Team Nica Day One

So Phase II of Team Nica commences!

I am so grateful that I made it on this delegation… Crazy late night/early morning antics led me to almost miss my flight. After I got though an overslept alarm, a dead phone, taking wrong turns on the road, following wrong directions from the gas station, and getting lost in Irvington, I finally made it to the airport with 15 minutes to spare. I am unbelievably thankful for the flexibility and calm of Tashom, Jhon, Jess, Nikhil, Steve, and everyone else on the Dream Team. They have grace under pressure, without which I wouldn’t have made it. The whole experience really knocked me off my feet emotionally and mentally but I’m sure that, as with every experience, there’s something positive to be gained from it… (Maybe the Universe is preparing me to be on The Amazing Race?) At the very least it was humbling, and good practice for not abandoning myself in times of challenge.

I think for many of us, Rachel and Patty’s Socioeconomic Contrast Tour was the most impactful experience of our first 24 hours in Nicaragua. After our lunch at CEPAD, the Witness for Peace hostel, we loaded up the van and set off for a marketplace. We divided up into “families” of 4 or 5 and were given 40 cordovas—equivalent to $2—and told to buy food for our family for the day. The average Nicaraguan family has 6 members and many must survive on less than $2 each day. When we stepped off the bus into the mercado I was immediately struck by the smell. Flies, dirt, darkness, icky water, makeshift stalls…. It was a little overwhelming. Our family managed to buy a bag of rice, a smaller bag of beans, and a few potatoes. Maybe it could feed a family of 6 for a meal and a half, but no way near three meals a day, and let alone all of the other things we use each day, like toiletries. Our group was really affected by the squalor, but also by the warmth of the people that we met there.

We hopped back in the van and drove 10 minutes down the road to the Galerias, a.k.a. the mall. I have never seen a more extravagant mall in my life. On the upper floor there were a bunch of Mercedes Benzes! It was absolutely huge and spotless, with stores of all the American corporate fashion icons that you’d find in an upscale mall back in NJ or NY. Inside Guess we noticed that the prices were actually in US dollars. This was the same in the other stores we looked at. It was absolutely incomprehensible to us the contrast between the reality of this situation here, and the reality of the market just 10 minutes away. The disparity in wealth was shocking and disturbing for everyone, and the racial undertones were undeniable… everyone at the mall was significantly lighter skinned. In the market you wander through the aisles trying to figure out a way to feed your family that day on $2. In the mall you wander from store to store and try to figure out which $40 would look better with your favorite jeans. The people here live very different lives, right next door to each other.

What we saw today reminded me of Manhatttan, but maybe the disparity in wealth was a little more drastic here. But in Manhattan it’s essentially the same thing happening: parents struggle to put food on the table and provide for their children just 10 minutes down the road from the rich urban elite shopping on 5th Ave. When I walk in New York City it feels like just life. But when I see this same socioeconomic structure in another context it’s completely alarming, and it takes on this new sense of immediacy. We all ask, “how can this happen here?!?” But after seeing it I also think … wow… how does this happen in my own backyard? What am I doing to contribute to it? What can I do to help?

It was a heavy and exciting day, and I’m grateful for the experience. Time to sleep!

Love,
Katie