Interlude: About Us

These are the bios we sent to JHC to tell them a little bit about who we are and why we wanted to go to Nicaragua:

Becca Cooper
I am excited to be part of this delegation to support the JHC in its work toward community health guided by the needs of locals with a goal of sustainable health care, education and habitation. I have been fortunate to have traveled extensively but I am looking forward to visiting a new part of the world and learning about the culture and life in Central America. Most notably I have spent time in West Africa doing nutritional research on viable protein replacement strategies in indigenous protein-deficient diets. I am eager to learn more about NGOs with a focus in health care and how my role as a health care provider can be of use in other areas of need. I currently work for Oregon Health and Sciences University as a Registered Nurse in the Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit, so I hope to spend as much time as I can in the clinic helping there. I am very familiar with wound care and hope my experience as a surgical nurse will be useful. I see a lot of patients with chronic health issues, esp. diabetes, heart failure, vascular disease, etc. I am also happy to help in the pharmacy or whereever else there might be a need. Please just put my willing hands to work. I am fluent in French, and speak some phrases of Spanish.

Betsey Kenworthy
After years of hearing about the Jubilee House, as well as knowing some of the folks who are a part of the community, it’s a great joy to be coming to you. I haven’t traveled internationally since 1964, and never to Central or South America, so it will be an adventure for me. I speak some French, but not Spanish. I’ve taught various age levels and continue to be interested in storytelling, movement and drama, healing and energy work, building community and sharing our spiritual discoveries. I would be glad to do childcare, office work, cook, clean or whatever is helpful, though at age 70, I’m not well suited for heavy physical labor. It is especially meaningful to share this experience with others from our Meeting.

Meghan O Flaherty
I met Becca and Paul Mohally-Renk when they came to Portland last year and was immediately impressed with the work they are doing with JHC-CDCA in Nicaragua. Recently members of my Quaker Meeting began to talk about the process you use to organize communities and develop self-sustaining worker-owned cooperatives, and how that process might be replicable in other settings such as our own work with the homeless in Portland. As a writer, photographer, and former research librarian, I thought it might be useful for me to join the delegation to Nicaragua to learn more and bring the story back. I applied for and received a grant from the Lyman Fund to participate in this delegation and document the work of JHC-CDCA in Nicaragua through photographs and the written word. I have travelled extensively outside the U.S., primarily to countries in Europe, and also visited Mexico often when I was young. I am not fluent in Spanish, but I was raised in Southern California and know a few words and phrases. Except for Type II diabetes I’m physically healthy for my age, which is 64.

MariRuth Petzing
My name is MariRuth Petzing. I am a law student and prior to that I was a teacher. I am especially interested in learning from you about how you combine the local community standards, legal requirements of Nicaragua, and spiritual leadings when creating your projects and co-ops. I have extensive independent travel experience and am fluent in Spanish. I had agreed to help Meghan with interviews for her project documenting your work.

Claire Riggs
I am very excited by the prospect of traveling with Friends from MMM to Nicaragua. I am graduating from Kalamazoo College with my degree in Biology. I will be moving back to Portland this summer, and starting a Master's in Biology at Portland State University this fall. I am very interested in developmental physiology and to see where it and other interests take me. I also have a strong interest in Latin America and the culture of the Spanish-speaking world. In high school I volunteered in a small rural community in Mexico for 6 weeks--the time I spent there sounds very similar to the work of JHC. In college, I studied abroad for 6 months in Ecuador and lived in Venezuela the following summer where I had a biology internship. I also have tutored 3rd-grade students at a local Spanish-English immersion school in Kalamazoo. I am fairly fluent and quite confident speaking in Spanish and I absolutely love to chat with people and hear their stories--I look forward to that in Nicaragua. I can be useful in many capacities on this trip, including talking with people in Spanish (and helping translate where necessary), working with children, doing physical labor, cooking, cleaning, listening, helping with work pertaining to biology or the environment, or whatever else.

Lew Scholl
Latin American countries have called to me in many ways over the years. From as far back as I can remember I was fascinated with the half-Panamanian family of an uncle. Knowing them inspired my interest in learning Spanish and learning about the many cultures of Latin America. I have traveled in Central and South America and studied Spanish off and on over many years. I find something special and poetic about the Spanish language. The mixture of people, cultures, and ethnicities is rich and complex there and I find people fascinating wherever I travel. I went through Nicaragua in 1973 during a 3-month solo hitch-hiking and mountaineering trip. I thought then that I could do something in Managua to help out after the 1972 earthquake devastated the city. I had not planned well for this part of the trip and did not know how to help - so I went on down the road. Seeing the poor people and the crumbled buildings has stayed with me. I returned from that trip aware that no matter how poor I feel in my life, that I am very rich in comparison to many in this world. This awareness is partly what draws me there. We have so much and they have so little! I have long had a desire to do something with my civil engineering background that could make a difference for people where much of the public infrastructure that we take for granted is virtually non-existent. After participating in a couple of water projects with "Engineers Without Borders" and traveling to Guatemala, I felt that - while their approach is OK - there should be a way to do something similar that is more connected with the local culture, provides a two-way cultural exchange and grows more directly out of the local culture and their needs. I am impressed with what JHC has done and feel that the approach they take is more aligned with my philosophy.


Carl Thatcher
I have felt drawn like a magnet to participate in this project from the moment I heard about it.  Central America and Nicaragua have been interests of mine ever since I investigated the
Contra War to learn the real truths behind that shameful part of the many US interventions there.  I went to Nicaragua then for a week (1984) with other journalists and activists of like bent, was able to talk to government officials and ordinary people from all over, see and feel their resolve to make a new nation. The experience changed my life and vision for good.

I am a physical therapist in a long-term care facility.  I have already discussed with Becca Mohally Renk the possibilities of working there in the clinic and of doing some home visits to elderly folks in the community.  I would need a translator for this since my Spanish is very
rudimentary.

I want to make a video journal of our delegation and the community there so far as that's possible without undue intrusion into people's privacy.

Tara Urner 
I'm very drawn to the Jubilee House Community for several reasons. I am deeply interested in community development and dynamics, especially sustainability. Building strong, sustainable communities is a mission that resonates very strongly with me. I would very much like to learn about and help with JHC projects in any way possible. I am a student in high school. I have done international volunteer work before, specifically in Jamaica. I have experience with children in the 1- to 3-year-old range from working at a daycare facility. I am physically able and willing to do hands-on work and construction. I do speak some Spanish, but I am not fluent. I am very excited to come and learn from the people at the Jubilee house and help with their mission in any way I can.

Laura Vail
I am drawn to be part of the delegation because I seek to understand how others live in different cultures and places, and to appreciate how we can learn and collaborate.

Professionally I do medical records and scheduling in an outpatient clinic; I am familiar with medical terminology and procedures and the needs of medical clinics that work with many disciplines, and hope to offer organizational support with CDCA's practice. I have worked as a grant writer and journalist with nonprofit organizations in Bulgaria and the Middle East, focusing mostly on human rights issues and political freedoms.

My interests include health care and public health; I am involved in community governance here in Portland in both my neighborhood association and our city district coalition, and enjoy learning about and working to improve communities; I care about learning with others how to live sustainably for both environmental preservation and appreciating what is truly important; I enjoy distance running and cycling and am familiar with basic bike mechanics.

My Spanish is very rusty but I aim to be back to 'conversational' by the time of our trip.

Josh von Kuster
I am drawn to be a part of the delegation because I want to make a difference in central America, I want to see how youth in Nicaragua live and relate with each other and because I am very interested in their sustainable model, particularly in coffee. I am currently a nursing student and am a trained pilot. I have extensive experience in international travel, particularly in Latin America, although mostly in an official capacity. I have rudimentary carpentry, building, gardening and coffee-roasting experience. I am a quick learner at almost every task and with language acquisition, and anticipate being a linguistic asset to the group, even though I have limited experience with Spanish.

Avery Welkin
My name is Avery Welkin, and I currently work in event coordination, and nonprofit development and administrative work. My work with The Pangaea Project might particularly be of interest to the JHC, here is my bio on their website with a wealth of other info: http://thepangaeaproject.org/staff.shtml
I have never been to Central America, though I've been to Mexico twice, and Brazil this past fall for an ethnomusicology interest. I've studied international development work, nonviolence education, cross-cultural communication, Theater of the Oppressed, and organizational development, and all of these things interest me in the context of Nicaragua. I'm excited at the possibility of traveling to see the work of the CDCA in Ciudad Sandino, to learn more of the history of the people, and to learn more about how the Spirit moves in the JHC. My Spanish is currently rudimentary, though I've studied it on and off again throughout my life enough to be able to pick it up in a short amount of time. I appreciate this opportunity and welcome from the JHC and the people of Ciudad Sandino, and I look forward to sharing stories, support, and real solidarity.

We're Actually Here!

At around 8:30 PM our delegation of 12 stepped off our plane into Managua and a wall of humidity. Our delegation was one short. Laura was stranded in Portland due to an unfortunate booking error, however, she was rebooked, and will arrive today (in fact, her plane should be touching down in the Managua airport any minute now).


We passed through customs and collected our bags without any difficulty and met Liz, volunteer coordinator at JHC shortly thereafter. We loaded our belongings into an old yellow schoolbus parked outside. The interior walls and ceiling of the bus were covered with the signatures and sentiments of the many members of previous delegations. One read "Nicaragua will always be in my heart". Our bus driver was named Chico. Liz promptly warned us that we would run several red lights on our way to the Jubilee house and that this was very normal for the time of night. We should not be alarmed.


When we arrived at the JHC compound a member of the security cooperative (one of many cooperatives at the JHC) opened the gate for us. When the bus came to a stop we climbed out to get our first look at our home for the next ten days. We were greeted by a beautiful melding of tropical sounds. Animals and insects were all around us in the darkness, making it seem alive. Liz showed us around where we were to stay. After a long day of flying, we were all tired (though maybe a little wired with the excitment of a new place in a new country). We met and spoke with several JHC members who came by to say hello, and then we said goodnight.


The next morning, after a breakfast, we sorted through the medical supplies that we brought as donations for the clinic. We filled three large duffel bags will much needed supplies, though we later found out that the clinic serves more people than we previously believed. They constantly need supplies. Shortly thereafter, our group split up into those going to work in the clinic and those going to make cement adoquines, or cobblestones.


There were a variety of things being done at the clinic. Some of us were checking the prescriptions on several pairs of eyeglasses with a lensometer. Besty is now a pro lensomotrist. Meghan interviewed four people - two at JHC and two at the clinic - and took several pictures. Dana, a doctor who joined our delegation in Houston as planned, and Becca, a nurse at OHSU saw patients for most of the day - with a break for lunch. They saw children in the morning and adults in the afternoon. Claire translated for Becca and worked in he pharmacy. Mari translated for Carl home visits to elderly patients. We are very glad to have fluent Spanish speakers in the delegation, their skills are incredibly valuable.


Back at the compound, Lew, Josh, Avery, and Tara were working with cement. First it had to be mixed, then watered, and then loaded into a large, noisy, compacting machine to be made into blocks..Pedro Batista oversaw and corrected when necessary, even joked at times. He was later fondly nicknamed Padre Pedro (Father Pedro) on account of his water sprinkling technique looking somewhat like a baptism with holy water.


This evening we had a delicious meal with several JHC members and spent a long time talking to them and getting to know them. Everyone here is very kind and easygoing, we have made friends quickly. At the time of this posting, we are awaiting Liz's return from the airport with Laura in tow. We are also expecting four more volunteers from another group flying in tonight.


There are many exciting things in store for us in the next ten days.

This Blog: A Real-Time Minute

Hello everyone, Tara here.
I have created this blog with the main purpose of - as the title suggests - recording and sharing the events of the Multnomah Monthly Meeting's delegation to Nicaragua. This blog will be a place for we - the delegates - to share thoughts, feelings, revelations, pictures, and everything else with out friends and family back home. I volunteered myself as overseer of the blog, and though I am not new to the blogosphere, I am not adept at the art of blogging. I will do my best. Stay tuned for further posts explaining a little more about who we are and what this delegation is all about.

Peace,
Tara