Everything Has Changed in Nicaragua 2009

I came back from Nicaragua this May a sadder but wiser "wise fool" than when I headed down in January 2009. Strangely enough, I spiralled into a clinical depression down there this year, as I realized how dire things are with the peasantry of Northern Nicaragua and how hopeless I felt and still feel about exerting any change there: in 15 years of building bridges in Teote, nothing at all has changed for the better--though there have been better moments--things are getting worse, and I'm getting too old and unhealthy and poor to carry all that burden.

It's clear that my convenience as a channel of funds from North America (mostly personal dolares) has built me a house of Nica addiction to my money--Damn, Damn, Damn! Something I tried so hard not to do!--and my funds have mostly blown away with the Winds of Wall Street now: going down there fairly empty-handed was unhappy for me and too much bad news for the Betancos. Nothing worked right. To top it off, I felt unsafe there for 5 months because there's such crime and street violence, such starvation and homelessness and need, and everyone I know there came begging because they still think I'm a rico, which I have never been, because, to them, "all Norteamericanos are ricos." When people are living at the survival level, anyone with a steady income is a rico, no matter how small the income.

While I read a ton of books and worked on my garden in Teote, had a few happy times and new experiences, I came back up here depleted, shocked, even a bit traumatized by the trip, and I've been working to get back to emotional health ever since, with resilient success, thank Goodness. But I won't be headed back to Nica next winter.

Conditions will need to change there before I'll go back, though I'll still communicate with the Betancos.

Instead, I'm moving in with my brother in Elizabeth CO by October 1, ending my long residence in Glenwood Springs and Center, exchanged for a more cosmopolitan life lived under rural Ponderosa Pines in Kiowa County, much nearer to my kids and grandkids, concerts, ballet, and other fruits not available on the Western Slope.

New Page for CenterDoug to write on; I doubt if I will start calling myself "ElizabethDoug," however.

Gracias, CenterDoug

Sorry to Say . . . . !

Sorry to say, all you bloggers, that I haven't been very active on CenterDoug since May because I've been focusing on my MyBO Blog, "CenterDoug's Obama Blog" almost entirely. I and a MyBO friend have created a further Community Blog on MyBO titled "Obamans for Change in the Americas (CITA)" which focuses on President Obama's Administration in relation to bettering relationships in the Western Hemisphere and improving the lot of our Native Americans and other indigenous peoples. An interesting blog with verrrrrry interesting bloggers in the group:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamansforChangeinCentralAmerica

You'll notice we widened our focus to all the Americas after entitling the Blog and can't change it on the URL. I consider both CITA and the "CenterDoug's Obama Blog" posts as part of my GLOBAL LEGACY to my children: it's that important to me. Check them out.

Gracias, CenterDoug

Peruvian Amazonians

Well, having gotten back somewhat intact from Nicaragua during swine flu emergencies and plenty of fusbal games, it's strange to be back to Blogger, but, here I am, and now I am totally immersed in the mostly unreported crisis in Peru (June 5-7) where the National Guard nixed 60 indigenous people seeking to protest the development of the Amazon Headwaters in Peru, their heritage, a direct result of Free Trade Agreements with the US. Sad to say. The extant FTA policy promotes the decimation of the Amazon Headwater Rainforests--and the destruction of tribal lands where there had been NO TOUCH before, and--yikes, these people need not to be touched, by our rather poisonously-progressive culture.

So, I'm pushing for Obama mediation in this crisis, to begin his quest for Latin American partnership and to protect my breathing past tomorrow, since the Peruvian Amazon Headwaters, which should be a World Wildlife Park, undisturbed, is a major lobe in the "lungs of the world." For more on this issue, check out my CenterDoug's Obama Blog.

Gracias, CenterDoug

Back From Nicaragua, Again

Goodness knows, it's been a long time since I visited this spot, but, for some reason, I was blocked from the site when I tried to get to it, down in Northern Nicaragua. God only knows why? Anyway, I'm back in the States now, it's June, with a bunch of new insights, but, mostly, a sadness because one of my friends among friends, Dave Harmon, passed on in May, while I was still in Teote. Harmon introduced me to Teote back in 1993, selling a Third World/First World compassion trip to Nicaragua which changed my life. This blog is therefore dedicated to the memory of don David Harmon and others who gave their hearts and (some, their lives) to foster liberty and social justice in Northern Nicaragua. When I finally settle into Glenwood Springs once more, I'll be working to build a place of reflection in honor of don David up on Spring Valley Campus, CMC, where he helped students to empower themselves as global citizens for 25 years.

Gracias, don David! CenterDoug