Casa Materna and Fubol Practice!

08-15 Finally figured out the cyber café schedule in Praderas (the only source of Internet in town). It’s 7 cords for 30 minutes (it was 5 in Masatepe). There is only one woman who has the key and it took two or three trips to Praderas to figure out that it’s not open on the weekends and there is an online class on Tuesday and Thursday. The other days it’s up for grabs, but there are only 4 computers and only 2 have Internet and one is always used by the key-keeper to monitor the pay-time. You do the math. The high school students wait forever in line outside the café to check their Facebook. Very American.

Also visited the casa materna. Very new and needs a lot of work. There are no Health PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) in Pantasma, just Aggies. The Casa Materna already has an outstanding looking garden bed, but it is at the base of a hill so all the water from rainy season has made it exceptionally sticky right now and mosquito central. There were about 4 very pregnant women when I visited and they were more than interested in having an improved oven or stove much closer to the house than the current kitchen set-up. They have a water gutter to jump over right now to get to the elevated ceramic stove and that is weather-dependent. Otherwise there is a small gas stove inside. In true OCD fashion, I have started writing out the questions that need to be answered and things that need to be done for the region specific projects like the ovens and gardens and other projects that might pertain to my community. The trick is to not get too tunnel-vision with just the projects that they want, or think they want.

Also visited a MINSA (government health group) workshop, where some youth recognized me form the soccer meetings. Also bought the soccer balls and got a free needle to inflate them. 220 cords and with the 5 cord quotas from the youth I only paid about 50 cords. You should have seen their faces when they saw the new balls. By the way, these are essentially dodgeball material with painted soccerball design. The real soccer balls cost about 350 cords a piece and with the intense level of play, I wanted to start with material that would be easier to replace. And again….they just want to play! Also finished filling up the two nurseries with super suave (smooth) soil from my host-uncle’s house. He and his youngest son, Juancito, were particularly interested in seeing how this new paper bag version of their black plastic bag nursery works.

08/16- Second day observing Profesor Julia. She explained that the school would not be able to have a garden because the whole place is crawling with sanpopos, which are an incredible kind of ant that can break down a tree in about 3 days. You can see the worker lines of them carrying the straight-edge pieces of whatever building material they are using. They are incredible to watch, but a sure sign of defeat if they are in a garden. My grandma (Dona Socorro) treated me to some amazing boiled milk with a little bit of coffee in it- AWESOME stuff! Also discovered that Linda, the sweet quiet girl who helps run their pulperia (general store) needs help with English and math. The older kids don’t get English until they are about 14 or 15 and then it is for about 2 or 3 hours a week.

Had my first practice with the boys of Cuatro Esquinas! So Much Fun! 20 boys showed up. We trained for an hour (ran, push-ups, sit-ups, planks, stretching, etc.) and they worked their bodies in ways that were probably completely foreign to them. But, I have the ball, and they trusted that I would hold up my end of the bargain and they could play for the 2^nd hour of practice, so they do it. Felt a lot like Keewaydin activity periods. They still want to know if they will get a trophy (the girls Jessice worked with got a massive trophy) or uniforms. The kids got absolutely filthy and dove into the very full river on the way back from Cenizabu. Because that’s what you can do in Nicaragua-you can take a bath in your clothes in the river after practice.