Santa´s Workshop

On Monday I started work at the Coorperativa de Desarollo Social Comunitario. My host brother, Yasser, walked with me my first day to make sure I didn't get lost. It is a nice five minute walk and is located directly accross from the hospital in Jinotepe and next to a center for infants. The building used to be a hotel but was converted to a childrens center by the government in the first Ortega administration. The facilities are therefore very spacious with a room for a small office with computers as well as various rooms for "classes" in carpentry, cloathing design, crafts, baking, and more. Upon arrival at 8 no one had yet arrived so I let myself in and waited. Around 830 the four people who run the coorperativa arrived. They instantly sat down with me to begin the discussion of their goals and the process in which their organization is run. They quickly discovered that my spanish was in the developing stage and slowed down their talking a bit. I was able to understand more or less.

One of the main goal of the organization is to provide children who live in the poorest areas of Jinotepe a base of knowledge and values that will contibute to their success in the future. In order to achieve this they offer workshops in carpentry, baking, and cloathing design for children ages 14 to 18 and various crafts for kids ranging from 8 to 13. The idea is that through these workshops the youth can take a base of skills and a working mentality to apply to future job possibilities. The children arrive after school hours at 2 and remain until 5. Before the youth arrived on my first day I was showed various things that they have created in recent months... beautiful chairs, tables, skirts, button down shirts, the list goes on and on. I was increadibly impressed. When the youth arrived at 2 I couldn't help but imagine that what I was seeing must be remenicent of what has so commonly been portrayed as Santa's workshop, the greatest difference being a general lack of order. Especially in the carpentry workshop I was struck by the lack of order and saftey precaution among dangerous machienes like table saws. I suppressed this initial reaction to a degree trying to look at the scene from a different perspective and reminding myself that this is the system that had worked for the coorperativa for years. At my second day of work I was talking to a group of kids when the instructor of the carpentry class walked by holding his left hand with his right, both red with blood. Turns out he cut off the top third of his middle finger. One my third day I went with Mario, the director, to check on the instructor at his house. He seemed to be doing ok. His hand was wrapped and elevated and all his sisters sat around his bed. Everyone´s greatest concern was that of a fear of infection. Since he could not afford the appropriate medications the coorperativa paid for everything. For an organization thats major problem is a lack of funds and resources, this was hard for them to do.

The four people that run the coorperativa are the director Mario, his assistant Cylvia, and two other very nice ladies whoes names I can´t remember at the moment. Mario is the jefe. He is an overambitious artist who reminds me a bit of a mixture of Kramer from Sienfeld and Diego Rivera. He has huge plans for what he wants to do with the coorperativa which I feel are a bit unrealistic. Cylvia is quite a character herself. Every morning she makes house visits to ensure families have handed in all appropriate paperwork among other things. I´ve tagged along with Cylvia a couple of mornings as she walks into the one of the poorest area of Jinotepe with an umbrella in one hand to shield the sun and a clipboard in the other, incesantly appoligizing for all the trash scattered across the streets. One of the families we visited was of a girl who had not showed up to the coorperativa in a while. Cylvia was pretty blunt with her questioning and took back a dance costume they had lent the girl, telling her that they would give it back if she consistently showed up to class again. I was pretty impressed by the process.

As for what I will be doing with the coorperativa... I am still trying to sort it out. They have a plan to expand the workshops they offer the community. They want to reach out more to the parents and offer classes in heigene, nutrition, and english classes to name a few. The budget they have planned amounts to around 42,000 us dollars. While the have written out a great plan for what they want to do, they have not sorted out how they are going to get funding, so that is one of my tasks. Also, through the FSD grant compatition I have the possibility to create a small project with up to 1,000 us dollars. Since I am the first intern the coorperativa has had I don´t think they quite understand that I will not automatically be given 1,000 dollars. I am still trying to work this out with them. I will also be helping to give painting and drawing classes to a group of 8 to 13 year old boys and they want me to start teaching english. I am returning toManagua today for a grant writing workshop and I hope to talk to the FSD coordinate Mariana and sort out how I should organize my work plan because at the moment it is all over the place.

Things with my host family are great. On the second floor of my house I am living with 3 other students who are going to various universities studying international relations, economics, and science. They are all cousins and a lot of fun to talk to as I practice my spanish and them their english. The house is always full of family members eating, chatting, watching the news... This weekend the gettyburg group is planning on meeting up to explore a bit, maybe Chagutillo or Granada. Well I got to run and catch my bus for Managua.
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