What do I do?

I realized that I haven't really explained what I do, or what this job is that motivated us to move to Nicaragua. The short explanation is that I am the country director for an orphanage reform project.

The longer answer (get ready for me to dork out on this) is that we are a small NGO that has been working in Nicaragua for about 5 years funded by private donations. This year we were awarded funding from the Inter American Development Bank to continue our work, under the orphanage reform effort headed by the Ministry of the Family here in Nicaragua with whom we have a memorandum of understanding to implement our methodology in all of the Protection Centers (orphanages that are dedicated to abandon, abused or neglected children).

Our methodology is an evidenced based approach to improving the quality of life for these children by improving the quality of care given to them. We emphasize small groups of children with 1-3 primary care givers who consistently work with the children. The continuity of care (not moving children around, not moving caregivers around) is key to for children, especially in the 0-6 year range, to develop appropriately socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically (there is a really interesting study in Russia that proves this last point). Also essential is providing for freedom of movement -- not leaving children in cribs all day because it is easier for their caregivers. We advocate for mixed age groups, and maintaining of sibling groups.

A lot of our work focuses on how to make the time that caregivers can spend on one child really count -- making a diaper change an opportunity to connect with the child, communicate with them, encourage language development, develop a relationship.

We are currently working with 5 orphanages all in Managua, but hope to expand outside of the city within the next year and hope to eventually work with all 83 orphanages nation wide.

We begin by assessing the orphanage -- it's structure physically and logistically, the staff, and the children (using several different development assessment tools). Then we sit down with the directors and the technical staff of the orphanages to make a work plan -- in theory this should be easy because we have already presented to them our methodology and the Ministry has given us the go ahead to work with them, but in reality this is very complicated as I guess change always can be. Once the work plan is done then we get to work!

We provide training first to the directors and technical staff on the basics of our methodology, then we provide training to the caregivers (and anyone else who has direct contact with the children). The Caregiver training actually began this past week! The Caregiver training is given over 9 months -- we provide one lesson a month (the same lesson given three consecutive days so that all of the shifts can be covered) followed by direct mentoring of the caregivers during their work shifts by our staff. We have a course on Early Childhood Development that we also intend to provide to our local staff and the directors and technical staff as well Ministry staff and any other interested parties. The exciting news about this is that I'm working to get it accepted as a Post Graduate Certificate at a local very respected University.

We make structural improvements such as putting in child gates so that children can move freely in safe areas, creating different kinds of areas (soft play areas, elevated areas, quiet areas) as opposed to one giant room, and play areas (like a sandbox!). We also provide toys and books that encourage learning and age appropriate development and have worked with staff to make appropriate home made toys as well (ej: take a clear disposable water bottle, even better if it has a texture on it. Fill it half with oil - best is baby oil but cooking oil works fine - and half with colored water. Add some plastic or shiny confetti. Glue gun the lid on. = hours of fun).

The possibility for impact on the lives of the children in these Protection Centers is extreme. When we first began working in one of the orphanages, caregivers identified children only by the hospital style name bands they had on their wrists and children were in wards of 15 or more. There still is a lot of improvement to be done in the orphanage we originally began working with, as well as the other 4, but I am so excited about the possibilities of what we can do. If succeed in successfully working with the Ministry to implement our methodology Nicaragua would actually be a model orphanage system.

All this is not to say that I or even our NGO is in favor of orphanages, far from it, but the reality is that there are no large scale efforts being made to reform the orphanage system. Many large international organizations work with orphans but not orphanages with the idea that orphanages are not good places for children to grow up. It's true they are not -- but it doesn't mean that they can't be made better for the children that have no choice but to grow up there.

Further reading if you are interested:
www.wholechild.org
http://www.ocd.pitt.edu/Files/PDF/managuaorphanage.pdf
http://www.ocd.pitt.edu/Files/Publications/The%20Effects%20of%20Early%20Social-Emotional.pdf
http://www.aipl.org/

We have a real bed!!

Furniture Update: After out inflatable mattress died, we very carefully choose the busiest possible moment of traffic in Managua (Friday evening, during the beginning of the annual motorcycle rally and ride from Managua to San Juan del Sur) to strap the box springs and mattress of a bed from my work's guest house to the top of our office car (a sedan) ... with my jump rope ... And by strap down, I mean I held one side of the jump rope and my co-worker held the other side of the jump rope while Gustavo sat in the middle saying "Vroom Vroom" to all of the motorcycles as we drove 5km through packed traffic and hundreds of motorcycles.

What is most perplexing (especially if you have read my earlier post about driving in Managua), we passed 8 policemen who did not bat an eye. Also there was no more honking than usual. So strange....

No furniture

So we found out we were moving to Nicaragua December 8th, and moved here less than a month later on January 4th. It was fast and furious -- I worked up until December 23rd, had my family to our house for Christmas, spent New Years at my mom's and in the meantime found renters and a management company, sold a bunch of stuff on Craig's list, donated some stuff, packed stuff for storage, had some work done on the house, found international movers and had them come pack everything off for Nicaragua. Luckily I had a lot of help of some amazing friends, my goddaughter Jorgelina and my mom. 

The international movers came to pack and ship things on December 30th. Today is February 20th and we are still waiting for our shipment.

Supposedly all of our things were supposed to be shipped January 29th with an estimated arrival date in Nicaragua of February 5th. Note I say estimated.....

When I called this week on the 15th the movers tried to tell me that perhaps there hadn't been any ships that left from my port of origin. Really? No ships at all out of Baltimore? I was skeptical... When they looked into is they discovered that apparently there was an overbooking of items getting shipped from Baltimore to Nicaragua (really? Is that really a high traffic shipping route?). So the new estimated shipping date in March 5th to arrive in country March 11th.

Wow.

So while it seemed that maybe bringing four suitcases packed as full as full can be was silly, it was in fact a great idea.

See below for what our house looks like. We broke down and bought patio furniture so that we have somewhere to sit other than the floor.

Really we are hoping that our furniture gets here before Gustavo destroys his travel crib (it's dark but hopefully you can see):

Luckily we love the house and are really enjoying it! But we are looking forward to not sleeping on inflatable mattresses....

Adeventures withthe Black Market

This week my computer was stolen -- my work computer that has everything I have been working on for the past month. We are a small NGO and I have been creating a lot of documents from scratch -- contracts, procedures, budget templates, technical one pagers and technical outlines, etc, etc, etc. Luckily I am apparently a prolific emailer and much of this information is accessible on my email. Unfortunately the work plan for all of the orphanages is not.

I parked the office car outside of the fanciest supermarket in Managua (which is on my way home from work), went inside for 20 minutes, came out and POOF no more computer. There were two security guards right there who "didn't see anything at all". Riiiight.

I called my office manager who is my go-to-lady, she sent her husband. We called the police and Rafael & "Juan Carlos" went to make the report. Rafael was pretty fired up about the computer being lifted from the car right in front of the security guards.

He must have made quite an impression because when i went back in the morning they told me "Your husband spoke to us very sternly". Yes, yes I imagine he did.

So these things happen, anywhere really. And the funny thing is in Baltimore I was so careful about never leaving anything visible ever in the car, and here I just didn't think about it. So I do feel safe, maybe too safe.

I told the security guards (and their boss, and the owner of the super market) that I bet that someone paid the guards and my computer is already being sold. I also told them that this was a shame because in stealing from me, they are impacting a program that works with abandoned and abused children. I may have laid on a little bit of a guilt trip. And I offered a reward for the computer -- return it to our church, if it is in fact the right computer, no questions asked I will pay "the ransom".

Yesterday I went to the police office downtown in Mercado Oriental to find out if there has been any progress. Shockingly, no there has not. I asked where are computers usually sold when they are stolen to which the police lady told me -- "Oh I can't go there, they know I am Police". Yes I said, but I can go!

I should explain the Mercado Oriental -- it is 26 square city blocks and is supposedly the biggest market in all of Central America. You can buy anything there. It also the home of the black market and organzied crime in Nicaragua.


Here is what Lonely Planet says about Mercado Oriental (Mom: skip this pragraph)
"Stash your cash in a couple of places (sock, bra) and try to find a local guide for Central America's largest market and scariest shopping experience. But it's so cheap, and probably the only place in town with live hand grenades…"

The State Department website says (Mom skip this one too)
"Gang activity also is increasing, though not at levels found in neighboring Central American countries. Pick-pocketing and occasional armed robberies occur on crowded buses, at bus stops and in open markets like the Oriental and Huembes Markets."

but it also says about Nicaragua in general:
"Do not leave valuables inside parked vehicles. Recently, several U.S citizens have reported vehicle break-ins outside of gasoline stations and restaurants"

Sighhhh. Good point.

Anyway, the police lady directed me to a mere two blocks from the police station inside the Market, where I began to pretend I wanted to buy a computer. (Mom, don't worry -- I didnt carry anything with me at all and a lady from my office went with me) Strangely I was only interested in a Dell, model ... oh gosh, what was that model I heard about? Yes, a Vostro. I made some friends who were very excited to sell me a computer, but none had a Dell.

So at this point I have put out the word (with my daily stops at the Super market) that I really need this computer and am willing to pay to get it back, but I think it's gone.

I'll leave you with some pictures of el Oriental:

 These guys are trying to give their horse some beer. It is 11am in the morning.

WANTED:

Pump up your Saturday

G loves to dance. He is transfixed by any music from marimba, to bachata, to country, to alternative, to cheesy Jason Mraz, to drum beats, to some rocking 80's tunes.

And sometimes he likes to just dance all on his own!