While working hard on my thesis and another project for the Nicaraguan ministry of agriculture, I’ve also found a little time to go visit some of the productive countryside here in Nicaragua.

As part of that, I’ve made these two tiny videos together with Jason Glaser from the La Isla Foundation.

Sugarcane burning in Chichigalpa

The smoke from the annual sugar cane burning contains gases that are everything but healthy for those living around.
We interview the local headmaster of a school. And interestingly, he tells us that the burning of the cane is not the worst thing of living around the sugar cane fields.

English

Spanish

See also the discussion here.

9 year old girl working in Estelí

We picked up a group of workers at a tobacco farm in Estelí, Nicaragua and gave them a ride. One of the three was a nine year old girl. And the owners of the farm are, to our knowledge, Cuban-Americans residing in Miami, Florida.

The three explained to us that the father of the family was making 7.50 USD/week, and therefore had no choice but to send his daughters to work. The nine year old is working eight hours a day, six days a week, earning 50 US cents an hour. She does not have time to go to school.

English

See also the discussion here.

Both of these have been taken with a regular handy cam, so the sound quality is marginal. But both have been subtitled. You may have to enable that manually in the lower right hand corner of the video.