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| San Juan De Limay |
The beach in Leon is beautiful. The landscape and
social context here are very different from the rest of the places I visited
on this trip. It is nice to reflect on my time here and have the ability to be
alone, but it is also alienating in a strange way. The hotel is not super busy,
but the feeling I get from this place is odd. All Art of Solidarity participants
are seen as North American tourists and nothing more. We are not part of anything;
we are annoying guests who always have bills to large that need to be changed
into smaller bills. In Limay we
were
greeted every morning on the street by friendly faces curious about our
classes
for youth. Or we would be asked what time to be at the preschool to work
on the
mural. We ate breakfast and lunch cooked by Dona Nidia, an amazing award
winning cook in her small restaurant in her living room. Relationships
were
formed and things such as Facebook and email make it possible to retain
those
relationships. We worked hand in hand with each other. We were simply
people, we
were not North Americans or Nicaraguan, just people. Life was different
and
hard. I will not over romanticize Limay because the truth is the town
has problems, but in Limay someone was always there for you if you
needed help.
Many times you didn’t even have to ask, our friends were often intuitive
enough
to see when we were in distress. It’s often hard to articulate my
experiences
in Nicaragua to others. I just know
coming here always seems to balance and center me. It gives me the strength to pursue
the difficult and often draining nonprofit work I do in Baltimore, another beautifully
flawed city.
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| Suyapa Beach Leon |
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