Jimmy is one of the workers in Tio Antonio’s hammock workshop. Even though he is blind he makes the most beautiful hammocks in the entire workshop. When I asked him about his dreams he said: ‘I wish to meet a lovely girl, fall in love and have loads of beautiful babies with her.’

“We were three guys from Nicaragua trying to cross the US border. The person who would take us collected 500 dollars from us separately. When we were about to cross the border he suddenly stopped the car. He pulled out his gun and commended us to get out of the truck. He left us behind in the middle of the Mexican dessert without anything. Thank god one of the guys had a big bottle of water, I’m not sure if we had survived without that bottle. There was no other option than to keep on walking. We walked the entire night until we got to a road. A truck driver stopped and brought us to a town nearby. I stayed in Mexico for a while to work. When I went back to Nicaragua I decided to be build something for myself. I got this job as a chef in the resort and I found my true passion. I really love to cook and I love it even more to see the costumers enjoy the food I make.”

Nicaragua – Popoyo

“Seven years ago I went to the USA to work. My aunt who lived there invited me to come. Because I didn’t have the money she paid for all my travel expenses. The first year I worked very hard just to pay her back. After a while I met this American girl and we fell in love. When she got pregnant we decided I would officially apply for citizenship. During the process she would be my guarantee. It’s not easy to become and American citizen and at some point I had to go back to Nicaragua to wait for the results. The final step of the process was paying a 600-dollar waiver. Paying a waiver is something like apologizing to the government of the United States for the years you stayed illegally. My application was about to be accepted when I received an email from the Ambassador saying my guarantee had pulled back. I didn’t understand what happened so I called my girlfriend. I asked her what was going on, she said that she got confused. It was too much responsibility and she didn’t wanted to continue with the application. Even though I was devastated I can accept the fact that our relationship is over. My biggest concern is my son. I haven’t seen him since 2010 and I’m afraid I don’t get to see him grow up.”

Nicaragua – Popoyo

“I was working in the fragrance business with big names such as Karl Lagerfeld and Calvin Klein. When my husband and I left America seven years ago people said we lost it. We had a good life in The States but something was missing. ”
“What was missing?”
“I felt disconnected to the world. I wasn’t in a place where consciousness was stimulated. That’s why we came here to build a sustainable surf resort that would benefit the local community. ”
“What have you learned from the locals so far?”
“You don’t need a lot of material things to be happy.”

Nicaragua – Popoyo

“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