Greetings from Puerta Cabezas, in the north atlantic miskito coast!
I spent the previous week in Nicaragua volunteering at a clinic call Maria Luisa Ortiz Cooperativa in a small town of the state of Matagalpa called Mulukuku. Mulukuku today is a town that lays beside the one highway headed northtowards Puerta Cabezas, about 8 hours north of Managua. It is a little visited area, as there is not much to offer aside from a pretty view over a red steel bridge and some mandarins that you can purchase from venders on the side of the road. What is fascinating about this place is its history, or for those feminists out there, it´s herstory, as the past is mostly told through the traditon of hard working women in this community. Mulukuku was originally know for due to the large military outpost that resided on one of the hills above the river. As the military set its roots down, so did a small community on the banks of the river. The location was prime for a military station, as Mulukuku is located between Managua and the most northern points of Nicaragua. The communities around Mulukuku were small, unorganized groups of farmers, campesinos. During the sandanista revloution and ensuing contra war instigated by US influence, Mulukuku was hit hard. THe military post was damaged and the communities sacqued. Many of the people in the region were sympathizers with the sandanista revolution which was a socialist movement in the 1980s, and as such, this region was hit hard by warfare. Not to be completely destroyed by the war, it was Hurrican Juana that leveled the community. As rain poured down on the mountainous region and winds blew hard, the river flooded, taking all houses on the river banks with it. This is when the story gets interesting. There was nothing left, and there certainly wasnt going to be any government aid, and the military was gone, so what was there to do? Having been supporters of the socialist movement, the women in the region knew something of working together as a community, or cooperative. The Mulukukuan women decided to found a cooperative, the Maria Louisa Ortiz Cooperative, to build cement blocks. With these cement blocks they rebuilt homes. As the community expanded, they used blocks to build a women{s health center. Then they started a cooperative to build furniture that they could sell to support them and their community. To this day the clinic serves Mulukuku, and the recently founded Municipio de Mulukuku which includes over 24 surrounding communities. As part of the coop, a stipulation that was written into how the clinic is to be run is that any new patient arriving must have a PAP smear, regardless of why they have come to the clinic. In this way they are fighting to redue the rates of Cervical-uterine cancer in Nicaragua, which is the second highest in Latin AMerica after Haiti. THey have also recently constructed a Casa Materna birth center to address issues of maternal mortality. I was chatting one evening with a man about the women of Mulukuku and he said to me, "las mujeres aca son bravas" which translates to the women here are tough/difficult. They are a breed of women that is uncommonly seen within the third world. To give you an example here are a couple of vingettes:
Lucia: original founder of the coop, mother of seven, built and owns her own home. She continues to work cooking and cleaning, from 530 in the morning until 7ish at night. She says her work is much easier now. The volunteer house that she works at has running water.
Natali: 28 years old, daughter of original founders studies and practices natural medicine at the clinic. She has twin daughters that are 9 years old. She is empowered to give women a voice and an alternative solution.
Doña: traditional midwife whose first birth that she attended alone was her own. She has been attending her community ever since which is probably 50 years. She says that women began to seek her out because she knew more than them. She is now part of a training for community health providers.
While at Mulukuku I had the opportunity to be involved with a group of community leaders, individuals from distant communities that provide medical, legal, and community building services. Many arrive after days of travel that include 5 hour boat rides, hour long bus rides, and several hours of walking through mountainous terrain. Some can write, some can read, some have never lifted a pencil. What can be said for this grou0p of individuals is that they are dedicated to providing services to their community, they are well organized, and they are fighting to bring their communities together. They often intigrate traditonal healing practices with modern ones that they learn at these trainings. It was a very special experience for me to share with these exceptional people. After a week I was kidnapped away up to Puerta Cabezas after a surprise visit from Cody...
hope you all are well! besos, kari
p.s. to read more about the clinic and happenings in Mulukuku search on google for Dorothy Granada.
