Playa Maderas

AHHH! Soy enamorada con San Juan del Sur! I’ve always been something of a summer person, and I was a summer baby. Give me sun, sand and water and I’ll guarantee you that I will be happy. Today was one of our free days and we crawled out of bed to take a shuttle (read, the back of  a truck fenced in with iron bars) to a beach called Playa Maderas, about 20 minutes away from our hostel. The dirt roads were surprisingly good about 75% of the way, after which the ride became hell as we swerved and dunked our way over huge potholes down a hill. 

Casa Oro, the guys who took us out to the beach. 

The shuttle is organized by a company that rents surfboard and gives lessons, and so the people in the two shuttles with us were all surf bums. I’m not sure what this was for, but some of the guys were wearing green paste all over the upper top half of their face. I’m assuming it’s some kind of sun protectant, but why green and why does it have to be so visible? Maybe it helps with glare or reduces the sting of salt. Speaking of salt, my lips were completely chapped and stinging by the end of today due to the amount of time I spent in the ocean. 

One view of the beach. 

My first impressions of the beach: gorgeous. The sand was extremely soft and relatively white. There were also three independent restaurant joints there, populated by the usual raucous/tanned/hippy/chill surfer types, that served all kinds of typical beach-y food like tacos and burritos and fried chicken (which is always appropriate, anywhere, anyways). The water was the clearest I’d ever seen of an ocean. I could see all the way down to the perfectly smooth, sandy bottom even four or five feet deep of water. The aquamarine water was also the perfect temperature; not too cool but not warm at all, feeling like weightless ether over our burnt limbs.

There were also a number of dogs that kept stepping on us. I believe they belonged to the restaurant owners, and looked extremely well fed. However, they had no qualms about coming directly up to you, not even looking you in the eye, and stepping all over your towel and shoving their butts in your face. Force mandates force, so I spent a good half hour literally just pushing dogs away from me. At one point, I was pushing the head of one dog who stubbornly kept trying to walk forward right into my face. 

The dogs

Although surf lessons were offered, I decided against taking the lessons because a) they were 15 dollars, which is expensive (I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back to the US, because I’ll be shocked at the prices of everything) b) I really don’t think you can learn something as difficult as surfing in one hour and c) there were so many surfers there that I probably would have made a fool of myself. However, I did cave in and rent a boogie board, which was one of the best decisions of my life! I spent a solid three or so hours just floating in the azure ocean with the sun on my back, catching waves and body surfing them to shore. At first, I had absolutely no idea as to what I was doing, but some nice surfer folk taught me some tips and what to look for in a wave, and by the end of our day at Playa Maderas, I was spending most of my time paddling on my stomach and body surfing. At one point, I paddled out so far that there weren’t even any surfers around me, though I only ended up so far out because I had taken a short nap on my board and had drifted farther and farther out. Catching a wave is exhilarating. You have to wait, sometimes for tens of minutes, in the right place, judging where the waves will break and finding the "A" of the wave where the force is the strongest. Then you have to start paddling like crazy at the right moment, catching the crest of the wave but not getting sucked into it. All of a sudden, if you do these things correctly, there's a huge surge of speed that the wave gives to you and you're lifted up four or five feet by the wave. At this point, I often couldn't see due to the spray, so I held on desperately as my board rocked this way and that and trying to steer the board to shore. I think I may try surfing tomorrow. 

The beach also had spectacular views, some of which I captured on camera. The beach is surrounded by cliffs of shale or something, which had fallen in huge, diagonal slabs as if sheets of it had slipped millions of years ago. Amount the rocks were crabs, hermit crabs, and snails. Speaking of crabs, the forest around the beach has tons of these black, red and yellow crabs, vividly colored, that remind me of huge spiders. They don’t seem to need water, but burrow amount the roots of the tree. Strange!

The shale (??)

Leaving my mark.. 

The beach during sunset!

Now I’m exhausted and probably going to be sore/a little burnt tomorrow. At least I don’t look like the guys, who laid out way more than the girls surprisingly, and are now a bright shade of scarlet. Dinner soon! 

Success!!

All of a sudden, it’s begun raining. While I was in the water, I did observe a thick mass of dark clouds that had blotted out the sun, but I didn’t think there would be a storm. In the span of twenty minutes, it’s begun pouring. I think I’ve seen the heaviest rain here in Nicaragua, where storms in the wet season begin out of nowhere and end ten minutes later. The rain is coming down so hard that it sounds like people are drum rolling on the roof. To add to the cacophony, there seem to be a host of tropical birds that they keep in the hostel who were squawking by the time I began my shower, but now are wailing and shrieking like banshees. Whereas the beach was littered with street vendors and tourists before, there’s virtually no one on the roads anymore, a picture of desolation and abandon. 

In about 45 minutes, we’ll be giving the workshop on the power of ideas, entrepreneurship, cost-benefit analysis, and goal setting/planning. As I was making my way back to the hotel from the beach, I spotted Jamie, the teacher who has been spearheading the whole effort to get us here, riding a bicycle with a little boy perched on the handlebars. Her eyes darted to my face and then away in a split second, so I’m almost sure she recognized me. I hope she doesn’t get the wrong impression - that we’ve been chilling all day only two hours before the actual presentation. 

The swim however, was amazing, barring the fact that the sun ducked behind the clouds permanently only about ten minutes in. Our hostel is right on the beach, in a great central location. From our bedroom window and the perpetually open doors of the main space one can see the beach and the bay. All I needed to do was put on a bathing suit and hop my way over the fifty feet to the beach. The water was the warmest I had ever seen 

I find it amazing how much work here is done by hand. In the US, we’re used to, and oblivious to the fact that, a lot of work being done by machines, as part of a mechanized, standardized process. Right outside the hostel, I watched men paint by hand yellow lines on the side of the road, whereas in the US, we have machines that paint out a perfectly straight line at who knows how many feet per minute. Here, these guys were doing it by hand and some string. The roads are often paid with individually laid tile and the grass mowed with machetes, by hand. Then again, that’s not to say that Nicaraguans are extremely on top of everything; they’ll put in the hard work and sweat to get what is needed done (like cutting the grass, laying roads) but what ain’t broke, they feel perfectly complacent to leave in its natural state. 

Anyways, we’ve been working all day on our workshop and I’m fairly confident it went amazingly well. Although we kind of halfheartedly practiced (probably because we were so sick of saying the same things over and over again) when it came to the final delivery, we kicked ass. I think we sounded better than the script (I might be kidding myself there, but we definitely have improved our Spanish by a mile since coming to Nicaragua). Unfortunately only about 15 people showed up for the workshop because it got rained out. The rain (especially the kind I described above) is the equivalent of a Nicaraguan snowday; people generally stay in, because one can get sick, because one will get wet and then sick, etc. Optimistically then, we had good turnout considering the circumstances. 

The feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive as well. We ended the workshop with a poster of a vase of flowers, with the words “miremos florecer nuestros sueños” (let’s watch our dreams blossom”) and everyone filled out a sheet of paper with a goal/dream, folded it in the shape of a flower, and stuck it on the poster. The poster looked way better than I expected, and although the workshop was for adults, the students all seemed receptive to the idea. Jamie, the teacher, is keeping it behind her desk. We also had a hilarious skit between two of our group in which, genders switched in the skit, a man tries to ask a girl on a date as an example of goal setting and planning. Peter went all out, stuffing paper up his shirt and saying ridiculous things. The audience ate it up, oftentimes roaring with silent laughter. 

To celebrate, we went out to Iguana’s, which seems like the happening place to be on the beachfront. Iguana’s has two floors, the top one of which is the largest and functions as a eating space, bar and dance floor. I finally got my craved after chicken fingers and danced the night away to a surprisingly number of American songs that were blasted on speakers all around the top floor. After six or so hours of sleep, it was off to Playa Maderas the next day!

Some pictures of San Juan del Sur

Our room...the views are magnificent (see below)

The view from our shared balcony. When I wake up I can hear the sound of waves and see palm trees. 

San Juan del Sur welcomes you!

San Juan del Sur....and Feliz Cumpleaños to myself!

We're here in San Juan del Sur! I absolutely love this place...it's surfer's paradise. Our hotel (Hotel Estrella) is RIGHT on the beach and surrounded by blocks upon blocks of small, low-key taco places, sunglass hawkers, surf clothes shops, etc. Everything seems to be covered with a thatched roof and flanked by palm trees.

The hotel is very nice, especially compared to the conditions in which we had been living for the last three days. As much as I loved Carolina and her cooking, I'm not sure why we didn't just come here first since there's wifi everywhere and we could have gotten work done so much quicker. I suppose they wanted us to experience the wonder that is Ometepe. The hotel has an American consignment shop attached and is very spacious and airy. We had to climb this rickety wooden staircase to get to your adjacent rooms, which each of their own window and balcony facing the beach. I love the colors and the atmosphere. Just like the hostels we stayed in Leon and Matagalpa, there are a ton of very grungy looking foreigners, mostly surf bums who are here for the waves in San Juan del Sur. 

Today’s also my birthday! I actually dislike birthdays, but enjoy the days leading up to them. I dislike the actual day of my birthday because there’s so much pressure and expectation for your day to be amazing and for the people around you to give you everything you want, but you don’t even know what you want. Whereas in the days leading up, the expectation and anticipation are all there, but they haven’t been disappointed yet. I’d rather live every day like it’s my birthday instead of orchestrating the perfect day once a year. 

The famous bay of San Juan del Sur reminds me a bit of Capri and hotels we stayed in at Sicily, Italy. Here are some pictures; while you can see the boats, the pictures don’t give an accurate sense of how many surf bums are actually here. 

Ojo de Agua

Today was completely exhausting. We took a whole day tour of Ometepe Island, kayaking for three hours on Lake Nicaragua and then driving to the natural pools called Ojo de Agua. The kayaking was frustrating at first. Something wrong with my paddle and my steering kept causing me to turn the opposite way in which I desired, though I eventually fixed the problem and ended up catching up to everyone else. Surprisingly, my arms didn't fall off, but I did end up pretty sore the next day.

The lake is big enough that I constantly forget it's not an ocean. On each side I was flanked by one of Ometepe's volcanoes, which were both partially obscured by fluffy white clouds around their craters. Although we didn't have great weather, I almost didn't mind because the lake was absolutely gorgeous in the rain. At first, it started to drizzle a little, a few drops here and there. Then it began thundering - an awesome sound, coming from no where as you float, minuscule, on the nearly flat surface of the lake. And after that, it began POURING while I kayaked, carving out chunks of water rhythmically. The experience was a cross between a Notebook-Castaways moment, if you know what I mean. I'm not sure I do anyways. 

A beautiful sunset on the shores of Lake Nicaragua

After crossing a small part of the lake, we ended up in a small river that reminded me a lot of the Everglades. At points, the water was so shallow that my paddle would hit the soft mud with every stroke and I'd flick myself with dirty water. The dirt was incredibly soft and fine, perhaps due to a lot of decomposing vegetation. Every few meters there were beautiful white herons and different types of birds that regarded us calmly with black, beady eyes. Once, instead of birds, we found silently staring locals who were fishing. We had some problems with navigating the narrow and shallow river, often ramming one another or getting tangled in water cabbages that cover the surface of the river in all directions. Unfortunately, the water cabbages also prevented us from going further down the river because the recent rains had caused them to proliferate them so much that we couldn't get through. 

Volcano Maderas.

The view from my kayak

We ate lunch at Santo Domingo, the only beach with white sand on the island. The rest have black sand due to the volcanic sediment from the two volcanoes. There are a few restaurants along the road, and we picked a small one to get faster service and cheaper food. I got "breaded chicken," but I got a huge chunk of charred, fried chicken that was suspiciously tender until I realized that it was almost completely raw in the middle. Perhaps that's why I felt a little under the weather the next day. 

Next, we drove to Ojo de Agua, which did not meet expectations. Of course, it was beautiful and very calm. Surprisingly, there were only thirty or so people lounging around what is supposed to be the most popular tourist spot on Ometepe. The pools were completely, crystalline clear, but the floor was comprised of dirt. This is nightmarish for someone (aka me) who is physically repulsed by feet covered in dirt. I had to kept my flip flops on the entire time and tip toe around the pool. The water was freezing and full of little minnows, which was a lovely touch. However, the floor, full of sand, looked unappetizing for someone with a phobia of getting your feet dirty. Furthermore, there were a ton of sand-filled trashbags on the floor...or at least I think they were filled with sand. 

When I got back, I showered (a bucket-bath, once again) and discovered the pulperia next door sold ice cream that contained an odd fruit that was like a cross between an apple, pear and cherry. To top off the night, I straightened Dayanara's hair after she told me that she wanted to be a stylist and wanted straight hair. Like Suge, Dayanara kept touching my hair over and over. Goodnight! We'll be leaving tomorrow for San Juan del Sur..

I’m covered in sweat right now and loving it. One, because this means that the mosquitos won’t be able to get at me as easily. Two, because it means that I’ve been busy today. Then again, it’s hot enough here on this volcanic island to make anyone sweat buckets after only a few minutes in the sun. 

Today, we woke up a bit earlier to help the mujeres with their clean up campaign at 8. Like all Nicaraguan things however, this campaign, which was supposed to start at 8 only began at 8:30. We were given the menial task of picking up garbage on the side of the road, since we had to leave at 9 and couldn’t do anything else useful. We were given rubber gloves to wear, but they were tiny and fit only me and another girl. The poor guys tried to shove their hands into the gloves, often either breaking them or ending up with hands so tightly squeezed together it looked they had horrible arthritis and webbed fingers at the same time. I was shocked at the amount of trash hidden amidst the grass on the side of the road. There really is no social norm for throwing your trash in a trash basket especially when traveling. At bus stations, there are squares of plastic waste when the bus leaves because people will throw trash out of the bus windows while waiting and when the bus leaves only an outline made of trash remains. Degrading plastic bags and wrappers littered the side of the road. Only after about 30 meters of road, we had collected an entire sack of garbage. I can only imagine what cleaning up the entire town would require.

Afterwards, we went to the house of a home stay mother who had graciously offered her house up for us to work in due to the fact that the only internet cafe here is not working (hence the lack of posts recently). She had set up a wonderful table underneath this huge tree which shielded us from the sun. Every hour or so she would come over with a new fruity surprise, such as freshly cut coconut which we slurped up and then cracked open to eat the flesh. The coconut here is much tangier than the coconuts we had on the isletas in Granada and their flesh much, much harder. She also brought out fresh mangos from their mango tree; there is no fruit as messy to eat as a mango when you don’t have a knife. One ends up with fibers stuck in all the cracks between your teeth, but the mango is totally worth the mess and discomfort because I guarantee it will be delicious. Mangos and papayas and guayavas are among my favorite fruits here so far. 

The playground next to my house, with a less than ordinary view.

We’re currently preparing a workshop for Barrio La Planta, a non profit which provides completely free education in one of the poorest barrios in San Juan del Sur, where a severe case of gentrification is occurring. I’ve already explained the mission of Barrio La Planta extensively, but I’ll summarize here again very quickly. Decrying the traditional methods of strict, rote memorization and the half day provided by Nicaraguan schools here, Barrio La Planta offers creative, Montesori-based teaching and also teaches English, among other skills that are aimed at instilling the confidence and skills necessary for local Nicaraguans to start their own businesses and capture the gains made in tourism in San Juan del Sur. We’re going to be essentially motivational speakers. The four deliverables we’re aiming at achieving are social entrepreneurship, the power of ideas, FODA analysis (it’s essentially cost-benefit analysis) and goal making and achievement. The other group will take up our mantle next week and deliver a workshop on leadership and confidence and the like. The work is at once fun and difficult, because there’s not much structure that has been given to us. We were essentially given four words and told to make a two hour long workshop in Spanish based on delivering these four lessons. We’ll more than manage however. 

Carolina is wonderful. She’s our home stay mother and makes the best gallo pinto I’ve ever had. Every meal has been delicious, albeit simple. This morning was fried eggs and gallo pinto, along with a vividly hued juice made from dragon fruit. For lunch it was tender BBQ beef, rice and tostones. And for dinner we had more gallo pinto and cheese (guajara, my favorite - not sure if I spelled it correctly). While we eat the chickens try to escape the courtyard and eat the food in the kitchen. No matter how many times I chase them back, they try to break in like clockwork.

Carolina!

The mosquitos are vicious here. I woke up last night intermittently because my legs were so itchy. I thought it was the sheets and the dirt that mysteriously appears on my sheets all the time. The dirt I figured out comes from the ceiling and collects at the end of my bed everyday. The itchiness was from the forty or so small bug bites that I accumulated on my legs. To my knowledge, I’m the only person who has gotten bitten so many times and I’ve negotiated a mosquito net to be put over my bed. 

Hola como esta?

- Dayanara  Guadamus

That message was from the small girl who lives with Carolina; she’s the absolute cutest and extremely vivacious and outgoing. She ran up to us to greet us with a huge hug and run even though she’s only known us for a day. We spent the evening in the central park which is conveniently located right next to our house and played basketball, football (soccer), tag, and other games. Jade and I, the other girl who is staying with us, even played some pick up basketball with some of the local people. Later, the four guys also joined in and kicked us girls out. We made out by playing our own games. It’s amazing how kind and open people here are to foreigners. I’m working on creating a short profile for Carolina and her family so that we can include them in homestay websites to attract more people to stay here and thus earn them some extra income. Dayanara wants to say that we enjoyed ourselves a lot in the park. I’m going to miss her when we leave. On a happier note, only one more day until my birthday!!!!

Tomorrow we’re going to take a tour of the river and also of the Ojo de Agua, a wonderful pool like thing on the main part of Ometepe. That also means waking up a bit earlier, around six. Goodnight!

Today was our travel day; it was off to Ometepe, one of UNESCO’s natural wonders of the world. Ometepe is the largest island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, I believe. I’m not sure, but that would make the most sense. At the same time, I should really look at a map since I’m woefully ignorant of the geography of a country in which I’ve spent the last five weeks. Speaking of five weeks, it’s been amazing how fast the time has gone by. I remember writing the first two weeks in Granada how slowly time seemed to be passing, especially the days, and how it felt like we had been in Nicaragua for a much longer time. Now I’m writing at the beginning of our sixth week here in Nicaragua, with only two more weeks after this one to go. I’m already dreading the end of the program, while simultaneously looking forward to going home. Perhaps its the cognitive dissonance that’s giving me this headache right now. 

Ometepe, besides being the largest island in Nicaragua, is also volcanic, home to two active volcanoes - Concepción and Maderas. There reason for its size its entirely due to the regular activity of these volcanoes. We left Granada around 9:30, taking a van to the ferry, a rusted two story thing in which we sat on second deck, like steerage. Or at least, that’s what it seemed like to me. To keep us entertained, a TV blasting some telenovela was installed in the wall. I find it extremely entertaining to figure our telenovelas and their predictable, but extremely complicated plots. First, my approach is to figure out the good guys and the bad guys. Since telenovelas are almost simplistically arranged around the fundamental premise of good and evil, this is a good first step. Second, figure out the relationships among the many, many characters. This is more difficult, because there are usually a large number of story lines and telenovelas tend to skip from story to story every few seconds. Also, all the characters tend to be related to someone, somehow. Taking into account the number of characters, for every character to have a connection with another means that if one were to map out the relationships, one would end up with a criss-crossed diagram. For example, a character might the girlfriend of someone, who happens to be the son of a family related to that random business man and his family depicted a few minutes ago, who also happens to be unknowingly financing the kidnapping and murder of said girl. 

The ferry was pretty fun, nothing like the ferry to Sicily though. The lake in Nicaragua harbors a huge number of these curious, white insects that look like mosquitos but for the most part seem entirely harmless and useless. I’m not even sure on what they feed. When we took our lake tour, if we picked up speed, we’d be buffeted by swarms of these white specks. The ferry had a number of interesting passengers, with many bringing cargo with them. I was fascinated by a human supply chain taking place right behind me, with one guy unloading and tossing the goods down to another guy in a hypnotically rhythmic fashion. 

The human assembly line.

Ometepe emerged as if out of a dream. Like the Laguna de Apollo, it seemed to belong to another dimension. For all the LOST fans out there, I had to admit that the island looked a lot like the fabled island from said TV show. It was rather long, fringed by trees and vegetation that hid the sparse infrastructure from view. Towering above the entire island, as if it was sucking the entire island up into one point, and ringed by fluffy white clouds, was Concepción, with Maderas hidden from view behind it. Ometepe is very stringently protected environmentally and its residents seem very proud of its diverse flora and fauna. 

Ometepe island!

Upon departing, we were welcomed by a small dock that led up to the small town of Moyogalpa which is the most populous point we’ll be staying next to for the upcoming three days. There are many towns and cities that end in -galpa and -tepe and -dega here. I asked my homestay mom here in Ometepe the reason behind the similar endings, and she told me they are due to the original indigenous settlements that were there. 

The ferry.

Moyogalpa is really small, even though its one of the larger towns on Ometepe, even getting one of those bigger black dots to mark its geographic location on the huge map at the tourism office. Because Wednesday we have an entire free day, we made a tour to drive to a bio reserve and kayak along a river right in the middle of Ometepe. Afterwards, we’ll get driven to Ojo de Agua, the most popular location on the island. Ojo de Agua is a collection of pristine pools in the middle of the forest. It looks magical, and I’m looking forward to the tour. My only regret is only having a day to explore the many magical and wonderful things Ometepe has to offer, despite its tiny size. 

We drove out for about ten minutes to a small barrio connected to Moyogalpa, named Los Ángeles, population 1,100, according to Caroline, my home stay mother. There, we were welcomed very warmly by the fourteen amazing women of an anti-violence group. I have beens struck by the number of youth groups and neighborhood organizations we’ve encountered in these rural towns. We even worked with a few (Ruido Verde and the women’s cooperative in San Ramón). The political and civic engagement spirit is high, and Nicaragua also happens to be one of the more liberal countries in Central America, as I’ve picked up from numerous conversations. It has been debating legislation that would legalize gay marriage for the entire country; just being able to have that debate is huge in a region that is heavily catholic. The women’s movement is also extremely strong here; I suppose the war and subsequent revolution shook up social structure for good and worse, allowing women to carve a stronger position in society for themselves. Consequently, I see lots of signs for pro-women’s rights campaigns, decrying domestic and sexual abuse and harassment, etc. Also, women’s care and maternal health is relatively higher in quality than in Nicaragua’s surrounding countries or others of similar development. 

This particular organization seemed very involved, confident and able, as well as connected to the entire community. Through just these 14 women, they’ve gone to schools and towns all over the island, which albeit small, is a lot for just 14 women. They educate about anti-violence, of respect for humans, and promoting education and awareness about women’s care and childbirth. Although they said they were a little hesitant at first of starting the organization, they now seem to be very able and have arranged with the municipal government an ecological clean up day tomorrow, for which we spontaneously offered our services, where all the trash and litter will be collected and turned over to the government of Ometepe for further treatment. Although recycling isn’t available here, the women are also working on that. 

The women also arranged the cutest dinner for us, in the backyard of someone’s house. They had  blown up balloons and tied to the ceiling, as well as arranged flowers, including the musa - Nicaragua’s national flower that smells amazing - in small vases. They told us that at their last meeting they had decided it was best to all eat together, which they were right about. We exchanged conversation and laughs, while I got eaten alive by mosquitos. We also met Faviola, a Jamaican medical student who actually just finished her first year at Yale Medical School, which meant she knew exactly where Bethany, Connecticut was!! She’s interested in natural medicine, and after a conference on Chinese medicines, she got in touch with a local American doctor here and is now doing an epidemiological type study here on whether guayava syrup successfully treats a common parasitic condition here. What that entails is collecting the stool samples of upwards of a hundred people a day. I sense that she has an interesting background, because she said she had learned her spanish as a community organizer in the Bronx: not sure how she ended up there after Jamaica. 

The gazebo the women set up for us

Carolina has a beautiful house all painted with butterflies. I think that’s what all the women in this organization do, since the three houses that I saw that belong to them are all white with beautifully painted butterflies. Inside, the conditions are pretty poor however. It’s all concrete and faded tile, along with a wide open dirt background where there is a horse, two dogs, a number of chickens, and piles of wood and scrap metal. We have the use of the only fan, which makes me feel a little guilty. Carolina, along with her youngest son Jerry, Dianara, and her grandchild Jeremy live here, as far as I can tell. There are most likely other family members who live here who I haven’t seen yet. There’s another house connected directly to Carolina’s house, which indicates to me another family. 

Our house!

The water doesn’t work all the time here, so for today we went without running water. I took my first bucket bath in the dark bathroom! Surprisingly, I liked it and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. We have a huge plastic tub of water and a smaller pail we use to scoop water and pour all over ourselves. At the end of my bath, I had only used a small fraction of the water in the bath and felt pretty clean, so I’m going to have to rate the bath pretty highly for efficiency and effectiveness. 

Finally, we’re also right next to the central park, where there are a few awesome sets of swings and a basketball court. It turns out I throw a basketball like I’m setting a ball in volleyball, but after only a few minutes of excellent couching on the part of Jerren, I was flicking my wrists like a pro. As I was swinging, I could hear the old men behind me discussing the “chinita,” prompting me to call them out on it by very deliberately greeting them. Awkward. We also managed to start a huge pick up game of soccer with the local kids, so that was a success. I sense a repeat for tomorrow night. 

It’s up and out at 6 AM tomorrow for the big clean up campaign tomorrow! 

Fishing

Last night we all went to Greg’s house, since his home stay father owns a bunch of properties, including a hostel which he rents out to people. Two people got a massive piñata, two people baked a magnificent chocolate cake, and the rest brought refreshments for a group bonding session and the celebration of my birthday and Brian’s. We slept over in the empty beds in the hostel, having rented the place out for the night, but got woken up around 8 AM by an extremely loud marching band, comprised of seemingly an entire school of kids banging on drums and accompanied by honking cars. I woke up extremely disoriented and confused.

After returning home for a quick shower, I had an excellent brunch at Hotel Coco. Their french toast and pancakes are excellent. I took a full two hours to digest the food, after which it was time to meet the group on the Calsada for the “deep sea fishing tour” we had signed up for. Well, it wasn’t exactly deep sea fishing, as we took a small boat very similar to the one last time (though without music, sadly) around the isletas in Lake Nicaragua. We stopped by the same family we did on the last tour, who gave us yet again fresh coconuts to drink from. Afterwards, they constructed rudimentary fishing rods for us and carted us off to some random, small island where we stood for about two hours trying to catch fish. Some were either really good at fishing or had excellent luck, netting two within the span of minutes. I, sadly, did not catch any fish at all, but instead sweated off all my sunscreen and managed to lose all my crabs. We used little baby crabs as bait. A native of the village would break off all its legs and its top shell, then impale the remains of the poor crab on the hook. Most of the time, voracious minnows would take quick bites of the crab, ripping off the flesh without being impaled on the hook. All together, the team netted eight fish (very small, of course) which the family then cooked for us. Clearly, they had many extra fish in the back of the kitchen, because all 12 of us were served. 

We also had the chance to go swimming in the lake this time. I was informed rather proudly that the water is very clean in the lake, so no worries about weird creatures of bacteria entering my body. However, since I was the first one in the water, I didn’t know exactly how deep the water was. I plopped rather gently, I thought, into the water, but not gently enough to escape the unforgiving rocks two feet under the surface. Only about twenty five feet out did the rocks stop, with the ground plunging so deep that I couldn’t touch it. The water was amazing: perfectly cool but still rather warm. 

To end the day, I sampled some amazing mango bread (I’m determined now to find the recipe) at a ridiculously overpriced restaurant. The bread was delicious, and it inspired me to make a bucket list for all the things I want to do the last week I’m in Granada. I’ll keep adding to it if I think of anything new.

Granada Bucket List: 

• Have brunch at the waffle house off of the Parque Central
• Go swimming at Hotel Granada again
• Buy a guayava juice at Nectar
• Have a mango smoothie at Cafe Sonrisa
• Go to Cafe Sonrisa in general
• Go to Garden Cafe
• Play volleyball and soccer with Edgar and Horacio
• Splurge on a really nice dinner
• Buy another papaya
• Explore the mercado some more
• Say hi to Nicaragua Mia, my former Spanish school
• Rent an island in Lake Nicaragua (seriously - it will be done)
• Go to the spa again
• But a chocobanano and ice cream at Lotti’s every day

Wisconsinopoly

I played “Wisconsinopoly” with Horacio and Edgard for a good hour last night. The situation was funny in a number of ways. First, it was incredibly cute watching them add the die together, as they’re still learning their addition and multiplication rules (I was quizzing them the day before). Also, they have little sense of strategy, buying everything they land on until Horacio was left with only a dollar and I had to teach him how to mortgage his properties. 

The second was that the game wasn’t just regular Monopoly, it was Wisconsinopoly, clearly a gift from a previous home stay guest who had come from the University of Wisconsin. In place of the utilities were properties called things like “Fraternity and Sorority Row” which Horacio an Edgard unwittingly snapped up. The cultural gap between the two boys and the game they were playing - they had no idea what they were buying or what the names meant - was hilarious. 

The family also got a new dog, named Rocco, who is this adorable but quite ferocious labrador pup. Actually, it’s Maria’s, a cousin, but she left the pup at our house to take care of it. Voltio is very affectionately, surprisingly, but sometimes is overly caring and overbearing, causing Rocco to snap at him and make frighteningly loud growling noises. Rocco just kind of wanders around the house, even though he’s all of eight inches, making it difficult to avoid stepping on him. He’s too small to clear the gap between the difference in height between two floors, so he whimpers until someone can pick him up. I feel terrible that I accidentally kicked him in the dark...oh well. Horacio kind of manhandles the poor puppy anyways.

We also went to “Miss Nicaragua,” where the finalists from each of the cities paraded their stuff in front of a small crowd at Encuentros. Very strange occasion, and it attracted very strange people. I’ll leave it at that.

"Mercadotecnia"

Today was a fairly relaxing day. We had a training the morning with Alcance Nicaragua, a non profit that’s run by local Nicaraguans and aims at providing stoves to rural Nicaraguans. The stoves are rather large and have a chimney, not meant for people who truly can’t afford stoves. For those neighborhoods, Brian and Nancy’s stoves might fill the payment gap better. The stoves are built from local materials and only the design is given to customers, who construct the stoves themselves in their house. Hence, the stoves are not moveable. Alcance Nicaragua then comes in and provides the uniquely designed combustion box that allows people to use fuel more efficiently and safely, while also reducing hugely the amount of smoke emitted and breathed in due to the chimney that they install. According to Brian and Nancy, 2 million women and children die per year from illnesses contracted from cooking smoke, and the gases emitted from stoves account for more global warming than automobiles. Holy smokes.

The training went a little over time, but overall it went well. I was touched when everyone at the end began asking questions of their own initiative (always an excellent sign), and voluntarily offered their opinions on the training. They seemed truly grateful for the information provided, saying that the business training really had helped them and codified information they were only employing out of intuition, but now had a solid grasp on. Within the presentation, we also included extensive information on payment plans, such as microcredit and microfinance, as well as the MCM (which I know now in Spanish is “microconsignación”). Other people also went over business analysis and cost benefit analysis, effectively. 

A skit done with all the clients

Now I’m sitting in Café Sonreisas, or Cafe Smiles, which is entirely run by deaf-mutes. The cafe also sells hammocks and bags, the latter of which I have bought and might have included in my blog. All proceeds go back into the Cafe to provide employment and empowerment for people who otherwise would not be able to fund their own livelihoods. I much prefer this to Euro Cafe. It’s less crowded, prettier, cooler in temperature, and there aren’t creepy people who keep trying to talk to me. The wait staff is also super friendly and helpful, and I get to attempt to learn the sign language painted on the walls. 

The "magic area of quiet, colorful and young atmosphere" of Cafe Sonreisa. Their grammar might not be great but the idea for the cafe is.

Found this gem

Probably two of the chillest clients we've worked with so far...as one compañero called of them: "Rasta man with a business plan" 

I’m back from a great and relaxing day. Last night’s chopstick teachings went well. I found myself floundering when it came to iterating the directions for how to use a chopstick in Spanish and had to resort to charades, effectively. Still, Maria José, who was the most excited to learn how to use chopsticks and had been the original pusher and mover behind my move to get chopsticks, learned extremely quickly, exclaiming “que bonito” over and over as I demonstrated how to use the chopsticks and especially after she learned how to use them rudimentarily. Edgard was adorable. His chubby little face alternated between complete concentration and despair. His little hands were a bit too small to hold  both the chopsticks and he insisted on maintaining the rigid clasp on the two sticks. Every now and again he would wail “no puedo!” to which I would repeat “Si, se puede,” over and over again. I took a few pictures of the camera shy Horacio and Edgard in action. I loved seeing the cultural exchange going on!

Horacio hiding under the able from the camera

Left to rightL Maria José and Edgard.

Apparently this morning Edgard ate breakfast completely with chopsticks, inspired by my insistence that he only needed practice to become proficient in the use of palíos. Although he was late for school, Edgard managed to consume everything with two sticks, which made me proud. That kid has got intelligence, discipline, perseverance, and most of all, charm. I know he’ll be successful at whatever he does, especially with the help of his respectable mother, Racquel, who strikes me as a very capable business woman with her priorities in the right place. For example, Nicaraguan school children who attend public school are only in class for half a day; the focus on education simply isn’t what it is here in the states. Many of our campaigns are held in rural school houses due to their central location, but these school houses are strictly one room things where children of all six grades are taught by one teacher, all at once. Horacio attends a public school, I believe, because he comes home every day at around noon when I’m back for lunch. Edgard, Racquel’s son, attends a private school which goes longer and also offers for an additional fee lessons in music, cooking, sports, etc. If one doesn’t have the resources to send one’s children to a better school however, the education system here doesn’t strike me as particularly good. Racquel believes in education and so has invested in a better school for Edgard. 

This morning we met to go over our projects and also met with Jamie, a wonderfully effusive petit woman who is a full time teacher at a non-profit school called Barrio La Planta, named after the poorest neighborhood in San Juan del Sur, where we’ll be staying next week (during my birthday no less!). Jamie explained to us, while children screamed in the floor below (every day at around 10 AM a swarm of around 20 children are set loose in the first floor of the Palacio for recess; they routinely sound like they’re being murdered, they are so loud, and their shrieks echo in the big, empty space). Barrio La Planta provides free education that emphasizes creativity and originality as well as ownership, over the rote memorization and strict curriculum provided in Nicaraguan public schools. Additionally, it’s half day I believe, so children go there after their normal school day is done. Finally, Barrio La Planta is aimed at providing an education that will enable a better life for its students. 

A severe case of gentrification is going on San Juan del Sur, which has became a major tourist and vacation spot in the last ten or fifteen years. However, foreigners, rather than natives, are the ones opening up the businesses like restaurants, bars and tour groups that are netting out all the profits and employing locals at relatively low wages. Simultaneously, the traditional jobs that existed and were passed on through family generations are being lost. While it is not necessarily a bad thing for a Nicaraguan to work as a restaurant worker, it is bad that Nicaraguans don’t have the ability to open up their own business or rise to the top of the ranks, if they so wished. What’s keeping them back is a combination of language skills (English: why has English become so dominant in the world?) and a lack of hutzpah, as Jamie put it. Nicaraguans simply aren’t accustomed to believing that one person can change the world, to have the confidence to embark on a new venture by themselves, to believe that they have the ability to do something novel. That’s why the school’s teaching method and its emphasis on English language are so great. 

I came away feeling very inspired that such a passionate person had decided to dedicate her life to living as a gringa in Nicaragua (Jamie is originally from Philadelphia and spoke with a very New York accent, strangely) and genuinely seemed happy. That’s something common between all development workers here, or people who work in development here on the side; they all emphasize happiness as being independent of material wealth, stressing personal relationships and helping people as their source of spiritual fulfillment. And they’re all completely generous, open, warm people to be around.

Two such people were Brian and Nancy, an older couple from Oregon who spend half the year in Nicaragua. After serving in the Mexican Peace Corp, they were looking to do more development work after they retired. That’s the other cool part; I have no idea what Brian and Nancy did in their past lives, but even after retiring, they’ve maintained a strong sense of purpose and passion, instead of spending their time in the complacent relaxation of retirement. Through some chance encounters, they ended up purchasing an absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece of property right next to the Laguna de Apoyo, a lake of sorts surrounded by huge hills. The property directly overlooks the lake and is perched on top of one of the hills. The lake is large enough that it fills the entire panorama of the view from the house, which contains an open courtyard facing the lake and an infinity pool in which one can relax while looking at the view. The laguna has a magical feeling, because it’s hard to judge distances when something is so vast, so it just floats in some mystical fourth dimension, connected but not really part of the world in which we inhabit. I’m looking forward to staying in Masaya with our homestay families (families that live the way many of the poor in Nicaragua live) and swimming in the laguna. 

The pool overlooking the laguna.

The estufa de apoyo!

The laguna de apoyo...pictures don't do it justice.

Laguna de Apoyo...

The back of their house

Brian and Nancy are dedicated to selling these estufas de apoyo (stoves made in Apoyo) that are made of local materials. The shell is spun by a local potter, the pumice that insulates the stove is from local volcanoes, the stoves are assembled locally, and the design came about as a collaborative effort between Brian, Nancy, and the townspeople. After two years of selling, Brian and Nancy have sold upwards of 500 stoves, which is excellent considering the difficulty of overcoming cultural barriers. For example: despite listing the economic benefits (the stoves pays for itself in a mere six weeks), health (it emits almost no smoke, compared to the fire pits - they are literally holes in the ground) and time (it cooks things in half the time) people are still extremely distrustful of the stoves. One is the culture; Nicaraguans are inherently distrustful. The other is that they are used to Gringos giving them the things they need, instead of having pay for things. How do you convince people to pay for stoves when they can construct their own (albeit harmful, inefficient and dangerous) stoves for free? They’re used to using this stove for generations and generations and this new stove is not only smaller, but also strange looking; will it support my pans? People simply don’t believe what we tell them. Lots of behavioral economics comes into play when you’re trying to get people to buy things, especially from a foreign non profit. 

The model that Brian and Nancy have used primarily to disseminate the stoves resembles very closely the MCM. They identify, through luck and chance, individuals who need the stove and perhaps are community leaders. They either give them a model or sell them one to use as a prototype. Then, if the people like the stove, as they always do, they are given the opportunity to sell the stoves out of their house to their friends and neighbors, collecting a small commission on the sale of each stove. Only through personal relations does the stove get sold. Brian and Nancy also have great contacts and relationships they’ve been slowly building within the community, supporting two schools and the local baseball team, and have capitalized on those by raising awareness of the stove through them. 

We were all struck by how awesome Brian and Nancy were. They not only had a house straight from paradise (all of us were kind of in shock when we stepped out of the van), but they also had such a great job and cause they were dedicated to and spent their energy fulfilling, and had also surrounded themselves with intelligent, caring local employees as well. They were the definition of a perfect balance of help and service, charity and development, etc. 

After getting back from that inspiration trip, a few of us decided to climb the tower of La Merced, the burned old church that I pass everyday on my way home. It was, as I originally said, burned by William Walker on his vengeful exit from Granada. For twenty cordoba, we climbed the narrow spiral stairs up to the top, where this strange man kept obsessively ringing the bells despite the fact that it was 4:38 PM. He just looked at me when I asked him if he really was going to ring the bells...rude. The view from up there is amazing and there’s even a cooling breeze. I could see my street from up there, as well as the two churches, including the famous yellow one in the Parque Central from up there. I left a little mark so that future visitors will be able to see that I was there. Brian told me I’d go to hell, but since I don’t believe in Hell, I think I’ll be fine. 

Beautiful views from the top

Palíos!

Not much to write about today. We had our usual meeting in the morning, where we went over our goals for the future and thing we had learned in the past four weeks. Then it was a quick break for lunch, and now we’re back in Spanish class. I’ve gotten addicted to these things called Chocobananos, which are frozen bananas dipped in chocolate. They’re sold by Lotti, a  woman who is also the host mom to someone in our program. Lotti is the sweetest, and she also enables my addiction by selling the bananas at the ridiculously low price of five cordobas (which is the equivalent of around 20 cents). Lotti also sells these little baggies of milky gelato in a variety of flavors which you can gradually suck out from a hole made by your teeth. Eating the gelato-thingie is a pretty messy business but totally worth the delicious-ness. 

I also went to the gym last night for the first time. We all received free memberships from Nicaragua Mia, our Spanish school, that enables us to use the weight room and the basic equipment. The gym, called Pure, also offers spa services and a bunch of other classes such as kickboxing and yoga. The gym was deceptively far from my house, and I couldn’t find any work out clothes, so I wore old, sweaty clothes from the day before, my PJ pants, and converse. They didn’t absorb any of my sweat, so I looked like someone had poured a bucket of water on me by the end of my workout. Also, I hate it when you keep switching machines because you don’t like any of the ellipticals, but then end up going back to the first one you tried because you begrudgingly admit to yourself that it was the best of the worst. 

Pure!

My favorite equipment...the ellipticals.

I had to say good bye to Barney today! I hate goodbyes and Barney is a genuinely nice guy. Oh well...all good things come to an end. I guess this is a prelude to how it’s going to be at the end of our eight weeks here, when we have to say good bye to Nicaragua, to our group leaders, to each other...

Barney looking sleepy while playing Rummy. 

Now I’m back at Euro Cafe, my usual haunt, enjoying my cheesecake ahem, my block of lard, because that’s essentially what it is. The highlight of my evening is going to be teaching my homestay family how to use chopsticks. Maria Jose had requested I teach her how to use them the first week that I was in Granada, but hasn’t been able to find any in the three weeks since. Last night as I was getting to bed, I had a brain wave; I could just get chopsticks at the Chinese restaurant that I pass every day on the way to Spanish school! They charged me 20 cordoba, which I maintained was exorbitant and told them so, but they insisted that they weren’t the owners and didn’t make up the rules, so whatever. 20 cordoba in exchange for the lifelong skill of learning how to use chopsticks isn’t half bad. 

I’m back in Granada! It feels good to be home. No one was home except for Aida, the maid of sorts, when I got back, so I had a good few hours to get my bearings, unpack and buy a few necessities. At the very last minute of the two weeks in Matagalpa and León, I left my umbrella AND facewash (gasp!) in León. While the umbrella isn’t completely necessary, my face wash was and there’s no way I can find a replacement for it here in Nicaragua. I set off immediately to buy a papaya (I’ve been craving one), get some toothpaste, run to the bank to replenish my funds, and send some mail back home. The toothpaste and papaya I bought pretty easily. The facewash I had to go to the pharmacy to buy, which was located in the middle of the market about two blocks away from the supermarket. The market is not exactly the safest nor classiest environment in Granada, so I got heckled pretty heavily as I made my down to the pharmacy and made my purchase. Upon returning to my house, I realized that I had bought face cream and not face wash (not a fault of my spanish, but a fault of the sales person’s listening ability) and had to go back and buy the only face wash they had, which comes in bar form. Ugh. It works fine, so I guess I can be happy for that. 

Seeing the family again was great. Maria José gave me a hug, Horacio seemed less than excited but then asked me to watch a soccer game and Harry Potter with him, and Edgar, the precious thing that he is, looked all surprised and gave me a huge hug. I love that kid. We played volleyball and soccer for a good 45 minutes, just like old times. Apparently Racquel is really upset about Marisol, even though Marisol was great with the kids. The original request of her program was that she be housed by herself, with no other exchange student but at one point two others (including myself) were staying with her. I don’t take Marisol’s complaint personally, because I know she enjoyed having me there after a while, so I don’t blame her when she talked to her school’s principal immediately after arriving. Now Racquel is facing some talking down to, because she initially agreed to have only one exchange student, but broke the agreement because she needs more students to pay her bills. Messy, ugly stuff and if it came down to it, I’d side with Marisol, but I certainly can’t say that to a ruffled Maria Jose and Racquel while I’m living with them. 

Granada is just as I remember it. Being someone who has no sense of direction, it’s wonderful to be able to find your way around things. The post office gave me a bit of trouble however, even with a map. On my way there, one of the street urchins approached me, asking for money for food. They can get pretty demanding once they sense that you’re not going to give them anything, and so he began pointing to food joints and demanding I buy him food from there. As a compromise, I told him that if he led me to the post office, I’d give him 5 cordoba, which I eventually did above his pleas that he really needed 50 cordobas. Sometimes you just have to be firm and mean, but I wonder if giving him the money was the right thing to do. 

Home sweet home!

Speaking of giving street people money, when the entire group (both teams) went out again after dinner to catch up, one of the ubiquitous kids who folds reeds into clever little shapes and figures approached us. Seeing that one of the people in our group was giving me a massage, he joined in,  massaging my shoulder at first and then forming a massage chain. He was incredibly cute and charismatic, which also made me sad because both the older and younger sellers circling the area, seeing Eddison’s success (his name was Eddison) quickly approached and tried to push their goods on us, without success. I wonder what Eddison will do when he grows up and loses his cute factor, and whether it was too touristy and demeaning for us to give him money for entertaining us. 

Now its off to a meeting in the Palacio! Hasta luego.