Workers and NGOs

We went looking for workers. They were told what the work was. They said they wanted to do it. Then, apparently, some of them realized it would cut into their handout.

I have had two teams of workers here before. One (three people) just raised the brick wall next to my rental house. Fixed price quote, they did the work correctly and on time.

The other was a serious remodel of my current house. It included a bunch of walls around the property, changes downstairs and a complete new upstairs. The price was based on the number of square meters of each kind of work (brick wall, tile floor, ...). While there was no specific schedule, the work was done correctly and in a reasonable amount of time.

So, there are people here that actually want to earn an honest living. That is contrasted with, for example, the Telcor employees in Estelí that seem to do nothing other than stand outside the office BSing with everyone.

In this particular case, a neighbor told us he had the same problem with "locals". But, he found good workers about 5km away. The difference was that there was no handout program in the area 5km away.

There is a line between culture or morals and work ethic. Work ethic has little to do with what we want to impose here. One example is the guy who built my house left all the garbage from the construction all around the property, paint cans broken blocks etc. My Cuban friend cleans the house inside and out before handing the keys to the owner. That is just plain class, having pride in something you do nothing more.

The Japanese have a work ethic that put most of developed world to shame, many say over the top, company first your life second. There is little work ethic here and that goes to lack of morals, right and wrong. There is a work for "please" and "thank you" in most languages, yet it is used very little here.

You say we can not impose our values here but are they "our" values. These people want a TV, a car and other things but are more willing in finding a scam then doing the work for it, it has nothing to do with us imposing out culture on them. I think it is more about a good moral live than culture to be proud of earning something, putting something together with your own two hands than standing in the street begging for it.

Culture is things like the food we eat, if Americans were in the store demanding they carry products from the US and drop others you would be right about us trying to change the culture. There was a Simpsons episode were they went to a soccer game. The camera passes in front of the announcers booth and the announcer in English following the match is talking in a very slow boring voice "the....c-e-n-t-e-r....p-a-s-s-e-s....t-h-e....b-a-l-l... and then you see the Spanish announcer following the same game just about screaming and talking very fast like it is the most exciting point of the game.

That is culture, Americans are not into soccer and may never be, however it is a huge part of life in Latin America. Having a work ethic to support your family, not trying to scam or steal is not a strictly American culture but crosses all countries and languages. If you don't want to work don't complain you don't have a TV. Like the guy who ask for a cigarette, if you are to poor to buy a pack....don't smoke.

This is one reason why this is such a poor country, most people here are willing to sit on their butts and wait for the next check to arrive from their uncle in the states to arrive. If they get the check there is no desire to work until that money is gone.

When I was selling lots we had a least 4 or 5 people who were "helping" family from the states ask us to say the lot is more than the cost. In other words if the lot was 5000 they asked us to say it was 6000 and them give them the extra 1000. How is not ripping off you mother or sister something we as Americans are trying to impose of or change here?

Yes this is not all Nicaraguans and maybe something more in Leon than other places but is very common here. One of the reasons I move here was because I had many good Nica friends in Costa Rica, I have found the Nicas there to be a totally different class of people even though they share the same heritage. Bottom line if you don't want to put in a honest days work don't complain you live in a poor country.

I understand the frustration. Last year, I had a profound conversation with a very high-ranking person in the Atlantic Coast/Sandanista party who said that "it will take a generation to change the mentality of the 'stretched out hand' work ethic."

Let them have Mondays off and have them work another day such as Saturday or Sunday. Then, the NGO food donation becomes a pay suppliment (a subsidy) from an outside source that benefits your workers and yourself. Externalize costs like Wal Mart or other corporations.