The Somoto Chronicles, Part 1

Today is one of those ordinary Nica days where it starts raining at night and when you wake up it is still raining. And what does rain in the morning usually mean in Nica? No class.

It makes sense for Somoto that there isn’t any class because probably about 50 percent of the kids walk anywhere from 40 min. to 3 hours to get to class every day because they live out in the campo. It’s not like at home where we get dropped off by our parents on their way to the office at 7:30am or simply park our cars in the lot and walk under an umbrella to class. First world vs. third world. But then again, this could be a place that gets no rain at all right? We haven’t had real rain since I’ve been here, about 2 weeks, and I could see that most of the river (I guess it’s more a creek) was already dried up. And this is winter right now! I thought we’d always have water in the creek!

I forget how California, more specifically Northern California is so different from most places in regards to water supply. We rely on the winter snow and rain to supply with water for the summer, but not just drinking water…water that allows us to take our gasoline powered barcos (boats) and drag our kids along in an innertube. We whine when not enough snow fell during the year because now we can’t escape the heat as easily. But at least not yet (knock on wood) there hasn’t been a major shortage right? Course I’m not at home and I can’t answer that question. I’m more worried about our crops and vineyards in California not having enough water to irrigate quality produce and wine grapes!

Back to Nica time, I guess it’ll be a productive day for me: write this blog, get some letters written to leaders around the community about our Empresa Creativa competition in September, and read this new book I got from Callie (Fabretto volunteer in Cusmapa) called Eat, Love, Pray (I recommend this book for any woman!). This morning I woke up at 7:00am hoping to take another cold shower and I wake up to find that not only is it raining, but there is no electricity and no running water. Ugh! I smell like OFF! bug repellent and I’d like to wash it off! Maybe I’ll catch some rain water and shower with that. My new host family has a shower faucet so they don’t save the water in big old oil drums like my old host family did. It’s nice to have the cold water come out of the faucet because it warms it up a bit, yet annoying on days like these when I really wouldn’t mind taking a bucket bath just to get the yuck off of me.

I’m with a new host family in Somoto till about the 2nd week of September and then I am allowed to move elsewhere. They are nice, but it feels like more of a business contract with them rather than being part of the family like I was back in my training town. However, my host mom got ahold of her friend who has a house for rent and hopefully I’ll be able to see it soon. It’s not going to be as expensive as I thought renting in downtown would be, but I’m still going to ask around the city and see if there are other options. Right now I don’t feel very grounded because I lack space! I have my room of course, a 10 by 10 room approx, but there is no place to hang my clothes or even begin to organize my life for 2 years! I have my whole life thrown onto the extra bed and the rest in my suitcase. I know it will be better soon; I just hate being partly stressed out because I have no room to be organized.

My kids at the Somoto Oratorio on Monday told me they didn’t care about the course anymore and they didn’t want to compete in the competition on September 25th. So, I had no ambition to teach this course to these kids who could care less about the course or the fact that people at the Oratorio actually care about them. There are so many resources these kids receive at the Oratorios but so many of them fail to actually use them to the fullest extent. They are more worried about chatting on their cell phones, buying Doritos-type chips, and spreading chisme (rumors) around the classroom. Yes yes, I remember that is how teenagers are back home but then again the majority of the kids from home (I mean Loomis home, not the U.S. in general) aren’t trying to rise above poverty. And the thing that kills me is just seeing the wasted potential of these smart kids!

This kind of goes along with the attitude of “Si Dios Quiere”…which means “If God wishes”, which is very shocking to typical “Western thought”. It is one of the aspects of the culture I shall have a hard time getting over. For example, it’s very common to hear “I’m going to the store today” and then “if God wishes” is put at the end of the sentence. (I’m going to the store if God wishes) To me, of course you will go to the store…if YOU want to go or have the motivation to walk the 2 blocks to the market! Or maybe even scarier is the phrase such as “I’m going to college after I graduate high school, if God wishes”. So, basically instead of working hard in high school on one’s grades, many of them choose to do mediocre work and hope that a higher power will grant them this wish. Sometimes I feel many Nicas are just waiting to be saved by something higher up, so they have a poor attitude or poor motivation to work…or if they have a job, they don’t seem like they want to work. Another example, some markets I walk into look at customers and basically roll their eyes because they don’t really want to help them. Why work then? Why be in business? Don’t you want my money? We are so used to customer service and giving GOOD customer service at home, I really miss that! I mean, is a smile so hard to make when a customer walks into your shop? Another volunteer mentioned an interesting comment: “Nicas like to ‘play’ the roles of life…for example, ‘I work in a bank and I am playing banker’ or ‘I own a market so I will play owner of this shop’”. A very true comment and a very sad comment at that.