It Happened Like This - A Lesson about Dogs and Development

I live in this motel-style apartment "complex" in Estelí. And the central figure of this narrative is one of my neighbors who happens to be a fellow Canadian. Ralph.

So as it turns out the people who take care of this apartment complex where we live had a dog. Apparently they had this dog for more than 10 years.

And they absolutely adored the dog.

I say had a dog, because about six weeks ago the animal died. 

They even had a funeral for the dog. (Kinda rare around here. Sadly, dogs don't get a lot of respect.)

And, supposedly the employees cried their eyes out when they buried the dog.

My neighbor attended the funeral and was really touched by the whole episode.

"You know what I'm going to do Walter?"

"What's that, Ralph?" I replied.

"I'm going to look around and find a dog to replace that one that died. You should have seen those people CRY!"

"Better yet," continued Ralph, "I'm going to go one better. I'm gonna buy those distraught souls two dogs" he blurted out exhuberantly.

And off he went.

And just like he said, the following week two dogs showed up that he found in another Nicaraguan city (Granada).


Here's where things get interesting. 

The employees didn't want the two new dogs.

They didn't want anything to do with the dogs.

In fact, they hated the new dogs.

"Who's going to take care of them?" I heard them say. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Visibly upset, poor Ralph had to contact the animal shelter in Granada and ship the dogs back.

I share this story because it is a wonderful analogy for what can happen here in Nicaragua.

Well-meaning, kind-hearted foreigners come to the country, and see what they think is a problem and decide to do something about it.

Here's the kicker. They don't consult with the people involved before they activate their action plan.

What's the result?

Some bad feelings. Wasted energy.

And in this case . . .  a couple of very confused dogs.