[Vision2020] New letter from Dave Barber: the beach and Hugo Chavez!

[Louise Barber]

Letter 13 (March 13)

Subject: Hugo and George, Marling and Meyling and Seyling

 

Dear Everybody, 

            Today is Tuesday, March 13 -- two weeks to go.  Yesterday I was
in the middle of two emails, one with words and one with photos, when the
power went out, for about the tenth time since I got here.  It was out for
about four hours, which is the norm.  It makes you realize what you take for
granted.

            Saturday I finally got to the Pacific.  It wasn´t easy, with six
people in a car with no shocks, four of us packed in the back seat and the
trunk full of watermelon, chicken, drinks, and the ever-present arroz
[rice].  But Mario knows just how much the car has to slow down over any
given bump.  When this car goes, it will not be through any large thud with
broken axle or ruptured gas tank.  It will be the death of a thousand
scrapes, wearing a hole somewhere in the underbelly.

            Approaching the beach, we saw a long metal pole extending across
the road, manned by official-looking people, who required a fee to pass on.
This was evidently something new; the entrance to the beach would require
another fee, but we were still on the highway.  Mario was incensed, but I
was delighted for this was the first use in my hearing of the notorious word
JODER.  He was saying something like, YOU ARE JODIENDO WITH ME [does this
need translation?  Email your private requests, if necessary].  Still, the
pole demanded payment, so we paid and went on, paying again at the entrance
to the beach area and then crawling past hordes of official looking people
all pointing in one direction or another.  Those to the side and immediately
in front were pointing left, so we would park near their store or
restaurant; those farther ahead were beckoning straight ahead, toward THEIR
store or restaurant.  They all looked to me to have the force of law, and I
expected we were going to be arrested at any moment, but Mario knew what he
was doing, and suppressing the urge to run them all down and muttering
something like 'I paid my ticket and I'll park anywhere I want' he kept
inching forward until he found the space that he wanted, and we were there.

            It´s a lovely beach, this western edge of Villa El Carmen, with
dark sand which, if it´s dry, you don´t want to walk on with your bare feet.
Miles of public beach for walking or swimming.  We did the things you do on
the beach, bouncing around in high but friendly Pacific waves, picnicking
under a roof of palm leaves, gathering shells.  Three dogs kept us company,
to their great profit.

            Feeling guilty for having called Hugo Chavez a megalomaniac, I
spent much of Sunday reading newspapers, which were full of Hugo because of
his late-announced visit to Nicaragua Sunday and Monday, ending his
anti-Bush tour.  He got a rousing welcome here, no doubt influenced by the
430-million-dollar package he is sending Nica´s way, full of oil, a
refinery, health and educational supplies, a literacy program, Yo Sì Puedo
[Yes I Can], that originated in Cuba.

            From the periodicos [newspapers] you get basically three
positions on Hugo:  PRO, CON, and PROCON.  (You weren´t expecting anything
insightful, I hope.)  The PRO view is how wonderful Chavez is for sending
all these contributions to the standard of living in Nica.  All this while
George is pouring billions into you-know-where.  All of a sudden George
realizes he has a rival in the old Latin American 'backyard' who is putting
his money where the real needs are in several countries.  But the Venezuelan
initiative looks sincere while the belated American initiative looks like a
band-aid applied in desperation.

            The CON view is based on the fear that Nicaragua will head in
the same direction as Venezuela toward a leftist totalitarian state
dominated by a charismatic caudillo [leader].  It is noted that Ortega seems
to be beginning in the same way as Chavez did, with much lip-service to
democracy but a steady movement toward concentration of power.  And many are
nervous about the commitments that the Ortega government may have made, or
may have to make in the future.  All that oil money isn´t coming to
Nicaragua free of charge or strings attached.

            The PROCON view has been expressed in the form of advice to the
American government.  Yes, Chavez is noisy, rude, and obnoxious, but he does
sometimes get close to reality, as in his terming of the Bush aid package as
'ridiculous.'  Yes, he does seem to think he´s God´s gift to government, and
his refrain about Jesus being the world´s perfect socialist may be a bit
much.  But the guy is putting his money where his mouth is, and the U. S.
would be wise to credit him for the contributions he is making to social and
economic development in various countries, whatever his ultimate motives may
be.  Oh, and Americans may as well realize that the days of American
hegemony in Latin America are over, and not because of Chavez.  It´s because
other areas of the world are seeing the potential of the area and are making
strong economic commitments here.  Europe, for example.  China.

            Yesterday I stopped into a little store, the first time for this
store, to buy a packet of napkins.  These serve for Kleenex, of which there
is none to be found.  The servilletas [napkins] work fine, though they share
with the paper towels of this area of quality of disintegrating upon contact
with liquid.  The old woman at the counter asked me where I worked, so I
told her, and where I was from and such.  It made sense to her that I´m
teaching at the school a few blocks down the street, because she had noticed
me every day walking down the street in the morning and again in the
afternoon.  What struck me was her attentiveness.  Perhaps she only gets a
dozen customers a day -- what else to do but keep track of the traffic down
the street?

            There are a number of people whom I greet repeatedly in the
street, including several old men.  But the most prominent is Natalia, a
woman who lives on the corner past the bridge.  I pass there four times in a
normal day.  One day early on, she stopped me to find out who I was and what
my name was.  Her five-year old girl also knows my name.  She watches the
street like a hawk, and on the average day she sees me, from her perch
inside a shack at the edge of her house, three times a day.  So I get
saluted--Adios DAYveed!  Adios Natalia!  And half the time the little girl
chimes in.  Adios DAYveed!  I can´t remember the name of this little girl.
But I´ve got the names of about 50 of my 65 students.  I had to take their
individual pictures to get that far.  You try it some time, sorting Yanira
from Deyanira, Osman from Oscar, Meyling from Marling from Seyling, Nadir
from Neysis, Amalia from Ivania.  I´ll have them all on the day I leave.

            Yours from Villa El Carmen,

            Dave

 

 

 


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