Though I was not a part of the first Condega Homemakers Project brigade, I saw healthy signs of their efforts everywhere during my stay in Condega. The town is recovering and growing: the first phase of the Collective's building project is now all but complete. And the Collective itself is growing. It is training more women and embarking on new projects. I cannot help but think that the second brigade represented a nice closure for the first, more immediate relief phase of the Collective's construction project. It also set the foundation for a long-lasting partnership between the Collective and brigadistas from the United States.
We arrived in Condega late at night in a steady drizzle, quickly learning that we would need to plan our work schedule around the afternoon and evening storms so typical of the rainy season. We decided we would work early leaving for the site at 6:30 AM to make the most of the dry mornings.
Our work assignment excited everyone: we were charged with doing as much as possible to bring the final four houses of the post-Mitch construction project to completion. Two houses lacked roofs, floors, doors, windows, partitions, and "trasteros" (dish-holders which hang in a window-like frame). The third house had walls that were nearly complete, but it required walls, columns, and door and window frames before the upper seismic support, roof, floor, and doors and windows could be installed.
The final house began as no more than the iron for the columns set in concrete footings. These supports had not been poured with great precision it is a difficult task! and the original foundation markers had been moved, so essentially we had to start from scratch.
We divided into work groups and began our tasks eagerly. As with all projects, some parts progressed more rapidly than expected; most moved forward more slowly. The first week or two required a lot of very finicky work on three of the houses. Helen Shears led the roof construction on the first house, while other brigadistas filled columns and installed window and door frames on the third house. The others realigned columns and began building the foundation of the last house. Soon, however, our construction team was rolling with well-greased gears.
By the time some of the brigadistas left at the end of October, we had made a lot of progress. The first house had roof and floor, the third house was ready for the upper seismic support, and the final house sported rapidly growing walls. It seemed only appropriate that, as most of the brigadistas left on the anniversary of Hurricane Mitch, the project was powerfully close to completion.
I had the good fortune to be able to stay for two months longer and had the pleasure of witnessing some incredible events. We completed all of the carpentry and detail work on the first house and helped the new owner and her family move in a feeling I suspect may go unmatched in my life. We also finished the upper seismic support on the third house and brought the final house to almost the same point.
On a non-construction note, I attended meetings in the new project
during which the new homeowners named their neighborhood Community
of Women United (Comunidad de Mujeres Unidas), planned
an inauguration party, and passed out baby trees to begin planting
in the area. These women are excited about their role as leaders
in the community: they know that, as female heads-of-household
and landowners, they are both a test and an example to others
in Condega and in Nicaragua. They seem ready and willing to meet
this challenge head-on.
One of the most exciting events during my stay was that the Collective won another contract from the city to build a group of houses for elderly members of the community who have been left without families to care for them. Frequently around Condega I heard people speaking of the various post-Mitch construction projects, and they never failed to mention that the houses built by the Women's Construction Collective had the best design and were the most aesthetically pleasing.
The reputation of quality work won the Collective this second, high profile project. The Collective's leaders are also planning to launch a carpentry and construction course for a new group of women at the end of January in the hopes that they will be ready to work on the second phase of construction of women's houses by the end of April 2000. It is an exciting time for the Collective.
Having spent this time in Condega, I am convinced of the value of this international partnership. On a very obvious level, the skills and work ethic of the brigadistas infuse energy and resources into an organization that has big dreams, but small numbers and limited funds. Simply having more warm hearts and able hands really helps. And in this respect the organizational support of the Condega Homemakers Project has proven indispensable.
On a more philosophical note, I believe this partnership serves the international feminist movement in a profound way. Having recently graduated from college in the United States, I have been fortunate to have easy access to education, where I took gender studies courses and learned, in a very intellectual manner, about the meaning and history of the women's movement.
In Nicaragua, however, the women of the Collective learn about breaking gender roles not in any university, but by fighting for economic independence in a non-traditional job. What results from this difference is one of the most interesting and powerful cultural exchanges I can imagine. Side-by-side, we brigadistas learn from our comrades in a very real, physical way, what it means to fight for equality daily. Simultaneously, we are able to share with them the vocabulary and ideology of feminism through which we begin to understand our experiences as women.
My Nicaraguan friends and I spoke often about this, and we always smiled to realize the impact of this exchange in each of our lives. Working together, the women of the Condega Homemakers Project and the Women's Contruction Collective have proven that our project is ideologically and economically sustainable. Furthermore, we have discovered that we can learn a lot from each other in the fight against sexism.
-- Jennifer Burney