The Burlington/ Puerto Cabezas Sister City Program continues to promote interaction between the residents of Vermont and the residents of Puerto Cabezas, a municipality on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. 2010 marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of the program. While our strategies have changed over the years, our focus continues to be the creation of partnerships between like-minded groups and individuals in Vermont and Nicaragua.

In February the Sister City Program organized a delegation to Puerto Cabezas. Included in the delegation was a group of Johnson College Professor David Hutchinson’s counseling students. The students met with mental health professionals and learned how they work differently with the three cultures in the region: the Miskito, Creole, and Meztizo. The students also spent time with members of the CEDEHCA youth leadership program, for whom they had carried down fifty pounds of pop-tops from soda cans, generously donated by the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington. The pop-tops, requested by CEDEHCA, are used by the group to produce jewelry for sale. For a service project for the Alcaldia the Johnson students planted trees on the ground of the public elementary school.

Richard Kemp, who had traveled on the Burlington Peace ship carrying supplies to Puerto Cabezas in 1986, was also part of the delegation. This was Richard’s first visit since then and we filmed Richard walking around town reflecting on changes for an episode for his TV show, “Near and Far”, shown on Public Access television in Burlington.

Charlie Delaney, another member of the delegation, built tables at the Barrio Cocal School with his Miskito companion Elwin Finley. This is a school that the Sister City Program has been connected with for several years. Having the tables will qualify the school for receiving computer equipment. When queried about other needs, the principal of the school replied that their biggest request would be for a well and water pump to provide drinking water for the students. Sara Luneau and Ryane Severin, Johnson student members of last spring’s delegation, have taken up the challenge of raising funds for the water pump. They have planned a wine tasting fundraiser for November.

Dan Higgins and Jane Kramer taught a video workshop for members of the CEDEHKA youth group and the students produced a documentary video about the problem of garbage in the town. Dan and Jane also continued working on the video project introducing artists and musicians in the two communities with their counterparts. Dan carried down a video introduction by Vermont poet Tina Escaja and met and filmed Miskito poet Bridgette Zacharias reading her poems. Tapes were made also of a Miskito artists’ collective whose members work with tunu, the fibrous bark from the rubber tree.

Building on those introductions, the Sister City Program and the Vermont Council on World Affairs have applied for a grant to bring Nicaraguan artists and musicians from the region to Vermont during October 2011. They would have ten days to interact with Vermont counterparts, leading to an exhibition and performance in the Burlington Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts. In conjunction with the artist-exchange, the Sister City Program will produce material for teachers to use in their classes, providing a background about Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, its history and cultures, along with art and writing projects the students might do conjunction with the exchange.

Last year the Sister City Program collaborated with a Cuba support organization to arrange for 50 plastic wheelchairs to be sent to Puerto Cabezas. For several weeks the chairs were stuck near Managua, but through the efforts of the vice mayor of Puerto Cabezas, Martha Downs, who herself is confined to a wheelchair, by January the wheelchairs arrived in Bilwi and were distributed to recipients. Martha, an active advocate for the disabled, brought Jane Kramer and Dan Higgins around the barrios to witness and photograph recipients with their chairs. Rick Schwag, using his connections with the Lion’s Club, is now arranging for 550 more chairs to be sent, this time directly to “port”.

IN SUMMARY : While the sister city board is represented by a small core of enthusiastic members, we function best as an umbrella organization, networking with other groups and institutions. We have collaborated with URACCAN, CEDECA, Johnson College, VT Council on World Affairs, the Center for Media and Democracy, UVM Latin Studies, and most recently the CORE program at Champlain College. Our most far-reaching conduit for connecting with people has been our web site, www.uvm.edu/sistercity, which gets many inquiries for information about Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast as well as requests for the various DVDs available through our web site.

We appreciate the continued official support of the city of Burlington and look forward to continuing to provide Burlington residents with the unique opportunity of exploring issues through the perspectives of the sister city relationship. Bilwi is currently on the cusp of dramatic change, with the recent building of an international airstrip and the proposed construction of a new wharf. Development will bring substantial change to that community, and the problem for the municipality will be how to control it. The Mayor Guillermo Espinoza, in several meetings last February, pleaded for any kind of help Burlingtonians might offer in sharing their regional planning experiences. We invite input from any Vermonters who’d like to get involved with this unique relationship between our communities.

Our irregularly scheduled meetings take place at board member Jane Kramer’s house, 15 Beech Street, in Burlington. Our 2010 Annual Meeting will be held October 12th. For information about the program we can be reached through our web site.

           
             
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