Long Overdue “Thanks!”
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 3:33 pm by gilessmI’ve now been back from Nicaragua for 12 days. On Sunday I fell pretty ill and am now (Weds) getting my energy back. Although my doctor thinks it might be Nicaragua related, I think it providential that I was healthy during the 3 weeks I was in Nicaragua. If I wasn’t, who else was going to pay for all of the meals!!!
I wanted to take a moment to pay my tributes to an amazing 3 week experience.
First, a BIG thank you to associate provosts Kline Harrison and Michele Gillispie for creating, sustaining, and funding the Nicaragua program. Also a big thank you to Tom Dingledine for his generous support of all things Nicaragua. This trip would not have been possible without these three individuals, and countless others. I also want to thank my colleague, Gary Miller, who did the bulk of organizing and managing of the budget. Even though he could not stay the entire time, he stayed connected and actively helped with every facet of the trip. Additional thanks goes out to Jason Archer, my graduate assistant, who helped me with the day-to-day aspects of the trip. Without Jason, I don’t think I would have known half of the students complaints or troubles. 
Second, I know I speak on behalf of the group when I send a thank you to the Jose’s–Jose Daniel Leiva and Jose at Los Pinos. Both took care of us like family while we were in Nicaragua. Jose Daniel is employed by WF and was the i-beam of the entire operation (I think i-beams are important in architecture–if not, I’m sorry Jose–you are like that beam that holds everything together!).
Third, I want to give a shout out to my family, including my mother, who endured 12 days of the trip as if she was a WF student! Mom, I hope I have half of your drive and energy at your age. Heck, I wish I had half your energy right now! You were amazing. My wife, Annamae, had to bear much of the burden of caring for our kids while I did “official” business stuff, which usually amounted to me having fun while she watched Lillian, Aiden, and Matthew. She handled it with grace and made my life much less stressful. Thanks, babe. And to my kids, you were awesome! Just try not to believe everything the students told you. Therapy is only going to get more expensive so I’m hoping that some of that stuff you heard doesn’t stick. :0
Fourth, this trip was and always will be about the students. So for the 13 students who decided to forego a summer in Spain or Austria or air conditioning to trek around Nicaragua I give you my special thanks. I have never been around a group of students who more fully embraced and loved my children as all of you did. This past weekend I took my 6 year old, Aiden, backpacking. He was telling a friend of mine a story about Nicaragua. He said, “You know what?” (He starts every story with the rhetorical question, “You know what?”), “my FRIEND, Stephen, . . . “ I don’t even remember what he said about Stephen, who was one of the students on the trip, because I was just so floored that a 6 year old would so casually see a 21 year old as his “friend.” But it is true. All of you can count yourselves as true “friends” of the Giles team. I know you will live on in their memories, and despite the costs of therapy you were great role models.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all of the wonderful people of Nicaragua that we met along the way, from Louise, our bus driver, to the many people in La Villa, Chinandega, and elsewhere. Perhaps my most vivid memory was our first trip into La Villa, a community created in Chinandega for people who moved out of the local dump. It seems that within moments of arriving in La Villa the students were all playing with children, talking to residents, sitting in people’s homes, and otherwise making themselves “at home.” My kids were swinging on swings, speaking Spanish (well, saying ‘Como te llamas’ and ‘Cuantos anos tienes’ ad nauseum), and acting like they were reconnecting with long lost friends. The Nicaraguan girls were pulling my blond haired boy in opposite directions as they fought over his affection, to which he obliged with little resistance. Here we were with a group of people who could not have been more different than us at so many levels (cultural, socioeconomic, education, language), and yet on that day, in that moment, a common fabric that unites all of us as human beings materialized. We all have different dreams, but we dream. We all have different lives, but we live. We have different aspirations for our children, but aspire for them nonetheless. In the end, we all want to know and be known. To my own children this was obvious; their world view has not been tainted by racism, materialism, or other cultural influences that disfigure humanity. But it was great to see the WF students look beyond their own fears and doubts by fully embracing the people in La Villa. I think this was my proudest moment.
Either that, or managing to tell the bus driver in Spanish that he has a nice bus (at least, that’s what I hope I told him).
Until next time . . . Professor Giles