Another ISP week down, three more to go!

Hello everyone! Another week of the ISP period has gone by and I am feeling nothing short of swamped. I have been having some really great interviews and visits, but I spend so much time traveling to these meetings and working with Patricia that most all of my real work has to happen when I get home. As of right now, I have about five hours of Spanish interviews to transcribe, plus three large books that Patricia gave me on the structure of support groups to sift through, not to mention that I probably should start writing certain parts of my final paper at some point in the near future. Right now it feels like if I survive this, I just might survive my senior thesis next year. I guess we will have to see!

This week I met with different leaders in the HIV community and attended support groups, but the most impactful encounter I had was on Tuesday during a domestic visit. Patricia and I went to see a woman who had contracted HIV five years ago from her husband. She has six children, and currently lives in her mother´s house with about eleven other people. When we arrived, she was lying on the bed, and one of her daughter´s was helping to massage her arm and shake her joints because she was in so much pain. Her legs were covered in sores from an opportunistic infection, and when she needed to go to the bathroom, one of her daughters had to help her up and lead her slowly down the hall because she couldn´t walk. At one point, we sent one of the daughters to see how much an ointment would cost at the pharmacy down the road, and she came back and reported 40 córdobas. Unfortunately, when the other girl looked in her mother´s wallet, they had nothing. 40 córdobas...that is less than two dollars...how does this happen? Patricia and I each gave her 20 and she went to buy it, but that was only this time because we were there. What happens when she needs something else?

In the United States, people can live for years with HIV, but here in Nicaragua and other poor countries around the world, people deteriorate much faster just because they don´t have the money to buy the resources they need. It has only been five years, and this woman is already so close to death. And what did she do to deserve this? Marry a man who decided to cheat on her with an infected person? It is so difficult to comprehend. I stayed up for hours that night thinking about it, and I still don´t know what to think because it is so unfair. Next week, I will be visiting people with HIV in hospitals, and I am worried that this Tuesday´s visit isn´t the worst I will see over the course of this month.

In other news, the elections are finally over, but then again, they are far from over. The Sandista candidate won here in Managua, and the response was outrageous. My aunt started getting drunk at 5PM and played the same love ballad on repeat for two hours. The fireworks after the results were officially announced lasted until 3AM, and every so often another one goes off like a gunshot in the streets. The Sandinistas have loud caravans driving throughout the city, waving flags, playing music, and screaming to the excitement of the children playing in the streets.

Unfortunately, there have been some other issues too - Eduardo Montealegre, the PLC candidate who lost, was really banking on winning the elections in order to gain political immunity. He had been accused of certain illegal doings during his time as finance minister, and therefore really needed this victory to save his butt. As a result, there has been a surge of protests and violence, including a journalist who was attacked a few days ago and two children who got caught in the action. Today, when I went to the university to find some things I needed for my project, they were checking IDs at the all of the entrances and it took me a while to convince them that I had the right to enter. The US Embassy has also been sending out messages, but my mamá says that she things it will die down in the next few days. It is so hard to know what is true - the people are so aligned with their parties that they refuse to admit their party members are participating in the uproar. Also, it is impossible to get a straight story from the news, because all the channels and newspapers lean with certain parties. Who knows if I will ever get the real story!

Other than these sorts of stresses, I am feeling pretty good. This weekend, I will be going with Chelsea M. to visit Kendall on the island of Ometepe, which Nicaraguans call "the most beautiful place on Earth". I am very excited to visit, and it will definitely be a good break from all the problems in Managua. We will be staying on the isthmus inbetween the two volcanoes at Playa Santo Domingo, chilling on the beach, and working on our projects. Gosh...doing my homework on the beach in one of the most beautiful places in the world...what a life!

That is it for today - hopefully I will be able to write and post some pictures when I get back from Ometepe. For now, as a sort of thank you for reading some of the depressing parts of my post or just for taking the time out to come to my blog site, here is something that always makes me happier...pictures and videos of babies and other small children! (especially for you Lila!)

This is Melaña, a girl I met in the campo of El Salvador!
My 10 month old niece, Ashley Nicolle, at my house on Sunday!
My 4 year old niece, Francesca!
A boy I met at one of the support groups I attended this week. I gave him a Hershey´s Kiss, and as you can tell, there is more on his face and hands than in his mouth!


And finally, this is my 10 month old niece again, but this time she is dancing! Note that she can´t stand on her own, so she is leaning against the chair for support...hehe...


Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Love,
Nicole