Nicaragua!
Last week I had the chance to do probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. A few weeks ago, my department at university emailed around that the Organization of American States was looking for young Canadians to participate in their first Youth Electoral Observation Mission. The presidential elections in Nicaragua were occurring, and in addition to the observers they were already sending they wanted to have youth participation. I emailed in my application, and I was accepted!
At first thought, it seemed like a pretty awesome all-expenses paid trip to Nicaragua. What it was, was something SO much more than that, and it was definitely NOT a vacation, it was exhausting, but totally worth it.
For those of you who want the short version, here are the main points:
-I met about 40 other youth (mostly Latin American) who were honestly some of the best people I’ve ever met. Super buena gente. Fun, intelligent, articulate, great! Totally open and I never felt bad about the fact I'm not a native Spanish speaker
-I stayed in the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in while traveling in Latin America
-Staying in fancy places apparently does not agree with me (some food issues)
-I had a scorpion in my pants (literally) and was stung twice
-I met the ex-president of Argentina Raul Alfonsin
-I observed electoral activity for like 16 hours in one day (fun!)
-I went to many of the same places I’d already been to in Nicaragua and a random man recognized me in the market
-We found ourselves in the middle of a Sandinista victory rally
-Canadians know how to party, we definitely represented
This experience was really awesome because it related directly to a bunch of stuff I’ve been studying at school- things like democracy in action, role of civil society, and other things that make me sound like a massive dork when I talk about them. It was really interesting to be able to see things in the real world that are related to what I’m studying though. I’ll stop talking about that now.
The schedule for my trip was pretty intensive. Two days were basically spent there and back in transit, one day in training (a reallllly looooong day), one day going to the location where we would be observing the election, election day, return to training, debrief, and trip home! Whew…
I was a bit sick when I was there so all my new friends got to hear my man-voice. I still did sing karaoke on the last night with that awful voice. Awesome!
While in Nicaragua we had our training at a resort near the Laguna de Apoyo which is really beautiful, and fun to swim in because it’s a volcanic crater and sometimes the water is hot in some spots and cold in the others. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to do that much, but I managed to go in once before I left. The Canadians tried to spend some time in the sun while the rest of the delegation was complaining about the 35 degree heat and humidity.
Probably the most entertaining story I have to tell is the scorpion story. It was so weird. Honestly. I actually had a scorpion in my pants. WHILE I WAS WEARING THEM. We were waiting for the cars to come and take us to the place where we would be observing the elections. We were all standing outside when I felt something bite my leg and it really stung! I thought it was just a mosquito or something, and just tried to get over it. A few minutes later the vehicles arrived and I was sitting in the backseat with a Bolivian girl. All of a sudden I felt something again! I figured it was a thorn, or something random and started to shake my pant leg to see what fell out. You know what fell out? A LIVE SCORPION! So I start screaming and freaking out and flick my foot and the scorpion flies over and lands near the Bolivian girl’s foot. She starts screaming too! Luckily, we hadn’t left yet so we opened the doors and got outside and started to jump up and down and scream. All the coordinators run over and completely do not believe us when we tell them, but then they found the scorpion and killed it. Then I was “scorpion girl”. It was funny, a Costa Rican guy assured me that the scorpions in Nicaragua weren’t that poisonous because the REALLY dangerous ones were in Africa. These ones were just kind of annoying.
The scorpion thing actually turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise because originally I was supposed to go to a rural city but then I ended up staying in Managua because they wanted to keep an eye on me. That meant less time traveling AND I met the ex-president of Argentina because he was at the OAS headquarters in Managua. I even have a picture to prove it! He was a totally cute man, gave me a kiss on the cheek and everything.
Election Day was really interesting. Really tiring, since we I was “observing” from 6:00am to 10:30pm but interesting. I ended up in Ciudad Sandino, which is about 20 minutes outside of Managua. I asked someone before I went if it was big. Yes, it’s big, but it’s not much of a city. It’s pretty rural. I learned a lot about the Nicaraguan electoral process and it really made me think about the Canadian process as well. It was kind of frustrating at times because people wanted us to solve their problems, but we weren’t actually allowed to interfere or do anything.
Something I was so impressed by was the Nicaraguan people. There were people waiting in line for HOURS to vote-- in the sun, rain, everything. They were committed to expressing their political will and it was amazing to see. The voter turnout was honestly so much higher than in Canada. You could tell who had voted because after people vote they apply ink to their right thumb. So everyone was walking around with red thumbs. It was one of those experiences that while you are doing it, the experience is so intense and tiring that you think, “I’ll never do this again” but when it’s over you realize how much you took from it and you totally want to do it all over again.
In terms of touristy stuff, we hit up a few markets (where some guy asked me if I’d been to Nicaragua before because he recognized me), and went to a lookout that’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful views in Nicaragua. Right when we got there it started to rain though. Which was funny because I went there a few years ago when I was backpacking through Central America and the EXACT same thing happened. Just as soon as we got there-- rain and clouds. Oh well. We also went to Granada but were severely behind schedule and ended up spending only about 15 minutes there since there was a massive Sandinista victory rally on.
It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after such an intense bonding experience, but hopefully we'll stay in touch. Thank you msn! All in all, an amazing and motivating experience. And free! Hmm...wonder if I can go to Venezuela?
At first thought, it seemed like a pretty awesome all-expenses paid trip to Nicaragua. What it was, was something SO much more than that, and it was definitely NOT a vacation, it was exhausting, but totally worth it.
For those of you who want the short version, here are the main points:
-I met about 40 other youth (mostly Latin American) who were honestly some of the best people I’ve ever met. Super buena gente. Fun, intelligent, articulate, great! Totally open and I never felt bad about the fact I'm not a native Spanish speaker
-I stayed in the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in while traveling in Latin America
-Staying in fancy places apparently does not agree with me (some food issues)
-I had a scorpion in my pants (literally) and was stung twice
-I met the ex-president of Argentina Raul Alfonsin
-I observed electoral activity for like 16 hours in one day (fun!)
-I went to many of the same places I’d already been to in Nicaragua and a random man recognized me in the market
-We found ourselves in the middle of a Sandinista victory rally
-Canadians know how to party, we definitely represented
This experience was really awesome because it related directly to a bunch of stuff I’ve been studying at school- things like democracy in action, role of civil society, and other things that make me sound like a massive dork when I talk about them. It was really interesting to be able to see things in the real world that are related to what I’m studying though. I’ll stop talking about that now.
The schedule for my trip was pretty intensive. Two days were basically spent there and back in transit, one day in training (a reallllly looooong day), one day going to the location where we would be observing the election, election day, return to training, debrief, and trip home! Whew…
I was a bit sick when I was there so all my new friends got to hear my man-voice. I still did sing karaoke on the last night with that awful voice. Awesome!
While in Nicaragua we had our training at a resort near the Laguna de Apoyo which is really beautiful, and fun to swim in because it’s a volcanic crater and sometimes the water is hot in some spots and cold in the others. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to do that much, but I managed to go in once before I left. The Canadians tried to spend some time in the sun while the rest of the delegation was complaining about the 35 degree heat and humidity.
Probably the most entertaining story I have to tell is the scorpion story. It was so weird. Honestly. I actually had a scorpion in my pants. WHILE I WAS WEARING THEM. We were waiting for the cars to come and take us to the place where we would be observing the elections. We were all standing outside when I felt something bite my leg and it really stung! I thought it was just a mosquito or something, and just tried to get over it. A few minutes later the vehicles arrived and I was sitting in the backseat with a Bolivian girl. All of a sudden I felt something again! I figured it was a thorn, or something random and started to shake my pant leg to see what fell out. You know what fell out? A LIVE SCORPION! So I start screaming and freaking out and flick my foot and the scorpion flies over and lands near the Bolivian girl’s foot. She starts screaming too! Luckily, we hadn’t left yet so we opened the doors and got outside and started to jump up and down and scream. All the coordinators run over and completely do not believe us when we tell them, but then they found the scorpion and killed it. Then I was “scorpion girl”. It was funny, a Costa Rican guy assured me that the scorpions in Nicaragua weren’t that poisonous because the REALLY dangerous ones were in Africa. These ones were just kind of annoying.
The scorpion thing actually turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise because originally I was supposed to go to a rural city but then I ended up staying in Managua because they wanted to keep an eye on me. That meant less time traveling AND I met the ex-president of Argentina because he was at the OAS headquarters in Managua. I even have a picture to prove it! He was a totally cute man, gave me a kiss on the cheek and everything.
Election Day was really interesting. Really tiring, since we I was “observing” from 6:00am to 10:30pm but interesting. I ended up in Ciudad Sandino, which is about 20 minutes outside of Managua. I asked someone before I went if it was big. Yes, it’s big, but it’s not much of a city. It’s pretty rural. I learned a lot about the Nicaraguan electoral process and it really made me think about the Canadian process as well. It was kind of frustrating at times because people wanted us to solve their problems, but we weren’t actually allowed to interfere or do anything.
Something I was so impressed by was the Nicaraguan people. There were people waiting in line for HOURS to vote-- in the sun, rain, everything. They were committed to expressing their political will and it was amazing to see. The voter turnout was honestly so much higher than in Canada. You could tell who had voted because after people vote they apply ink to their right thumb. So everyone was walking around with red thumbs. It was one of those experiences that while you are doing it, the experience is so intense and tiring that you think, “I’ll never do this again” but when it’s over you realize how much you took from it and you totally want to do it all over again.
In terms of touristy stuff, we hit up a few markets (where some guy asked me if I’d been to Nicaragua before because he recognized me), and went to a lookout that’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful views in Nicaragua. Right when we got there it started to rain though. Which was funny because I went there a few years ago when I was backpacking through Central America and the EXACT same thing happened. Just as soon as we got there-- rain and clouds. Oh well. We also went to Granada but were severely behind schedule and ended up spending only about 15 minutes there since there was a massive Sandinista victory rally on.
It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after such an intense bonding experience, but hopefully we'll stay in touch. Thank you msn! All in all, an amazing and motivating experience. And free! Hmm...wonder if I can go to Venezuela?
1 Comments:
What a great time, scorpion girl and president kisser! I'd pay to hear you sing karaoke with your man voice. I remember it was velmi sexy.
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