Same old grind...four hours of Spanish class in the morning. The most notable event during this morning was the near eruption of emotions while we were learning the subjunctive. In its most simple forms, the subjunctive is easy to use. We however, were doing some really complicated stuff, stuff difficult enough that Barney had to take a few seconds sometimes to think things over before giving us the nod of approval. Have any of you ever played Barnga? It’s a game where no one can talk, but one effectively has to ascertain the rules of a game through trial and error. Well, today’s lesson was a lot like that. We would fill in the blanks of sentences with conjugated verbs; more often than not, many different conjugations would make sense in the same blank. Except everything Barney said confused us more, so we kept firing counterexamples back, until everyone except Barney (who put up valiantly with our brattiness) got really frustrated. After lots of hard work, I think I’m beginning to be proficient in the subjunctive, which Barney informed me even native speakers still have trouble with. 

Afterwards, the professors took us to an archaeological museum, which happened to be right next to the chocolate museum. Inside were lots of exhibitions of ancient Nicaraguan pottery and ceramics. Lots of it was absolutely gorgeous, and I’m committed to the idea of buying a few pieces from Masaya before returning. Apparently the stuff in Masaya is much cheaper than the goods they sell in tourist-laden Granada. 

I’m enjoying my papaya now...here’s a picture: 

Marisol and me, proud parents of our papaya.

Delicious papaya

There’s absolutely no way I can describe how fragrant the papaya is here.

I also discovered this great little hole in wall called Tio Antonio’s. It’s an NGO that operates a coffeeshop and store that creates jobs for people who otherwise would not be employed, and seems pretty sustainable to me. They sell handwoven hammocks and backs, as well as coffee of all sorts, all at very good prices considering everything is hand crafted. Everything is overseen and operated by deaf-mutes. Here’s a picture of the hammock I want to get, parents: 

Later, Janvi and I went “window shopping” on la Calle Calsada, the street that caters towards tourists. There are some beautiful jewelry vendors that sell handmade wire jewelry.

Today’s orientation lesson in the afternoon focused on getting two ‘charlas,’ or chats, prepared. Each group is going to be focusing on providing consultation on the marketing of two items. Team Impacto (the team that I’m on) will be focusing on marketing water and solar products, specifically the Tulip water filter and two types of solar lamps. The tulip water filter has a hand pump, enabling a faster filtering time, can be reused over and over again (and the filter cleaned and reused), while also being able to provide for an entire family and is portable. Finally, it costs around 15 dollars. The solar lamps are around 6 to 25 dollars, depending on the size, which is pretty expensive for some families. It doesn’t use electricity however, is portable, and in a country where about half of people don’t have electricity and electricity goes out on a daily basis, the lamps are pretty useful even for city folk. The problem is that we have no idea on what the need really is for these items, no way of knowing the best way of marketing the products to consumers and no advice really to give the asesoras for marketing the goods as well. There are enough questions that we have to fill an entire summer worth of work, and we only have eight weeks here (going on seven). Wish us luck!

After getting back, I played a game of pick up basketball with a few friends and their homestay family. It got pretty intense, though it really turned out to be a two many game between the men. I played defense, which really meant getting out of the way of everyone. I got to meet Peter, the fifty something expat and lawyer turned student/entrepreneur who is also living with Sarah and Sophia. There are many interesting people that make it to Nicaragua. I returned home to a completely empty house; after about half an hour Racquel showed up, explaining that her niece was turning 14 and they had gone to her party. I spent the next two hours entertaining Horacio and Edgar at the birthday party. I’m seriously going to miss the two boys when I leave; they’re incredibly cute and saucy. Whenever they won a point in volleyball or basketball, they’d do a series of pretty inappropriate moves, while singing “el movimiento sexy.” The sight of two cherubic seven year olds gyrating can make anyone laugh. Needless to say, I had a good evening. The mosquitos are eating me alive however; they bite wherever I neglected to apply DEET. 

Goodnight!