At the end of July Maria Ester gave me a call. She is the director of a small private university that has got a branch in Juigalpa.
“Astrid, would you like to teach psychology students? I need a teacher. The lessons will take place on Saturdays before noon. The courses to be taught are ‘sociology’ to first year students and ‘organisation psychology’ to students in their third year. The groups to be taught will be small”.
I indicated I was open to the idea, but I wanted more information about the overall aims of the courses and the themes to be covered in each of them. So we arranged to meet each other later that week.
Preparations
During that week we had a lively ‘what’s app’ exchange. Maria Ester apologized that she had not yet received any information on the contents of the courses from Managua. So I ended up developing the curricula for the two courses myself based on internet research and my own insights. The courses were scheduled for the months of August and September. Fortunately the courses were for small groups of 3 and 6 students, although there was a hitch: they expected me to teach both groups in the same class room at the same time. We tried this for the first lesson, but it was not satisfactory that I had to switch my attention from one group to the other all the time. The students were not happy either so we decided that in the next lessons I would first teach one group for 45 minutes, then the other.
Of course it takes time to find and prepare lesson materials that students can use in the class room or at home between lessons. My efforts were rewarded with a superb salary of $ 2,- USD per lesson, no zero or zeros omitted! But this involvement is not about financial gain. I like sharing knowledge, I love a challenge and it is great to be able to contribute to training young people. It also is an opportunity to promote our Ruach Home at the University which may result in exploring the possibility of students from the University doing an internship at Ruach.
Implementation
The two courses are nearly over by now. The lessons have gone well, and I was able to bridge the two weeks that I was away in Colombia with the help of a colleague and by giving students a task that they were expected to carry out independently. My ‘headache’ for the next week is how to assess each student’s work. There is no grading system, and I’m still at the stage of feeling my way into the matter of what I may reasonably expect from the students. How high or low do I raise the bar?
The current situation for many students in Nicaragua
Many universities in Nicaragua were closed between April and September, because many students were involved in protests against the Government or even occupied some universities to add force to their protests. As with other demonstrators students also experienced brute force from the police and a government that ignored the protests. Since then police and para-military police have ‘liberated’ the Universities and broken down the barricades inside and on the edge of university towns. In September universities opened their doors again, but for far fewer students, as many are afraid of being arrested, especially if they have been involved in the protests that are still on-going.
Students can be arrested by police at the universities without an arrest warrant. This has already happened to 24 student leaders who have been illegally imprisoned and tortured (psychologically and/or physically). They and other students in their mid-20s run the risk of being convicted (based on a new Terrorism Act) to 30-40 years in prison without a just court case.
Some students have fled abroad, many to Costa Rica. Rich families have opted to send their sons or daughters to other countries where they have relatives to give their children a chance to finish their studies there. Finally, the socio-political crisis has had a negative impact on the economy so several students can no longer afford to finish their studies in Nicaragua. The enrolment in Nicaragua universities has dropped by 30-50%.
Future
‘Young people own the future’. But what kind of future? In hard times such as these, which have already lasted 5 months, it is a matter of having the desire to be a light in the darkness, no matter how big and black this darkness is. Together we can make a difference!