Trae:
> keep in mind some people are JUST coming to the project, and it is their firsts introduction to these names...

Well, I plead guilty of repeatedly misspelling OmEtepe.

Peter:

Welcome to the tribe, and thanks for the thought provoking comments.

Instead of a vision statement, we have a set of goals. That is on the homepage of the website, and it defines our vision.

www.floatingman.org

Harold is right, the community is going to mostly set the direction of this project. The project was initiated with the idea it's primary focus would be art and creativity. I think that's still true. But, one of our goals is living according to the 10-principles of Burningman, and those principles includes "gifting" and "civic responsibility", so I expect that the community will start taking action towards doing good work in Nicaragua.

(Note - I'd personally like to dump "Larry's" 10-principles and create our own set of values, based on what's important to us, but that's way off topic.)

Doing good in the country is important to me, and I hope that it'll be important to other people on this project too.

I don't know enough about BWB to comment too much, but it seems to me that they rush down somewhere that has had an emergency (like Peru) and start trying to fix things without taking the time to really understand the people, the culture, or what's important to the locals. Is that right?

I guess that might be necessary in an emergency (everything in life is a set of compromises), but I worry about groups that try to fix things without really knowing a country. If NGOs don't take the time to to understand the values and priorities of the people before they set out fixing things, then the only alternative is imposing our own set of values and priorities, and possibly damaging or destroying local cultures.

If I was to rate NGOs from best to worst, at the top would be the micro-loan banks who create self-reliance by helping locals build businesses according to their own visions, and among the worst are arrogant NGOs, or missionaries, who come into a country and fix things according to their own set of personal priorities. Where does BWB into under that? Where will we?

Look at the irony of "gifting" everyone private bathrooms, and destroying the wonderful spirt of community that existed around the public well.

These are the sort of topics and implications that I want to talk about within our own community. But all of this is way down the road for me. First we need to buy the island, and create our own homes.

Just because we've living on an island which gives us the privacy to throw crazy festivals, doesn't mean that we won't be interacting with the locals, and cannot venture forth elsewhere in the country to help out.

Right now, none of us know enough about Nicaragua. It's no surprise that we're butchering names. But I'm down here learning about the country, Indigo has been down here and is coming back, and hopefully more people will come down soon. How long will it take us to really get to know this country? 1 year? 2 years? 5?

At first glance down here, I've been very impressed. The locals seem very welcoming to foreigners. There is a big Nicaraguan art scene - including a Nicaraguan art commune on an island. Art and music are big priorities to the Nicaraguans. Plus the Nicaraguans love huge fireworks, and burning things. It's nice to start with some cultural similarities.

So, we're still very much in the process of learning things. We have to admit our mistakes. Learning is a good and healthy process. Feel free to correct any spelling errors we make. But hopefully after our project is settled and underway, and after we've learned _much_ more about the people, their culture, and the country, then we'll be to start doing some real good.

2 cents on that.

By the way, from the initial idea to create a permanent community somewhere on the water, we're already more than 2-years into this project. There are still some problems to be solved, but none of them seem unsolvable. And there are still many things to learn, but much of that can be learned on the island. I need to check the property title, and we need to find 92 more people. But other than that I think we're good to go.

Any questions, just let us know.

Peter:

Thanks for the good info and constructive criticism.

> What I hear from you is that the community is still very small and new, so I'm wrong to say that there should already be such as a vision document, which is totally valid.

I don't know if we ever will need a vision document. Outside of the goals already set, our "vision" will be the collective and organically evolving vision of all of the people currently involved in the project.

Burningman has been going for 22 years. Do they have a vision document?

> People will not understand what you are doing, and they will invent stories. Their opinion of you will be based in no small part on what they feel you've done for them and for their community, and the rapore you've developed with them. Given that you're talking about buying a large island off Granada, "they" refers to the people of Granada in general (Nicas and foreigners) as well as the whole South-West quadrant of Nicaragua to a lesser extent. You will struggle with this, and there is no easy solution.

Before coming down here, I had big fears about huge cultural gaps. Things are actually far better than I thought it would be. The Nicaraguans love art and music. They love fireworks. And there is already one island art commune in Solentiname. So, I'm thrilled to see that we are starting with some cultural similarities. But you're right, there will certainly be problems and challenges.

The island is pretty far from Granada. It's right off the coast of Chontales. Here's a link to a map. There is a chain of four island in the east side of that map. Isla el Muerto is the fourth of them.

maps.google.com/maps

The entire region of Chontales is almost untouristed and has not _yet_ had the property booms of Granada, Leon, San Juan del Sur, and Ometepe. This seems good and bad for us. It means they might be even more misunderstandings, or it might give us an opportunity to set the right impression from scratch; untainted by what other foreigners have done.

We haven't put nearly enough thought into integrating with the locals. It's something we need to start thinking more about now. I'm going to create a new thread for this topic right now.

I'm in Juigalpa, the capital of Chontales right now. I like the Juigalpa, and might move down here for a while. That'll give me more of an opportunity to learn about the local people, and their views. There is a Norweign guy who has been living in Nicaragua for 20-years who apparently comes to the same bar in the central square every afternoon. I'm going to try to find him today and see what advice he can give us.

> First, before I forget, I found my contact info at INETER.

For other people's info. This is regarding the danger of volcanoes. It's not at all my personal concern, but if someone wants more info please message me or Peter.

Peter, in your private message, you also said that you worked on an internet project on Ometepe. What can you tell us about that?

All of the hotels seems to have internet now. Were you a part of setting that up? What can you tell us about setting up an internet connection on the island? Should it be easy to do the same on our island setting up a point to point connection to Juigalpa or Granada?

> I'd love to talk to folks in person about what you'd like to create. If there's anyone in the Seattle area, we could get lunch or drinks or whatever. Otherwise, I suppose there'll be opportunities on the Playa.

Trae is in Arizona. I'm traveling between San Francisco, Nicaragua, and Europe (for work). Burningman is more than 6-months away. Will you be coming back to Nicaragua?

Other than that, join in on our next meeting. I think that'll help you get a better idea for who we are, how we work, and what we're trying to accomplish.

Or we can just schedule a time to talk on the phone. I'll try to answer any questions that you have.

Cheers form Juigalpa.

-Adam