As it comes down to my last couple of days here, I feel like I should say that it flew by, or it seems like I got here yesterday, or something equally cliche. But it doesn't. I feel like I have been here for a very long time! It's strange, when you start living in a new place the daily routines you develop. I am a person of habits and rituals and it starts early in the morning, when I stumble down the stairs to start the coffee machine at 5:30 a.m. After making my breakfast, I sit down with Rachelle's laptop to read the New York Times while I eat - and the cat, Robin, has a favorite ritual of sitting on the keyboard, blocking the news and trying to stick her paws into my breakfast.
From there it continues, seeing many of the same people every morning as I make the first branch of my commute, trying to avoid carts and baskets of vegetables as I traipse through the crowded market. Then there's the ride in the minibus, which often takes over an hour as we travel around town picking up different employees at their houses.
I am ashamed at how little of this blog I've devoted to Abigail. I spend every day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Abigail, sometimes more time. That's a lot of time to spend with one person. Abigail is... how do I describe her? She's nineteen years old, but if you see her for the first time, you will think she's eight, until you spend enough time with her and see the nineteen year old come out in her eyes. During the mornings we do art therapy, read stories, do puzzles and legoes, and sometimes just sit outside watching the coconut trees or laughing at the little kids' antics. I also dress her, feed her lunch and snacks, change her diapers, do her hair. Abigail was born with cerebral palsy, which really doesn't slow a person down that much if they are given opportunities and treatment to overcome their difficulties. However, life hasn't been good to Abigail. She never was taught any way to communicate, and since she doesn't speak, the only way she can talk is with her facial expressions. She was abandoned and starving and barely alive when she came to the orphanage less than a year ago, weighing 26 pounds at age 18. Not only does she need a wheelchair, but one of her legs is fused together in a completely bent position from a severe burn, further limiting her movements. Luckily, she will have surgery to fix it in a little over a month. I hesitate to tell people details about Abigail since her story tends to make people sad, but she's not a sad person, nor is she unhealthy or suffering. She loves to work on everything I come up for her for that could pass as therapy, she spends most of the day grinning and is a very caring person who has giggle fits for no reason. I only wanted to share her story so that you have a better understanding of what I've been doing here, and who I spend most of my time with!
Other things I do at the orphanage are teach English to the two oldest boys, who are 12 and 13, and help with the other English classes as well. I play a lot with two kids who have special needs and are very high maintenance and high energy. I spent a lot of time drawing pictures for kids to color, and a lot of afternoons I just like to hang out with whoever is around.
After two months of this, I have become very comfortable there and have enjoyed it a lot, but I am a kind of exhausted that before this I didn't know existed. I sleep very well at night, but it's never enough time and vivid dreams probably induced by malaria medication keep me from getting any rest. That in combination with giving all my time, energy and listening to others has made me ready for a break.
It's funny because I've been complaining so much about being cold here, because it gets below 70 at night. I sleep these days with the windows closed, a sweatshirt on and three blankets on my bed... and it is warmer than summer was in Wisconsin. I'm not exactly sure what next week is going to be like, probably a lot of hot chocolate will be consumed. The weather here is absolutely beautiful though; right when the rainy season was supposed to end, we got a ton of rain from the tropical storms in the Caribbean, so it was just a mudhole here for a while. The first 48 hours that it didn't pour rain, I thought it was some kind of miracle; now it's been over a week since it rained! The skies are clear and blue and it's always windy; warm during the day and "cold" at night.
Last night, the power in the whole city went out for a while, so Rachelle, Megan and I stopped the Harry Potter movie we were watching and sat out in the courtyard, shivering, to look at the brilliant stars. They were beautiful.
Even though there are numerous things I love about my two homes, Washington and Wisconsin, and even though Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and has a poverty level exceeded in the Western Hemisphere only by Haiti, there are still many aspects of Nicaraguan life that make me jealous. Everyone is outside all the time, sitting on the sidewalk in front of their houses eating, chatting with neighbors or just relaxing. Everyone has time to walk without rushing, or sit in the market with acquaintances enjoying a cup of coffee. There are very few real doors on houses, just gates, so there is always fresh air and very little feeling of being shut out. Almost all the food is fresh since refrigeration is not a big thing here and neither is transporting food from other countries. There are many more things I could go on about - life is a struggle here, but it's a beautiful place.
After all this, I think it's a good time for me to leave. I haven't had really any time to myself in three months, I'm usually gone from the house for 10 or 11 hours every day and I'm getting pretty worn out. I'm ready to see my friends and family, and also, anti-American sentiments here are getting stronger every day. I've already received an advisory not to travel to or within Managua this Saturday unless it's essential, and I'm hoping things will have calmed down by the time I go to the airport early Sunday morning. Luckily, I have a ride from my house directly to the airport so I will be safe, but it seems like things are definitely escalating in a bad direction.
Well, sorry this was a ridiculous long blog entry about almost nothing in particular. It's past time for me to go running... will write more after my ziplining experience this weekend.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
This past weekend, all of us took off our volunteer hats and became true tourists, heading to Granada for our first and only trip with everyone in the house. Yes, that's right, Cat, Leo, Uzair, Brett, Megan, Rachelle and I all spent an entire weekend together, and no one killed anyone else. But just barely. Xochilth, a friend of Cat's, came with us too. Xochilth's mom, Ines, is the housekeeper and cook in our house, so she is around a lot, but I'm not so I didn't know her too well. She is a riot and it definitely added an interesting dynamic not having anyone on the same level of Spanish/English proficiency in the group. Fun times translating.
Friday was a super relaxing day for me, which are few and far between these days. After sleeping in a bit and running 10k with Leo, I enjoyed a pancake breakfast and then spent a lazy morning wandering around town before eating an amazing lunch in the house and then heading off to Granada! Granada is a very old colonial city that was built by the Spanish, so basically, when you are there it feels much like you are in Spain! At least, what I imagine Spain is like. Huge churches, clean streets, big stucco houses in bright colors, and tons of restaurants and foreigners. It doesn't feel like the true Nicaragua at all, but is lovely just the same.
When we got to Granada, we headed out to take a boat tour of the 365 isletas (little islands) in Lake Cocibolca, or Lake Nicaragua, whatever you want to call it. It was super fun and interesting to see the islands and wildlife. A lot of islands are owned by Nica or foreign people with a lot of money, so that was interesting. They are very peaceful, especially in the evening when we went on the tour. We then had some delicious shish ke babs at our hostel and headed out for some dancing... unfortunately, it turned into yet another night where three hours after I want to go to bed, everyone else doesn't want to go back and in order to avoid walking through a big city alone at night I am stuck at some stupid club. Sigh... such is life traveling with a group.
The next morning Rachelle, Megan and I got up early and had what I think was one of the best breakfasts of my entire life. I won't go into detail about food too much but it was amazing. Then the group headed out to the Laguna de Apoyo, a lake formed by volcanic craters. The lake is in a protected reserve and no motorboats are allowed on it - it is clean, quiet and beautiful. The water is totally clear and very warm, one of the most beautiful places I have ever swam. I barely got out of the water all day!
One of the tourist highlights was the Masaya Volcano night tour. I have been waiting for this Granada trip since orientation week, and I was the only one in the house who hadn't been there yet, so it was all quite exciting. We hiked around part of an active crater that was smoking, which was a bit rough on the lungs, and then hiked up a trail to the top of the Masaya volcano (we had driven up most of it, so not that intense). We watched the sunset over Managua from there, then went down to some caves, one of which was full of bats and one of which we got to walk into. It was pretty cool because the roots of this huge pepper tree grew all the way through the walls of the cave and help keep the walls stable! Sweet! The last stop was to see some lava glowing in the dark. No big deal....
When we got back to Granada, I had a truly lovely meal with Megan, Brett and Rachelle. The tensions with certain other members of our house don't exist between the four of us, and we actually had some interesting conversations that I was able to contribute to which is not usually the case. (I hate listening to music with headphones, but with the whole group it's actually a habit I have gotten into quite frequently, let's just say). We went to a restaurant that was said to be the best pizza in Nicaragua, and while I haven't eaten much pizza here I'm pretty sure it's true. After that perfection, I went straight to bed.
Today after breakfast we spent some time touring the city, which is gorgeous and quite peaceful. We climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower, which provided us with a beautiful view of the city and was really fun even though we had to pay $1 (ridiculously overpriced for Nicaragua). While wandering around the park I met up with a street kid named Jose who I had bought breakfast for earlier that morning. He introduced me to his siblings and I was able to buy them some more food and hang out a bit more with my new adorable and cheerful friends. Yes, it is sometimes depressing to live in a country with so much poverty, but the atmosphere here is not nearly as hopeless as you would think, and I sort of have to learn to live with the fact that as only one person I can only make the most miniscule of dents in making the world better, and that sometimes I have to accept that that's all I can do for now.
Anyway, the other two girls and I walked down to the lake and ate fresh coconuts - people sell them with the tough shell taken off, you poke a hole in it with a straw, drink the milk out and then eat the coconut meat. It's delicious. It was SO hot in Granada! Like summer starting all over again.
This past week, the rain finally stopped, and it is heating up again. I think we have had now five or six days with only one rainstorm, whereas before last Wednesday it had rained every single day for over a month, I'm estimating probably about six weeks. The rainy season is supposed to be over, but due to the tropical storms in the Caribbean that I'm sure you have heard about (they are now heading North) we have been getting TONS of rain.
So tomorrow, I am heading back for my last week at the orphanage. Kind of hard to believe. I'm not starting to think yet about saying good-bye to the kids, but to be honest, I have been thinking a lot about getting home. I'm feeling ecstatic about the idea of seeing my family and some of my friends, and being able to talk to the rest of my friends on the phone at least. I'm sure that I will miss Nicaragua a lot, but it will also be good to just plain be home, blend in, have my own space, go skiing, and spend some time with family.
Well, thank you for reading, as always. and I will see some of you very soon! One week from now I will be in Chicago!
Friday was a super relaxing day for me, which are few and far between these days. After sleeping in a bit and running 10k with Leo, I enjoyed a pancake breakfast and then spent a lazy morning wandering around town before eating an amazing lunch in the house and then heading off to Granada! Granada is a very old colonial city that was built by the Spanish, so basically, when you are there it feels much like you are in Spain! At least, what I imagine Spain is like. Huge churches, clean streets, big stucco houses in bright colors, and tons of restaurants and foreigners. It doesn't feel like the true Nicaragua at all, but is lovely just the same.
When we got to Granada, we headed out to take a boat tour of the 365 isletas (little islands) in Lake Cocibolca, or Lake Nicaragua, whatever you want to call it. It was super fun and interesting to see the islands and wildlife. A lot of islands are owned by Nica or foreign people with a lot of money, so that was interesting. They are very peaceful, especially in the evening when we went on the tour. We then had some delicious shish ke babs at our hostel and headed out for some dancing... unfortunately, it turned into yet another night where three hours after I want to go to bed, everyone else doesn't want to go back and in order to avoid walking through a big city alone at night I am stuck at some stupid club. Sigh... such is life traveling with a group.
The next morning Rachelle, Megan and I got up early and had what I think was one of the best breakfasts of my entire life. I won't go into detail about food too much but it was amazing. Then the group headed out to the Laguna de Apoyo, a lake formed by volcanic craters. The lake is in a protected reserve and no motorboats are allowed on it - it is clean, quiet and beautiful. The water is totally clear and very warm, one of the most beautiful places I have ever swam. I barely got out of the water all day!
One of the tourist highlights was the Masaya Volcano night tour. I have been waiting for this Granada trip since orientation week, and I was the only one in the house who hadn't been there yet, so it was all quite exciting. We hiked around part of an active crater that was smoking, which was a bit rough on the lungs, and then hiked up a trail to the top of the Masaya volcano (we had driven up most of it, so not that intense). We watched the sunset over Managua from there, then went down to some caves, one of which was full of bats and one of which we got to walk into. It was pretty cool because the roots of this huge pepper tree grew all the way through the walls of the cave and help keep the walls stable! Sweet! The last stop was to see some lava glowing in the dark. No big deal....
When we got back to Granada, I had a truly lovely meal with Megan, Brett and Rachelle. The tensions with certain other members of our house don't exist between the four of us, and we actually had some interesting conversations that I was able to contribute to which is not usually the case. (I hate listening to music with headphones, but with the whole group it's actually a habit I have gotten into quite frequently, let's just say). We went to a restaurant that was said to be the best pizza in Nicaragua, and while I haven't eaten much pizza here I'm pretty sure it's true. After that perfection, I went straight to bed.
Today after breakfast we spent some time touring the city, which is gorgeous and quite peaceful. We climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower, which provided us with a beautiful view of the city and was really fun even though we had to pay $1 (ridiculously overpriced for Nicaragua). While wandering around the park I met up with a street kid named Jose who I had bought breakfast for earlier that morning. He introduced me to his siblings and I was able to buy them some more food and hang out a bit more with my new adorable and cheerful friends. Yes, it is sometimes depressing to live in a country with so much poverty, but the atmosphere here is not nearly as hopeless as you would think, and I sort of have to learn to live with the fact that as only one person I can only make the most miniscule of dents in making the world better, and that sometimes I have to accept that that's all I can do for now.
Anyway, the other two girls and I walked down to the lake and ate fresh coconuts - people sell them with the tough shell taken off, you poke a hole in it with a straw, drink the milk out and then eat the coconut meat. It's delicious. It was SO hot in Granada! Like summer starting all over again.
This past week, the rain finally stopped, and it is heating up again. I think we have had now five or six days with only one rainstorm, whereas before last Wednesday it had rained every single day for over a month, I'm estimating probably about six weeks. The rainy season is supposed to be over, but due to the tropical storms in the Caribbean that I'm sure you have heard about (they are now heading North) we have been getting TONS of rain.
So tomorrow, I am heading back for my last week at the orphanage. Kind of hard to believe. I'm not starting to think yet about saying good-bye to the kids, but to be honest, I have been thinking a lot about getting home. I'm feeling ecstatic about the idea of seeing my family and some of my friends, and being able to talk to the rest of my friends on the phone at least. I'm sure that I will miss Nicaragua a lot, but it will also be good to just plain be home, blend in, have my own space, go skiing, and spend some time with family.
Well, thank you for reading, as always. and I will see some of you very soon! One week from now I will be in Chicago!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Now that I actually have something to write about -
This weekend was quite amazing, a highlight of my trip so far! Rachelle, Megan and I woke up at 4 on Friday to leave the house in the dark to catch the 5:15 bus to Masaya, where we hopped on a bus that I thought was going to Matagalpa but we misheard and it was actually going to Juigalpa! (completely in the opposite direction). Luckily, the kind souls on the bus figured it out before we did and got us on the right bus heading North.. These are chicken buses, abandoned school buses from North America that are completely crammed with people and the goods they are taking to some market or another to sell. The drive up was stunning, and the closest thing I can compare it to is Central/Eastern Washington. Huge, steep hills, most of the vegetation short, almost no people, just fields and mountains. It is beautiful! and looks nothing like any part of Nicaragua I've seen so far. There are even pine trees!
We arrived in the city of Matagalpa when it was still early. Matagalpa is, also, unlike anything I have seen in Nicaragua. It has a very gritty, cowboy-town ish feel, but is actually a big city and is built into the mountains so you can see rows of houses stacked up on the hills surrounding the main downtown area. SOOOO pretty! We didn't see much at first though, because we took off for a small town called San Ramon, where we made arrangements to visit a small community nearby. We hiked up a dirt road to meet our guide, a girl about our age dressed in a pink skirt and shirt and pink sandals who still managed to look very clean after we left the road to hike up a trail through a field and crossing a river, the only way to reach the village. We met the girl's family and put our backpacks in a room off of their house where we would be staying. After a short tour of the tiny village, population 280, we ate lunch at the local school teacher's house and then spent most of the afternoon relaxing and wandering around. Several naps were included as we hadn't slept much the night before! After dinner, we practically went straight to bed.
The next morning, we all woke up around five but took the rare opportunity to linger in our beds for a couple hours longer. After breakfast, we headed out with two girls from the village to learn about coffee harvesting. We picked coffee for about an hour, putting the small red fruits in baskets tied around our waists. Then we walked to a roofed area with several levels of cement tiers and learned how the coffee is processed. It's kind of hard to explain so I will tell you in detail if you want to know, just ask me and I will try to remember!
Basically, this community along with a few others in the area have transformed their coffee farm into a fair trade cooperative and they host tourists for the extra income and so that people who enjoy drinking coffee can see how it is grown and processed.
We then went on a hike, first stopping to taste cacao fruit (the plant that chocolate comes from) and then continuing to a lookout about halfway up a nearby mountain. It was raining the whole time and we couldn't see the whole view due to clouds, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We climbed down a muddy bean field back to the house, where we packed up, ate lunch and started the very muddy hike back to San Ramon.
After a bus ride back to Matagalpa, a long walk, and asking for directions about 17 times (a good average for every trip) we found a nice, quiet hotel off a park. After some much-needed showers, we found a great restaurant that had huge appetizers big enough for dinners, and sat up on a balcony to watch the lights on the hills while we ate. We stopped at a bakery to try some local desserts, then passed out while watching Sleepless in Seattle in our hotel room - little piece of home! Today we wanted to visit the famous coffee museum in Matagalpa, but it was unfortunately closed for renovations, so instead we walked around the city, enjoying its uniqute beauty.
Public transportation in most areas of Nicaragua is remarkable, but if you don't live in a main city and want to travel somewhere far like Matagalpa, it can be a bit difficult because of schedules and transfers. We thought our only options for getting back were sleeping in Leon tonight, which would involve both arriving and leaving in the dark, or taking a taxi in Managua to a different bus station, which is extremely dangerous. Luckily, with advice from a friendly hotel owner and help from the bus operators, we were able to figure out a way to get back to Jinotepe the same day, in only four and a half hours, for a little over $3 without risking our safety at all. We got super lucky on this trip and it renewed my appreciation for the very helpful people of Nicaragua! Without assistance from strangers, I would be perpetually lost here.
So, I really enjoyed this relaxing vacation from my busy life in Jinotepe and experiencing a new and very unique place. Of course I can't end a blog entry without talking about food, so I will just mention a few things. In La Pita, the village where we stayed on Friday night, we ate delicious and very traditional Nica food that was more fresh than we were used to, since we were on a farm. Beans, scrambled eggs, fresh tortillas, and coffee were the main staples. The coffee grown in this region has a unique flavor I've never really tasted before and it's obviously delicious. But the flavor highlight was in a grocery store in Matagalpa, where we found whole wheat carrot bread and locally made yoghurt cheese spread with eucalyptus, garlic and pepper. I know, what?! And then there was the local variety of dark chocolate bars with coffee, and chunks of freshly cut coconut for sale on the street. My palate is still in heaven.
It's really hard to believe that in two weeks from right now, I'll be in a quiet suburb of freezing Chicago having dinner with my grandparents. Even though I'm loving this country and this experience, I will be ready to go home and have already started looking forward to it.
Tomorrow will also be great, as I am staying home in the morning to register for my classes at 10:30, so I can sleep in an hour and a half later and still have time to go running before breakfast with the rest of the house! And then relax more after breakfast, before hopefully getting all the classes I want and then sending obnoxious e-mails to the housing people trying to get my spot in my house back.
Sorry for once again writing a novel, but at least it gives you all something to read right?
Much love and buenas noches.
-Suzanne
This weekend was quite amazing, a highlight of my trip so far! Rachelle, Megan and I woke up at 4 on Friday to leave the house in the dark to catch the 5:15 bus to Masaya, where we hopped on a bus that I thought was going to Matagalpa but we misheard and it was actually going to Juigalpa! (completely in the opposite direction). Luckily, the kind souls on the bus figured it out before we did and got us on the right bus heading North.. These are chicken buses, abandoned school buses from North America that are completely crammed with people and the goods they are taking to some market or another to sell. The drive up was stunning, and the closest thing I can compare it to is Central/Eastern Washington. Huge, steep hills, most of the vegetation short, almost no people, just fields and mountains. It is beautiful! and looks nothing like any part of Nicaragua I've seen so far. There are even pine trees!
We arrived in the city of Matagalpa when it was still early. Matagalpa is, also, unlike anything I have seen in Nicaragua. It has a very gritty, cowboy-town ish feel, but is actually a big city and is built into the mountains so you can see rows of houses stacked up on the hills surrounding the main downtown area. SOOOO pretty! We didn't see much at first though, because we took off for a small town called San Ramon, where we made arrangements to visit a small community nearby. We hiked up a dirt road to meet our guide, a girl about our age dressed in a pink skirt and shirt and pink sandals who still managed to look very clean after we left the road to hike up a trail through a field and crossing a river, the only way to reach the village. We met the girl's family and put our backpacks in a room off of their house where we would be staying. After a short tour of the tiny village, population 280, we ate lunch at the local school teacher's house and then spent most of the afternoon relaxing and wandering around. Several naps were included as we hadn't slept much the night before! After dinner, we practically went straight to bed.
The next morning, we all woke up around five but took the rare opportunity to linger in our beds for a couple hours longer. After breakfast, we headed out with two girls from the village to learn about coffee harvesting. We picked coffee for about an hour, putting the small red fruits in baskets tied around our waists. Then we walked to a roofed area with several levels of cement tiers and learned how the coffee is processed. It's kind of hard to explain so I will tell you in detail if you want to know, just ask me and I will try to remember!
Basically, this community along with a few others in the area have transformed their coffee farm into a fair trade cooperative and they host tourists for the extra income and so that people who enjoy drinking coffee can see how it is grown and processed.
We then went on a hike, first stopping to taste cacao fruit (the plant that chocolate comes from) and then continuing to a lookout about halfway up a nearby mountain. It was raining the whole time and we couldn't see the whole view due to clouds, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We climbed down a muddy bean field back to the house, where we packed up, ate lunch and started the very muddy hike back to San Ramon.
After a bus ride back to Matagalpa, a long walk, and asking for directions about 17 times (a good average for every trip) we found a nice, quiet hotel off a park. After some much-needed showers, we found a great restaurant that had huge appetizers big enough for dinners, and sat up on a balcony to watch the lights on the hills while we ate. We stopped at a bakery to try some local desserts, then passed out while watching Sleepless in Seattle in our hotel room - little piece of home! Today we wanted to visit the famous coffee museum in Matagalpa, but it was unfortunately closed for renovations, so instead we walked around the city, enjoying its uniqute beauty.
Public transportation in most areas of Nicaragua is remarkable, but if you don't live in a main city and want to travel somewhere far like Matagalpa, it can be a bit difficult because of schedules and transfers. We thought our only options for getting back were sleeping in Leon tonight, which would involve both arriving and leaving in the dark, or taking a taxi in Managua to a different bus station, which is extremely dangerous. Luckily, with advice from a friendly hotel owner and help from the bus operators, we were able to figure out a way to get back to Jinotepe the same day, in only four and a half hours, for a little over $3 without risking our safety at all. We got super lucky on this trip and it renewed my appreciation for the very helpful people of Nicaragua! Without assistance from strangers, I would be perpetually lost here.
So, I really enjoyed this relaxing vacation from my busy life in Jinotepe and experiencing a new and very unique place. Of course I can't end a blog entry without talking about food, so I will just mention a few things. In La Pita, the village where we stayed on Friday night, we ate delicious and very traditional Nica food that was more fresh than we were used to, since we were on a farm. Beans, scrambled eggs, fresh tortillas, and coffee were the main staples. The coffee grown in this region has a unique flavor I've never really tasted before and it's obviously delicious. But the flavor highlight was in a grocery store in Matagalpa, where we found whole wheat carrot bread and locally made yoghurt cheese spread with eucalyptus, garlic and pepper. I know, what?! And then there was the local variety of dark chocolate bars with coffee, and chunks of freshly cut coconut for sale on the street. My palate is still in heaven.
It's really hard to believe that in two weeks from right now, I'll be in a quiet suburb of freezing Chicago having dinner with my grandparents. Even though I'm loving this country and this experience, I will be ready to go home and have already started looking forward to it.
Tomorrow will also be great, as I am staying home in the morning to register for my classes at 10:30, so I can sleep in an hour and a half later and still have time to go running before breakfast with the rest of the house! And then relax more after breakfast, before hopefully getting all the classes I want and then sending obnoxious e-mails to the housing people trying to get my spot in my house back.
Sorry for once again writing a novel, but at least it gives you all something to read right?
Much love and buenas noches.
-Suzanne
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