Join Sandino's Family to Celebrate 30th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution
Work on Projects to develop Food Sustainability and Eradicate Malaria with
ECHOES of SILENCE ECO-CULTURAL BRIGADE to NICARAGUA
JULY 14 - 29, 2009
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Fight global warming and disease working on grassroots organic food and eco-drainage projects; sing with legendary Nicaraguan musicians under the stars; share radio shows with children living on Managua’s city dump; learn to dance the Zapateado; mock imperialism with la Gigantona (Giant Lady). Live in a family community, sharing its daily life and working locally. Travel to Sandino's legendary North Country: learn about the model eco-community he founded; meet fair trade coops; join peasant farmers in pioneering water conservation and agro-forestry projects. Spanish helpful, but not necessary.
SPECIAL EXTRA: JULY 19th
CELEBRATE the 30th ANNIVERSARY of the SANDINISTA REVOLUTION.
MEET with SANDINO'S GRANDSON and his FOUNDATION SANDINO
The brigade is led by Paul Baker Hernández, singer and author, former Nicanet (US) and NSC (UK) representative and delegation coordinator, now Echoes’ founder. Playing his legendary guitar, crafted from recycled garbage, Paul seeks to celebrate similarly creative responses to the current eco/economic crisis so abundant in Nicaragua and elsewhere. Before Nicaragua, he worked in Chile with Joan Jara, widow of the great Víctor Jara, and lived in LA with Salvadorans fighting off death squads even in the US. Within Nicaragua he’s sung with the Urrutia Family, Carlos Mejia Godoy and Duo Guardabarranco. He has two books published and his original songs include: ‘I Thought I Heard Sweet Víctor, Singing .. ‘, ‘Ode to Starbucks’, and ‘That S*****g Cellphone!’
All income supports Echoes of Silence projects and the work of both Paul and his wife, Fátima Hernández. Having fought the Somoza dictatorship as a teenager, Fatima then volunteered with the magnificent Literacy Crusade of the 1980s, and has worked untiringly on grassroots health and education projects ever since. Thanks to the global financial crisis, sired by the North, even the occasional minimal stipend she once received has vanished.
Cost per person 14 days @ US$68 per day
Places limited, please book early.
Those who can't make the full 14 days are also welcome.
(This covers board, lodging, transport, 24/7 support, speakers' fees, translation, analysis, cultural events. Airfare is separate. Bring a little extra for that second beer, gifts, other necessities and discretionary events. Nicaragua is very safe and Echoes of Silence supports members at all times. However, modest insurance for personal emergencies may be worthwhile.)
Bookings: echoespaul@tortillaconsal.com Or call Jim Burchell (USA/Canada) 973 765 9102; Chris Jennings 01225 866181 (UK); Paul Baker Hernandez 249 0979 (Nicaragua). General information: http://echoesofsilence-ecosdelsilencio.pbwiki.com
Draft itinerary
Eco-Cultural Brigade and Celebration of Sandino for 30th Anniversary of Sandinista Revolution
July 14 - 29, 2009
14 Evening: Arrive Nicaragua. Transport to primary site of brigade, Barrio La Primavera.
15. am: Getting to know one another and orientation
pm: Alternative tour of Managua, ending up at the Sandino monument overlooking the city
eve: Settling into home stay; conversation; live music, poetry etc interchange
16 am: 1st eco-pila/patio garden work session in barrio inc. brief explanation of their value in combatting mosquitoes and disease, and preventing water contamination
pm: 2nd work session
eve: Conversation with leading figures in cultural movement about the role of music and the arts in revolution, and particularly now in environmental awareness and action; open cultural session, including members of Nicarock, an eco-rock group
17 am: 3rd. work session
pm: 4th work session
eve: Conversation and live music with Phillip Montalban, Nicaragua's foremost reggae artist. From the Atlantic Coast, Phillip shares his insights and experience from Nicaragua's 'other side'.
18. am: Presentation by host 'mother', Fatima, including her days in the mountains as a teenage Sandinista guerrilla, as a member of the 1980s Literacy Crusade and coffee-picking brigades, and of her continuing work with health and education in the barrio.
pm: Presentation of the work of the Sandino Foundation by Sandino's nephew and his wife; with special focus on the cooperative land-based community Sandino founded in Wiwili, Northern Nicaragua. As his vision for the proper ordering of society, it has increasing relevance in today's warming world.
eve: Painting session to produce a brigade/barrio banner for tomorrow's celebration
19. am/pm: Participation in 30th anniversary of the Revolution celebrations
eve: Special celebratory event in barrio
20. am: Presentation of Fatima's work with the Spanish NGO, INTERVIDA: barrop health post and education, music, art, dance.
pm: Work session 5.
eve: Traditional dance class
21. am: Visit to La Chureca, Managua’s city dump, to meet with children who live actually on the garbage, and to particpate in making a radio program with them. La Chureca is the ghastly endpoint of ‘development’ as individualist competitive consumerism
pm: Visit to CIPRES (Centre for the Investigation, Promotion and Development and of Social Rural Economies) to show the alternative vision of cooperative/ecological sustainable development. Presentation re the Zero Hunger government agricultural program, based on permacultural principles and practice. It's from this program that the eco-pilas and patio gardens the group is installing in the barrio are derived.
eve: Rest and reflection
22. am: To northern city of Esteli, cradle of the Revolution
pm/eve: Visit to the legendary Don Felipe Urrutia in Limon, just outside the city. Don Felipe (just 91) single-handedly, and entirely by ear, rescued the music of northern Nicaragua (polkas, mazurkas, waltzes). He formed a family group, 'Don Felipe y sus Cachorros (DF and his Cubs)', to make that music known more widely; and to sing in support of the Revolution.
An all acoustic session on Don Felipe’s front porch. Included will be a special celebration of water as the ultimate source of all life, and our most precious resource, plus an account of the community’s struggle to get drinking water, finally successful..
23. am/pm: All day work with FEDICAMP in one of their projects to roll back desertification and global warming through proper water use and conservation, reforestation, agro-forestry and patio gardens. FEDICAMP is a federation of campesin@ associations.
eve: Open cultural event at Esteli's Casa de Cultura, including meeting with muralists responsible for some of Esteli’s many revolutionary paintings dating back to the ´80s.
24. am/pm: To northern ciity of Matagalpa, heart of coffee country. Meeting and workshop with Grupo Venancia, a woman's collective and cultural center, concentrating on women's rights and representation at all levels of society
eve: Open music/poetry/dance with Grupo Venancia and local cultural workers
25. am/pm: Day following the footsteps of Sandino and visiting fair trade coffee coops and communities
eve: Open session and rest
26 am: To Managua.
pm: Work session 6.
eve: Evening out at El Panal, a bar with live revolutionary music of today and yesterday
27. am: To Masaya market and volcano.
pm: To Granada. Meeting and workshop with rescued street children, who've learned to do mime, juggle and other arts to express themselves and to find a way forward in life.
eve: Packing up back in Managua
28. am: With Wilmor Lopez and Fito on their La Primerisima radio program about revolutionary culture.
Late am/pm: To Leon: Meeting and participation workshop with Gioconda Arostegui, keeper of the Gigantona (Giant Lady) mocking imperialism tradition and dance.
eve: To Managua for final celebration.
29 am: Leave for home
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