March 2020

Part 1

This newsletter was sent via the City of Moscow on behalf of the Moscow Sister City Association. This newsletter was written by Moscow Sister City Association authors and may not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Moscow.

[I’m starting this newsletter on March 12. It’s about my Nicaragua trip from February 1st to 21st, a time when general concern about coronavirus, though serious, was way below everyone’s concern now. At that time only one person in all Latin America had tested positive. Now it’s different everywhere; Nicaragua is one of the few countries without a confirmed case, but that may only mean there is inadequate testing there, and the neighbors to north and south, Honduras and Costa Rica, have confirmed cases. It’s just a matter of time, and one wonders how countries with third-world medical facilities are going to fare. Not that we don’t wonder about the U.S. also. – Dave Barber]

My trip took me to four cities, each with people with a connection to Moscow. This newsletter is a photograph tour, with notes. Part 1 is about Managua and León.

MANAGUA

Managua from above, 2/2/2020.

Here are Moscow’s main people in Villa El Carmen, Ana Julia Castillo and Mario Mendoza, here in Managua with Roberto Castillo, Ana’s nephew. Ana and Mario receive and distribute the funds we send to Villa El Carmen and serve as our overall liaisons. My first night in Managua I stayed with Roberto and his mother.

This is Laura Gutiérrez, fifth-year student of medicine in Managua. This is the last year of her regular program, and thus of her current MSCA scholarship. She will take two more years of study toward a specialty, however.

Yanci Espinoza, MSCA scholarship student who graduated last year, works in a Managua business but is now on leave, with a month left before the expected birth of a daughter.

This is the Managua branch of her family; her husband, an engineer, was at work.

Francisco Delgadillo Torres was a Central America Youth Ambassador who spent a week in Moscow at the University of Idaho in 2011. Now he manages work crews in a construction company. His wife, Xóchilt, is a nurse and medical student on her way to becoming a physician. Their daughter, Luciana Valentina, is on her way to becoming half a year old. Xóchilt and Francisco grew up in Ciudad Darío, a small city to the north, and now live in Managua.

Taking a taxi, always a hair-raising experience, through one of the less crowded areas of Managua. Nicaraguan taxistas are expert at threading their way through narrow openings in traffic.

Cinthya Guillen and her children, from left Gracemary (9), Hillary (6), and Brandon (15) lived in Villa El Carmen until the past year, when they moved to Managua, where she works in a company that collects Internet information on businesses. Cinthya is the former wife of Henry Fonseca, who visited Moscow and stayed with various families in 2010. Henry still teaches English in Villa El Carmen.

I love the photo on the left with me and the three kids. But my favorite Nica photo is on the right, me holding Gracemary in 2010. She was four days old at the time.

LEÓN

From Managua I took a bus two hours north to León, partly to see this city, which along with Granada is considered the most beautiful and culturally rich city in Nicaragua; and partly to see Dominique (or Michelle) who visited Moscow last year, with Helen Brown and Norman Fowler.

This is a market area, next to the bus terminal – where I got lost for a while, miscommunicated with Dominique’s mother, who was picking me up.

You can guess by its name that León is a city of lions. The one on the left, in front of the León cathedral, is a typical León lion, fierce and angry. The lion below, my favorite lion ever, lies inside the cathedral, grieving endlessly at the tomb of the great Nicaraguan poet and icon, Rubén Darío, who died in the city.

Lion statue grieving endlessly at the tomb of the great Nicaraguan poet and icon, Rubén Darío

Besides lions, the León cathedral has hundreds of pigeons, who wheel around the square whenever the bells sound. Not to mention lots of kids who like to feed and fly with the pigeons.

When Dominique arrived, she took me to the roof of the León cathedral. From there you can see all around:

Exhibit at the museum of folklore and legends

We also went to a museum of folklore and legends:

This museum combines figures from folklore with drawings on the walls of prisoners – because this building was a prison holding political opponents of the Somoza regime in the 1950s-1970s.

Then I headed off to Cuidad Darío. Getting off that bus, I once again found myself lost, because I couldn’t contact my hosts on my phone. I needed wifi, so I asked two schoolgirls, who were waiting for a ride home, where there was a place with wife. They said, there isn’t one around here. So I stood around, trying to conjure up a Plan B, and then they offered me use of their phones, which did have connections. I gave them a phone number, they made contact, and I was SO grateful. These are my benefactors, whose names I have forgotten.

Part 2 will be about Ciudad Darío and, more to the point for Moscow Sister City, Villa El Carmen.

Officers of Moscow Sister City Association;
                Dave Barber, president (and newsletter editor)
                Lubia Cajas Cano, vice-president
                Amy Garwood, secretary
                Jim Reece, treasurer
                Elisabeth Berlinger, board member
  Linda Christenson, board member
  Cindy Magnuson, board member
                Susie Wiese, board member
  Aengus Kennedy, board member

Contact:
Dave Barber
dbarber@uidaho.edu
208-301-3342

MSCA Mailing Address:
PO Box 8367
Moscow, ID 83843