two more photos - the top one is of me, with the families mule, my little host sister Leslie Priscilla, my brother Graving, and my host father Denis

the next one is of a rice field in one of the rural communities with some of the kids from church standing on top of the bean mound - we hold a church service in one of the surrounding rural communities once a week

First photo - my host mom and little sister

Second photo - one of my two brothers, Javier, and my sister

My new host family
So I have been meaning to update my blog for several weeks now, but life has gotten away from me and I am now in the final month of my time in Nicaragua and can hardly believe that six months have almost passed me by. Where the time has gone I do not know. It seems in many ways I arrived here yesterday and in other ways that I have been here for several years. The country has become a part of me and I feel at home here. Even speaking Spanish every day no longer bothers me and I can now eat beans and rice for all three meals without horrible stomach aches. In some ways eating other food seems a little strange.

About a month and a half ago I moved host families. I used to live in Jinotepe and I now live in La Conquista. It is a smaller town of about 3,000 people and is about thirty minutes drive away from Jinotepe. I moved in with a woman and her family who works with Luke’s Society. She is in charge of running the organization’s small pharmacy that sells discounted medicine in La Conquista. When I moved here her husband was a way working in the north and she was a little bit lonely and wanted some company. Also my directors felt it would be good to give me time to see and experience life in one of the poorer cities of the country. So I made the move.

My family now includes the father – Denis, the mother – Gladis, and four children – three boys and one girl. Wesley is 12, Javier is 10, Graving is 4, and Leslie Priscilla is 1 ½. We live in a small house constructed by the government. The house consists of a small main room and two other rooms that come off of that main room that have curtains covering the doorways. In reality the house is one large room, with particle board dividers that were put up to make walls. Out of the back door is the families underconstruction kitchen. The house belongs to one of Gladis’ brothers who is away working in Costa Rica. Bit by bit he is adding on to the house to make it larger and more luxurious. But as of right now he has made little progress. The back section has a hard dirt floor and concrete walls on three sides with openings for the windows and the door that have not yet been covered. In one corner are a pile of concrete blocks that will eventually be the bathroom.

There is also a hammock where the dad almost always lies after finishing work for the day. He lays there in the hammock and I sit on one of the several tree stumps that are going to be cut later into firewood, while Gladis stands in front of the woodburning fire making our dinner. The kids wander in and out of the room and sometimes all sit down on the other logs and we begin to tell stories to one another or to make shadow animals on the wall. While we wait for dinner or after we have eaten the kids and I usually play various games that involve much laughing, usually at me for the inability I have to use their toys. We also take turns drawing different pictures and showing them to one another. Sometimes Wesley, who is taking guitar lessons, will go and get the guitar and bring it into the kitchen where he then begins to play. Leslie, Javier, and I begin to dance as the parents sing and clap along to the music. Graving varies between dancing and sitting there watching us.

After playing for a while I will usually wash the dishes and hand wash some of my clothes before going to bed.

They are a delightful family and I feel honored to live with them.

My new host family

Photos of Guatemala

picturesÑ

1) a photo of a market fruit stand overflowing with tasty fruit in Guatemala.

2) me, pamela, and austin on top of one of the mayan ruins in tikal as we waited to see the sunrise in a morning washed out by rain

3) mayan temple

4) another mayan temple

5) a view of the forest and the mayan temples poking out as a rain storm comes in

we are currently on top of another mayan temple when i took this photo

6) pamela, me, david, and austin with a mayan temple in the background

Tikal

I decided to take a week off with some of my other friends who are here in Central America and to become once again actual tourists, instead of students who are simply living daily life in our prespective countries. So far we have just spent some nice time relaxing.

Today we went to Tikal. We decide to take the 3:15 am shuttle from the town of Flores, which is about an hour and a half from the actual park. We had heard and read that it is especially beautiful to be there for sunrise when the entire forest begins to wake up. But when the actual morning came, we were a little doubtful if it would be worth the lack of sleep we had.

When we got off the bus and began walking with our flashlights down the path to the heart of the monuments, it began to rain lightly. As we walked the rain increased. We kept going, not exactly sure where we were going or what was happening. Suddenly, we looked to our right and to our left and saw Mayan ruins protruding out of the fog. It was mysterious and mystical to be walking there in the middle of the night, under rain, and surrounded by mist to see these old ruins on either side of us. Everything was quiet except for the sound of the rain hitting the forest leaves or falling to the ground.

We came to a wooden staircase and were told to climb. We began climbing to the top of one of the monuments where we were going to wait for the sunrise. But this morning there would be no sunrise. We waited, while the rain increased until we finally decided to climb back down and look for shelter. A group of about 45 people were waiting under the shelter along with the guides for the rains to clear. We waited there about 15 minutes and then broke off into smaller groups to explore the park.

I cannot explain how amazing it was to be standing in the park so early in the morning, when all was still quiet, as the rain came and abaited and then came again. It was incredible. My four friends and I climbed several of the ruins to the top to see the spectacular views of the forest and the other monuments. They stand completely in the middle of the jungle as if they belong to the jungle and you as a visitor have somehow entered some private, sacred place.

I will put up pictures of Tikal shortly, but for now I will leave you with one of my favorite stories of the day. My friends and I stayed longer in the park than the rest of our tour group so that we would have a chance to go and explore the other monuments. We came to another group of monuments and it began to rain again. We decided to duck under part of the doorway of one of the temples to wait out the rain. One of the Guatemalan workers also ducked under with us. We then began to talk with him and learn that he has worked in the park for 20 years and that he himself is mostly Mayan. He looked at one of my friends and asked him if he was going to marry and before my friend could answer he said, ah it is there in your eyes. Then he looked at me and said you do not want to know. We all began to laugh. He went on to tell us that he is not a shaman, mayan religious leader, but that he is a spiritual man who serves God and speaks and listens to the spirits. AFter the rains stopped we thanked him for his conversation and left. He took the hand of one of my other friends and said Cuidate mucho or be very careful with complete sincerity in his eyes. The whole encounter with the man who really is a shaman, even though he said he was not, only increased the mystery of the day and the feeling that we were experiencing part of another culture that is still very much alive. It was also slightly humurous for us to hear his warnings and we kept joking about them for the rest of the day.

A piece of art

The land is tired.

The land is dry.

The rains failed,

You tell me.

You say,

We planted and worked the land,

But we had no harvest.

The rains ruined the harvest,

You say.

The same rains that you need 

For your crops to grow

Ruined your livelihood 

And stole your hope.

It is expensive,

  You tell me.

It is more expensive this year.

My money does not buy much,

you say.

All the prices keep rising.

We hate Mondays,

You say,

For that is when prices rise.

That is when we learn what we can no longer buy.

The prices keep rising,

You say.

Our salaries do not.

The prices keep rising,

you say

And our harvest keep failing.

There is no money for that,

You tell your children.

It is too expensive.

But your child does not seem to understand.

My husband left,

  You tell me.

He will return in three months.

Where did he go,

I ask.

To look for work.

There is no work in Nicaragua.

He went to Costa Rica.

Mine went to Panama.

Mine went to the States,

You tell me.

When will they return?

We do not know exactly,

You say.

My daughter left,

My son stopped school,

My mother does not live with us.

Where are they?

I ask.

They went to find work.

They went to find work that does not exist here.

But this should not be,

I say.

But it is what we must do.

We must do this to survive.

It is our only choice.

If we stay together

We cannot survive.

If we stay together

My children cannot go to school

My children cannot eat

We will be hungry.

Their money, although little,

Is what we need to survive

You tell me.

We have no other choice.

But this should not be,

I think.

Where are those who fight to change the situation?

I ask.

They are here,

But they do nothing.

They do not help their people.

THey have no desire to help us.

Their eyes are fixed on their pockets,

you tell me.

They get richer

As we suffer.

They get richer 

As their country is destroyed.  

pictures

1) Me with Doña Adilia collecting nancites on her farm.

2) a beautiful view in the rural communities

3) the large tree with Doña Adilia standing next to it

4) me and cindy, one of Doña Adilia´s granddaughters taking a bath in the river

5) playing volleyball with one of the families

6) their stoves

the rural communities

I have spent the past three weeks living in the rural communities of La Conquista. I spent 2-3 days in each community where I lived with one of the community health promotors and their family. During the day I walked around the community either with the health promotor or with one of her children to the different houses to conduct interviews. The interviews took up most of the day as I spoke with a minimum of 15 people and as many as 20 people in each community. Sometimes the interviews went well and I felt I was getting a lot of helpful information and at other times I seemed to be getting nothing and I found myself to be getting frustrated. But overall it was really neat to walk around the communities, to meet more of the residents, and to visit the houses of the people I already knew. When I was not conducting interviews I would be back at the health promotor’s house talking with her or her family, playing with the kids, or helping/watching she cooked the food.

My favorite memory was probably when I went with Dona Adilia to visit her family’s farm. She lives in the community of Buena Vista, which is alongside a small highway. It is more like a small town instead of a rural community. All of the people’s lands where they graze their cattle or where they plant their crops are in other neighboring communities, so the men and women have to walk from their homes each morning to their property. Dona Adilia’s son lives on the family property. She began to tell me about their land and I commented that I would like to see it as a way to get to know more about her life. So she said we could go. We left the house and began the 20-30 minute walk through a forest, up and down hills, and over rivers to the community of San Jorge. There we passed by the mayor’s house, stopped to admire the incredibly large tree in his yard, and then finished the last portion of the walk to her farm.

We first went to the house on the property where we stopped and sat with her daughter-in-law. They exchanged news about events that had happened in Buena Vista in the last two days, which included a funeral of a man, a baseball game, and a family feud that almost turned violent. Her daugher-in-law, Salvadora, then got up and brought us boiled corn. Dona Adilia and I ate the corn while she showed me the portion of the garden closest to the house. In this garden various fruits such as bananas, mangos, calala, and other fruits grow that we do not have in the States. Then we walked back up to the house to get a bag and a pale before leaving with her granddaughter to go and collect nancites. Nancites are a small yellow fruit about the size of a grape that have a seed inside. They fall off of the tree and then you can easily pick them up off of the ground. We collected these for a while and then the granddaughter and I went in search of guayava (another small green fruit that we do not have in the states). We went to the guayava tree and began to look for the ones that we more ripe. I began to climb the tree and she asked me in a disbelieving tone of voice – you can climb a tree. Of course, I responded, and continued to climb. We gathered the ones we could reach and then went back to help Dona Adilia carry the nancites back to the house.

We filled a straw bag with mangos and yucca, a plastic bag with the nancites, and then a bean sack about a third of the way full with trigo (a grain they give to the chickens and dogs). We thanked the family for our time there and Dona Adilia laughingly talked about how I would be coming back because I kept saying how much I liked my time there and how beautiful the farm was. We then each began to carry a different bag. Dona Adilia put the straw bag of yuccas and mangos on her head and I put the bean sack of trigo on mine and carried the sack of nancites in my hand. We walked out to the main road this time because of all of the goods we were carrying. Our hope was to find a taxi. But there was no taxi and the bus passed us going in the other direction. It would not return for about thirty minutes. So we decided to begin walking. We walked, talked, and laughed as we exchanged the bags of nancites from one person to another so as to share the load. Finally when we were about at her house a taxi appeared. So we flagged it down and then got in where we road the rest of the way to the house.

random community life happenings

Random happenings in the rural communities

1) So I learned that Nicaragua has scorpions. Some of them are the size of my thumbnail and some of them are the size of my hand. They are not that posoinous unless you are allergic to them, but their sting hurts quite a bit. In one of the rural communities I had just come back from using the latrine prior to going to bed. I sat on the small wall that runs around the house to keep the chickens and pigs out where I took off my boots. I then swung my legs over the wall to the other side to put on my flip-flops. I did not use my flashlight to look to see where my flip-flops where. As my feet came down on the back of my flip-flops I turned on my flashlight and saw that my left foot was centimeters from a large scorpion. He did not sting me, thankfully. But I did receive quite a scare.

2) At the recommendation of my director, Reyna, I bought a pair of rubber boots that come up to my knees for my time in the rural communities. I did not think they would really be necessary, but since she said it would be a good idea I decided to follow her advice. It turned out they were incredibly necessary during my first two weeks in the rural communities. During these two weeks it rained almost non-stop and everything in the rural communities turned into mud. There was mud everywhere that in places came to my mid shin. Also the rivers that we easily crossed weeks before now where anywhere between midthigh and waist deep. The people apparently thought I was rather a funny sight – a gringa tromping around in the mud and rain in their rubber boots. I would enter a house and they would say – Oh you have our boots and begin to chuckle to themselves.

3) I received my first marriage proposal from a drunk 65 year old man during the middle of an all night funeral vigil. A little weird, I know.

4) I have now tried armodillo and it is rather tasty. It is a delicacy and the families in the rural communities only eat it a handful of times during the year. In one of the homes where I stayed, the husband and his brother found and killed one the day before I arrived so his wife cooked it for our lunch. We ate the leftovers for dinner. It is kind of like chicken. I don’t mean that jokingly. It has a similar texture, but is more flavorful.

5) One morning I woke up about 5:30. It is hard to sleep much past then. The families wake up between 5 and 5:30 and once one of them wakes up the house immediately fills with noise either of wood being chopped for the morning fire, of the sound of the corn grinder as the women grind the corn kernels to make the morning tortillas, or of the chickens clucking as the wander in and out of the house. I woke up and lay on a bed that is what they call a scissor bed. This bed has two pieces of wood that form x’s on each end and across the wood frame hangs the same material they use for their large bean and rice sacks. I lay there trying to decide if I wanted to get up yet or not. About this time two of the kids, Samuel and Joel, walked into the room and laid down on their mom’s bed. They laid there for a while looking at me and then began to ask me questions about my house, the type of food I eat, the type of animals I have, if it rains, if I have brothers, and many other questions that fill the minds of curious 7 year-old boys. We laid there talking for a while until we heard the sound of plates being filled with food – gallo pinto and tortillas.

6) When it is going to rain at night ants begin to appear from who knows where. They form lines on the floor and wall and continue to crawl around until the rains come. It is slightly disgusting because they are rather large ants – about the same size as carpenter ants that we have in the states.

7) I walked to a house in the rural community of Buena Vista with my two guides – Antony a 13 year old boy and his 10 year old sister named Cindy. We walked along a small dirt path, down a steep hill, across a small river, and then crossed through a fence. The path continued to lead up a hill to the house of the lady I needed to interview. But we decided to take a small detour to go take a bath as they called it. This meant that we went over to the river where we waded in about knee deep and then ended up splashing one another and swimming around for a while. It was a lot of fun.

A change of scenery

I don´t have very long to write because I am getting ready to leave the office. But I wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow I will be living in four of the rural communities where we work for two to three days at a time. I will come back to Jinotepe and my main host family on Thursday, September 4th.

I am going to the rural communities for two reasons. The first is to conduct my investigations for Luke´s Society. Part of my work for them is to do some investigations regarding how the Bible and its teachings brings changes to their lives. I will then take that information and begin to write a Bible Study manual for them to use in the rural communities. The hope is that with this manual further changes will come to the communities. Luke´s Society wants the whole aspect of the people´s lives to change - not only their physical life through having clean water and better nutrition, but also their ways of relating to one another and their relationship with God. They want to write this manual and for me to do this investigation so they better know how much of the communities are actually changing and the depth of these changes. They hope that this work will then allow them to better help not only these communities, but any other communities where they work in the future. The second reason for my stay in the rural areas is to help me understand another side of life in Nicaragua and how rural life differs from that of the city and to also learn about their struggles.

So tomorrow I begin my investigation. I found out this morning that I was beginning today. I had it scheduled to begin sometime this week, but with the way things went last week I assumed it would not be until the end of the week. I will be going with two of my co-workers to one of the communities tomorrow where they have some meetings and activities. I will then stay there with one of the community health promotors after they leave. During my days in the community I will be conducting a series of interviews. I am hoping to interview 10 people in each community. 5 of these will have had a lot of contact with Luke´s Society and the other 5 will not. I will also be conducting a total of 4 interviews with couples in each community. Lastly I will have one group interview or more of a focus group discussion with 3 to 5 people. After finishing work in one community I will move on to another. The children in the communities or some of the adults are going to be taking me around the communities and helping me find the people I need to talk with and making sure I don´t get lost.

On the 4th I will return to Jinotepe for a day and a half and then on the 6th I will leave again for the other portion of the rural communities. I will be there until the 13th. I am mostly really excited about this opportunity. I know at least some of the people in each community, so it will not be like entering a complete unknown. Also all of the people I will be staying with are very trustworthy people who have a long history of working with Luke´s Society. I am a little nervous, though, about my actual interviews. I hope my questions are good and that I get the information that I need. I also hope the people show up. It is common for people to say they are coming and then they have other tasks to do during the day.

When I get back on the 4th I will fill you in on all my fun stories and also on Nica rural life. Hope you all are well.

At the end of the day!

I am currently sitting in my office (I share one room with four of my co-workers) listening to the rain pouring down on our tin roof. It has been thundering and lightening for a while now, but the rain just began. It begins to fall so hard that it is virtually impossible to hear what others say. But with the rain everything cools off and returns to a much more pleasant temperature. The rain also means that part of our office will get wet and puddles will appear on the floor. We have a couple of leaks in our roof that have not yet been fixed, so water drops onto the floor or runs down the side of two walls.

My co-workers and I are rather tired after our day in the community. We went to the community of La Hormiga where we had a couple of activities scheduled. First we weighed and measured the kids. All of them are very excited for this event because they learn how much they have grown. It is a sort of competition, like most things between kids, and they laugh and boast about how many pounds they increased or how many centimeters they grew. Thankfully today almost all of them gained between 2 and 5 pounds. When asked why they said, it is all the beans I am eating. (The beans have just begun to be harvested so every house has tarps lying on the ground with beans drying on top.) After getting weighed they excitedly run to the back of the house where there is a huge pot cooking over a fire. Inside this pot is a drink called atoule. It is made from grains and soy milk with sugar and is served steaming hot. They all grab their cups on the way and stand, somewhat patiently in line for their share. Many of them have never had atoule with soy milk. It is more common to make it with cow´s milk, but we are trying to improve the nutrition of the kids and so are encouraging mothers to use soy milk instead.

As they were drinking their atoule I sat down next to a 7 year old girl named Jennifer and a 9 year old boy. We talked for a while and they told me all about the animals they have, what they like to do after school, and how many siblings they have. I pulled out my camara to take a picture of them and of course more children gathered around, anxious to be part of a photo.

Slowly the kids began to leave and return to their homes, but not before finding bottles and other glasses to fill with atoule so they could have some when they got home. Many of them drank two to three cups full before leaving and took more with them. Reyna, my boss, said ¨Now they will certainly have gained weight.¨

My co-workers and I waited around on a bench outside under a trelice. We were suppose to have a meeting with the community´s committee to discuss plans and ideas to improve the community for the year, but three of them never showed. We waited for about an hour and a half. While we waited we talked with two of the boys left at the house. They told us about all the hard work they do at their houses and how big and strong they are getting. One of them wanted to play a game with me where each person has a coin and throws it against the wall. Whoever´s coin goes the farthest wins and takes the money. I said I didn´t want to play that game because I didn´t want to lose money. But I said we could play another game that I would teach him. He and I then began to play swords. (In this game you hold the opposite hand of the person and with your index finger you try to touch their body. Whoever touches the other person first wins.) We began to play and quickly everyone was laughing. I won the first one. He didn´t like that and so said ¨let´s play again¨. We played several times - alternating who won. I then taught them thumb wars and various hi-5 games. We kept playing until it was time for us to leave.

We ate the food the boys´mothers had prepared, which consisted of tortillas, rice, beans, two slices of cooked green bell pepper, and chorizo made from soy. We then thanked them all and the boy made me promise to come back so we could play again. I told him to practice so he could beat me everytime the next time I come. He started laughing.

We walked about a quarter mile up the road to the truck. The road was too wet and muddy to bring the truck to the house, so we parked it in a higher area. We got in and drove back to the office, where I am currently sitting.

My 22nd birthday!

Wednesday was my 22nd birthday and my first time to celebrate my birthday without my family. I woke up in the morning to find a card my host sister, Devita, made me lying underneath my door. It was made of orange construction paper with glittery paint on it saying Happy 22nd Birthday. Around the card she wrote various inspirational messages like ¨You have a part to play and God is going to use you in amazing ways.¨ She also drew a cake in the middle of the card. After reading that I opened a card my parents gave me before leaving the States. It was a nice way to start my birthday morning.

Both of my host parents gave me huge birthday hugs and wished me lots of happiness along with the common phrase here ¨Dios te bendiga¨ (May God bless you). Then we went off to work where it was a pretty normal day. Most of my co-workers went into the communities to do various activities. But during the afternoon two of my co-workers, Cesar and Reynita, came up the stairs with a gift bag behind their back. Inside was a beautiful skirt, but it didn´t fit. We then had to go back to the store and find something else. I ended up finding a nice black tank top that I really like. It was perfect and so thoughtful of them. I wasn´t expecting to get any presents. And it was even better because just the day before I had begun to hate all of my clothes that I brough with me. I wear the same thing almost every week.
We returned to the office and everything was pretty normal. Then a little later Cesar came into our office (I share my office with 4 of my co-workers) and said one of the women from the rural communities is down stairs and asked for you. I thought it was a little strange since it was already almost 5 and the people from the rural communities never come after about 3. But I said okay and went downstairs anyway. About halfway down the stairs I realized he lied to me only to get me down the stairs. All my co-workers began to sing happy birthday to me and then a song that says we want cake, so hurry up.
We all sat down and before distributing the cake it is the tradition here for those gathered around to give birthday wishes and blessings to the birthday person. It was Cesar´s birthday on the 2nd so we were celebrating both of our birthdays. All of my co-workers gave us both birthday blessings and some words of encouragement. It was really neat. After the blessings concluded I was given the knife to cut the cake. We ate the cake and drank juice while we sat around to chat and laugh for a while.
AFter work we went to Diriamba, the neighboring town, to drop off my co-worker Gabriela (in te back left of the above picture). But we made a slight detour. We stopped in front of a restaurant that makes pupusas. My host dad then looked at me and said ¨Do you like?¨ We all got out and went inside to eat pupusas, which are one of my favorite foods here. They are corn tortillas filled with cheese, cheese and beans, or cheese and pig skin. They are so tasty. After dinner we went back home where my host family dispersed to their rooms to do homework. I received a call about 30 minutes later from a good friend back home who wished my a happy birthday. All and all it was a great birthday away from home!

Picture 1) of Cesar, me, and our cake 2) of the cake with my name mispelled although my host parents wrote out the name for the bakery 3) laughing during the party from left to right - Zoilita, Gabriela, me, Reynita 4) same group listening to Reynita tell a story 5) at the pupusa restaurant left side Francisco (my host dad), Levi (my brother), Gabriela (my co-worker and host aunt), right side Devita (my host sister), me, and Reyna (my host mom).

More randomness - may they make you laugh!

1) So it turns out that there are rats living in our ceiling. Usually you don´t hear them because they often leave the house and wander around outside. But when it starts to rain they come back into the house and can be heard scurrying around in the ceiling. There was one in the ceiling in my room last week. He stayed there making a great deal of noise for probably thirty minutes. He would run from one corner to another banging around against wires and other pieces of metal in the ceiling.

2) Francisco (my host father) and I tried to make bread and banana cake a week ago. But neither were very successful. I followed the recipe and added the right quantities of everything to the bread, but for some reason it did not rise. We tried baking it anyway and it came out rock hard although it smelled really good. The inside even tasted good, but it was too hard to eat. Francisco made a banana cake, but forgot to add eggs. While it was in the oven he asked Reyna (his wife) if the recipe calls for eggs. She said of course it does, four in fact. He smiled and said oops! He then went to the kitchen and took the banana cake out of the oven. He proceeded to add four eggs to it, mix it with the blender, and return it to the oven. He and I laughed the entire time. Reyna insisted that it would not work. Well it kind of worked. The cake tasted really good, although it also did not rise.

3) I also continue to hear that it is dangerous to be a volunteer in Nicaragua and that I will probably find my spouse. In my extended host family, three of the cousins married volunteers from abroad and one is dating a volunteer from the States. I also continue to hear stories of foreigners marrying Nicaraguans. My host mother reminds me that there are some good Nica men here. She and others say that would give me a good reason to come back or to never return to school.

4) So there are two Papa John´s in Nicaragua. But unlike Papa John´s in the states they are actual sit down restaurants and have more than just pizza. they have pastas, 6 different kinds of salads, appetizers, and even desert pizza. Also they have more varieties of pizzas than the ones in the States. The flavor was the same.

5) In one of our community visits to Nance there was another soyada. This time the women made different dishes, all of which again were very tasty. One of them is a kind of soup that is very popular and common to the rural communities. Its base was soy milk and then they added tomatoes, green bell pepers, onion, garlic, and a kind of river seashell animal. The seashell animal is still in its shell in the soup. In order to eat it you have to slightly bite the middle of the shell so as to sort of break it. You then blow on the small end to push the animal out of the other end. After blowing, you turn the shell around and suck on the other end. The animal should then slide easily out and into your mouth. Well, this is what is suppose to happen anyway. I, however, had troubles. The first one worked beautifully. But I couldn´t get any of the other five to come out. I kept trying and trying to no avail. The women, Doña Ramona, Doña Juana, and Doña Mariana realized that I was having some difficulty so they came over to help. They repeated the instructions to me and watched me try. Still no success. They then began to repeat the instructions louder and with more animation, thinking that would help. Still no success. At this point my co-workers and I were laughing at my inability. The women also began to laugh and continued to repeat the instructions. Still I couldn´t do it. By the end we were all laughing about how I couldn´t do it. I think they thought it rather funny how incompitent I was at such an easy task.

6) Three of my co-workers (Juan Carlos, Cesar, Zoilita) and I went to Naranjo. This is one of the farthest away communities. It takes thirty minutes on moto on dirt roads from the main city where we work. Overall the road is fairly smooth and there are only a couple of rough patches. I road with Juan Carlos who drives very smoothly. As Reyna says you could almost fall asleep when you are his passanger. We came to the River Caimito which is probably 25 feet wide and in the shallowest parts about a foot to a foot and a half deep. Juan Carlos and I went first. However, he did not drive quickly enough. So about ten feet into the river the moto stopped and the back wheel was entirely stuck in the mud on the bottom of the river. I looked at him and said I have to get off, don´t I. He said no no you aren´t wearing proper shoes. I said we have no choice. He said true. So I got off in the middle of the river and tried to go as quickly as I could back to shore. By the time I got there my shoes and pants were soaked. Zoila and Cesar were laughing on the shore. Juan Carlos crossed on the moto and then Cesar later, but only after Zoila got off. She and I then crossed together through the mud and water. Cesar enjoyed watching us and laughing. By the time we got to Naranjo we were muddy and wet.

7) Making nacatomales. Nacatomales are a traditional Nica food. They are similar to Mexican tamales but twice as good. Inside the corn dough they have either chicken or pork with potatoes, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, and parsley. They are wrapped in banana leaves and then boiled in hot water for two hours. They have the combination of all the flavors and are incredibly tasty. We made them for the birthday of my host father and two of his siblings. none of them are twins, but they all have the same birthday. I stood with a lady from the church, my host grandmother, the guard, and my host great grandfather making the nacatamales. We stood in the outside covered kitchen of the great grandfather where they cook using firewood. We made and wrapped them on a seperate table, then passed them to the guard (Don Joel) who tied the leaves with string, and then placed them on the fire. My host grandmother decided that I was becoming Nica since I could now make nacatamales. I know I am not describing the event well, but it may be one of my favorite moments so far.

8) Dr. Green said I am beginning to sound like a Nicaraguan when I speak.

the market

So I realized that I had not yet described to you possibly one of my favorite things here in Nicaragua and that is the market. I am not exactly sure why I like it so much, but every time I have an opportunity to go to the market, I take it. It is a very lively place and it is possible to find almost anything there.

The market in Jinotepe is in the center of town and probably takes up close to ten city blocks. It runs along various streets in front of the houses and other businesses. Most of the stalls are permanent and sit along the sides of the road so that all the people, cars, bikes, men pulling trash carts, and horses pulling carts can cross through in the center. The stalls have tin roofs and wooden walls, although some just have tin roofs. Each stall is owned by a different person so that it is always possible to find the same person or family working at the same stall. Customers then become regulars at certain stalls. My family has three stalls that they always visit when they go to the market, partially because they offer the best prices and goods and partially because they are women who they have known for a long time.

Depending on the time of the day the market may be very crowded or hardly anyone there at all. It is particularly fun to go when it is raining or just after because it is virtually deserted by all customers, but there is still a lot of great produce and other foods to buy.

As you walk through the market you step over trash and mud puddles due to the poor conditions of the paved roads. It is important to keep at least remote attention to where you walk to avoid some of the mud puddles. There are women sitting just in front of their stalls behind huge baskets filled with fresh cooked bread. They wave leaves over the baskets to keep the flies away. They yell ¨pan, pan¨as you walk by. It is hard to not buy their bread because it smells so good and rich. As you continue to walk you pass stalls selling all different kinds of beans, although red beans are the most popular. (Nicas are adiment that red beans have the best flavor.) There are other stalls that only sell vegetables and they are piled high with tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, celery, lettuce, onions, garlic, eggplant, and other vegetables that I don´t know the English word for. All of these sit in baskets at varying heights so it is easy to see what their goods. Some spices hang from the roof in small bags. Other stalls only sell fruit and it all looks wonderful. They have pineapple, mango, papaya (that are the size of a two-year old child), oranges, guava, guayava, zapote, and other fruits again that I don´t know their name in English. All of it is rich and very tempting to buy. You will also pass by stalls filled with second hand clothing and shoes that are fairly cheap, sports equipment, tires, cell phones, radios, and sodas.

As you walk you will also hear bells ringing behind or in front of you. These bells are on the handles of the ice cream carts. The men constantly touch them as they walk so people know they are coming. They shout ¨helado¨as they go by. There are other women who walk through the market shouting ¨dulces, maiz, mani¨(sweets, corn, peanuts). My personal favorite are the women yelling tortillas. There is one woman in particular and everyone knows who you are talking about. She carries the tortillas in a towel on her head and shouts tortillas like no other woman. It is high pitched and nasally and is more like ¨Torrrrrrrrtiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillas!¨ You can hear her a long way off and it is hard for me not to laugh at times becaus it is just so amusing listening to her.

There are also supermarkets around the market, smaller than those in the states about a fraction of the size. The goods in there are more expensive and most people do all their shopping in the street market and only enter the supermarket if they can´t find what they need in the street market.

Hiking Mombacha

Hello friends,
Last Thursday my host family, host grandmother, and host uncle/co-worker, and I took the day off of work to go to a nearby active volcano called Mombacha. It is a popular destination with tourists and sits about forty minutes away from Jinotepe.
After paying the entrance fee to the park we drove up the steep assent in our truck to the base of the volcano. At the base there are three different hiking trails you can do. The first is fairly easy and does not require a guide, while the second two are increasingly more difficult and both require a guide. We did the first one with the entire group and then part of us broke off from my host mother, Reyna, and her mother to go on to do the most difficult hike. This one is about two and a half miles of continual assents and descents of wooden or rock staircases that are wet due to the humidity and covered in mud and old rotting leaves. It was quite the hike! But it was also a lot of fun to be outside in nature. We went around one of the craters and then had an overlook of a second. We could also see one of the lakes nearby (Lake Nicaragua the largest lake in the country) and the various islands that lie off of the shore.
The place was incredibly beautiful. The entire hike was in the middle of a tropical rainforest that had over 125 different kinds of orchids and many different kinds of trees. We heard a couple of parrots in the trees and were told that monkeys and pumas also lived in the forest, although we did not have the chance of seeing either of them. My host brother who is nine was especially disappointed that we did not get to see a puma. He thought it would be very fun. We did, however, see some of its recents tracks in the mud just off the side of the trail.
After getting back to the trail head we were all very hot and tired, but in really great spirits from our outting. It was especially nice for a Colorado girl to spend some time in nature. I don´t get a chance to walk much here, so it was nice to walk so much. My host family was rather impressed too at the speed at which I hiked. I just kept saying this is what I do in my free time with my family. By the end, I think they began to believe me.
We left the volcano and went to eat at an authentic Mexican restaurant in another town where I got to eat mole, chips, salsa, and guacamole. It was great and by the end of the day I felt completely refreshed.

image 1) my co-worker Zoila and I painting our new office. 2) all of my co-workers, three US visitors, and I outside of a Luke´s Society pharmacy in La Conquista where we work. my host father, Fransisco is in the green polo and his wife, Reyna, is in the grey polo next to him. 3) a street in Jinotepe 4) the countryside on the way back from Managua 5) my house - this is the den looking into the kitchen.

Random thoughts

I love corn tortillas! I use to think they were not so great or that I could not eat them every day. But here they make them like I´ve never had them before and when they are warm with a little avacado and cheese....mmm! I hadn´t had a tortilla for three days and I found myself craving to eat one on Wednesday.

I have a decent sized spider I named sammy living in my bathroom. He has been there at least a week. He disappears and I think he´s gone, only to show up again sometime later.

On the roads there are pedstrians, bicyclists, buses, cars, pickup trucks, and horses pulling carts.

The buses here are old school buses painted various colors that take people from one city to another.

I play uno almost every day with my host brother.

I taught my host sibling how to suffle and do a bridge - they were shocked I could do it and wanted to learn. They spent about an hour practicing.

I´ve eaten the first thing I don´t like. Thy call it mundungo which is also called cow stomach soup in spain. I ate it to please one of my host grandmother´s. I told my parents afterwards about it and they laughed about it. It has since become a running joke.

Entonces Sherry, entonces, entonces, entonces. I hear this phrase at least three times a day. It basically means so...

Daily life

I know that some of you are probably wondering what my basic day looks like including when do I wake up and what I eat. Well first there is no regular day here and usually I don´t really know what I am doing until about five minutes before hand, but I will try to give you an idea.

I wake up around 7 and spend some time reading and praying. Then around 7:45 or 8 I emerge from my room and wander into the kitchen. Usually one if not both of my host parents are there cooking breakfast and lunch at the same time. We talk for anywhere between 10 to 30 minutes depending on how soon breakfast is ready. I then help set the table. My host siblings leave for school around 6:30, so they do not eat with us. Breakfast consists of gallo pinto (red beans and rice), warm corn tortillas, fresh fruit juice made by my host father, scrambled eggs, fresh bread from a bakery, or some type of fruit (mangos, pineapple, papaya, watermelon). The most common is gallo pinto with tortillas. We tend to leave the house around 8:30 or 9 to go to the office.
I greet my co-workers with ¨buenas¨ and we chat for a while. I have really nothing to do when I arrive so I use the time to talk with my-coworkers or to record thoughts I had during the morning. Someone will then say ¨vamos sherry¨ (let´s go - they can´t say my name and this is close enough). I seldom know where I am going prior to getting into the car or walking to the market. I also seldom know exactly what we are going to or why. Surprises are a big part of my day.
Whatever activity we go to might last just for the morning or the entire day. Primarily our outings consist in going to the community to talk with the people and to do various workshops. This past week my outings were to paint shops, the market, and the central park. We moved offices so we didn´t go into the rural areas. If I don´t go into the rural areas I eat lunch either at my host family´s house or we go to one of two nearby restaurants where we eat tasty baked chicken, rice, beans, and fried bananas. If I go to the rural communities I never know when I am going to eat, so snacks have come in handy. Many days when we are out in the communities I don´t eat til around 3 or later, which is a long time since breakfast.
I go home from the office anywhere between 5:30 at the earliest to 7:30. The work day ends around 5 so I either check email or talk with my co-workers who are still around. We then head home after making a brief stop to buy homemade, hot tortillas from a woman who sells them from her house.
At the house I either read, play uno with my siblings, or watch american idol prior to dinner. Dinner so far has included corn tortillas, rice, beans, avocados, pupusas (tortillas with cheese and beans inside), variety of soups, baked eggplant with cheese and barbeque sauce on top, baked chicken, or a dish similar to chicken curry but not spicy. After dinner I help with cleaning the kitchen and talk more with my host family. I go to my room anywhere between 10 and 10:30 to do some HNGR homework and then to sleep.
I know that wasn´t very specific but that is because my days vary so much, but I hope it helped you to get an idea of what I do during my days.

La Soyada

Yesterday all of my co-workers, three US guests, and I attended a Soyada in the community of Nance. A Soyada basically is a huge meal where everything is made with soy products. The women in this community began to grow and learn how to make food with soy beginning two years ago. They noticed their children were undernourished and wanted to improve their nutrition in some way. Meat is very expensive and beans are not as nutritious as soy. So after laerning about the health benefits of soy they began to grow it and promote its use throughout the community. The soy season begins in July, so our meal was kind of a celebration of the opportunity it brings to the community and was in hopes of a good crop this year.
We loaded a total of 12 people into our organization´s truck along with a pinata and sports equipment. Theorganization received money to buy sport´s equipment for the leagues in the different rural communities. We drove as far as we could into the rural area and then all got out and walked the rest of the way. When we arrived all of the women were in the kitchen of one of the lady´s houses cooking and the kids were in the yard playing. More women, men, and children began to arrive. I met more of the women, whom I had not met before and then proceeded to stand in the kitchen of this two room house with dirt floors talking and laughing with the women. They showed me what they were making and when I asked questions about it, they quickly grabbed a piece of the food or poured me a cup of the drink so I could try it. All of it was delicious. When I told them I liked it, especially this drink called atoule which has soy milk, sugar, and something else, they were very surprised and pleased. We joked that by the time I leave here I will be a Nicaraguan cook.
All of the women were very nice and happy. We laughed and talked about many different things including if I was married, had a a boyfriend, what I could cook, their reasons for growing soy, and their wealth of knowledge about food. There will be an opportunity for them to come to the church I attend to teach the women how to make different food with soy. They ar excited for that activity. I will probably be living in this community in the future for a week or so at a time. I am really excited to get to know them more.
After the pinata and distributing the sport´s equipment we ate. Our meal included gizo ( atype of soup), tortillas, rice, fried potatoes, a dish I don´t remember the name of, tamales, and a cold drink with soy milk, cinnamon, sugar, and pineapple. All of it had soy and was wonderful. AFter eating we bid them farewell and walked back to the truck.

village travels

For the past three days I have been traveling in my organization´s truck to the rural areas where the organization does the vast majority of their work. We typically leave between nine and ten in the morning and then return sometime between 2 and 5, depending on our work or traveling difficulties we encounter along the way. Luke´s Society works in 8 different communities. So far I have gotten to know four of them, three in particular.

Traveling into the rural areas is always a little bit of an adventure. We talk the paved highway to a town called la conquista and from there we take one of two different dirt roads that give access to the communities. These roads are in "good" condition during the summer or dry season and then get progresively worse during the rainy season. Right now, so I am told, they are in good condition. Good conditions means that the four-wheel drive truck can get the majority of the way to the communities and we only have to walk a little bit. This is really my first time that I have ever really understood the need for a four-wheel drive vehicle. There are huge holes and ravines all along the roads and before driving on them I would have thought it was impossible. But we make it. It will become increasingly more entertaining as rainy season progresses and access to the communities becomes increasingly more difficult. But my co-workers assure me that we always go and always find a way to go whether by motorcycle or walking.

The community work is really neat. I now understand their work better than before since I´ve seen it in practice and met the people who´ve received the organization´s help. So far I´ve assisted in helping to weigh and measure the height of the children so we can track their health and their nutrition levels, participated in a consultation with three women who receive loans, talked with several women who have received wells and clean water access due to the organization´s work, and seen various results of the loan projects. The people have lots of admiration for Luke´s Society´s work and they continually comment that since they began working there eight years ago conditions have improved.

I look forward to seeing more of their work and participating in it in the coming days and weeks.

I´m here!

Well I arrived safely in Managua last night without any problems. There were lots of tourists and missionary groups on my flight, so I felt slightly out of place being all alone. But at the same time in a wierd way being alone just got me more excited for the opportunities I will have to interact with the people of Nicaragua. After getting through immigration and getting my bags I saw a man and a boy holding a sign with my name on it on the other side of customs. The man was the director of Luke´s Society and the boy, his 9 year old son. After exchanging greetings and introductions they took me to the truck. We then drove the hour or so back to Jinotepe where I met the rest of his family - his wife and 16 year old daughter. We chatted for a while and then I went to my room to sleep and unpack a little. Their house is wonderful and they are very nice people. I have my own room and my own bathroom, which included a towel and soap.

I came into the office today for orientation. Their work is really neat, but a bit overwhelming with all of the details. Basically they work doing community development where they help to make people in the rural communities authorities and owners of their own futures and course of development. At the end of the day luke´s society basically facilitates, trains, and gives others the tools and knowledge that they need to improve their lives. Tomorrow I will follow different people around to see the actual work they do in the different communities. I am very excited about it all and I definitely feel this is the right place.

More to come!

Three Days and Counting!

As many of you know, I am a part of a special program at Wheaton College called HNGR (Human Needs and Global Resources).  This program involves living, working, and studying in a country in the Global South for six months.  On June 9th, I will be going to Jinotepe, Nicaragua, which is a city of roughly 45,000 people in the southwest part of the country.  There I will work with an organization called Luke's Society.  They are an international organization that does a combination of community development, health care, microfinance, and discipleship.  The particular branch in Jinotepe focuses primarily on community development and women's empowerment projects.  I am still not entirely certain specifically what I will be doing or what part I will play in their work.  I am sure I will find that out shortly.

In addition to interning at Luke's Society, I will also be working on an independent study.  My independent study is in the discipline of Latin American theology.  Although there are many different theologies in Latin America (Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, popular) all of them place an emphasis on how Christ came for the oppressed in order to liberate them as He ushered in the new Kingdom and the new creation.  I hope to look at how theology informs and affects the treatment and place of women within the Nicaraguan society.   

I leave in three days and I am very excited to go to another country, use/improve my Spanish, learn more about another culture, and see life and the world from a different perspective.  I know I will grow a lot, learn much, have many cultural mishaps, and funny stories to share along the way.  Stay tuned!