Hello Everyone;
Just back from my most recent trip to Nicaragua, I feel like I accomplished a great deal and wanted to give an update to the group as to what transpired during my stay.
Thursday January 15 2009
Arrived in the afternoon and took the bus from Managua to Leon. Met Conchita at the Shell Station entering Leon and drove to Chac. Spent about 30 minutes discussing objectives for my visit. Drove into Leon and met with Dr. Aurora Aragon the Director of Centro de Investigación en Salud, Trabajo y Ambiente at the University Medical Campus. Dr. Aragon is very interested in our work especially with Nuevo water and is looking forward to meeting with the team of Doctors that will be coming down with the February Students trip. She has done significant research in the Western Region of Nicaragua and has drawn the conclusion that the high number of cases of renal failure seen in the region are due to high arsenic levels in the water and not the pesticides used by workers at the Sugar Cane Plantation. Additionally the reason the condition is more prevalent in men is due to the fact that men work more in the fields or doing hard labor and therefore drink more water thusly corresponding to the dramatically higher numbers of renal failure cases in men. Following this meeting I met with Professor Nelson Lopez of Binghamton University. Professor Lopez drove from El Salvador to meet with me to discuss the April trip we are planning with the University. The school would very much be in favor in assisting with the building of the Medical Clinic in Nuevo so we should bare that in mind as we begin to price the project. It is important to note that Binghamton is looking at this trip as a sort of “pilot” trip and is very eager to turn this into a credit bearing program if all goes well. I have already begun the process of scouting new communities in the greater Leon area to begin working in as to avoid overlap with different groups as things begin to expand.
Friday January 16 2009
Met with a group of 7 college students from Chacaraseca who are receiving scholarships through SF60K funding (7 out of 9 recipients the other two had a winter session class). The Students are eager to be involved with the upcoming February trip and are hoping to spend times with the groups and work alongside of them. It has been my experience (and a vast majority of people that I have spoken with agree) that a majority of the interaction that takes place on these trips are with either small children or post-college age adults (i.e. conchita, the comedor commission etc.) We have an opportunity to establish a dialogue between the future of Nicaragua and the future of the United States and I think we should seize the opportunity. Additionally beginning to work with these future leaders at a young age will enable better collaboration on projects in the future. For those that are curious a college scholarship costs somewhere between 300-400 dollars a year depending on the course. The students did ask if funding would be continued for their education and there was also some curiosity as to whether of not the program would be expanded. The students are hoping to be able to interact with the SF60k whenever possible and are hoping to make this a regular component of future trips. The group is lead by Rita Urbina and Leyla Torres who will be working closely with Conchita and will be major assets to our team as we move forward. They are young business students and Conchita seems to have taken them under her wing. They are responsible for the growth of the Chac bodega which has doubled in size since the April trip. Friday afternoon was spent with Professor Lopez and his wife and daughter showing them Chac and giving them a brief history of our project. During the tour I was happy to find that the bakery in Chac is now back up and running the building is apparently being rented to two men who are baking bread and selling it around the comarca and in Leon. While the sweet bread was up to standard the simple bread bore a striking resemblance to a lead paper weight (I guess they have some tinkering to do). After leaving Professor Lopez I went to Leon to get a health report on Justa the woman from Nuevo that Shari brought to our attention in December. Justa was in critical condition and had not gotten out of bed in 3 months when Shari found her. Over the past month she has received countless blood transfusions and undergone numerous tests (for free thanks to the help of my friend Clelia Sandino and her family) I am happy to report that she walked out of the hospital on her own power on Wednesday 1/21 and while she still will be undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous growth her health and spirits are markedly improved. The doctors find her improvement nothing short of miraculous and it is no small part thanks to the work of Shari, Conchita and Clelia. Friday evening marked a reunion of sorts as I spent time with Northport High School Graduate Guillermo Torres Flores (aka Frank Torres). Accompanied by a group of 7 students from Bard College (spending three weeks in Chac building houses and living with families) we went to Frank’s concert at Via Via a bar in Leon. Frank is living in Rotterdam, Holland with his wife and their daughter and is making a living as a musician. It was great catching up after 7 years and it is nice to see that Frank’s heart is still with the people of Chacaraseca. I have some great video of the e-mail me if you would like a sample.
Saturday January 17 2009
Drove to Chinandega in the morning (about 40 minutes from Leon) to meet with John Bland Director of an organization called Amigos for Christ. In addition to the “missionary” work hi organization does they have two teams of well diggers and a good deal of well digging technology. They have a number of full time engineers on staff and have just completed a survey of La Isla a community to which SF60k donated 3000 dollars towards a well in April of 08. After a number of failed attempts at reaching Pedro Lopez (he is working on a large condo project somewhere) we found Amigos who dig wells at subsidized prices. A meeting will be taking place in the coming weeks with the people of La Isla and the well project will be moving forward with completion expected by the end of April. Following this meeting I drove to Candelaria where I took a video of the clinic that Tommy and Linda Gable of New Song Missions have built. The 1600 foot clinic was designed by a Leon based engineer and I am anxiously awaiting a copy of the plans to be emailed to me. The cost of this clinic was approximately 42000 but it was built in a series of stages leading to higher costs. Conchita was of the opinion that something about half the size of this structure would suffice and would still be able to serve Nuevo and the surrounding communities. I think it is important to recognize the increase in price in building supplies since the last clinic was built based on conversations I had with one of the managers at the Roberto Levia ferretaria (the Nicaraguan Home Depot) a structure that cost around 10000 dollars 10 years ago would cost about 20-30 percent more today due to increased costs on materials. Nonetheless I have the video and can either email it or post it on the web give me feedback and let me know what you want me to do.
Sunday January 18 2009
Conchita and I drove to Nuevo after Mass and met with Martin and Gonzalo. I learned that the generator was once again broken and had not been working in 8 days. (An engineer went out and fixed the problem on 1/20 and I am to believe that everything is working properly). The lack of water has had an adverse affect on the biointensive project as the crops need daily watering. Again for anyone interested I have video of the biointensive and will share with anyone who would like to see. We discussed projects for the upcoming trip. It was decided that we would dig 10 additional beds for the biointensive program and would build a house for a family that is currently living with three families under one roof (awaiting additional details from Conchita). These two projects along with work with the medical team (patient intake etc) should give each group plenty to do while in Nuevo. Conchita and I also discussed doing lessons at the Nuevo school (especially with the groups that have 2 full Nuevo days). Safety and security were discussed in detail with Martin and Gonzalo it has been discussed that things in Nuevo have gotten progressively wilder over the past couple of years and an extra emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring that the groups are left alone while they sleep. Martin and Gonzalo will be alternating night duty and said that they will talk with the people about proper boundaries with the group. Gonzalo and Martin also brought up the matter of house repairs in Nuevo the 2008 groups covered repairs of roughly half the houses leaving 26 still in need of fixes. Many of the houses are suffering from rotting beams zinc with holes and various other structural issues. Conchita figures the average cost of repair to be 400 dollars per house. I stated that I could not speak for the club but I would bring the issue up with the group and discuss the possibility of completing the remaining repairs. Perhaps 13 of the houses could be covered with the coming trips and I can get several of the other groups to chip in on additional repairs. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions relative to this topic.
Monday January 19 2009
Spent the morning buying supplies for a house that I have raised money to build. (special thanks to the Miami-Dade group for fronting the balance). A house is now costing about 1670 dollars to build using ladrillo (the red clay bricks). This price includes a floor and labor. While in La Paz Centro to buy the ladrillo Conchita and I met with Santiago Medina the current coordinator of the biointensive project in Nuevo. He is very excited about the prospect of digging 10 more beds in Nuevo during the Feb. SF60k trip. He has agreed to be in Nuevo Thursday 2/12 morning to welcome the first group and Saturday 2/14 morning to welcome the second group and explain the biointensive concept and to instruct on the method. He will show the students how to compost and prepare the beds as well as plant seeds in the seed boxes. Over the past several weeks a couple of more people have been participating in the project and we all feel that student participation should increase involvement amongst the Nuevos. Santiago made one point abundantly clear without water this project and all the work that is going into it will be for naught. These days or weeks without a running generator make maintenance of the beds impossible. Following this meeting Conchita and I sat down in Leon and discussed the upcoming SF60k trip in detail. We have arranged for the delivery of 60 water jugs. Conchita has ordered 52 tijeras (cots) 7 for Nuevo and 45 for Chac at a cost of approx 936 USD. Conchita has 4 cooks for Chac and 2 for Nuevo lined up and 3 security people for Chac. (Martin and Gonzalo will handle Nuevo). I have spoken with Fidel and he will be at the airport to pick up the 100+ suitcases on 2/11. Conchita is working on getting 2 families selected in the Raul Cabeza’s sector to receive a new house. We put together a tentative schedule which I will be sending along to Lisa and Rusty within the next day or so. I should also have all the finalize info on truck rentals for February for you to look over by tomorrow. Monday evening I had dinner with Linda Gable to discuss the aforementioned well project in La Isla. The La Isla community has a great deal of needs and would be an excellent place to consider future projects. Additionally I gave her 400 dollars to help rebuild a house for a family that lost their house and all of their possessions in a fire. (the money came out of the money I brought down for the SF60k but will be replaced with monies I have raised and sent to Peter). During this time of year these sorts of fires are commonplace near the cane plantations as the fields are burned and ashes and cinders travel and the poorly designed wood and scrap houses are virtual tinderboxes.
Tuesday January 20 2009 Before leaving for Managua I spoke with several of the Comite leaders to inform them of the upcoming trip. (the meeting started late or I would have spoken briefly at the beginning). I have been told that Carlos Poveda has stepped down as the coordinator of the comite and Ivan is acting coordinator. It is important to note that Comite elections will take place 2/20 so it will be interesting to see the campaigning going on during the upcoming trip. A great deal of discussion has taken place about getting new blood on the Comite and I will be curious to see the results of the coming elections. Lastly as Conchita dropped me off at the bus station I met the engineer (a friend of her cousin Manolo) that was heading with Conchita and Manolo to repair the generator in Nuevo. It is important to note that Conchita still does not have a license yet and may not have one until after the February trip. Attached please see pictures of my visit with the college students, my time with Guillermo, and the house that is being torn down and replaced as I write this. I look forward to peoples questions thoughts and feedback. Please let me know how to disseminate the videos.
Have a great week.
Michael Cipoletti
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