Greetings from Nicaragua!

This will have to be short and sweet as the internet here has been incredibly unreliable, a theme we find to be consistent with the NGO world at large in Nicaragua. We are here to work with Nitlapan, an NGO that offers legal services to rural communities. Nitlapan covers various legal bases, ranging from helping farmers secure loans to advocating on behalf of the "landless," farmers who were granted land, but not title, in the agrarian reform following the revolution. About a month ago Nitlapan launched its first conflict resolution program in the rural municipality of Matagalpa. This is the program our internships revolve around.

We arrived two weeks ago and have been in a bit of a state of limbo. Upon arriving we were greeted by Nitlapan's chief counsel and given an overview of the group's mission, practices, and our role in helping implement the conflict resolution program. Our responsibilities will include researching the nature and frequency of conflicts in the rural town of Rio Blanco through client intake and personal interviews with members of the community. Thus far we have received a lot of background information and general information; however, the head of the program has been travelling to the different communities and we have been left waiting to meet him. This has resulted in a ton of down time and waiting, which we have filled with background reading and research. We are scheduled to meet the program director on Monday and finish our training, so hopefully we will start interviewing clients on Tuesday!

As interesting as it is to be a part of a new program, we have been disappointed by the lack of organization surrounding its implementation. Despite the disorganization we have had a great time getting to know Nicaraguans and seeing more of the country. Nitlapan has welcomed us with open arms and so long as the program director actually makes it on Monday, it seems that our work will be challenging and interesting.

Hasta la proxima,
Juan, Estefani, y Nicolas