James started teaching English conversation today, which made him nervous and then pleased. “I just like teaching,” he says. Luckily for him, I brought dry-erase markers for Jeremy to use in his alphabet book. He asked Bergman for a dry erase marker, and the timing was clearly an issue. Later in the afternoon, Manuel came into the history charla with a marker and another to deliver to one of the other teachers. Some of the markers are re-useable: there’s a bottle of ink to be poured into the pen somehow. And the teachers are used to erasing the boards with paper, cloths, hands, and deeply worn erasers. Just another reminder of how much garbage we produce without thinking about it in the U.S.
Kinema gave me a preview of the critiques I later read in La Prensa: the celebrations of July 19th were not a national celebration, but a party event, and the church forcefully resented Rosario Murillo’s presentation of the event as a national revolutionary mass. Ortega as God: hmmm.
Until I manage to get photos from someone else who was there, here's a newspaper shot of the celebration:
Thursday, July 21
Today started with a torrential downpour—so much rain that some of the streets turned into raging rivers and some of the teachers and students in homestays arrived late.
I asked Elisa for her perspective on the recent news, particularly the attacks on Daniel Ortega in La Prensa. She said she’s really not political at all, which seems to be true. But she did say that La Prensa was a conservative paper, which Bergman later confirmed. (Last week, I asked someone if there was any difference between the papers, imagining that perhaps one was more conservative and one more liberal. But that was the wrong question, evidently: both papers are conservative, so there’s not much difference between them, but they’re not exactly neutral.) Anyway, Elisa rehearsed all the history again for me, with some notable additions: the “pact” between Arnoldo and Daniel was evidently for the municipal elections, and Arnoldo (despite being under house arrest) delivered 95 out of 103 alcaldias (municipalities) to FSLN. She said she imagined the deal in these terms: “Vos me das las alcaldias, y yo te libraré de este carcél.” “Vos” is evidently the most intimate second person form: “tu” falls midway between “vos” and “usted.” Very intimate, these political wheelings and dealings. Both Elisa and Kinema also mentioned that Rosario Murillo was known as a witch: Kinema said she came from a family of witches. I’m going to get more dirt on this tomorrow, I hope.
In the afternoon, Jeremy had a nap, then played while James taught conversation, and Zoe and I went into Masaya to visit the guitar workshop and to buy a hammock at the market. We promised Jeremy we would get him something special.
On the way, I asked Bergman about politics. “You’re a Sandinista,” I said. “Pretend I’m an opositor of Daniel’s: tell me why I should change my mind and vote for him.”
Good practice, said Bergman. Here are the reasons: 1) Daniel really feels for the poor: he never forgets them. 2) He actually makes things happen: builds roads, provides jobs, does projects. 3) Who else is there to vote for? Alemán is a thief! “What about Fabio?” I asked. Fabio has nothing in his peanut, said Bergman, pointing to his brain. Nothing in his peanut-sized brain. He’s been in opposition forever, but silently. Only now he’s a candidate is he beginning to speak, but he’s got nothing. 4) Besides, we have to change the world! And no one else is going to make a stand against imperialism, globalization, exploitation. The U.S. is going to pull funding again? They’ve done it before. This is what I love about Daniel. At another July 19, he announced, “The US is withdrawing 50 million dolares. And here I have a check for 50 million dolares from our brother Hugo Chavez!” Bergman performed the lines in Daniel’s voice, not once but twice, laughing with delight in between, relishing the words and the moment. I asked him about Carlos Mejia Godoy’s music and he started playing me a CD of campaign music, ranging from songs by Mejia Godoy to Beatles songs with words about voting for Daniel superimposed. I borrowed it in order to copy the songs and I’ll try to post one or two. I also bought a CD of Mejia Godoy’s and will try to learn the words.
Zoe’s very happy with her hammock, and Jeremy was thrilled with his special cup.
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