Let the delegations begin!

One of our responsibilities as part of the CANTERA youth program is to host delegation groups that visit from schools and churches in the States. CANTERA organizes a visit for them to get to know the work that is carried out and see some of the authentic barrios and rural communities of Nicaragua. They idea is that they might have an educational experience to learn about the reality of living here, as oppose to a vacation in which they would just visit tourist sites. ` Last week we hosted our first delegation group of the year in the Ciudad Sandino site. They were a group of high schoolers with several adult leaders. We started out the visit by taking the group to visit some of the houses where the youth live. The differences from a middle class neighborhood in the U.S. are all too clear: houses on the edge of the ¨cause¨, a drainage that is perpetually filled with garbage; several families living in one house, often up to 15 people under one roof; laundry done by hand and bucket showers because of low or non-existent water pressure. Following the home visits, we took the group for a tour of the center to see the activities going on. The highlight of the visit for me was seeing the jaws drop on the North American high schoolers as they saw our dance group go into action. There`s a lot I have to critique about globalization and U.S. cultural values, but there really is something special about music that brings people together. So when Beyonce`s ¨Crazy in Love¨came on (anyone see her rock it during the Super Bowl halftime show??), I could just see the U.S. youth itching to get out there with the dance group. We had a quick informal class and within 20 minutes we had the whole group swiveling back and forth, jumping around and pumping up and down to Beyonce! What a moment to bring kids together... We followed the dance class with a visit to the karate training and finished up with a reflection between youth from Ciudad Sandino and those from the States. This was the first of several delegation visits we will be receiving, and I was very encouraged by the openness of the group and by the welcoming spirit of the youth here.

Back in Nicalandia!

Greetings from Ciudad Sandino! I´m reactivating my long abandoned blog here in an attempt to keep friends and family up to date with what´t going on here in Nicaragua. After finishing up two years as a Jesuit Volunteer in Managua, I spent a wonderful 2012 catching up with old friends and relatives, meeting new friends, and traveling around the West Coast. I had the great privilege to stay in a Catholic Worker community in Guadalupe, CA, for several months, learning about that approach to community living and a combination of direct charity work (food distribution) and critiquing system injustices. I then spent the rest of the year reconnecting with family and friends in the unparalleled Pacific Northwest, and somewhere along the way I decided to accept a position to return to Nicaragua! So here I am, once again with CANTERA-Center for Communication and Popular Education. As a JV I spent most of my time in the urban barrio of Jorge Dimitrov, but now I´ll be based in Ciudad Sandino, on the outskirts of the capitol city. Along with one coworker and several very dedicated volunteers and ¨promoters¨, I´ll be helping to coordinate the youth program here in Ciudad Sandino. We offer classes in karate, dance, theater, arts and crafts, aerobics, and in general try and create a safe place for youth to grow together. It seems like it will end up being a balance of some more institutional, administrative type work (we have to respond to funding organizations that make our work possible) and some more direct work with the youth, helping organize workshops and retreats and getting to know them by supporting their socio-cultural activities. Here´s a link for the facebook page for ¨MOJUV¨, the ¨Movimiento de Juventudes¨ which is accompanied by CANTERA here in Ciudad Sandino. Check it out if you want to learn more and see some great pics! http://www.facebook.com/groups/78089564763/?fref=ts My hope is to provide brief updates on this blog (hopefully more frequently than I did as a JV!). If you have particular question about the work, or Nicaragua in general, I´d be happy to try and answer. All the best to my dear friends and family! Un abrazo, Sean Vicente.