“My relationships with women never lasted very long. Either they left or divorced me, one even died.”
“If you could change something about the past, what would it be?”
“I’d probably just stuck with Yolanda, she was a good girl.”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa

‘What are you guys doing outside, shouldn’t you be in class?“
’’No, not today.. It’s cleaning-the-school day!”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa

“The first man I fell in love with was already married. Because the Christian missionary movement was in control it was forbidden to get a divorce. That’s why it was not possible to re-marry. We ended up getting four children. The second man I fell in love with was also still married. With him I had another five children. Because I didn’t have an official husband I was financially fully responsible for my own kids. We were so poor at those times that many people sold their children for small amounts of money. They mostly ended up being exploited for cheap labour. Giving up my children wasn’t an option for me even if that meant I had to work day and night just to provide them one meal a day.”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa

“The war in the 80’s was a nightmare for all of us. We were treated like animals. There was no education, no food, no jobs, no nothing. By the time the Americans came we had to split up our family. The boys who were fourteen and older had to pick up arms and were forced to fight in the army. Because the chances for girls to get raped were so high I had to send them to another part of the country. Those were very hard times.”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa

“Our coffee beans don’t have a fixed price. We’re completely dependent on our natural resources and the market in New York. This means that when the harvest is poor it directly affects our lives. We either have to cut down on education, food or investment.”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa

“My boy is doing very well in school but my daughter has problems reading because she is visually impaired. I talked with my husband about saving money to get her an eye surgery. Unfortunately he is dealing with an alcohol addiction so that’s where the money ends up going.”

Nicaragua – Matagalpa