RIVAS & RAMA - Al Campo Take 2

Upon the realization that we were lacking our required quota of small-scale farmers from each client, it was time for Roger (coworker and business consultant here in Nicaragua for MEDA) and I to embark on another adventure into the rural expanses of Nicaragua's countryside. The first two days would be spent in and around the municipality of Rivas, where we would gather information on 5 more farmers by means of a lengthy questionnaire taking approximately 1 hour. The clients were all very friendly and helpful with giving us all the information that we needed, and at the one farm we needed to park Roger's car and head to a different part of his farm by motorbike, as it was the only vehicle that would fit through certain areas and tiny dirt roads.

The best part about this was that the guy I was doubling with carried a shotgun strapped around his body, meaning it was literally pressed in-between us on the motorbike.

He spent time explaining to us how the in-Vitro Plantain plants are going to help him a lot, as his crops often suffer from plagues and illnesses that reduce his production and quality of final product. He showed a lot of enthusiasm to be working with EIAG (Escuela Internacional de Agricultura y Ganaderia) and TechnoLinks MEDA.

Another one of our clients was working more in the processing of the plantain to be made into chips. She even gave us each a little grab bag upon departure to savor the product, they were tasty :)

The second phase to our journey took us out to the east coast of the country, entirely by land, in a tiny Nissan truck, squeezed full of equipment and passengers, fun... The actual trip was quite an adventure and an unforgettable experience, however, it was not an easy feat, with some 25 hours spent in a vehicle over the course of a few days, many of these hours being thrown around the backseat of a tiny pickup like a golf ball inside of a paint can, being shaken in that machine you see at Home Hardware. The morning after the first 7 hours on these roads left me feeling like I had been through an intense workout of weightlifting.

RAAS (Region Autonoma del Atlantico Sur) is a beautiful and unique part of Nicaragua, with distinct history, language, and culture. Many parts along the east coast are in fact primarily English speaking, with Spanish and indigenous dialects to follow. Containing much smaller settlements and underdeveloped road infrastructure, reaching many of these areas is usually performed by boat, but since we needed to deliver some equipment as well as carryout the questionnaires, we needed to proceed by truck. 

The picture above is that of Rama, really the final jumping off point before you get into the jungles and winding river-ways of RAAS. Rama has a harbor area where you can take boats to further destinations towards the coast, such as Bluefields, Laguna de Perlas, and further boats after to Corn Island. The further east you get the more African American descent the people begin to appear, with Caribbean twangs to their creole English and only patchy knowledge of Spanish at times. 

 

This was the closest I could get with the zoom
on my camera of our good friend and his Pit Viper encounter

One of our clients led us on a trek to his farm, as we drove in for about 15 minutes, and then parked the truck and continued on foot for another 20. Along the way we passed beautiful, lush coconut trees and a magnificent setting sun, only for the peace to be broken by a sudden shout from the front of our march. I inquired to the nearest person to me and he said that there was a Yellow-Bearded, venomous Pit-Viper ahead on our path, with really no other route for us to go due to the thick brush we were traversing. We watched from a safe distance as the owner and farmer of the land beat at it with a stick (tactfully of course) and tried to get it scared off without getting bitten. I noticed he jumped back a few times as I could see something lunging at him; was I ever happy to be a good three people behind in the jungle trek line-up. 

The trek out to Rama and the RAAS region of Nicaragua was an adventure for sure, but I do recommend that if you ever feel like reaching the small towns of Bluefields, Laguna de Perlas, or other coastal destinations, either take a boat from Rama or fly directly from Managua (although you would miss some beautiful mountain scenery then), but that's just my opinion ;)

Managua Take 2

My second take on Managua Nicaragua.

After finally settling into our house after a good 10 days of shifting hostel to hostel, we are finally able to begin exploring what is around us, and can gather a greater sense of our new barrio. First topic at hand, security. Depending on who you talk to, Managua is either an extremely dangerous city, where you need to keep guard at all times and all places (which is the truth), yet others will tell you that it has improved greatly lately and compared to the rest of Central America it is one of the safest and you are better off here than many other neighboring countries. I personally feel slightly on edge, but not a whole lot more than other developing nations.

City Behind Bars
Getting into our house is quite the process, as first, there is a gate with a padlock, then another two locked doors to pass. So you need to fumble around with three keys to come AND go. So if you want to let a friend out you need to go and get your keys to open all the doors... A little time consuming, but once you are inside our house you can see why we chose this locale; a beautiful garden area separates the front section with the back, a nice open air area (in reality almost all of the house is quite open air, which is necessary to keep airflow and a fresh breeze without the need for AC).

 The most secure feeling when you are enclosed with spun, jagged metal-topped fences. This, along with our three locks needed to enter can either make you feel very secure, or it can make you feel there is a real reason for all of this, and possibly a little less secure once you think about it....

A close up of our cage-sweet home. It doesn't look fancy from the outside (and really its not too fancy inside), but its cozy yet spacey, familiar yet exotic, and comfortable yet rustic. Its just what Kathy and I needed to balance out our lives here in Managua

This is the view down our street, arriving by taxi the first few times was quite difficult as it all looks the same and it very hard to locate. The houses for the most part are all just single storied buildings hidden behind a long wall of bars. You need to get familiar with the shade of paint on your bars, or the shape of the trees around your house - there are quite a few trees trimmed to perfection actually, in quite stark contrast from some of the barred dives, leading to the horticultural masterpieces.

Above to the left is the entrance area to our house, lined with pillows on the floor and a comfy sitting area; one of our housemates can often be found here, relaxing on the netbook or napping after a night of little sleep :)

 And here is the beautiful sala with the open air concept, behind you can see the winding stairs that lead up to my room. I like this room the most out of the house, and with the fan and the evening breeze it is a lovely locale to watch a movie or read a book.

This is our mid-garden area. There is a little cooking/bbq area, along with a tiny table and some chairs. It is sort of a courtyard, and you can look down at it from upstairs as well.

 Around our neighborhood there are evident contrasts, as I see some fairly wealthy houses and families, right next to explicit poverty. When you walk across the main street near our place you find yourself staring into the face of poverty immediately, with a sort of duct/storm drain almost acting as a separating factor. There are makeshift bridges to peoples establishments and businesses to bridge the gap.

 These two pictures of a gas station along one of the main streets just illustrates the development that screams American auto culture, as you would be a little confused as to where you were if you were planted here all of a sudden. I wouldn't be able to tell you if I were in Canada or Nicaragua, if it weren't for the PUMA sign on the station, I thought it was a brand of shoes...

This is just a glimpse of what the bus terminals look like in Managua. This particular section isn't too busy, or maybe we hit it at a low time of day, but these are some of the buses carrying the population from city to city, along with some of the nicer buses as well, not seen at the moment in the photos. I foresee myself returning here soon to catch a bus to the next destination, as its always fun to get yourself out of the city on weekends.

Although the blog is a little hodgepodge in this entry, maybe I'll work at working out some themes in consecutive posts :) I hope at least it has lent a little more of an idea of our lives so far in Managua.

Until next time. Adrien

Al Campo!

It’s been over a week now since my last post and life in Nicaragua is starting to sink in. Not only have I had the opportunity to see so much more of this city and country, but I have also gained a much more intimate understanding of what my job will entail. This truly was the busiest I have been in a long time, with the Friday and Saturday being spent driving around to different towns to visit small scale farmers working with our first-round grant recipients of the Techno-Links project.

Three businesses had been selected as the grant winners from the first-round: Burke Agro, who works with drying and packaging fruits for export to buyers such as Whole Foods in the United States; EIAG (Escuela Interamericano de Agricultura y Ganaderia – Interamerican School of Agriculture and Livestock), which is a post-secondary institution in the southern region of Rivas, that works with educating farmers about using their new “vitroplantas”, a selected strain of in vitro plants that are a more versatile, healthy, and resistant plantain crop. From this the farmer can use less fertilizer and pesticides because the plantain is already at a greater advantage from the previous in vitro process. The final winner we went to visit on the following Wednesday was that of Tecnosol, a company working to provide biogas from manure through the installment of biodigesters, of many uses in the house including cooking and a lesser need for fuel woods, while also simultaneously creating fertilizer to be used on the farmers’ crops. For Tecnosol we needed to drive up into the mountains of Matagalpa, the coffee growing region of Nicaragua to the north. Here we performed a similar task as to the others, performing questionnaires with the farmers who are working in partnership with Tecnosol to improve their crops through the said technology they work with and promote.

The field trips were long days, usually on the road and meeting with the businesses and farmers between 8am and 8pm, returning home in the dark. We went on these visits the Friday and Saturday, as well as the following Wednesday. The Sunday was off, but the Monday and Tuesday were spent at a workshop where all of the second round winners came together to meet and sign the agreement with MEDA/Techno-Links. These were also quite info-intensive days at the Bank of International Development. Participatory activities were performed to inform the new businesses of MEDA’s goals and visions of businesses development, as well as the indicators of progress and success that would be used in the future to measure the proposed goals at select intervals of the business plan.

This man was showing us how the biogas produced from the biodigesters of Tecnosol that have allowed for odorless cooking fuel, with a direct gas line coming in from the biodigester directly outside.

As I was riding in the back of the truck, I spotted these two boys getting comfy on the back of their ride, I did not have these luxuries in our truck, just the hard box in the back so I decided to stay standing and take a few photos.

                                                                                                

All of a sudden we came to a line up of buses (upwards of 18 long school buses packed with people to every square inch) and had quite a difficult time getting through. Of course being the one white skinned individual in the box of the truck, there were many howls and calls of different slangs as we passed - but I am sure they were all in good humour ;)

The next little while will be a more laptop based workspace, but I am looking forward to a little more structure in this sense for the next bit. I have a feeling more field visits are on their way quite soon though, and I am ready for them. The visits give me the opportunity to meet with the faces of the people that MEDA and Techno-Links work with, and gives a better understanding and deeper meaning to the work being done.

On a non work-related note, Kathy and I are finally finished with the hostels, well, kind of... Last night we moved into our house finally and got to spend the evening with our new roommates who are very friendly and welcoming. We need to split the big room upstairs for a while until the second one frees up, but that is fine because I am quite comfy on the floor with a little mattress... It was just the ants crawling over my bed last night that raised an eyebrow....

Today we are off to San Juan del Sur, a beach town in the south.... which means a few more hostel nights.. again. I will post on this later :)

Ciao!

Managua - take 1

Bienvenido a Managua, Nicaragua

I am finally on the ground and life is buzzing with change, challenge, and adventure. This is definitely not my first time landing in a new country with a completely foreign environment in front of me, and quite frankly, this time is actually easier than some in the past, as when I stepped out of the arrivals area to confront the herds of taxi drivers and seemingly best of new friends, I had the advantage of some familiarity with the language, which was not always the case many times before. I was meeting Kathy, my fellow co-worker and intern with MEDA in a hostel/guesthouse that was supposedly located somewhere near the office of MiCredito. The first taxi driver did not take my proposed price and insisted on double, but I soon found the chosen cabby to help me complete the journey into the city for the reasonable fare of 10 USD.

When we finally pulled up to the hostel it was clear that I was expected by the owner, as the moment I stepped up to the gate (as most every place is gated in Managua, either communities or single dwellings) she immediately exclaimed: "Adrian?" with a very inquisitive tone. Once inside she pointed to where Kathy was and I snuck up to surprise her for a grand reunion and hugs :)

The next day was my first set of waking hours in Managua, as things look quite different when you can see them in plain daylight. The city is completely disorganized (like many developing nations' cities), but the addresses here are fairly difficult as well, as there really aren't any. Almost all directions and addresses point to a general reference of where you are going. e.g. two blocks south of the "virgin roundabout", 1.5 blocks east of here, and then 2 houses more to the south with the house on your right hand side. This is the address of said house you may be trying to find. Needless to say, when things are already extremely confusing, this doesn't facilitate the matters much.

The streets themselves are always a good way to get a sense of the noises, the smells, and the scenery, that constructs a well-rounded feel of the city. Some characteristics are notably similar to other places I've been, but certain aspects that I experienced here are not as prevalent around other capital cities in Latin America. The mule-drawn carts were one scene I haven't seen a whole lot of before, and the level of handy craftsmanship in constructing wheelchairs using plastic patio-chairs.

Generally though, I haven't felt under much danger yet, but I also haven't been here all that long, or out around the more dangerous neighborhoods at night (which was not in my immediate plans by the way). I have noted almost all places being gated up, several walls and fences with barbed wire or broken glass coating the top of the walls for added security, and some neighborhoods have street guards that are supposed to keep a lookout for suspicious activity. I believe these same guards will be in the new neighborhood where Kathy and I will be living within a week or so. My first trip to the office also involved a checking in at the reception, as I was asked to my purpose there, after explaining I was another intern with MEDA, they still needed to take down my name and have me officially logged as entering/visiting the building of MiCredito.

So many of the glass fence-tops are quite beautiful with different colours and orange Crush'd bottles, unfortunately this is all reflecting the level of distrust and violence that is an everyday part of life in Managua. Walking home from the MiCredito office I also passed a local eatery/watering hole, with a big sign on the outside stating that it is prohibited to bring guns and knives inside, which seemed obvious to me but also a bit unnerving that people need reminding. Furthermore, after reading this part of the sign, there was more underneath that I believe stated a few exceptions including those in uniform.. And there was something about minors as well. I plan to photograph this sign as I would like to clarify what it meant exactly, and who is allowed to bring their firearms and switchblades into the restaurant.

Techno-Links

The organization I am serving with, MEDA, has a project called Techno-Links which has established a grant matching programs with agricultural technology suppliers in both Peru and Nicaragua. The goal of the project is to strengthen these technological linkages between the farmers and their suppliers, to attain a more sustainable livelihood and better quality of life for both. Through the careful selection of the most promising business plans proposed to Techno-Links, the winning businesses received a matching grant with the requirement that they place an equal or greater input of capital funds into their business development plans. There will be consecutive follow-up interviews, questionnaires, and data collection to monitor and evaluate these businesses' progress, as well as the impact they are having on their end producers (the farmers).

My position as the impact assessment intern will include partaking in these activities and effectively monitoring and evaluating their progress and impact, through the means of field excursions and face to face encounters with the farmers and businesses, as well as case studies.

It is then aside from the shocks and adventures of a new country, that I am soon departing on my first field excursion to the countryside. I will be going with the project manager from Canada who is visiting for some time in both Peru and Nicaragua to do some surveys with the grant recipients of Techno-Links and MEDA, as well as my co-worker (a business consultant to the grant recipients) who lives in Leon, a city a bit to the north of Managua. We begin tomorrow and I am excited to get into the field and see the rural side of this beautiful country.

I look forward to updating you all with my next post and appreciate all those reading and supporting me in this pivotal moment in my life, full of adventure, opportunity, and blessing.

God bless
-Adrien