Amber Alert!!!

Please be on the lookout for Flat Stanley. He's about 6 inches tall and 2 mm wide. Hewas kidnapped from the Somoto Canyon while swimming and was last seen floating north down the river.

Estas pegado con gripa?

So the energy thing is truly out of control here. Now we down to only 2 hours of working energy a day during the week but surprisingly Saturday and Sunday the energy stays on all day! What is that?!? So because of the energy shortage work is slowing during the day and generally is going on all night till like 2 am because I only have a week and a half before my report is due to the main office and I go to Managua to get some sight seeing done.

This week we ordered some ballet folklorico dresses from the “manualidades” teacher (that’s like a home ec class where they learn to sew, to cook, make piñatas, etc.) Evette. One of the teachers is going to show me a dance that I can teach the girls for WorldFest this year. They’ll enjoy that. Yesterday the preschool kids were doing a dance with a boy and a girl and at the end the boy went down on one knee and swept the girl back into a dip over his leg. It was so cute! But of course I didn’t have my camera with me because I was walking through the classrooms finding students to survey. Every time I need the thing, I end up leaving it behind. Boo unpreparedness!

Today I have to go make some copies of the survey because tomorrow I go to Cusmapa. This is my final trip to outside centers, but because the phone lines there are messed up we could barely hear each other as I was trying to make sure that they had everything ready for us. I hope everything goes according to plan because I don’t have the time to go back. Cusmapa is another trip up the mountain, this time for 2 solid hours! We’ll see how it goes. At least this time we are not staying overnight so hopefully I will not freeze or be attacked by spiders again!

The center started this week on creating a new building that will house all of the upper grades. It will be finished in January 2008 in time for the new school year here, hopefully allowing the center to provide educational services to more students. This center alone provides food and educational services to 380 students.

The weather here has turned cold at night, although the days are still relatively warm. This Thursday is a holiday here; it’s the celebration of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution, a huge deal here, so I am not sure what is going to happen; parades, parties, music, etc. My fellow workers at the center have decided that we will take the day to go to El Gran Cañon de Somoto. Here’s hoping we make it in a taxi and that it will be hot so I can get a nice tan! I am still with the “gripa” but I am not going to let a little thing like bronchitis slow me down at this point. Also, I hurt my foot when I slipped in the bathroom and banged into the stair that leads into the shower, but what’s a sprained ankle in terms of everything else that I have been through?

The Flat Stanley race seems to be heating up, and I have other pictures to add in the mix but the internet is bogged down here because of outages so I will just let you imagine and temble in fear! See you soon friends, slightly more than two weeks left to go.

¡Team Chicos en la casa! (In the house)

I say take that to everyone! Flat is working to bring Food for Peace! Can you beat that? I don’t think so! Team Chicos has stepped up to the plate and there’s only more to come from here. I think the race is starting to heat up and really it’s anybody’s game now! (Ok, too many metaphors). On a side note, has anybody noticed how Flat Stanley looks a little crazy? I noticed that he is kind of googly-eyed and he only has one eyebrow! Really it’s kind of creepy for a children’s book character.

And the road to Quebrada Honda is still scary…

In the distance the mountains that you see are Honduras.


This is the road outside of Quebrada Honda.


Don’t worry I haven’t contracted some other horrible disease and ended up back in the hospital, that is not why I haven’t been around. Instead, I took a journey back up to Quebrada Honda. Surprisingly it was more scary this time then the last time around, but mainly that’s because we were traveling in a light weight Toyota truck that I literally had to hold my breathe and pray that we would make it up that winding, steep, dirt road to the center. I had two “becados” (scholarship students) with me who had to help me with administering the surveys to 50 parents and 50 students. Although I was riding in the cab of the truck scared to death we might backslide down the mountain into oblivion, the ride for them was much worse as they were in the back of the truck the entire bumpy ride.

When we got there only bad news awaited us. Although it was 8 am in the morning Tuesday, the power had been out since Monday at 2 pm so there were not able to print copies of the survey for us to administer. Also, there was no water since Monday. In addition, the kids didn’t have school so there were no kids to survey. All in all Tuesday was wasted time as we sat for most of the day and really only worked for about 2 hours administering surveys to the 30 parents who showed up. That means for Tuesday we had to administer 70 surveys in 4 hours because we were leaving early in the afternoon to return to Somoto.

The power came back on Tuesday at 4 pm. But, still all the surveys couldn’t be printed because they didn’t have enough paper. They printed the youth surveys so that we would have them for Tuesday, but we had to hand write all the questions (3 copies of 27 questions) so that we could ask the parents and then used the codebook to write the answers on a separate piece of paper. Those parent surveys still have to be transferred to the survey form, because anyone just looking at them will not understand anything that it says without seeing the questions and the codebook!

The water never did come back on Tuesday. So, on Tuesday night, there we were, me and my two trusty assistants walking up the mountain to the outdoor latrine before we went to bed and then walking back down through all the slushy mud and rain covered chicken poo. Yeah, fun times! Finally, when we went to brush our teeth we realized we would have to do that outside as well with bottles of water. Have you ever had a moment where you realize how ridiculous your life is and you can’t stop laughing? Well, I had that moment standing outside our bunker in Quebrada Honda brushing my teeth and swigging bottle water to spit into the bushes. Me and the girls couldn’t quit laughing once we started and tried to avoid choking to death on toothpaste, but overall it was good just to let go with a great big belly laugh!

That night we stayed in the little house they have for the staff slightly up the road from the center. When I say house, you should read barracks. The room had a bunk bed (I slept on the bottom and the two becados slept on top, the joy of being the one in charge), and a table. A bare bulb hung from the ceiling but other than that there was no electricity so I couldn’t charge the computer or anything else for that matter. I didn’t sleep at all because it was freezing cold so high up in the mountains. All night I tossed and turned trying to get warm and the metal from the bed was digging into my back. I woke up cold with a crick in my neck and my back, but at least I didn’t get bit by any of the 20 spiders I had to kill around my bed!

The water finally came on Wednesday morning for only an hour, and by the time I got my turn in the shower, it was gone and I couldn’t even go use the “old school” shower outside (read bucket of water) because the water hadn’t been on all the day before and the guys used it up! Boo no electricity which causes no water!

So, on Wednesday we finally got the surveys done. It was down to the wire though. We were still surveying at 2:45 and they were picking us up to traverse down the mountain at 3:00. We finally got our last parent and student done in time for the truck to arrive to bring us back.

The ride down the mountain was even more terrifying as it had rained pretty heavily all day and the road was sludge. We slid around several curves as I prayed fervently that we didn’t run into any chickens, dogs, horses, cows, cars, people, etc. while hurtling towards Somoto. Unfortunately for my becados it started to drizzle on the way back to Somoto and they had to pull a tarp over their heads because of the rain, so the ride back was not fun at all for them.

We made it back to the center and I made it safely to the house. I slept really good last night, even though it was plenty cold here in Somoto. Unfortunately for me the water went out during the night! So this morning was another exercise in the utter ridiculousness of my life as I had to “shower” (I use the word loosely here) with a water bottle that was literally freezing cold since it was in the freezer because my refrigerator doesn’t work. Not a happy start to the day!

Also, the power went out by the time I walked to work, so there is little actual work going on here. Since there was no power last night I couldn’t charge the battery and when I got to work I couldn’t charge it either. Not so much with constant energy shortages and I could get a whole lot more work done...Ha like that's gonna happen at this point.

Speaking of which, they really should stop abusing the rural areas this way. If the power goes out in Managua, it’s usually for a couple of hours. But up in Somoto, Quebrada Honda, and Cusmapa (the more rural mountainous region of the country) the power is going out everyday for hours. This week the power has been out for 6-8 hours a day. We are paying the biggest price for the energy shortages here.

So friends, I have only 21 days until I return home. Can you believe it? I can’t. 3 weeks to administer 150 new surveys and 50 replacement ones because they changed the questions. So all in all I have 200 surveys to do, 2 reports to write, a newsletter to create, and a pen pal program to finalize. Nothing major! Here I go, here’s hoping the energy holds up enough to get it all done!

Let's save the bees please...

Today I decided in the interest of not being burning hot (and foot pain of unknown origin) that I would wear my chonclas (flip flops) to work. Which would have in fact been fine, if not for the fact that several women along my route were throwing water into the street utilizing a bowl! I don't know why, but I do know that it made my route very muddy thereby making the chonclas not the best shoe for traversing the long walk to the center. Then as I neared the turn to the center a suicidal bee dive-bombed by hand, which I saw happening in a sort of slow motion so I slapped it down, hah take that evil bees of the world!

Seriously though on the subject of bees, they are disappearing. Albert Einstein said, if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination. No more plants. No more animals. No more man. Well here's the thing people, bees are disappearing! Some people attribute this phenomenon to cell phones and the increased waves which disrupt their mating patterns and ability to fly (hence the suicidal one that ran into my hand). Many people (including myself) have turned to cell phones instead of regular land line phones, making the estimate of worldwide cell phone users over a billion.

Others put it down to pesticides and chemicals. But whatever the reason, the fact is that we should be taking it seriously. A New York Times Article claims that bees pollinate over $14 billion in US crops and that current bee losses are being reported from 30 to 70% around the country. You can read the full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?ex=1330232400&en=3aaa0148837b8977&ei=5088

Bees are not something that I think about in the course of my everyday life. Nor do I pretend to have a great interest in saving them as a species, but I realize, as we all should, the grave danger we risk by destabilizing our natural environment to the extent that species are dying off. Whether it is the bees or the birds or bears or fish, every creature has a part to play in the ecosphere that is our world and as technology moves forward it must do so in a naturally sustainable way.

I don't pretend to be a big naturalist or environmentalist mainly because my allergies keep me away from nature as much as possible. But, even I understand that we need to make changes or our world is not going to survive us. We are the cause of so much destruction including deforestation, toxic dumping, and now the loss of the bees. What are we willing to give up for the world to survive? Not just for the future generations, but now we are talking about for us, because if what Einstein said is true and our survival depends on the bees, we need to make a concerted effort to repair the damage that is being done. So will we give up our cell phones, our microwaves, our toxic chemicals? How much sacrifice are we willing to make to ensure our survival, not just that of some unknown future generations? I believe we can combat this loss of bees but we need to make a strong commitment. As with so many issues that we struggle to address, the question remains how much are we willing to give and to give up?

Electrical issues...

When I first came here, a lot of people warned me about the electrical outages. But surprisingly in the first couple weeks of my trip they didn’t really manifest. So, I didn’t worry about them. I thought the power problems were exaggerated and I didn’t really think about it. I bought a flashlight, but it was no big, right? Wrong.

In the last few weeks, the power outages have become a huge problem here. They are short more than 150 megatons of energy. There are daily rolling blackouts throughout the country. And there has been at least 2 days in the past 2 weeks with no energy all day. Yesterday the power went out from 9 to 3. But most often it goes out for 4 hours or less. For the last week I have been going home early, not in a “woohoo I don’t have any work to do” way, but in a “boo the electricity is out again and I can’t do any work” way. Boo! Mostly for the last week the power has gone out at 4 pm (or around about that time) daily. Sometimes it lasts only an hour, but more often now, it stays off until 9 or 10 at night.

I may have mentioned this before, but when I was in the hospital, the power went out (yes in the hospital too). They don’t have separate generators so they can’t control the power any better than anyone else in the community. The government has finally stepped in signing a contract to purchase additional power and to build additional generators for the country, but who knows how long it will be before they see the effects? In Cusmapa for example, one of the rural areas I will be visiting, there are no street lights because there was a power failure at one of the transformers and the power company refuses to repair it. Many people have told me that you must have a flashlight in Cusmapa to see at night because the streets are pitch black. The government so far has done nothing about repairing the street lights, nor are there any plans to do so as yet.

So, I lead you through all of this to say on Tuesday night after being depressed from sitting in the dark for so long. I finally went to bed. But, I couldn’t sleep. It was really hot and there was nothing to do to cool down. Then round about 9 pm, I here music screaming at me from across the street:

“I'll be there for you
These five words I swear to you
When you breathe I want to be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
Steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what a love can do
I'll be there for you”

Yep, you got it Bon Jovi, “I’ll be there for you.” This place trips me out. One day they are booming big ranchero music, then Bone Thugs and Harmony, and now Bon Jovi. It definitely cheered me up and I fell asleep to the sounds of the Crossroad album.

So, I have to say, I never really appreciated Entergy before, but I definitely do now. While we might pay a lot for our electricity (my bill this month was $90 and only Bean and Mo are there and hopefully they are not using up every light in the house) at least it’s fairly reliable and we don’t have to worry about throwing out our food every couple of days (which I have had to do three times here because of all day power outages).

I also have to say that this trip has made me infinitely more grateful for all the things that I have and has made me realize that we need to do more to spread our good fortune to others both in our country and outside of it. So when I thank God for my blessings, I will remember to thank him for the things that I take for granted including knowing that the light switch will always work.

Only in Nicaragua...

Today I saw some things that made me wish I carried my camera out in my hand while walking to the center. Unfortunately I can only describe them but a picture would have been awesome!

First, I saw a dog who liked just like Mo in the face except he was totally bald everywhere except his head!

And then best of all, I saw a delivery driver taking a nap in a maca hanging underneath the bumper of his truck! Gotta love it!

¿Mira bella que buscas?

So finally, I am feeling tons better and I can talk about more exciting or at least fun things than poor healthcare and education systems. So when I was in Managua, we went to an open air market called Wimble (not sure about the spelling on that) that had great wares of all kinds. There were beautiful rocking chairs, jewelry, shoes, clothes, wallets, you name it and it was there. I wish I had another whole suitcase to fill because there was so much cool stuff there that I would like to take home with me. As you walk through the stalls, the vendors all cry out for you to come inside and see their wares. ¿Mira bella que buscas? Pregunta me, yo tengo aqui, pasa, pasa. It’s a little overwhelming having tons of people fighting for your business, but you get used to it, and it's nice to have everyone calling you beautiful! As you can see from the following photo, there is a lot of high quality leather goods many featuring images of Nicaragua, Ruben Dario (a famous Nica poet), or my favorite thing to find, El Che (who is apparently hugely popular here). I really want to find a leather diary, so hopefully when I go to the large open air market in Masaya I can find one that I like.

This week throughout the illness I still managed to get some important pieces of my work here done. On Monday we completed the parent surveys in a stunning choreographed madness that took two hours to complete 50 surveys with my five helpers. Parents attended a “reunion” basically a meeting to help them understand the program better and I shuffled groups of 5 in and out of a room where my five “becadores” (scholarship students) helped to record the parents’ answers to the survey questions. The power went out, but that didn’t deter our little group and instead we moved head on completing all the surveys with five minutes to spare. I wholeheartedly couldn’t have done it without the help of the students so I bought them some caramellos in thanks on Tuesday. I also got the final list of kids for the pen pal program and we will be moving forward with that project after next week’s school vacations. I will help the kids here to make a video diary that will help them to introduce themselves to the kids in the US. I am really excited about this project and the staffer who moved to the main office will continue to work on it after I am gone so that the kids can keep in touch.

On Thursday, the school simultaneously celebrated the transfer of one of the office staff to the oficina central in Managua and teacher’s day. There was great food (which I finally got to eat since the doctor took me off my liquid diet and allowed me to eat real food again), fun, music, dancing, and games. It was really great to see the staff let their hair down and enjoy teacher’s day. As I have said before teacher’s here make less than $200 a month and don’t receive many benefits. But on teacher’s day they were happy just to receive a small gift from the school honoring their work and each teacher made a little speech about why they were there. It was really motivating to see that they genuinely cared about the kids and the program and they believed that they are making a difference. I hope to remember this moment in the future when I feel like I am not appreciated for my work. As these teachers showed me, it’s not about the gratitude; it’s about the work itself and knowing that you make a difference. Working with kids can be discouraging sometimes, but on teacher’s day none of that was evident, only the great dedication, camaraderie, and support that this group of teachers had for each other and the work that they did. As you can see from the photos below they had a great time. First they played a game with two teams where they couldn’t step outside of lines on the floor and had to complete various requirements like lining up males on one end and females on another. The best exercise was trying to pass a ring down the lines of the teams using only pencils in your mouth, no touching. It was a hilarious exercise that took over 20 minutes to complete and engendered much yelling and cheering as the two teams were highly competitive. Finally we ended with lots of dancing and music before heading home for the night. I have great video, but can't get any of it to load online because the internet is so slow here so I will have to share it when I get home.

Sickness part deux...

So, now I have a respiratory infection. I couldn’t breathe, had a hacking cough, my head and ears felt like they would explode from pressure, and my nose felt like I had rubbed about four layers of skin off. And, after another trip to the hospital, where I couldn’t even be seen (there was only 1 doctor and 6 pregnant women with complications as well as 4 toddlers with varying respiratory problems from what I could make out), I went to a private clinic. Although private clinics cost money, trust me it was a lot better than the hospital. I was in and out in like 20 minutes; he gave me some prescriptions, prescribed bed rest and let me go about my merry way. I took the medication right away (hard core antibiotics, very nasty green cough syrup, and a lovely pill that contains some combination of what amounts to Tylenol with like sudaphed I think that makes me very happy). I am spent all yesterday in bed except for when I ate and showered and today I feel much better. There’s less coughing, less blowing of the nose, and thankfully the pain is only a memory.

The staff at the house had a good time making fun of the memories that I would be taking home about Nicaragua. They keep telling me the same story about a girl who came who didn’t speak any English and who was scared of everything and everybody and who had to be sent home because she became so sick from what they call “tristesa,” basically loneliness. As I tried to assure them that isn’t my problem, but instead like the doctor said, my immune system was so weak after the stomach infection that it was easy to catch something especially in the packed ward at the hospital.

I also had a long discussion with the staff about the hospital conditions here in Nicaragua. The local paper La Prensa ran a huge article about the state of the country’s hospitals claiming that they were only at 30% capacity that they needed, there are not enough doctors and nurses, and that quotes the President as saying that several hospitals are in such ill repair that the best option is to tear them down and start over because they are so antiquated. They are building a new hospital that is supposed to be state of the art but its not going to be finished until 2010. Plus, Arturo, one of the staff, informed me that if you have to have surgery here, they still use chloroform! At which point I said that if I have to have any surgery they better send me straight to the states whether I am conscious or not! He also tells me that there are nice hospitals but they are not free like the one that I went to because they are private and only foreigners can afford to be seen there. Why is it that improvement in areas like health care always make it last to those who need it the most?

The poor struggle with more serious health problems because they are less likely to gain preventative treatment for minor issues. By the time that they do seek treatment they usually require some advanced medications and/or treatments for things that could have been easily preventable. When President Clinton first came to office he promised to reform health care to create universal coverage for Americans. And, the first lady, Hilary Clinton, worked diligently to pass that coverage, but unfortunately their efforts were doomed to failure from the beginning. I can’t help but wonder where we would be if they had succeeded.

I know many people will think I sound sanctimonious, but let me say this. For the last 5 years, I have been one of the more than 42 million Americans without health insurance. I have had to hope and pray that a major illness didn’t hit me, rely on clinics and over the counter meds more than routine or preventative care, and when seriously injured (such as when I pinched a nerve in my neck) weigh the cost of an x ray for something that I knew wasn’t broken versus the cost of not going and hoping that it would get better on its own (I didn’t get the x ray). I am hardly poverty stricken, nor do I look for sympathy here, but I would like to point out that I know what its like to be without health insurance and the costs that weigh on you (like monthly allergy medications or the costs of paying for the sinus infection that will inevitably develop if I miss my dose). And, I have to hope that whoever is elected in the next presidential election that universal health care is on the table and that it makes it past the partisan politics that dominated our last go round.

A nation at best can be defined by how it treats the least of its people, not its best. For too long, I think many of us have forgotten that the American dream is about equality for all, not just for some. It's not about me, it's about us. I think that we can best serve our country and ourselves by remembering that we are united in this progress together as one nation and that where one person suffers oppression or indignity that affects each of us as well. Universal health care, a quality education system, and improved economic opportunities don’t just benefit the poorest among us; it is good for our country as a whole and good for each of us in turn.

And, remember that we are global citizens, not locked behind impermeable borders, but a part of the changing global environment and we also need to expand these kinds of opportunities outside of America’s borders into the rest of the world. As I can personally attest the hospital conditions that I experienced were so sad and tragic, but for many people here, they could not afford the 200 cordobas that I had to pay to visit the private clinic (much less the cost of medication which was over 400 cordobas), and the hospital is truly their only option when they need care. In the hospital the power went out twice for more than a hour each time and for several hours there was no running water. They provided no soap, no toilet paper, and no drinking water for sick patients. It was extremely sparse in the ward and assistance only came from the families of other patients. Without them, I wouldn't have fared half as well as I did.

I am really tired (having multiple illnesses in one week will do that) and so finally I will end with this thought from Proverbs which I hope will lead us forward: “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.”

So why the long absence...

In case anyone's been wondering where I have been, no I wasn't off having an exciting rendezvous with a canopy over a volcano, and unlike Chan-del, I definitely did not get to ride elephants. Instead, my very mundane trip to Managua ended with a fever, a stomach virus, and a three day stay in the hospital. I will not discuss the hospital conditions at all except to say I will pay any amount of money to NEVER go there again. But, it was an emergency and I was seriously (and still am a little) ill. The other patients and their families were very kind to me and helped me get around with my IV. But, when I thought I was better and they took it out, I developed new symptoms and had to have one put into my other arm!

I know others have gotten sick already, and I hope it was nothing like what I am still going through. Pretty much I am limited to eating boiled vegetables, broth, and gatorade. I also had the chance to drink some of the life saying oral rehydration salts we heard about somewhere (a classroom speaker I think), let me just say, life saving yes, disgusting yes, its basically sugar and three kinds of salt, think Gatorade without flavoring and you might be halfway there. Just the smell of it (which they call suegro) makes me flinch.

And, if that is not enough for you, now I have developed chest congestion, coughing, running nose, and headache which I think is a direct result of the continued burning of wood to make matches two doors down from my house 24 hours a day. I can hardly breathe for the smell of the smoke. Boo matches!

I hope to feel better soon, or if not, I will be going to a private clinic because this kind of sickness is just wearying and I am not a week behind on my work. Unfortunately I didn't have Flat Stanley with me at the hospital so I couldn't get a picture of him in the ward but I am sure that would have won me Skip's prize for the most bizarre picture!

Time to ante up...

Warning: I am on my soapbox here, if you don't want to listen, check a later post when I'm feeling less contemplative.

You know, the longer I am here, the more I realize that the problems that are faced here are brought into sharp relief because of the poverty that exists here on levels that we don't really understand in the US. But, they are the same problems that we face back home, the people are the same, they hold the same values that we do and they want the same things that we do happiness, security, a good life for their children.

Before coming here, I expected to find it different, alien, foreign, and that would be the reason for the problems that are here, but it's not. Believe me, Nicaragua is all of those things to me, but in some ways it is also so very familiar. I catch site of things that remind me of family, of my abuelita, of my kids back home and I realize, no matter how disconnected American can seem from the rest of the world we are not. We are all interrelated and at our most fundamental levels we are connected by our common needs.

On Thursday, I caught a ride to Managua to spend some time at my mom's cousin's house. During the trip I had the opportunity to talk education with a veteran teacher (over 27 years experience). The issues that she raised as being fundamental to educational problems in her country are the same problems that I have discussed countless times with other teachers in the US. Teachers here are not paid enough, classes have too many students, and often teachers have to pay for the classroom supplies or not have them at all. Sound familiar?

A teacher here makes about 2,000 cordobas a month. That's roughly $100 per month. Even counting experience and specialty degrees a teacher can't make more than 3,000 cordobas per month or $160. For each year of experience you only get a really raise of 10 cordobas or 50 cents a month.

Since I have been here, I have had plenty of opportunity for reflection, and it seems to me that this is the real issue facing education, we talk about the importance of education, but we are not willing to put our money where our mouth is. Education is a critical need for any country. To be successful a country must have a highly educated populace, yet it seems that in so many places, including the US, we are failing in our duty to our children. Education is fundamental not only to democracy but also to self. A people must be educated before they can understand their fundamental rights and fight for them. They must be educated to create new opportunities for themselves and their country. And, they must be educated so that they understand how to be responsible citizens.

At its heart, the idea of education is that we are preserving our future. Not for our sake, but for the generations that are to come. We teach our children our values, our history, our culture, and we hope that they continue to pass all that on, but fundamentally we are failing our children because it seems like we want to push all responsibility for educating them onto them. And now, instead of understanding that it is our responsibility to educate our children we now seem to promote that it is our children's responsibility to learn.

And, whether you agree with me or not, I have to say that I believe that the most critical needed education reform today is funding. Having worked in the Arkansas Delta and now in rural Nicaragua, I have to say that the fundamental issues are the same. Without adequate funding highly qualified teachers here or in other parts of the world will continue to be lost through attrition as they seek possibly less rewarding but more lucrative jobs in other fields.

The teacher that I spoke to on the ride down to Managua was highly qualified and a kind and compassionate individual who spoke about having a heart to work with children. She said, and I agreed, that not everyone can work with children. Some people come just for a paycheck and that hurts everyone. But, those who have the heart are hard to find and maintain because everyone has to work. People know that teaching doesn't pay well so the number of students enrolled in teaching courses has continually decreased leading to teacher shortages. Also familiar from our talks in Hughes.

So. I have to say that its time that we are willing to go "all in" with education. We need to start paying teachers what they are worth for helping to form our future, we need to seek people with heart and direct them towards education as a career, and we need to return to the idea of teaching as a respectable profession instead of just a job. If we fail to do this, its our future that will be bleak, our kids who won't be able to pass on our democratic ideals and values, and our society that will suffer.

No amount of standardized testing requirements, or quality standards, or smaller school sizes will fix the inherent problems in our schools unless we are willing to address the fundamental issue at the heart of education: teachers. Without qualified teachers our children don't have a chance and the only way to recruit and retain these teachers is to start by valuing them and their role in shaping our democracy.

So, I ask what are we willing to give up to fully fund education and the teachers that are so central to this idea? How much are we willing to pay? Big Eric has told me plenty of times, that people value more that which they have to pay for, and I agree. So how much are we willing to pay to ensure our future?

Profe...

Yeah, that's me profe. Its short for professora which the kids call all the staff here. It's kind of funny because they will yell it out and then everyone has to turn because they don't know who they are calling.

Last night it rained, bad! The power went out right after 6 and stayed out until around 10 sometime. Unfortunately before I went to bed I forgot to turn the light switch off so when the power came back on it woke me up! Oh well. It was really hard to sleep because of the rain, thunder, and lightning. The sound of rain on a tin roof contrary to some people's false perception is not relaxing! Haha! Plus it was so hot last night that between the storm and the heat, sleep didn't come easily or last long. I think I got 3 hours maybe total before I heard the cleaning lady come knocking on the door at 5:30 in the morning. I am so tired right now, that its hard to see straight!

I finally was able to get the mosquitero as they call it here installed. Unfortunately, I have realized a previously unknown fear of small spaces. If I wake up in the night sometimes the tent surrounding me freaks me out! Isn't that nice to know about yourself all at the last minute?!? I am still being eaten alive by mosquitos, sancullos, and also I think fleas! There are so many strange animals rooming around, I think there must be fleas and with the cat getting in the house, I think we got some too.

The net has kept the pesky bugs from getting me at night. However, if anyone remembers the travel commercial with the people inside of the net who turn on the light and there are thousands of bugs trying to get in, sometimes it feels that way. Note to everyone sleeping in a mosquito net: never turn off the light, get in bed, and use the computer! The screen draws them to you like crazy and they will flap their wings on and on outside the net! Not cool!

I long for the easy days of laying on my pillow top mattress with my adjustable thermostat and I dreamed fondly last night of pizza and cold drinks. Soon friends I will be able to go outside and have every convenience I can think of close by. So that reminds me that this experience has surely taught me to count my blessings and appreciate all that I have so I hope that all of my fellow students are learning the same.

The cat in the house…

These are the kids playing some version of Simon says where if you mess up you have to pay a penalty. This girl was embarrassed because she had to squak like a chicken!

So, when I was first moved to this house, one of the education team members warned me that I would be very bored here. He even went so far as to say that he had spent one weekend in Somoto and that it made him cry from boredom because he was all alone in the house all the time.

Thankfully, I can say that I haven’t been pushed to tears from loneliness. In fact, in the week and a half since I have been in the house, it has been anything but empty. I think that I only spent one night out of the whole time alone! There are visitors every day passing through this region from various groups with the organization and they often stay with me at the house. Since I have been here there have already been 21 guests! Somoto is apparently the rocking place to be!

So, now onto the cat in the title of this post. On Saturday morning I woke up to find that my malaria pill from Friday night had made feel very sick in every kind of very yuckie way! I don’t want to go into details, but why is it that we can’t create a medication whose side effects aren’t nearly as bad as what we are taking the medication for? I mean is it too much to ask that a pill that is supposed to keep you well doesn't make you sick?

I didn’t get much sleep either so at 5 when I woke up I took a shower and then went back to bed. At 7 I was startled awake by a sound from the roof and I when I gazed drowsily up there was a cat climbing on the top of my walls inside of the house (the roof is not connected directly to the ceiling so open air gets in and apparently now cats). The cat literally scared me so much that I was shaking. I had to get out of bed because I started to imagine that other things were going to get in the house!

Although I had plenty of visitors this weekend (8!) it was pretty peaceful for the most part. I did some work, walked around town with one of the women from the center, saw the church (finally) and sat in the gardens in the middle of town.

I plan to definitely make it to Managua this weekend so that I can visit my mom’s cousin’s grandson (if that makes any sense). I also have to say that I am contemplating doing a canopy tour! If I don’t chicken out that is! Here's hoping that I regain the good sense that I normally have about such things and decide to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. Well friends, its raining in Somoto now, so I face another muddy walk through town, and I should get started.

Note to self...

Keep eyes tightly shut while walking to the center.

Today a suicidal fly flew into my open eye! Yuck!

Hip hop Nica style...

Flat Stanley says, "Call me please. Maricella's backpack is super boring!"

So, while I am sitting in my room preparing to write today’s blog, the ongoing loudest noisemaker competition from the houses surrounding mine begins. The first to enter the fray today is the café oasis next door which surprisingly enough has chosen to lead off with “Crossroads” by Bone Thugs and Harmony. I can’t fully describe to you the truly surreal feeling that I had when I first understood what I was hearing…

“Hey, and we pray and we pray and we pray and we pray
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday…
See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads
So you won't be lonely”

in Somoto, Nicaragua. Craziness! Even more absurd is that next door has decided to enter the fray by blaring (literally I can hear every word) of Shrek! And of course across the street has to join in by bumping Suavemente! It’s like I’m on some strange reality tv show, but nobody decided to tell me in advance. I can only say at least it’s lively and I like most (but definitely not all) of the local music choices.

So yesterday, kind of out of nowhere, the sky opened up and poured out enormous buckets of rain like an hour before I was supposed to leave from work. Thank God that one of my spontaneous not sure if I need it purchases was to buy a travel umbrella. However, the storm lasted only about 45 minutes and by the time I left, the roads were full of mud, but at least it wasn’t raining anymore. I didn’t even get to use my pretty pink umbrella which one of the little girls assures me is too small to stop the rain!

So, my goal was to go to Pali and buy more water and make it to the cell phone store before it closed. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t cool anything down, if anything it made things ten times more hot plus added the fun component of mud. So by the time I made it to the street where the authorized phone dealer sign was I decided that would be my last stop of the night. However, even though they had a six foot sign that said Claro! autorizado, apparently they were not authorized to sell phones. That’s what I get for putting my faith in a sign. But, they were kind enough to give me the directions to the real dealer and after another brief walk I made it to the store.

Since it was close to closing there weren’t any people in there so that was good they could help me right away. I got my new very tiny Motorola phone for 500 cordobas (like 40 dollars). I also had to buy minutes because they don’t have contracts over here for the short term. The sales guy was very nice and explained everything to me like I was slow because I told him I didn’t know anything about how the cell phone system worked here and he took that to mean I had a mental impairment so he spoke very slowly and very loudly! Why does that happen in all cultures? Just because you don't understand doesn't mean more volume will help!

After being sure that he wrote everything down for me and paying I was on my way to the house. By the time I reached the house, my shoes were once again covered in mud. It’s a common thing here, since we are entering the rainy season, I only hope that my shoes make it the duration. I have already had to wash them twice by hand. Thank goodness that I bought them because they’re specially made to go in water!

At the center today, I worked on translating the completed evaluations. That part is a headache in Word, for some reason it keeps changing the set language so everything that I type in Spanish gets highlighted as misspelled, which then keeps you from finding things that really are misspelled. Oh, well such is the trial of computers, they think they’re helping you, but they really aren’t.

I had a traditional Nica sopa (soup) today for lunch, it was very hot and reminded me of something that my lita used to make. And, we had havena today. And for my mom if she’s reading, ha ha! I had pinot lio ayer! I sat with one of the other staff Sonia who is really nice and who is going to take me around Somoto and show me what I missed while walking in circles last weekend!

I wish I could say that walking to work has gotten easier, but really it hasn’t. In the morning after a cold shower, I feel good, but once I get about a half a block uphill and it starts to feel like working out! For Kelley, if she’s reading, I gotta say the hair is holding up better than you might imagine, but the main problem is that its so hot here, that my hair is pretty dry! I can’t wait to have a full treatment done when I get back!

Seriously though, I think I’m starting to get into the groove of things here. Last night I slept really good! I only woke up at 4:50 once the animals began their morning chorus. I am starting to get used to the various sounds that occur on my block. I am also getting used to my work schedule. Today we set a time for me to do the parent evaluations during a monthly meeting they have with parents in a couple of weeks so I will be working on making sure that the staff know how to administer the evaluation and how to assist the parents if they need help.

This weekend is the big trip to Managua. I will be going to visit my mom’s cousin Lynda’s house and meet Lynda’s grandson. I hope to get some good rest and hopefully get to enjoy some time in the city. On Monday I will make my way back to Somoto and hopefully have the information that I need to get the evaluations for the students underway by the end of the week.

Well, that’s all I have to report for now, I will be heading to the Pali tonight again since I definitely need water and sugar (for my café leche) and now a flashlight! The power went out the other night for over an hour and I didn’t have anything to light the house with, not even a candle. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone, and apparently the custom is when the power goes out to sit on the stoop and talk which is what we did. But, if it happens again, I definitely need a flashlight. I was in the middle of eating dinner, and if it wasn’t for one of the volunteers passing through Somoto having a light I would have to sit in the dark eating my sandwich! And, today, the power went out very briefly when big gusting winds shot through town! So, flashlight is a priority, wish me luck on finding a flashlight and batteries that will fit it!

Buenas...

That’s the first thing that I learned here. The most common greeting here is Buenas…not hola, but Buenas like Buenas dias or tardes or noches…but the rest is just left unsaid with the understanding of what is meant by the greeting. Often when you enter the classroom or see large groups of students grouped together you will hear a loud shout of “¡Buenas!” I really like to hear the sound of the kids yelling it out! It’s like if you walked into a classroom and the kids yelled out Good!

On Friday, I went to work and spent most of the day trying to format the evaluation for the youth into some kind of codified document. It was “El dia de los niños” (kids day) at the center, so there were really any classes. There was dancing and music and other events, but two youth were put in charge of the center as directors and so there wasn’t any classes for me to follow up on. So mostly, I listed and watched the kids having a great time. I took some video of some of the kids competing in a Kid’s Day. What they are doing, I can’t really describe, I think its some sort of fashion show, but I am not really sure since I didn’t catch the instructions in the beginning. But basically each girl parades down the line and tells her message. The one that gets the biggest applause says, “My message is that all boys and girls have the right to live!” I can't get the video to load onto you tube so when I can I will showcase it here for you. But, here is a picture of the kids in the lunch room enjoying the show:

I had a great weekend. On Friday after work, one of the staff here dropped me off at Pali, the local supermercado. I know grocery shopping is not very exciting, and Pali is really small compared to the supermarkets back home, but it was exciting for me. Everything in the store that was American brand like Nestle, Coke, Oreo, etc. are more expensive (like three times their counterparts), but the other brands are not local but mostly imported from Mexico.

I didn’t really have a list so I just sort of bought some random items that looked appealing for that night realizing that since I still had to walk back three or four blocks to the house, I couldn’t buy everything in one day. So when I went home, I started working on sorting all my stuff out so that I could be sure that I had everything in order. I couldn’t eat my dinner of choice (Ramen noodles) because I couldn’t get the gas stove to light and I couldn’t find the fosforos (matches), so I settled for a small snack and tried to finish up some work that I needed to complete. That night there were tons of bugs in the house and ants all over the place and I got eaten alive. I have twenty bug bits just on one leg! There is a mosquito net, but the ceiling is too high to reach so I can’t hang it. But one of the volunteers is going to try to come by tonight and hang it for me. Last night I sprayed myself with OFF and sprayed my pajamas too just for good luck! So hopefully, I won’t get malaria, especially if the net gets put up.

For Saturday, I woke to the sound of roosters, dogs, donkeys, etc. all competing for the prize of being the loudest and most obnoxious. This is the view from my house at 5:30 in the morning:

For the day, my plan was to a) find a cell phone and b) make it back to Pali. The first part of my plan did not fare well at all. All the shops here have signs that say “Si venden Click aqui” which is their brand of cell phone, but unfortunately that only means that they sell the prepaid cards for the phones, not the phones themselves. I went walking all around looking for the shop and finally found it, but unfortunately it was closed on the weekends, so I guess I’ll try to go back today after work.

In wandering around looking for the cell phone store, I became hopelessly lost, so I figured that I would walk around in circles until finding something reasonably familiar. I walked all through town and I do mean all through town before finally seeing Pali! It was like a great sigh of relief to know that I had made it to where I wanted to be but also that I knew how to get to the house from there.

So this time in Pali, I had a plan. I bought things that don’t have to be cooked and of course more water. There is no limit to the amount of water that I drink in a day. It’s really kind of healthy, but since I really don’t like water, its not making me happy. But, I did have a major cramp in my leg on Friday and I realized that I need to be sure to drink enough water to avoid that again. Plus it is so hot here, that I don’t want to eat that much, but am thirsty all the time. So I drink like two liters of water a day.

After Pali, I successfully made it home in one piece although some young teenage boys did stop to whistle and make stupid comments at me assuming that I couldn’t speak Spanish, but I set them straight pretty fast. All in all I spent about an hour or more wandering around the City which is good exercise in itself as well as being a good exercise in figuring out where everything is.

*At this point I have to stop to point out that the music that was playing outside has just changed from some sort of Christian Spanish Gospel hybrid to 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. there is a wealth of contradictions aqui!

At the house, I got down to cleaning the house, washing dishes, and washing my tennies which were covered in dried mud because of the rain on Friday. Later that night two volunteers came down from Cusmapa to visit Somoto. They invited me to go with them to the Grand Cañon de Somoto and we went on Sunday. We left early in the morning and it was a beautiful day out. The rainy season has just started here so the guide kept telling us, “El Rio es bravo” (the river is mad) and that we couldn’t cross with out truck. That pretty much decided it for me, so I stayed on this side of the River while the others crossed over to the other side, took a hike, then a boat, then another hike before making it to the other side of the Cañon. Maybe before I leave when it’s calmer water like in August, I will try to make the trek, but yesterday it was good just to sit on the rocks talking and watching the washer women cleaning clothes in the river on a rock. And here is a picture of the angry river:

And, I got my first real quality time in the sun, so of course I got burned! When I got back to the house I couldn’t figure out why it was so hot in the house when it wasn’t that hot outside. Well, the answer is that it wasn’t it was me. My skin was starting to feel the impact of the sun and so now instead of my usual peachy color, I am almost a coral color, but hopefully that will fade out into beautiful brown.

Today I walked the 9 blocks to the center uphill! Let me tell you there is no mascara that does not run in this kind of hot! But it was nice trip I got to see some different stores that you wouldn’t see in the US like the Doctor’s office also say he’s some sort of faith healer! I stopped at a small store to buy matches so I should be set for tonight! Ramen it is! Yeah baby, good times. Well now that I know the stove works and I have matches, I can make café leche in the morning. I haven’t had any coffee since I have been in Somoto and its kind of wearing me out! Well friends, I have to work now so I will talk with you all soon. Tonight I try to find the cell phone store once again. Wish me luck!

The fear of dying

Ok, so I am officially in my home away from home in Somoto now. The house where I am staying is a sort of crash pad for all staff traveling in this region. Last night there were 8 people including me staying in the two bedroom house (so basically there were mattresses all over the place including the living room!) Still no hot water; and the water shoots out all over the place. Now there are giant ants which one of the other staff assures me are not peligroso (bad), moths, and some sort of giant flying insect much scarier looking than a wasp that is in fact muy peligroso and bites!

Before leaving Managua, I got a mini tour of the city that included the Presidential Palace (somewhat like our white house, but pink), the park where they burned the guns after the end of the revolution, and the memorial where Pope John Paul II first visited Nicaragua and won over the people. Apparently, the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega is not using the Presidential Palace at this time, so its pretty much empty. Instead, he is running everything out of his own home. After the tour I went briefly to the center before setting off on the road to Somoto.

We traveled from Managua to Somoto in about 4 hours through a beautiful landscape up into the mountains. And, contrary to what I thought, the road was very well paved for the majority of the trip and the view was beautiful. During the trip my guide and I spoke about a variety of topics including the difference between the US and here, politics, children, God, religion, corruption, etc. It was a great opportunity for me to practice my Spanish! When we got to Somoto we visited briefly with the Director and I had lunch. I am getting very used to having gallo pinto at every meal! Then we went to visit Quebrada Honda which although is only 30 kilometers away is more than an hour of driving time up, up, up, (I really mean up) a steep hill that turned from cobblestone to dirt.

It was really beautiful, something like driving up through a land untouched by time and bare of man’s machinations. I wish that I could have gotten some pictures for you, but unfortunately, as anyone who knows anything about me knows, I have a serious, terrifying, very horrible, really shockingly overwhelming fear of heights. Since for most of the trip I was on the side of the car that tipped precariously off the side of the cliff, I couldn’t make myself let go of the hand bar in order to grab my camera and catch that exquisite view. At the top of the very large mountain we met with the Director of Quebrada Honda and talked about what I would do when I come back in a couple of weeks.

The ride back down the mountain was much more scary (even though I was on the mountain side) because it had started to rain. I have to say that I am terrified of the driving here and as it was explained to me by my guide, that driving here is not defensive but offensive! You fight to get the right of way and only give it up if absolutely imperative. I think that I will have to get some Pepto Bismal for any future rides because I seriously get queasy just thinking about it. People here honk all the time and it seems like there are a few different kinds of honks:

1. “I’m here” (this is used to notify others that you are coming around a curve, your passing them, or your just passing an intersection, this is a sort of light tap on the horn).

2. “Hey, I’m here!” (this is used when someone doesn’t respect your right of way and you have to remind them that you are there, and is a little bit stronger).

3. “Get out of the way!” (this is a more rapid form of honking used to encourage cars that strop in the middle of the street, which they do all the time to move out of your way) .

4. And, finally, “You’re an idiot!” (this is used a lot and is a long blaring of the horn that signals that the other driver has done something really offensive such as stopping to let a pedestrian go by!)

Driving here is a highly elevated art form, which I am terrified to even think about trying. They wanted me to drive to the house last night, but I was like no way! I am not that good a driver and I would likely get very lost (since everyone knows I have a poor sense of direction) and I would crash or get stuck in the mud.

Finally, we got a ride to the house and then we went looking for food. In Somoto it is much harder to find prepared food because there are not a lot of people who buy premade food. We went to three different places before we finally lucked out on one that had burritos and frozen slushes in various flavors. I will have to go shopping this weekend at the Supermercado up the street to buy some essentials such as bottled water. The house doesn’t have internet, but it is right next to an internet café, so I think that I will be able to have some access when I am not at work. I will be working at the Somoto office for now, and once my evaluation tool is complete, I will be administering it here and at Quebrada Honda. Possibly also at Cusmapa depending on how long it takes to get everything approved and done. Things here move very slowly and it’s a little bit frustrating, but apparently I just need to get used to Nica time.

Last night I was so tired I tried (note the word tried) to crash at 7:30. Unfortunately for me there are loud cars and trucks and donkey buggies (yes, you read that right, donkey buggies) that go up and down the street. There is also light that comes through the windows from the streetlights and no air conditioning. It’s really not that bad at night once it gets dark but I will have to get used to it. You know I love my automatic air conditioner! In addition to all of that I was woken up several times during the night by the chorale of dogs, roosters, and some other assorted animals that I am not sure what they were. Finally, I got up and at 5:30 and took a shower. I was shocked every time I looked at the alarm to see what time it really was because I didn't hardly get any sleep. If it wasn't a car it was a dog or other assorted animal every 30 minutes making noise!

One of the staff here, Arturo informs me that Somoto is the capital of a districto here Madriz (like a state) that is one of the most historic regions in Nicaragua. It's about 500 years old, I was told. The city has rows of cobblestone roads in a neat line and rows and rows of colorful houses that look like something out of a movie. The house has a gas burner in the kitchen and dishes for me to use and there is a lady who comes to clean once a week who I can apparently bargain with to do my laundry. A load of laundry here is like less than a dollar and to ride the Express bus to Managua is only three dollars! I have to provide the laundress with soap though and for extra money they will iron for you.

The walk from the house to the center is 9 blocks, so I will be getting a lot of exercise. And, when I move to Quebrada Honda, the walk is all up a mountain! Oh boy, I can feel the Aleve calling me already! So for now that is it everybody. This weekend I am going to explore the city a little and hopefully find the church. According to Arturo it’s beautiful and historic to this area.

Well friends, there will be more later; as tonight I will try to brave the supermercado!

Holy Cow...

Well, I made it to Managua. The trip here was something else. My first plane to Houston was delayed by four hours. We actually got on the plane, sat through the safety briefing and then waited for like 30 minutes before they told us to deplane because there were thunderstorms in Houston. So, we waited in the terminal until the weather cleared enough for us to go and finally I got to Houston. The flight to Managua was delayed an hour because so many people were late coming in to Houston that they tried to get them all on the plane. So, when I arrived, I went through immigration and customs and was picked up by one of the Fabretto staff. She took me to a small hotel that looks like something out of a movie and I will be staying here while I work on developing the evaluations.

Yesterday, I met with my program coordinator and talked about what evaluations they need done then I started working on developing them. I went to lunch with some of the program staff and another volunteer who is here to plant a garden for an orphanage. Then we went to view the San Isidro Center and the attached farm project.

Let me just say the roads here are a real trip. It changes from normal pavement to cobblestone to dirt and the city changes to rural very fast. There is no way to describe the frantic pace of this place except to say Holy cow! And, I would advise anyone traveling here not to eat before going on a long ride, the bumpiness, constant swerving and dodging of other cars, horse carts, and bicyclists and/or pedestrians can make you very queasy. I won’t be eating a large lunch again before driving out of town that’s for sure.

Anyways, at San Isidro we saw the main center (middle and high school students) and two school based centers (elementary students) where the kids participate in activities. At the Farm (I am not sure if that is the correct term, but that’s what I am going with) they teach the older kids agriculture skills and how to organically farm as opposed to clear cutting the land. Nicaragua has a serious problem with clear cutting and many of its natural resources have been used up, but apparently they have a great deal of water. Unfortunately the water table is more than a 1,000 feet deep so it is very difficult for anyone to drill. No one has that type of commercial machinery and it is very expensive. So, when water becomes a precious commodity some big company will likely be able to come in and drill and Nicaragua will have a great natural resource to sell.

At the Farm they plant all kinds of fruits and vegetables including tomatoes (but this year’s crop got a virus and had to be eliminated), pineapples, bananas, plantains, lemons, limes, etc. along with other regional fruits that I have never seen or heard of. I have to tell you that although I have been working out, nothing has prepared me for hiking back up the mountain, (Fabretto owns like half a mountain which the Farm is based on) in the Nicaragua heat. I nearly had a heart attack, and I was breathing like a bull horn! So, in essence I risked my life to get some pictures for everyone to see what they do here.

In addition to planting, the Farm raises chickens that go to the food program at the Center to help keep the costs of feeding the kids down. Right now the program feeds over 150 students a day just at that one center! And, they would like to increase it to 300! After we left the Farm we went and saw the schools and the center. The kids were celebrating La Dia de La Mama (mother’s day) which is second here only to Christmas. They had music in the auditorium and had invited all their mothers. After that I returned to my hotel room where I completed a youth survey for the program so that I can start working on translating it.

Other than that today is the official mother’s day so it is a half-day and the center will be closed early. Tomorrow early we are leaving to Somoto and to tour some other sites. I will be staying in Somoto where I should have more email access. Right now I don’t have access when at my hotel so I have to write everything up and send it the next day. I have lots of pictures, but so far it is hard to load them. So here are the ones I could get loaded.

Here is Flat Stanley flat laid out on the bed after our long trip.


Here is me after 14 hours of hectic traveling (notice the bleary-eyedness and the hair, this is after my cold shower because there is no hot water!)


And, here is Flat Stanley enjoying his first Nica lunch! Check out the REAL tortilla!

And, here is the pineapple field at the Farm, these will not be ready for another year because it takes 18 months for them to get ready!


And finally, here are the chickens that they are raising on the Farm:

Leaving...

Last days home...

Well, I have been pretty busy during my last few days in Little Rock trying to get everything in order and packed into my suitcases. Here is what I did:

First, the kids at my program threw me a going away party. This is the cake. Check out the flip flops!

Then I went to Little Eric's graduation. Now there is only one more brother left in school!

I got to spend time with my nephew:



And finally, I went to the very crowded Riverfest to see LL Cool J:


Good Times!

How beautiful...

This is Grand Cañon of Somoto. I will be spending the summer at Padre Fabretto's Somoto site and traveling to other sites from there.

Travel Shoes!

Yeah, I found some travel shoes that are super comfy, super cute, and priced in my range! Check them out:



They are genuine crocs, so they are the most comfortable shoes. Check out Dillards if you want a pair. I will be wearing them all summer.

Mo and Flat Stanley

This is Mo with Flat Stanley. I tried to get a shot of Isabelle and Flat Stanley, but apparently they aren't friends since she tried to eat him. And, for everyone who remembers the broken toe incident, this is the docile dog that tripped me!

The Fear of Leaving

You know when I first got offered the chance to go to Graduate School, I was firmly settled in a career that I loved and didn't have any real idea about going to school. In fact, the school needed me to get everything together for admittance in less than a month. This seemed like an impossible feat, and I really wasn't sure I wanted to put myself through all that hassle, but the truth is that although there were a lot of reasons to go to school, I took this opportunity because of the internship. This internship is the fulfilment of not only my live's dream, but also of my abuelita Ivonne's that her grandchild, (really her favorite grandchild!), her polla bella would have the opportunity to visit her home country, Nicaragua. For me, this trip is a great opportunity not only to fulfill this dream, but a great chance to meet relatives that I haven't seen since I was a little baby, all while doing some really worthwile work that benefits the children in Nicaragua.

So, you might be asking yourself, "If she's so excited, why is this called the fear of leaving?" Well, it hit me today when my last classmate took off for their internship, that we really are going out into the world, on our own, surviving in a foreign country, and completing projects under the force of our own ability with no one else to depend on. This is a pretty scary concept considering we have spent the last two semesters (almost a year) working in some form of team or another. Even now I think this concept hasn't fully settled in my head. 3 months of aloneness! Wow. What will I do? You know, I am sure that I will figure it out, but right now, I am still kind of freaking out. So I figure I will go with that. Freaking out sounds like a plan right now. When that changes (hopefully before I leave on the plane, or at least by the time I land) I'll let you know what the next plan is, but right now, pretty much, I am sticking by the freaking out plan.

ttfn