How Traveling to Nicaragua Changed My View on Refugees to the US

Traveling has a way of changing you in unexpected ways you’d never have guessed. I never thought it would change my perspective to a more compassionate view. Before I came to Nicaragua, my view on refugees from Syria and Iraq to the US was “No way, don’t take them in.” They are Muslims, and they will launch more terroristic attacks on us. When I came to Nicaragua, I learned a lot about the country’s dark and unstable political past. At one point, refugees from Nicaragua came to the US. It became three times more real when my friend told me how her dad almost died in the Revolution of the 1970s here. The Sandinistas took a child and forced him to fight on the front line where he often died because he had little training. I really admired her dad a lot (he’s a really good man and they welcomed me with such open arms), and the thought of how crushing a loss that would have been for me and everyone else who would have never met him if he had died young, the way I saw refugees to the US changed after that.

Closing Your Heart to Strangers

The biggest problem was how I was disconnected from the refugees in Iraq and Syria. Their hurt did not affect me, and I did not know them. I still don’t know any actual Syrians or Iraqis, but where the change came in at is I realized there are good people everywhere who are the victims of war. I would not want to see the people I love here deal with traumas like war. Nicaragua is different now, but at one time, their circumstances were similar to war-torn Syria. You look at videos online of little Syrian boys crying from the tear gas used on them and them asking the doctors if they are going to die. It is devastating good people have to endure the tragedies of war without apology. What if it were my friends who were affected by this, and I had the power to save them? I would tell them in a heartbeat to come to the US where it is safe. That is why I changed my view on refugees from the Middle East.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Fear: The Justification

The most common reason people usually don’t want to take refugees mostly boils down to fear.  You don’t want an attack from the incoming people you are taking in. It is a coward’s way. For a country built on the principle of, “Give me liberty or give me death!” why does the US not stand up for the justice of people placed in unjust circumstances outside their country? When the people of Iraq and Syria are hurting, taking them in is fighting in the name of justice. In World War II, there was a poet called Pastor Martin Niemoller, and he wrote:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

When you ignore injustice simply because it is not affecting you right now, eventually its spread could affect you. Even if there were a few more terroristic attacks in the US because we fought for justice, in my mind, that makes us a more noble and majestic nation, and that is why I believe in taking in Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Nicaragua changed my perspective to a more compassionate one.

Jesus said to lay down your life for your brothers and sisters, that is the ultimate act of love and compassion. If it came to death from love, then I would say you have lived according to the principles of God, and that is a righteous death not to fear.

Refugee Acceptance: Not Blind Compassion

I think America could do much better than Trump’s planned 10,000 refugees per year. I still don’t think we should just take in all the refugees.without a system of checks and balances (keep it controlled but let them come because the locals of that country are the real victims) because some of the Muslims do want to cause harm to America, but we should pull our weight and take in a lot more. Some terrorists will try to hide in the groups, and that is why we have national security to keep these people in line. Regular crime happens every year, and you can die from that too. It is just when it wears the banner of Islam, the media goes nuts.

Oftentimes, when you see ungrateful refugees burning down buildings and causing mayhem, the ingratitude makes to the news (send those people back if they are not appreciative and do not respect what they are given), but they rarely show us the reasons why we should take more of them in. I’d gamble that most of them aren’t how the media paints them. Traveling opened my eyes to this issue and transformed my worldview into a more compassionate one. I love Nicaragua because the people are such kind, compassionate and open-hearted people, and I want to be more like that myself. Granted, Nicaragua is a different country from Syria and Iraq, but we are all humans, no matter what country we reside. There is a nobleness to fighting for the principles of love and justice for all.

 

Generosity Gone Wrong: An Embarrassing Anecdote on Understanding Foreign Currency

My second day after moving into my one-room apartment in Managua of the San Antonio district, I had still not learned the foreign currency and how the cordoba operates. I left through the giant locked gate, and a smiling, skinny white mustached old man on my block greeted me and shook my hand. I thought, “He’s a nice old man,” and scampered on down the ancient concrete sidewalk to the main street of Managua to go eat hamburgers near a park with carousels. First time I’ve ever seen carousels at a park…Nicaragua spares no expense on their parks…full of colorful paints on the walls and green, red and yellow wire mesh arches, painted wire fences with baseball, soccer, basketball (I once saw a wheelchair basketball game there), and gigantic playgrounds for the children.

Thunderous Return: What I Thought was Selfless Generosity

Upon going home, I neared my destination when I saw a silver CS50 coin on the decayed tarred road. I picked it up, and it was hot from the sun. I was in awe of my wonderful luck, thinking, “Wow, someone really just threw away 50 cordoba! This must be a rich neighborhood that they just throw that kind of money away!”

…this is where the couch of foreign ignorance plops itself on the train tracks of my story, and everything derails in a metal wreckage of calamity and woe.

I saw that same kindly old man leaned back in his plastic chair, and I walked up to him and handed him the coin all proud of my generous deed. I could take this for myself and buy a hamburger, I thought, but you’re such a good guy and it’s near your house, so I’ll give it to you. He took it with some hesitation and little bit of confusion but he took it, nonetheless.

…I walked away with a smile and blissful, rapturous emotions at my generous good deed of giving…”Just call me Mother Teresa,” I thought, as I fought back tears from my first selfless deed in Nicaragua.

Cleaning Lady Blows the Cover off My Altruistic Facade

About three weeks later, cleaning lady had been washing my clothes (she charges for wash but not the cleaning), and she wanted her pay. She’s a very straightforward and blunt girl at times. I was 25 cordoba short, so I handed her a 25 cordoba coin thinking that meant 25 cordoba. She looks at it and whips it across the room, and looks at me with this defiance like, “I dare you to argue about that…!” I’m just sitting there wide eyed and unresponsive at what just transpired. The language barrier compounds the confusion because I can get no explanation. I think I may have handed her another one, and she bounced that one off the jingling tile floor too.

I bring the coin in my hand a little closer to my eyes, and notice it says, “Centavos.” Like a sudden punch, the understanding hits me that the 50 on the coin does not mean cordoba, it means C$0.50. I didn’t think there were cents here for cordobas because the peso seemed so small, so that was why I mistook it for cordoba. Suddenly, I’m horrified at my past, “generous” deed with the old man. He probably thought I was mocking him when I gave him the C$0.50 coin.

He was probably the guy who threw it there, based on his indifferent reaction, and the fact that the coin was right in front of his house.

…I was the kindly gringo who returned his lost coin.

Master Juggling through Games

My latest experiment takes me into the flighty world of juggling—never intended to be a serious skill, it’s always been my skill of many learning experiments. I’m curious to see if I can master a skill completely using only the art of games to do it. And if so, what that implicates about how learning takes place. Most people say you can only learn a skill through discipline and hard work. But why do it the boring way when you can do it the fun way and enjoy it more? If you accomplish the same goals, how you did it doesn’t matter. For certain, I’ve already noted it holds my attention longer and that’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Level 1—I’m learning to throw the balls behind the back. If I drop them, fortune would have it that I got overwhelmed and eaten by the zombies.  Every catch behind the back is one less zombie and further triumph of will in my struggle against the man-eating zombies. So far, I’ve gotten 7 kills, but I need 10 kills in a row to clear level 1. I’ve died 9 times….

Level 2—My left hand was broken in an unforeseen chocolate ice cream accident. I walked into a dark room unknowingly, and the zombies had nefariously poured chocolate ice cream all over the floor causing me to slip and break my left hand. I now have no choice but to use my right hand to throw the balls behind my back and catch them. Progress is slow and painful… much like my left hand. I truly feel like the train is in reverse here.  Only goal is to get one catch and only one catch and continue juggling without interruption or stopping. That inkling of progress will be much larger than it looks, as my right hand seems to have less coordination.

Should it work really well, I could use it to learn Spanish, violin and writing in a whole new light. Still, this all lines up with my blog and getting more enjoyment from life, so it’s still about that experiment. I learned a few more interesting things from the book  Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience, which is probably even what sparked this experiment. To create experiments from books you read, that’s a fun way to get more out of them.

Somoto Canyon—Wedding Proposals, Horseback Riding and Tubing the River

In my last tour, I rode in a taxi to Somoto Canyon. The ride there…pretty wild, pretty wild. The crazy driving of the United States doesn’t even hold a candle to crazy Nicaraguan driving with horse carts, burnt out taillights and speeders. I used to be paranoid about US drivers, but since I’ve come here, I’m certain that when I return to the US, it will feel like the tamest driving ever.

Nicaragua has tons of mountains and volcanoes (19 volcanoes in total), and the road from Managua to Somoto is mountainous with plenty of deadly drop-off points for cars to ride off the rails and plummet 1,000 feet in a fiery wreckage of crushed metal tragedy. In fact, while riding to and from Somoto, we saw this place in the road where the guard rail had been mangled and tore up into a long strip of disorganized and zig-zagging crushed metal. Doesn’t take much imagination to know the story there…. Throughout the drive, you see colorful crosses all along the side of the road. I put my hands on my “O’Shit Bar” more times than I could count and I’m bracing for impact throughout the drive. Four of the almost car accidents we were nearly head-on crashes that could have been prevented with a little patience, but the driving seemed to worsen the closer we were on the return to Managua.

Adventures in Somoto 

We stayed at a hostel in Somoto, but we toured Somoto Canyon, which had majestic and towering canyons rising 1,000 feet on both sides of the river. To start our Somoto adventure, we rode horse across the rivers and over rock-covered and bumpy terrain with small lizards running around below us. I’ve never rode horse, much less ridden across rivers on one, so this was my first real experience with horseback riding, and I enjoyed the rough, albeit, interesting new way to transport myself to the boat that took us to the inner tubes. The canyons and the rocks and the greenery with the vines on the canyons that stretched from bottom to the top of the cliffs of Somoto made horseback riding twice as cool.

The region near Somoto is northern Nicaragua (a few miles from the Honduras border), and the weather here had a more agreeable temperature than Managua. Would I want to live in Somoto? Perhaps living at a hostel for a few days might not be so bad, but I felt like the area was a little less advanced than other parts of Nicaragua. I don’t think I’d want to live here even if it felt more advanced. The city Somoto did not capture my imagination like some of the other cities of Nicaragua. It felt like a poor copy of Matagalpa (which I loved).  That said, the nature aspect of Somoto was stunning, and when we went tubing, we had a blast floating down the river.

The Wedding Proposal

While in Somoto, the night before we were partying, and this girl gave me what could best be described as a “hungry” look. At first I thought to myself, “You’re imagining things, Matt…Mr Ego…calm down. It was just a look. Don’t let your narcissism get the best of you.” so I kind of cast it aside as nothing. The next day, my taxi driver (a friend with the family) saw her tending the plants and he was like, “Mi amigo! Amigo! Marriage! Marriage!” and pointed at her so I’m laughing inside a little and thinking, “I didn’t just imagine it! ” haha. They asked me like four different times, and I had to politely decline because of my Filipina girlfriend (and because of my utmost caution to marrying strangers, lol). I will say, on the whole, the Nicaraguan women are super pretty, and they have a chocolate-like sweetness to their personality that I have never seen in American women. I would not be opposed to marrying a carefully selected one if I did not have a girlfriend.

The Vibe

Somoto has a more laid-back vibe than some of the other cities I have visited. I liked it, but I wouldn’t want to stay there for too long. When you look up the amount of things to do, there really isn’t that much up there other than the breathtaking canyons. While I did find the canyons exceptionally cool, I thought other areas of Nicaragua offered much more. If you want a place to kick back in a hammock and take life easy for a bit, however, Somoto makes for the perfect getaway vacation to relax.