El Pastor

A shower never felt so good. What a day! I woke up at 4:45 to make a 5:30 AM meeting time. Walking the streets of Granada at 5:30 in the morning reveals a city very different from the hustle and bustle that I’ve gotten used to. The streets were empty, the air (relatively) cool, and the sun was beginning to illuminate the streets. The reason for meeting so early was so that we could catch two buses and finally a moto on our journey to the far flung village of El Pastor, right outside of a town called Santa Theresa. Today was the first of many campaigns that we’ll be doing, in conjunction with local women whom we call “asesores comunitarias.” These asesores have been selected by a Soluciones Comunitarias member (SolCom) weeks in advance and trained in how to sell the goods that SolCom has vetted. 

OHMYGOSH Modern family is on! Of course it’s in Spanish, but it reminds me of home :) 

Anyways, the products we sell include reading glasses, protective lenses, solar lamps, stoves (upcoming), vegetable seeds (upcoming), energy-saving light bulbs, water filters, among others. Despite appearing very simple, the products have undergone an extremely intense screening process. SolCom members have to first identify a need, assess the costs and benefits of a product and depending on local factors. We also have to take into account how many houses there are in a community, the number of families, the presence of local leaders, the paydays of most of the workers, and things as simple as how to get to these extremely remote places. A lot of the work we have to do is investigating information in a manner that effectively makes our work ethnography. Another big part of our work is publicity and marketing; today, we walked for two hours along the only dirt road in the town, sometimes with packs of gigantic cows, to reach each house and explain to them that we were stationed at the primary school and were giving free eye exams, among other things. Many of the people that we talk to have presbiscia (nearsightedness) or eye problems from working outside amongst the bright sun and dust every single day without protection. Some of our products and free services address this need. Others, like the solar lamp and vegetable seeds, are seemingly overly-simple solutions to real problems that place serious burdens on families. 

Our driver; he was CRAZY!

The lovely moto

Us in front of the entrance to the school. 

First of all, the transportation systems here are crazy. The private buses that ferry people between buses are all repurposed school buses donated from the US. I fell asleep for most of the way, but as we traveled farther and farther our from Granada, the land became more and more rural. We saw many houses that looked as if they were in abject poverty, but also many verdant landscapes that were very beautiful.

After a bus transfer, we took, for the last leg of the journey, a moto, a motorcycle with a plastic/metal outfitting that allows up to four people to sit in the back. It’s this tiny little red thing, that the driver operated a breakneck speeds down truly treacherous paths. At one point I was holding on for dear life as we sped down a 45 degree incline full of ruts and holes due to erosion. I remarked that the driver had remarkable skill and he merely smiled a little at me. I think the moto drivers think I’m an idiot, since I also complimented the driver of the moto on our way back. After making it up a tough hill, I started laughing my head off while the driver laughed at my idiocy to himself. 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself today, even though our campaign wasn’t very successful. The asesores, Julia y Arlén, were wonderful. They chatted extensively with Tess (one of the program leaders), and I’m sure that they did the necessary preparations for the campaign. However, since the town was so small, the timing bad (people work until 12 or 1 on Saturdays and we were there only until 1), and the date not optimal (we learned that the people earned a paycheck every six months instead of every week, as expected, due to the fact that they sell their produce and livestock at long intervals to buyers), we only sold THREE pairs of glasses, which Tess told us was a record low. Still, this is better than any selling record I have ever had (since it was my first campaign) and it was also only the third or so campaign of Julia and Arlén. I found the experience of talking to all of the people in the town absolutely wonderful. We split into groups and walked for two or three hours under the hot sun (my tan lines are dreadful, but I suppose it’s a bit out of place to worry about first-world problems in the midst of a third world country) along a stretch of dirt road flanked by magnificent, bucolic views. The people in this area raise and tame horses, festooned with wonderfully crafted leather saddles and decorative equipment, which kind of reminds me of a Western, except everyone spoke Spanish. Anyways, we entered into every house that we saw, starting conversations with the local people and telling them about our project and trying to connect what we were doing to things relevant to their (very different) lives. We were told that most SolCom interns actually carry sticks around because of the dogs that almost always bite newcomers. We did have an encounter with a few dogs, but only barking, and no biting, ensued. Although many people were enthusiastic about the products, many didn’t have money or time to go to the primary school to buy the products, and I believe them. I think that many of the people work on a tenant system, where they pay part of their profit towards a landowner, since I saw one or two houses that were clearly a few socioeconomic levels above the general average. 

A beautiful horse we saw on the side of the road. There were a number of houses that had horses, which seemed rather spirited.

A mother with her three day old pups; we found them on a huge ranch at the end of the road.

Of course, I can never escape the fact that I am Chinese; one many took us to see his mother, who had presbiscia and couldn’t see things close up. She began to tell us a story about how there was an Asian family (I couldn’t ascertain how far she meant by “allá”) who had four daughters “with beautiful eyes,” and who had a blonde girlfriend. I have no idea what a chino is doing in Nicaragua but apparently he’s got it figured out, since according to her, he’s rich. She told me that at first she thought I was one of his daughters (at least, that’s what I think she said, since she had a really strong lisp - Nicaraguans don’t really pronounce their s). The racial profiling continues. 

Despite our lack of sales, I’d count today as a success, just from the experiences gained and the people I’ve talked to. I had a long conversation over a great dinner with one of the woman who lives in the house (I think she’s either the older sister or the mother of Racquel) about her life, likes and dislikes, technology etc. There’s something thrilling about conversing in another language and being able to get your message across, even if you have to stumble your way through. At least I understood what she was saying!

Lol, Horacio and his mother are watching a Bruce Lee movie. I got excited that I finally saw another Asian, albeit on TV, so they invited me to watch. Hasta luego!