The first, annual Ometepe University Fair 2012.

Event planning is stressful in the United States, now remember folks that I live in Nicaragua. And, we can just say things run a little bit differently here. This is a culture that when you ask someone to confirm their presence they respond with “si Dios quiere” or “Dios primero” which means if God wants it, it will happen. Or telling someone to arrive at 8:00 am means within the hour of eight o’clock if they show up at all. These aren’t exactly the circumstances you hope for when trying put on an event of some caliber.

After hearing “si Dios quiere” a few too many times, it obviously meant that, in fact, God did not want to donate to my university fair. So, I headed out as a gringa (white girl) to ask Nicaraguans for money. Now based on the blank stares I received, I am pretty sure they were wondering why I as the white girl was asking them for money. Humiliating. 

To put the past two months of work into perspective, some days were kind of hellish. For example, I tried for a three weeks every other day to talk to someone in the Mayor’s office about supporting the project. Well it just so happens that on this particular day, I decided if I needed to sit there all day long and wait, I would. I really needed a response. I was the first to arrive at 7:30 and soon a large group filtered in to support a local woman.  As I sat in the rocking chair next to the woman for two hours, wailing her heart out like I have never in my life heard and holding her dead baby in her arms, I began to question what I was doing. 

Two days later, exhausted and feeling pretty fragile, I was challenged by a nasty business owner (who is in fact an ex-patriot himself) as a young North American pretending to understand my terrain and coming here just to impose my ideas on others. He not only was speaking very poorly of my culture but then went on to say very cruel things about the motivation of locals to better their lives. The poor, old bitter man in fact doesn’t realize that 1. he is profiting off of this island from the North Americans tourists he speaks so poorly of 2. I still can’t believe that for as long as he has lived here and tried to claim this island as home, how could he be so out of touch? Excuse me for trying. I’ve always been a little bit hard headed, so noone is going to tell me that I am not going to be able to do something. This unnamed gentleman went further to complain to the Peace Corps Nicaragua office about a review that went on a travel website after someone heard the conversation. At this point, buddy, there is no way I would even have the time or energy to write such a review.

Disenchanted, this same day, I went home my plan being to try and and sleep it off. Stepping into my latrine I heard a crack. As I felt myself falling farther and farther down on an already broken tailbone, I couldn’t believe that things had gotten to this point. When I tried to climb up the sides of the wall, the dirt broke, I was too far down to pull myself out, noone heard my yells, and I was scared to death of what kinds of creatures were down there. Eventually I found a way finding a way to shimmy my way out. Pardon my french but talk about a day of literally being shit on.

Before I knew it, it was fair day. And kids were showing up.. all 100 of them.

The 10 best students from each of the 10 high schools on the island were invited to attend the first University Fair on the island. The event was held at the local university. At the fair, we started with a review of a vocational exam, and then brought in representatives from 10 universities around the country, organizations to talk about available scholarships, and 5 professionals from the island to speak as role models to the kids. 

After two months of being a crazy workaholic, I can say that I have honestly never done anything like that. I have never fully put myself out there like that and been the sole one responsible for an event of that scale. I continued to think, crap, if I screwed up.. I will have ruined my reputation on the entire island. It’s not like I can pick up and leave to work in another community. Everyone would know. Also, the community had invested their money hoping to see something come from it. I can say it was almost entirely community supported which I am, in fact, very proud of. This means that mean Mr. Unnamed business owner is completely wrong. This is something that members of the community wanted and because they are “the owners” of the project more or less in their funding it is more likely to be continued.

At the beginning of the day when the mass of students started to arrive, I swore that I would never plan an event in Nicaragua again.  This was going to be a disaster. However, as the day wound down and everyone began to leave, I found overcome my emotion as four students approached me to tell me how thankful they were for the opportunity to attend and how the event had opened doors that they’d never known existed.

There are few memorable times in my life that I have truly felt tears of absolute joy. Something happened to me following the event. I discovered a new feeling, a sense of love almost, coming from a place I had never known before. This job can be so hard sometimes when their are breakdowns in communication between cultures, an overwhelming sense of vulnerability, and sometimes you might even get trapped in the bottom of a latrine. But, it is absolutely worth it and I can honestly say that I love my job. It has brought a sense of meaning and purpose to my life that I have never known. Many days that I am here and question what I am doing here at all. However, if I can walk away from this experience having inspired 100 kids from around this island and ask them for the first time ever what they really want to be when they grow up, I think I can walk away content. I may not do everything, but I have at least done something.