Campo Adventures!

We just returned from a great adventure this week, where we spent two nights in the community of El Jocote.  On Monday evening, we arrived in the midst of a seven-day streak of rain... That streak did not let us down, as it began to downpour soon after we got off of the truck.  We almost couldn't get to our final destination after the many "bumps" in the road. 

First off, the normal school bus wasn't running because of the road conditions.  Instead, a big truck with two metal bench seats on either side was our mode of transportation.  We left Teustepe at 1:20 pm, earlier than normal, and luckily we found out it was leaving early, otherwise we would have missed it again.  We tried leaving on Sunday, but the truck left early and we missed it.  Thirty minutes into our journey we had to stop for 40 minutes as the bus driver had to fix the breaks or something like that.  He was running down to the river with a bucket and the rest of us stood by waiting and watching the pigs and chickens.  Ah yes, campo life!  We have learned to have lots of patience, and to not be in a hurry to get anywhere when we are traveling in the campo, otherwise we would be dealing with many frustrations.

We loaded up and off we went as the tires left the pavement for rocky roads ahead.  I counted about 25 adults and 10 children in total riding in the truck, along with the various sacks of rice, liters of oil, 2 bags of bread from the bakery, and the basics from town going home with individuals.  We bounced around and slid into each other as we all chuckled to ourselves about how bumpy our ride was.  There were about three river crossings, which bounced most of us out of our seats.  As we neared the final stop in the community of El Espino, there was a particularly muddy area where the truck got stuck.  The mud delayed us only about ten minutes, and luckily the driver had some wood blocks stored in the truck for that very purpose.

At El Espino we unloaded and put on our rubber boots for the 40 minute walk into El Jocote.  Cynthia, a teacher in El Jocote was also riding with us, so we had company on our journey.  She and her co-teacher, Alonzo, both live in Teustepe and travel into El Jocote on Sundays and return to their homes on Fridays.  They make the trek weekly, and spend the whole week in El Jocote.  Off we went as the thunder started booming in the distance and grey clouds rolled in.  Within five minutes it started pouring rain.  Luckily we were prepared with our rubber boots, rain jackets and umbrellas.  Nate gave his umbrella to Cynthia as she was unprepared and in her sneakers!

The path deteriorated and eventually became a small river flowing in the direction we were walking.  The rain was persistent and by 5 pm we were walking into El Jocote and were breathing a sigh of relief that we had finally arrived.  Then we reached the final quebrada (stream) and it was rushing like we had never seen it before.  Nate slowly tested the depth and it was nearing the top of his rubber boots before he was even in the middle.  We stood there in the pouring rain separated from the majority of the community.  We walked up the hill to a house and waited out the rain for 20 minutes.  We chatted with the family as the father de-kerneled his corn in preparation for future tortillas.  Once the rain stopped, we waited until the stream went down a bit, and we set off again to cross at another location.  The whole family went with us to see us on our way.  The father rolled up his pants and went in barefoot with a stick to help us across.  Nate went first and the water went over the top of his boots!  On the other side, we took off our boots and emptied a bucket of river water out them.  By sunset, we arrived to Angela's house-wet, muddy and with soggy boots!  Even though we were soaking wet, the family was so excited to see us.

We had a full day on Tuesday visiting many families and running into others and chatting along the way.  We met with every committee member (5 people) in their homes and then had a meeting all together in the afternoon.  It felt like a really productive day and we caught up with many.  The evenings were spent watching the family's telenovela (soap opera) from 7-8 pm.  On Tuesday night for our first time, we watched a Vicente Fernández movie from Mexico.  This man is a legend in the campo. He’s an actor and a singer from Mexico.  Almost any house we go into, families have a giant poster of Vicente Fernández wearing a huge sombrero.  The posters show him either standing by a white horse or holding a rooster.  It was about time we watched one of his movies and heard some of his songs.  (I couldn't find the same posters they have in the campo, but the album cover below will at least give you an idea!)

We woke up at 5 am Wednesday morning and put our boots on for our journey home.  Luckily, it wasn’t raining and our friend Freddy hiked out with us.  We left in the truck and mid-way through switched to the school bus as the roads improved slightly.  All in all, it was a great adventure and memories from the campo that we won’t forget.  

Morning sueños

Four little piggies on the search for breakfast.

Liz and Katy

Path ways where we walk.

A novel way of keeping your cat out of trouble.

Juan Jose's corn field in El Jocote.

 

May & June Highlights

Sorry this post is about two months old.  I wanted to add on the low points of May and June but never finished!  So for this post, you'll just hear the positive!  I recently read our friends and fellow MCC’ers, Adam and Marisa Clymer-Shank’s blog (http://theclanks.wordpress.com/) and could totally relate to some of their points in their June post.  I decided it was about time to post something on our blog in attempts to share a bit of our recent lives with you all.  Although, now it's August and there are more updates to share with you.  I will try to do that soon and actually post it!  It’s hard to know what to say sometimes when so many things are swirling around in my head, so I decided to take Marisa’s approach, and post the top five good times we have experienced in May and June.  Hope it helps to get a little idea of where we’ve been recently.  We would appreciate your continued support through e-mails, letters, thoughts, prayers, phone calls, etc.  We need the encouragement and positive words to keep us going at times.

Exciting/Positive/Adventurous times

We have had some real opportunities to celebrate and travel to new places in Nicaragua.  It has been a real blessing and definitely refreshes our spirits to get away or to celebrate locally with friends.

1. Family visiting (May 31^st-June 9^th)!  Nate’s dad, two aunts and one uncle came to see us.  We had many amazing adventures with them!  Including (but not limited to):  cooking and hanging out in our home for three nights in Teustepe, having coffee with MCC friends in the MCC office, visiting two communities where we work, meeting families that we work with and eating a real campo lunch, hiking in one of Nicaragua’s largest nature reserves, seeing orchids, butterflies, monkeys, and a sleeping sloth, driving to the top and hiking around Mombacho Volcano, seeing leather goods and cigar production in Estelí, climbing bell towers in the colonial city of Granada and visiting artisans who make pottery for Ten Thousand Villages in a small village of San Juan del Oriente.  We feel so blessed to have wonderful family and happy that they could come to visit us!   

Norm, Liz, Nan, Nadine and Dwayne enjoying lunch in the campo.

Are you stuck in the mud Dwayne?

Nate, Nan, Dwayne, Liz, Nadine and Norm in Malacatoya!

 

2. Celebrating Nate’s 32^nd birthday on amazing white-sand beaches in southern Nicaragua at the end of May.  We got away with two other MCC couples for a beach weekend!  It was gorgeous—pristine beaches hardly occupied, with crystal-clear waters.  Temperatures were perfect and our hotel was beautiful, complete with a pool and kitchen for cooking our dinners!  We had so much fun and needed the R&R!  

Matilda's Beach was our favorite!

Chilling at a café on a sufer beach!

White sands and clear waters=pure heaven!

3. Neko our kitty!  We’ve had Neko since April 14^th and he is a super-sweet, spunky, playful cat!  He was just two months old and so tiny when we took him home.  He has grown a lot since then and enjoys his life with us.  He is great entertainment and cheers us up when we need a good laugh.

Little Neko (8 weeks) and not sure what to do with an ice cube.

Neko (3 months) sneaking onto the guest bed!

Neko loves sleeping in many funny positions!

4. Patron Saint Festivals in Teustepe in May!  Santa Rita is our local saint and her special day of the year is May 22^nd.  Every year there are big celebrations in her honor.  The week before is kicked off with a horse parade.  It’s a beautiful event, in that horses from all over the country arrive in our little town of Teustepe.  It is great people watching too, and don’t forget to wear your plaid shirts and cowboy boots and hat to the event!  Our friends, Adam and Marisa spent the weekend with us for the horse parades.  The following weekend, our friends Kevin and Cassie spent the weekend seeing the festivities.  We went to see bull riding in the stadium, which is a cultural highlight for many.

Adam and Nate enjoying the hípica (horse parade).

Marisa and Liz, next year's Toña girls!

The rodeo was quite exciting this year!

5. Celebrating Nicaraguan Mother’s Day (May 30) with our neighbor’s family in Teustepe.  I continually love seeing the close-knit ties of family in Latino culture.  It can be so sweet and often more expressive than in American culture.  We felt honored to be able to spend this special day with three generations.

Rosario with her grandsons Jazmil and Hector.

Asusena with her boy, Hector.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wild Weekend in El Jocote

Last weekend we spent three nights in the community of El Jocote where we work.  It is always an adventure going to these communities, with unexpected new experiences.  I thought I would share our highlights and low points to give you a taste of what we experience when we are in the campo

Highlights

1. Restful sleep!  We had three solid nights of sleep on a hard full bed.  Let’s just say we were fortunate to have a full size bed for the two of us and not a twin cot!  Mattresses are thin and pillows are hard, but one adjusts the best they can!  We had about nine hours of sleep every night and it was great!

Nate working on the porch with a view.

2. Laughter!  Our gracious host, Marta, gave us coffee and a piece of sweet bread (baked locally) for breakfast on their porch with an amazing view.  I sat my bread down on the bench for a second to adjust my cup of coffee in my hand and their small cat saw the opportunity and took the whole piece of bread in it’s mouth and ran!  Nate yelled and I turned to grab my bread out of the cat’s mouth before it got away. Only an edge was chomped on, so I ripped it off and fed it to the defeated cat, while I enjoyed my sweet bread and coffee!  It was quite the comical act!
   

   

   Lineth seeing how heavy the turkey weighted.

3. New connections!  We had the opportunity to visit many new families as we were working on collecting data through surveys on reforestation.  So we talked with new people, and learned more about their families and their passions.  It was great, and we met some real characters!
   

   

   Joselyn interviewing Asunción who was quite the talker at 78.

4. The best pinolillo I’ve ever had!  Note:  Pinolillo is a typical Nicaraguan drink, made from toasted, ground corn; ground spices:  cinnamon, cloves, black pepper; and ground cacao (where chocolate comes from).

One woman who I had met before and talked with is such a fiery one at age 78.  I made it my goal to visit her!  I had heard from another AsoFénix intern, that Angela’s pinolillo was the best in El Jocote, so I wanted to see for myself.  I went to visit her with my journalist, Joselyn, and we interviewed her for one of our surveys.  She was a bit sick, yet still as animated as ever.  Seeing her and hearing her talk puts such a smile on my face.  We were getting ready to go and I was disappointed that she hadn’t offered her famous pinolillo yet.  So we said goodbye, and I walked outside to admire a huge guanacaste tree that is simply beautiful behind her house.  She talked about the tree for a while and then she did the drinking motion with her hand to her mouth (a Nicaraguan thing) and asked if I would have something to drink.  I accepted and can confirm that she does have the best pinolillo in El Jocote and probably the best I have ever had in my time here in Nicaragua.  It was great and we chatted more in her house and she wouldn’t let me leave until she refilled my glass once more. 

The HUGE guanacaste tree under Angela's home.

5. Cooler temperatures!  I thought it was still pretty hot, but Nate thought it was nice.  Nights cooled off and that was refreshing.  There was one brief rain that also cooled us off in the afternoon.

 

Low Points

1. Too much food!!  Nicaraguans just don’t understand that we Americans don’t eat as much as they do!  It is a constant struggle when we go to the campo.  I wrote a blog post about this back in November.  Read it, if you haven’t already!   http://transitiontimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/too-much-food.html

2. Latrines.  I will say no more, but if you want a story, ask us!

3. Sad news.  The previous Sunday (17^th) there was at least 7 hours of rain.  It was a torrential downpour in Teustepe and the surrounding area.  Rivers rise quickly and can be really dangerous, and people are swept away every year during the rainy season.  On Monday 18^th we learned that the bus driver’s father from El Espino had died in the river that night.  El Espino is a community about 1.5 hours from Teustepe.  We have to take the bus to El Espino and then walk 40 minutes to get to El Jocote.  We arrived to El Jocote on a Friday (22^nd) and therefore this was the main news buzzing around the community.  We heard several versions and police are investigating the cause of death.  One version:  the man in his mid-fifties was on his horse at night.  He had been drinking and crossed the river not realizing how high it was.  The river washed him downstream and his horse made it out and returned home without the man.  The next morning community members found the man dead, his head badly bruised.  The second version (which was more speculation) was that he was beaten, robbed, and left to die in the river.  No matter which version was really true, it’s a sad story! 

4. Corre de Gallos (running of the roosters).  So we worked a very long day on Saturday and were looking forward to a quiet Sunday in El Jocote.  The natural beauty is abundant and peaceful moments in nature can be found.  Sunday morning came and we learned that the 24^th of July is Día de San Juan (the day of Saint John).  It is celebrated with the Corre de Gallos.  One would think, okay, it’s a chicken race of some kind, this should be fun to watch, right?  No, not the case at all! 

Men from the community tie a rope across the main road, from which they hang a live rooster by its feet at the height of 8-10 feet off the ground.  The goal of this traditional activity is to have your horse at a gallop as you run by the rooster hanging in the road.  The object is to grab the rooster’s head and pull it off.  This takes a long time to do.  Many men on horses have to gallop by and grab this poor rooster’s head before it actually falls off and bleeds to death.  They first did this with a large duck and then a rooster!  It was a terrible scene to see.  Not to mention, the house we were at had a perfect view of this whole scene and they put on the loudest music to accompany the activity.  Nate and I could not take much of this scene, nor tolerate the deafening music.  We went on a walk and found rocks to sit on for two hours while we waited out their game. 

Note:  This has been a tradition in communities in Nicaragua for as long as people can remember.  In older days, they used to bury the live rooster and just have the neck and head sticking out of the ground.  They would then blindfold the player and give them a machete, and with music playing, they would have to dance around and try to find the rooster’s head by swinging around their machete.  You can imagine the injuries that occurred, plus add a little alcohol into the game and it becomes a dangerous tradition.  They stopped doing this in most places and now do it as described above.  

Stone wall and pathway where we walked.

View of Catholic church from Toño's porch, where we stayed.

Little puppy sleeping in the sun.

12 piglets and 12 teets.

Elberto, Liz & Nate checking out the inside of the water tank.

One full bus in a small world

Yesterday we had a full day in the AsoFénix office in Managua.  We left our house at 6:05 am to catch a taxi in town to take us to the highway.  That was about a half-hour wait and then waiting for the bus did not take long at all.  We hopped on and it was empty!!  What a nice surprise for once!  We found seats in the front and were able to work on the bus as we commuted into the capital. 

We got off at the airport and bought latte’s to jump-start our day, which is a rare treat!  Later we walked to the office, just ten minutes away.  We met in our outdoors “conference area” which has a tin roof in full sun.  From 8:30 am to 12:30 pm we were sweating like crazy in the humid heat in our meeting with three others.  The day went well and we were able to accomplish a lot, so that felt really good!  To be honest, we cannot usually say our office visits are that great, so it was refreshing to have a positive and productive day there! 

We left the office to catch a bus home in front of the airport at 4:30 pm.  It was taking forever to catch a bus and we were standing in the beating, hot sun with our heavy backpacks filled with clean laundry and laptops!  Finally a Boaco bus stops for us, but only sees us at the last minute and goes way beyond where we were standing.  We thought, "well, got passed again by a bus," but then he stopped.  We ran the equivalent of a block to catch the bus as it was waiting on us!  Have in mind that this is an old school bus from the states, so the back emergency door is used as a normal entrance to the bus. We climbed up into the back of the bus and it starts rolling before our feet even left the pavement.  The ayudante (bus helper) began yelling and shoving us into the people in front of us as we could hardly fit.  It was horrible and I told the ayudante that this was ridiculous and I wanted to get off because it was so full, and Nate still had his butt hanging out the back door as we were going.  So they keep yelling at people to move to the front (even though it's full throughout) and keep shoving us further into the bus.  It was a headache!  So we make our way through to the middle with our two big backpacks on our shoulders.  We find a little area to stand and I see a clearing in the luggage rack above but several people down.  Sine I couldn’t reach from where I was standing, I beg the young guy with headphones to help me get our backpacks up on the rack.  He did and we breathed a sigh of relief.  It was so hot and we were packed in the metal bus like a can of sardines.  All windows were open, yet everyone was sweating profusely.

I try to make a little more room for myself and note the woman on the seat below me is on the edge of her seat taking up precious inches of isle room where I could stand.  I was annoyed by her, and thought, why is she trying to take up even more space when she has a seat!  I commented to Nate in English how she was pushing into my legs and kept inching off the seat in my direction.  As I continued to access why she was being that way, I realized there was something (sticky, perhaps?) on the middle of her seat and she was avoiding sitting in it.  Okay, more reason to not be annoyed with her. 

The ride continues, and then the five-gallon buckets lying on their side near Nate start dripping oil onto the woman below us.  Mystery solved as to what was on her seat, but now it was slowly dripping on her face and clothes.  The leaking buckets were not claimed by anyone, nor did anyone pitch in to help out when she asked for a rag.  My backpack was too far to reach to get some tissues.  Nate, the woman and I all felt helpless in the situation.  Finally the man beside me left and I could move a little closer to my bags to reach the handy wet ones I keep there in case of random instances as such.  So I passed wet ones out to the woman and Nate as they were cleaning up the mess. 

As soon as the woman wiped up herself and her seat, she offered me the edge of her seat to share with her and her daughter.  I kindly accepted and thought back to how I was annoyed with this woman just twenty minutes earlier and now she was offering me an edge of her seat on the bus.  It goes to show how a small act of kindness can go a long way!

We began talking and she asked me which state I was from.  I said, Colorado and she was so surprised.  She lived in Westminster, Colorado for nine years (a fifteen-minute drive from Boulder).  She was working in a McDonald's on Federal for nine years and living with her husband and daughter.  She was back in Nicaragua for two months to visit her family. She grew up in a small community called San Diego (about 20 minutes from us in Teustepe), but has lived in the states for 14 years.  I work with several women in San Diego and we discovered one woman was her neighbor and she went to high school with her.  Such a small world!  We were both floored as we shared these details and talked for over a half hour, sharing a seat in a very full bus. 

Thank you, Selmira for sharing your seat with me on the bus.  It was great to hear your stories and share experiences with you.  Sometimes it is these chance encounters that make our lives richer and help us to realize how interconnected we are in this small world. 

Celebrating one year and nine months in Nicaragua!!

It's been awhile since we've updated our blog, but Liz tries to keep our photo blog up-to-date every few months!  

They say, a photo is worth a thousand words...  

well, here's a million words for you!

 

http://transitiontimes.shutterfly.com/

Malacatoya

Last week we spent four nights and five days in the community of Malacatoya, in the county of San Jose de los Remates, about 1.5 hours north of Teustepe.  It was an amazing week after the stress and unknowns leading up to it the week before.  We were asked about a week earlier by our boss to lead a group of three MIT students and their leader for the week in Malacatoya.  We were not super excited about the idea because we usually don’t lead groups, and we had very short notice to plan all the logistics on their limited budget.  In perfect AsoFénix style, we pulled it all together and the week went very smoothly with my attention to detail, Nate’s calm presence and the efforts of individuals in the community that helped me organize logistics with the group.  

The engineering students were looking into future projects of machines that they could build to help people with their work in the community.  AsoFénix has various projects in Malacatoya, including three tilapia ponds used to grow and produce fish for the community, with potential to sell as a small business.  Unfortunately, for various reasons the fish were not growing to size (one pound) to sell.  So the students focused on this project to investigate the reasons why the tilapia weren’t growing.  They tested water temperature at various depths over the course of 24 hours in two ponds. Additionally, they took water samples in all three ponds to see various levels of oxygen, nitrates, etc.  They will read the data upon their return home and give us their full report of their findings.  They also installed two bottle lights in a dark kitchen.  (For more info, read here link.)  Overall, it went well with the group and they were relaxed and fun.

Highlights:

• The family we stayed with was wonderful!  It was the home of one of my journalists, Elicelda.  Her whole family had a great sense of humor and we were constantly joking around with them all.  Her parents Aniberto and Claudia were super sweet and spunky, and her brothers Ronald and Donald accompanied us to various places within the community.
• They actually had a real bathroom with a flush toilet, a sink and shower with a concrete floor.  The first I have ever seen in the campo!!
• Malacatoya was so green and lush on all the mountainous hills surrounded us, a huge contrast to dry Teustepe!  We wondered through the family’s 10 acres of organic coffee trees, citrus trees and passion fruit arbors.  It was amazing and I felt like I was living in the jungle! 
• Had several sightings of howler monkeys hanging out in the trees in the afternoons. 
• The MIT group leader was an avid birder and with his keen eye, we saw so many wonderful birds:  one dozen keel-billed toucans, one black-headed trogon, scissor-tailed kites and broad-tailed hawks gliding in the thermals and various hummingbirds.
• It was cool in the evenings (low 60’s) and the days were in the 80’s, a refreshing change from the rising temperatures (90’s) of Teustepe and Managua.      
• We hiked to the micro-hydro turbine that AsoFénix installed to provide electricity for the community of about 40 houses.  The group learned about this project and nearby we visited a beautiful waterfall and went for a swim. 
• Every night we went to a neighbor’s house and watched their favorite tele novela (soap opera) with about 10 others in their small, dark living room with dirt floors and a parakeet. 

Challenges:

• We ate many heaping platefuls of rice and beans with cuajada and tortillas.  I was never hungry the whole week we there!
• We slept on hard, uncomfortable beds for four nights and have sore hips and backs from it still.
• We woke up to howler monkeys “singing” or a baby calf crying for its mother at 5 am every day!!
• Working with individuals who are outside of their context to be culturally sensitive to others. 
• Working with individuals who act privileged and are demanding of others within their host country.  Trying to accommodate others while being sensitive to community members needs. 

We are thankful for the friendships we made in Malacatoya and the wonderfully hospitable people that not only put up with, but welcome foreigners into their homes.  It always feels good when we are leaving a place and people ask us when we will come back!  We are planning ways to get back to Malacatoya again soon!

Nate and Ronald hanging out!

The calf we woke up to every morning!

Ronald and Orlando catching tilapia to see the sizes.

Nate and Liz posing at sunset in a bean field.

A wheel and a stick = a good time!

Donald, Lionel, Liz relaxing in the shade. 

Oranges on the tree!

Black-headed trogan!

MIT students measuring water temps.

Donald, Ronald, Liz and Nate at a waterfall!

Halfway Mark!

Liz & Nate enjoying the waterfall and beauty in Malacatoya.

On the 22^nd of March, we hit our halfway mark for our time here in Nicaragua with MCC!!  It’s hard to believe that we have been here in Nicaragua for 1 year and 6 months!  In some ways it feels like we’ve been here forever and this is just our life now, and in other ways I feel like the time has gone by so fast!  It’s weird how time can go so slow in the moment sometimes, yet feel so fast overall!

We have in many ways become accustomed to our lives here in Nicaragua and things feel generally normal but mundane would never describe it!  We live with no daily routines (expect maybe for making coffee every morning).  Our travels keep us moving—from visits to communities and trips to Managua, our weeks and months are filled.  It’s exhausting sometimes, packing, unpacking, repacking and repeat.  I guess we find some kind of routine in all of this, at least we know what we need to take where and what we can do without.     

It has been quite the journey indeed, and family and friends keep reminding me of this!  What was once our norms in the states, feels so foreign and far away to me now.  The norms that we have been accustomed to in Nicaragua probably seem so unnatural and foreign to our family and friends in the states.  All the things or foods we once needed and couldn’t live without are now rarely thought of as we prepare our meals.  It is interesting to see how this process has evolved from foreign to familiar. 

Additionally, it’s been interesting to observe how we have changed our expectations, ideas and ideals, and our outlook over the last year and a half.  There are stages and seasons to the process as we became accustomed to our lives in Nicaragua.  Adjusting to daily frustrations (big and small), finding patience when the timing is not what you expected, going to plan b, c, or d when plans are not working out, encountering the little joys that daily life can unveil if you look for it, sitting and chatting with the unexpected visitors that appear at our door as we are trying to leave, seeing the genuine smiles of individuals as you pass, and listening to people’s life stories as they open up to you.

All of these things we have experienced here have impacted us in some small or large way.  It is these experiences that we draw from as we try to make sense of the absurdity, chaos, and challenges that we are presented with.  At times, it seems impossible to make sense of situations, specifically relating to poverty.  I see signs of poverty all around me, yet I don’t know how to change any of it.  It becomes numbing in ways because there is no sense to it.  Yet we try to draw on the positive experiences and interactions we’ve had with individuals in the communities where we work.  We try to see change not in drastic numbers and sweeping line graphs, but rather in small steps—steps that are being taken in the right direction towards positive change.  Yes, there are setbacks; yes, we sometimes feel like we’re not moving at all; but if the general direction is moving forward, then that is all we can ask for:  small, positive steps towards growth and change.