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The GoodLetter Thursday, March 28, 2002
GoodThings, Inc. :: Stories, actions, ideas, and greeting cards that connect us.
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This Week's Feature
Becoming the Big Picture
In rural Nicaragua, a Peace Corps Volunteer moves far beyond her initial job description and creates a vibrant international connection designed to improve the futures of the children of her village.
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Fellow GoodLetter readers,
Before I was a teenager, my best friend, Liz, and I would talk with her uncle about his Peace Corps adventures in Africa. I loved to hear the stories. Later, when I was in high school and then college, the idea of being a Peace Corps Volunteer began to seem more real. I would read articles about volunteers, their incredible adventures, and the genuine love they all seemed to share for their jobs. It seemed they were all part of "the big picture" that I so wanted to connect with.
I remember when the Peace Corps recruiter came and spoke at my college, I already knew I would be going. Frightening as it was, my mind was made up, and you can ask anyone who knows me, nothing was going to change it.
I signed up to be a Peace Corps Volunteer helping farmers in Nicaragua. I did not speak one word of Spanish, nor did I know the first thing about agriculture. But I believed that I could do it and that I would learn the things I needed to know in order to help as much as I could.
I began my two-year, three-month adventure in September 2000. I learned Spanish and received basic agriculture training while living with a family. I was then sent to my community, Santa Teresa, not knowing what I was going to do or how I would be of use to the people there. A year and a half later, I can tell you that one of things I'm doing is helping farmers improve their corn and bean production. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I work hard to fit into the community and help people find their own solutions to their problems.
My time in Nicaragua was soon about far more than agriculture. When I first arrived in Santa Teresa in late December, I spent my time visiting with the adults, getting to know the people who are now my community. Most families in this village do all they can to be self-sustaining. They live in small one- to three-room houses, usually with dirt floors.
And since school was out of session until February, I played a lot of soccer and cards with the kids. One of my biggest shocks in those first weeks was the collective blank stare I would get when I would ask them, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Often, they'd ask me to repeat the question. Most of them would eventually say being a farmer, getting married, and starting a family was what they imagined. Getting married and looking for work usually starts at age fifteen, just when they would otherwise be in high school.
I wanted to start some art classes and basic environmental education in town, but when I asked about working in the high school, I quickly realized why the kids couldn't answer my question. They told me the closest high school was a 10-kilometer bus ride costing the equivalent of fifty cents each way. They said almost no students continued to study past sixth grade because they could not afford the costs of the bus, food, matriculation, uniforms, and the like. I worked out the cost for one year of school, and it came to around $100 per student. It immediately sparked my imagination about how I might add to my Peace Corps experience and, more importantly, make a lasting difference in Santa Teresa.
I talked it over with another volunteer who had lived in the village before me, and we had an idea. Why not look for donors in the US and elsewhere to "adopt" a local student for their five years of high school? We decided to create a scholarship project. The donor would pay $100 for each of five years and would exchange letters throughout the experience with their student, creating a vivid cultural link as well as a once-impossible opportunity to deserving children who just want to be able to look for a job once they've graduated, read and write well, and possibly make enough money to help their families.
The Santa Teresa scholarship program has grown immensely from our first year, when we received 30 applications from local children, to this year's 75. As a condition of the scholarship, the awardees are obligated to do 10 hours of community service each semester, in order to improve the lives of others through everything from reforestation to tutoring. I'm so proud of the positive effects I've seen firsthand that our little project has had in Nicaragua.
It's also made a difference for the scholarship donors, as well. I returned home to Seattle this year over the holidays to visit my family and friends. I had the opportunity to talk with many of the people who began donating last year and felt a thrilling sense of accomplishment after hearing how excited they were when they received letters and photos from students they were supporting. Many donors admitted that before they got involved with the project, they had no idea what people in Nicaragua were like -- their food, homes, landscape, economic situation. They loved that this project had provided them with an opportunity to see far beyond their own backyards.
Since returning to Santa Teresa for my second year of Peace Corps service, the new school year has begun, and I am now seeing the sadness of those who were not selected for scholarships. I am now determined to figure out how I can bring the high school teachers to the community of Santa Teresa. Why not give an opportunity to all the students instead of a lucky handful?
I feel I was put here in Santa Teresa for a reason, and I think I have found it. Nicaragua is a culture of unconditional love, with warm-hearted, humble people who have opened their homes and hearts to me, fed me, and comforted me. I feel happy I have had a chance to give something back to them.
:: Jessica Neff
Santa Teresa, Nicaragua
Jessica was born and raised in Seattle. As for the future after the Peace Corps, she is waiting for the fates to decide.
(Thoughts on Jessica's GoodLetter? Inspired by what you've read? E-mail us -- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.)
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Readers Respond
Thanks to so many of you for sharing your thoughts and ideas about our recent GoodLetters on the extraordinary idea behind the World Anthem Project and the hopeful outlook of teenagers in embattled Kosovo. Here's what some of you said:
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Dear GoodThings,
Though being busy up to both ears (a German expression you will forgive), I didn't simply enjoy the GoodLetter today on the World Anthem [#79, "Sing A New Song"], I agreed with it with all my heart. Yes, we do need understanding between all nations, all people on this planet, or the planet will be lost. We do need all that power of music, a language universally understood, and we do need to abolish any war on this planet.
The West is leading a war against terrorism, and it even has given terrorism a name or a few names, but the reality is that terrorism is stemming from poverty, not only material poverty, but also poverty of freedom, poverty of means to live according to our own beliefs, poverty of means to live in dignity as human beings. In trying to change all that, we should forget the vocabulary of war at all. We should forget to fight against anything, and instead try to strive for humane conditions for everyone. Let's honor everybody's right to be called brother or sister, not only in beautiful words but by compelling all our governments to acknowledge that and act accordingly.
I am impressed by the action the Americans in this GoodLetter took. It is a step into the right direction, and it should be done everywhere, here in Germany as well as everywhere on this planet. And let's work toward real peace on this planet, not the forced peace of a graveyard but the loving peace of a humanity trying to live as a truly human race. This is what I am wishing. And I thank all of you, where ever you may be, who are trying to achieve that.
Yours sincerely,
Adalbert Kowal
Traunstein, Germany (Bavaria)
:: Did you miss Bud Wilson's World Anthem GoodLetter? Read it now.
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Dear GoodThings,
Very interesting GoodLetter [#78, "Hope Takes Flight in Kosovo"] on what is going on in a part of the world we hear so little of anymore, after so much was said and done there several years ago. I appreciate the reminder that this part of our world is still functioning and striving to pull itself together and doing such a good job of it, at least at this school. I'm so glad there are people like Yael reaching beyond their immediate borders to bring the world together and encourage unity. This balances out the news from other parts of the world.
Meredith
Texas
:: Did you miss Yael Sachs' Kosovo GoodLetter? Read it now.
We love to hear from you about anything: ideas or situations that are inspiring you or challenging you to think, as well as organizations, programs, and people that contribute to your community and the world everyday. Please drop us a line.
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The Upshot
Six months ago, we gave you a GoodLetter [#57, The Kids Are Alright] about a Rhode Island-based organization called What Kids Can Do. WKCD is all about thinking positively and celebrating all the ways -- through words, actions, and ideas -- that youth are capable of changing the world for the better.
A key part of the What Kids Can Do Web site is "In Their Own Words," where we get to hear from articulate, impassioned teens about the issues that most concern them. This is the place where WKCD has showcased the youth perspectives on September 11. It's also where a new feature lives, called "Who Am I? Racial and Language Minority Adolescents Search for Identity."
Open your mind to the way kids see themselves -- check it out on the What Kids Can Do Web site.
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GoodThings on Public Radio
Have you been checking out our favorite public radio stories? Here are some of our favorite public radio pieces from this week (follow this link or the one below to the full summaries on our Web site):
:: The Cycle of Life -- The foreign-language-Oscar hopeful, "Son of the Bride," explores what makes life worth living.
:: Don't Let the Heat Out -- The rising popularity of the US EPA's Energy Star program is making drafty houses a thing of the past.
:: Invisible Men -- From Ralph Ellison (1952) to Ellis Cose (2002), contemporary writings about African American men describe issues that still persist.
:: A Tale of Two Countries -- In Ivory Coast, cocoa production devastates human beings and the environment. In neighboring Ghana, it's just the opposite.
:: Just Good Theater -- A Minneapolis-based theater troupe provides a wonderful and impressive creative outlet for the disabled.
:: A Kind of Ark for Plants -- The once-fertile Afghan landscape is near barren. But an abundant future may lie in a surprise seed stockpile.
:: Mexican Identity in Film -- A new film has delighted Mexican audiences for its realistic portrayal of the country's youth.
Visit our site to read full summaries of these stories and listen to your favorites.
Talk to us:
What's the best public radio story you've heard this week?
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