Final Post

Well, we are back from El Sauce and I really miss the place.  The United States is a strange and scary country.  There are too many cars on the road and no one says hello to you.  El Sauce was an incredible experience for me.  For one thing, i got a friend out of it- Juan Pablo, with whom I worked construction, and I now plan to email and talk via skype.  I am looking forward to practicing my spanish with him, as I typically have a lack of opportunities to speak spanish while I am in the U.S.  Furthermore, working construction in El Sauce was a great decision, although it was not my original reason for going.  By doing so I was able to witness the way poorer, typical Nicaraguans live on a daily basis (alternatively, the house I lived in was absolutely beautiful).  The houses we built were tiny, yet they were an improvement upon the crumbling shacks that we replaced.  All in all, I worked on three different houses while I was in Nicaragua, and the recipients were always gracious, hospitable, and fun.  Between laying bricks we talked about differences between here and there, joked around, and enjoyed the occasional cup of sweet coffee.  Sometimes they would even give me food, not taking no for an answer, and I would respectfully eat it and disregard the huge lunch that I knew I would receive upon my return to Alida's house.  The experience was incredible, although it has contributed a lot to my current sadness as I reflect upon how much more compassionate and sincerely friendly and caring these people were relative to many Americans.  The houses I built, as well as Juan Pablo's house, has caused me to reflect very much upon the unnecessary luxuries that I have here and has made me feel quite guilty about the things I previously took for granted.  I even felt guilty and overpriveledged there after Juan Pablo saw my overpriced ipod touch and blackberry.  Nevertheless, I can only hope that the experience helps me conserve water and electricity more, and to become a bit more frugal when it comes to buying unnecessary goods.  Moving forward, the literacy program that I helped out with was successful in that I was able to practice my spanish very much, and I felt that I was highly successful teaching in spanish.  I feel a little strange about leaving because the students will now be left with a subpar teacher, who refuses to stray from the book or ask any critical questions, enforcing an idea that answers must be copied verbatim from the text.  This is the major problem with this literacy program, and in the future Geneseo students could help out just as much with the teacher as with the students.  On numerous occasions, I found myself teaching the students, as well as the teacher.  However, this is by no means the fault of the teacher.  All teachers are volunteers, as this is "educación popular", and it is a great to witness ordinary people helping out the people in their neighborhood who want to learn.  Thus far the idea of free education with unpaid teachers has not reached our country, but it seems to be pretty successful in Nicaragua, where people have a strong feeling of community and commitment to one another.  Just sitting alone in the bus stop in San Jose, people would come up to me and shake my hand, saying "mucho gusto".  There is a very cool sense of community that I will surely miss in this country.  Right now I am very much missing my Nicaraguan friends and my El Sauce community, and I have left with a strong desire to return and to continue to help out in any way that i can, raising money for four walls and encouraging other Geneseo students to participate in the program.