definitive answer yet, I am more hopeful than I was a few months ago. Throughout this course one of the many things that has been made clear is that adequate preparation/education can make all the difference between mutual benefit/exchange and a glorified tourist visit. I also think it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of this type of approach until the trip is actually over;  however, after speaking with students who have been on this trip before, I believe that this trip will be special and a lot of that is because of everything that we learned in this course. I also feel more prepared for this trip than I did a few months ago and not to mention more excited than ever to be in Nicaragua. With all this research comes a certain type of respect, admiration, and curiosity to experience and see at least a part of what I have been reading about. I am still a little nervous about possibly doing damage even with all of our good intentions, however, I think this will always exist on some level-even when we are in Nicaragua maybe especially when we are in Nicaragua. But maybe this is not a bad thing, perhaps this nervousness is just an awareness of how complex these trips are and in the end it is this very nervousness that will help prevent us from doing damage.