It's the 4th of July!

This past weekend I ended up traveling between Jinotepe, Masaya, and Managua. On Friday during our FSD intern meeting in Managua our director, Maria, announced that FSD has decided that 6 organizations (out of the 16 organizations that various interns are working with) have the opportunity to apply for a 5,000 dollar grant as well as the 1,000 dollar grant in order to implement larger projects within their organizations. Two out of the 6 that apply will be awarded the grant. CODESCO R.L, my organization was one of those selected to apply. I don´t really have a sense yet of how this is going to play out. I returned to Jinotepe Friday night only to find that my host mom had left for the weekend, so it was a very quiet house with me, my host brother Yasser, and my host cousin Jesse. I lost miserably in a few games of chess, struggled to stick with a spanish film, and then called it a night. Saturday I left early for Masaya to meet up with various FSD interns for a little exploration and touristy affairs. When I traveled to Masaya last weekend to meet up with the group before heading to Granada I made the mistake of taking one of the school buses instead of the smaller micro buses. The school bus had stopped every 5 minutes or so, making my travel time nearly 2 hours when it should have been 40 minutes. So this time I learned and took the micro bus which was much more direct. I also learned from experience of my prior trip to Masaya not to wonder through the new market in search of a street once dropped off at the bus station area. The major bus station in Masaya is located directly behind the new market, which is a crazy maze of small shops (Otivalo times two) selling everything! you can imagine. I can not express the relief I felt when I finally was able to find my way out of the market. When I got off at the bus station this time I was pleased to discover that if you turn your back to the market, the street is right in front of you! This was a good lesson in the fact that it is not always you best option to follow the crowd.

The old market is a more central location in Masaya in a old colonial castle looking square and exists as one of the major places for foreigners passing through Nicaragua to purchase various trinkets. Going through the shops I almost found myself getting upset when I would ask the price of something and they woud respond in english giving me the dollar price not the cordeva. After a lunch with some fellow interns I headed back to Jinotepe in time for dinner. Sunday I took an early bus to Managua to meet Tara in La Casa de Cafe en Metro Centro. I sat down on the bus to Managua and was getting settled in the unfortunate middle seat when a woman and her daughter sat down to my right. The girl instantly called out `Profi` gave me a big hug and kiss. Turns out is was a girl, Eveling, who goes to the coorperativa. In Managua Tara and I enjoyed some real coffee, none of the instant stuff, and some (relatively speaking) expensive food. It was refreshing to take some time to relax and compare experiences. Tara is in Chagutillo, a small town in the northern part of Nicaragua which she describes as a breading ground for revolutionaries. It is amazing how different our experiences are. Monday it was the dia de los miestros, so I did not have to go to work... took some time to read among other things.

On Wednesday I gave a survey to the youth to assist in the writing of my grant. I waited until I was home to read their responses. I felt like it was christmas morning as I poured through the sheets of paper, their responses moved me in a way that is hard to express. Among the questions were, how many people do you live with, who works in your home, what is the total income in your home per month, in what do you like to use your money, what are you dreams for your future, from one to ten what how important of english to you, and more. Everyone circles 10 in terms of the importance of english.

I had planned on sharing the results of the survey with the people I work with in the coorperativa yesterday, Thursday, however I was not able to make it to work waking up very sick. In the morning I was feeling to sick to stray far from the toilet and could not make it downstairs to talk to my host mom. I was sitting on my bed when my host mom knocked on my door out of breath from hobbling up the stairs... she was followed my host aunt, brother, cousin, and great aunt all crowding into my tinny room asking about what I had eaten over the past few days, should they call a doctor, they promised that they had washed all the vegetables... Throughout the day I wasn´t able to get very much rest because people kept coming in giving me various drinks, crackers, soups, tea... by the end of the day all the shelf space available in my room was crowded with food that I was not able to eat. I was feeling so miserable that I did not even think to call the coorperativa and tell them that I would not be able to make it to work. At about 5:30pm I was just starting to feel much better when I answered another knock on my door only to find the directors of the coorperativa standing before me. I was very surprised and sorry that I did not think to call them. Woops. It was very nice of them to check up on me though. I am appriciating Nicaragua culture more and more. You would never find your bosses knocking on your bedroom door in the US to make sure you were feeling ok.

I am feeling much better now and trying to rehydrate. As for weekend plans. This weekend in the mid summer retreat for the FSD interns. A bus will be picking me up at my house at 6am tomorrow and then going on to collect the interns in Masaya and Ciudad Sandina before we head to Jinotege, Nicaragua for a few days.