Hola amigos! Its Katelyn and Alex and we are back at it again, reporting live from Nicaragua! We enjoyed the city of Managua so much, we decided to dedicate this blog post to our time there and fill you in on all the amazing activities we completed and a few organizations that we visited. 

The LGBTQ community here in Nicaragua is small and those who choose to associate with it tend to not be accepted by society. Often times, when an individual identifies with the LGBTQ community, a community that has a very negative stigma within society, they often face a large amount of discrimination. They can also be subjected to violence, exiled from their families, or even forced to hide their true identities. While in Managua, we had the opportunity to meet with Juanita, a person who identifies as a transgendered woman, but presents a masculine physical appearance for reasons of safety. Juanita came out to her family at the early age of 11. She had a quinceañera, went to prom, and graduated high school, all with a feminine physical appearance. Over the years, she learned that her safety was at risk due to the heavy stigma surrounding the transgendered community that she is a part of. We appereciate her meeting with us and being so open while telling her story. By doing so, she has become an inspiration to us and those in her community.

Another speaker we had the opportunity to hear while in Managua, was Julio Cesar Mena. Julio was infected with HIV at the age of 17, while fighting in the revolutionary war by blood transfusion. He did not discover he was infected until over a decide later. He was also very open with us and shared his trials and tribulations. Julio gave perspective on what life is like living with HIV/AID, in a country that stigmatizes and discriminates against individuals who have the disease. For example, he told us how the people in the community will come by the organization and yell various slurs and throw trash at the building. Despite those incidents he continues to be proactive in the community and educating people on HIV/AIDS.

While in Managua, we also paid a visit to Casa Alianza, an organization that focuses on the well-being of homeless adolescents and young adults ranging from ages 13-25, that have faced violence, sexual assault, or other troubles within their family. The unique aspect of Casa Alianza is that they specifically work with teenagers that have a drug addiction. The organization provides a 3 phase program that focuses on treating the drug addiction of the teens and helping families work through tough issues. The organization accomplishes this by providing many forms of therapy, dorms for living, physical education and many other things for the teens accepted into the program. Each teenager accepted into the program works with the staff to develop a treatment plan and to discuss future goals and aspirations. This program has really helped give people another perspective on life and helped many teens unlock their full potential.

We had the chance to visit a Christian based school located in the Nueva Vida community, which is right outside of Managua. Nueva Vida is proverb shed and located next to the garbage dump. The community was developed by giving homes to individuals who were living on the dump. The school was both an elementary and high school, hosting younger students in the mornings and older students in the afternoon. Something special about this school is that they actually had a class teaching the students about the Bible, which is something that we had not seen before here in Nicaragua. While we were receiving a tour of the school, we got to participate in some unexpected service for the kids. We had the opportunity to help serve the students lunch which was an honor and so humbling!

Closing out our time in Managua, we met with Gonzalo, a general human rights activist in Nicaragua. He and his organization, CENIDH, are highly respected in the community. Often times people will report any issues to CENIDH, before reporting them to the police or other government authorities. People in Managua feel more comfortable working with CENIDH because of the amount of trust they have in the organization and how well they do their jobs. The government on the other hand, despises CENIDH. Overall, Gonzalo was a great speaker – he was funny, open, honest, and genuinely cared about or visit with his organization. He was able to paint an extraordinary picture for us about the way the government functions and explained the deeply rooted corruption that is experienced within the Nicaraguran government. Even though the government does not approve of CENIDH, they fight for the rights of so many Nicaraguran citizens. In our opinion it was a perfect way to end our time in Managua.

Stick around for blog #3 coming soon!

Hasta Luego,

Catalina y Alejandria

Continue reading →

As students at The Ohio State University, we are so honored to be apart of this life changing study abroad trip. We, Katelyn Gonzalez, a senior social work student and Alex Pickett, a graduating senior chemical engineering student, participated in the home stay portion of the trip together. While studying abroad in Nicaragua, we were presented with the opportunity to live with a social work student and their family for 3 days. This was a unique experience as it allowed us to truly dive in, absorb the culture and to learn first hand about the way of life here in Nicaragua. To be honest, everyone was a little anxious and nervous for the home stays, as we didn’t have any idea what to expect. It turns out that we all had eye-opening experiences that would impact us for the rest of our lives.

The home stay took place in the city of León, which is the second largest city in Nicaragua and about 56 miles (or 90 kilometers) away from Managua, the city in which our hotel is located. When we first arrived at the university in León, we were introduced to our host mother Sandra, who is a recent graduate of the social work program at the university. From the first moment we met her, she greeted us with open arms! Before we traveled home with Sandra, we also had the opportunity to interact with students studying social work. It was amazing to learn about how much we had in common with students – they all wanted to make an impact on their respective communities. Also, they are facing some of the same issues in regards to human rights and social work here in Nicaragua. It was amazing experience as we were able to bond over many things, including “selfies” and Facebook!

Once we were finished at the university, we walked back to Sandra’s house for lunch and met her family. Sandra lives with her 3 daughters, 3 grandchildren, son-in-law, and her husband. While staying with the family, there was not one time where we felt as if we didn’t belong; Sandra and her family went out of their way to make sure we felt as comfortable as possible – she accepted us into her family. The three things that we found most intriguing during our home stay, are listed below. 

1. The Language Barrier – One of the biggest challenges we faced was communicating with Sandra and her family, who spoke a completely different language than us. It was just as difficult for them to communicate with us as well. When we first met Sandra, she told us that we could only speak to her in Spanish – no English allowed! We were a bit nervous about this at first, but by the end of the stay we realized that Sandra only wanted us to get the most out the situation. There were many times when we found ourselves thinking back to our Spanish 2 classes we took in high school, hoping to remember some basic phrases to help us communicate! With lots of patience, hand movements, and asking lots of “comó se dice….”, we managed to accomplish so much, in so little time, including anything from getting basic needs met, to making friends for life.
2. Relationship Building – The biggest impact on our lives during the home stay was Sandra’s granddaughter, Britany, who is only 6 years old. When we first met her, she was coming home from school around 11:00am. Sandra told her to give us hugs and greetings, welcoming us into their home. From that point on, we instantly clicked with her and started having so much fun. Britany is really a 6 year old, going on 16. She is super patient, very intelligent, and takes on a lot of responsibility by helping her mother care for her twin brothers. Her outgoing personality allowed us to feel more comfortable. She always included us in games, shared her snacks and even made us some beautiful pictures. She also helped us with our Spanish as much as she could and in return we helped her learn some English. We plan on following up on Britany’s life and witnessing the many things she has yet to accomplish. All of the qualities that Brittany displayed, have the ability to take her so far in life. We hope Nicaraga continues to move forward and provides an opportunity to make their youth’s dreams a possibly. 
3.  Sense of Community – During our home stay we were able to see how important community is here in Nicaragua. Sandra’s community worked together, looked out for one another, and truly cared for everyone. We witnessed first hand how every person who walked by the house greeted us with “Buenas!” or how when Sandra needed eggs for breakfast, a neighbor was willing to lend her some. Nobody hesitated to stop by the house and talk to Sandra and in return Sandra always was willing to pull out a chair so they could sit down and relax. The community acted as one big family – it is a wonderful thing to see and a beautiful culture to follow.

This home stay was truly a great addition to the trip. It allowed us to take our learning farther than meetings and a hotel. This is really an experience that we will never forget.

P.S – Gallo Pinto is EVERYWHERE!!

Hasta luego,

Catalina y Alejandria

Continue reading →