Un Otro Mundo...

Poverty in Nicaragua is much more widespread than it is in Costa Rica. I spent the day in Candelaria, a tiny village near Chichigalpa. I went with a group of humanitarian workers from the U.S. who live in Leon and spend almost ever day in Candelaria with the villagers. They are in the process of building a medical clinic and a soup kitchen, and they have a two-acre garden where they train villagers to grow produce for the village. Even though the growing conditions in Nicaragua are so good, the people have no knowledge of how to plant or maintain a garden. Their staple food is rice and beans, which forms a good protein but does not provide the body with enough nutrients.

Opportunities here are even more limited than in Costa Rica. None of the women are educated, but then, the men aren't, either. Most of them never even leave the village, so they have little idea of what even exists outside of their world.