Also in this issue
Two other PWs: Seattle Through Artist’s Lens and Community Animals
Q&A with Dino Rossi
Letter from the Editor Editor-in-Chief Maria
Layout Editor Nell
Table of 2 Letter from the Editor 3 Meet the Contributors 4-5 Nicaragua Interviews 6-7 Reflections: Nicaragua in Images, Words 8-9 Penniless, Priceless
Contents 10-11 Video Vignettes 12 PW: Caring for Community’s Animals 13 PW: Seattle Through Artist’s Lens 14-15 Politics Q&A 16 A Place for Poetry
Meet the Nicaragua Project Week Journalists
Top, from left: Rishi Jha, Matt Horvat, Justin Pong, Evan Dragich, Zander Gillett, Maria Russinovich, Miguel Llanos and Marian Sugano Bottom: Cameron Strafford, Adit Hattikudur, Nolan Chinn, Divya Syal, Izzy Prusch, Andrea Peniche
Cover photo by Andrea Peniche ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
This special edition of The Overlake Independent focuses on the “Live from Nicaragua” Project Week because those students and advisers took on the challenge of being foreign correspondents. They researched, interviewed, filmed and wrote about a country that is alien to most Americans but which has a close history with the U.S., especially during the 1980s when the Reagan administration was battling the Sandinista government that had just overthrown a dictator. We did, however, tuck in a few non-Nicaragua stories: Other Project Week profiles by Nell Corley and Farah Lindsey-Almadani, as well as senior Harry Gardner’s final political contribution.
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A Country of Contrasts Explored in Nicaragua PW Even before arriving, Overlake’s “Live from Nicaragua” Project Week team knew to expect paradoxes. We knew Nicaragua was the second poorest country in the Americas (after Haiti), and yet it scored high on Columbia University’s Happiness Index. We knew it had a complicated history with the U.S., including several invasions over the last 150 years, and yet Nicaraguans also share some of our passions – especially baseball. We knew it went through a revolution in 1979 to oust a dictator, only to have the chief revolutionary, Daniel Ortega, himself consolidate power – with the help of his wife, who now is Nicaragua’s vice president. (And two weeks after we left, Nicaraguans upset over tax increases pushed back against the Ortega government with street protests that left several dozen dead.) Key to making sense of those contrasts were the interviews we had with a cross-section of Nicaraguan society. Here’s a look at some of the people we spoke with and their perspective. The portraits were taken by Justin Pong except for the women’s rights activist, whose photo was taken from video.
document from his administration – a first of its kind in all of Latin America, he Enrique Bolaños defeated Ortega in 2001 says. and led the country for the next five years. He's proud that he was able to Former President
Former Revolutionary Francisco de Paula Roiz Lacayo showed us the prison where, at age 15, he was jailed and tortured because his girlfriend was suspected of being an enemy of the Somoza dictatorship. His mother secured his freedom three weeks later and he decided that he too would start fighting,
first robbing banks to pay for the Sandinista revolution and then fighting soldiers on the streets of Leon. And while repay much of the country’s foreign he once supported Ortega, he's now opdebt. His critics would later tell us that posed to what he considers a family dyncame at the cost of austerity measures at asty running the country. home (think higher taxes, lower wages), to which he’d counter that Nicaragua needed financial stability to then grow. Now 90, Bolaños feels Ortega has created a family dynasty for himself. And Bolaños has spent recent years building a website (enriquebolanos.org) with every
Former Congressman Eliseo Nuñez, a lawyer who served two terms as a congressman, he impressed upon us the unfortunate fact that Nicaragua hasn’t found legal stability due to the frequent changes to its Constitution. He is also one of the loudest critics
against Ortega even though that has cost him job opportunities. A Catholic who almost became a priest, he nonetheless opposes Ortega's recent alliance with the Catholic church and evangelical groups that led to enshrining Nicaragua as a Christian state in its Constitution.
5 Citizen Activist Fabiola Tercero Castro deals with Nicaragua’s political and socio-economic frustrations by trying to make the capital Managua a more livable city – no easy task given its sprawling streets and lack of bike lanes. Using Facebook, she helps organize outdoor events like
Nicaragua’s revolutionary lore but that happened when the masks she and her husband made were adopted by Sandinistas to disguise their identity during the intense fighting against Somoza soldiers. The masks date back to Nicaragua’s passion for cultural dances.
Photojournalist Oscar Duarte documented much of Central
Ortega's government, even though it calls itself socialist, opposes abortion as part of its alliance with Christian religious groups.
Youth Media Producer Tania Ortega has bypassed the tight government controls on TV by producing online vid-
group bike rides and other exercise. She's upbeat about the future. "Happiness is relative," she says. Nicaragua isn't perfect, but things are improving, she believes. Artist Lucilla Suazo didn’t expect to become part of
America’s recent political history, and unrest, as a photojournalist for CNN and Reuters, but recently decided that Nicaragua was finally embracing the rest of the world via tourism and that he could do the same. The result is a mountain eco-resort and tours that he operates with his brother.
Women’s Rights Activist Elia Palacios and others with the Axayacatl Women’s Association (asociaciondemujeresaxayacatl.org) are fighting to overturn a national law that bans abortions even when the woman’s life is in danger – it can lead to two years in prison for the woman, and six years for the person who performs the abortion. Even though Nicaragua has strong family values, it also has seen an increase in domestic violence, and in particular unwanted pregnancies, which are often the result of rape by a family member.
eos made by and for young Nicaraguans. Her dehumo.tv has covered issues that government media won't: sex ed, for one, as well as basic issues like a lack of drinking water in poor communities. The platform relies on funding from outside foundations.
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Reflections: Nicaragua Photos by Andrea Peniche Words by Divya Syal
Our unique Project Week in Nicaragua was full of new experiences that opened our eyes to a different part of the world. Our busy, packed plans for each day and night kept us attentive to all the sights.
The people of Nicaragua connected with us immediately and our homestay families welcomed us into their houses and lives openly and happily. The intrigued children played games with us and were eager to pose for our cameras. The stories of the people we interviewed reflected their dedication and effort towards their organizations and showed their unique contributions to society.
In addition to all of the interesting people we met, we had the opportunity to visit spectacular places. The varying geography of the cities astonished us and our volcano hike was remarkable. The beautiful sunset and horses we saw from the volcano was definitely worth the bumpy ride.
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in Images, Words Although we were challenged by having to speak Spanish most of the time, our Spanish-speaking skills definitely increased and added to the exceptionality of this project. The lively culture relaxed us into a happier and almost laid-back mood that contrasted with the way we live at home.
The experience of visiting old churches and historical sites clarified the way we saw the past influencing the present in Nicaragua.
The different custom of living in generational-houses let us have insight into the everyday life of Nicaraguans and provided us with a sense of family even while we were away from home. We brought back a lifetime of memories with us, and hope these words and images help convey that experience.
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Paradox of Penniless, By Rishi Jha White Plastic Chair. Adidas Sneakers. Expensive Camera. Wealth. Budget Snack Stand. Barefoot. Concerned Mother. Poverty. As I guess former Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños put it best to us, “it’s a country of paradoxes.” In Masaya’s central plaza, on a white plastic chair—the cheap, flimsy kind—I sat, with a thousand-dollar camera, taking a picture of a little boy in front of his mother’s wooden snack stand. Everything about his situation should have concerned me. He was skinny, not in a good way, had no shoes on, and his mother looked exhausted, perhaps concerned with the minimal traffic directed the way of her humble food cart in this working class town near Nicaragua's capital of Managua.
Photo credit: Justin Pong
of the most brutal dictators in Latin American history. In the same breath I was given hundreds of reasons why Nicaraguans should hate America and then offered another plateful of food. Following what BoOn the other end of the lens, everything about my sit- laños said, one of the central “paradoxes” for me was: uation screamed wealth. I sat on that chair with a Coke despite living in the second poorest Latin American country, how were folks here so happy? in one hand and a 10 Benjamins in the other; on the chair next to me my backpack held a laptop and a US According to a cursory Wikipedia search, 85% of Nicapassport. But something was missing in the tale of de- raguans consider themselves Christian (and 60% of pressing poverty I sought to capture. The boy flashed those consider themselves Catholic), and from my diswide smiles between each shot, and called his little cussions, for many religion provides a bulwark of supbrother over before asking me to take more pictures. port and inclusion against governmental corruption Looking for answers, I glanced at his mother who, alt- and instability. “I used to huff glue,” one practitioner hough understandably nervous, stood with a light told me, “but finding religion changed my life.” For smile as her young models posed in front of her cart. him, religion was an out, an escape from a life of Statistics tells us that causation does not equal correla- drugs, and now he preaches in the city square, trying tion, yet this one family seemed to be a microcosm for to lead other young people to a life of positivity. the whole country: a penniless nation with priceless smiles. As an American traveler visiting a country that For others, religion was all they had. “Family and God,” an elderly woman told me was all she needed to keep the United States has invaded four separate times, I herself satisfied. Poverty is a reality in Nicaragua, was surprised by the warmth—in both senses of the word—I was embraced by in Nicaragua. The same cou- where nearly 75% of people live on less than two dolple that welcomed me with open arms into their home lars a day, according to Bolaños. Perhaps sharing the told me how they, as teenagers, used to throw rocks at pain through community, both familial and religious, soldiers of the American-backed Somoza family—some makes it more bearable. On the night of Easter,
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but also Priceless I sat outside Masaya’s central church in awe. The pews were packed as people sang, danced, laughed, and cried together, all as a family. More than anything, I think religion here helps people brave mutual suffering together. On another note, with a densely religious population, as you’d expect, comes conservative law. Former lawmaker Eliseo Nuñez told us polls show that 85% of Nicaraguans do not believe in same-sex marriage, while 56% believe that abortion should be outlawed. The boundary between church and state are blurred. One practitioner told me that “they’re interdependent” in that religion needs government and government needs religion. While many conservative Nicaraguans strongly believe in the unity of religion and state, a new wave of socialmedia-influenced liberalism leads to a far more complex political landscape than the one I perhaps have been painting. We talked to one young man in a church in Granada who told us that because of Pope Francis he now believed that homosexuality, as long as it didn’t interfere with the church, should be tolerated. Further, as a 15year veteran, I was shocked that he believed in religious tolerance. On the way to the church I asked a kid, in the middle of his card game, whether he was religious. In response to his yes, I simply asked why? To which he shrugged. The new generation of Nicaraguans, like Americans even, seem to be less religious, and in turn, less likely to fall back on religion at the sight of injustice. A few days after we left, Nicaragua was ravaged by violent anti-government protests kindled by young Nicaraguans. Youth who were not alive to remember the horrors of the Somoza dictatorship and US-funded Contra war aimed at derailing the Sandinista revolution. Youth who rely less and less on the church. Youth who expect more from their government as the world races ahead. If you were to ask me, as Nicaraguans increasingly enter the global fray, they are slowly shying away from religion, and its old source of happiness. While I hope that my model keeps grinning from ear to ear in front of his mother’s stand, I fear that, as he gets older, his smile will disappear. Growing up among a politically-engaged, angry youth just as religion is phased out, he will need to find new refuge. Either violently or not.
A Vision of Religion Photos by Andrea Peniche
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Video Adit Hattikudur produced a snappy, 22–second trailer to kick things off. He followed that up with a twominute video that showcased moments like this climb up a volcano.
Student journalists focused on religion, happiness, and poverty issues in documenting their Nicaragua trip. Here are screenshots from their videos — go to youtube.com/ overlakeindependent to watch them.
Cameron Strafford produced a video (screenshot below) that examines the paradox that while Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America, it also ranks high on Columbia University’s Happiness Index.
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Vignettes
Nolan Chinn, Justin Pong and Rishi Jha collaborated on one video that looked at the role of Christianity in Nicaragua and another (screenshot below) that took in many of the sights and sounds of the country.
Maria Russinovich and Evan Dragich reflected on their experience with a speedwriting video highlighting some of the speakers, such as Eliseo Nunez, a former congressman.
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Community Cares for Animals Farah Lindsey-Almadani
Among the many Project Weeks this year was one that intrigued animal lovers in the Upper School: Community Animals! It focused on giving back to animal communities around the Seattle area through different service opportunities. A Special Thanks to Ashley Powel and Stephanie Beliers for chaperoning and making the week so great! Day #1: PAWS Wildlife Center
We left promptly at 8:10 am, making the journey up north to PAWS Wildlife Center, located in Lynnwood. Once we arrived, one of the volunteers explained to us the inner workings of the center (including where the chocolate was in the refrigerator and where the bathrooms were located!!) and the mission of the center. PAWS serves as a rescue for all sorts of injured animals, ranging from birds to bears. Animals are only released when volunteers and workers are sure they would be able to survive in the wild. After our mini-tour, it was off to our tasks, all of which required a great team effort! Our tasks included wheelbarrowing gravel up a hill and placing dirt in a designated area for injured deer. After our hard work, we enjoy our lunches and were able to tour the facility before heading back to school. Days #2-3: Sarvey and Little Bit
I was out sick Days 2 and 3, but I later had the pleasure to sit down with our wonderful chaperones, Ashley and Stephanie, to discuss the activities the group did. On Day 2, the group traveled to Arlington to visit Sarvey Wildlife Care Center, where injured animals were being taken care of. Students even got to see some of the injured wildlife up close! One of the animals we were able to meet was a falcon, pictured here, that had a unique story. She is at Sarvey’s because she refuses to eat live animals and will only eat them if they are dead, making her unable to survive in the wild. To help out, Overlake students completed various activities such as weeding and doing some spring cleaning. On Day 3, our group went to Little Bit, located right here in Redmond! Little Bit specializes in therapy for both kids and adults…through horses. We completed “diverse activities”, which included pulling staples out of the doors of the stables and cleaning the barn stalls.
Day #4: Jubilee Farm and Special Bunny
The next day, I was finally able to recover from my cold and joined the rest of my Project Week as we traveled to Jubilee Farm and Special Bunny, both located in Carnation. At Jubilee, we observed many farm animals including lambs, sheep, cows, and pigs and pulled out weeds growing in one of the greenhouses. After our weeding, we quickly ate our lunch and it was off to our next stop, Special Bunny. Once we arrived, we toured the facility and were able to eventually meet several bunnies up close and personal. Special Bunny was indeed a unique experience for me. I was able to learn about the predicament bunnies often face: abandonment. Unfortunately, lots of families will purchase bunnies during certain times of the year, like Easter, but will later decide to abandon their animals. Special Bunny’s purpose is to host bunnies in need of a temporary home, before they can be adopted by a family who will love them unconditionally. Day #5: Emerald City Pet Rescue
On our last day, my fellow Overlakers and I ventured to Emerald City Pet Rescue in Seattle. Once we arrived, we learned about their mission. Many of the animals that are sent to Emerald City are from California, where some animals were at risk for being euthanized. This is mostly due to the overpopulation of Californian rescue centers. Emerald City makes sure to take good care of their animals and that, once they are adopted, they are put in good homes. After mingling and playing with some of their rescue dogs, my Project Week drove back to Redmond and ate lunch at Homegrown, before enjoying some ice cream from Molly Moon’s. As a proud dogowner and lover of animals, I can happily say this Project Week diversified my knowledge on animal awareness. I was able to see a variety ranging from birds to cows to dogs and become familiar with great organizations that care about animals. Hopefully, this will continue to be a Project Week option for students, so they too can engage with the amazing animals our world has to offer.
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Seattle Through the Artist’s Lens Nell Corley It’s easy to forget what’s around us in our own city; for me, I’ve experienced a life just outside of Seattle as part of an avid theater family but getting into the city to take a look at all the art it has to offer was something I did only when I was homeschooled as a kid — my responsibilities were few and homework nonexistent, something that’s a distant memory to me now. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week checking out the art that Seattle has to offer. From sculpture studies to glass blowing, our adventures were eye-opening to the wonderfully creative art that is made in the Pacific North-
west. Live theater made its way into our schedule one afternoon – a favorite of mine, having been exposed to theater early in my life. Perhaps the
Overall, the incredibly diverse art we discovered gave us new perspectives about the way art in our city is interpreted, appreciated, and created by the wonderful artists who call Seattle their home. Our advisors gave us time to value and explore new territories — paths we may not have crossed without their help. Ultimately, the Project Week was a deep examination of stunning art history and creativity – and that spelled success for Seattle Through the Artist’s Lens. ——————— Link to my vlog - https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QaEx8xfjtC8&t=1s
most compelling part of our exploits, however, was the free reign we were given; there was no watchful eye looming over us at all times, allowing for a more personalized form of exploration in the museums and streets we were released to. We
could revisit pieces we found interesting and pass by the ones we didn’t while still being exposed to styles of art that we’d never really looked at before.
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Election Q&A: Dino Rossi and the 8th District Harry Gardner
In the last few years, there has been an outpouring of interest in politics, partly generated by President Trump and people’s response to him. As a part of this, there has been renewed focus towards elections, and in November our nation will be voting on the composition of Congress: 33 of our nation’s senators (apportioned by state) and 435 representatives. While Washington state is often non-competitive at the national scale, our congressional representation is split 6-4 Democrats to Republicans. The state’s 8th District, which includes part of the Eastside, twice voted for Barack Obama and once for Hillary Clinton. Dave Reichert, R-Washington, has represented this district since 2005 but is retiring.
On the Democratic side, there is currently a three-way race to challenge Republican Dino Rossi. Kim Schrier, a pediatrician from Sammamish, is currently leading competitors Jason Rittereiser, an attorney from Ellensburg, and Shannon Hader, a former CDC official. As a recent internal poll from the Schrier campaign indicates, Rossi is leading in the primary with 43%, followed by Schrier at 6%, Rittereiser at 4% and Hader at 2%. On the Republican side, Rossi, a former gubernatorial candidate and state legislator, is the party’s candidate. In 2004, He lost by a margin of 129 votes in the 2004 gubernatorial race, winning the first recount and being certified as governor-elect before Christine Gregoire won in the second and final recount. He has also spent 6+ years as a state legislator with a proven record of bipartisanship. Before his entrance into the race, sources like the Cook Political Report indicated that this district was a tossup to lean Democrat. But with this proven legislator and known entity running, it seems that this race has become much more competitive for the Republicans. The Overlake Independent asked him about his priorities should he win, and his responses are on the next page
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Why are you running for Congress? I'm running because Congress is broken and needs fresh leadership. There are many in both parties who can't work productively and civilly with people who think differently than them. I come from a different school of thought — I'm not going to DC because I want to shout at anyone, I'm going to DC because I want to work with people to solve problems again. This job needs to be done, and I have proved throughout my life that I can bring together coalitions of people who don't seem to have anything in common, and build trust and common goals in those groups.
When it comes to the issue of healthcare reform, would you support measures to decrease premiums through amending the ACA or do you want to see reform (Medicare for all/or repeal of the ACA)? I'm self-employed, and have experienced the challenges of the health insurance market firsthand. When the ACA passed, my family lost our health insurance. Our premiums grew rapidly and our quality of coverage collapsed. While it's essential that we protect people with preexisting conditions, the ACA simply failed to control costs, increase the quality of healthcare, or reduce the enormous bureaucracy that the health insurance industry has to deal with.
Upon election, which caucuses do you plan on joining? Republican Main Street Partnership, Republican Study Committee, and/or the Tuesday Group? When I served in the Washington State Senate, I found that I was most successful when I had friends in every group, and I'll mirror that approach in Congress. I don't know which groups I'll join, but I know that I will work with anyone who is willing to work with me in good faith.
Would you support entitlement reform as Speaker Ryan has suggested? I am unaware of a specific bill that is before the House, but my priority is ensuring that the most vulnerable members of our society —-seniors, people with developmental disabilities, and the mentally ill — are protected. That's what I did when I balanced the state budget in 2003 — I ensured that we lived within our means, but received the Senior Star Award from the AARP and multiple awards from the developmentally disabled community for protecting the vulnerable. People pay into Social Security and Medicare all their lives, and those programs need to be there for them at retirement age.
You’re running in a district that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Clinton in 2016 but elected Dave Reichert over that same interval. Do you reflect this bipartisan mentality and will you bring it to Congress? I absolutely place a strong priority on bipartisan work in good faith. The 8th Congressional District has never voted for a Democratic member of Congress, but hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate in decades. The people of the 8th understand the importance of experience and proven ability to work well with other people. I'm looking forward to working with Republicans, Democrats, and independents to ensure that our country is on a positive path.
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A Place for Poetry? Marian Sugano What does it mean to be a poet in a country unremittingly unsettled by political strife? Is it enough that the 19th-Century Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío radically modernized Latin American poetry by creating Modernismo, melding the refined essence and musicality of French Impressionists like Verlaine with the earthy essence of America’s Whitman? Must we also have a commitment to be “engaged,” addressing head-on the partisan issues (in Sartre’s view, to be engagé)? Or must we simply love our homeland deeply, seeing and willing its greatness through all of its faults? As we entered the Parque Central on our first day in Managua, we were drawn to the abandoned cathedral that had once commanded the space, now emptied of the rich symbolism previously there. It was draped with bold letters stating: “If the homeland is small, dream it big”. Those words come from a verse of Darío’s celebrated poem “Retorno” in which he describes his emotions upon returning to Nicaragua after a long absence. Now the cathedral was speaking to us through the vision of Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua’s vice president and wife of President Daniel Ortega. Having selected this verse to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Darío’s birth, she wrote that Nicaraguans should work “every day to strengthen the dream of a homeland free from poverty… a homeland of prosperity, in peace, safe,” and where “we find reasons to live, to struggle, to work” based on Christian values.
journey through the world carries the muses that inspired him. These were just the first of many representations of Darío we found all over Nicaragua. Our trip to the city of León, where Darío spent his childhood, included a visit to the Museo Rubén Darío. There one of the foremost authorities on Darío, Gustavo Montalvan, presented a lecture on the poet and his travels (in fact, more of Darío’s adult life was spent as a journalist and spokesperson elsewhere in Latin America, Spain, and in the U.S. than in Nicaragua).
fragments of the past are merely that: pieces of a larger whole that, when reassembled, lose their connections and perhaps even their meaning. We were told by many that Darío is hardly read anymore even in his native country, and although he is summoned everywhere (snippets of his poetry even appear in rap songs), is he being transformed to “sell” a narrative that no longer exists? Can the same symbols be manipulated by a repressive government to convey encouragement to its people and then, in turn, be employed also by the protesters against that governWe marveled at how this 19th Centu- ment? ry poet was being featured frequently in proximity to even more abunGiven the recent deadly violence in dant images of Augusto Sandino, the Nicaragua, the big question now is : early Nicaraguan guerrilla leader who Will the very “dreaming big” that the inspired the Sandinistas governing vice president wanted to encourage Nicaragua through much of the by draping Darío’s words on that 1980s and who are back in power empty cathedral encourage dedicaunder the much-changed leadership tion to the government of the Orteof Ortega and his wife. Such iconogas or, quite the opposite, a realization that the big dream of the NicaraA few steps away, we were greeted graphy is promoted by the oppreswith a highly ornate statue of Darío. sive Sandinista regime to remind the guan people may call for the downThe poet was dressed in neoclassical beleaguered country of its purer and fall of the current regime? robes, aloft on a pedestal rising from higher values, and more glorious water in which a boat symbolizing his past. It is ironic, however, how these