Afternoon Delight

This is Salim “The Dream” Laib writing to you from Managua, Nicaragua … lol

I find it very funny that I’m sitting here blogging right now cause im always one of the first ones to make fun of people that use twitter or blog for various other reasons on the internet. This experience however is defiantly worth me going out of my norm so that I can somehow try to explain what I’ve learned and witnessed in these priceless past few days. So my day started off today at 6:30 am as it has been starting ever sense I landed in Latin America. Of course me being the individual that I am I decided that it was a good idea to have a late night to enjoy myself the night before. However after enjoying another amazing Nicaraguan breakfast by our cook Jaihira I was up and ready to go for another beautiful warm day in Central America.

Before I start to explain on this blog what my day consisted of I only feel as though its right that I talk a little about what I’ve experienced so far these past few days. This is my first time traveling south of the border to a Latin American country and from my experience in being raised in Hudson County for the past 10 yrs I felt as though I was as prepared as anyone can be for this trip. After all you can’t find much more Hispanic culture in the states like you do on Central Ave and Bengaline. The opportunity of having some of my closest friends come from these developing countries as well as myself having grown up in Algeria defiantly provided me with the confidence to take this trip. However what I've experienced these past few days no one will ever be able to replicate on a piece of paper or television screen. Imp sure if you take the time to read past blogs that have been posted by my fellow classmates you will hear some very heart felt stories about different things that we’ve been witnessing. The visit to the garbage sector of the city is one that will stick with me for the rest of my life. It’s an experience that I will defiantly be sharing with many of you when I get back home if I ever even find ways to put it in words. I have always been aware of the hardships of these third world countries through my readings, love for movies and stories from various people.

The hardships I've seen in the past with my own eyes back home in New Jersey and Algeria cannot compare to this level of poverty that I witnessed in this section of Managua. The image of people digging through city waste dumps for left over food to feed their kids is something that I hope I never get to see again. We have done other things such as learn about the political and economic history of Nicaragua as well as the environmental history (many natural disasters that have affected this country in the past) and how they have connected to the developmental process of this small country of 6 million people. It also doesn’t help that 75% of the government spending in the country has to go towards paying off the enormous dept that the Nicaraguan government has collected through various bad loans from the world bank and various different countries.

So the first aspect of the day consisted of learning about how U.S. Government backed policies such as the Monroe Doctrine, NAFTA and CAFTA just the name a few have effected the development of these countries. Many would blame corruption on a lot of these issues but from talking to the Nicaraguan people you start to realize that it’s much more than that. These policies are very complex and I wish I had the time to talk more in depth about them. It’s something that we as Americans should take the time to educate our selves on the topic. After all we are the ones that go to the voting booths to elect these politicians that help pass these agreements.

The next aspect of the day consisted of going to Puntas de Encuentro which is a center that is set up to educate the community about different aspects of life that can help them better themselves. Some of the things that they do include:

• · Setting up workshops
  
• · Youth Camps
  
• · Communication Training
  
• · Promoting Sex Education
  
• · The Acceptance of Sexual Diversity
  
• · Women’s Rights
  
• · Workshops for journalists so that the media doesn’t have an negative attitude towards women’s rights, youth, and lower class
  
• · Discrimination – change attitude towards Classism, homophobia, sexism and racism just to name a few
  
• · Talk about Commercial Sexual Exploitation
  

Through various different funding opportunities from international aid and other donations they were able record their own television show that deals with all these issues. So far they have filmed more then 80 episodes. This is all in a country that is strongly influenced by the Catholic Church. It amazes me how the church has such a strong affect on the government that they are wiling to not even educate school children about anything other abstinence only sex ed. Does that remind anyone of certain policies that our past politicians tried to pass?

This is just one of many different community organizations that we have visited so far these past few days. It’s amazing how even though they receive very little to no funding from the government these people still don’t give up. Whether it’s setting up a health center in a small shack or starting a television show these people refuse to stop trying to help their community.

I wish I could go more in-depth about these issues but I have to run to a fan cause I am dying in this heat lol… Hope everyone is doing well back home and insha Allah ill see everyone soon