August 1999 Delegation Report
Please note that most pictures in this report were taken by Jeremy
Hogan, photojournalist, and are with permission of the Bloomington
Herald-Times.
The July 31st Bloomington-Posoltega Sister Cities Committee Delegation
concluded its last activity on September 5, 1999. It was a multi-faceted
delegation. Altogether 24 persons participated. They offered bonds of
friendship and a variety of services intended to mitigate the damage
caused by Hurricane Mitch.
The first theme of the delegation, stress reduction, took the form
of
individual and group therapy sessions designed to teach Posoltegan
hurricane refugees skills they can use on their own to help themselves,
their family members, and other survivors. At the same time, these
sessions served as an enjoyable distraction from the stresses of their
everyday lives. A variety of stress reduction techniques and physical
therapies were taught. The techniques included acupressure, healing
touch, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The delegation
included persons certified to conduct the various therapies and
techniques. Others involved children in stress reduction activities which
included art, music, movement and games, led by a specialist in this
field. Delegates assisted and translated as appropriate. With the
children we followed the model of the popular "Caruseles" currently being
conducted in Nicaragua for stress reduction. A Posoltega volunteer
proficient in this model did on-site training and participated in the
events. (For the first time in our 12-year history we felt we had enough
translators.)
Another goal of this delegation was to document the current situation in
Posoltega and to bring this news to the citizens of Bloomington, Indiana.
Bloomington has supported and celebrated their sister city relationship
with Posoltega over the past twelve years and especially in the aftermath
of the hurricane and mudslide which killed 2500 of Posoltega's pre-Mitch
population of 16,000. Having lost 2500 lives, over 3,000 homes, and 100%
of the harvest, the already impoverished agricultural town was left in
shambles and in a state of post traumatic shock. Amazing progress has
been made, physically and psychologically, although an overwhelming amount
of need remains. Only a handful of permanent houses have been built,
thousands are still in temporary tents provided by the Red Cross, AID, or
other international agencies. They are still dependent on donated food
and medicines for survival. The rainy season will pass with little
agricultural activity due to economic and physical conditions. Members
of the delegation, two journalists from the Bloomington Herald-Times,
recorded personal accounts, met with key political, religious, medical and
community leaders, and took extensive photographs. In addition, they
experienced firsthand, by virtue of their participation in the delegation,
something of hardships of life and the stresses associated with this
fragile environment. They, too, walked miles in the heat, the dust and
the rain and had to cope with a series of earthquakes in Posoltega and
volcanic eruptions in nearby Leon.
One particularly hearty member of the delegation joined the forces of
Posoltega's day laborers, working in construction and agriculture. She
learned what it feels like to walk miles to work an entire day for a
salary of generally a little less than $2.
Another project leader focused on nursing activities and support to
education at the primary and secondary levels, presenting a VHS, a tape
recorder and English language tapes and videos for the students at the
High School. A Bloomington teacher from Harmony High School presented a
guitar made by Bloomington students, laying a foundation for a
sister school relationship between his school and Posoltega's only
secondary school.
In addition to participating in a variety of stress reduction and other
project activities, the delegates had opportunities to participate in a
series of formal and informal interviews with survivors of the disaster,
community leaders and members of other international donor agencies.
Outstanding among these sometimes spontaneous, sometimes planned meetings
were visits with Candida Mendez Canales (a survivor), Father Benjamin
Villareal (pastor of Jesus del Nazarene Catholic Church of
Posoltega), Vice-Mayor Mayra Guevara, the Director and other personnel of
the Posoltega Health Center, Don~a Orbelina Soza Meirena (Chair
of the Posoltega-Bloomington Committee who has overseen our aid
distribution), and the donor agencies involved in the development of the
community Santa Maria. The conversations with Candida, Padre Villareal
and Vice Mayor Guevara were particularly moving as each recounted his/her
personal experiences throughout the catastrophy and its aftermath.
The final activity of the delegation was a limited eye care clinic for
survivors. Sixty individuals were seen by a team of Nicaraguan
optometrists. A Nicaraguan optometrist now living in
Washington State
made arrangements through our program to visit Posoltega with fellow
Nicaraguan optometrists from Managua on September 5th.
The participants in this summer's 1999 Bloomington-Posoltega Sister Cities
Delegation came from Bloomington and across the nation, including
California, Washington State, Washington, DC, Maryland, and other cities
in Indiana. A major contingency represented the First United Methodist
Church of Bloomington. The participants also included scores of
Posoltegans who opened their arms, their hearts and their homes to us, and
with whom we worked, partied and shared the joys and sorrows of our lives.
Three hundred and fifty white temporary housing units are being
constructed for the family that will comprise the community. When we
arrived, approximately 250 had been completed. At a rate of about fifty
houses every 2 weeks, they expected to have all the temporary homes
completed by August 30th. These are white heavy platic tent-like walls
around a simple wood frame with a tin roof. The next step will be the
construction of the permanent homes to begin in September. The materials
for the permanent homes are to be delivered in quantities for one hundred
houses per shipment. They expected the construction of each one hundred
homes to take about three months. At that rate all the homes should be
completed before the end of the year 2000.
Forty acres of the total 180 acres of Santa Maria were purchased by funds
from Bloomington. This community of survivors from the two villages
obliterated by Hurricane Mitch, namely, Rolando Rodriguez and El Porvenir,
are still dependent on the Bloomington-Posoltega Committee and World Food
Program (PMA) for food provisions. The PMA has promised to supply rice
and beans. The Bloomington Committee is distributing family packages of
powdered milk, sardines, coffee, cooking oil, sugar, soap, and chlorox to
purify water, once per month. These are minimal provisions and the people
are still hungry. Volunteer community members are working on the
construction of the homes. They receive meals while working. (In
addition to Santa Maria, the Bloomington Committee is also providing food
provisions for the refugee site named Los Angeles because it was assisted
initially by a group of Posoltegans now living in Los Angeles. Their
funds have been exhausted and we've taken them into our program).
In addition to food provisions, we maintain an emergency fund intended
to assist individuals with extreme needs, especially for medical care.
For example, while we were in Posoltega, funds were authorized for an
electrocardiogram, for a consultation for a hernia surgery, and for the
removal of several large cysts from a woman's neck. We also continue to
purchase medicines for the Health Center as requested by the health center
personnel. Towards the end of our visit everyone was thrilled because
they said "President Clinton's Medicines" had arrived to Posoltega. In
Santa Maria one temporary house was reserved for medical attention
delivered by doctors who visit the community two days each week and by
nurses who visit periodically at other times. We met representatives of
Socorro Popular Frances (a French-based organization working in health
services) in Santa Maria, looking for a way to help.
While in Posoltega a project design and budget were developed for the
beautification and nutritional and economic benefit of Santa Maria. The
primary expert for this project is one of our most successful
Posoltega university scholarship students, Yader Peralta, who is studying
at the School of Agriculture in Rivas. Yader's project would put fruit
trees in every patio in Santa Maria. Avacado and papaya would be the
primary fruits because of their economic and nutritional value. Once
abundant in the region, they have become increasingly scarce and therefore
would be quite marketable, in addition to providing important nutrition
for the families. Papaya trees are one of the loveliest, and both are a
source of cooling shade and natural beauty. We are seeking funds to
support the initiation of this project before the end of 1999,
to coincide with the completion of the first set of 100 permanent homes.
It seems a natural fit for Bloomington, sometimes called the City
of Trees.
A sewing project is being initiated in Santa Maria under the
auspices of the community development organization which has set up an
office and selected the name ASCA (Asociacion de los Sobrevivientes del
cerro CAsitas/The Association of Survivors of volcano CAsitas). A tent for
now (to be replaced by a permanent community center) is reserved the
women's sewing project which should be an outlet for training and
employment. A volunteer teacher is now providing instruction. The
Bloomington community is supporting her travel and meals with a $28 per
month stipend. It is expected that within six months enough women will be
sufficiently trained to be able to take over as instructors. This project
has received significant support from members of the 1st Presbyterian
Church of Bloomington.
There is hunger though no one will starve. There are smiling faces,
though memories bring quick tears; and there are children playing,
though there is virtually nothing to play with. (A group of 12 young boys
about 10-14 years old visited me to request bats, balls, mits and shoes,
so they could organize a baseball team.) The men involved
in construction and planning are busy. There is some very limited
agriculture, sugar cane, that keeps others occupied. The men
not-so-occupied have too much time with too little to do. Not
surprisingly, the women's work is never done:
transporting water, caring for children, cooking and laundry. Searching
for firewood is another on-going chore for both men and women who
sometimes have to walk long distances in this quest.
Some widowers and widows are beginning to marry and blend their families.
Still, the plaintive voices of groups gathered in prayful song convey an
emotional intensity and pain of suffering that is unmistakable. The
chrillness of their voices, their grimaced faces and their tense postures
today are but a distorted reminder of the full and joyful sound of the
hymns I heard them sing so frequently in years past. I think that now the
singing unleashes their emotions and is simultaneously a source of pain
and comfort.
Overall, morale continues to improve. No longer refugees sleeping on
school floors and hot black tents on other people's land, they are now
living on the land that is their new community. They are developing a
sense of pride in this new place! While there I was presented with
the sign they had made to thank Bloomington for bringing together again
the communities of Rolando Rodriguez and El Porvenir. Although they are
living in temporary housing, essentially they are in their new home which
sees progress each day as the last of the temporary houses was recently
completed and they look forward to seeing the first of the permanent homes
go up. They will always be the survivors from Rolando Rodriguez and El
Porvenir, but now they are also the community of Santa Maria. Bloomington
and all who helped to make that possible should be rightfully proud!