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I take the opportunity to read many things about Nicaragua. Some are by Nicaraguans, opining about life in that country. Others are by North Americans who have traveled to the country and been moved to offer written reflections about their experiences. The following is a portion of a thoughtful and moving piece written by Harvard Divinity School scholar Desiree Bernard upon a meeting she had with Father Fernando Cardenal, the Jesuit priest whose commitment to the poor in Nicaragua has been unwavering over the course of his long service there. I thank Ms. Bernard for her reflection which appeared in the –> Read More
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For the past year and a half, Winds of Peace has engaged in some creative thinking about education. Not only education in Nicaragua, where we have funded a number of initiatives to both train teachers and help kids stay in school, but also in the U.S., where the education task takes on a much different form and function in creating awareness of Nicaraguan realities. There have been a number of components that we have dreamed about over these months and the ideas are exciting to play with, because they each hold promise of an impact. And the entire topic of –> Read More As a day of great significance for the Christian faith, Good Friday has always been a day of reflection for me, whether such musings have been entirely religious or not. I have used a portion of every Good Friday since I can remember to contemplate life, the world, my place in it and whether I think I’m “measuring up” or not. I confess that the nearly universal conclusion I reach is “Not,” and then I spend the rest of my day wondering what to do about that state of affairs. (Apparently, not enough, since my answer tends to be the –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
The task of survival among small, rural cooperatives in Nicaragua is not an easy one. Any success beyond subsistence requires an uncommon blend of resources, technical help, favorable weather, sufficient labor and knowledge of the land, agriculture, organizational strengthening, marketing, logistics, reinvestment, strategic planning and community development. In short, a producer must cultivate not only a crop, but also his/her ability to see things whole. Within the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it’s especially daunting, and recognition for any success that might be encountered along the way is so infrequent as to be non-existent. So when one of –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
Last month’s visit with partners in Nicaragua included some sobering visits with small coffee producers who are struggling with the after-effects of “coffee rust,” as described here in my previous entry, “Faces of Loss.” This crippling plant disease, along with other afflictions which can occur once the coffee plant is weakened, is taking an enormous toll on the yields of these farmers and threatening their livelihoods. There is truth to the fear that this year’s impact from the disease is more intense than in past years, and that some producers may not survive the onslaught. An initial inclination might be –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
One of the overriding experiences from my travels in Nicaragua last week was my introduction to “coffee rust,” and the toll it will take on rural Nicaraguan lives. Without being too biological, I want to share a sobering reality. This fungal disease of coffee plants has been a fact of life for Nicaraguan coffee producers forever, but conditions this year provided a “perfect storm” of circumstances which have allowed the disease to impact this year’s coffee harvest in unprecedented fashion. Some government estimates suggest that more than 30% of the entire country’s harvest will be lost. But I know from –> Read More I’m preparing for another visit to Nicaragua next week. The staging for each trip usually begins a week or two before I actually travel, as I contemplate our itinerary, the partners with whom we might visit, what I think I can learn, what opportunities for impact we might have, and why I never learned to speak Spanish. There is not only the physical readiness of packing, but also the mental preparation for being in a very different place from where most of my life is lived. And the weeks leading up to every visit are always filled with an internal –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
As we prepare for the coming of Christmas, it’s fascinating to note both the nature and pace of activities we embrace in readiness for the occasion. Aside from the rampant consumerism which grips our society these days like a rogue virus, it seems as though advent is filled with a host of traditions and practices which have become as much a part of the season as Santa Claus or decorated trees. For me, dropping money into the Salvation Army kettles and hearing the bell ringers on the sidewalks and at shopping malls is one of those iconic images that belongs –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
In comments written here on October 28 (“Community”), I related the story of our visit to the community of Santa Maria de Wasaka and how this remote area had been both ravaged by flash flooding and yet restored in its commitment to regroup and flourish with new garden methodologies. The experience of meeting people faced with difficult circumstances is usually pretty emotional, and often there are few or no opportunities to revisit them later to discover how they might have fared. Fortunately, that has not been the case with the folks at Wasaka. My most recent mental image of that –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
In one sense, it’s entirely appropriate that Winds of Peace would take on the field of education as one of its priorities, since there is so much education to be had from our interactions with the rural populations in Nicaragua. Each and every visit for me has revealed perspectives that I might never have known but for my visits with a wide range of Nicaraguan “teachers.” In some cases, I think these educators know that they are teaching the gringo something new; in other cases, the teaching moment may pass with no recognition of impact or import. In either case, –> Read More |
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