Boundless

Salinas, home to Quinoa real

2008-11-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

Having been a month since I updated my blog, I am at a loss of where to begin. So much has happened between October 27^th and today. For the past two weeks I have been focused on my independent study project which has facilitated travel to Oruro and Salinas. My project is writing a bilingual childrens book about quinoa. Quinoa is a grain that has been grown in the Andes since the time of the Incas. Now it is becoming a more popular item in the world market. Because of it's increased export and effects of globalization the younger generation in Bolivia are not eating quinoa as much as they used too and many of the traditions and history behind it is being lost. My intension for choosing this assignment is to build the pride individuals have for quinoa in Bolivia and show US children a bit about Bolivian culture. Additionally I drew motivation from a desire to add another childrens book to the very minimal variety that exists in Bolivia. In all of Bolivia there is only one children's book library and it is very tiny. From the past few weeks I have more stories then time to write them all here. For this reason I have picked a few of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks...

Town of Salinas I spent the past week and a half here after a very memorable seven hour bus ride down to the southern Altiplano region. On the way we dodged a number of blockades, passed a bus that had turned over, saw a lot of llama and a few ostriches, and were surprised to discover that a paved road does not yet exist between OruroSalinas. The town is a center for quinoa growers which made it an ideal place to work on research for my ISP. Surrounded by the two salt flats of Bolivia, beautiful hillsides and mountains and the volcano Thunupa, Salinas was breathtaking. It was an inspiring and in ways spiritual place.

Natural Indicators The elder population of Salinas know when it is time to plant and harvest their quinoa based on a variety of natural indicators. One of these is when these cactus that dot the hillsides around Salinas flower it time to start planting the quinoa seed. Because of global warming these natural indicators are becoming less and less dependable, this is one of the many issues facing quinoa growers now.

Cora Cora There were a lot of legends about Salinas and quinoa that I heard in my time in there. One of them was about the Volcano Thunupa and her male equivalent Cora Cora.

Edson was our guide through the quinoa fields in Salinas.

Quinoa Salinas claims that between the salt flats is where quinoa originated. Those around Lake Titicaca who say otherwise.

Gran Museo Natural de Los Chullpares de Alcaya The past three pictures are from a visiting an amazing natural museum. It is legend that the civilization who lived there, the Chullpares, lived in the time of the moon and darkness. When the sun came they ran from it, not accustomed to the light. They made little dwellings in the side of a cliff in the shade and waited for what they thought was the end of the world. They all ended up dying alongside the cliff except for a male and female who survived in a river. This was the most incrediable museum I had ever visited. Our guide a woman and her son (or grandson... not too sure) lived in Alcaya. The community Alcaya (consisting of four individuals including our guide) are in the process of building a Hotel to host more tourists. The museum now is little known, me and Sarah were the only people to visit it for a month.

Salar de Uyuni On me and Sarah's last day in Salinas we were determined to get to the salar. We walked all over the town knocking on numerous doors trying to find someone who would take us... lots of peoples cars seemed to be not functioning but everyone we talked to directed us to someone else. In the end the husband of the cook of our hotel took us on his motorcycle. While the salar was incrediable I think the process of finding a way to get there and the hour and a half motorcycle ride each way was more memorable.

I am now back in Cochabamba. I had to head back earlier then I had originally planned in order to meet with the group who is going to publish my book. I am planning on publishing 50 books at the moment. If you would like a book send me a message or email me and I will put your name down on my list, I am trying to get an idea of how many I should publish...

Santa Cruz

2008-10-27T18:58:00.001-07:00

Santa Cruz has an amazingly different feel then the Andean cities I have visited thus far. Being in the low lands the climate is more tropical... in other words very very hot which kept me dripping and sticky throughout the week. In the city you do not see the indigenous women in their bowler hats and polleras like you do in every other city I have visited in the Andes. The stores and restaurants that line the street have a much more luxurious presence and while ‘Evo si’ is spray painted along the streets of Cochabamba, ‘Autonomia’ is the popular phrase that dots the city and district of Santa Cruz.

On Monday after a morning flight to Santa Cruz we took a 6 hour bus ride to the more Amazonian area of Santa Cruz where an indigenous group, Guarayos, live. The town we stayed in was fascinating for many reasons but in particular for their construction of classical instruments, most popular among them, the violin. Over time the town has developed a hobby of playing classical music. A remote town on the outskirts of the Amazon in Bolivia gives a large classical concert every four years… there are so many awesome things in this country. Tuesday we traveled a little deeper into Amazon to visit an even more remote community of Guarayos. It was an hour or so bouncy bus ride and in the end we had to wade through a river before we reached the community, Curucuru. Curucuru was an amazing little village of 35 or so families that makes a living harvesting wood. For about an hour we listened to various members of the community explain how their village is run along with their plans to bring electricity into their village as well as portable water and more in the near future. In the end we asked them if they had any questions for us. Their first question was about what was going on in Bolivia right now. Our director Ismael brought them up to date with all the current events and news including the recent march in La Paz. I think it is a testimony to the remoteness of the village and diversity of Bolivia that a group of students from the United States were the ones bringing news about their native country. I also found this visit to be fascinating in looking at the differences between indigenous communities of the Andean and Amazonian region.

By Thursday we were back in the city of Santa Cruz. We spent the morning visiting massive sand dunes right outside the city which have formed in consequence of deforestation. On the way to the dunes we spent a good hour or so pushing our bus through the sandy road. At one point when group pushing and digging out of the tires seemed to be going no where, Lupe (our director Ismael’s wife) preformed this meditative redirection of energy thing on the bus. It seemed to work because after that point the bus had no trouble plowing through the sand. On Friday the meeting we had with an organization was canceled so the day was free to explore the city. I spent the day wandering around, sketching a bit in the plaza, and visiting a few museums including a really cool modern art museum.

I am now back at my Cochabamba home happy to be out of the heat. My host sisters are sitting on either side of me playing various Spanish songs and gauging my reactions… I must be giving good ones because they can’t stop laughing. They seem to think my preferred style of music is rather dull.

Potatoes, Daybi, and more Potatoes

2008-10-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

In looking over my last post Potosi and Sucre seem like a long time ago. I just arrived back to my Cochabamba home after spending the past five days living with a family in the campo. While I was there time seemed to move very slowly, but now that I am back in Cochabamba I am sorry I did not have more time in the campo. I guess like so much else in life I will define the experience as bittersweet.

My Quechua host family in the campo consisted of Julia the mother, her husband, a one year old Wendi who was always referred to as Beba, David (22), Adan (9), Adalid (6), and finally, Daybi a four year old boy (the one holding the puppy) who was my best bud and guide through the campo. Daybi pretty much never stopped chattering to me from the moment I arrived, asking me; quieres jugar… quieres ir a rio… que estas haciendo… while I could understand these questions most of his chatter was nearly impossible for me to understand. Communication issues aside Daybi showed me the ropes in how to peal a boiled potato or roasted haba, how to move a herd of sheep through a river by hissing and throwing rocks at them, and most importantly the best way to startle someone in a sneak attack.

I spent a lot of time kicking a soccer ball around with Adan and Adalid as well, but neither of them seemed to be as fascinated with me as Daybi. I went to school with Adan on Monday. When I walked in the door I found another student in SIT, Libbi, sitting at a table making paper balloons with a group of kids. She was relieved when I walked in the door because the teacher of the class had not shown up and she was left in charge. Together we thought of a few good games to play (thanks grab) but with large communication gaps in both Spanish and quechua we would present an activity only to have seventeen 9 year old students stare blankly back at us. In the end we resorted to more paper balloons and duck duck goose.

I did not return to school with Adan on Tuesday. Instead I joined Julia and Daybi as they herded their 25 sheep up to a mountain pasture which was the highlight of my time in the campo. I also spent a lot of time weeding my families’ seemingly endless onion fields, feeding cows and chickens, and eating more potatoes then I thought I would eat in a lifetime. I counted one day and between breakfast, lunch, a second lunch, and dinner I ate 24 potatoes, granted they were not the size of your average Untied States baked potato, still a lot. Other food of the campo consisted of rice, noodles, onions, and fried eggs. Every time we would sit on little stools in the kitchen to eat I would cringe as Julia put spoonful after spoonful of potatoes and noodles on my plate. I was literally handed mounds of food. I always enjoyed what I was eating; it was the quantity that got me. Every time I finished a meal I felt quite accomplished.

While my host mother spoke pretty good Spanish (Quechua being the primary language) it was hard for us to find things to talk about because of the immense divide in our cultures. One example… Julia introduced me to one of her neighbors as the girl from Argantina. I corrected her and told her that I was from the United States and she said, yes I know, Argentina. Others from my group had the same thing occur. I feel like there is a lot more I want to say about the past five days but I am still trying to process it all and don’t know how to put it all into words. It was an incredible experience.

Potosi and Sucre

2008-09-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

I am back at home munching on some buttered rolls and sipping on hot tea and thought what better time to update my blog. This past week has been packed between traveling to Potosi and Sucre. Our group arrived to Potosi Monday afternoon after a quick flight to Sucre and 4 hour bus ride up to Potosi which at 14,000 ft is the highest city in the world. Potosi also happens to be one of the poorest cities in the world. While I have started to like Cochabamba more and more it could not compare to how much I enjoyed Potosi. In colonial times Potosi ranked as one of the wealthiest cities in the world for its rich mining industry. Through extensive and brutal mining efforts Potosi supplied large proportions of the worlds silver and tin. For this reason the city has beautiful old structures and narrow streets barely big enough for a car to pass through, I loved the feelings of antiqueness and history that the city held. Despite the beauty of the city because the mines of Potosi have been so exploited there is not as much work for the population and the city is riddled with struggling families of ex-miners, and miners.

On Tuesday our group entered the mines. Before we entered we were provided with the proper attire including helmets with large head lamps, classy blue jackets, and bulky rubber boots. Once everyone was set and looking good in blue we stopped by a market close to the mines to buy some gifts for the miners we were going to pass in the mines as a sign of respect. Some bought alcohol, others bags of coca leaves, and myself a few sticks of dynamite. Our tour through the mines involved a lot of ducking and crawling as we explored 5 of the many levels of the mine. I couldn’t help but feel like an ant in an anthill and found myself getting somewhat anxious at the thought of getting lost in such a complex three-dimensional maze. After the mines we visited a centre for children of the miners. The centre reminded me a lot of CODESCO RL, where I worked in Nicaragua. Wednesday half our group stayed in Potosi to explore various museums, while the other half ventured off to a hot springs known as the ‘eye of the Incas.’ I joined the hot springs group and though I did not go for a dip I took some time to hike around, journal, and take lots of photos.

Sucre is another beautiful city full of antique white buildings. In the Sucre airport is a big sign welcoming you to the capitol of Bolivia, there is definitely still some tension about this capital issue. Thursday morning we visited an indigenous art museum which focused on the ancient and recent weavings of the Quechuas. I was fascinated by everything, so much so that I am considering doing my month long research on the topic. After the morning at the museum the group split for some individual Sucre exploration. I broke off with three others to eat some chorizo (a special kind of deep-fried sausage), a typical dish of Sucre. We then bought a bunch of chocolate (which is also uniquely good in Sucre) and sat in the plaza for a few hours.

While I would have loved a few more days in Sucre to explore I am happy to be back in Cochabamba with my host family. It can get a bit tiring traveling with a group of 23 people. That said I feel a lot closer to the group after a week of travel and am having an all around amazing time. Classes will begin as before on Monday and then Saturday we will be heading to La Paz for a week.

Tranquilo en Cochabamba

2008-09-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has been keeping up with Bolivian news, things have been a little on edge. Cochabamba is tranquilo, but in Pando and Santa Cruz there has been a lot of violence and demonstrations. Last week when I was walking back from class I couldn’t help by notice I wasn’t having to dodge as many cars and buses as usual. When I turned the corner into my neighborhood (Chimba) the line for the gas station was down the street and around the corner. Because of the blockades in the south gas has not been as abundant in Cochabamba. There was a crowed of people around the gas pump with empty trash bags and coke bottles to fill with gas, quite a sight. I don’t want to go too deeply into political issues but Evo Moralez asked the US ambassador to leave the country which has caused a few repercussions. The Peace core has left the country but SIT has decided that we are in no immediate danger and are going to continue the program as planned. If things turn more serious we will relocate to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Between classes, watching the news, and getting to know Cochabamba better I have been pretty busy. I usually get back from classes at 7ish have a simple dinner of tea and bread and am able to read a few pages of tarea before I pass out. I have been taking Tai Chi classes in the mornings which are adding to my overall exhaustion at night. I get up at 5:45 every morning and call a taxi to take me to my director Ismael’s house where he and his wife give lessons in tai chi. After tai chi I head to SIT for classes. My classes are going great, and are getting easier and easier to follow as my Spanish improves.

Last weekend we had Monday off to celebrate the day of Cochabamba. A group of us decided to hike in a nearby nature reserve, Tunari. It was nice to get out of the city for a while. The hike was beautiful with great views of Cochabamba…

On Thursday our group went into the campo for the first time. The difference between the city Cochabamba and the campo was amazing. I hope spend a lot more time getting to know the campo…

Cochabamba

2008-09-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

I have officially been in Cochabamba for a week, thought it feels more like a month. I am starting to feel much more comfortable in the city and am excited to be back in the routine of a student. My schedule more or less is class from 9-12:30 in either a Field Study Seminar or a Culture and Development Seminar, 12:30-2:45 I have off to walk home and eat lunch with my family and then I return to SIT from 2:45-6:15 for Spanish classes. I will have my first official Culture and Development Seminar tomorrow and am getting pretty excited since our teacher was just elected governor of Cochabamba. Since he is busy with this new job our classes will be held in the governor’s office. All our other classes are held in a portion of a University (located in the heart of Cochabamba) which has been segmented off for SIT. It is a beautiful place to have classes with high ceilings, a black and white checker board floor, and a few random pillars. It kind of reminds me of being on an antique stage. The building is about a half an hour walk from my house which I would usually enjoy taking four times a day if it weren’t for all the streets I have to cross which are packed with merciless cars and buses. My host mom has been walking me to and from classes for the past few days but today I convinced her that I understood the way, and after being drilled with a few questions I ‘past the test’ and will now be permitted to walk alone.

My host family is fantastic; we clicked right off the bat. I am living with a middle-upper class family in a very comfortable home. My host parents Jane and Rudy are jewelers that work from home and create beautiful necklaces, rings, bracelets… They sell their jewelry in Bolivia but also in the USA and Europe, it is very impressive stuff. They have a web-cite which I would include on this blog except that I can’t remember it at the moment. I also have two host sisters, Deni (17) and Vanette (13) who are a lot of fun. My host Dad is rather obsessed with motorcycles so after I arrived to the house Thursday night, before I had time to start unpacking, me and my host family went to a motorcycle gathering where there were various competitions and people walked around admiring other peoples antique motorcycles. It was great, I ate some delicious empanadas (by far my favorite Bolivian food so far), and watched my host mom win a competition in which, standing behind the driver of a motorcycle, she was able to take a bite of a hanging hotdog as the motorcycle past under it. Friday I spent some quality bonding time with my youngest host sister. Vanette is very into acting so we went to a play that was put on by her acting school. The play ‘Nuestra Historia Mas Alla del SIDA’ was about how AIDS was introduced into the Bolivian society starting from the period of the cave men. It was very well done and a good introduction for me into Bolivia because it contained a lot of Bolivian history and even talk of globalization.

Sunday in Cochabamba was the day of the pedestrian. It is a kind of holiday here where for one day no one drives any motor vehicles and the streets are instead filled with people walking or biking. It is supposed to be a day to respect the environment and acknowledge problems with pollution. My host sister Deni got me out of bed bright and early and we biked all over Cochabamba. It was a really fun way to get to know the city better. We both agreed at the end of the day that this should be a tradition that takes place every Sunday. The only issue of the day was that we didn’t respect how strong the sun was and both ended up pretty rosy.

Day of the Pedestrian

Statue dedicated to the lerdaer of the struggle to free Cochabamba from the spanish rule. I pass this four times a day to and from classes.

Moving South

2008-09-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

So here I am at in an Internet cafe yet again, this time getting settled in Bolivia. I have been here for three days now and am still going through orientation with SIT. Tonight I will be meeting my host family for the first time and then tomorrow I will move in with my host family and start getting a feel for my daily routine. My group seems great so far. They are from all over the states and have a wide rage of interests academically. I am finding that all the initial impressions I am making of Bolivia are based off of my experiences in Nicaragua. It has been a little harder then I thought it would to change mind sets from working in Nicaragua to being a student in Bolivia. Then again this is only day three...

For anyone who has been keeping track of my blog, thank you. I really appreciate the encouraging comments, it means a lot to me to know people are behind me in all my travels. I thought before I dive into describing in detail my semester in Bolivia I would give a wrap up of my time in Nicaragua. In the end my grant project was an incredibly rewarding experience. Through working with the youth and community of the centre my motivation behind the project began to pick up as I realized that these individuals wanted to learn english for different reasons then why I have been trying to learn spanish. Besides increasing the opportunities for them to find jobs in their futures, enigish is a sign for them of wealth and success. They therefore have a drive to learn english that most americans do not share in their studies of spanish. The highlight of the project for me was how in the process of implementing the english classes I held workshops with the youth encouraging them to think of ways in which english would influence their future. I then had them each pull together their ideas in a picture which I compiled and created a design for a mural which I completed painting in the last few days of my internship.

I had wanted to go a little deeper here into my final thoughts on Nicaragua but I am finding that I have less free time then I did in Nicaragua and need to run back to get ready to meet my host family. Once I get settled with my host family this weekend I hope to add a little more to this post.

Proyecto CODESCO clases de inglés = va, Día de la Revolución

2008-07-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Between travelling on the weekends and what I have been doing at work, I feel like I am living two different lives. Last week at work was surprisingly slow. I say surprising because last Monday I found out that my organization and I would be receiving full funding for the grant I wrote to start offering english classes at the centre. When I enthusiastically told my co-workers this the didn´t have much of a reaction. They still seem to be confused about why full funding does not mean 1,000 dollars, and I had to explain yet again that we only needed 720.85 for our project, so that is all I had asked for. I am rather perplexed by the whole situation. Roles seemed to have reversed and while I am now anxious to get the project rolling, my co-workers seem to be a bit indifferent. It scares me a little because I don´t want to promise the youth of the centre anything that can´t be followed through with in the future. While I could go on venting my frustrations on the subject, I have a feeling that things are going to start picking up this week now that time is going to be more of an issue with me leaving in two and a half weeks.

My frustrations at work were easily forgotten as this weekend was a national holiday celebrating the success of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. After a FSD meeting in Managua on Friday I decided last minute to return with Tara to Chagutillo which is a town full of Sandinista enthusiasts. Chagutillo, located in the district of Matagalpa, is a small town concentrated on one street. The town has a strong sense of community which could be attributed to the fact that everyone seemed to be related one way or another. Friday night everyone gathered on the school basket ball court, a few people gave speeches in memory of the revolution, and the town band played for awhile. Tara´s host family was incredibly nice and had no problem with me staying for a few nights. Saturday was crazy to say the least. We got up somewhat early having been told that a few buses would be taking anyone who wanted to the plaza in Managua where everyone in Nicaragua would be gathering to celebrate the 29^th anniversary of the sandanista revolution. We were told to meet at 7; however growing accustom to Nicaraguan time we showed up 8:30 finally leaving at 9:30. Three vehicles left Chagutillo, two school buses and one flat bed truck that is typically used to carry cattle. The women and children went on one bus and the men spread out between the second school bus and the cattle carrier. Our bus was packed and Tara and I quickly found ourselves the entertainment for a group of four girls and a little boy. Pulling out of Chagutillo onto the main road that heads for Managua the enthusiasm that Nicaraguans had in celebration of the revolution was overwhelming. We joined a brigade of 500 or so vehicles that were shuttling people to Managua from the district of Matagalpa alone. People in shirts displaying Che and Sandino hung out of windows waving the Sandinista flag, two big stripes of black and red. Everything was black and red and people held up two fingers in the sign of peace which in this case also represented the two colours of the Sandinista party. Traffic was slow but everyone was alive in celebration chearing and shouting as other vehicles passed. We were finally starting to make some ground when our bus had to stop short, the bus behind us was not as quick to stop and ran into ours. Besides a few young kids who were startled by the impact everyone was fine and we kept on going. A few miles later the bus driver became concerned with the state of our bus and had us all get off and onto the cattle carrier that had also left from Chagutillo. Twenty or so minutes later we got word that a leak in our bus had caused it to catch on fire. We entered Managua three or so hours later. As we left the truck in Managua Tara and I suddenly found ourselves responsible for the five kids that we had been talking with. This proved to be a struggle throughout the rest of the day, trying to keep track of them in the massive crowed and keep them happy searching for bathrooms and food. The major plus was that having them with me made me stand out a little less especially since I was wearing a lime green shirt that didn´t really blend well with the red and black of everyone else. Throughout the day I was never able to suppress a level of discomfort for experiencing in a celebration that I really had no place in. The US was one of the main sources that led to the foundation of the Somoza dictatorship which is what this revolutionary celebration was against. Among the speakers at the celebration was Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, the president of Guatemala, the president of Paraguay, and others. Hugo Chavez was the key speaker and spoke for around an hour praising Fidel Castro, talking about issues that exist with the US, and about how the Latin American states are becoming increasingly united toward the dream expressed by Simon Bolivar. After Chavez spoke we headed back toward the buses and put the kids on a crowded bus heading for Chagutillo and decided we would prefer going in the cattle carrier that was much less stuffy. We started out sitting on the boards spread across the top of the carrier being soaked by rain, dodging tree branches from the top and avoided a drunk man yelling about some guy named Simon from the bottom. Not too far into the ride an enthusiastic revolutionaries started throwing rocks into our truck. Everyone quickly got off the top boards huddling on the floor for protection. One kid was hit pretty hard on the cheek but there were no other significant injuries. To sort out the affair we pulled into a bus station and there was a lot of arguing and I was pretty scared that a fight was going to break out. In trying to get out of the scene Tara and I moved to the far end of the truck but were called back by Joel (the other FDS intern in Chagutillo) who saw some guy attempting to rob another friend of ours. It was pretty crazy, the rest of the ride Tara´s guy friends from Chagutillo were pretty protective of us and we arrived back to Chagutillo at 1am drenched and tired.

Sunday Tara and I decided to take some time to relax and reflect in Matagalpa which is a beautiful city home to a lot of Sandino pride, a classy humble white cathedral, and some great cafes. I left at noonish for Jinotepe. When I arrived home my host family could help laugh at me because I was visibly filthy and they couldn´t understand why I would every have wanted to go to the plaza on the dia de revolucion.

Well, these entries seem to be getting longer and longer. I am on my lunch break and am writing this is kind of a rush so I hope it makes sense. I only have two more weekends to explore Nicaragua. I really want to check out Estelí in northern Nicaragua but am thinking I should probably be spending time with my host family one of these weekneds, vamos a ver.

Waterfalls, Coffee, Beaches, and Moe

2008-07-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since my last post. This week has been pretty crazy trying to finish writing my grant and I needed a break from computers and writing. But here I am at a computer again, this time in San Juan del Sur. The weeks are going by so fast and they are all so full of stories and moments I wish to share… I don´t know where to begin!

Last weekend for the mid summer retreat, I was the first to be picked up by our bus and then sat through a seven hour ride to Northern Nicaragua, past Matagalpa. I had no idea what to expect and was excited to find we were staying in a remote nature reserve in camp style bunk beds. It was beautiful! When we arrived Saturday night the small community of the reserve put together a welcome party for us which consisted of dancing in a small wood hut to Spanish music played through a radio. Because of the heavy rain the area gets we all rented large rubber boots, so to make the evening even more memorable, all dancing was done in large rubber boots. It was awesome. Sunday we woke up and went on an hour or so hike to an amazing waterfall. The hike definitely ranks up there as one of the most beautiful of my life. Our boots proved to be incredibly useful as the trail was at times ankle deep in mud. Drenched from both the rain and mist from the waterfall we then headed back to the vans for the 7 hour bus ride home. I think I spent as much time on the bus as I did at the reserve, but it was worth it.

Monday through Thursday I was plastered to a computer working on a grant to FSD for my organization. It is now done and we are waiting to hear the results which will be given tomorrow. Despite all the work I put into it I am not feeling too confident that we will be awarded the money. I had a lot of difficulty trying to work things out with my organization who did not really understand the process. Either way, I have learned a lot about the grant writing process and still have a lot of things that will keep me busy with my organization over the remaining three and a half weeks.

This weekend I have been in San Juan del Sur. This is another popular spot for foreigners but in a different way then Granada. In Granada you would likely see a group of older folks walking around in safari hats, cameras in hand. In San Juan del Sur you see more of the relaxed surfer crowd. Granada is a beautiful city but I liked the overall feel of San Jan del Sur better. On Friday I met up with the Masaya interns in Rivas and together we took a taxi to San Juan. The rest of the day consisted of beaching, drinking coffee, exploring, eating hamburgers, and dancing. Saturday, Molly’s Birthday, turned out to be the most amazing day I have had in Nicaragua so far. A few blocks from the beach in the heart of San Juan del Sur is a little cafe, Gatto Negro, that sells an incredible selection of books, store roasted organic coffee, and amazing gooey triple chocolate espresso brownies. The owners of the cafe are a very nice couple who decided they wanted a change of pace from their lives in the states. Because San Juan del Sur is a popular spot for backpackers passing through, surfers, and students trying to learn Spanish we met a lot of really interesting people from all over the globe. I could have spent the whole day eating brownies, drinking coffee, reading, and listening to other peoples stories which is exactly the break I wanted after a week staring at the computer. But as things always seem to work out as they do, a few of us where trying to decide if we wanted to meet the rest of the group at a nearby beach that was supposed to be a popular spot for surfers when a man came in to announce that they had planned a party for a group of orphans at another beach and were looking for people to help out and play with the kids. We decided to go and met the with the man, his girlfriend (a yoga instructor), and a retired nurse who called herself Moe. I went in Moe´s car and held her two small dogs (Mystic and Diva) in my lap as she pulled out of the gas station explaining that she had just bought the car and was not too sure how to drive stick shift, she reassured us that she would be her best but, “when you go with Moe you go with the flow.” Moe, who now lives in a yoga community in Nicaragua (not too sure what she meant by that), is definitely one of the most interesting people I have ever come across, I could use up this entire blog trying to describe her. After a bumpy 30 minute ride we pulled up to a beautiful beach. I do not remember the name, but it was a flat sandy beach bookended by tall cliffs, in the distance you could see the Costa Rican coast. Besides the orphans and various volunteers, the beach was completely deserted. It was amazing. We ate pizza and swam with the orphans and then watched as they all got a chance to smash apart a piñata. After the piñata a downpour didn´t stop anyone, including the kids, from lining up to do some yoga on the beach. Things like this can´t be expected or planned, it was so amazing and perfect.

Now I’m looking at only three and a half more weeks. The time is going by so fast it is hard to believe.

It's the 4th of July!

2008-07-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Seeing Some Rain

2008-06-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

This week has been a lot more rainy then the past two, finally! I had started to wonder why they had called it the rainy season. Last weekend I went to Granada which is when the rain really started to pick up. Even with the rain, Granada is a beautiful city. It is one of the oldest colonial towns in Nicaragua and a major tourist stop. The cathedral that sits in the middle of the town is a brilliant orange trimmed with white and red and all the buildings that sit around it are equally as vibrant in color. Couldn´t help take more pictures then I needed to. Because Granada hosts so many tourists the food was fantastic... legitimate (by my standards) pizza, spanish pasta, waffles, the list goes on. I plan on going back to Granada when I again get tired of rice and beans and my highly uncomfortable bed in Jinotepe.

This week at the coorperativa I have been doing preparation work to start writing a grant to FSD for funds to get a english school started. I am trying to pull together proof that this is a primary need of the community, thus I have been formulating a few different surveys as well as doing some investigative work at various cybers. I am a little frustrated with my director because I do not feel he is looking at the project (specifically the budget) realistically. I am dragging my feet a bit because while I do not doubt that english classes would benefit the community, I do not feel that this would be the best way to utilize this grant opportunity. At the moment I am working on the grant to appease my director and prove to myself that this is a realistic task. This is what I have been working on in the mornings. At 2:00 when the youth arrive I drop everything and spend time roaming through workshops, helping when I can, and brainstorming different workshops I can do with the youth in the coming weeks. The other day I was in the baking workshop and they were making cakes, it smelled so good. I felt like I was back working at the Bradely Inn. The feeling was so strong, it was like I walked through the door and ended up in Maine putting together desserts at my little station by the window.

I usually arrive home from work at 5:00 and my host mom greets me with a drawn out hOOOla then uses the momentum from her rocking chair to stand up and put together my dinner. I have beans, rice, and a boiled plantain for every meal (besides breakfast) accompanied by some sort of meat for lunch and usually a block of cheese for dinner. I have no idea what kind of cheese it is... I struggled to get it down at first, but I am starting to enjoy it more and more.

I am heading back to Managua today for a talk on the economic crisis in Nicaragua with all the FSD interns. I hope to figure out weekend plans then, maybe a trip to the beach, Estali, Leon, further explorations of Granada...

Santa´s Workshop

2008-06-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday I started work at the Coorperativa de Desarollo Social Comunitario. My host brother, Yasser, walked with me my first day to make sure I didn't get lost. It is a nice five minute walk and is located directly accross from the hospital in Jinotepe and next to a center for infants. The building used to be a hotel but was converted to a childrens center by the government in the first Ortega administration. The facilities are therefore very spacious with a room for a small office with computers as well as various rooms for "classes" in carpentry, cloathing design, crafts, baking, and more. Upon arrival at 8 no one had yet arrived so I let myself in and waited. Around 830 the four people who run the coorperativa arrived. They instantly sat down with me to begin the discussion of their goals and the process in which their organization is run. They quickly discovered that my spanish was in the developing stage and slowed down their talking a bit. I was able to understand more or less.

One of the main goal of the organization is to provide children who live in the poorest areas of Jinotepe a base of knowledge and values that will contibute to their success in the future. In order to achieve this they offer workshops in carpentry, baking, and cloathing design for children ages 14 to 18 and various crafts for kids ranging from 8 to 13. The idea is that through these workshops the youth can take a base of skills and a working mentality to apply to future job possibilities. The children arrive after school hours at 2 and remain until 5. Before the youth arrived on my first day I was showed various things that they have created in recent months... beautiful chairs, tables, skirts, button down shirts, the list goes on and on. I was increadibly impressed. When the youth arrived at 2 I couldn't help but imagine that what I was seeing must be remenicent of what has so commonly been portrayed as Santa's workshop, the greatest difference being a general lack of order. Especially in the carpentry workshop I was struck by the lack of order and saftey precaution among dangerous machienes like table saws. I suppressed this initial reaction to a degree trying to look at the scene from a different perspective and reminding myself that this is the system that had worked for the coorperativa for years. At my second day of work I was talking to a group of kids when the instructor of the carpentry class walked by holding his left hand with his right, both red with blood. Turns out he cut off the top third of his middle finger. One my third day I went with Mario, the director, to check on the instructor at his house. He seemed to be doing ok. His hand was wrapped and elevated and all his sisters sat around his bed. Everyone´s greatest concern was that of a fear of infection. Since he could not afford the appropriate medications the coorperativa paid for everything. For an organization thats major problem is a lack of funds and resources, this was hard for them to do.

The four people that run the coorperativa are the director Mario, his assistant Cylvia, and two other very nice ladies whoes names I can´t remember at the moment. Mario is the jefe. He is an overambitious artist who reminds me a bit of a mixture of Kramer from Sienfeld and Diego Rivera. He has huge plans for what he wants to do with the coorperativa which I feel are a bit unrealistic. Cylvia is quite a character herself. Every morning she makes house visits to ensure families have handed in all appropriate paperwork among other things. I´ve tagged along with Cylvia a couple of mornings as she walks into the one of the poorest area of Jinotepe with an umbrella in one hand to shield the sun and a clipboard in the other, incesantly appoligizing for all the trash scattered across the streets. One of the families we visited was of a girl who had not showed up to the coorperativa in a while. Cylvia was pretty blunt with her questioning and took back a dance costume they had lent the girl, telling her that they would give it back if she consistently showed up to class again. I was pretty impressed by the process.

As for what I will be doing with the coorperativa... I am still trying to sort it out. They have a plan to expand the workshops they offer the community. They want to reach out more to the parents and offer classes in heigene, nutrition, and english classes to name a few. The budget they have planned amounts to around 42,000 us dollars. While the have written out a great plan for what they want to do, they have not sorted out how they are going to get funding, so that is one of my tasks. Also, through the FSD grant compatition I have the possibility to create a small project with up to 1,000 us dollars. Since I am the first intern the coorperativa has had I don´t think they quite understand that I will not automatically be given 1,000 dollars. I am still trying to work this out with them. I will also be helping to give painting and drawing classes to a group of 8 to 13 year old boys and they want me to start teaching english. I am returning toManagua today for a grant writing workshop and I hope to talk to the FSD coordinate Mariana and sort out how I should organize my work plan because at the moment it is all over the place.

Things with my host family are great. On the second floor of my house I am living with 3 other students who are going to various universities studying international relations, economics, and science. They are all cousins and a lot of fun to talk to as I practice my spanish and them their english. The house is always full of family members eating, chatting, watching the news... This weekend the gettyburg group is planning on meeting up to explore a bit, maybe Chagutillo or Granada. Well I got to run and catch my bus for Managua.
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8:26

Jinotepe

2008-06-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Our orriantation is officially over and I am getting settled with my host family in Jinotepe. Jinotepe is a larger city then I was expacting. It seems like a good mix between Leon and Masaya and has a somewhat cooler climate. I have also discovered that Jinotepe boasts the best helado in all of Nicaragua. Needless to say, I am pretty excited.

On Thursday everyone in our group was brought individually to our host families. Since we were coming back from the beach, Jinotepe was the first stop. In a frenzie to finish the ice cream I had in hand and separate all my things from the rest I barely said goodbye to the group before I was greated with a warm embrace by my host parents. My host parents are on older couple of 75 and 82. My host mom is a short, wide woman with a gappy smile who likes to poke fun at my host dad who in thin, hobbles a bit and slurs his words so that he is near impossible to understand. Upon arrival they brough me to my room which is on the second floor of a very neat and comfortable home. Between an open aired room on the second floor and the entrance area on the first floor there are eight rocking chairs (abuelitas) which I plan on taking full advantage of.

After a dinner of gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs, and fried plantains, the three of us sat in rockers enjoying some quality nicaraguan novelas (soap operas). As we were watching various members of the family kept popping in. I have a feeling that my home here in nicaragua is going to be a very alive and exciting place. I am going to say in Jinotepe this weekend and explore the city and am looking forward to starting work on Monday.

Beginning

2008-06-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

After a two day orientation in Gettysburg the six of us (Tara, Kate, Megan, Domenique, Jackie, and I) arrived in Managua yesterday. It is the rainy season here so everything is much more green and lush then it was when I was here in January.

Before I dive into talking about happenings in Managua, I thought I would first touch on what was covered in our orientation at Gettysburg. In Gettysburg we worked with the six interns who were accepted into the Adams county part of the Comunidades en Acion program run by CPS. The six interns in Gettysburg have internships focused mainly around the migrant population in Adams County. In our orientation we covered different approaches to sustainable community development that we can apply to our internships in both Nicaragua and Adams County. Through out the summer all of us will be corresponding via an application on the Gettysburg web page. The group clicked really well and I am looking forward to having a base of friends to correspond with throughout the summer who are dealing with similar challenges as myself.

While the Gettysburg orientation is complete we are just beginning a week long orientation in Nicaragua with FSD. It looks like we have a lot of great things planned from tours of Managua, Ciudad Sandino, and Masaya, to discussions with various professors about Nicaraguan history, to a day at the beach to relax. I should also add that the orientation is being done entirely in Spanish. The FSD coordinators have maybe said two sentences in English since we arrived yesterday. I am definitely having to adapt quickly and am enjoying the challenge thus far.

Anxious Anticipation

2008-05-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I set up this blog so that it would be easier for people to check in on what I am up to as I am about to spend the next 6 months between Nicaragua (June – August) and Bolivia (September – December).

I will be in Nicaragua working in an internship along with five other amazing girls from Gettysburg. The internship is an alumni and campus supported scholarship program created by the Center for Public Service at Gettysburg and is run through the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD). The six of us were each assigned a different location and organization to work with by FSD so we will be dispersed throughout Nicaragua. I will be in Jinotepe, Nicaragua working with the NGO, Cooperativa de Desarrollo Social Comunitario.

After Nicaragua I will have a brief respite at home and Gettysburg with GRAB for ASCENT and then I will be heading to Bolivia for the semester through the School for International Training (SIT).

So that is a very brief synopsis of what I will be up to over the next few months. I will try to keep this blog as updated as possible. I think people can send comments and messages through this so, keep in touch!

Becky