Ambassador's Visit

Ambassador Paul Trivelli came to meet with us at our conference center the day before we swore-in a volunteers. We chatted about foreign investment here in Nicaragua and how it affects the country politically, financially, and developmentally. He has been working for the State Department for 30 years and spent most of his time as a Foriegn Economic Commercial Officer. He was able to share with us some of his experiences as he's moving to his next assignment back in the states. We will be getting a new ambassador in these next few weeks.

Nicaragua is THE central american country that is most affected by natural disasters. We haev volcano eruptions, hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, and all sorts of other earth shaking and heart pounding events. We talked about some of the other issues such as relief aid for the autonomous regions on the atlantic coast (RAAN and RAAS) where it is sparsely populated, very ethnic focused, and a creole language that is spoken. Peace Corps currently does not serve in the region beause of some security issues, but they're looking into opening it up as soon as sites clear. Overall inflation in Nicaragua is double of that in neighboring countries of Honduras and Costa Rica because of a number of political and trade factors.

There are currently about 10,000 Americans living in Nicaragua and about 50,000 Nicaraguans currently living in the US (numbers include legal and illegal). Approximately $15 million is sent from Nicaraguans who are currently working in the states, to their families here in Nicaragua. Since last year, exportation to the US has increased by 34%. These are some really interesting figures I learned in our talks with the ambassador. There seems to be huge US interest in increasing economic opportunities for the Nicaraguans here in Nicaragua and the Millenium Challenge Corporation just recently signed projects in the departments of Chinendega and Leon. As to what projects exactly, I don't know.

Anyway, here's a photo of the embajador.