Mariposa Spanish School’s Weblog

Translation By: Camilla Born

In the small village of San Juan Del La Concha, Nicaragua, tucked somewhere between the winding road to La Concha and the community park, is a small dirt road that leads to La Mariposa, School of Spanish. Daniel, an employee, rocks slowly back and forth on the patio. His skinny body is tossed to one side of the chair. 

He feels quite comfortable here now, “among friends.” He peers up, his baseball cap pulled down over his eyes, smiles, then quickly covers his face with his fingers as he talks in rapid Spanish. Every other sentence he breaks into a smile and brushes his head to the side. 

In his life, he is not used to people asking him questions. He is not used to this kind of attention, for people to be interested in his story. 

It wasn’t but a few weeks ago that another employee caught Daniel stealing plastic off the grounds that was covering some earth. When the owner Paulette Gouge, a thin British woman with a who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are attitude, came to inquire why he was stealing, she found he had a rather good answer. 

“He told me that he needed the plastic to fix his roof because, when it rained, he couldn’t seem to keep his children dry,” Paulette later said. “I said, ’screw the earth, take the plastic.’”

Daniel now recounts the incident with much delight.

“She told me I could have a job,” he said. “I didn’t think she would give me an opportunity like that. I hadn’t had one like that before.” 

Paulette told him to be there the next morning at eight. He was there by seven. 

Like Daniel, 28% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty level. He grew up in a poor family in Managua, with little chance to attend school. He got to the fourth year of secondary school and had to quit to start working. 

“When my daughter turns six, she will go to school. I want her to be what I wasn’t able to become. I wasn’t able to succeed at what I wanted to do in my life.”

Daniel has two daughters, four and two, with his wife and one son with another woman. His two daughters live with him and his wife in Managua, while his son lives in La Concha. He provides for all three. 

Daniel’s conversation is interrupted by another traveler gathering around him. He blushes and turns his head to the side but says its fine. They all have questions for him.

One points at his tattoo — a red tear drop outlined in black.  Daniel reaches up and touches it. 

“This is for my uncle, to remember how much I cried when he died.”

Daniel then says that it was his uncle who raised him. 

Another asks if his life has changed since working at La Mariposa. He smiles and says yes a few times, as if in unbelief. 

“Yes …” He paused for a second and lifts his hand to his face. “Since the moment I started working here, things have been better.” 

Daniel says he’s bought new shoes for his kids and food for his family including rices, beans — the regular Nicaraguan fare he says — and many vegetables. He also bought his wife bread to sell in Managua. 

When he came to La Mariposa, Daniel was desperate for work but he knew with “God’s help,” he would find something.

“With human beings, if its not one thing, its another,” he said. “Now, my problem is not money.”

His problem is that his house, made entirely out of Zinc, is deteriorating. He says the extra money he is saving is to buy new Zinc for his home. 

“But,” he adds, “when I wasn’t working, I was always wondering when I would be working again.”

Forty-seven percent of the population of Nicaragua are under-employed, while another 4% are unemployed. Daniel makes more than 50% of the population — who less than two U.S. dollars per day — but still falls short of the basic standard of living. 

“My girls have more food now. Its better and sufficient but its still not enough.”

Daniel was out of work, and now, even with work, he has many debts to pay back. For him, no work means no food for his family. Here, he has no kind of protection such as social security, when he finds himself suddenly out of work, which he says can happen at any moment. But not just work, he could be out of house and land at any moment, too. Two weeks ago, Daniel’s land lord sold the land he was living on and gave him a few days to move from San Marcos to Managua — a hour trek — with all his belongings. 

He packed his house into the bed of a small two door pick-up truck, tarp, logs and all. In it were two beds, a small book shelf, three logs that made up the frame of his house and the pots and pans he owned, plus the family pig. Almost all of his belongings fit into the small bed frame of the truck, while he, his wife and his two daughters rode on top of the stuff down to Managua. 

“It would have been expensive to move, to hire a truck, but Paulette let us use hers.”

Daniel fears for the same thing in Managua. He paid a one time cost of five hundred Cordobas or twenty-five U.S. dollars — almost a week’s pay — to live in the house that he is in now. But the downside is that Daniel and his family do not own the land. They could be forced to move out if it was sold. 

“I hope we can stay there a long time,” he says.

As for now, Daniel has a good job at La Mariposa, where he feels he is among friends and spends his weekends taking his girls to a park with his wife. 

“My dream is to keep working as long as I have the opportunity.”

The last two weeks at the Mariposa have been thought provoking to say the least. We just had our first tropical storm – Alma was its name –  ie not so serious as a hurricane but pretty bad nonetheless. The effect in this locality was mostly rain – 24 hours of non-stop tropical downpour, makes me worry especially when I am in bed at night! that the entire building is going to be washed away and I am always surprised to emerege and find the structure still more or less in place. The rain sounds particularly loud because of the zinc roof – you would think I would be used to it by now……Fortunately we planted our seeds after the worst of the downpours, and I have now, thanks to Marlena the gardener, discovered the system that is used here of banking up the earth and then making little channels across it so the excess water runs away without taking the seeds with it! So we are hoping not to lose too many this time - having planted loads of different types of lettuce (yum), brocoli, herbs, peppers, etc and we are going to make another separate garden for the many kinds of squash seeds which I have been sent…..

Back to the storm for a moment - it is of course a little scary to say the least that storms are already hitting in May that really should not be here until Octrober. Ismael, who was on duty here during the worst of the rain, commented that the resaon we did not get the high winds here is that we still, have some lovely (my word!!!) big trees acting as breakers – yet another reason to continue with our reaforestation efforts…..and I am also very grateful that my neighbors haven’t completely denuded their land so we dont get massive erosion around here. There was some serious flooding – San Marcos, Jinotepe, Masaya were all on the TV news with flooded streets and houses but the worst hit were towns on the Pacific coast which got strong winds as well as the rain. It was heartbreaking watching pictures of children and elderly folk being carried out of their homes in the barrios of Managua by the army - as Guillermina says “why do the poorest always seem to get hit the hardest”!!!!! Answers on a postcard please…..

The other big news is of course the ongoing food prices crisis – I am sure everyone has noticed prices going up but imagine the effect when you already spend 80% of your income on food…..thanks to long term factors such as the outrageous agricultural subsidies in the US and Europe which have put many a “Third Wolrd” farmer out of business and now, on top of all of that, is this unspeakably unjust (I cannot find words strong enough) favouring of bio-fuels over the production of food. ENCA (Environmental Network for Central America) says;

The case of Guatemala, a country targeted for big biofuels production, is an exampple of what is happening in the region. Ten years ago it was self sufficient in food production…..Sugar cane (for biofuel production) increased by 99% from 1990 to 2005 while …beans , corn and wheat – basic food staples – decliened dramatically; beans by 26%, corn by 22% and wheat by 99%.

 And the same is happening, albeit somewhat more slowly in Nicaragua. Thank goodness some of the nastier capitalists of the world still believe this beautiful little country is run by a bunch of socialists (oh,were it only the case!!!) and so don’t like to “invest” here. How can we put the needs of the West to transport itself hither and thither – often without a thought for the consequences – above the lives of Marlena, Ismael and their children, And they, of course are at present anyway the lucky ones with incomes to still be able to buy food.

However, I remain optimistic. The mariposa is flourishing, there is so much happening here that it will need another blog……a less polemic one I promise!!!

Its been a good while since I did my first blog and I am not convinced I remember  sufficient of the technology to manage it again…..life in the Mariposa continues to mirror what happens in and to Nicaragua in general as well, of course, as having its own idiosyncrasies. Still one of the hardest things about being here is talking to the people who turn up at the gate looking for work, pretty much at any price, and having to turn them away. A young man came by this morning, he has been working in a Zona Franca – the enormous factories which now exist all over the so-called “Third World” and which produce the T shirts and pyjamas you can buy for a couple of dollars or so…….they may seem cheap but actually they are hugely expensive in terms of what it costs people here to produce them (health and wellbeing, plus a totally crap wage). Anyway, he couldnt make ends meet and wanted to know if I could employ him to do anyhting…….on the positive side some of you will remember Francisco who worked here last year, and left because of generally not great and sometimes completely pissed behaviour, is going to come back on a trial period. I cant really afford it but I cant leave him destitute as he has his first child, has given up the booze and is desperate.

We are now into the third week of May and a total transport strike lasting a couple of weeks has just finished. The bus drivers couldn’t afford to pay the rise in petrol prices and they, and most of the press, blamed the Ortega government for being so inept that they couldn’t solve the crisis. Ortega actually offered them petrol at cost price, thus saving almost 30%, (all Nicaraguas petrol is imported, some of it from Venezuela at cheaper prices) at the beginning of the stike but this was refused; though it was pretty much what everybody settled for in the end. The whole thing of course hit the working poor the hardest – the rich and the international elite drove about in their cars and pick ups and only noticed that the roads were much quieter but, for example, people who are dependent on the buses to get their produce to market really suffered. And of course the price of basic foodstuffs (at crisis level anyway) went even higher. Our weekly market shop to Jinotepe was interspersed with comments from Ismael, who accompanies me to buy fruit and veg etc, about the ridiculous price of tomatoes, at four times their usual value. However the bus drivers returned to work this Monday, following an excellent speech from Ortega – well, actually it was terrible in terms of delivery as his pauses are often longer than his sentences………but his analysis of the international situation leading to the rise in petrol prices was, in my view, spot on. He talked about the whole range of international impacts on the situation here – including the international rise in oil prices, obviously, but also the use of crops for biofuel and the effect of this on the price of food. Predictably much of the press responded to this as Ortega admitting he had no power to influence the stikers. The next day they accepted the 30% offer (mas o menos). I have a sinking feeling that this will inevitably mean cuts elsewhere and it was saddening to see that, when I went to the Panama school yesterday the government donations of food (part of the Zero Hambre campaign) seemed to have come to a halt. I don’t know if there is a connection.

More to come!!

I have been heavily lobbyied and finally persuaded that blogging is a good way to stay in touch with people. So here goes…..

Overall, the Mariposa is up and running well. We have all eight rooms open now, and -part of the final touches!! – have just finished putting in rather large (and ornate, Nicaraguan style) mirrors for those of you who like to keep close tabs on how we are looking today! There are still a few more upgrades I want to do but most of the building work is pretty much complete. I wont miss the drilling and banging noises but I will miss Bismarck, the builder who has been around since day one of the construction and is an absolute star. The garden also looks terrific now – our first bananas are appearing on plants put in the ground only months ago, we are eating our own oranges, mandarins, platanos, eggplant (lots of visitors from the USA!) amongst other stuff. Very exciting after my little concrete backyard in Sheffield….

Other Mariposa news is that the project side of things is expanding, some might almost say spinning out of control. We have recycling,  conservation, literacy, cleaning brigades, and of course the Panama School (school kids go back next week so we are planning to starrt work building a pre-school reading corner in April)…….I am trying to push the process of becoming an NGO along so we can legitimately beg for donations, but it is inevitably slow….

Life in Nicaragua generally is good for us and less good for those who have no work or who are working but paid next to nothing (the majority), I feel so awful when someone comes to the Mariposa asking for work and I simply cannot afford it. Many visitors seem to assume that Nicaragua (as a ¨Third World¨country) is cheap. Nothing could be further from the reality – except of course, that is, for labour. The national politics seems to me to continue much the same, Daniel Ortega makes a lot of Chavez type noises and is achieving little bits around the edges, such as delivering rice and beans to poor rural schools so the kids get at least one meal a day – not at all unimportant iniatives but not likely to threaten the basically inhumane struture. The US govt and IMF etc seem fairly happy with the way he is operating.  My friend John just sent me a wonderful, actually devasating indictment, of how privatisation has affected the supply of electricity here, published by Christian Aid. Excellent, just very depressing as there is nothing Ortega, in spite of the rhetoric can DO about it.

Thas enough for now, I want to see if this thing works…..I look forward to all your comments!!!!