The Only Nicaraguan Stone By George Pauk

It fell with a small thud on the muddy road we walked in the Barrio on the margins of La Chureca, the huge dump in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It rolled to a quick stop in the weeds at the edge. Our guide Eddy and I exchanged a quick look. We both glanced again at the rock and then kept our eyes on the road. We ignored the potential discussion of the implications of the small gesture.

I was surprised to see the rock. It was truly a first event of its kind for me in Nicaragua. I had been to many remote sites in this beautiful country and this was the very first hint of personal mischief. Nicas are wonderfully friendly people and it is difficult to visualize the kind of tension and threat that one might encounter in similar circumstances in the US.

“I had been to many remote sites in this beautiful country and this was the very first hint of personal mischief. Nicas are wonderfully friendly people and it is difficult to visualize the kind of tension and threat that one might encounter in similar circumstances in the US.”

I would like to think that it was an impetuous youth. In my youth, I might have stepped out from a corner of cover and thrilled at the excitement of the toss. I prefer to suppose that this was the circumstance and not a political expression of reaction to US policies.

The Acahualinca Barrio is a place at the foundation of economics of the Americas. Nicaragua is now the country with the lowest per capita income in our hemisphere. Acahualinca is one of the places where urban conditions and this poverty intersect. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) Dos Generaciones (Two Generations) works with 65 families living in the huge Managua dump. A place that seems to crawl and grow like a monster on the shore of Lake Managua. The dump is the main business of Acahualinca.

We visited the sites of a training center of Dos Generaciones and its office. We walked through the neighborhood stepping over the gullies of drainage from the houses and the daily rains. The sun dried the paths quickly, but in places the mud and refuse swilled into the lake just a few feet away. We got the usual "Adios" from the people we passed as they stood in front of their homes of tin, raw planks and paper.

George Pauk with four beautiful residents of Los Chavalitos, a home, school and farm for orphaned and abandoned children in Boaca, Nicaragua.

Eddy is one of the talented directors of the many NGOs that are holding Nicaragua together at the seams. These men and women are superstars. They are among the few of the world that truly understand the intersection of the first and the two-thirds worlds. They have risen through the ranks of NGOs and hustled to the top of their organizations. The top is where they float in the poverty and misery of their neighborhoods. They are swept by the flood of problems of their communities but they also move the stream of events for many individuals slowly, and step by step, for the better. They are superb teachers, managers, innovators, counselors, philosophers, and yet humble and unobtrusive organizers. They can do everything necessary, including fund raising at any opportunity. I know a certain solution to the world's worst pressing problems. It would be to put these super talented and hardworking people into powerful positions, such as President, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and the chiefs of all Ministries of the world.

Eddy knows just how far to go. He knows who is ready for contact with us and who is not. We walk through the paths and gullies of the lakeside shacks and collections of salvaged pieces of plastic bags that are hung to be washed by the frequent rains. He takes us to a stupendous viewing point of the massive mountain of trash and garbage that rises from and above the shore of Lake Managua. The dump expels a cloud of smoke, and its surface is overrun with trucks and the dump families receiving each load. Everything can be found there in the refuse.

Plastic, metals, needles, food-and abuse, prostitution and death.

On the edges of the dump are the new communities of Managua. We are explained the strategy of the NGO. Make a house for the family to take shelter near the dump and then train them for jobs that may take them further away. It is a grand strategy and it works, for some. We meet one of them. She is the first to get a business degree from college and she beams and radiates pride as we congratulate her. Her photo is on the front of the newsletter being released today by the NGO. She is gem quality. This stone will find its mark.

One goes away with a feeling of hope and expectation even though the Nicaragua employment situation is still dismal. One grasps at the hope that peace and justice will come again to Nicaragua.

- Nick Mantini, a DGH volunteer, first brought Dos Generaciones to DGH's attention. He was so impressed with their work that he asked DGH if he could raise funds for the dump project and make Dos Generaciones a DGH partner organization. In 2001, Monica Sanchez, a DGH board member, and George Pauk (now a DGH board member) visited Nicaragua. They did some leg work and determined that Dos Generaciones is a well established organization doing remarkable work, so Nick got the go ahead. His enthusiasm and hard work, along with that of some fellow students at his university, secured a $10,000 grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation, which will go to help more children escape life in the dump.

In This Issue:

DGH in El Salvador: The Health Risks of Pesticide Use
DGH Profile: Shirley Novak
What We Do and Why We Do It
2002 DGH General Assembly
Human Rights In the Arts
The Only Nicaraguan Stone
Sandy Kemp Memorial Scholarships
DGH Announcements