It's been almost two weeks since I last wrote, and the time has gone by very quickly. We've had the opportunity to visit Managua to see where the Managua crew would be living and working; we've visited Volcan Masaya, one of two or three active volcanoes in the area; and we've gone swimming at the laguna de Apoyo, about an hour and a half trip outside of Granada.
Where I've been spending most of my time, though, is at Casa Xalteva. In my last entry, I inappropriately referred to it as a school. It's more like a Boys and Girls Club in the States. The kids come here in the morning or afternoon (the kids in primary school have classes in the afternoon, so they come to Casa Xalteva in the morning; the kids in secondary school have classes in the morning, so they come to Casa Xalteva in the afternoon) for help with homework and to have a safe environment in which to hang out into the evening. Casa Xalteva also offers language classes, which is part of the reason we came here. We take English classes in the afternoon for about four hours, and then most of us offer an English class at night for an hour.
The house itself has been around for about 14 years. One of its administrators, Juan Carlos, has been around since its inception. I was able to sit down and talk with him a little bit about the history of Casa Xalteva. He said that now, the environment is much more healthy. When Casa Xalteva first started in 1995, the kids were much more challenging, often coming from families that used drugs, or sometimes the kids themselves had drug problems.
From 1995 to 1999, Juan Carlos worked for the founders and owners of Casa Xalteva, who are from the United States. Juan Carlos said this sometimes made things difficult because they weren't around to see the everyday operations and couldn't always take as much time to get to know the staff and children of Casa Xalteva. Their visits to Granada were often more based on the business aspect.
For a few years thereafter, Juan Carlos was basically operating the house on his own; that is, there weren't other professors or staff members at Casa Xalteva. Of course he was still communicating with and receiving support for the owners in the States. All along in the process, though, he was the one that "found" kids to be in the program. He would talk with them if they were just hanging out in the street or if someone would recommend that he talk to a family about Casa Xalteva, he would do that.
The program started to grow again around 2003. Oscar was one of the first kids that is still here that joined around that time. He was living with his grandmother of about 85 years of age and was hanging out a lot in the street. Juan Carlos talked with his grandma about the program and she thought it would be a good idea for him. Oscar now lives with Juan Carlos, since Oscar's grandma is now in her 90's and isn't able to take care of him on her own.
Francisco is another one of the kids that has been around here the longest. Juan Carlos met him and found out that he was living with his uncles since his mom had left to live in another part of Nicaragua. His uncles were pretty heavy into alcohol, and Juan Carlos felt like it was harder to convince them to let Francisco spend time at Casa Xalteva. Francisco still spends nights and weekends at the house, but he has a much more positive environment for the rest of the day at Casa Xalteva.
There is a group of four kids that comes from a family of sixteen children that range in age from 10 to 28. Obviously it is difficult for a family to take care of that many kids, so the ones that were able to enter into Casa Xalteva benefit from some one-on-one attention and the basic food that the school provides for them.
Around 2006, there were enough kids here that Juan Carlos needed more people to work in administration. He found someone in Jorge Luis. Rather than continue as director, Juan Carlos allowed Jorge Luis to occupy that position. Juan Carlos continues to work in administration, and he works daily with the professors and other staff at Casa Xalteva to make sure things run smoothly. Jorge Luis works more with the "outside world," maintaining contact with people who are interested in coming to the school for Spanish classes and/or volunteer.
Juan Carlos said that the environment right now at the school is very good. He is very conscious of how one child's presence can impact the rest of the kids and exercises great care in discerning whether or not a child should be "accepted" into Casa Xalteva. He wants to make sure that kids have the opportunity to get help, but he does not want to jeopardize the development or safety of the other kids in Casa Xalteva.
The kids all treat each other very well, and it's almost like a big family. Most of the professors are younger, in their mid- to late-twenties, and they're really great role models for the kids. Overall, there is a positive vibe about the place, and you can see the positive impact it has on the kids. It's one of those places that you wish all the kids in Nicaragua could come to, so they would have an opportunity to be in a safe environment with other kids and with someone positive to look up to. As much as I'm looking forward to getting to Puerto Cabezas and getting set up with our house and work, it'll be hard to leave the kids after three weeks here.
If you want to see more about Casa Xalteva, they have a website (hasn't been updated in about a year, but it's a good source of info): www.casaxalteva.org
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