cuando volveras?

Well folks, I'm back in the states, which concludes the posting on this blog once again for a bit.

Until the next continent. ;)

i try to say goodbye and i choke...

This is our last day en Granada.

And this will probably be my last blog from Nicaragua. (if anyone even reads this anymore, lol... I haven´t been very faithful about updating lately...)

I don´t even really think I can sum up my time here well in words...

Teaching Carlos English at night was a random event that I just sort of haphazardly agreed to, and I had no idea that it would mean so much to him. I always thought I was a horrific teacher, but he actually progressed in his English! I didn´t know I had it in me... he was so grateful, and cried at our goodbye party... and said that when his son is older he´s going to tell him about us. I just didn´t expect such a simple thing to bless someone so much. It was touching.

Johanna is a lady we met at the school who gives online spanish classes at night. We randomly helped her with an event at the colegio she teaches at during the day, and after that we started helping her with her english academy that she runs out of her house on the weekends. I´ve never met anyone who works as hard as she does, and she is an amazing teacher. She teaches at the Colegio during the day, and then gives lessons at night, and after that week of teaching she teaches all weekend long. Through working at that school, we´ve gotten to know her pretty well. She is poor and works her a$@ off, but she is one of the most generous people I´ve ever met. I´m going to miss her, and the students at the school, who after classes would take us to their pueblo´s and hang with us all day.

Ramon is a guy who works at the school... doing... well, I´m not really sure what he does other than sit around and look pretty... lol... but we´ve gotten to hang out with him outside of the school a few times, and I´m really going to miss him. To be blunt, he´s flaming gay... and it´s been an eye opener too see the treatment he gets here. It´s sad how much ridicule he gets just walking down the street. He told me last night that we were the first students who ever wanted to hang out with him.

Rizo´s is a waiter at a cafe we went to all of the time and he has chatted with us since our first week here. (his real name is mario... but we call him rizos because thats the spanish word for curls and hes got a head full of ringlets he always has gelled up.) He wanted to throw us a party before we left. I never thought I´d get attached to the waiter at the cafe.

It´s been amazing really getting to know people here, and I´m sad to be leaving all these friends who treat me like family. It´s going to be very hard to get on that bus tomorrow.

BUT... everything comes to an end... I´m excited for this next week of travel though... and though I don´t really want to go home, I´m excited to see everyone. It´s weird to think that I haven´t talked to anyone at home since September! I will have a lot to catch up on when I get back for sure. ( I have not missed my cell phone one bit, and I´m pretty sure when I come back it will remain off most of the time... just a warning. I really do hate that thing...)

We aren´t going to the corn islands like we planned... we waited too long to get a ticket... so instead we are heading first to matagalpa for a few days ( a place with a few coffee and chocolate farms...) and then after that to san juan del sur ( on the pacific coast of nic.) Luckily, we can leave our giant packs with Johanna at her house and come through Granada on our way to Managua on Sunday.

So... that´s the update from me... I might not be on much next week because we are leaving the laptop in Granada, so mom don´t worry if I´m silent. ;)

It's been awhile.

A few updates on life:

The volunteer work here is interesting. This country is so flipping disorganized that the volunteer work is hit or miss. Which is asinine considering the need here.
For the past month Shawna and I have been working at a day care run by nuns, doing nothing more than playing with kids for two hours a day. Not to say that our presence wasn't a help to the three employees who take care of over 60 children everyday, but when you look at all of the problems going on around here, you can't help but think there is a better use of your time.
The work at the day care is now over, because all of the schools are going on their summer break. Tomorrow, Shawna and I start work at a different organization that seems a bit better run. I'll be teaching English from 1-4 in the afternoons. God help me if I am stuck with my own class without a helper, as I suspect is the case. It's one thing to teach one on one with carlos, and another to have a class full of preteens all to myself. lol. God help me.

Shawna and I have also been teaching English on the weekends at a school run by a lady who does online Spanish tutoring at our school. We've both been really enjoying that, and last Sunday, four of the guys we teach asked to take us to their town and show us around next weekend. It should be a random and hysterical event, considering Shawna and I got a joint love letter from two of them ysterday. (we suspect they went behind the backs of the other two to try and secure a place our hearts. haha.)

We are staying at the school one week longer than originally planned... and for that week we will be living at the school, which I'm pretty excited about. Our family has been great, but I'm about done living in someone else's house... and it will be nice to be at the school for a week. We really love the people there, and the lady that lives at the school is one of our fav's, so we're pretty glad to spend our last week in Granada with them there.

It's been interesting here since the elections. A week after we had our presidential elections, Nicaragua held all of their municipal elections. Practically the entire nation was closed for the four days surrounding the election in an attempt to keep things a little safer. Even with that, there has been plenty of fighting after the fact in all of the cities where the elections were a bit dirty. ( I'm pretty sure Granada is the only place that didn't see any riots...) It's calmed down some, but the papers are still full of election news and riot photos. Not gonna lie, I've enjoyed it. (Obviously, I wish it weren't this way...) but it's been interesting to see how things work here, and understand just a little bit more why this country can't make any progress. They fight each other too much to get anything done. (that's not the only problem... clearly... but it plays a huge part...)

We've had a Christmas tree up in the house for the past three weeks which is just weird... it's ingrained in my mind that first you hav thanksgiving and fall scenario's, and THEN you can have Christmas. But then again, it doesn't even feel like Christmas when it's 100 degrees out. lol.
For this reason, I loaded a bunch of Christmas music on my ipod before I left for when December hit... but, unfortunately , my ipod has been stolen. I'm sure whoever took it couldn't possibly buy one themselves, so hopefully it blesses them.
And they better freaking enjoy my Christmas music.

Anyways... that's the short update for now.

Prayer Please

So, a quick update on my linguistic skills here...

I can't believe how much I've learned in just 2 short months... it's pretty amazing. I comprehend tons, and can pretty much communicate whatever... slowly.

But my goal was fluency. Maybe that was an unrealistic goal for just three months, I don't know, but I'm concerned about the level I'm at and returning home. I know I'll lose it.

We found out that we actually paid the school for an extra week of classes, so we are going to take that 11th week, and I would really appreciate prayer that in these last three or four weeks my spanish would really start improving. I'm not to a point where I could get a job translating at all right now, and I need these next weeks to really count. I would appreciate prayer! (if you have the time, you could pray that I never get served the tongue again as well... lol...)

With taking that extra week of class, we lose a week of travel, which is a bummer, but my main purpose for coming here was to learn spainsh, not travel.
So we will only have one week, and we've pretty much decided to head over to the corn islands for that week and relax on the caribbean, which I'm pretty excited about. :)

anyways, yeah... prayer please!

"Shawna, what does this meat look like to you?"

Yesterday Shawna and I sit down to lunch, and start to eat.
The meal looks like a typical stewed meat of some kind with a side of beans and rice. Just a normal lunch.
I go to slice off a piece of the "meat" and to my surprise, the side of my fork slides right through like butter... I didn't think much of this other than they must have been stewing this beef since last night. I put it in my mouth... it tastes good, and I think, wow... they really know how to stew meat here so that when it's done it has a totally different texture!
I keep eating, and the further in I get, the softer it is. Still, I am blissfully not thinking about what I'm consuming. I encountered a chunk of "fat" which I just ate, because to be honest, I'm dropping weight like nobody's business here, and I thought the fat might be good for me.

Finally, I get down to my last three or so bites of "meat", and I really give the thing a good look. And that's when I saw them, the taste-buds. And suddenly everything that was weird about the meat now made sense, IT WAS COW TONGUE!
That one random piece of "fat" was the what connected the tongue to the mouth! I had consumed the taste-bud lined skin of the tongue! That's why the middle was so soft... that's why there were no straiations! It wasn't just stewed for a long time...

After all of those realizations crashed down on me in the spanse of 30 seconds... I still tried to finish my food. After all, I had eaten in up till then with no problem... it actually tasted really good, and I had been fine before I spotted the taste-buds. I put the fork up to my mouth and my body pulled an access denied scenario. There was no way that bite was going down. I could feel my gag reflex going.

And I have learned my lesson... when I'm eating something new that tastes good... don't look at it closely.

Una mezcla de pensamientos.

Today was election day... it cost me $10 to mail my ballot (bah!) but it was awesome to be able to vote. Nicaraguans are pretty into politics, it's always one of the first topics brought up when you first meet someone (a polar opposite aspect of the culture from the u.s.), so we've actually talked about the election way more than i thought we would in Nicaragua. (next weekend are the the muicipal elections for the whole country. I'm really excited to be here for them. Apparently everything closes on Friday and Saturday so that the people are rested to vote on Sunday, and on Monday everything is closed in an attempt to stop some of the violence that almost always results from an election. Nicaraguans are pretty quick to lose temper... especially about politics. And that's not just my observation... I've been told that by MANY Nicaraguans. haha. Carlos tells me that he thinks that's the reason that Costa Rica is so much more wealthy, because every time there's an election, the parties that lost don't pick fights and try and overthrow the government. It's interesting to think that an aspect of their culture is helping to keep them so impoverished. Anyways, mom and dad, if you're reading this... don't worry, there's not much fighting in Granada so I'll be safe.)

I got my first compliment on my Spanish from a local today. Not gonna lie, when she told me I had good spanish I looked behind me to see who she was talking to. haha. To my surprise it was actually me! We had a nice chat after that about the election (what else? lol) and I left the cafe feeling pretty good. Then I started thinking about how second nature spanish is actually becoming to me. I don't have to think as hard anymore. I find myself sating things without even thinking about, and then afterwards I'm like WHOA! I just said that? haha. It's a good feeling.

Shawna and I went to Ometepe this weekend with a couple of classmates which was AMAZING! Ometepe is an Island in lake cocibolca made up of two volcanoes, with a couple little towns and about a dozen villages. It was dirt cheap and one of the most beautiful places I'll ever go, I'm sure. (It's the 8th wonder of the world.)

Highlights:
-climbing volcan concepcion. (also a WAY harder hike than i expected... though I'm not sure why I thought climbing a volcano would be easy... we went up to the cloudline and then back.)
- Ridig back to town from the hike in a Political parade for the Sandinista's, and getting the nickname 'gringa sandinista.'
-Biking around the island and stopping in the little villages along the way. (want to know a really bad idea? Bike in full Nicaraguan sun for 7 hours without sunscreen. I have a killer burn on the tops of my hands but not on my fingers from gripping the handle bars. lol. it's pretty hott.)

Overall, a great weekend... and I feel really good about that Spanish compliment. :)

Today I watched three separate funeral processions march through the streets of Granada, and this is not a big city. I know that the majority of these deaths are probably from complications of a cold, or stomach problem, or something equally as innocent for a country that has more than 6 doctors for every 10,000 people. (when the son of my teacher, Maria-Lydia, had a simple stomach problem, I went with her to the clinic. She had to wait half an hour simply to make an appointment to see the Doctor, who she wouldn't be able to see for a few more days after that. After that, if she needed medicine, she would have to get that elsewhere. All that for a stomach ache. What if it were more serious? If he had needed more attention that he could get at the clinic, he would have had to wait even longer to go to an overcrowded hospital to receive horrible medical attention. Most women in this country refuse to have their children in the hospitals because they receive virtually no care there, and it's common to receive abuse from the nurses because they are so overworked.)

Lately during class Maria-Lydia has been having us talk about the political, social, and economic problems we have in the U.S.
After we discuss that, she will tell us how those same situations are here, and always think, wow, what the heck are Americans griping about? In particular, I recall reaming on the health care and educational system, and the lack of programs for poor and homeless people.
And then I felt like the most ungrateful person when she laid out for me those same systems in Nicaragua.
I also feel like an idiot when I talk about the current problems with the economy, since we have played a huge part in keeping Nicaragua this poor. The U.S. has not been kind to this country. Prior to coming here, I did not know that the U.S. appointed Samosa, the dictator whose family ruled and destroyed this country for more than 50 years. We have exploited this country in more ways than I can count.
It's been really interesting to see the other side of the coin with Nicaragua. It's amazing how much dealings the U.S. government has had with this country, and how much the average U.S. citizen doesn't know about it. There's much more to this place than the Revolution in the 80's.

Ok, at long last, we start our volunteer work tomorrow.

The organization of things in this country is something to get used to.

Nevertheless, tomorrow Shawna and I start. I know it will be an adventure, since neither of us have been informed of what we are doing, or who we talk to about it. Basically, we just show up at the gate tomorrow and see what happens. ha!

We will be working at a complex (for lack of a better word...) run by the catholic church that gives food and medical attention to the poor (and I do mean poor...), and they also have a day care and an orphanage for girls. I have a feeling we will be working at the day care, which is my last choice... but I hope that after we've been there a week or two I can do some other work.

It's in a really poor and somewhat sketchy neighborhood, just walking through the gate was an experience, pushing past all the starving women at the portal patiently waiting for the food voucher so they can feed their children. I've never felt more fortunate than I did in that moment. It's truly terrible to look into the face of a 70 year old woman who has lived on the street her whole life. I had never really seen haggard until I got here.
Regardless of what my job ends up being there... I'm really excited to be in that environment.

where the streets have no name

So, the following are the daily sights of a stroll through the streets of granada.

Women with giant baskets on their head out of which they are vending fruit, bunuelos, or tortillas to make enough money to feed their children.

Horse drawn carts pulled by skinny horses, transporting anything and everything. (they still use horses down here...) It's pretty crazy to see taxis and busses whizzing past ancient wagons. It's like two centuries are colliding.

Herds of cattle. The other day our bus had to stop in the middle of the road because there was a head of cattle crossing. It's somehow also ok to let your horse or cow wander about the city. Sometimes it feels like there's more stray horses than dogs. The stray horses are pretty hysterical, and not something i was expecting to see. (They're probably not really stray... but their owners let them wonder around.)

Get wrenching poverty. There are so many homeless children, and adults. And it's not as easy to pull an American and tell yourself you don't need to be concerned with them because they could get a job and help if they wanted... they can't here.( I don't think it's that easy in the states either... but that's a separate rant...)
It's sobering to look into someone's eyes and see absolutely no hope there.
When we walk past the cathedral at night, the porch is lined with the homeless sleeping... and there's no sort of social program or soup kitchen for them to go to. They're alone.

Beggars... mostly children.

Men and women vending the pottery they make. (pottery is really big down here... and beautiful.)

Kids sniffing baby jars of glue. It's the cheapest drug down here, and mostly used by teenagers.

Genuinely happy people. Despite everything, Nicaraguans are pretty joyous people. One of the national slogans is 'dance until the end.'

A few things i miss.

-SALAD! I cannot believe how much I miss eating salad.

-sandwiches... cucumber and cheese sandwiches. well, just cheese for that matter. the queso here is not cheese as i know it... it is the one form of cheese ive met that has conquered me.

-washing machines... well, more specifically, driers.
i dont mind washing my clothes by hand... its annoying but it doesnt kill me... what i dont like, is that in the middle of a tropical storm, like we are having right now, when it dumps rain 24-7, clothes dont dry. towels dont dry. hair doesnt dry. everything is constantly in a state of dank, and our clothes reak, because after they were washed... it took them 3 days to dry, and they werent even that dry.

-iced americanos.

-driving. (although... there is the possibility of renting a car one of these weekends... i think my driving skills are definitely up to the challenge. ;))

update.

This weekend... for the first time, I've started to think in Spanish... I notice less and less of my natural tendency to come out with English to communicate something, which is a real praise the Lord moment... I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to click. I think I had a time line in my head, and I didn't think it should take me a month to start feeling comfortable with the language! But, things are starting to cement in my mind, and I feel like I'll really start making progress.
We have a bunch of new students at the school, last week we got two girls from Holland, and this week, an older guy from New York and another chick from Holland.(all along we have had another student named Brian, from the U.S., he was there a week before us and has two weeks left...)
Three times a week we have a group activity where we play some sort of game with the whole school, and it's really fun to have other students... and other nationalities. It's interesting to hear all of the Americans stumble over the pronounciation of the same words, and then hear the Dutch all stumble over different words. It's interesting what different accents do to the Spanish language. (side note, and my one source of pride in this whole experience so far... Shawna and I have been told many times that we have virtually no accent, and sound latina in our pronounciation. So at least if we have no comprehension of what's coming out of our mouths... we sound good. lol.)
Anyway, native speakers are sounding less and less fast to me, and I'm comprehending more and more... I've started reading the newspaper, which, if I'm going to be honest, i comprehend about 40% of, but it's a really good way for me to pick up more of the rythym and structure of the language, even if I fully don't understand the vocab or pronoun placement... or for that matter, the subject of the sentence. (the usage of pronouns in this language is a real beezy... sometimes it's impossible for me to pick out the subject because of the sheer amount of pronouns and their un-english placement in a sentence. Oh, another side note of confusion... it seems that the words could, should, and would are very difficult to translate into spanish. We are finding that it's really hard to communicate a... how do I say this? For lack of a better phrase, a half-assed statement. It's very hard to say something in spanish without committing fully to what you are saying, if that makes any sense. It's pretty hard to beat around the bush, I guess you could say, in Spanish, and until I had to start trying to fully communicate in spanish, I never realized how much I fully beat around the bush with almost everything that comes out of my mouth!)

So yes... there's my update on my current linguistic skills, props to anyone who read this whole boring post to the end!

One month.

Shawna and I just concluded our fourth week of class... on Monday we will have officially been in Granada for a month.
I definitely don't feel like I've been here that long!

On Monday, we start our volunteer work through the school, I'm pretty excited about this and way nervous at the same time. We pretty much haven't had to experience life without the safety net of the school, and the teachers talking slow and comprehending our crappy Spanish. When we volunteer, it's just us and the organization, and it's up to us to comprehend and communicate fully on our own. I think the first week will be full of completely humiliating moments. I'm braced for it.
I think I'm either going to volunteer at a house for women, (which is basically a place to educate battered women, provide them with skills, and raise their self-esteem.) or at Carita Feliz, which is an orginization that provides education, activities, and food to kids in the barrio we were living in who don't have enough money for school, and who's parents can't afford to feed them. I haven't decided yet.

We found out that part of the family we live with goes to an Assemblies of God church in Masaya (about 20 minutes away...), and the church has a bus service that can take us there and back. So, this Sunday we will have our first experience at a church here... also a scary thought. This next couple of weeks we just have to start acting like we speak Spanish... (and I guess in reality, we pretty much do...) which is intimidating outside the boundaries of school, which has pretty much become a comfort zone. But I'm excited to be able to really start living here.

Our evening of babysitting went well, and the boys officially love us, (yes marianne, they are putty in my hands...) and the family is great. Last night we all sat around and Shawna and I listened to Rodolfo (the first) tell jokes (he's quite the jokester...), while the whole fam laughed. We didn't catch much of what actually went on, haha... but it was fun to be part of the family and laugh with them.

I'm not sure if I ever explained, but here's a rundown of who lives here.
Rodolfo and Rosario- they are the grandparents... not very old though... somewhere in their 60's.
Felix and Claudia- Claudia is Ridolfo and Rosario's daughter, and felix is her husband. They have two boys, Felix (age 12) and Alesandro (age 6). Also living here is Rodolfo (age 12), Felix and Claudia's nephew, child of Roldofo, Rosario and Ridolfo's son who lives in Guatemala. I'm not really clear on why his son lives here.
Anyways... we really like the fam, and are starting to get used to the tradition of naming your first born son after you. (In our other house... the extended family was soley comprised of Carlos's.) We are no longer confused by the three Rodolfo's or the multiple Felix's.

A few stats on Nicaragua.

-Nicaragua is the third poorest nation in the world.

- For every 10,000 people, there are 6 doctors.

- As of 2005, only 28% of the population had finished primary school. (this number has increased, since the change in government in 2006, but is still not high.)

- The mortality rate for infectious diseases is 80%. Most of these cases are preventable.

- Most Nicaraguans only eat 1.5 meals a day. Because of inflation, the majority cannot afford to buy food. (This includes the children whose meals consist of garbage.)

- The availability of electricity all the time, not when the government thinks the people need it, is somewhat recent, and now, there is only one company, so it’s ridiculously expensive.

- The majority of the people don’t have portable water.

In light of this information, I find out I am living like a queen.

Operation nino.

So, as I mentioned before, we have three little brothers at our new house, ages 12, 10, and 6. We were obviously really excited to have some kids around to chat with on a regular basis, since we have some small hope of understanding the majority of what they are saying. What we didn’t take into consideration, is that boys of that age are not really going to know what to do with the two of us, and therefore will remain silent whenever we are in proximity.
We have made several failed attempts with the middle child (we feel he is our key to the whole group…), and now, five days into our new home, don’t have much of a relationship with the little fellows beyond hi, how are you, and goodnight.
Last night though, we saw a glimmer of hope… I let it out that we teach English at the school after the afternoon activity… and what do you know?? Turns out our middle child, Rodolfo, sucks at English! And his grandmother forced him into getting help from us after dinner, starting tonight. I’ll take forced interaction over no interaction… we’ll win the dude over, and then will follow his brothers.
Then we found out at lunch today that the fam is going to Managua to pick up a friend from the airport tonight… and they are leaving the boys with us… which could turn out to be an absolute nightmare… but, it’s forced interaction.
We’ll see how the evening goes watching three rambunctious boys who don’t give us the time of day and who we aren’t really on a basis of communication with. Could be fun… could be really not fun.

We have a new family!

Today we moved to a new host home.

La casa de Ines and Carlos was fine, we had no real complaints… but it was just the two of them living there and we didn’t get any interaction really. I guess more of their family used to live there, and the school didn’t realize that it was just the two of them oldies there now.
Ines and Carlos seemed to have a weird relationship with each other… after we had been there a couple of weeks, we realized that they lived in separate rooms, and they never really talked to each other at all… besides what was necessary… so we weren’t hearing any Spanish at home because they didn’t talk much… and whenever we would join them for some nightly TV, nothing would really be said to us all night… and we always ate our meals alone, so there was pretty much no conversation at all taking place at the house. (Which, I’m pretty sure is the reason why we’re picking things up so much slower… we haven’t really had an immersion.)
Anyways… the school moved us today to a larger family, and we love it.

We now live with Rosario and Rodolfo, who share the house with their daughter, son in law, and their three boys, ages 12, 10-ish, and 6. (The experience of having three little brothers running around the house will be interactive for sure…)
We’ve already had way more conversation at this house than we did in the entire three weeks at the other, and there is no guessing about the expectations for us here. Rosario pretty much just announced the protocall for our life here this afternoon, which is nice, because that alone will cut down on the millions of awkward moments just waiting to be had, as was the case with Ines. Bless her heart, the woman never communicated a thing.

Rodolfo and Rosario both were teachers in primary and high school, and Rodolfo was also a professor at a University. He studied Political Science and Math, and I can’t remember what she studied… but it’s cool being at a house with two teachers when our whole point of being here is to learn. Rodolfo seems like a pretty smart cookie… and I’m looking forward to picking his brain (when I have the vocabulary to do so…) on the political side if Nicaragua, and Central America.

In terms of this house itself… we have definitely taken a step up.
a. our room does not have any huge openings to the outside world, which is nice, because the mosquitos here are real beezies, and having a room with so much open to outside is a real monster for keeping bugs out. I have never had so many bug bites in my life. I’m glad to have a room that’s fully inside the house.
b. Our bathroom is also completely closed off from outside, which should cut down on the lizards, and spiders the size of my face living in a hole in the concrete that leads into the dirt outside, letting in God only knows how many giant spiders. Our shower is actually tile, and a real shower, instead of a concreted stall with a pipe running up the wall that got a shower head attatched to it and called it a shower. The one weird thing about our new bathroom, is that it is sans a sink. I’m not really sure why. Haha! But I’ll just perfect the art of brushing my teeth in the shower.
c. We have closets. No a pole wedged in the corner under one of said giant openings between the wall and ceiling to hang clothes on. Nicely placed so whenever a wind picked up with the nightly monsoon rain, random debris could come blowing in and land on our clothes in the ‘closet.’

Overall, this is a really nice house. (I still can’t get a good handle on economic levels here… I thought our other house was pretty much a middle class establishment, it definitely wasn’t poor, there were no dirt floors, we had running water, and everything was clean. Not a bad situation at all. But then we get here, and this place is down right ritzy compared to out last place… but I know these people aren’t rich, because we’ve seen a few of the ‘rich’ houses, and this isn’t rich. It’s a mystery… maybe when I have a better vocab I can tastefully ask some of my many questions so they aren’t an insult.

Anyways, that’ the update for now!

This is an interesting culture of contradictions, I’ve learned a lot about this country in the past three weeks, but I’m not going to lie and say I understand the half of what goes on down here.

Our first week here, when it came around to garbage day, the whole city put out their garbage in the street, waiting for it to get picked up.
A day goes by, all the garbage remains, sitting out in the hot sun, getting pounded by the rain at night, and strewn around the city by the millions of stray starving dogs.
Two days, three days, a week goes by. The garbage has not been picked up… we note that people are starting to burn it in little piles on the street (in case you were wondering, the aroma is HEAVENLY!). We were naturally curious whether this was just garbage protacal? Put it in the street, and let the weather and the dogs take care of most of it and then burn the rest?? A total mystery.
So the next week, it’s garbage day again, and we think… ok… time to add to the garbage in the street again. This time it got picked up by garbage men.
I find out from my teacher, Maria-Lydia, that the city didn’t have the money, or wouldn’t pay the garbage men the money (the difference was lost in my translation…), so they didn’t get the garbage… but they paid them this week, so the garbage got taken.

They have huge respect for mother figures here… because the women are the one’s who do everything in this country as far as the family is concerned… grandmothers and mothers are highly respected. Yet one out of every four women is beaten by her husband. (And this is an improvement, before the Sandanista Revolution in the 80’s, it was one out of every two women. Half of the women in the country.) A weird and sad contradiction. Ultimate respect for the role of women, yet the majority are battered.
It’s a sobering thought to realize that, statistics wise, five of the twenty men who daily attempt to pick us up when we walk anywhere, go home and beat their wife.

There is garbage all over the city all of the time. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination clean. I would not walk barefoot here! (and let me just point out that I have walked the Vegas strip barefoot, and walked around the streets of Paris barefoot… I’m not easily wimped out by germs.) It’s pretty filthy, and there’s constant mystery water run off all of the time on the sides of the road, murky mystery water run off growing algae.
Yet, on a daily basis, there are women out scrubbing the sidewalk in front of their houses. Daily! Everybody litters here like nothing else… but they scrub their sidewalks with soapy water!
(side note about the mystery water, when it rains really hard… which is mostly every day right now… the water pretty much takes over the road… and since it was 100 degrees prior to the rain dumpage, you are wearing sandals… and there is no choice but to walk through all the water with who knows what floating in it, and God only knows what contaminating it. I’m pretty sure I’m getting exposed to a lot of disease! Haha)

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

Yesterday as Shawna and I were walking to class, we came around a corner and as we were walking we both noticed there was an old man lying on his back on the sidewalk with his cane next to him. I didn’t think much of it at first (there is always random drunk or homeless people passed out on the sidewalks here at night, or in the morning left over from the night before…), but then I noticed there was a younger guy, maybe the old man’s grandson, bending over him. Looking closer, it was clear the old man was not alive… his grandson turned him over, and we watched as random fluid came dumping out his nose and mouth… and the man was not breathing.
Basically, we walked past as the man was dying right there on the sidewalk.
The weirdest part about it was that the grandson wasn’t even a little bit frantic, there was no calling for help, there was no “call 911” yelled… we weren’t the only people walking past. It was just happening. No freak out, no big deal.
It was like the kid just came out of the house, saw his grandpa and thought, ‘well, grandpa just died here…” end of story.

Later, as we were walking through the market, we saw a dead dog, put in a bag and thrown out on the sidewalk.

It’s a sobering thought to think that these people have dealt with so much death that it’s not really a big deal. Not to say that there’s no mourning here, or that they don’t love their families…but it’s just an accepted reality of life.
They are comfortable with death.
Death isn’t a disturbing concept here.

On my way to class yesterday I watched a man die.

Como se dice, "idiots" en espanol?

The past few days have not exactly been full of stellar moments for the Coopers.

Let's start with Sunday shall we?

At breakfast we are informed that we will be having lunch with the rest of the fam down the street. (we live with an older couple... who's son, daughter in law, grandson and his wife a and their child, live down the street next to a small bar and resturant they own and run.) Fine. No problem... we like the family, and the two year old great grandaughter is really the only person we can carry on a continual conversation with. (a humiliating but true statement...)
So, noon rolls around and we head on over with Ines and have lunch... everything is fine, no big deal. When we have finished eating... we note that for some reason the courtyard area where we are has emptied of the entire fam. Ok. So, we start wondering if Ines and Carlos just left us there and didn't tell us because they thought we were enjoying ourselves so they left us alone. We weren't sure... there was also the possibility that they had all inexplicably gone to the house next door and not told us what was going one... there were also random tons of people going in and out of the house next door...

We sat pondering our next move... do we leave? do we stay? do we venture into the house next door? and why would we want to go nextdoor, we still can't really communicate... why would we stay if ines had left, and the rest of her family was wondering why the two mute pieces of white bread were just loitering...

So, we decide to get up and go... our ultimate was realized when we walked past the house next door and, sure enough, the whole fam was there, including carlos sitting on the porch (all he ever does.) He stands up to yell something to us... the Lord only knows what it was, he is the worst mumbler i've ever heard in my life... Im pretty sure even when we speak spanish well, we will not understand what's coming out of his mouth. We spur of the moment decide to pretend like we are just taking a little walk, and we'll be back... we weren't bombing out on the gathering... we just needed a short walk. We get back to the house... and awkardly walk in and sit in the living room,(as suggested to us by carlos...) and in the other sitting room, there's like 20 teenagers all looking at us like, who are these white chicks? and who invited them? I tried to talk to one of the girls, but she would have none of it... so we sat. Mute. As usual. Confused. As usual.
Then Ines comes putzing out of the kitchen looking surprised to see us inside. (don't ask me where we should have been located at this point...) and said something incomprehensible and left the house... not wanting to be left there anymore... we followed her like a couple of stray dogs back to the house, where she also looked suprised to see us. We quickly gathered our stuff and went to a cafe... to regroup and figure out what happened to us.
Later that night Ines went back over to the house, and left us a key to the house so we could do what we wanted and not go with... so we are unsure if our confusion at the family's house came of as an offense... or like we didn't want to be there.
We still have no idea what happened to us.

Then we slept through our alarm on monday and had 5 minutes to get ready to leave for class. AKA, no shower... which is the equivalent here of not showering for a week in the states. BAH! disgusting.

Today, we had a slight misunderstanding of the teachers that there would be no afternoon event at 2:30 if it was raining hard... so, shawna and i napped it up... and at 2:30 it was raining... so we continued napping.
In reality what was said was that the intended excursion would be cancelled, but we would do something else... so at 3 the house recieved a phone call that we were wanted at the school... Carlos (our papa) akwardly had to barge into our rooom while we were napping to hand me the phone, when i was informed by carlos (who works at the school, and i tutor for english) that the school was waiting, did we intend to join for the excursion today? My explanation was lost in translation (the english he speaks is equivalent to the spanish i speak..., but what was heard loud and clear a la carlos (papa) was that we were napping. Napping it up right through our excursion.

Let's just say we are ready for the idiotic minutes to diminish.

A Slice of Life in Granada

-Life as a pedestrian:
The roads here are crazy! Most of them are only about a lane and a half wide, this space is used for all of the following:
The parking of cars an any and all sides of the road, cars traveling both directions at any given time, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. (there are some sidewalks, but they aren’t in good condition at all, and there’s always random giant piles of garbage on them you have to go around.) Oddly enough, the most dangerous wheeled scenario to us so far has been the bicycle. Somehow, they think they are even more above the law than anybody else, and we nearly get run down every day. (an added bonus is the fact that young guys will purposely ride close to us to either: a. fake us out and turn at the last minute… they think this is hysterical, or b. get close enough to spout of some random love poem.)
There are no crosswalks here, there are no stop signs or stop lights, (well, there’s a couple stop signs but nobody uses them… or blinkers…) and the streets are ALWAYS crowded. So, basically, you make a break for it whenever you *think it’s clear, (it’s never clear) and force people to stop. I’m pretty sure that the thought “I have the right of way” is what’s rolling around in every one’s head… so you just go when you see fit. Shawna and I are going to be nightmare pedestrians when we get back.

-Things that repulse us/ creep/gross us out:
Friday night we were sitting at the internet café we always go to, when a cricket the size of a mouse came walking in. (that is not an exaggeration of the size.) The waiter had to come take care of it for us because it was loitering around shawna’s bag and freaking us right out. He thought we were pretty ridiculous, and proceeded to PICK IT UP WITH HIS BARE HAND! and put it back outside.
The spider pictured in a previous post, we find out, doesn’t just visit our shower… he lives in it. There’s a whole in the wall behind the pipe, and that’s his dark little corner… he comes out every night to hunt on the shower floor. We are not ok with this… but there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do. He’s too big to flush down the drain, and squishing is not an option. So, we share the shower with a spider the size of your mother.
The ants bite. There are these little tiny ants all over, and as soon as you sit down somewhere, or stand still somewhere outside, the crawl all over your feet and bite, and it leaves some sort of nasty rash scenario.
Bug repellent doesn’t do much here… the mosquitos seem to love DEET.

The park:
There’s a central park in Granada, we live about a 5-10 minute walk from it, and it’s the center of all social activity in the city. There’s always vendors there selling random stuff and people just sit around on benches there all day. At night they have huge community events and everyone shows up and hangs out. Last night they were broadcasting some boxing match in the park… there was karaoke one night. It’s pretty cool. Shawna and I go sit in the park in the afternoons a lot, and usually get a chance to practice some Spanish, because inevitably, some guy will come up and try to charm us into going out with him and his friends somewhere.
Yesterday was our most intrusive yet… the fellow kissed our cheeks and hands (which we find out is a normal greeting for a stranger…) and plopped down in the middle of the bench between us and was just in our personal bubble until we decided we had had enough and left. Definitely the funniest encounter yet.

The streets:
There is no such thing as a noise ordinance here. People blare their radios and tv’s and anything else that makes noise all day and all night. (they also are randomly into u.s. hip-hop and rap. We’ve definitely heard some snoop blaring from the neighbors house.) At night everyone hangs out in the porch with the music blasting from inside the houses, while the kids play in the streets until late. (side note: if you are walking down the street, and there is a futbol or baseball game going on, don’t expect it to stop because you’re walking. It won’t. Just walk fast and keep an eye on the ball.)
It’s pretty fun that everyone is just up late hanging out.

I like it here a lot.

Arachnaphobia.

ok... so here's a little image of one of the gigantor spiders that has the nerve to make bi-weekly appearances in our shower.
This little beezy was easily three and a half inches across, including wingspan. (that is the only way to refer the size of something so huge. seriously... i dont know how we didn't hear him make his entrance, hulking around with all that mass.)

the creepiest part of this guy to me was that he sort of crawled sideways like a crab... and the fact that his eyes are clearly visible. I dont appreciate a spider big enough to make eye contact with.



this is one of the lizards that hangs out in our room... se nombre maria. (she is the one that gets a tad too close to my bed for comfort sometimes...)

Yesterday we found out that they have problems with scorpions showing up in the bathrooms... i pray to god that im never greeted by one bright and early in the morning...

a few photos

i thought id post a few photos that shawna has taken of the place...


this is more or less the kitchen sink. (note: it it floods with the nightly torrential downpour...)


this is one of the places we went to that makes pottery in san juan del oriente.


me and 'el campo de granada' (the country...)

do to the high demand...

Ok, somehow people want to hear about a humiliating church experience??

Well, i'm sorry to inform that we havent had the nerve to attend anywhere yet... however, yesterday we did have a sort of akward situation arise. (no surprise there...)

Shawna and i were just strolling around town (because we havent come up with anything better to do on the weekends yet...) and we stumbled into the giant yellow cathedral in the middle of central park. (the churches are always open here for people to come in and pray...)
We were sort of just ambling around, looking at everything, and then decided to sit for a bit because it was somehow cool inside. Just as we were deciding to get up and go, we turn around and there is a MASS of people coming through the doors, blocking the exit, so we walk around the front of the church behind the altar to come around to the other side of the church, wondering what the heck is going on.

I was sort of just staring at the floor as we walked because i was feeling so irreverent to have interrupted this church service... when i hear shawna gasp and say "a coffin!" i look up, and its a freaking funeral procession...

Somehow, we ended up crashing a funeral.

AKWARD!

The humor of the man that is Carlos Cruz Espinoza.

Carlos, the guy in charge of public relations (I think that’s how he put it… also he is the web master? To be honest… I’m not sure what he really does around here…) is a constant source of hilarity to me.

The other day when we had what I think was our orientation with him… he informed us that he always has his cell on, and if we ever get into trouble or need something, even if it’s 3 am we can call and he’ll come.

This is the man we had such a hard time getting a hold of when our flight was cancelled to give our new information so we could get picked up at the airport. (we never successfully did… and had to call him from some random farmacia workers cell to come get us…)
This is the man who was supposed to be here at nine on Sunday to take us to orientation… and showed at 11 after we had already left due to the prompts of inez to take a walk (the only thing we could understand that she said to us all day… so we figured we better do it.)
This is the man who was supposed to take us to the bank yesterday so we could withdraw the money to pay for the school, but never showed, and then he tells me this morning with a laugh that he had to go to Managua yesterday morning, but fell asleep on the bus and woke up in some random city, and didn’t get back to Granada until the afternoon. (we did finally get to the bank today…and felt AC for the first time since arriving.)

The guy just makes me laugh… he has some sort of official role around the school, but I haven’t pinned it down. He just seems to run around with his jovial outlook on life and fall asleep on buses and whatnot. I enjoy him. Haha.

(Side note of humor… I was asking him about his learning English… and he was telling Shawna and I all about it… telling us the words he has the most trouble saying… when he called a sheet of paper a ‘shit of paper.’ I definitely had a good laugh, which he didn’t mind due to his happy-go-lucky nature…)

So far, he’s one of my fav’s.
(P.S.- he asked Shawna and I today if we wanted to do some volunteering… we said yeah, without question, and then he says that they need someone to help teach the teachers English. Somehow I found myself agreeing. NIGHTMARE! I’m a horrific teacher! But it will be a fun experience… I’m excited about it slash worried for my pupil. Poor soul, they better prepare to be completely confused by me. It should help my Spanish at least… if I’m having to attempt to explain the rules of the English language in Spanish… I’m sure a few blogs will be written about THAT experience…)

un dia typico en granada.

Our first week of school has concluded… I can’t believe we’ve been here that long already!
Here’s a rundown of our typical day…
We usually get up pretty early and shower… Inez has a freaking mondo breakfast ready for us at 7:30, like clockwork. (Every morning there is a SERIOUS pile of beans and rice, eggs, cheese, and some form of banana. Today we got a fried banana and a fresh one… with all the other food.) Post the stuff of breakfast we walk to class (the school is about a five minute walk down the road…) to the chorus of the ever present latino males lounging around doing nothing but yelling things at us as we walk by. (Italy revisited.)

We have classes from eight in the morning until noon… with a half hour break around ten-ish.

I really enjoy my teacher… she’s pretty serious which is something to get used to, but she loves Spanish and teaching it. She graduated from the university here with a bachelors in Spanish… and decided to become a teacher, because of the influence of her professors. I’m happy that I got matched up with someone who loves the art of language as much as I do. She’s the perfect teacher for me… other than her lack of humor found in my lamo comments… which have diminished since she speaks no English and my Spanish is horrific! I seem to be understanding more Spanish… contextually. If I know the subject of whatever is being said to me, I can get most of it… but the second someone starts talking to me without my having any previous notion of what they might say… I am lost like a fool. Pretty much I just wake up everyday and brace for looking like an idiot… it’s what I do best here. Complete idioso.

After class we walk back to the house and eat lunch… and usually take a little siesta. (the heat in the afternoon is unbearable… and for some reason, our room is usually about ten degrees hotter than the rest of the house. Apholstery gets uber hot, sitting on the bed in the afternoon literally feels like sitting on a heater…) Somehow, we just can’t seem to stay awake when it’s that hot and we’ve just eaten a huge hot meal.

Post napping, we head back to the school for the afternoon excursion, which usually lasts until 5-ish and then we head back to the casa, eat dinner, and then study.

We have so much studying to do! (well… duh… that shouldn’t have surprised me…) We take a day to learn what you learn in school in a week or two… so needless to say, we have MUCHO vocab to learn. My speaking skills are still pretty much non-existent. (I think after the first two weeks, when I have most of the rudiments down, I can really start speaking, and then I think I’ll pick it up quicker.) I suppose it’s good that none of the staff at the school speaks English so we can’t default there. (well… Carlos speaks English… a bit, but today he told Shawna and I that he was cutting us off after next week and would only talk to us in Spanish from then on… horrible man.)

Anyway… that’s a typical day for us… kudos to anyone who read this entire long post!

Yesterday, we went to the zoo for our excursion... interesting to note that they feed the lions actual whole skinned animals... not just slabs of meat. I saw the lion swinging around a skinned whole calf.
woof.

The noteworthy aspect of the trip was the bus ride home.

the bus pulls up and i note that its totally full... and there are seven of us that need on. So, ok... well just pile in and stand.

I somehow was the last one in line to board the bus... so when i did, the only spot left (aas gestured to me by the driver) was the hump beside his shifter... aka part of the dashboard. right in front of the flapping open door. I laughed internally the whole way home... when i wasnt clinging on for dear life.

Busses here DO NOT drive slow. they swerve in and out of traffic like a porsche... and the top speed we hit was 120 KPH. (i think thats somewhere around 80 MPH.)

Pretty much that bus ride was the most fun of my life... im not sure it can be topped. (unless maybe i had to rise on top of the bus... haha.)

real quick.

I dont have much time... but i thought id just post a quick update.

I saw my first gigantic spider. Literally three inches across... hulking across the floor of our shower. I screamed bloody murder and im not afraid to say it. then i turned around and got the crap scared out of me by a stupid lizard.

It rains so hard here... last night shawna and i had to yell at each other in order to hear what we were saying becuase it was so loud... there was 3 inches of standing water on the patio. its crazy! but really cool.

we had our first bus and taxi ride yesterday. the taxi ride was histerical... basically careening through the overcrowded market in a total rattle trap with no seatbelts. i could not stop laughing. people haul around ANYTHING on the tops o these busses. some guy grabbed a bed off yesterday. haha.

my teacher is really nice... but she is not kidding around! haha... i suppose thats good for me... no slacking or cracking of jokes.

one big laugh.

So, life here is one giant akward moment after one giant awkward moment.

A few examples:

sunday, inez was babbling off about something shawna and i couldnt decifer (whats new?), we were on our way to the park, and she just started rambling off like she wanted us to do something, but we had no idea what... so we went off to the park with a sorry look on our face.

yesterday, she rambled off the same thing, and we finally got that she wanted to take us to meet her family.

so basically we refused to go meet her fam to go to the park.

nice.

we cannot possibly eat all she feeds us. we toss the rest. we are not sure if she knows... is offended... etc. haha. we cannot communicate.

the only person that we can carry some semblance of a convo with is sofia, her two year old great grandaughter.

i have adjusted to the fact that i shower with at least 5 spiders everyday, since the shower is mostly outside. (side note... when a strong gust picks up, tons leaves and outdoor crap blow into our room and on my bed.)

there are lizards everwhere in the house. we have named our two favorites josef and maria. (josef was atttempting to visit me in my bed last night. no bueno.)

anyways, thats the update for now... im attempting to adjust. haha!

No Comprende.

we are all settled in to our host home, without incident.

The houses here are... interesting.

You can pretty much see daylight through cracks betweem where the roof and walls meet up. Our shower is is a concrete stall with a glorified sort of spigot scenario. No hot water. (not that anyone in their right mind would take a hot shower... it was 100 degrees today, with, I don´t know, about ONE THOUSAND percent humidity. I went to bed sweating and haven´t stopped since!

Inez and Carlo, our host, are really nice people though. We like them a lot. We think. They speak ZILCH ENGLISH which isn´t a big deal, in theory, but when you are living in a strangers home, and you can´t communicate a thing, it´s pretty interesting.

We a arrived just in time for the national celebration of independence, that´s tomorrow, and possibly tuesday? I couldn´t get a clear translation on inez´s comments on the whole shenanigan. haha.

oh boy.

this is an adventure.

Bienvenidos!

Well, we made it! we are currently camped out in the airport waiting for our ride... small miscommunication about the fact that we actually got another flight. haha. We had a nice taxi driver take us under his wing while we are waiting... he keeps any unnessessary (hopelessly misspelled...) male attention away. bless him!

Anyway, it's been a long day, on basically no sleep... needless to say I'm looking forward to getting to the house and crashing.

quick update.

Due to the evacuation of Houston, (thanks to hurricane ike. that sucker is going to wreak some havoc when it finally hits...) I received notice that I needed to get my flight re-routed. ( i had a layover in houston tomorrow, and they are closing the airport tomorrow... an obvious problem for my plans of arriving there.)

Post a slight flip-out (...ok... maybe more than slight...) and three hours of attempting to get ahold of the airline... (because everyone and their mother also needed to be rerouted...) I finally got a live person, and the problem has thankfully been solved.

New airline, new layover airport, new day, I now leave on Saturday.

So random. When I first got wind of that storm (no pun intended... really. ike isn't laughing matter...) I had a feeling it was going to be a problem for me! (slash the millions of people who are most likely going to lose their homes. Texas really needs our prayers.)

Hopefully the next update will be from Granada!

dance a tango with chance

Apparently I have decided to head out during the height of hurricane season. (This would happen to be. bah!)

I wouldn't mind a few prayers that none of these level three and above (of which there have been three swirling in that area in the last week.) storms hit Nicaragua in the next week or so. (well, really, the rest of the season would be fine with me too...)

I don't want my flight cancelled though... and I have a layover in Texas, so please just focus your prayers on the Gulf and Caribbean waters.

I leave in SIX days. wow.

:)

trial pack:

done.

3 months of living, shoved in a backpack.


It really puts life into perspective when you have all you will really need to live for months on end neatly rolled into one bag.

wretched northern hemisphere...

I discovered yesterday, while looking at a map... that i won't be getting to the other side of the equator as i thought i would be. That little beezy is quite a bit further south than i'm heading... (let's not talk about my lack of geographical knowledge made evident by this little shock moment.)

somehow i really had my heart set on seeing the toilets flush the other way... and whatever other eccentricities come of 'the other side'

plus i'm just a nerd and would like to stand with one foot on each side.

it would've been ten times the excitement i felt when i crossed the continental divide. haha!

thoughts on packing

I drug sven out the other day to get him ready for his up and coming sprint to a new scene... and was struck with one thought, and one thought only.

"How is this pack so small?" and at the same time... "cooper, get yourself ready for the weight on your back of all the crap you'll deem neccessarry to be hauled around."

I've been thinking of things i need to bring, and have a semi-un-final list running through my head... and the second i slapped eyes on my buddy i realized how much crap needs to be scratched off my list! I absolutely refuse to heft around a 40 lb. pack again... it's almost technically more than i should carry, and i just big fat don't want to.

As always, I am trying to work myself into leaving my higher maintenance items at home... but somehow i just refuse to go anywhere without a giant can of mousse and an equally large and in charge can of hair spray. And i especially won't be caught dead in the tropics with this ethnic hair and nothing to tame it. (go ahead and call me vain, if you don't i will. let's just blame it on my childhood, and the name 'afro-child' being flung my way.)

I hear myself giving shawna the relevant advice of bringing a small container of shampoo, and then buying more down there... when all along i am thinking, how am i going to fit my vat of vegan shampoo and conditioner in my bag? i can't go without it!

Needless to say, i have somewhat of a whopping battle ahead of myself in terms of what i will allow myself to be talked out of. (and believe me... talking this stubborn idiot out of anything is a feat. even for myself...haha)

I definitely learned quite a bit by trial and error about what i actually did need, and what i only thought i'd need, and how many clothes i actually NEVER need... but somehow i'm fighting myself on this. haha.

maybe because it's 3 months this time instead of just 6 weeks??

who knows...

what i do know is that i need to stop myself before i pack the third bottle of mousse *cause what if i run out and then my hair looks permanently like i stuck my finger in a light socket as a means of blowdrying?* *shudder*

26 days.

until this gringo hits granada.

I CAN'T WAIT!