We have good news and bad news.
The bad news:
The political situation in Nicaragua has declined since Jeff
left in April, with violence erupting in protests in cities around the
country. We wish our projet to remain politically neutral, so we encourage you to do your own reading on the situation.
Ometepe Island, however, is living up to its nickname, Oasis de Paz
(oasis of peace), and has had no major violence and only a few, mostly peaceful
protests. There are still huge impacts on the island, however, such as fuel and
food shortages, commerce slowing to a halt, and tourism all but drying up. The
tour guides we work with are used to not having 100% reliable income, but many
are having real trouble with a complete lack of tours. Some consider migrating to Costa Rica as tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have done already. Keep in mind
that Nicaragua’s population is 6 million normally, so current refugee numbers
are as if over a million people were to flee US –
and that is just to one country. Many other countries are seeing refugee
applications from Nicaragua, including Panama, Mexico, and the US.
So what do we do? How can we help? Nicaragua has in its constitution (Article 27) that foreigners may not interfere in Nicaraguan politics. A quick
review of Nicaraguan history quickly explains why that might be. Foreign
meddling, most especially by the United States, has caused many problems for
the Nicaraguan people. Political interference is really not appropriate. But if
citizens have to leave the country due to violence or resulting economic
distress, who will be there to rebuild?
The good news:
Nicaraguans have done this before in living memory, and are
working hard to keep their lives on track. Their resilience is inspiring.
We had arranged for three guides to keep the resource center
open to the public three days a week after Jeff left, paying them a general
worker’s day wage to do so (a guide can earn much more in a day, but then has
to hustle for business a lot of the time – less secure, but potentially more
money). Due to tourist high season coming around during this time, we spread
the work out so three people would work one day a week each. They are
encouraged to do whatever community outreach they feel appropriate, using the community center as a base.
Now that they have so much time on their hands
since there are no tourists to guide, they have started more community outreach
than any of us anticipated happening. They are providing English
lessons, computer services, environmental education, art classes, and the like –
all on their own time and free to the community.
People are flocking to the center, especially children but even
adults.
They are inviting in school classes to introduce local kids (and
therefore their families) to what is available in the center.
And they’re taking students out for environmental education
trips in their backyards.
Beyond our resource center, they’re lending equipment we
brought down to do research into local endangered species, just as we intended.
Shout out to LOCOs (Loreros Observando Conservando Ometepe), who study the Amazonian yellow-naped parrot, and a group of generous
birders in Minnesota who donated the binoculars!
What we can do is to continue supporting these amazing folks
in their community work. We have increased the open hours of the resource center to five days a week. We are hoping to pay folks for more hours of instruction for community workshops. They refuse to give up hope, and so do we. We have grant money from New England Biolabs Foundation and hope to renew that grant for next year, as well as donations from wonderful friends and family. If you have
the means, please consider donating to help keep our resource center open and
wages paid to keep these amazing people working. You can find donation options
at our website, guiasunidos.org/contact-donate/ (or more directly here).
With all the chaos of the news, I have found
hope in our work with the good folks of Ometepe. A huge thanks to Elieth
Alvarez who manages our books and timesheets on top of giving English classes
and keeping the center open, and to Arlin Hernandez, Edgard Condena, Ramon
Ivan H.G., and Diego Hernandez for their hard work and infinite patience.
