The Chanpa project continued...

Today was a very interesting day.  We are still really trying to get the Chanpa Project off the ground.  The situation has gotten quite a bit worse.  At one point, the school was a refuge for 15 families who were flooded.  At the present, there are 34 families living in the school.  If you do the math, that means 19 families that do not have flooded homes have moved to the school.

Why you ask?  The government has decided to provide free food to all the families in need.  The catch though, is that even every family living in the school receives the food.  Even those families that haven't been flooded.  AND even those families that have been flooded are still able to work and purchase their own food.  What seems like a nice gesture on part of the government is actually a much deeper problem.  They are not interested in reopening the school to the children.  In fact, they want to keep the families in the school for as long as possible.  This makes it look like they really care and are trying to help the families.  Their plan keeps all the families, without or without flooding, displaced until January at the earliest.  This means school is closed for at least three months.  There is no value on education.  Without getting to far into it, the Sandinistan government (on the verge of communism) are trying to win the votes of the poor.  After all, it is an election year.

We had a meeting at the school last night.  The mayor was present as well as the Ministry of Education and a Sandinistan Political Activist.  Everyone was all for moving out of the school, all except the Activist.  She stirred the mob bringing all sorts of reasons to the table, why they shouldn't move out of the school.  The crowd realized that this meant they wouldn't receive chanpas, they weren't going for it.  She then changed her tactics claiming that, "ALL families should receive Chanpas, whether they needed them or not!"  (Socialism at it's finest.)  Many people had already abused the system and were trying to abuse our desire to help as well.  We suggested that perhaps it was best if we just stepped out and let the government just deal with the problem.  At that, they all agreed that only people whom were flooded should receive the chanpa.

I don't know what will happen from here, but it seems as though we are finally going to help the families that are really in need.  Will this open the school, only time will tell.