Sunday, December 9, 2007

December 6, 2007

Today was interesting. I awoke to Kai telling me that there was a dead dog outside the house. Dona Carmen, our next door neighbor, without looking said it was probably sleeping. An hour later, I walked around to that side of our house, and sure enough, there was the dog from across the street, dead as could be. I went and got Dona Carmen, and she immediately recognized the dog from across the street. The owners came over, looked at the dog, and got a rope. They tied the rope to the dogs hind feet, and three little girls drug it across the street and back to their house, without much fuss. They figured it was poisoned, as it was in good health compared to most dogs here. As it seems the dogs have some communication between themselves, I can only imagine what gossip must be going on in their language of who killed their comrade. I figured it wasn’t a great way to start the day.
Needless to say, our day went surprisingly well. We had a combined meeting with El Islote and El Cerrito, on the northern side of El Menco. Again, we had good participation from this group. The numbers for this meeting continue to stay strong. Today we began to look at the 8 Millennium Goals, learn more about them, and learn what are priorities for the community. We broke into groups, and each group picked a goal written on a piece of paper from a bag. They then had to act out their goal while the rest of the people guessed what it was. I was a bit concerned about this activity, wondering if they’d be able to do it, but they came through with some great skits, with props and all! Afterward we discussed more about the goals, and listed them in order of importance. 1 being the most important, 10 being the least important. Here’s what they concluded:

Millennium Goal Priorities for El Islote and El Cerrito

Develop a global partnership for development. (This was localized. They decided that without formulating a vision and a plan for development, they’ll never be able to address the other issues.)
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Achieve universal primary education.
Promote gender equality and empower women.
Ensure environmental sustainability.
Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other serious diseases.
Improve maternal health.
Reduce child mortality.

For numbers 6-8 the group concluded that they don’t really have problems with these goals in the community.

I also thought I’d tell you about an activity we did last week. Working sector by sector, we listed all of the assets that the community had- from trees for firewood to schools and churches. We came up with a large list of over 100 assets to the community. This is an interesting activity to do with people. When asked to list their problems, they can go on forever, but when starting with assets, it inspires thought and appreciation, as well as the basis for potential future projects. At first most lists began with 10 things, but as they thought more, many things surfaced. Here´s what the Millennium Village Committee listed as the top ten assets to the community:

Top Ten Assets in El Menco

New latrines
Primary School
Health Center
People own property.
New houses
Love
Lake Nicaragua
People know how to read and write
The churches
Feeding program for children


December 9, 2007
I also thought I´d share with you a community tour that was conducted yesterday. A leader from El Cerrito took people from Las Piedras and Santa Barbara to the other side, so they could get to know the community better. The group was mostly women, which was good because they so seldomly get out of the house.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth,

Wonderful posts.

The details you choose to include are helping me get some kind of sense of
what life is like there.

A community gratitude list, what a great idea.

Thanks,
Kent

LoonWatch said...

Elizabeth,

We wanted to wish you and Kai a safe and happy Holiday season! We enjoy reading the blog and keeping up with your travels and agendas. Good luck and we'll see you in the new year!

Stacy and all at the 'tute

Joanna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joanna said...

Hi Elizabeth and Kai,

I just read through all of your blog entries. Everything that you have been working on in the past couple of months sounds very interesting and inspiring. The photos in themselves show a very beautiful area and unique culture. I hope that you both have had a great start to the new year and that everything continues to go well. Thanks for sharing all of your work and experiences through your blogs.

Take care,

Joanna