Poema de Amor Bilingue

Tu sonrisa es un sunrise
cosechada
de tu smile
sembrada como una semilla
dentro del sol
de mi soul
con una ardent pasíon
passion ardiente
chisporroteando en un mar de amar
donde more es amor
en un sea de sí
llena con la sal de salt
en la saliva de saliva
que da sed
pero jamás está sad
Dos lenguas que se encuentran
no es un beso de boca
sino amor bilingue

-José Antonio Burciaga

Effective Aid?

I recently read this book, which advocates for aid to be distributed on a neo-Marshall Plan model. I agree with the idea that charity, while well-intentioned, often leaves countries' economies upsidedown. Take Nicaragua, for example: The entire country's economy is dependent on NGO aid agencies. At one point nearly 23% of the GDP originated from such aid. Professionals aspire to land a job with an NGO. Therefore, there is neither incentive nor capacity to move beyond this aid. Furthermore, many NGO's revolve around unsustainable projects that require a foreign presence to maintain them, and inadequately consider input from the community. There is a general lack of understanding and empowerment in the current aid system.

However, before completely adapting to the "business model" of aid, I would need some clarifications. Where do environmental restrictions fit in? What about aid for education, etc? I think it has become clear that developing a thriving domestic business sector leads to the largest leaps of income for developing countries, but exactly how the aid system must change to cater to this need is still murky.

My career according to an 8 year old

A gymnast that I coach asked me: "Miss Rachel, you are almost grown up. What are you going to be when you grow up?"

I explained my life ambitions in 8 year old terms. Then I asked her if she knew what that was called. She thought about it, and then she said:

"Of course Miss Rachel! You're going to be a peacemaker!"

My life is complete.

Honduras

I'm going to work in La Paz, Honduras this summer!

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY

At 4:12 am we were awakened to what sounded like world war 3. In reality, it was just all of NIcaragua lighting anything they could fill with gunpowder to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista revolution...

Aside from that, things have been crazy, but amazing. I´ve done a really terrible job blogging, but I´ve made some great friends in host communities and talked to some insanely interesting poeple. Another good note, despite some drama, all my CBI´s are well on their ways. They include:

• Libico: This community is building chicken coops, and then buying 4 chickens and a rooster for each initial family. They will use most eggs for food, and when babies are born, they will pass on 4 chickens and a rooster to the next family, in an effort to create sustainable protein source within the community.
• Hilapo: This community is very rural and one of my most impoverished. The PMA, a governemnt agency, delivers food to teh school every two months and the mothers cook it for lunch, but the food has been stolen twice, so their project is to construct a storage facility with a lock to protect the childrens food, and hopefully add an open air stove/kitchen in the future so that the madres don´t have to carry the food long distances
• La Yosa: After some drama(as in Rachel and the town coordinator bumpingheads a few times) this community is forming a soccer team and a basebal team, and using the money to buy equipment and t-shirt uniforms
• San Francisco: This community has a lot of youth involvement and they are forming two youth soccer teams. They even went to the alcaldia to get the paperwork to enter the teams into the local league. We bough soccer balls and jersey uniforms with Amigos money, and I am SO excited to go to their first game. They named the teams Ämigos de las Americas, and the other one is the Ambientalistas. too cute.

Aside from CBI´s, we just had our youth encuentro, which was a huge success. The volunteers and youth from each community collaborated on a presentation to bring to the youth fair. I had some awesome presentations, from poetry to a song about the community. One community made pottery out of the natural clay that forms during rainy season in community. Another taught me how to make torta de pina, a pastry with pineapple filling that we sold as a fundraiser. All were awesome, but San francisco definately stole the show. They brought the school band and had an incredible drum line, plus taught my vols a dance to go with it. It was AMAZING!

Hmm... aside from that, I can´t believe that summer is halfway over! It´s going so quickly! I only have 2 more route weeks, which I am 100% looking forward to, and then of course the travel time afterwards!

*On a side note: thank goodness we are not in Mexico. In Michocan, there have been several drug cartel shootouts in small towns, which would be the community level of Amigos... I guess everything hapens for a reason, but keep Mexico in your thoughts...

Pictures and videos coming soon to a facebook near you!

Quote of the week

From a very wise community member:

¨Nadie es tan pobre que no se pueda dar, como nadie es tan rico que no se pueda recibir¨

translation: No one is so poor that the cannot give, no one is so rich that they cannot recieve

Photos

I put up pictures. Click the link on the right!