End of September

9-19: Read a whole book on the bus traveling to Jinotega and then Managua. In case you wanted to know how PCVs read so much, the bus trips alone do the trick. Read The Climb about the terrible expedition to Everest. Coincidentally all about knowing and admitting your limits, which is also the number one stresser for the first 3 months as PCVs. It was great to see fellow Aggies in Managua, but it still feels like I’m the new freshman in college and everyone else is settled and comfortable with the PC staff and knows where to go for the best deals on food and room and whatnot. The Volunteer Room is also like a yard sale, with the lending library and stuff left over from volunteers who COS’d (closed their service-sorry for the PC jargon). It was a little relaxing to actually introduce myself to all the staff who are responsible for medical information, reimbursements, and other important things. Also want to go on record saying that the staff, from Medical Officers to the Agriculture Staff, really mean it when they say we are a family. I walked into the office a brand-new volunteer basket case and left much more relaxed and with a renewed sense of confidence in my job description and limitations and the short and long-term goals of an Agriculture Volunteer. Contrary to the stereotypical image of PC as uncaring or blaming the volunteer for problems or abandoning the volunteer in the middle of nowhere, PC Nicaragua staff made it very clear “it supposed to be hard, but acclimating is not supposed to mean suffering.”  The honeymoon period is definitely over, but we worked together to form coping mechanisms and strategies to increase my community social network within the community. The biggest lesson for this month was how to self-advocate and find the balance between being an ambassador of your own culture or your own personal preferences and also assimilating into this different culture. Pretty much living while straddling two worlds. Everyone handles it differently, but admitting it is the first step.  PC is a resource and I am an asset in an agency; it’s not like Survivor (which along with Fear Factor is one of the top shows Nicas love to watch so guess how they form their image of Americans?!)

Started looking for a house to live in by myself at the end of the 1^st 3 month period and found 2. One is across the street from one of the girls who was on Jessica’s soccer team (the previous volunteer). My host dad doesn’t like the house though; says it floods in the rainy season. There is also a Western washing machine in it-not sure what that is about. The other house is next to the CICO, or the abandoned preschool building. The priest owns it but he lives in a different house in the neighboring community. Read through some of the Returned PCV articles I found in the Office in Managua and wow-they seem like a joke right now because I am so far removed from that point in my service. Can’t believe I even looked at the ads for grad schools that offer Peace Corps Fellows. Ha! Today’s cooking class made malletas de carne, a kind of Hot Pocket if you will. Also, one of the women is pregnant!! Due in January or February!! That group is so low-key and comforting. I am starting to get their names and families and houses down too. My youth had their own friendly soccer match (I loaned them the ball) and 4 Esquinas beat Corozal 9-2. Ouch.

Let it be known that I can finally heat the improved oven to more than 200 degrees-350 what now!?! Made a double batch of banana bread for the community meeting. There were so many more people. Not sure if it was because I made invitations (at the suggestion of two PCVs) or because I told them we would also talk about the ovens, or because I made banana bread. Unable to separate the variables. Oh well! Came out of the meeting with an agenda for completing the initial interviews for ovens and a junta, or board, to handle the overall oven project with me. Ended the night staying up late trying to beat Vladimir at watching Titanic-seeing who could stay awake longer.

Had to turn my clothes and bedding out in the sun again. That’s how we kill all the creepy crawlies here without hot water-hot sun instead! It’s a game of Russian Roulette though because it is still in the middle of rainy season so it could rain-hard- and then be super sunny again. In the tropics, it is even hotter after the rain. Also go to meet the priest who owns house #2 and he showed me inside. It’s a fixer-upper but everyone who I’ve asked in the community says it’s the better of the two options and he is a good guy (messenger of God, has to be right?).

OOS in Matagalpa: Out of Site(OOS for PC jargon again) for 2 days in Matagalpa. Quickly helped with Health Department baby weighing in the morning and then hopped the bus. The trip is super pretty, going in and around the mountains. Matagalpa is still fresco and cool like Jinotage because it is still relatively mountainous in comparison to the Pacific side. Matagalpa also has the tourist market pegged; there are tons of tourism companies with hikes, trips, coffee tastings, etc. There is a big German population too from the coffee community. There are also tons of shopping opportunities for goods that I thought I could only find in Managua. It is amusing that the trip from Jinotega to Matagalpa is half as long as the trip to my site. And the Buena Onda Hostel is awesome, with free filtered water, coffee, wifi, and tv, and a lending library. I wound up getting the last bed in the place, in a room full of guys doing a gap-year program. It was a tonic to be around mature college kids who were in the beginning of their cultural adventure, asking me tons of questions about the history, geography and Nica culture and the role of Peace Corps. Also splurged and got Italian food!! So good! Pesto!!! And played the tourist to visit the Castillo de Cacao (that’s right-Chocolate Castle!!)-so good!! Picked to do one hike to Ocote solo and happened upon a community in the mountains that has had 3 PCVs in the past and wanted to know if I was one and would stay. Luckily worked my way down to the mountain and back to the hostel, but it was so great to hike again in and out of forest!

How to do Laundry the Nica way: there will be pictures with this soon. Picture a concrete washing board. You rinse your clothes beforehand in soap and water and then pour more water over the soapy clothes as you run each article of clothing over the rivets of the washboard, back and forth, hard with your hands, squishing and pressing the dirt out. You pour water until it runs clear, wring the clothing and hang to dry. Repeat until there are no more clothes. Exhausting and when you are taller than the average Nica women you wind up leaning over the lavadero (washing board) quite a bit. Also rub your fingers pretty raw if you pull when you should push or press when you should wring, etc. Learn by doing definitely. Ended the day with more laundry after a very wet and slippery soccer practice that was more of a giggly slip-and-slide. Also took tons of pictures of the kids playing trompo, their spin-the-top game, and jumping in the corn-husks, their version of leaf-jumping.

Ok-so it is at least Amoebas/Bacteria 4 and me 0. Will spare you the details, but according to my host-mom this is why Nicas don’t eat grilled veggies. Or whatever it was that was the only thing I made for myself. Literally stayed in bed all day in PJs just reading. Those of you who know me understand what a challenge this was (cheated a little and read some project-related stuff). Good side-got to try sopa de albondiga, which is Nica dumpling soup with little spiced bits of dough and a lot of veggies. Host mom was super worried and gave me enough for a small army. Worst part was cancelling the youth soccer game for the day because I was sick. Had to explain 10 or 15 times that I was sick and couldn’t leave the house for very long, but there were still long faces.

Corn

So when you don’t have a huge machine to do all the work, the whole corn process is quite complicated. First, the corn is doblar, or the stalk is folded over to allow the corn to dry on the stalk. Then the workers collect each ear by hand. The corn that is too be used in the house is degranar, or degrained from the ear and put out in huge blankets to dry by the sun. This is all weather-pendent as the slightest rain can affect the humidity level and quality of the corn kernels.  The stalks left out in the field are cut down and burned to make room for the oxen pair that pulls the furrow-maker for the next round of corn seeds. It’s harder than it looks to get two very big animals to move anywhere let alone where you want. It is like Oregon Trail, but real life. There is a lot of huffing and puffing and shouting, with the planters following behind with their buckets of planting seeds and their partners shuffling dirt over the seeds in uniform fashion. 

 The massively overweight or over-fluffy conejo at the Buena Onda Hostel. Conejo=Bunny for those following along at home.

 "Everything the light touches is ours..." haha no seriously, Parque Morazon, one of the two in Matagalpa, but this one has the statues of the 2 famous people (whose names are escaping me at the moment). There are also several fritangas, or fried food stands (eat at your own risk), but it is best for people watching.

 One of the many churches, this one is to the side of the other park, Parque Diario (everywhere in Nicaragua has a Diario something after Rueben Diario the famous poet.)

 And then there was the tourist trip of the day, the Castillo del Cacao...the Castle of Chocolate!! How can you resist that?!

 It's a real castle!! Some Holland guy took an interest in the whole cacao process and brought additional technology and equipment back to Nicaragua to set up a small chocolate business. There is a little tour and an incredible chocolate library of wrappers and molds.

And they have a couple of dogs-one is super evil and mean and this one is such a sweetie!!

And you get chocolate samples and coffee at the end of the tour!! Dark chocolate, chocolate with coffee bits, chocolate with cashews, it's all good!!!

The look out from the Castle to downtown Matagalpa

I hiked up a little spot from the road to a small community called Ocote. It was great to hike again. You just go in and out of shade and up a bit into the mountains. And lucked out with an awesome day of weather too!

There was even a herd of horses just grazing peacefully when I came out of the woods and into the fields of the community. Turns out Ocote has had 3 Volunteers in the past, so the kids all wanted to know if I was coming to work.

These the huge spiky plants that several Nicas have as live fencing around their property. You don't want to touch it-bad things happen. According to a Health Volunteer, you can distill the pulp for alcohol. Supposedly...

Another great outlook coming down from Ocote

Look Aunt Wendy!! You're famous!! The first restaurant sign I saw down from the mountains.

The big white cathedral in front of Parque Morazon. I don't know how they keep it so white, but it's gorgeous and the saint sculptures inside are incredible.

Like I said, inside is incredibly beautiful and clean.

And then there is one more monument to the rebels and the movement. Matagalpa definitely has more artwork and more monuments then Jinotega.

Back to site; heading back to Pantasma in the bus. You can see how the heat makes my site a little hazier and how the agriculture plots have been carved out of the mountains.

And then I found this little devil in the bus station in Praderas. His name is Pelusa and he is a puppy!!

Next day after I got back, the farm workers had moved all the left-over cornhusks into the space the kids use for soccer. Melvin and the other kids used them like we jump in leaves. They were such fun to watch kicking and throwing the dried husks and rolling around so happily.

And of course posing for the camera...

Melvin, Magale (the girl), and Kevin (one of my soccer superstars)

The boys: left is Vladimir, my host brother, other Melvin, Kevin again, and Eliar Geobani. Everyone but the other Melvin is on the youth soccer team.

Playing trompo: a spinning top game where they draw a circle in the dirt, handwind the string around their wooden tops and throw the top to spin while pulling the string, like a yo-yo and Beyblade. The idea is to knock your opponent's out of the circle after you have regained control of the top.

Lobo!!!

The corral snake we found in the bodega where all the rats and corn bags are. Why can't he eat the rats and mice that I hear munching all night? For those of you following at home, corral snakes are poisonous. According to my family, they are common out in the fields, but it's ok if you wear boots. The kids threw it out into the road and watched as every truck that drove by tried to run it over.

It's a really dark picture, but my youth are working a community map with the names of the other youth in Cuatro Esquinas and where they live.

September

Ok! So I thought about breaking this up into smaller chunks, but then we had Internet problems for 3 days straight (typical Nica time), so I am just going to throw it all up here and happy reading! Morale of the story for this month is: Be gentle! It is a marathon of a service, not a sprint! And OOS (out of site) days are beautiful things!

Blog September

Or end of August first- had a successful first game day with the youth soccer teams-apart from everyone argueing about everyone else’s ages. My local communities of Cuatro Esquinas and Corozal, played really well and with minimum drama. Rushed to the cooking class at the cooperative where all the mother’s and sisters of the players wanted the recap of the game. Also got awesome milk cake-good day to be a PCV! Finished my day transplanting some mmore of my tester plants with my superstar youth and one of the captains of the 4 Esquinas team, Juancito.

Happy September! Had Corozal soccer practice, but cancelled when only 6 kids showed up. They seemed a little disappointed, but we agreed at the first practice that if they couldn’t field a full team within 15 min of practice starting, there is no practice. I also suggested combining practices with Cuatro Esquinas which they agreed might be a good deal. We’ll see. It may seem harsh to cancel practice, but it is also a lesson in discipline and commitment. The kids also know that if they tell me they won’t be at practice beforehand, I take that into account and do a headcount in my head of the kids who could even come to practice. Several other PCVs made the suggestion for the attendance rule and, from my experience with sports too, I have to agree with it.  Anyway, had time after to try to bake brownies but they didn’t rise very well (darn you unwarmed oven! And you metric conversions!) And today’s movie selection on the cable: Toy Story to Serenity to Green Mile to Kung Pow:Enter the Fist (I  know, quite the range!).  Most importantly, had my first PACA meeting. For those of you following at home, PACA is  Participatory Adult Community Assessment (or something like that) that all the PCVs are encouraged to do (especially Aggies who do work directly in the schools or hospitals). They include a community map, seasonal calendar and daily schedule. The idea is that you work with the community to complete it (they participate) in order for you all to assess what the community needs the most, which becomes the skeleton of your work plan as a PCV for the next 6- 12 and so on months. The warm-up activity I planned inadvertently showed that there is a literacy  gap in the community, but the community map and discussion about improved ovens went really well. So on average ok.

September 3^rd- First OOS (out of site) day and wow!! We are allowed 3 OOS days every month of service. These are mental health days or whatever we want to use them for (medical and tech transfers don’t count towards the OOS days- they are just for us to recharge our batteries).  I just went to Jinotega and spent the night in one of the PCV-recommended hotels. There was a real freedom being able to walk around in the anonymity of a city scape. I had a few notes of places to see and eat at from Lonely Planet, but otherwise I just wandered (in the daylight) and hung out in my hotel room for the night. Felt a lot like how I discovered all the cool nooks and crannies to NYC. There are also a lot of good souls in Jinotega- Ricardo, the hotel owner, the lawyer who helped me find the Centro de Salud, and Dona Angela who has a little no-name fritanga, or fried food shack, just one block from the hotel. It is also definitely cooler here- there was a breeze the entire time, like real air circulating with motion and the like! I almost cried when Ricardo opened the door to my room and showed me the real bed with a real tv with a real shower with real hot water. And I got mail!! Does it get any better!? Also met up with some other PCVs from Training, and underestimated the psychological break of speaking English and speaking Peace Corps with other gringos. Turns out we have a Volunteer Meeting on Friday, so I get to do it all over again. Parting image: a grandmother with her granddaughter sat next to me on the way home. They were headed to Wiwili (another 2-3 hours after my 2.5 to Praderas) and they didn’t have exact change for a snack, so I paid it and we started chatting the whole way back. She also shared all her food with me and I showed her granddaughter how to make the basic friendship bracelet. Peace Corps in a nutshell!

OK so something jumped on my bed and touched my foot last night and I had a super hard time getting back to sleep. Lidia says it is probably a rat or the cat that sneaks in from our neighbor’s at night. Why do we have rats if there is a cat that prowls at night?! Walked to the school to find out the professor wasn’t there, so they don’t have the art class. This is typical apparently.  Spent the rest of the day working on compost and garden with Juancito and Ruesbell, my youth superstars. We’ll see if the chickens can finally be stopped from invading the garden space. Both youth entered into a very philosophical conversation on impressions of the United States and why I don’t like being called gringa (in Nicaragua it is culturally appropriate to call to someone or get their attention by shouting out some physical trait, especially if you don’t know their names—imagine “Fatty, Blondy, Chinese”. I have told my youth that if you know my name, use it, and if you don’t know my name, I will introduce myself).

Went to the Centro de Salud to get a rash checked out. After looking away from his iTunes account for about 5 seconds, he determined it was scabies (which the PCMO or Peace Corps doc decided against). Was a little impatient after that fiasco, so ended the Charcon soccer practice early. Luckily biking the 7 miles round trip to Chacon is balancing out the rice poundage J Definitely getting a gallo pinto gut, of maybe a fried cuajada gut, but there is definitely a gut.

Got a little frustrated today with my host mom when she told me I could only use water to wash my laundry and it was just that there wasn’t any soap in the house. It felt kind of like lying, especially since we all know how clean plain water gets clothes. Laundry here is an aerobic activity, pushing and pressing the clothes against a concrete slab with corrugated concrete smaller ridges.  Picture coming soon. Had the first combined practice with Corozal and 4 Esquinas to resounding success. Able to do more drills and have a better game with more kids. And the community rivalry doesn’t seem to be too bad. After the rash and the laundry issue, it is hard not to think of all the different ways in which everything can, and probably is, getting contaminated, but c’est la vie! Also makes you realize how sterilized everythi9ng is in the States. It is also incredibly hard to self-advocate for your health when you are the only one in the household getting sick.

VAC meeting- Friday in Jinotega!! And even better, got to meet up and chit-chat with other PCVs. All of them are also in Jinotega from all different sectors. We met up for dinner after the meeting and I started to develop a sense of norms and actual expectations from those who have more experience in PC. Got back just in time for the 2^nd PACA meeting. The seasonal calendar is pretty sweet!! To address the literacy issue, I offered to scribe for the group this time and we discussed seasonal factors for the community (think crops, availability of money and materials, school calendar, etc.) for about an hour and a half. The care packages and getting to see other PCVs definitely was a huge pick-me-up. My other host-sister, Lidia Jr., is off to Spain. Apparently she is going with a tourist program, which confuses me even further as to the socio-economic status of my family. But the other PCVs, especially Sarah and the Health ones, were like meeting big sisters.

Taking a tip from all of my academic life and a couple of the PCVs and keeping a to-do list for the week and an up-to-date calendar. No water for the last couple of days. My family is a little superstitious since both times I’ve left, water or electricity has gone until I get back. Freaky! The guys actually took the truck with big buckets and rain barrels down to the river to fill up. Apparently, a truck drove over the one pipe that connects the whole system, but the pipe also wiggles out of place when there is a lot of rain and the river overflows. Back to bucket baths! Good news-at least one dead mouse down!! Hung out at my grandma’s house for most of the afternoon after church. My host grandfather has been in and out of hospitals for the last several weeks and it was an all too familiar sight of family surrounding his bed and checking on him. Also getting used to the IOU system of the pulperia-small-town business! I think my host mom is a little less stressed now that her father is home and her daughter is safely in Spain. Going to admit I am also relieved, but moreso because I won’t have to worry about walking in on her and her boyfriend on my way to my room. Also got to shadow Edwin, my host dad, while he did his bookkeeping for the corn harvest, so I have a rough idea how that works now (ag finance 101 of profits, costs, inputs and outputs). Also starting to answer and ask questions with the same curt and short style that I receive. It’s actually culturally appropriate.

Still no water, but most everyone has returned to their routine before they had running water. The power went out for about an hour around 5PM, but I took that time to do some yoga outside. The darkness let me see the whole of Praderas in the distance, sporadically lit by camp and kitchenfires and a lot of lightening bugs. Have been learning to be easier on myself by taking the last couple of morning to catch up on the New York Times Dad sent. Even cut out some pictures to tape-laminate later for a potential English class. After watching how my host brother did it, I made an awesome egg omlet mixed with rice and melted cuajda. Talked to one of the neighboring women about moving into the house next to the CICO, or preschool, to the tune of Power Rangers and her daughters playing in the background. And for the 100^th time, “you don’t have any children? Or boyfriend? Fiancé?”

09-11: The head of the church for Nicaragua was in Praderas today, so I stayed far away from the sardine act that was church this morning. After a week of preparing my own food, 7 days is now my new record for health. Planted another almacigo with Juancito and Dona Coco, his mom. They are awesome, patient, tolerant, easy-going, and I wish they lived closer to the rest of town!! Also worked with the son of one of the cooperative members who needed emergency English help. The TEFL program in Praderas is mainly giving out paragraphs, lectures and essays to be translated with little vocabulary support or scaffolding, so the students usually go home and huddle around a collective dictionary and look up each individual word. Frustrating to say the least. I just made a word list of basic prepositions and this student was flying with new-found confidence. Note to self- investigate helping teach English classes in Praderas a few days a week!

Learned something new-apparently you have to guard corn at night. The bags of corn that have been harvested must be watch from dusk until about 9 so no one steals them. The whole collection and shucking process is pretty amazing to watch- the guys methodically place bags all around a given area close enough that they can talk but far enough that each is responsible for a different section. Young guys pick up the corn the others have bent and ripped off the stalks. I cut my finger on just one (don’t have Nica working hands!) but they do this for about 7 hours with food included. They get money per bag, so they are constantly asking each other how many. They then get a huge shucking machine similar to the industrial ones in the States, that spits the husks high into the sky into a pile that they just leave in the field. The cows are then let loose to eat whatever they want of what’s left, with the red and white line of bags of corn lining the ridge.

On another note, I have become addicted to leche con café: still not a huge fan of the flavor or frequency of café, but there are people who have figured out the leche, or creamer, with a little bit of coffee, is the fastest way to my heart, or sweet tooth. Sad note though, I decided to cancel the Praderas and Charcon youth soccer teams. The last two practices for both no one has come and I am sitting around the field for 30 minutes before having to bike back to 4 Esquinas. It’s great exercise, but not a good use of time with a group that is not my direct community.

Have had two successful ECA or art classes with the 4-6 graders. I have showed them how to draw animals and modes of transportation and they love it. Based on the teachers reaction and facial expression, she likes it too. Feel like there is definitely a raport building there. There is also an overlap of students and soccer youth which helps. Still is too funny watching my players forge the river on the horses on the way to practice. I snapped when one of the dogs stole a tortilla out of my hand, moreso because I really don’t want to have to make the trip to Managua for rabies shots.

09-14 Actually got the courage to ask my host-mom if she was mad at me or if there was a reason she hasn’t been talking to me for the last couple of days (girly sounding I know, but culturally this could be the beginning of a landslide). Fortunately she said nothing is wrong, but unfortunately culturally she probably won’t come right out and directly say anything to the contrary. One PCV told me this is one of the most frustrating aspects of the NIca culture, but I would argue that this happens in the US all the time. Gender stereotyping for a second, it’s more of a girl thing. After the guys shucked all the corn, they piled the bags onto a caretera, or ox drawn cart, and dragged it up the hill to be weighed. I walked to Praderas to pick the bus up to Tamalaque, where another PCV lives, for a seed swap and just to visit too. I will never complain about the accessibility of my site again. There is only one bus to Tamalaque and it is at 11 and the last bus to leave is at 4. You only have about 2-3 chances to go anywhere, and these are relatively new given that they just built a bridge within the last year to the community (they had to forge the river like Oregon Trail before that).

09-15 Rained all day!! Really quite impressive!!Parade today!! All the kids from all the schools gather in Praderas in groups for their respective schools or band groups and perform up and down the streets of Praderas. Officially, today is the festival celebrating independence from Spain, but let’s be honest, shaking your spandexed booty and beating a drum is shaking your booty and hitting a drum. Loud and fun! Nicas love their marching bands! Most of the kids, including my host brother, had missed the last two days of school to prep with extra band practice. But they were all soaked by the end. Got up with Sarah, the volunteer from Wale (40 min away) and we are both thinking about doing oven projects. The whole setting reminded me of some local 4^th of July celebrations, with the sketchy ferris wheel and the adults attempting to commemorate the event while the kids are looking around every which way because no one can really understand the Charlie Brown teacher voice on the microphone. Funny! 

And then there is the transportation

 So I didn't get a picture of one of the buses, but here is a rather blurry one of the town map in the mayor's office. Praderss, the big town, is in yellow and to your left you can see my town, 4 Esquinas.

 In the back of the truck for the second time, with members of the cooperative and another credit cooperative on the way to meet with Project Concern International, the NGO that has worked with the cooperative from the beginning.

 The big truck (yes there are different trucks) that half the people ride on top.

and others ride underneath. The camion (versus the smaller camioneta) is usually saved for transporting the tons of crops, but in the off-season peole earn a few extra getting others back and forth. These are an experience!

Projects for the first month

 Some snapshots of the projects that I was able to do, or start, in my first month. This is the almacigo, or nursery, for some of the plants I hope to put in a garden space by my house and my uncles' house. Thanks to Mom and Peace Corps for the seeds and Mom and Dad for the newspaper, which I rolled into biodegradable containers for the soil. One of my players, Juan, has been super helpful with planting and the soil prep. He's one of my rockstars! We've got some cucumbers (pepino), tomatoes (tomates), and sunflower (hierrasol) that we are trying.

 The finished trash bracelets. Both classes made these out of recycled chip bags. Usually the bags just go on the ground like the rest of the Nica trash because there is very little trash collection, but since this project, I have seen several students picking up chip bags. It's a start!

 Hard to read, but this is one of the community bank accounting sheets. Everything the banks do by computer in the States, the community leaders do by hand. The Bank was started by Jessica and is still going strong! It is a lot of calculations and it's a little more complicated because there is no fixed rate and a lot of flexibility with paying back with this group so the numbers get a little funky- but we are probably going to have a math confidence workshop in the community.

 My host dad and host brother-in-law working on my shelves! Yay!!

The chip bags drying for the bracelet project. Needless to say, they serve as their own publicity and I am officially the crazy gringa who picks up trash.

Some of those fun people

 These will seem a little random, but they are selections of some of the great moments here. These are two of the students, and two of my players, in the local school showing off their new bracelets we just made out of recycled Dorritos bags. The best part-they all brought their own materials and showed me more they made after the class!

 The gang! All except for the 2 youngest are on the Cuatro Esquinas team. They hang out playing fubol barefoot or by the hammock and talk to me, asking lots of questions and trying to learn English (sometimes)

 Lobo, the cutest and whiniest puppy. Everyone keeps stepping on him, and then he screams, but I protest that dogs have some of the best hearing, so he should be able to move, but none of the dogs here do. He is really cute though, so it's hard to be mad at him-even when he pees inside!

 This was my first back-of-the-truck excursion. My uncle is on the right (with the Boston hat!!) and one of the baseball players and cooperative members is on the left. And yes we are in the back of a truck and yes it rained on us. But it was so much fun!

Kids from both Corozal and Cuatro Esquinas playing pick-up fubol after the official Youth League Meeting.

Baseball pics

Good morning all! After a few lovely meals and a lot of walking around yesterday, I think I'm finally getting the hang of Jinotega. And I was able to load more pictures this morning. This is the Cuatro Esquinas baseball team, Odorico!

 First Game: very official in Cenizabu. There is a real field that only a few cows and horses run graze through.

 The snack stand: women and young kids make refreshments at their houses and sell them around the half-point since most games are double headers.

 My uncle, Juan Gadea, on the right. He actually called me to come to the Opening Day Parade-since I have the camera and "need to take a picture of everything and everyone." :)

 The parade!: the community wanted me to be the one in the middle in the dress, but I respectfully declined. All the teams in Pantasma line up and walk the streets of Praderas with a marching band to the big field.

 Carlos! The son of one of our catchers, and just an all-around sweet kid, he loves every sport and is one of my youth soccer players!

The fan club!: Some of the siblings and wives of the baseball players. In the red tank is Linda, she works at my grandparent's pulperia; then there is Aracelly to her right, who is one of the assistants at the cooperative, then Blondie, who is one of the players' girlfriend.

End of August: More Travel and more germs-going to have a stomach of iron!

More pictures to come later (found out the blogger can only do about 10 at a time). This, in addition to the first official community meeting (we did the community map) and the first official Friday tournament for the youth soccer teams (Cuatro Esquinas and Praderas won-followed by arguements about how old each player was--how American! :) ), concludes August. Hard to believe it's just been one month! Hopefully getting the hang of it. Big hug to everybody back home!

8/21: Had my first official meeting with all the socios of the cooperative. Wasn’t half bad. Spent the whole morning redoing all the posters I had done earlier that week and saving my energy with the antibiotics. Need to get a crash course in everything that has to do with the empressa and cooperative. Didn’t have any power so Edwin took us down to Dona Socorros house to watch the telenovellas. They are very serious about telenovellas here! Bought some oil and grease while in Praderas yesterday and Ariel took care of my bike while I was at the meeting. Thanks! There is a huge red moth engulfing my deodorant right now! Wow!

8/23: Got up early to get to the road, to get to the truck, to get on another truck to Jinotega. Back of the truck again by the way. All this with the board of the cooperative to get to a 10AM meeting with FIA (Foundation InterAmerica- a development agenciy from the states). My understanding is that the board asked FIA to fund a secadora and empacadora –basically a very expensive drier and packer that would empower my community to handle another step of the commodity chain for their basic grains. Right now they are at the mercy of the prices and collection and distribution schedule of  the AgriCorps middle man.  FIA basically told the cooperative that they need to come up with a more multi-tiered financial approach and that they currently do not have the land rights for the machine. Most of the land in Pantasma is originally indigenous, but through the wars land rights and redistribution have gotten rather sticky. The rep from FIA, Patrick Ahern, turns out was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in 1972. At least it was fun chatting with him. And got orange juice and fried chicken! Got a crashcourse in the cultural difference between what the development agency wants to hear for it’s constituents and what the local community members need and want, trying to fit square pegs into round holes more or less. The guys and I had an informal English class the whole trip back in the back of the truck.

8/24: Had to cancel the other practices while I was sick, but had practice with Cuatro Esquinas today.  Also started frying onions and cuajada for meals, with minimal questioning from my family. Lined the garden area with secos, or grain bags, to keep out the chickens and anchored them with rocks- very high tech! Transplanted the kale, cucumbers and sunflowers that were getting too big for the shoebox. We’ll see if they make it in the shallow soil.  Isi and Lidia kept pointing out spots that I had missed where the chickens could (and did) get in. I probably looked crazy chasing chickens out of my garden with a stick, but they were stupid enough to leave the same way they came in, so I was able to figure out the culprits. Shucked and pulled corn with Edwin and got a blister on my thumb. Ow! Still have delicate, non-worker hands. Made torta de leche (milk cake) with the cooking class today. Always feel better after cooking class and practice. These women and youth are smart, tough, hard-working and motivated.