After a 24 hour journey I arrived back in Nicaragua in the evening, spent the night in Managua and travelled the next day to Juigalpa by coach, so it was a nice gradual transition. I was warmly welcomed back home. The assistants and the ‘home mates’ Jose, Jonathan and Daniel were visibly excited. Daniel’s smile did not leave his face for the rest of the evening.
The first week
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Although I had physically arrived back home, my ‘being’ needed more time to adjust. I was lucky that there were some special activities in the remainder of the week that kept me indoor’ and helped me to gradually find my feet again.
The day after I returned, a Thursday, was All Soul’s Remembrance Day which this year was declared a Public Holiday. Many people visit the cemetery to put flowers on the graves of their loved ones. It is a busy day from early in the morning to the evening.
Three days later were the Elections for Mayors in Nicaragua, which meant a busy time for specific people in spite of a low turn-out of less than 30% according to the La Prensa journal.
A little more about elections. From year to year the press appears to become more negative about the democratic calibre of the different elections in Nicaragua, and it is noticeable that people have become more apathetic. The election results may give a hint as to why: in 132 of the 153 municipalities the newly-chosen mayors belonged to the governing FSLN party (La Prensa, 7 November). In January the new mayors will take office. How will this ‘change of the guard’ affect our work in Juigalpa? Personal connections are important in increasing one’s chances for government support. We are lucky that we have established good rapport with the new Mayor and Vice Mayor, but only time will tell how this will work out.
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I spent a lot of time in my first days back home finding out from all employees how well the place had been run during my absence. It’s worthwhile spending time on this so that ‘experiences’ are turned into ‘learning points’, at the team and individual levels. My absence highlighted the weaker aspects in our functioning, and it is crucial that we do not get stuck in what has been, but analyse why it happened the way it did. If our team is able to carry out this kind of analysis and then find structural solutions, we will be making a great leap forward as a team, which currently consists , from left to right, of: Silvia, Heysel, Mayela, myself, and Carmen.
The work we do is pioneering work. There is no road without obstacles. It is clear that all of us would like to grow in our roles and to become a stronger, more robust team. So isn’t that a good result?
Other results are that Daniel now seems to have a fixed time every evening when he uses the loo, something we weren’t able to get him to do for the last year. And Loyda is now able to put back the plastic chair that she uses when she participates in a group activity. This also says something about the quality of our work: the assistants move beyond a caring role and become more tuned in to working with a focus on development!