The Mayor

The meeting with the mayor was - okay. I got a bad impression of him - very machismo. He kept cutting off Julie and Claudia the whole meeting. So frustrating. I know that its cultural, but it was cultural in the US until the 70's / 80's. Hopefully with more time, more education, more women demanding respect, this will change in Nicaragua.

He is also someone who likes to just show up for grand openings and take some credit for things he has had little involvement with. For example, NICA built a baseball stadium here. He didn't help at all, but guess who was there at the grand opening wanting to speak?

So, after this negative introduction to the mayor (alcalde), here is what went down. He asked that we put the permanent library in the park. It's a place that is central, lots of youth congregate there, it's right by the stadium, and it's already public land. We thought that was a good idea. He promised to pay for half the building, he promised to help exempt the building from taxes, and if we make the building a "formal" donation to the Ministry of Education, the water, electricity, and internet will be free. For now, he promised to help Julie pay for those things since the temporary library will be in a building on her land.

Anyway, we'll see if that happens. That's a long term vision. He kept insisting that the library have 15 computers with fast internet so that the kids can take online courses. Great idea, but who's paying? I told him, when projects get too large, they don't happen. That this needs to be a building with books. So Claudia, with NICA (who is a tremendous help), said that we could plan a two phase library. Books first, then computers. And no free internet. With free internet no one reads books.

While we were in Nagarote, we ate Quesillos from a restaurant that has a farm out back. They make all their cheese and cream themselves. I must say that I will be eating more quesillos.

With my afternoon, I hired two neighbors, Julio and Cairo to help me clean Rancho Fifo (the temporary library location). We had to move about 60 bags of concrete mix and many other concrete related tools. I was a sweaty mess by the end, but with 20 cordoba's each ($1.00 USD = big money) in their pockets and the Rancho clean, we were satisfied.

It's wonderful to be here. When you drive you see volcanoes in the distance nearly everywhere you go. It's either an ominous existence, or a pleasurable one - not sure yet.

That's it for now. Tommorrow I meet with the teachers from the schools, carpenters who will modify some shelves that NICA donated, and with a local construction manager who will help me modify Julie's building slightly so it is more usable. Lots to do!