I am now nearing the beginning of a new academic year and by now I have had he whole summer to reflect on our groups journey in Nicaragua.  One aspect of this in particular has been two questions we asked ourselves on the last evening in the country.  What will we take with us and what will we leave behind?  As the summer went on after returning home the best answer to that question came to me.  I became friends on facebook with some of the students from a university in Leon.  One of these students, who will remain anonymous for now, started a conversation with me and to this day it has yet to end.  We talk about where we live, what we do for fun, social issues, the news, school and anything else you will find two friends chatting about.

 This conversion is perhaps the most precious thing I have taken with me and left behind.  It is a two way street for giving the intangible gifts human contact provides.  In a broader sense it is one small part of the new and massive transmission of ideas our increasingly interconnected world has.  This is also something that should provide people with optimism concerning Nicaragua and other parts of the world with struggling democracies.  A free flow of ideas, an open conversation like the one I have with my new friend is something incredibly difficult to stop.  The internet has become even in the most censored of places a small cafe for a freethinker to carry with them and to find this gift we take and leave behind; a voice, a conversation and a friend.

Nicaragua is a truly diverse country.  One moment you may be in the middle of an over crowded city and the next moment on top of an active volcano.  You can go to the biggest lake in central America or look over a ridge to see a parched landscape.  There are people of many different ethnic groups and family backgrounds.  There are some of the wealthiest and most humble places you will ever see.  In Nicaragua there many different sights to see and people to meet but there is one thing that is the same in almost every location: the FSLN.    The FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) or the National Sandinista Liberation Front is the dominant political party in Nicaragua.

You can find its signature red and black flag outside every public building, hospital, national monument, telephone pole and even on rocks if they are flat enough to paint on.  It is almost always flying right next to the actual flag of Nicaragua.  Quite often it is flying at the same height.  To our group of American students this was shocking to see.  Imagine right now if when you went outside everyday the Democrat Donkey or Republican Elephant was flying boldly outside every police station in town.  It is also important to note that buildings with the FSLN flag tended to look nicer that those without.  This is consistent with the fact not being a party member makes it more difficult to access resources.

This says something about the state of politics in Nicaragua.  Here it is extremely difficult to get the word out about your own political movement because the FSLN controls all the advertising space.  It is the only party you will see your entire time in Nicaragua.  There are other parties and movements in the country but seeing as how the leader of the party, President Daniel Ortega, owns most of the TV outlets you will be hard pressed to find them.  We met one representative from the Sandinista Renovation Movement, an opposition party to the FSLN, at the end of our trip but that was it.  And She came to meet us at our hotel!  Even though Nicaragua is officially a democratic country it never really stopped reminding me of what a stereotypical 1960’s communist dictatorship looked like.  Lots of pictures of the Presidents face everywhere and the party’s flag waving proudly outside all the public buildings.  The FSLN dominates not just the government but most of what you see as well.  It is a party that is in control and it will not let you forget that while you are in Nicaragua.

We hope that in the future Nicaragua becomes more democratic but for now it is a very undemocratic country with a long way to go.