Ishrat
It has been a week since I returned to the States. Last two days in Nicaragua was a bit hard. I couldn’t grasp that we had 48 hours remaining in the country and the wonderful group of people I was surrounded by. Within just two weeks, 11 strangers became close friends, sharing in personal stories and laughter. The group truly made the entire trip more memorable.
Studying abroad enhanced my educational experience to levels unimagined. Instead of sitting through lecture inside a classroom, each day I was given the opportunity to visit a new environment and learn about a different issue. I have been exposed to so much of Nicaragua in such a short time and I am so thankful for this opportunity.
UNAN
Ashley
More than a week has passed since our return to the States. It feels as though so much more time and like no time at all since we were in Nicaragua. I miss it, and being back in the U.S. is jarring. I miss it all- the country, the culture, the organizations we met with, and the revolutionaries who allowed 11 Americans whose government has reaked havoc on their own into their homes, stories, places of work, life, and hearts. They are brave people who allow a group of strangers from one of the most powerful countries in the world into their own- the second most impoverished country in Latin America. The people who have given so much to me made themselves vulnerable to so much in order to share their lives. There are those who shared their houses, rooms and made sacrifices so we could have dinner, those who spent their time and voices, and those who spent their time driving a group of students whose opportunities, lives, and reflections are different than there own. We were welcomed and loved. I’m not so sure that many here in the U.S. would greet them the same way.
As I write, I am sitting on my couch in my air-conditioned apartment drinking hot chocolate from a mug I bought in Nicaragua. I can taste and feel the privilege I have and it does not taste sweet or feel so comfortable as one might think. To be honest, it would probably be easier to wash over in my memory many of my experiences in the country. But being back here makes me uncomfortable, and it should. I grieve for those who suffer because of lack of access, opportunity, and adequacy. I am made better, wisened, and strengthened by these experiences. My learning does not make their struggle worth it. They do not exist for me to gain. So many times those of us from the U.S. travel to less developed countries with this savior complex and think we have the solutions to all their “problems.” Other times, our experiences unsettle us once we return to our soft lives and we decide to wrap the memory up neatly and put it aside. But these are the lives of people, and they cannot be made into an easy phrase about how out of everything bad comes something good. Sometimes, we must simply sit with the weight that some have been given much and some have been given very little. And always, we must make a choice to determine whether or not we will do something about this inequality and its innate injustices.
Reconciling my experiences in the U.S. and in Nicaragua has been difficult. Once we arrived back in the U.S., I had a day to adjust and then I began work again, an additional job I did not have prior to leaving for our trip, and an internship. One day to separate my beautiful, heart wrenching, enlightening, challenging time in Nicaragua and then it was back to the “real world.” I find myself thinking of the trip and our experiences often. I find myself thinking of the different world that Nicaragua feels like in comparison to the U.S., the poverty that both have in different and similar ways, the people we have spoke with and listened to, and the ways I have learned and been impacted deeply. I think of all the people I have intimate experiences with through the sharing of stories and experiences and I am at a loss for the gravity and weight of what has been shared. I have been shaken by this trip and forever changed.
Group photo at CGE, which we visited several times.
Casa Materna
Shops in Granada!