International Women´s Day

Hey friends! Happy March! Happy Lent!

I often lose track of where I am with whom on the updates, so I write this extensive blog to recap and share…

On March 4, Patick Gus Nuzzolese turned 13!!! ¨Pat, I remember the day you were born!¨ ¨Marg, I remember the day you were born!¨ I hope his new Apple will help him keep his big sister updated with lots of emails!

On March 17, Colleen Lynch Nuzzolese will turn 18!!! Queen of Green is participating in her 4^th annual Midnight Run this Saturday, where she and the St. Peter´s Youth Group will spend the evening in New York City feeding and accompanying a group of homeless men.

Liz Nuzz is spending Sping Break in California, visiting her friends from SOUTH AFRICA! She´s still blessing the rains down in Africa!

And I am missing them, and missing you... while I live this JVI life...

I am working in a social work project, Proyecto Generando Vida (Project Generating Life), in a barrio in Managua (El Recreo), in the micro-lending sector (¨the banks¨ or ¨la casa de la mujer¨... or ¨los bancos de confianza¨). This micro-lending system, ¨the banks of confidence,¨ has been in effect since 2001, lending money to about 150 women in the barrio, who would otherwise not have sufficent funds to keep their businesses going. The banks function on a 16 week cycle and at the start, women borrow money ranging from the equivelent of $100 to $400. The women attend one meeting a week in the afternoons when they come to make their weekly payment and savings. We faciliate these meetings and do the behind the scenes numbers, data, etc. work as well. (No, I never thought I would be doing any sort of banking here, but God Bless the Broken roundabout Road!) I work with 3 others, 2 Nicaraguans (Silvio and Grety) and 1 Sister of Zion from Canada (Sylvia)... we are the bank team. In good times and in bad, I am learning a great deal from these folks.

In the mornings we go around to the women´s houses, visiting with them and checking in to see how their businesses are going (things like selling totillas on the street, selling new and used clothing, working at vendors in the market, selling plants, various thing). Talk about ¨the Monologues¨... we hear endless stories. Still, I am needing to ask my Nicaraguan co-workers for a more simple Spanish version of what just happened, but it is a gift to be able to listen. Each day, I am made more aware of the very harsh reality the women of Nicaragua face. I am sure I will eventually share some of these with you, but today I share the wonderous...

This week ¨me toca decirles¨ (it touches me to tell you) about how we celebrated the International Women´s Day with the women in the banks. I think from my orgins of strong Nuzzolese and Lynch women and education at Sacred Heart Academy, I have always enjoyed any celebrations focused on womanhood, but this was one of a kind. I, with the bank team, spent much of last week preparing for this week´s meetings. We prepared an Introduction about why we (the world) celebrate International Women´s Day, the origins and the necessity; a prayer, which consited of reading the Beatitudes, and a Litany of prayers dedicated to women; decorations, a song, and a toast.

For all of this, I was espcially excited to go to work this week, without even realizing how deeply it would touch me. Monday morning consited of decorating the Casa de la Mujer (House of the Women, where meetings are held)... as you can imagine, I had a blast decorating! And then the women started arriving for meetings...

¨Felicidades mujer!¨ Congratulations woman! It´s our day! It´s always our day, but oday we celebrate especially! With each session, I was so proud to greet the women and remember that their pride, joy, and struggle, to be a woman, is intrinsically tied up with mine. The women smiled ear to ear, most not realizing that it was International Women´s Day until we informed them. I was proud to be on the bank team with Silvio, the director the banks and a new friend, who beautifully introduced the significance and the importance of celebrating this day, uniting with women everywhere. You might ask, ¨why would Silvio, a man introduce this day?¨ He is one of the few men I have encountered in Nicaragua who has more respect for women than some of the women themselves.

In each of these celebrations, I experienced my most proufound moments in Nicaragua thus far. For the last component of the meetings, we offered a toast with the women. ¨La Brinda¨. The toast. We toasted using ¨chicha¨... a hot pink drink made from corn, inherent to the land of Nicaragua (they loveee their chicha!). We stood and raised our plastic cups and the Spirit moved the women to toast to some marvelous intentions. I heard...

*to my mom, the strongest woman in the world, who gave me life and continues to give me life

*for grandmothers, aunts, cousins, daughters, nieces, girl friends

*for women that suffer violence in the world because of their sex as a female

*for women that are teaching the word of God to children in classrooms, all religions, everywhere.

*for women that are pregant and for young girls who are the future of women, that they continue with strength

*for God, and for the gift from God that it is ¨ser mujer¨... to be a woman

*for single mothers, who raise their children and take care of the house and their parents by themselves

*for my mom, who raised us 7 children, very very poor, who cant read or write, but is the most intelligent woman I know

*for women who are captured

*for all the women in the banks of confidence, for women who work in the banks

*for the women that came before us

*for the women who are sick in the banks, because this is a time when many women in the banks are very sick

*for Mary the Mother of God.

I stood there in complete awe. I wondered how could I be so blessed as to be standing here among these women, who endure such outrageous hardships everyday, but have such ¨animo¨, spirit and soul. I felt so deeply connected to the women I was with, to the women we were toasting, and to all of the women who have made my life. My mom, Grandmom, all of the Lynch and Nuzzolese women! My sistas! Friends. Teachers I´ve known and read about. Dorothy Day. Mother Teresa. The women of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.. The women in El Salvador. And our Most Blessed Mother. Chills and thrills each day, each meeting, the whole week.

For God, for the gift that IT IS to be a woman, for all of the women in my life, for the men in my life that support the walk of the women, and for you for reading, I toast!

Love and God Bless!
Margaret