Home at last

4/7/15
Regresamos más que una semana. No me siento choque cultural como mis compañeros de viaje. O tal vez me siento en una otra manera. No estoy muy segura. Doy gracias para las cosas pequeñas. Como la habilidad a tomar el agua sin preocuado o poniendo el papel hygenico en el baño. Hecho de menos no tener el acceso a la technologia. Como hablando a las personas cara a cara.

It cracks me up that in Nicaragua, los adultos tenian a decirnos a poner las cartas fuera de la mesa. En Portland, los adultos dijeron a poner los telefonos celulares fuera de la mesa. Que chistoso!

Los porciones de comida son muy grande aqui en Portland en comparacion con la comida en Nicaragua. La comida en eeuu es muy paqueado y procesado. Eso es ironico porque la comida paqueado no es muy fresca. 

The first night back in Portland, I wasn't used to going to sleep in a room that was totally and completely quiet. I was so used to always hearing dogs and chickens and roosters and tiny birds on the roof. I think I heard the sounds of the animals in my head from the memories even if I know they are not actually there. 

Me extraña cuando sentido calore. No siento normal cuando me pongo pantalones largos y un sueter cada dia. 

Where is summer and the sun? It is good to be back. I went to the mall last week and someone told me I looked lost. It was just because of all the signs and options for smoothies and clothes that I hadn't been around for a long time. There are so many choices on menus here! I don't like being indecisive.

Este pais es muy bonita. La gente son muy amables y abiertas. Nicaragua fui una aventura grande y inolvidable!

Group shot taken at Volcano Visitor Center.

Heading Home Part 1

3/28/15

For dinner, we went to a nice restaurant and listened to a guy play a guitar and sing. The day before we had bought some nice cards featuring pictures of Nicaragua, or just La Selva Negra, I'm not sure. Doesn't matter which it was a whole lot. We thought it would be a nice gesture of all of our gratitude towards Dora, Catalina, Mario, Jimmy, and David. These were the people who told us what to do when, cooked our meals, and drove the trucks and van for the second week that we were in Nicaragua. Jimmy also translated which was nice because even I didn't know every word that was being said in Spanish all the time. 

Side note:   by the end of the first week, I was tired of most people just assuming I would translate everything. Wrong. People  had to learn that they couldn't always depend on a person or that there would even be a person there to translate. I feel that the others should have had to have no one to translate. I feel that the others should have had to have no one to translate for them for a day and see how they would do. Except with David, that would almost never happen. Oh well. Then we could be 100% immersed in the language with no one who speaks English to lean on/depend on. End of side note.

Today, 3/29/15, we woke up at 4:15 am. It was still very dark outside. We headed to the airport and customs didn't take too long. I was a little worried that they would go through my suitcase and find the small volcanic rock that I had taken from the path on the way to the cave or Volcan Masaya. I don't remember which. I don't think I was supposed to do that. A little too late now, don't you think? 

We got into Houston about a half an hour early. We still had over 5 hours to wait. In that time, I got a Subway sandwich which I couldn't remember the last time I had had one of those. We also played a many rounds of Peanuts and Solitaire. When we were about to go wait for boarding the plane, they made the dreaded announcement that we were going to be leaving 40 minutes to an hour later than scheduled. They said that the flight coming from Managua. They said they were having some mechanical errors and that the pilot had to clear customs. As I have been writing this latest entry, we are currently on the plane from Houston to Portland. It was still light when we took off and the sun set soon after that. 

Flight from Houston to Portland.

From San Jose to La Selva Negra

3/27/15
I am glad that we have the group of people that we do on this trip. We all get along pretty well. In order to live, we don't need a lot of material things. All you need is food, clean water to drink, a roof over your head, and family. This trip has made me think about always trying to only take as much food as I will eat without wasting it and using less water by taking shorter showers.

Like one of the posters for world water day said:
"You don't appreciate the water you have until the well goes dry."

Appreciate what you have while you have because it might be gone tomorrow. Just Saturday and flying home Sunday. Then back to school in another week where we will all share our wonderful stories from Nicaragua. Tomorrow, we are going on a tour of a coffee plantation that's part of La Selva Negra. Here, we will be at a good elevation and climate for growing coffee. Then, we will load all of our suitcases and ourselves to the van and truck and head back to Managua. Waking up bright and early on Sunday. Woo hoo. Home sweet home once again.

3/29/15
Yesterday was our last full day in Nicaragua. Friday, it was our last day working on the hand washing station and we finished, pretty much. After spending the night at La Selva Negra, we went on a coffee tour. This was really neat. It reminded me of a few things I had learned in the coffee class from 2 years ago. Mostly just that coffee is usually (mostly always I think) grown at higher elevation and the 2 main kinds of coffee. Robusta and Arabica. Robust is most commonly used as an instant coffee, is bitter and doesn't taste very good. Arabica can have a wider variety of flavors that depends on the bean and how it is roasted. The ones I have tried before and at the cupping after the tour had a fruity flavor and the other a nutty flavor which was very good.

Sample of different kinds of coffee.

Photo taken by Sadie.

Coffee bag from Selva Negra Coffee Plantation.

Photo also taken by Sadie.

The guide showed us a picked coffee plants as the harvest season had already past. The coffee plants need a lot of shade in order to grow properly so there were a lot of trees where the coffee plants grew. Then, the rinse and ferment the beans to remove the skin. This creates a slimy waste water which is then reused as irrigation for other plants I believe. 

                                     

This was one of a machines used in the coffee bean processing.

Photo taken by Erin.

Then the beans are sent to Matagalpa, a nearby town to be dried in the sun and later exported to other countries such as the United States. The guide also showed us that the plantation also harvests cacao beans. We all got to sample some. And for someone who doesn't like pure dark chocolate usually, they were really really good. Then, they showed us all the small houses where the workers all live. We saw the kitchen where they cook all the food. the pots were humongous.

I thought it was cool how they used the discarded coffee shells and beans to fuel the stoves. Very resourceful and efficient!

Coffee is a big part of the economy and culture in Nicaragua. At the plantation, there was housing for the workers to live in with their families. The plantation pays their workers above the average Nicaraguan. The coffee is harvested and the majority of it is exported all over the world. Coffee was first planted in the Pacific region in Nicaragua. The coffee harvesting season goes from October until February. About 95% of coffee plants are shade grown (equalexchange.coop). It is almost always grown in the mountains such as the Isabelia and Dariense ranges.

 The Isabelia moutains where coffee is grown in Nicaragua.

The coffee industry supports over 45,000 families. This helps a lot of people in a country with 50% unemployment. 

At the plantation, we got to do a sampling of three different types of coffee.

One had a fruity flavor, one a nutty flavor, and one no flavor at all

because it was Robusta, the variety of coffee used to make instant.

Later, we are going back to Managua. 

Adios.

San Jose Reloaded

Today, we went back to San Jose to work.

Some of us in the back of a truck on the way 

to San Jose from Terrabona.

Photo taken by Erin.

We continued digging the hole and learned from the person in charge that the hole we had been digging was too narrow in diameter so we had to make it wider. It felt like we were going backwards in our progress with the depth because of widening the hole. We had to use long metal bars to scrape the sides of the hole.

Here are Kara and Peri working to widen the existing hole.

Every time we did this, more loose dirt would fall  in the hole. Then one of us would jump in the hole to take it out. By the end of the afternoon, we did successfully make the hole the diameter that it needed to be. 

A few days later.....

After lunch, we all hopped in the trucks and visited previous projects that El Porvenir had help set up. The first was a well and laundry station covered by a metal roof. 

Here is the laundry station that had been previously built in a very small rural town.

The people said that having the well for clean water had improved that health in the children and is easily accessible for laundry, bathing, and drinking. Before, they said they had to walk an hour to do laundry and bath. Imagine if the 13 of us had to do that everyday. Seeing these projects makes me appreciate our instant access to water back home. I learned from seeing this that we should stop wasting water

This is the well that was dug and allows to people clean water.

And by the time they had walked back, they were dirty just from the walk because the roads are very dusty. The well benefits 12 families in the community and 30 or 45 from other small surrounding communities. 

The community was called Hatillo. There were a lot of cows, bulls, horses, and both fouls and calves in the gated pasture area. And chickens roaming around. 

 Bull about to poop.

Horse with foul.

 Calf.

Then we went to Terrabona to see a bunch of houses where they had installed latrines. El Porvenir doesn't install the latrines for them. They provide the training and materials to make it, then the family help to build their own latrine. Inclusion of the community is key to helping the organization to accomplish their goal. 

Even though latrines seem gross, they actually make a lot of sense. A latrine is a hole that has been dug in the ground. The hole is then covered with a cement seat with a lid. On the outside, there are three walls, a roof, plus a door. It also has a tiny chimney like thing to let out the gas that comes from human waste. 

This is the inside of the latrine. In the town, there was a competition

to see who could make their latrine the best looking. This was good motivation

for people to upkeep their latrines and inspire others to do the same.

Here is have a lovely view of a latrine from the outside. So far, El Porvenir has helped over

40 families to install their own latrines. Once they show the families how to do it, they 

supply the materials and the families dig the hole. 

Since they don't use water, this helps with the water conservation problem. With a double pitted latrine, they can use one then the other when the first one is filled. The waste can then be used as a fertilizer in people's gardens. People don't realize how much water flush toilets use. With latrines, the people are able to save a lot of water, water that is able to be used for other things such as drinking, bathing, cooking, and laundry.

Conserve the water!

Terrabona y San Jose

Photo of road in Terrabona.

After our day in Granada, we loaded the van to go on a 3 plus hour drive to Terrabona. Terrabona was much smaller than La Cancha or Granada. The feel of everyday life felt much different. For one, there were very few cars besides trucks delivering goods on the roads. All the roads appeared to be made out of cobblestone. It was very normal for everyone in town to just walk in the middle of the road because the town lacked any sidewalks.

San Jose is a very small town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by large hills. The houses looked no more than 4 walls of cement with a metal roof.

I am pretty sure we were staying at one of the only, if not the only, hotel in town. We took up all the rooms with the 13 of us.

Each day in the morning, we walked to a small comedor or restaurant to eat. It was usually gallo pinto (rice and beans) or eggs. It was very yummy.

After breakfast, we loaded ourselves into the back of a truck. It was great feeling the wind in the face as we rode standing up. The road was very dusty and we usually saw someone on a horse guiding cows as we rode past.

Cows being led by a guy on the horse.

Seeing cows and people riding horses was a more common sight that a normal car. It was easy to tell we were headed to somewhere way out in the country, away from any big cities. Somewhere where people take life pretty easy. This was a place where children play outside and keep themselves entertained without the luxuries of all the modern technology like smart phones and video game systems.

We arrived at the school where we would be building the hand-washing station and hopped out of the truck. First we introduced ourselves and one guy talked about the project. We were going to help build a hand-washing station. First, we helped level the place where they then built a wooden frame and later filled with cement. The water from the washing station would then flow through a small trench into a dry well. 

A dry well is a 6 foot hole filled with rocks. It acts as a natural filtration for the grey water (soapy used water). The job for our group of 13 was mostly to either help dig the 6 foot (2 meters and 2 meters wide hole) or go on the truck to collect rocks. I went on one of the trip to collect rocks and it was hard work because they were heavy.

Zoe working on making the hole deeper.

It was steady progress digging the hole and trench but the trench took a lot less time than the hole. By the end of yesterday in the afternoon, the hole was over 3 feet deep. Also, the Nicaraguans working with concrete had finished filling the wooden frame with rocks and cement. 

Then, we hopped back in the rucks and headed back to Terrabona to shower, eat dinner, and play cards. It was nice to be clean but still warm outside. 

Tomorrow is another day of work and dust. 

It's the weekend: Granada

It is hard to believe that we have been in Nicaragua for almost a week,
it feels like yesterday that we got here,
to this beautiful countries filled with lakes and lots of wildlife.
On our last night in La Concha,
Sadie's homestay family had a piñata party for us.
They gave us some sort of chocolate drink with cookies
We all took turns trying to hit the piñata that was shaped like a small animal
of some kind.
I guess piñatas are fairly popular in not only Nicaragua,
but other parts of Latin America too.

Today, 
we are in Granada,
in the streets, there is always a person trying to sell us something,
sunglasses, hammocks, little ceramic whistles
all they want is to make a bit of money.
Back home, they would never be that persistent in selling something.
They would accept the refusal of a purchase
and that would be it.
It is very sunny in Granada.
It is way more touristy than the place where we have spent the last week.
So many gringos
I can't even count them.
All the signs are geared towards selling the tourists something
a meal, a t-shirt, a canopy tour.
This town doesn't feel like the real Nicaragua.
I mean, it is geographically
but not culturally.
In the town we were in, La Cancha,
there weren't people always trying to sell stuff.
There were people who were curious about us and wanted to talk to us.
In Spanish, not English.
There also seemed to be more gringo type food in Granada.
Like steak and waffles and hamburgers.

The sign says it all.

Where is the rice and beans?
Mom, I need an adult!
The most that was advertised for sale was fruit and bread.
It was so rich and flavorful!

 Here are the vendors that sold fruit to passersby and locals in La Concha. We passed them everyday that we went to Ruben Dario the first week. The fruit was so colorful it looked like a festival of colors.








Besides the constant vendors, Granada was filled with beautiful architecture.
An old bright yellow cathedral, spreading its beams into the clear blue sky.

Even though the photo is slightly obstructed by a tree, the big yellow cathedral in Granada can still be seen.









Granada looks like a very Spanish town with all the different architecture styles of the buildings.

Later in the day, we took a boat ride to venture to the islands.
Granada is situated on Lake Nicaragua.
On the lake, there are hundreds of tiny islands.
Some of them have people's vacation homes on them
some of them are unpopulated
The one that we stopped had is inhabited with 7 or 8 monkeys.
There was a boat next to ours
and one of the monkeys with a baby on her back had decided
to climb on to the other boat
it was climbing on the poles and over people
it was very cute.
The guide on our boat said that he didn't appreciate the monkeys coming on the boat.
Sometimes, monkeys can be aggressive and bite people
and no one wants to have to go home early because they were bitten by a monkey
Warning: this monkey may be aggressive towards you even if it looks cute and cuddly.
Don't say that I didn't warn you.
It was nice to see a part of the world that hadn't been infiltrated by construction and technology
just the monkeys on their own private island

in the middle of a beautiful lake.
The lake was so big that you can't see from one end to the other
however, you can see across it to the other side.

Quote from Journal Entry:
3/22/15
"I think it's cool/
fascinating how you can
go from a low-key laid
back town like La Concha
and less than 2 hours
later be in a touristy town
like Granada with nice
restaurants in hotels and
the hotels themselves."

How quickly the landscape changes,
from slow paced and laid back,
to a place with a lot of foreigners,
and then to a place that is way out
in the countryside to say the least.

Tomorrow,
we head to Terrabona.
Where we will be staying while we do our water project.
It will not resemble the landscape or feel of Granada.
Here we go.

Hasta mañana.

The Cave: a semi-hole in the Earth

View of the sunset from the bottom of the volcano. 

 When we all reached the bottom, we loaded into the van and drove down the volcano to the head of a stone lined trail with a little bamboo stick structure next to hit. Another guide handed us hardhats and flashlights. The sun and sky were pink and blue which looked spectacular next to the silhouette of the volcano. We all put on the hardhats and switched on the flashlights for out journey to a cave. A little ways up the trail, we turned off and descended some rocky (literally) stairs.

 

We entered the cave and the air was completely still. Humid too. We walked in and stopped. The guide showed us some small stalactites hanging from the ceiling. He also showed us the difference between new and old lava. New lava has some orange in it with no stalactites and no orange-ish coloring. We kept on walking.

 

The wall from the inside of the cave featuring 

hardened lava in cool patterns.

We had to tread carefully because the ground was really uneven and the ceiling was very low in some places. Thank goodness for the hardhat or I would have really hit my head hard on a low under hanging rock. When the cave stopped/we couldn't go any further, the guide had all of us turn our flashlights off so the cave was pitch black. I couldn't see 3 inches in front of my face. I closed and opened my eyes and there was no difference. The guide said he had us turn the lights off to prove the bats living in the cave didn't attack humans. He shined his flashlight to the ceiling to show us a part of the rock that legend had it was a woman who was sacrificed in the cave or volcano or something. The rock did appear to mostly look like a(n) (ugly) women's face. 

Then we all switched out flashlights on and made out way back out of the cave into the night. 

While we were in the cave, it had gotten darker. We walked back up the trail to another cave. We walked down the stairs leading to it and stopped. 

The guide shined his flashlight to show a snake consuming a bat. The bat wasn't moving but it was still sticking halfway out of the snake's mouth. Lovely...NOT. 

 

A snake in the midst of consuming a lifeless bat. Delicious.

We returned to the van and headed back to La Cancha.