Some eight years ago, I had the great fortune to travel with a group of educators to El Salvador a year after Hurricane Mitch devastated that small Central American country. We visited the sites of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and saw first hand relief programs which made me proud to be a member of the Catholic Church in America.
This spring I received the opportunity to visit Nicaragua and jumped at the chance. A friend from my St. Joseph of Carondelet religious community accompanied me as we visited one of our sisters, Julie Marciacq, who works with Cantera in Managua, a group that provides homeopathic medical services to those in need.
It was a hot visit (at 9 p.m. the temperature is still around 95 degrees). Sister Julie took us to visit workers and projects established for the people - teaching women to work as beekeepers and helping farmers improve their crops with red earthworms. There is a clinic using homeopathic medicine when the poor cannot afford prescribed medicines and a farm raising North African sheep well suited to the hot climate of the country.
We also met a Philadelphia-born Jesuit priest, Father Rob Currie, who lives among the people of Arenal in the south of Nicaragua and has established youth groups, helped the people organize social services, and taught the people to lead and build their own communities - much as he did while working with the poor in Chicago.
The history of Nicaragua is interwoven with that of the United States - for good and for bad. (Can we forget the Iran-Contra government scandals of the 1980s in which money raised by the U.S. selling arms to Iran was sent to support the Contras in Nicaragua while that country was embroiled in a civil war?) However, during this trip we also met some wonderful, self-giving Americans who have made a difference in a land that has too often been devastated by natural disasters and man-made wars.
We drove with Bill Schmitt, a Catholic Relief Services worker to Esteli, in the north, an area that was a Sandinista stronghold during the Contra War. We met a deacon, Rolando Meneses, from the cathedral in Esteli who is in charge of Caritas in that diocese. In Esteli, Caritas partners with CRS and together they direct local workers in charge of projects such as AIDs prevention, development of farming cooperatives that export organically grown produce, health care education of the poor and young mothers, assistance with small interest loans so that those living in squatters' lean-to houses and shacks can build homes with real walls and own their own land, and assistance programs that provide food for children of the poor.
Caritas and CRS also network with other groups providing assistance in Esteli. Bill took us to visit an elementary school run by the Salesian Sisters which provides hot meals and shelter for children at risk. He also drove past an area where 5,000 people from Esteli were killed during Hurricane Mitch.
With a population of over 5.5 million people, the average age is 20, and nearly a quarter of Nicaraguans (or Nicas, as they affectionately call themselves) are unemployed. Infant mortality rate is at 32 per 1,000 live births, life expectancy is 68 years of age. The literacy rate in Nicaragua is at about 75%, and 10% of the country's children suffer from malnutrition. And 50% of the population lives below the international poverty level.
Nicaragua is at a crossroads - a country with great potential opportunity and great need. Eco-tourists are finding their way to Nicaragua to visit the country's 13 national parks, reserves and many rain forests. Twelve volcanoes, some of which are still active, dot the landscape.
Also finding their way into the country are Evangelical Protestant churches, which have made deep inroads into what not long ago was considered a traditionally Catholic country; about 50% of the country is now Protestant. While visiting outside of Managua we met an American woman who was in the area visiting her young daughter, a "missionary," working among the families who live in the dumps of Managua. She was justly proud of her daughter who teaches children to read.
In the town of Granada we went inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where in a corner a woman was teaching a baptism class to young parents. We sat and listened as she spoke to the parents. Afterwards she told us that she is a parish council member and was born in Granada. This 53-year-old woman said she feels her classes are "another method of evangelization" and that she is a guide for the people.
"The people ask questions," she said. "They want to know more about the spiritual life." Telling us about the inroads made by Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, and Four Square Gospel Churches, she says she still has "much hope" for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
We met young Nicas named Milton, Douglas (pronounced duglas), Lester and our faithful taxi driver, Harold Jose Corea Gaytan. Harold, 27, lives with his parents, two sisters and brother-in-law, a niece and nephew. He, his sister Jakalene and brother-in-law Roosevelt are the main breadwinners. Jakelene works 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days a week and earns about $25 for one week of work in a Korean-owned fabrica, making women's underwear for export, mainly to the United States.
The large extended family owns their home and the land it sits on - a one-room house. Harold does not want to be a disgrace to his family; he hopes to one day be able to live on his own, to study computers and maybe become an architect. He wants to "mas que sobrevivir" or "more than survive."
The friendly people of Nicaragua are the hope of the country and the local church. Deacon Rolando Meneses told us that in his whole diocese of Esteli there are only 32 active priests. He and his lay staff of about 30 work hard at providing for the needs of the people and they have seen many positive changes. They have cut the infant mortality rate nearly in half in their diocese. More deacons have been ordained and they have a diocesan office for justice and peace near the cathedral. They have great hope and have convinced us that even though all is not perfect, the spirit is alive and well in Nicaragua. |