Rocky Point

Is green, green, green

 People live in wooden houses, mostly, this is a very normal-looking small house

 And it's slightly more green, this from Connie's farm

 This is an improved oven, which more and more households are getting, usually in a shed outside the house

 And then Rocky Point is also a little bit green (view from my window in Connie's house)

 Connie recently built another kitchen further away from the house, to stop the smoke from always going into the building

Maura's house, where the smoke from burning rubbish gives the evening light that extra romantic feeling

Rocky Point is a Creole farmer community, about half an hour on bus from Pearl Lagoon, which again is about an hour on panga-boat from Bluefields. Johanne and I stayed there during the past three weeks. We stayed together the entire time, and stayed with two different families: First Ms Connie and Kenneth on their farm, with lots of animals and coconut oil production, then Ms Maura and Cloyd on their farm, with lots of daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, and completely provided for by solar panels and a system which makes cooking gas out of cow's droppings.

There has been a lot of development on Rocky Point the past few years, both by the residents' initiatives and by different organisations, including the Norwegian Embassy (this was slightly embarrassing at times). Some families have a lot, which means solar panels (electricity), a new well, and a proper latrine, and some families haven't been prioritised, so they have less. It seems to be happening though, and I hope it continues.

We've been staying with the families, and although the idea is to live as normally as possible and help them in any work they need, there has been some difficulties in proving that we can work. We are, after all, two very light-skinned, fairly small girls from a rich country, so we have had that against us. Then again, we are weaker than the people who do this work every day.

Rocky Point seems, anyway, a very open community, where everyone knows each other, over half the population is related to one another. Of course, there are some feuds, as within any community. More about that to come!

Program/Itinerary

Cow and house in Kakabila, the village where my two friends Elise and Gro Malene stayed

• Saturday 23rd: Plan future blog posts, reply to emails and go to my first proper baseball game
  
• Sunday 24th: Travel up the Rio Escondido to Rama and beyond, hoping to reach the Pacific Coast by nightfall
  
• Monday 25th: Only do nice things, because it's my birthday
  
• 26th-31st March: holiday, hopefully relaxing/exploring/finding new amazing stuff
  
• 1st-8th April: Political program in Guatemala, meeting lots of organisations and talking to interesting people about autonomy and indigenous people's rights, in addition to a lot that is happening in Guatemala right now
  
• 8th-10th April: Political program/relaxing/working on our information work in Bluefields/Pearl Lagoon
  
• 11th April-10th May: Second Rocky Point-stay, no idea which farms we'll be going to, yet
  
• 10th-31st May: Political program/interviews/planning our information work for Norway, in Bluefields and/or other significant places
  
• 1st-26th June: Vacations + travel + learning all the Spanish I haven't learned since living with Creole English-speakers
• 26th-27th June: Travel home, arrive, meet my parents, eat waffles, sleep

That's a rough outline of the next three months. Some of the dates might change one day or two this way or that, but hopefully mostly it will stay the same.

And yes, I will write more about Rocky Point soon, but it's getting close to 1am, and for someone who's been getting used to going to sleep at 8pm, this is very late indeed.

Bluefields again

I've washed my hair! Excite!

We just came back to Bluefields today, and we've mostly been stuck in our hostel room, updating ourselves on the interwebz, friends and family, or we've been out for lunch and buying necessities, like toothbrushes, batteries and suncreams. Today I washed my hair in a proper shower with actual shampoo for the first time since we went out, and I feel pretty amazing. Until now I've only been ducking my head under in the creek or throwing some water over it from a bucket.

We're having a meeting soon, so I'll have to go, but I have a lot to tell, and a lot more interesting stories than how I wash my hair. Soon soon!

Gratulerer med dagen Mor Ninna

 My grandmother on her 85th, last year

My grandmother and my dad, last year

Gratulerer med dagen mor Ninna! Jeg håper du får en fin dag med sukkerfrie kaker og hyggelige mennesker.

My grandmother turns 86 today, and she is just amazing. She wears black sequins to her 85th birthday, she painted her cane black so it would look better, and she refused to get a checked suitcase to go shopping, because she didn't want to look like any old lady. She got a black one, of course. Mor Ninna (Literal: Mother Ninna, Northern: Granny Ninna) is an incredibly strong woman, who raised four children out on an island far out to the sea while my granddad was a fisherman. I like to listen to her stories, and have tried to record some, because they can be really incredible.

My sister in Matagalpa

Angelina - "little angel" or "God's angel"

Angelina is the youngest sister in my host family in Matagalpa. I fell for her the first time I met her, sitting on her dad's motorbike with her own little helmet, visor up, throwing me a kiss.

Today is her birthday (I realised after I'd picked the date for this to publish), and she will be three years old, just like my niece.

I was surprised to hear that her family, and the organisation we went through, Movimiento Comunal, were so open about her having Down's syndrome (all my prejudice is shining through, but this is why I'm here: to be challenged, also in my views). I would have imagined there was more prejudice linked to it. Apparently, there are a lot more children born with Down's syndrome in Latin America than in Europe - that's what my host family told me, and I have had others tell me likewise, but I haven't been able to find any information about it, or any reason why.

My new little sister was born into a good family, I think, as I've mentioned before, there are no men in this family, which seems to take down the stress that they've lived under before. There is no beating of children (I'm not saying that women don't beat children, just that these don't), Angelina's father visits her regularly, and everyone cares very much about her.

Gioconda, her mother, told me that the doctor has prescribed preschool, and later on, dancing classes for her, so she'll get stimuli from outside, both in meeting other people than her family, but also getting movement and challenges. She's already an excellent dancer. She starts dancing as soon as she hears a little bit of music, or even when she saw me wearing a skirt, because skirts equal dancing. In a few years she will also start her education in a school for special needs (I have no idea what words to use, since I've never talked about this before), which they have near their house in Matagalpa, luckily.

I hope I get to see my little sister again, if I return to Nicaragua in some years, as well as the entire family, and I hope she's still dancing all the time.

Hei, morfar

March 2012

jeg tenker på deg når jeg innser at jeg bare går på uansett om det er veiarbeid og traktorer og gruslegging og legging av brostein, fordi det finnes alltid en vei igjennom, sa du, spanjolene går rett igjennom, og akkurat det tror jeg de klarte å overføre til Latin-Amerika, og Nicaragua. Jeg går rett på jeg også, og det fungerer fint. 

Dina Sofie

 Dina and me, March 2012

 Her being adorable

 Dina and the old family dog of her dad

Dina and me on my birthday last year (yes, this was taken on March 25th)

Gratulerer med dagen Dina!

Today is my niece's third birthday, and I just realised I haven't been there for any of them. When she was born in 2010 I was in England, same in 2011, last year I was in Spain on her birthday, this year I'm in Nicaragua. I'll try to be home when she's older though, and she'll actually remember it. Please note that all the most adorable photos of her were taken around her second birthday, when she was old enough to pose for the camera, and young enough to still love being photographed. Nowadays, the elderly lady of three gets a bit tired of all these cameras and phone cameras in her face all the time.

Superglad i deg!

Feminism in Nicaragua

is completely different to feminism in Norway. There are women in high heels and lots of make up, there are short women, nice women, annoying women, there are men, working with men's attitude to women and children, there are ex- and currently-sexual workers, there are a lot of women who care about their looks, and who just want to be able to be women without all the hassle. I'm sure all these feminists exist in Norway as well, they are just not very visible there. Because our feminist movement is lagging behind, stuck in old ideas. We're not certain whether we can shave our legs and still call ourselves feminist. We're not certain whether we can talk loudly about make-up and celebrities without enhancing stereotypes of women. We're most certain that we cannot call ourselves feminist without people laughing at us or looking at us in disbelief. And again, I'm sure there are people in Norway too that ignore all these thoughts, but the general idea of feminism is very old in Norway.

It feels more fresh here. Probably because the ladies of Nicaragua have a lot more to win from being progressive and assertive, and a lot more to change.

I just wish we could learn this one thing, both feminists and non-feminists, men and women, and any gender or orientation you can think of: We can wear what we want, and look how we want, and this is all about equality.

Rocky Point

Chonky's house from here

I've been trying to find information about Rocky Point, and the page I found most from was this: BlueEnergy, who have sent people to install solar panels in Rocky Point. They've actually been working with our main cooperating organisation here on the east coast, FADCANIC. I'm not sure how big the community is, or whether I will meet these people and see this house. I just know that it is a Creole community, where the houses lie far apart and everyone tends to their own little farmlands. There is a community council and there is a group who works with arranging a Farmer's Market in Pearl Lagoon twice a month.

Oh, and I'll need a machete.

When you read this, I'll have been there four days, together with Johanne. Any posts from now on until March 21st will be preplanned and prewritten, but I'll try to post about some other interesting things, and you'll hear more about Rocky Point by the end of March!

A short story about autonomy

 URACCAN Campus, Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense

 People in the street, hello

More people in the park

I've written a far too long text in Norwegian about this, I'll try to keep it short. First about the name of Bluefields: There was a lot of piracy here, often sanctioned by the British Crown, since they looted Spanish ships. One of them was a Dutchman called Blauveldt, which turned into Bluefields, as the city was named after him. 

Spain colonised the western coast of Nicaragua, and England took the east coast, the Caribbean coast, where I am now, as a British protectorate. The indigenous miskitoes of the north collaborated with the British, receiving weapons and goods as a thank you for keeping the Spanish away. There has been a lot of back and forth between the British and the Spanish, and in the end the British signed a treaty saying that they would leave the Nicaraguan coast to Nicaragua, and go up to Belize. So they left, leaving behind plantations with suddenly-free slaves, in addition to the Creole and Garifuna (afro-descendants), and the indigenous peoples of Rama, Mayagna, Ulwa, and Miskito. None of them with a good relationship with the rest of the country, and never having been a united country before.

Almost as from any textbook on how to suppress the indigenous tribes of a country, the government went on to forbid indigenous languages in schools, and impose Spanish language, traditions and property owners on the east coast. The different ethnic groups on this coast were all seen as inferior. There is still a lot of prejudice from people living in the west and north of the country. Even I was told to be careful of people in Bluefields, because they are apparently a lot more likely than anyone else to steal all my things. 

Finally, after the revolution and civil war, there was a lot of will to change in the country. A lot of leaders from the Caribbean worked hard to create a new autonomy law, and they managed to finish it in 1987. The autonomy law is quite progressive, even today. It states that there are two autonomous regions in Nicaragua, the northern and the southern autonomous regions: RAAN and RAAS. They cover about half the country. The forwardness of the law exists in it saying that all ethnic groups are equal, and they are all autonomous, whether they are of Spanish or African descent, or indigenous people. This is pretty strong in a region with so much history about race and origin.

The autonomy law also speaks about the demarcacion (is this a word in English?) of land. The land that was once given to rich friends of those in charge, is supposed to be shared out as communal land between the different communities. No personal ownership. There are a lot of rules and regulations though, a lot of different traditions to consider, and even places where this is impossible to go through with, like Bluefields, which is a city where people have owned their land maybe hundreds of years. Others have their deed scrawled on paper, without witnesses or proper signatures. 

We are going to learn a lot about this (I have learned some already, as you can see from my actually quite short summary). I am already comparing it, and finding that others have compared it before, with the indigenous people of the Nordic countries: the Saami. More about this to come! 

Bluefields intro

 The view from the balcony at the end of the hall in our hotel

 A little courtyard leading down to the restaurant

 One Line sitting in the park, eating a 'water-apple' - we encounter new fruits every day

 Adorable school-children

Mathilde before she fell ill, writing notes and more notes.

We've been here a week now, and leave tomorrow to our respective communities (more to come about this). I've really enjoyed this stay in Bluefields. I thought it might just be projection, but the people here are really more relaxed and chilled than in the cities to the west. They have a lot of history, which they all seem to be quite knowledgeable about. We've met interesting people, some what you might call good and some what you might perhaps call less-good people, as well as people who seem to be different to what they want to project themselves as. We've met a lot of organisations, and finally we have learnt a lot about the theme for our journey and our future work in Norway: Autonomy and Identity.

We have lived in relative luxury, with air-condition, internet, semi-warm showers, running water and a lot of food, in a part of the country where only very small percentages have these goods. We will go into communities with a lot fewer luxuries, and I wonder how it will affect us. You will probably get different blog posts at the end of March.

I'll be able to receive messages until tonight Norwegian time (and English time, for that matter). I shall be back online around the 21st of March.

Managua

 Sofia Montenegro and our coordinator Ingrid

 Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Sofia Montenegro

Chamorro being a grumpy cat

Carlos Fernando Chamorro is from this family: the son of former president of Nicaragua, Violeta Chamorro, and journalist Pedro Chamorro. He is a journalist, who used to be on the side of Daniel Ortega, but is now in opposition to him, and have started a new media station with his friend Sofia Montenegro, after being fired from other jobs for being too critical. There's a lot of history behind him, his views, and his family - and even though he seems radical in opposing the government, he's not exactly working class.

We were very lucky to get a chance to meet these people, and I have to keep reminding myself to be sceptical to everyone we meet. I'm the opposite, I want to believe everyone, but it becomes difficult when we meet people with very different viewpoints on the same events. Also when some people seem to be contradicting the truth that we can see here, every day. And I'm not talking about Chamorro now, who seems like a fairly well adjusted person, but about other meetings we've had in the different cities, where you feel like someone is trying to sell you something. Not the best feeling. Most people are just trying to convince us that their side is the best though, so it's nothing sinister, but still.

And then we left (well, a week ago)

 Mathilde and a greeting from our organisation in Matagalpa (Movimiento Comunal)

 Line was dressed up and taught how to dance by her family

And we ate all the Nicaraguan food

We had a wonderful goodbye party with all our families, where all our host mothers had made different Nicaraguan food, and Mathilde and Elise had made pancakes to represent Norway, which made everyone laugh, since it's not very Norwegian. Of course there was a pinata, and dancing, and we sang two Norwegian songs and everyone was happy. My host sister and I went off to watch Miss Matagalpa in one of the parks, and for the first time since I arrived in Nicaragua, I went to bed as late as 11 pm.

Family in Matagalpa

 Gioconda, me, Angelina, Yodesca (with her face hidden) and Tatiana

Orlando, Yodesca, Angelina, Gioconda and Tatiana

And here they are, the family I was staying with in Matagalpa, I only left them one week ago (pretty much at this time on Thursday morning), and it feels so far away. They were so proud of being only ladies in the house (Orlando is Yodesca's boyfriend, but he lives at home), it made quite an impact. Angelina's dad visits every day to see his girl, but he and Gioconda are not together anymore. I didn't get the details, but they all seem very happy about it. This is the different reality I've come to; where having men in the house seems annoying, or tiring, or even scary. I quote: "There are no men here. It means we can walk around the house in a towel and not even think about it, it's wonderful". And this is a very well-functioning family, where I don't think anything like that every happened. There are a lot of other, less lucky families around.

Bluefields, Bluefields

The amount of photos I've taken with my camera

We came to Bluefields on Saturday, and I still haven't finished telling you all about Matagalpa. I am very happy here, as you can tell. Today has been a rainy day, and the firt day I've been able to wear my hair down and still feel comfortable. I'm also wearing my new shirt, a goodbye gift from my host sisters in Matagalpa. And look at my amazing tan. Hah.

Bluefields suits me very well. It's near the sea, and though the water is brackish, the air is salty and very humid, and I feel less suffocatingly warm than in the midlands/north. The people here seem more relaxed, our program here is more relaxed, and after ten days in a host family, it is very nice to live with the girls I'm travelling with, and have a fairly well functioning internet service, and at least semi-warm water to shower in. At the moment, most things are pretty brilliant. I told Julie that I was only waiting for something bad to happen, and she said she was happy I'm so good at living in the moment - because even though I'm sure things can't stay wonderful all the time, I'm fairly good at enjoying happiness when I have it. We were on the boat when I said this - can I just mention that we went here in a boat, two hours down the river from El Rama? This makes for happy Sunniva.

And I'll placate you by saying that we have had a cockroach in the bathroom, we managed to lock ourselves out of our own bathroom today, I managed to lock myself into a restaurant bathroom last week, I've almost fallen asleep in at least one meeting, I'm slightly scared of all the stray dogs running around, and we can't really be walking about much after dark (7pm), and all the mosquitoes love me. 

Las Hormiguitas

 People working at Las Hormiguitas, including Alex (to the left) who used to be a student

 Supportive/solidary countries (we are there, among many others)

 Books! Books! Mathilde and I wanted to take them all out and read them, even the ones we don't understand

 Spanish/English lesson for you all

One of their two computers

Last week, the final organisation we met in Matagalpa was Las Hormiguitas (the ants). It's not as much an organisation as a daycare/after school-centre, specifically for children who work. They offer a place to stay at different times of day, and aim to get the children through school in addition to the actual work they do to support their families. They do not try to get the children to stop working, because they know it might be crucial for their families, they only encourage the families to let the children work less, while enhancing the children's education with this day centre.

There are about 100 children enrolled at the moment, mostly from the neighbourhood around the school. You can tell that their work is important, but they are completely dependent on financial support to manage. They have also worked with children who are sniffing glue, an increasing problem in Matagalpa at least, but this is only a side project, and is mostly worked on when specific foreign volunteers come back to visit and/or stay for a while.

The ladies at this centre made it pretty clear for us: Don't give money to starving children in the streets. Buy them food, by all means. Don't buy anything from them, because they'll use the money for glue, or they'll be controlled by someone older or stronger than them who will control the money as well.

It's odd being here and hearing about all these things. We're not really seeing them quite yet, only traces of sad fates when we hear about the work that different organisations do. It hasn't quite struck me yet, that everything I hear is very true and very close. At the moment it feels a bit like listening to or reading the news back home - it's all very sad, but it doesn't really hit home. I probably have a lot of practice from working with the Red Cross, even in Norway.

Of course I can't take it all in, or I would stop functioning, but I wonder whether this will change any time soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER

Gratulerer masse med dagen Anna <3 font="">

Beklager at jeg ikke har et bedre bilde, men alle bildene mine ligger hjemme i Sandvika, ikke i Nicaragua.

Savner deg, glad i deg.

House

 Backyard

 Parrot

Street

We all lived in different houses in Matagalpa, with different families, but all were fairly middle class. And I don't mean English middle class, or Norwegian middle class, but Nicaraguan middle class, which are all very different things. We sometimes had to remind each other. You quickly get used to a different standard though, as I realised when I visited Mathilde in her house last week, and had to convince her that her house was flashy and wealthy with their proper doors and inside bathroom.

Cerro El Calvario y mis hermanas

 Of course there are FSLN signs, graffitis and flags everywhere

 Here is Matagalpa city centre, with the blindingly white cathedral

 I loved being up here in the wind and the fresh air

 While the others thought it was a bit too fresh, here's my host sister Yodesca 

 Yodesca, me looking very fresh, and my sisters' friend (Kenya?)

Same friend, Yodesca, and my other host sister Tatiana

When my host family asked me whether I wanted to go up a hill last Sunday, I said yes, because I imagined going up a hill meant walking up a hill. But no, it was too dangerous to walk, and so we took a taxi both ways. It was wonderful to be up there though, and being in the strong wind and feeling slightly more fresh than the rest of the weeks I've been here.

Guadalupe Abajo

 Just hanging outside the supermarket in Matagalpa

 Climbing in and out of the car, here by Ingrid

 Sightseeing on our way

To go and listen to the villagers of Guadalupe Abajo

We were only there a short while, but learnt a lot about how these villagers live and work, and how it can be difficult when you have to rent your land - as I wrote about the other day.

You'll be getting a few more posts about Matagalpa this coming week, because I'll want to postpone the Bluefields stories until I'm away from the internet. We're going to Bluefields today, and I'm very excited, and no doubt you'll hear far too much about that area in the months to come, so just enjoy the north and the east now.

I have yet to photograph anything in Managua, let's see if I can manage before we go.

Managua and masculinity

Yesterday morning I left this view from my window (yes, that is the cemetery at bottom right) in Matagalpa, I left my temporary family and went to take a bus to Managua.

Managua is so far very unimpressive, it's a weird city of just highways and some shops and a massive shopping centre, and I can't get my head around it. It has no proper city centre.

Yesterday we met Douglas from Puntos de Encuentro, an organisation that works with women's rights, but also with men's perceptions of themselves, of family and of women and of their own masculinity. Douglas was especially interested in this, and showed us several films, including this one:

Puntos de Encuentro have also made several tv-series (or soaps, really) that bring up important subjects for youth and for girls, and that promote equal rights. They've even made a tv-series about sexual exploitation in Granada, one of Nicaragua's big colonial cities. I think this is a very good way to educate young people, who'll watch what's on telly, and remember it a long time afterwards (speaking from own experience here). All the actors are volunteers, and the producers contact different organisations working with the issue they're covering before writing each episode.