Palo Lucio!

July was a big month in Nicaragua. A two week vacation from work, the annual celebration of the triumph of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, and the Santo Domingo Patron Saint celebration right outside our house provide a plethora of exciting experiences worth sharing.
Sixteen days off from a stressful job is a wonderful thing, and a perfect opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Nicaragua outside of its capital city. On July 5, vacation was officially kicked off with a Proyecto Generando Vida all-staff field trip, or ‘paseo’ to the beach on the Pacific coast. It was a great opportunity to frolic in the waves with coworkers and play soccer in the sand with their kids. The staff at the Project in El Recreo are pretty close knit, and it’s really great to build friendships and a general sense of unity by all chilling together at the beach.

Chillin at the beach with Brayan (son of a coworker) and Julio (volunteer in the library).


Doña Elieth (the maker of my daily lunches), Rosario (Brayan´s mother), and Rosa (fellow teacher, highly respected by me for her difficult life and wonderfully dry sense of humor).

A few days after the El Recreo paseo I chose to embark on a solo adventure to a remote and unfamiliar corner of the country, which turned out to be so beautiful that I wish I had brought a friend and/or camera. I traveled to the northwestern-most point of Nicaragua, a peninsula that juts out into the Gulf of Fonseca , a tiny body of water bordered by Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. My goal was to climb the Cosiguina volcano in the center of the peninsula, a small remnant of what used to be Central America’s tallest volcano until it blew it’s top in the 1800s. After a 6 hour busride (the last three hours covering about 20 miles of flooded dirt road) I arrived in Potosi, a small fishing village with a stunning view across the bay to Nicaragua’s two neighbors. I spent the night at a hostel run by a very friendly family, former residents of Miami (Miami is the primary destination for Nicaraguan immigrants). With a map drawn on a napkin and extremely vague verbal directions from the husband at the hostel, I navigated dirt roads and cow paths to the top of Volcan Cosiguina. As I approached the crater I looked out over the Gulf of Fonseca to the volcanoes and mountains of El Salvador and Honduras, and south over Northwestern Nicaragua. I contemplated everything I had learned about civil wars and U.S. intervention in the 1980s, and how the Gulf of Fonseca was mined by the U.S. to prevent arms shipments from Nicaragua to El Salvador. Such a peaceful place with a violent past. When I reached the crater I almost had a heart attack…not only was the laguna at the bottom of the crater one of the most pristine bodies of water I have ever laid eyes upon, but the 900 foot drop from the peak of the crater to the water was pretty much sheer cliff. On my hands and knees I crawled to the edge of the crater and all I could see were the tops of trees a couple hundred feet down. Terrifying. The cliffs were half rock/ half jungle with eagles and butterflies everywhere. Without exaggeration, the power demonstrated by the steep cliffs and the beautiful jungle and laguna made Volcan Cosiguina, again, without exaggeration, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Should have brought a camera. Or a witness.


Aerial shot of Cosigüina, not taken by me, and not doing justice to the true beauty of the crater, but just to give you an idea.


Satellite foto of the Cosiüina peninsula, the volcano being the little blue dot.

After resting up for a few days in the casa, Mary (fellow Jesuit Volunteer and housemate) and I traveled north to the Reserva Natural de Tisey outside of Esteli for a few days in the mountains. On this adventure it really struck me how beautiful of a country this really is. We stayed at a little hut/hostel at about 5,000 feet elevation, surrounded by rolling hills covered in pine trees…mmm pine trees. It was a very peaceful time filled with hiking, being cold for once, stunning views, delicious cheese, a crazy old man carving brilliant sculptures into a mountainside, and a ton of Anthony De Mello spiritual brain teasers. I returned to Managua very rejuvenated, and was reminded of home by the serene and tranquil time spent in nature…cold, mountainous nature. To top off the vacation we had 2 former JVs from Belize passing through on their way back to the states, which was wonderful to compare and contrast experiences as Jesuit Volunteers in different countries.


The campo in Tisey.



Walking along old man Alberto´s moutainside of rock carvings.


Beautiful, freezing waterfall near Tisey.


Mary and me on our last day in the mountains.

On the second to last day of vacation came the time to commemorate the victory of the revolution…
“Hacia El Sol de la Victora!” – until the sunshine of the revolution, says Nicaragua’s president. 19 de Julio (July 19th) is the day in 1979 when Sandinista revolutionary forces (commanded by current President Ortega) defeated the repressive U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship and replaced it with a semi-socialist government bent on offering free health care, cheap food, and eradicating illiteracy. Many Nicaraguans no longer support the FSLN or Mr. Ortega, the leaders of the revolution, but the vast majority are in favor of the 1979 revolution and the social programs implemented in the first few years of the revolutionary government in the 1980s. Unfortunately, due to Ortega being the current president, the celebration of the revolution was very political party-oriented, celebrating the ruling FSLN party and not necessarily the revolution in general. The celebration was held in the outdoor central plaza and packed by a ridiculous amount of FSLN and revolution supporters, maybe in the hundreds of thousands, I’m not sure. The entire plaza was essentially a sea of red and black flags, the colors of the Sandinistas at the time of the revolution. The celebration consisted of sing-alongs and revolutionary chants and was “highlighted” by a number of speeches by politicians. President Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo (aka La Chamuca – Spanish for evil witch) did way too much talking and hailed her husband’s current politics rather than the heroes of the 1979 revolution. Side note- Ortega officially gave ½ of his executive powers over to his first lady, and many assume this is because he molested his stepdaughter a few years back and his wife agreed not to testify against him if he shared power with her if and when elected president. Pretty weird, and everyone thinks Rosario is a little crazy.
After Rosario bored the crowd to tears, speeches were delivered on the importance of maintaining the revolutionary zeal in Latin America by the Vice President of Cuba, the former Catholic bishop and recently elected President of Paraguay, the President of Honduras, and, dun dun nuh duh…special guest appearance by the revolutionary all-star and President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez! Chavez was clearly the keynote speaker and highlight of the evening’s event. He introduced himself by dancing and singing “El Yanqui se va a joder”, or “the U.S. is going down!”. Then, after promising a concise speech, Chavez delivered a brilliant and ecstatic 45 minute rant against U.S. economic and military imperialism and the promise and hope of Latin American leftist unity. Although I thought it was a little inconsiderate that Chavez left about 4 minutes for Nicaragua’s president to speak at the end, and I was a little nervous when he continually riled up the crowd with anti-U.S. sentiment, I have to admit he was a hilarious and very charismatic speaker. It was admittedly very entertaining to listen to him, and there was a tangible sense that his presence was significant, being probably the most influential Latin American leader in the international arena and a leftist as well. I appreciated his message that Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Paraguay, Ecuador, and all impoverished or oppressed people in Latin America are united in their common struggles and goals. On the other hand, it was also quite clear that the only reasons this man has so much power and influence are essentially twofold: he’s a great personality and charismatic leader, and his country has oil. It was kind of funny when he would go off about injustices perpetrated by the U.S. in Latin America and his face would get all red and sweaty…he’s kind of a portly figure and it’s pretty comical to see him get so riled up. We, like most Nicaraguans at the event, left after Chavez was finished and as President Ortega began speaking, a sign that most Nicaraguans love the 1979 revolution but have no respect for the current President.
Back to work on the 21st, rejuvenated from some great times over vacation, I began work as a tutor in the afternoons instead of a teacher. A Nicaraguan woman was hired to take over my 4th grade class, and I now work with 2 or 3 of my students at a time in the afternoons throughout the week…most have not been bringing any homework, which makes it difficult to keep them occupied and on task in the library for 2.5 hours at a time. I appreciate the freedom to be a little more laid back and creative as I am no longer in the classroom in the afternoons but rather at a bench with 2 kids, and it’s much less stressful not having to yell or be yelled at all afternoon. I also feel like my chances of making progress with any students is much higher with 2 at a time. My morning class, on the flipside, just got a lot harder as one of the three teachers moved from the Comedor back to the library, leaving just two of us to split up the 30-40 students. Then we reorganized the classes by academic level instead of age (so we wouldn’t have two 12 year olds, one in 1st grade and one in 6th grade), all of the kids who can read, write, and add are with me, and the rest are with Profesora Arlen. With that switch, my average attendance went from about 7 to 19 overnight. So the dynamic is a little more intense, but my kids are more at an equal academic level, making teaching a little easier. Not having a class to plan in the afternoon, I’m free to focus more energies on the morning class, so it’s a good balance right now.
As my classroom situation has improved (as has my relationship with coworkers, spending more time together outside of work and actually enjoying forced time together in staff meetings and mini retreats), going to work everyday has still been stressful due to the devastating realities lived by kids in the El Recreo neighborhood. Dayra, a student who has touched my heart, made me all sorts of adorable drawings, and impressed my with her creativity, has always pulled at my heart with her intense shyness and insecurity. She has “I have problems at home” written all over her. But it’s always been clear that she’s just got something special about her, something that is smothered by her environment. Her mother has abandoned her and her siblings, and she lives with her ailing grandmother and abusive brothers. I learned this week that she was pulled out of school because she was failing most of her classes…this will be her third time failing 4th grade. I felt very incapable as a teacher…her teacher, not even realizing that she was so far behind and didn’t even know that she wasn’t going to school anymore. I still feel incapable of pulling her out of this situation…there are just so many forces pulling her down that I don’t know how to compete with. She’s coming to the library a lot to work on multiplication tables and she’s showing up to my class lately with a smile on her face, which are positive signs.
Another less personal thing that has caused a lot of stress at work is the recent murder of a 13 year old boy about one block from the Project. I did not know the boy, but apparently he used to come to the Project until about 2 years ago. He was buying a popsicle at a venta, and all of the sudden he was caught in the middle of opposing gang members throwing rocks at each other. One of the gang members fired two shots, and a stray bullet struck the boy and killed him. The man that killed him is a 37 year old drug dealer known by everyone, including the newspaper and undoubtedly the police. When I asked my coworkers if he’s been arrested, they sneered and said he had far too much money and power for the police to go anywhere near him. Talk of gang violence in El Recreo has never bothered me because I know that, for whatever reason, those gangs don’t target foreigners in the neighborhood. We were all put a little more on edge when it became evident that there are people in El Recreo who don’t have a problem with shooting a gun at random without fear of repercussions. That incident, along with Dayra’s situation, has been making life in El Recreo a little more tense lately.
The celebrations of Santo Domingo have been a good relief from the stresses of work in El Recreo lately. Santo Domingo is, I believe, the Patron Saint of Managua, and a miracle involving him is celebrated for nine days beginning on July 31st. The night of the 31st is when the real festivities happen. The best part is that we live 2 blocks from the Rotunda Santo Domingo, so the massive street party was right outside our house! There was tons of music, dancing, fried food, drunk men, pick pocketers, carnival stuff, and the legendary PALO LUCIO – roughly translated as ‘telephone pole with great prizes at the top, you just have to shimmy up the pole to get them…the only catch being that the pole is thickly coated with pig fat!’ So every year many men try to climb this pole, but naturally slide right down due to the thick brown grease. Josh and I thought we’d give it a shot, so we joined the many drunk men and street kids who were strategically trying to build a human pyramid and climb upon one another’s shoulders to the top. The Palo Lucio is kind of the main event of the night, with everyone watching the hilarious act of mostly drunk men attempting the nearly impossible feat of scaling a greased 30 foot pole. It was kind of a blur, but I’m pretty sure we got the crowd roaring when they saw two tall white guys scramble up on people’s shoulders and set the foundation for a pretty good run up the Palo. The guys below us were screaming and cheering us on with slogans such as “Come on, whitey!” and “[expletive deleted] climb!” Shimmying up a pole while supporting the weight of multiple people on your shoulders and arms is pretty hard, but once everything and everyone is coated in pig fat it’s pretty much hopeless. With 3 or 4 people above me and Josh, everyone started to collapse under the weight and we all slowly slid down the pole and crumpled into a greasy pile on the ground. It was physically exhausting and disgusting, but quite a treat to participate in such an important tradition. I had multiple students and coworkers last week jokingly ask if I would be climbing the pig-fat pole, so it will be an honor to go back to work and say that indeed I did attempt the impossible.


I´m in white, Josh is slightly above me in blue.


The Palo in it´s full glory...oops, I think we´re starting to slide...


On the way down.


Done, exhausted, sore, and greasy. Josh and I were begged to give it a few more tries, but we just had to turn down the offers.


Right before heading to the Palo Lucio, we stopped in on our next door neighbor´s 5 year old birthday party. Hassen is the source of many smiles and laughs in our house. He is notorious for being funny while angry and falling off his bike right in front of our door.


Three of El Recreo´s cuter kids...Abigail on the right just might be my favorite child in the whole neighborhood!