November 8, 2002
Robledal, Esteli, Via Esperanza
Including stories about or testimonies
from: Marcos, Iliana, Mauricio.
Note: We have chosen to use first names only for most individuals
named in these letters, unless we have obtained written consent to use
their surnames.
Hello friends...
I’ll try this again, just typed it out and the system crashed, so parden
me if there are a ton of mistakes..now I`m really rushing....rats!
ANYWAY..frightening news from the U.S. continues. Hope this mad rush to
war can be stopped!
If any of you are inclined to try to reach us, use the pam2490@aol.com address...rather
than the reply button which reaches our most wonder email guru, Max. Thanks!!!
So much to report! Amazing connections! Amazing visits! For this report
we’ll limit our story to one visit outside Esteli.
°
Robledal--With a 4:45 am rising time we’re able to catch the 6 am
bus to Robledal - a small rural gathering of about 15 scattered houses that
was a cooperative in the 80s, but today is housing for these same people who
work for the private farm owner. This tiny community had 4 civilian
fathers killed by the contra at 10 am one morning, just prior to the February
25, 1990 elections. Paul was at the funeral in Esteli and then up at the community
afterwards.
The bus pulled in at 6:15 - already standing room only and somehow more
buckets, bags, baskets, live chickens and people (and us!) squeezed on for
a sloooooow, curvy, bumpy, heaving hour ride up hill.
We’re the only ones that get off at the Robledal crossing. Now it’s just
us, one house within view. Still early, light mist, tiny birds, hills, open
fields, green, quiet. How beautiful! We start the 45 minute walk to Robledal.
There’s not really a cluster of houses, just scattered, each alone. We come
to one house and call in from the distance. No one responds. This pattern
is repeated at each house. We "knock" from a distance. After a while someone
usually appears, hesitantly, with reservation. We slowly weave through our
history and project and they slowly warm up, until we pull out the pictures.
Then there’s smiles, pointing, giggles. They are pleased to have the photos,
even though it was of a sad event. Each person reports that they remember
the attack like it was yesterday.
To lose so many fathers in one small community!
We soon learn that the community is "pure" Galeano - all are related in
some way. Handsome 16-year-old Marcos stands on the trail with
his horse talking with us for at least half an hour. Though only 5 when his
father was murdered that morning at 10 am, he too remembers the attack like
it was yesterday. Afterwards his family had to be divided and he went to
live with his grandparents in Esteli. Now he’s trying to learn English.
He looks at us with pleading eyes and says "there’s no work for him here".
He wants to get to the U.S., somehow, and find work. This "no hay trabajo"
is repeated with each and every person we meet, just see it as a screen that
overlays every person we speak with.
We continue through fields, by ponds, up hills, of and off the tiny trails
from family to family, each meeting rich and each family struggling. One woman
breaking into a huge grin when she recognizes her son after looking at the
picture for at least 2 minutes!
We learn that the name of the main woman we are searching for is Iliana
Galeano (of course) and she now lives in Esteli in the community of
VIA ESPERANZA.
We walk 45 minutes back to the main road and wait for the bus. Up comes
a tiny woman carrying a huge bucket filled with cheese, rice, eggs, as well
as a bag of beans and a bag of squash. Her pre-school-aged son trails
behind carrying two live chickens. They, too, are Galeanos and she
already knows all about our project even though we hadn’t spoken during our
journey through the community. She says she can help us meet up with Iliana
today!
The bus pulls up. Not as full! We load our new friend’s food onto
the bus, yikes, how does she carry all this herself? It’s another bumpy windy
ride to Esteli but this time we are each partially seated. NICE!
We get off in Esteli with our new friend, rush with the food to a store/bus
stop. Leave food and son there and rush 6 blocks to another bus stop where
Iliana is to appear for a 1:30 bus. Our friend has to rush back to catch
her bus and we wait. Sure enough Iliana does appear and we have maybe two
minutes to chat and show pictures before her bus to Quinta comes. Yes, she
does want to meet with us, but during the week when she’s in Esteli.
Success!!
What an amazing day. We make it back to our "family" (home stay with the
school) and collapse.
Iliana now works in a cigar factory in Esteli, gone from home 6 am to about
6:30 pm. Long days. Not home during the daylight hours. We’re
warned by everyone to very careful in VIA ESPERANZA...and to definitely not
be there at night. With a Nicaraguan male friend we take a taxi one night
and we find the house! We have the cab wait while we talk with Iliana's family
briefly, she’s still at work. No luck this day but we’re closer!
Each community visit is amazingly powerful. Rich and sad. And always "no
hay trabajo". Mauricio, a young man you’ll enjoy meeting later,
who lost his father and brother when the contra attacked their house late
one night, said some days there’s no food and he has to go hunting for work
with an empty stomach. He remembers when there was war but then there was
food, free school and medicine. Now there’s no war, the U.S. is friendly
to Nicaragua, but the people have to pay for school and the only medicine
is in the private clinic. Gentle, handsome, bright, quiet Mauricio...midnight
running through the woods barefoot to escape the contra...his father horribly
tortured and killed, his younger brother killed as he too tried to escape
to the woods.
My Spanish teacher informed me that the women that do the housekeeping and
childcare (usually 6 am to 6 pm...6 days a week) in Esteli are usually paid
300 Cordobas ....some MAYBE as high as 500 Cordobas a month....that’s $21
to $35 a month. Blanca does such work....6 days....2 young children. She had
to take her 6 year old out of school because she couldn’t afford the notebooks.
Where’s our generosity now? Why could we afford weapons then...but
not schooling and medicine now? I know that’s your question, too!
We were in Esteli area for 2 weeks, then back to Managua for a few days
where Paul had some more amazing finds. Now we’re in Esteli again, heading
to Achuapa (west) and the community of Lagartilla. Some of you who saw our
Lyman Fund grant request might remember Florentina. Her quote is something
along the lines of "the contra killed my husband and daughter, that was a
personal loss...but when the U.S. interfered in our 1990 elections they took
my people’s entire dream." And that is a reality we see here each and
every minute of each and every day.
Thanks for traveling with us. You are the part of the U.S. that can give
the world hope. And do we think of you! Thank you! Do know that we
are well and healthy and enjoying. Thanks for helping us to be here.
With love,
Pam and Paul