My summer in Nicaragua

  So my project is done and today was my last day of work, and it just really blows my mind how quickly time flys by.  It was sad to say goodbye to my cooworkers as I have grown close to more than a few of them.  I am having lunch with my coordinator, Sylvia on Sunday and I think that will be my hardest goodbye here, as she has treated me as a second daughter.  I think it will be a happy day though because it is the birthday of her son and her mother, as well as a fairwell to me.  I plan on going early because she wants to teach me how to make this kind of sweet tort, which Im always up to learning something new in the kitchen.

  Other than having a party tonight with all the people that are in my group to celebrate our time here, my host sister is getting married on Saturday at a church that is said to have the best views in all of Nicaragua.  I am really excited about this, I havent been to a Latin American wedding before, I think its going to be a real treat. 

   I also will be having to say goodbye to my host mom, which after a little bit of a rough start, she and I have both become good friends and I think we will both miss eachother.  One funny thing about her, is that she shares my passion for mangos, and its not uncommon for us to be sitting in front of the tv at night, watching the ridiculously drama filled telenovela, La Tormenta, eating one or two mangos.  She probably averages about 4 a day, I think Im up to 3.  

   But I hope everyone is doing well.  I fly home on Aug 8th so I will try and write once more before leaving.   

    So after travelling for a good time in a foreign country I think its pretty standard to start getting cravings of things back home.  But honestly I dont know where this heated craving for a peanut buster parfet has come from, since Ive probably only had two of them in my life, but they are practically appearing in my dreams I want one so bad.  I think it has something to do with the fact that its so hot here and the ice cream looks so good but just is not creamy enough.  So mom if your reading this, we must stop on the way home from the airport so I can satiate my craving for one of these treats.

   So onto my life, everything is going pretty well.  This last weekend I ventured to an island down south where 2 of my friends and I went on an amazing hike up to this waterfall.  We met 2 women from the states, one of which is from San Francisco and who I will meet up with when I get back which is great, and just had a great time treading up through the rainforest to one of the more beutifull waterfalls Ive ever seen.  The last bit of the trail as well was overrun by a stream, but that didnt sway us, we just made a path of our own and got to the top, so it really felt like an adventure.  But the lucious trees and amazing looking plants and animals was the hightlight for me.  Plus we could hear howling monkeys all around us, which was a lot of fun.  So even though it took 7 hours to get to this island, 3 hours of which was spent on this teethcrunching busride on the island, I have to say it was worth it. 

  Well Ill have to update with more info tomorrow or the next day since Im just about at my hour mark.  But I hope everyone is doing well.  Im down to my 2nd to last week of work and am getting excited about all the things I want to do before I leave as well as the anticipation of getting home and seeing the fam.  So Ill talk with you all soon. 

   So life is going pretty swell for me.  I did not travel this weekend, which was nice to take a break.  I instead went to one of the biggest markets in all of central america on Sunday to do some shopping.  One of my coworkers took me, which was fun.    

    But this market, called market oriental probably takes up 20 blocks in Managua, it is just huge.  And theres an expression here that if you cant find it at the oriental market then you wont find it anywhere else in Nicaragua.  Needlesstosay, the place is completely swarming with people, food, all kinds of good and bad smells, and noise.  There are places that are open, but a lot of it is located in this man made kind of structure that does not seem to have too much of a format and feels very much like a maze.  I just really had completely no sence of direction in there because we kept switching directions.  People are always tugging at your arms and there are vendors moving through the very tight space with shopping carts filled with food and drinks as well as other merchandise thats being moved through the space.  But this place has vegetables, clothes, toys, electrical appliances, kitchen supplies, I think everything one can imagine and its all at pretty cheap prices.  Therefore its customary for people to come on the weekends and get loaded up on food and anything else for the week.  My host mom for example goes to this market about 2 or 3 times a week because she says it has the best prices.  I wish we had markets like this in the states.  When I went to this market a couple of weeks ago with my mom, it was just really charming that she has formed relationships with so many of the vendors, and also she ran into a couple of people she knew.  It just feels like a place that has a strong sence of community and is rich in culture.  Im going to make sure I make it back before I leave.

   Other than that all is going well.  This coming Wednesday is a national holiday, so I will have the day off and am planning on going to Masaya for an artesenal fair and then this weekend I am off to an island down south know for its precolumbian artifacts and great hikes.  Ill try and send an update on how all my travels go next week.  Hope all is going well with everyone! 

So Im pretty bad at keeping updated with my blog.  I apologize and applaud those who have the patience to continue checking it out when it takes me a while to keep you all posted.

  So things are going pretty well.  I have stayed busy with my job, which I found at last week I did not get the extra grant money to work with, but nevertheless I have clarity in what I will be doing after spending not this weekend but the weekend before at an organic farm up north.  After my weekend at the finca (farm) Im now planning on helping teach some methods of organic farming to 2 communities on the outskirts of Ciudad Sandino.  I am also working on getting an organization involved that does similar work so that they can help carry out my project after I leave.  Besides teaching them about the pluses to organic farming, I will be buying them seeds to start cover crops and organic fertilizer so that they can best conduct this work.  I have also made posters for my presentation.  In the end my aim is for these people to start off with better soil to farm with and attain better fruits and vegetables that will be more profit making for them in the markets.  With good support and education they could really make a lot more of a profit then they are making now. 

  So with the recommendation of my country director, I travelled to this farm to learn first hand how to farm organically and the pros and cons of the work.  I visited Vincente and Carmens farm, and also stayed at there house. Vincent was just a great source of information, not only about farming but politics and history=I think I learned more from him then from anyone I have met here.  So hes been farming since he was a kid and really has so many good ideas and projects that he has done and is working on now.  In fact this last year he has started cultivating this golden variety of pineapple, that is just to die for, might I add, that he is hoping to start exporting along with the sweet onions he has to the United States.  He also makes his own salsas=papaya, guava, hot pepper sauce, and more that he is hoping to start selling to grocery stores.  But the real magic of it all was just how much he loves what he does.  To taste his vegetables and his salsas with him beaming a big smile was just so heartwarming.  So all in all I would have to say that that was one of my better weekends here.

   This last weekend I went on my groups only all together planned weekend to a rainforest in Northern Nicaragua.  We got rained on all weekend, but it did not sway us from going horseback riding through the farms coffee plantation and going hiking through the forest.  I really have enjoyed all the exotic plants I have seen here.  I have not seen too many animals, although we did see monkeys this weekend and that was pretty cool.  One funny moment of the weekend was when we all started our hike through the forest we just got completely ambushed by these persistent biting ants.  Of course our guide didnt say anything and I was walking along thinking jesus christ theres a lot of ants, and then 1 minute later we all start screaming and it turns out these ants just belined it up our pants and were biting us everywhere.  A bunch of us just depantsed and were laughing and screaming while trying to get the many ants off of us, it was pretty hilarious.  It was also fun to watch the last world cup game with the group, all in all the games have been pretty big down here and Im sad that the whole event is now over.  However one interesting point is that baseball is actually a bigger sport in Nicaragua.  More people follow baseball teams and I actually get updates on Americas baseball from the news here which is kind of funny.

  Well hope everyone is doing well.  Send me an email when you can.  Talk to you all later.   

    Things have been going fine.  Ive just been working on my project during the week and travelling on the weekends.  My project has taken somewhat of a dramatic change.  I talked to my advisor and she said she knows of a farm up north that I am now going to go visit, in the coffee country, that is well-known for its organic farming.  So the intention is for me to go up there next weekend, get a basic idea of what they do, and then try and take back some of what I learn and pass it onto the rural communities that I visit outside of Ciudad Sandino.  Im thinkng I can try and teach about more sustainable ways of using resources/better farming techniques to the people.  I will also still talk about the importance of nutrition as it relates to this new topic.  Im most looking forward to venturing up to this organic farm, I think it will be a lot of fun and really an adventure treaking up there and seeing a first hand organic farm in a developing country.  As far as weekend travel goes, this weekend I have come to Leon which is a pretty mellow place with a colonial feel to it with many really old churches-one of which is the oldest in central america dating back to the 1700s.  Its know as the university town in Nicaragua.  My group went out last night and I saw so many young people.  The people I am travelling with in my group seem to go out one of the nights a week casually and then like last night we will go out dancing, and some of them are kind too American and are crazy on the dancefloor, which makes me feel a little embarassed, since I dont really like standing out as an American here.  I had the unfortunate happening of being stepped on by a high heel hardcore last night, and have kind of been limping today-that sucked.

   My time in Nicaragua has been different from my other times living in South America in that this country is much more underdeveloped than both Chile and Ecuador.  Like yesterday we went to the beach and there just were not many stores or beachside restraunts-there was only one we could find at the beach.  The beach was really beutiful though-and I picked up a number of beutiful shells, which I am always a fan about.  We also ended up watching the Argentine and Mexico game which was really great.  The world cup just comes up in about every conversation we have, its just pretty big here.  But getting back to the underdevelopment aspects, the infrastructure here as well just is not as good as in other developing countrys-the roads all are pretty awful, the grand majority of them being cobble stoned, and there are hardly any street signs which makes getting around hard, and even harder for Marisa since my sence of direction is laughable.  I always feel like I am on an adventure when Im at work and we leave to go out to the surrounding villages because the roads feel more like trenches and there are times where we are crossing small rivers and getting out of the jeeps because the car is going over something dangerous.  Another kind of crazy happening is that the power goes out here a lot.  At least every other day.  Its an issue of the power companies having a quota and if they go over they just shot the power down different neighborhoods, which they switch off.  It really sucks for most people, because they have no say in it and a lot of times they have no idea when and for how long the power and a lot of times the water will be out.  But about 4 or 5 days during the week for me the power will be off for 2 to 4 hours.  At least its off for me its generally at night, others it shots off in the mornings and they cant take a shower.

   In terms of food here, most things seem to be fried.  They are really into this galla pinta, which is rice and beans, its served at about every meal.  Eggs are also a pretty standard staple, I seem to have srambled eggs with tomatoe and onion about every morning with beans and coffee.  I got served guacamole here the other day, they put soft boiled egg in it here, which isnt that bad but a little different.  Chicken and pork are a staple, a lot of lunches will be fried platanos with a piece of meet, rice and maybe some boiled squash.  I had to tell my host mom the other day that I dont want as much fried foods becuase I was getting a lot of platanos and meat, and even what seemed like a deep fried egg.  The cheese overall has been not been that great, its either really salty queso fresco or american cheese, so I have kind of stayed away from it.  But even though the food is mostly pretty bland, I have really been enjoying some things, such a the fresh made breads, the jalapeño steak/chicken, nactamales-which are the Nicaraguan version of a tomale thats made out of cornmeal and has vegetables and meet inside, and the most awesome fruit-such as mangoes, (there are about 5 different types), pineapple, guava, and a lot of other tropical fruit.

   So hope everyone is doing well, Ill check back in when I can.

   So I just finished my first week of work.  They have a webite if anyone wants to check it out, its www.rainbownetwork.org.  Its a community development non profit that has education, health, economic development, and housing programs for poor communities across Nicaragua.  I am working in Ciudad Sandino where we go out and assist 16 communities in the area to bring much needed assistance and help to as many people as possible.

    For the first week I have left with a caravan of people out to 5 of the communities and have helped to give talks on Nutrition.  I basically work under the public health coordinator.  There is a doctor that always comes with us and she has free consults with the people and gives them medicine for their illneses. 

   I have to do a project for the organization while I am here and have $200 dollars to do so, which I am trying to formulate what it is that would be most valuable for the communities.  So far I am thinking on developing the discussion that we give on nutrition more thouroughly so that we can make more of an impact and hopefully prevent some of the diseases and sicknesses from happeneing.  So many of the communities have misconceptions on health, such as giving their babies pop and using laxitives when having diareah thinking that its best to get whatevers out of the body out, so Im hoping to clear some of these things up and develop posters that can be put in the communities so they can have a more tangible idea of how to nourish themselves.  So we will see, Im still somewhat new to the organization and am trying to clarify what it is I want to do with my project.

  I also went to Masaya this weekend, which was pretty great.  I totally appreciated time away from where I am living.  It was nice to go out dancing and eat pizza, and feel more comforitable about going out in the evenings then I feel here.  We also climbed the Masaya Volcano today which was pretty great.  Its an active volcano that has a huge crater in which you can look into and see all the sulfer gasses coming up.  Seeing that and also getting a chance to get a great view of Masaya was pretty incredible. 

   So hope everyone is doing well, I hope to post again soon this week. 

Hey everyone,

   I wrote my first blog to everyone and was all excited, and then just before I was going to save it the power went out.  So here I am again hoping I can start off an a better foot.

   So everything is going really well.  Last time I sent an email out I was in Managua, which I soon left and travelled to Masaya.  I was there less than an hour when I met two women inside the old market, whom I ended up joining for lunch and discovered that they were heading south to Granada, and since I was travelling by myself I decided to join them. 

   So off I went the next morning with Maria, one of the girls who travelled to Nicaragua two years ago planning on just passing through, and loved it so much that she has stayed and volunteered at an orphanage.  She really gave me a good understanding of what to do in Nicaragua and a lot of pointers on safety and how to good ways to acclimate myself. 

   While in Granada I went to a great precolumbina museum as well as spent a day hiking a volcanoe where I was able to visit a cloudforest and go on a really amazing hike.  I saw a number of different butterflys, heard howler monkeys, and saw some really pretty orchids as well as all different kinds of bromiliads.  I thought there would be a bus that would go to the top but since I went on a day that hosts tours, the bus was already at the top so I had to walk 2 hours straight uphill, it was a little more than I had anticpated.  Then of course it started raining and I tried to protect myself under a leaf of a bannana tree, but it didnt work that well.  Overall though it was a good hike.

   I have now met with my group and gone through their orientation.  Everyones pretty friendly.  I am the second oldest, everyone else besides the girl whose about my age is in college, and so thats been kind of funny to be thrown in that atmosphere again. 

   The weather here is just completely hot and humid.  I get really sweaty walking around anywhere and everything that I own seems to have an element of dampness on it, which I just am not accustomed to.  I have had kind of a difficulty sleeping with the heat. 

   The other thing that has made sleeping difficult is that my house has a rooster in the backyard that is probably a good 100 feet away from my bedroom.  My house is one of the more basic houses in our group.  The houses here, and mine included, all have tin roofs and are the majority of the walls do not touch the ceiling, so the houses have a real open feeling to them.  Also most if not all have patios or an area for plants in the middle of the house, this is nice because in the afternoons if people are not on their front porch people watching, then they are sitting together drinking coffee (its nescafe here).

   Tomorrow I start working at my organization.  Most of the people I have talked to said its a really great place to work.  Im looking forward to it, I think it will be a good experience.  So I will try and write again when I get the chance.