…so what are you doing?

It was a good thing I documented the excitement I felt when I first thought of going to Nicaragua, because the work quickly became daunting. After work and on the weekends Brian and I had numerous phone conversations (he was living in California) trying to decide what exactly we were about to do.

We started with this: 

a.) We wanted to do our work in Nicaragua (because Brian already had a contact there and had spent time in-country) 

b.) We wanted our focus to be on the work of small-scale organizations

c.) We wanted to work in rural areas (just for the sake of eliminating the rural vs. urban variables)

After sacking several ideas and refining others, we agreed that our focus would be on the work of small organizations working to affect change in rural education. This was chosen over agriculture, community development, health, etc because of Brian’s and my combined experience/interest in the field and our personal views about the importance of education, as well as the fact that education often incorporates the other elements we considered studying (i.e. health, etc).

Now, neither Brian nor I are qualified to conduct any sort of conclusive study about rural education in Nicaragua. We are not hoping to do that. On the flip side, anyone can look at the data or tour the country and see that a large percentage of rural children in Nicaragua are not receiving the education they need. We are not looking to highlight the obvious.

No one in Nicaragua needs us. But after talking with several organizations we’ve found a few people who want us there. And, as the deciding factor, we want to be there. We hope that our project (which I’ll describe in more detail below) will be helpful to those who are involved and ultimately to the educational system of Nicaragua. However, I am not going just to ‘help people.’ If helping was my only reason for going, then I could easily find some project closer to home that would be much safer, easier, cheaper, and better suited to my skills. No. I’m going to Nicaragua because I love Latin America and its people. I like traveling and experiencing new places. I am interested in working internationally and I want to see (and be part of?) what others are doing to fight injustice and bring dignity to all of God’s creation. And, of course, to help if I can…

In taking about all this, as an American going to the second poorest country in Latin America, I have to watch my language (and more importantly, examine my own perspective). I do believe that humans are citizens of the world (God’s creation) before we are citizens of a nation (man’s organization of this world). This, however, does not mean that we can make decisions for one another. Nor does it mean that, just because my world is your world, we have experienced it in the same way (nor that we are meant to experience it in the same way). At the risk of sounding cliché, our differences (as individuals, as families, as cultures, as countries) are beautiful.

 I do not hope that someday Nicaragua has an educational system identical to the United States. I do not hope that people are saved out of poverty only to flounder around in capitalism. No. What I do hope is that children grow up with dignity, and education is key. Education includes basic understanding about germs, hygiene, and ultimately health. Children need to learn to read, write, and do math. They need to grow up with a firm grasp on those subjects so that when they go to sell their crops (for those who become farmers, or their art for those who become artists, or their commodities for those who become business owners) they can read and understand contracts (or write their own) and make educated decisions about the prices, quantities being sold, etc. They need these tools to avoid being taken advantage of by those who believe that the rural masses are second class citizens.

There are a million and one different theories about how to go about positively affecting change in this world. All organizations have their own approach, their own successes and failures. And I, with only 23 years to my name, am (for now) in no position to speak to their methods, philosophies, etc…

Ok so what the hell are Brian and I doing? We are

a.)       Helping organizations evaluate their practices by crunching data, creating profiles, etc. We are not going to judge their goals; rather we are going to study how well those goals are being met.

b.)       Creating a database of participating organizations. This will allow those who are interested to see what other similar organizations are doing to affect change in rural education. This is an effort to facilitate the communication of ideas between organizations that would otherwise not be in touch with one another (due to low funding, limited personal, no time for extra projects, etc).

Since November we’ve been proposing our idea to organizations, collecting information on programs in rural education, following the Ministry of Education in Nicaragua, and talking with state-side contacts. Some organizations were not interested in working with us, which came as no surprise, but others readily agreed to participate in our study. We are looking forward to working with them over the next few months.

Until April we were not sure when the time would come for us to head down and do our in-country research. Financially we didn’t think it could happen anytime soon because for this first stint (3 months) we have no funding and no backers supporting our work. However, a few things came together last minute that made this summer the time we needed to go. So, still to my surprise, we quit our jobs, bought plane tickets, and are currently packing our bags. I did not envision this all happening within the course of this year.

We’ll be in Nicaragua from May 24 until the end of August. The majority of the organizations we’ll be working with are located in the southwest quadrant of the country. If our project is successful (we’ll determine what ‘successful’ means after everything is wrapped up in September) then we will most likely apply for funding to continue our research. If it is not ‘successful,’ then we will carry with us the lessons we learn into the next part of life, wherever and whatever that may be. Stay tuned.