Beauregard Triumphs Over Adversity

Loyal readers,

While you're impatiently awaiting our next post and constantly clicking refreshing in hopes in will appear, here is a short photo essay about Beauregard Honeysuckle Hedgehog III and his triumph over adversity while on the road in Costa Rica.  Victory has never tasted so sweet and so much like very excellent limonada con yerba buena.

Mmm, limonada con yerba buena.  This will be refreshing.

Gar-kon!  This is not a hedgehog friendly class.

I've got an idea.

Erg.  Ooof.  Is this some kind of Cross Fit challenge?

King of the Hill.

Ahh, victory is sweet.

In the 'You Can Never Really Totally Relax Here' Category...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you this special report...

Dateline:  20 April 2014

We discovered that we have an olive tree in our yard and so we thought we'd try our hand at brining some, to see how they come out.  Bex! isn't big into pickled foods so we're trying a salt brine to start.

We harvested some olives and cleaned out an empty peanut butter jar.  We slit the olives length wise, which was a helpful tip we found online.  After shaking the jar to dissolve the salt, we filled it up with what will hopefully in a few weeks' time be a special treat for us.

Bex! decided she wanted to document this little culinary experiment, so she went to get  her camera.  She unsnapped her camera bag, pulled out her camera - the strap was all bundled up around her camera, her hand and her arm.  As she untangled the strap she felt something moving on her forearm and as she moved, she heard a 'plop' as this little cutie fell on the floor - 

This dude was about six inches long and mean as hell.  By far, the largest scorpion we've seen here.  I killed a brown one in the sink last week - he was only about 4".  We're told by our Merida friends that the brown ones will make you feel crappy but the black ones are very dangerous.  Getting zapped by one of them means an automatic trip to the hospital.  

Fortunately, there was no sting and I dispatched this diablo with one smack o' my chinela (flipflop).  Then we did a thorough top-to-bottom house inspection until we were satisfied this one was working alone.

All's well that ends well.

We now return you to you regularly scheduled blog posts.

Our First Border Run - Part 1

The first week of April was spent doing three things:  
1]  Wrapping up the first semester of classes before our two week break for Semana Santa; 2]  Packing for our border run to Costa Rica - part vacation/part renewal of visas;  
3]  Trying to get all of our students to understand that there would be no classes for two weeks, that classes would resume the week of April 21st, that there would be no classes for two weeks, that 'No' there were no classes next week and that classes would resume the week of April 21st.

After clearing that up...

"But there are classes next week, correct?"

Oy.

We had been looking forward to our border run for weeks!  It was hard to believe that nine weeks of teaching English in Merida had already passed.  Wow!  Time was flying by, in some ways.  Still miss family and friends, of course.  Still miss baked foods, good cheese and wine.

We were going to cure the latter on this trip!

Merida is a safe village.  We've never encountered any situation we considered dangerous or scary here, other than giant insects.  Walking around at night is fine, especially since most everyone in Merida knows us and knows why we're here.  If anything, I'd say we have people looking out for us.  However, we were advised by several people to make sure we had our house watched while we were gone.  There are still those that would take advantage of the opportunity to relieve us of our stuff, should they get the chance.  We arranged for our friend, Maykel, to come by daily to check on the place.  And Hamilton happily agreed to sleep over at night, lights on, house occupied.  We were confident things would be fine and they were.  Good friends to have!

Saturday morning we got up early, had breakfast, hoisted backpacks and walked out to the road to wait for the chicken bus to Moyogalpa.  

Did we remember to turn the gas off, let the scorpions out, bring our chicken?

We loaded up and proceeded to pick up more and more… and more people.  This Saturday morning the bus was extremely packed, and it was hot and dusty so we were ready for the ride to be over!  Oh, and if you wonder why it's called a 'chicken bus', I had this right next to my head for a good part of the trip:

Bok-bok-bok-bok-bok… ba-GOK!!!!

Arriving in Moyogalpa early enough to grab lunch was part of the plan, so we excitedly headed for The Cornerhouse for delicious chicken salad sandwiches on their fresh baked bread accompanied by fruit smoothies.  Yeah, we were gonna eat our way through this trip.  After lunch, we walked down to the dock and boarded the ferry to Puerto San Jorge on the mainland.  Pedro Pablo met us at the dock on the other side and drove us to our first destination - San Juan del Sur - where we would spend the night.

We also gave Pedro Pablo a shopping list and some cash.  While we were gone, we would have him pick up some toner cartridges and the necessary hardware to hang our hammocks.  Like I said, we've rapidly built this awesome little network of people who are more than happy to help us out.

We arrived in SJdS at Casa Ariki, a really neat little hostel just off the parque central and close to pretty much everything in town.  Four rooms with a shared bath and a very comfortable setting - too bad we were only staying one night.  But we figure we'll hit this spot again for sure.  A great value!

After dropping our bags, we made for the Tica Bus office so we could buy our return tickets for Saturday April 12th.  We had our tickets to Costa Rica already.  We had our friend, Noldan, pick them a couple of weeks prior to our trip.  Recall that when entering Costa Rica, you have to show proof of onward travel or they won't let you in.  "Welcome! - just make sure you plan to leave, okay?"  Unfortunately, all the buses were filled for the date we wanted to return to Nicaragua!  Semana Santa is a huge travel week in Latin America, with families traveling to visit relatives for Holy Week or to party at the beaches.  The next available tickets she had for us were for Monday the 14th.  No biggie - flexibility is the key down here, so we just figured we'd spend another couple of nights in San Jose and get back when we could.   

Tickets in hand, we walked back to the hostel, changed into swimsuits and made for the beautiful beach of San Juan del Sur.  It was much busier this visit, with even more people than when we were here at Christmas.  We found a good spot to drop our stuff, made for the water and… froze out butts off!  Damn, the water was cold compared to our lake back home.  But, plans were plans, and swimming in the ocean would not be deterred by water temperature.  Plans were altered, however, because once we got in the water, it was 3… 2… 1… and Bex! got stung by a jellyfish.  Oh well.  Swimming is overrated and certainly ranks below our other priority for the day - drinking piña coladas on the beach.  This turned out to be a much safer activity for us, much more suited to our true talents.

We love our diet on the island.  We eat really well, considering the limited resources for food shopping.  That said, the #1 priority for our night in San Juan del Sur was dinner.  I've written about the pizza place in town, run by an elderly Italian gentleman named Mauricio.  Mauricio's Pizzeria is the real deal.  We had been looking forward to this particular dinner all week and it did not disappoint.  Plenty of red wine, a big salad and a couple of Diablo pies later, we were sated.  Everyone we meet who has been here keeps telling us we have to try the scratch made pasta dishes but we can't get past the thin crust pizzas.  One of these days…  

We even had some entertainment during dinner in the form of…

The dude on the right is obviously waaaay too cool to be doing this shit

The next morning, Pedro Pablo picked us up right on time and dropped us in Rivas on the Pan-American Highway to wait for the Tica Bus coming from Managua that would take us to San Jose, Costa Rica.  During the wait, we stood around taking in the sights, such as this one - a car, rope out the passenger window, leading a horse down the road.  Or a horse tailgating a car.  Either way, not that unusual, actually.

I wonder how many horsepower that thing's got?

After about 40 minutes, we were on the bus and prepping for the border crossing.  All went well enough, by which I mean 'at the usual slow pace'.  Lots of waiting around while Nicaragua processed us out of the country, then another wait in line to get into Costa Rica.  Meh.  "It is what it is - Bad Bill"  

Travel buddies waiting at the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica -
Booby, the blue footed booby and Beauregard Honeysuckle Hedgehog III 

 One kinda cool thing happened, though.  While waiting in line at the CR immigration desk going in to the country we looked across the way to the line of people waiting to get processed out of Costa Rica and saw our friends from the island -  Jamie, Jen and Jalen!  Small world.  They had gone to CR the week prior to make their visa run and were heading home to Ometepe. 

More stamps!

 After the border, it was iPads and dubbed movies during the bus ride.  We arrived in San Jose, jockeyed into position to claim our backpacks and selected a driver from the crowd hustling for fares just outside the door.  We stayed at Hostel Mi Casa, a short cab ride from the bus station and right across from La Sabana Metropolitan Park, which I wrote about in a previous post here.  The hostel was really neat - nice rooms, a fantastic inner courtyard, a pool table, a foosball table, an actual lawn with patio furniture, a large selection of games and movies.  A great spot!  So great, in fact, that those extra two nights we now had in San Jose would be spent here.

The evening of our arrival in San Jose was also Election Day in Costa Rica so we watched the results come in and victory declared while we ate dinner at Rosti Pollo's, a chain restaurant that does chicken.  Lots of chicken.  For the record, the election was won in a landslide by Luis Guillermo Solís, in case you were curious.  His opponent, Johnny Araya, actually quit campaigning several weeks prior because he knew he would lose and didn't feel right about spending the money or wasting people's time.  Ah, yet another thing I wish the US would learn from the rest of the world.  (sigh)

Hostel Mi Casa was a great location because it was just a short journey to the Alamo Car Rental office in downtown.  Okay, it was a bit of a walk but we looked like real backpackers this time, not dragging around seven suitcases, so it was all good.  And on the way to the car rental place, we experienced what can only be described as the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  

If you know my wife at all, you know she loves loves loves pie!  Well, imagine her complete elation when we walked past this place called La Casa del Pie - The House of Pie, right?!!!  

"Holy crap!  This is perfect!  Remember, we miss baked goods?!  This place must be incredible!!  I think I'll start with a slice of berry pie, then get a slice of…"  

"Honey, …" 

"…strawberry rhubarb, then…"
  
"Um, honey - stop for a sec."  

"What?!  Don't 'honey' me.  I want pie and - look - it's The friggin' House of friggin' Pie right here!!"

Ooooh, yeaaahhh!

"Yeah, sweetie.  But remember 'pie' in Spanish means, uh, means… er, 'foot'.  Sorry.  This is a, um, podiatrist's office."

Yeah but… Yeah but… Awwwww

Oh boy.

Thankfully, getting the car rented was distraction enough.  Diego, the Alamo employee who helped us back in January, remembered us from our previous visit.  That was pretty cool.  He asked where we were off to this time around and we explained to him our plans.  Once again, we got a Daihatsu Bego, although this one was a newer model year.  Nice ride, plenty of room, 4-wheel drive, and with no more horsepower than we saw in Rivas.

After the paperwork and pre-trip inspection, we were off!  Driving in Monday morning rush hour traffic!  Fun times!  Seriously, it is pretty cool.  This time we actually made it all the way through with no getting lost or backtracking!  Our destination for this leg of the adventure:  the Orosi Valley. 

Another Heinz Post

That's right - more ketchup!

(Get it?  'Ketchup'… 'catch up'...)

Let's see… oh, yeah!

Boy, is it hot.  And dry.  February, March, April constitute the biggest chunk of the 'dry season' here and they are not kidding.  There has been only one rain of any significance in the last couple of months and about all it did was settle the dust.  It sounded like thunder on our corrugated metal roof, which was incredibly awesome!

Last fall when we arrived on the island the first time around, Ometepe was green and lush, the lake was full and the Rio Istian was actually accessible by kayak.  Now the island is not so green, not so lush.  It's still beautiful but the fields are dry, some of the trees have shed leaves and the little ponds scattered about that appear when it rains regularly are no more.  As we walk down the road, little clouds of dust rise up with every step we take, like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown comics.  The Rio Istian has reverted to its natural state - that is to say the swamp that it really is, accessible only by a portage of a couple of hundred meters.  When it's been raining, you can kayak in and out easily.  The picture below is from last fall when there is a plenty of water.

Looking out the mouth of the 'river' to the lake

There is a piece of driftwood on 'Playa Gringo', what we've named the beach at our house.  It's a log, about ten feet long, with a piece that juts upward.  When we moved in the only part of this that was exposed was the piece that sticks up.  Now, the log is completely exposed, with an additional fifteen feet or so of rocky beach between it and and the lake.  The water level is way down!  It means we have to walk farther to go swimming, damn it.  I know, I know - first world problems, right?

In November, we didn't even know this rock existed

We are fortunate to have running water in our house.  A kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, toilet and shower.  It truly is a blessing.  But during this dry season, there are many days when there is no water available.  The village has no real reservoir.  There is an aquifer and when it's dry, it's dry.  The water supply comes off the volcano and it's kind of 'first come, first served' meaning those that live higher up the hill get water first.  The lower downhill you live, the less water is available.  While there are many benefits to living on the lake as we do, we are about as close to the end of the line as we could be!

The aforementioned sink, toilet, and shower

This means that when the water is running, even a dripping trickle, we fill pots, pans, water bottles, pitchers.  We fill a bucket from the lake to rinse dishes and flush the toilet.  At night, after a long hot day, nothing feels better than a cool shower.  When there is no water, we climb the barb wire fence, stumble across the rocky beach in the dark, wade out into the lake until we're about waist deep and dump buckets over our heads or even go for a short swim.  It's a little creepy being in the water in the dark.  It's a huge lake and the inability to see the far shore or even beyond the next few waves is a little anxiety inducing.  Not exactly sure what I think is in the water that should make me afraid but…. SHARK!!  Just kidding.  There are bull sharks in the lake, but not in this area.  They hang out southeast of here, where the Rio San Juan runs out to the Caribbean.  But the stars!  Oh my!  The stars are amazing!  You can get lost staring at the sky at night.  Virtually no ambient light means the heavens look so close.  Awe inspiring.

There have been stretches of several days with no water.  Rinsing in the lake only goes so far, so on a couple of occasions we've showered at Hacienda Merida.  They are on their own well, so have a fairly consistent water supply.  We've also purchased several 2 liter bottles of water to have on hand in case things get really bad.  So far, so good - and the rains usually start in May, so we're almost there!

[I think 'Dripping Trickle' should be the name of a whisky or a bluegrass band.]

***************
We spotted our first hummingbird!  That was pretty cool.  So cool that now the hunt is on for a DIY feeder, one we could make from recycled or scrap material.  If anyone has any ideas, let us know.  We've found a few ideas online and are experimenting.

***************
We are both intelligent individuals with a solid grasp of the English language.  We know we're new at the teaching thing but we believe we're capable of figuring out how to succeed at what we're doing.  We're both driven to excel at this.  However…

… there have been a few times when students have asked us questions that have truly stumped us.  We're not so proud or cocky that we BS an answer.  We tell them straight up that we don't know and we'll research the answer.  Which we do.  But it is humbling when we get stuck!  A student in one of our adult beginner classes asked us to explain the difference between 'make' and 'do' - ex. I do the laundry; I make dinner.  "Why?"  Good question!  We found the explanation and did a whole class on it, and it cleared up the confusion.  We learn as much as our students sometimes.

Another great example was a question about the use of 'could' and 'would' in the first conditional (only allowed in specific circumstances).  Another:  'I will help you carry the couch' vs. 'I will help you to carry the couch' (both okay, but one or the other may sound better to you depending on your particular dialect of English).

English are is hard.

***************
Bex! took me to visit the kindergarten class at the public school in the village.  It was a blast!  Much more organized and structured than what we see at OBS, although we're making improvements with our kids.  They start each day with breakfast (supplied by the Ministry of Education), then they go outside for morning exercise - songs, active games, calisthenics.  We led them through the ever-popular 'Hokey Pokey' and 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes'.  The teacher, Nellie, is great with the kids.  They told us we are welcome to visit any time we'd like.

***************
Like many houses here, we have an 'antena parabolica' on the roof of our house.  It's a satellite dish used to get a TV feed.  We don't have a television so we don't use the dish.  No time for Spanish-language telenovelas (soap operas) anyway.  One day we were sitting on the porch working on lessons, the wind was blowing hard and had been for quite some time, with huge gusts.  We heard a loud 'BANG' that sounded like it came from inside the house.  Assuming it was one of the heavy wooden shutters slamming in the wind, we got up to investigate but found nothing out of order.  A short time later, I walked around the side of the house and saw our dish on the ground.  The wind had ripped it right off the roof!  Hamilton checked the roof for damage and it passed inspection.  Whew!!

***************
We teach a class at our friend Noldan's house.  His parents are great people.  Classes finish after dark sets in, so they always have someone walk Bex! home, at least far enough up the road until I meet up with her.  The village is plenty safe but it's a nice gesture and we are grateful for their friendship.  Bex! was walking home from a class one evening, being escorted by Noldan's little brother Yasir, when they saw a man in the road ahead dropping a big rock on something.  The guy walked off, so they went over to look.  It was a snake.  And it was still alive, although mortally wounded.  Yasir finished it off.  I came by a few minutes later, from my class on the opposite end of town.  We looked at the snake - pretty sure it was a fer-de-lance.  Yasir had a different name for it - a Spanish name, obviously - but said it was one of the most dangerous snakes on the island.  AKA, if it bites you and you don't go to the hospital, you die.  At the very least, you'll lose some weight - click the link to see what I'm talking about.

Yikes.

***************

Ometepe es la mayor isla del mundo dentro de un lago de agua dulce

The lake sometimes reminds us who is in charge.  Sometimes the water is calm, serene.  For a few weeks, however, it was angry and violent.  This is a large body of water, so when the waves get going they can be pretty nasty.  Our house is on the lake and situated between Hacienda Merida and the Rio Istian, one of the most popular kayaking destinations.  Several times during this angry stretch, we found kayaks stashed at our beach because tourists just couldn't handle the water.  They bailed out, making for the nearest place to come ashore, then would walk back to the hotel.  Smart move, too.

Really sad news - the lake showed just how angry it can be by taking two lives from the village in a weeks' time.  The first was a young man who was out fishing with his brothers.  The stories conflict on details, but what we heard was that he was using one of those circular nets to fish, the kind with weights around the edge that you throw out.  They sink to the bottom then you pull them up, drawing the edges together and netting fish.  In a poor village like this, fishing gear is valuable and it appeared that the net got caught on rocks on the lake bed and he dove down to free it and possibly got tangled up.  It took them several days to find his body.  Very sad times. 

That same day, a friend of ours was cooling off from the hot day and dove into the lake off the dock at Hacienda Merida.  As I said above, the water level is dramatically lower than normal, which Jamie found out when he hit the rocky bottom - with his face.  A nasty gash on his forehead, another right below his eye and 30 some odd stitches later…

And sadly, a week later some young folks were enjoying the lake at another nearby dock on yet another dry hot day.  A young man did a back flip off the dock and landed on his neck right on a rock, killing him instantly.  

When a community this small loses one person, let alone two, it has such an impact on everyone.  People of this age are earning money for their families, working the farm, working in tourism.  They are 'bread winners'.  Losing them is bad enough, of course, but it has many other consequences that go beyond their passing.  

So, hug your loved ones, please.

***************
After one of our afternoon beginner classes failed due to lack of attendance, we decided to replace it with an early morning session.  This class is extra awesome because we hold it right on our porch, twice a week at 7 AM.  This one immediately took off!  We had to buy more plastic chairs to accommodate the number of people, and may have to add to our collection soon.  Bex! loves early mornings.  Umm, yeah.  I am not what one would call a 'morning person'.  But this class is a great way to start the day, with eager people who are so excited to learn.  We are thinking of adding a day to this one, to make it three classes a week.

***************
As part of our financial planning while on this mission to teach, we have an entertainment budget.  Mind you, there ain't a whole helluva lot to spend money on here.  So we were rather excited to have been invited to attend the viewing of the Classico:  FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid.  At a cost of a whopping 60¢ each, plus a few beers during the game, we would have to watch a LOT of soccer to blow our budget.  

Soccer - not my favorite game, by far.  But we're living in futbol country and before we came down here, we promised we would engage the culture in every way we could, so this is part of that commitment.  And it was a blast!  We arrived at Rancho Merida and watched the game with a large chunk of the village population.  In fact, there were so many bikes and motorcycles parked on the road, a pickup that was trying to make a delivery to a nearby hotel couldn't get by, so the driver threw a horn-honking fit until someone went out to clear the way.  He was probably pissed because he was working and not watching the match.

We were all packed in a large room; it was hot and everyone was sweaty.  Drinking beer, high fiving,  trash talking.  Half the crowd was rooting for Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid while the other half was cheering for Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona.  Us gringos, the only ones in the room?  We were rooting for FC Barcelona.  Why?  Two reasons:  all our Nica friends were fans of Messi and his team; Bex! was wearing red and blue which, unbeknownst to us when we arrived, just happens to be the team colors for FC Barcelona.

The game itself was very exciting, each gooooooooaaaaaaallllll bringing simultaneous cheers and groans, but as we were told by one of our friends, 'during the game everyone roots for their team, but after we are all friends'.  As this contest worked out, we won!!!  And we celebrated with the rest of our amigos as Tia Margarita's restaurant up the road.  It was a great time and we were happy to have been included.

***************
The last Friday of each month is what y'all in the US would call a 'teacher in-service day', so March 28th was a down day for us!  We spent all of Friday planning lessons and researching teaching techniques.  This made for a glorious - and unexpected - three-day weekend.  Hell, all day Saturday we felt like it was Sunday - and we still had another whole day off!!  Ahhhh.  

***************
And - boom - done.  Now we're into April...

Catch Up Time!!

OMG!!  Did you see that!?!?

Now that I have your undivided attention...

Other random things that have happened between late February and mid-March-ish…

1)  First and foremost, we (sadly) said goodbye to our volunteers.  Liz and Evan left on February 17th to see other parts of Nicaragua; Kelly and her family left the following Tuesday; and The Swiss left on Saturday.  These people were a HUGE help in getting our educational offerings and those of the Ometepe Bilingual School off to a great start.  We cannot thank them enough, which is why I keep tooting their collective horn.

Volunteers have such a huge impact on the people here - all of these folks did, to be sure.  And the four incredible young folks from Europe made some real friends in Merida.  The locals asked us if they could throw a going away party for them at our house.  Sounded great to us and it was quite a bash.

Let's get this party started!

Impromptu bachata lessons for all.

Chanchitos!

Bex! and Ella should have traded places - Do you know why?

2)  A few days before The Swiss left, we ran out of toner for our printer.  We decided to hitch a ride Saturday morning with the kiddies, ride the ferry over to see them off and hit Rivas for a day trip to stock up on ink cartridges and a handful of other things.  This day trip was made uncomfortable and awkward because I was wee bit hungover from the going away party.  No worries - I am a veteran at this! 

Perhaps we should teach a lesson on slang terms for nauseated outputs

We waited roadside for the van to get us, then hopped in and made the bumpy ride to the paved road, then on to Moyogalpa.  Ferry ride was fine, if not a little nausea inducing for some of us.  I'm talking to you, Mini-Me!!  After saying goodbyes, we caught a taxi into Rivas, walked and shopped, had lunch, hopped another cab to the MaxiPali for some food items, then back to the port in time to catch the 3:30 PM ferry back to the island.  Getting on this particular boat was important because it allowed us to catch the 4:45 chicken bus back to Merida.  Great plan and it worked perfectly, except…

For some reason, the bus decided it wasn't going all the way back to Merida that night.  Of course, we weren't told this until we were already on the bus and on our way.  When we boarded, we asked if they were going to Merida, they said 'Si, si!' and then changed their mind and only went as far as Altagracia.  Hmmm…  We had met another traveler on the ferry, an Aussie gal who was doing turtle research in Central America.  She was going to Merida and was tagging along with us.  Dropped short of our destination, we walked to the Hotel Central a few blocks away and had them call a cab to get us the rest of the way home.  Poor driver was home relaxing and ended up bringing his family with him for the ride.  This unexpected cab ride ended up costing us more money but split three ways, not too bad.

We've since discovered that the bus in question sometimes goes all the way to Mérida, only on week days it seems.  Bex! shakes her fist at it whenever she finds it parked in town at night.  Honey, let it go.

3)  The next day, we got an interesting phone call from Adolpho.  He is the property manager for our house and lives in Moyogalpa.  It seems the driver from the night before, who lives in Altagracia, had found a credit card in his rig and assumed it belonged to us or our Aussie friend.  Okay, fine - makes sense.  How the driver knows Adolpho is one thing.  People here seem to have a lot of contacts amongst other locals.  But how the driver knew WE knew Adolpho is a mystery.  How he knew to call Adolpho to contact us about the credit card - weird.  (P.S.  The card did not belong to either of us or the Aussie, but it did bolster our faith in the goodness of people.)

4)  Bex! killed her first scorpion.  Probably not her last one, either.

Adorable litter buggers, aren't they?

5)  Thinking about food and menus and cooking (normal for us) we wanted to buy some local honey.  This would be a nice treat and we had seen a sign on the far end of town at a house - 'Se Vende Miel' (Honey for Sale).  Awesome.  But the next day, lo and behold, a young boy named Brian, 8-9 years old, who attends one of our classes and lives nearby, comes running down the path and slides deftly under the barbed wire fence with two 20 oz. Coke bottles full of honey!  His dad had collected it and he was making the rounds to sell.  We bought one bottle - we've since tasted it and we should've bought 'em both.  Next time.

6)  There is a family from Colorado who lives here, housesitting for a friend while building a place of their own.  Jen is a dance instructor back home and offered to hold dance classes for the kids at OBS.  It's pretty awesome to see the kids counting out steps!  She does a great job with incorporating movement and music into an English lesson, too.  As part of the warm up activities they do a stretch with the chant "Touch your toe, rainbow"; later, I heard many students chanting to themselves as they colored the rainbows in our St Patrick's Day lesson.  Glad to have her here!!  Her 14 year old son, Jalen, helps us with the first grade classes, too.  

7)  We were struggling with the high school class.  The behavior of the kids was subpar, to put it nicely, with many disruptions and a lot of screwing around.  It was getting frustrating, to the point where I just packed up one night and walked out.  This actually helped a little because most of the kids want to be there, so they were mad at the ones who show up just to goof off.  Bex! laid down the law, introducing the rules of English class, with which we now begin each and every class.  
- 'Be on time' - Tough one in this culture.  Now we start each class with a warm up activity and have a cut off time for students.  Show up too late, no admittance.
- 'No talking'  - Should be easy for kids of this age, but...  
- 'No fooling around' - The classes are fairly large, usually 16-20 students, and we're holding them in the OBS preschool room, designed to comfortably hold 12 short kindergartners.  So the desks and chairs are tiny.  Plus there are a lot of distractions, but we do our best.
- 'Raise your hand to talk' - The technique here at all grade levels seems to be 'scream the answer out'.  Now we don't call on anyone or accept an answer unless a student has their hand in the air first.  
- 'Go directly home after class' - The school is located on the site of a hotel, so it's tempting for kids to hang out in the hammocks, run around the buildings and generally disrupt what little peace and quiet one might find here.  We added this rule after a couple kids got into trouble with their parents for after-class shenanigans.  We've also seen scowls from guests and heard of complaints, so we make sure kids leave the grounds when class is wrapped.

We're learning.

8)  Attendance at some classes has been disappointing.  Part of having their kid in the bilingual school is that parents will support the schools' initiative at home.  So we thought it would be a great idea to hold a class for parents.  We would teach them the same English their kids were learning so that they could converse at home, thus reinforcing it for everyone.  No go.  Maybe it was a timing thing, although we talked with the parents to determine the best time of day for the class.  Attendance was sporadic, at best.  Usually, no one showed.  We've since dropped that class and added a beginners class to the early morning.  This class grew quickly and is a huge success.  Plus it's nice for us because we hold it at our house on the porch!

The intermediate adults have been an issue, as well.  There are a few that show pretty regularly but others that rarely do.  But it's the high season here and many of them work as guides or in the hotel/restaurant, so they're making money while they can.  We're confident attendance will improve as soon as the rains come!!

9)  We had some very unwanted guests trying to move into our house.  A colony of large ants was building a nest under the kitchen counter.  Bad move on their part.  Home pesticide sprays rock!

10)  A church group from South Carolina showed up for their annual volunteer trip.  They stay at Hacienda Merida but do work at a school for the deaf in another town on the island. This time around, Alvaro agreed to let some of the high school kids in the group volunteer in the bilingual school.  We, the Volunteer Coordinators, had no knowledge of this before the deal was struck.  Kelly and Liz, with Bex!, had JUST finished drafting the documents for OBS stating the rules and policies for volunteering and spending time with the kids.  And none of those are 'you can just volunteer at the last minute, with no vetting or orientation'.  Plus, volunteers are asked to donate at least two weeks, preferably longer, so they can build an actual relationship and have a real impact.  This group was only here for four days.  The school does not have a drive up window for drop-in do-gooders.  The children are not tourist attractions, either.  The primary take away from the OBS mission statement, philosophy and other documentation is that the single most important thing is 'what's best for the children'.  Drop in volunteers are NOT good for the children.  It's disruptive, scary and confusing to them.

Unfortunately, Alvaro had said yes to the church group, so we went to the hotel to meet with them, explained the situation and made it clear that we were there to look out for the kids.  We explained that the children needed routine and stability, that we wanted no more than two volunteers per classroom, and that we wanted the same people for the entire week.  The leader and other adult volunteers were nodding in agreement the entire time "Oh, yes.  Absolutely.  The children are the priority.  We agree.  That is entirely correct."  Blah blah blah.  After shining us on, they pretty much blew us off and tried to send in different people every day they were there.  We talked them down and met in the middle, with a couple of the people remaining consistent throughout the week.  

For this situation the children were indeed just another attraction on the island.  'Climb the volcano!  Kayak to the swamp!  Spend a day with the cute children!  Feed the monkeys!'

'Frustrated' and 'pissed off' doesn't begin to describe our feelings.

11)  Our shelf arrived!  Our shelf arrived!  Our house has no closets or shelving for storage so we commissioned a local guy to make a huge shelf unit for us.  It's gorgeous, hand crafted from local wood, two meters tall by a 1.5 meters wide with deep shelves - and cost a whopping $180.  It swallowed up all our belongings and left the floor much easier to sweep and mop.
  

12)  We are getting better at lesson planning!  It's a real struggle for me; Bex! is a natural.  Still, it takes some serious scheduling to make each week work.  We use a whiteboard to lay out all the classes, fill in the class topic for each level, location and time slot, then figure out which one of us is teaching which classes.  Then we start making up lesson plans.  It's getting easier, thank goodness!

Week 1: Lines, arrows, colors, chaos

Week 10: We are a well-organized machine

13)  One thing that makes lesson planning easier now is that we finally got internet run to our house!  Hooray!  Cindi, the owner, has a wifi tower at her place nearby and had paid for the line to be run to our place.  You know how much of a hassle it is to schedule the cable guy to come to your house?  Well, imagine trying to schedule the 'cable guy' to get here!!  The company is based in Managua = a two hour drive south to Puerto San Jorge = an hour on the ferry = another hour+ drive to Merida, part of which is on the crappy road = then you have to do the job you came to do.  Yoinks!  After many promises of 'we'll be there tomorrow' they finally actually did show up!  

Another interesting thing about this:  If you've traveled in places like this before, you've seen crazy things with power lines and electricity.  People just run lines from the road and drape the line through tree branches and fence posts.  There is no 'code'.  Usually just live wires running from the power pole to the house by whatever means gets the line there.  Wire nuts are seldom used - usually just electrical tape.  But for the internet line, they actually dug a trench all the way from the tower to our place (80-100 meters) and buried the line in plastic conduit!!  We were amazed!  And grateful, of course.

Electric spaghetti

14)  There was a group of journalists from France traveling through Nicaragua.  They arranged to make  a stop in Merida to visit the bilingual school.  Since Bex! speaks French, Alvaro called on her to help with the tour.  As is usually the case, she rawked and we had a good time and got a free lunch.  The group consisted of writers and photographers from some big publications, like National Geographic (French edition).  Pretty cool - hope they used some of what they got here.

Learning Spanish is hard enough for us.  After Bex! dug deep into her brain and spoke French for the afternoon, we went home and a short time later her head exploded.

15)  We settled into a nice routine with our first graders and kindergarteners.  We start each English lessons with a story book.  Then we sing some songs.  After that we do whatever activity we have planned for the day - a farm tour, a nature walk, games, coloring, drawings - then we wrap up with a couple of more songs and that's it.  

Sad to say that kids here don't have access to books, so they LOVE stories!  When we first introduced our routine to the kids, it took a while for them to get into it.  We had to wrangle kids to get them to sit down for story time.  But now, we simply hold the book up and most of them hustle over to sit; they all want to sit in the front row.  Sometimes they even bring a chair for us to sit in for reading to them.  And when the story is finished, we are met with a rousing "Thank you, Profesor!"  It's been a fun transition to see.  Like I said, we're figuring this teaching thing out, slowly but surely.

16)  We showed up one afternoon to work with the first graders - part of the normal schedule.  We teach English to them from 1-2 PM, which works well because Julia, the teacher, has to leave at 1 PM.  Except this day she was still there, and stayed after we finished.  Turns out that for reasons still unbeknownst to us, the Tuesday class was now being held from noon to five instead of 8-2 like every other day.  [Note:  Recently it switched back to the regular schedule.  Who knows - we just show up.]

17)  We swim whenever we can.  Our place is on the lake, so it's easy access.  Our schedule during the week is pretty busy so there are days when we just can't dip in.  But weekends are for swimming, for sure!

Dry season means there is a water shortage in the village each year around this time.  This leads to night time dunks in the lake, just to bathe and cool off prior to going to bed!

18)  We took a day trip to Moyogalpa, just to get out of the village and see what the port city had to offer other than boat rides to/from the mainland.  There are certain foods we miss and one of those foods is a nice, big sandwich on good bread.  They have bread here but it's dry, bland, and usually not very good.  But the Cornerhouse Cafe is fantastic!  Run by an ex-pat Brit named Gary and his Canadian wife, they bake their bread fresh daily and offer amazing food and fresh fruit smoothies, plus great coffee.  It's now a definite stop each time we pass through, time permitting.

We also bought a plastic table for the porch.  Makes working outside in the breeze and breeze.  Plus we hit the grocery store in town and scored some great food items!!  Crunchy peanut butter, soy sauce, spices.  Magic!  

19)  A group of students from the University of Virginia showed up.  They were here to volunteer their time in building the new schoolhouse.  A couple of the students expressed an interest in the school, and were exploring the options for returning to spend some time there.  Awesome!  

There was also a small group from Cornell University that was doing some sort of research project. And Cornell absconded with one of the school's whiteboards which made teaching a little difficult.  They returned it when they left.  

The biggest problem was the rearranged class locations for OBS.  The first grade schoolhouse is under construction, so their classes were being held in the courtyard of the hotel.  Not ideal but it's the only place.  But Cornell took that over so the kids were shuffled to the kindergarten classroom, which pushed the youngsters out into an 'open air' setting.  But the noise from construction on the new school was too much, so all the kids were moved to the downstairs apartment of Alvaro and Esther's place.  They run the hotel and the school and live right across the road.  For us, we played the game of 'where are the kids today?' each time we showed up that week.  Poor kids were rattled after the moves.  The first grade teacher shared with us that the day of the first move the first grade kids showed up in their normal space (the courtyard) and several of them said "Profa, where's my desk?" in a very worried tone.

20)  Having fully settled into our place and figuring out the food shopping thing, we thoroughly enjoy our time at home.  Teaching and planning lessons is hard work.  I know that now.  But it is rewarding and makes our down time feel even more special.

Meals are especially fantastic, now that we can cook for ourselves!!

Red, Yellow, Green - The colors of our flag (Our being Playa Gringo, not Nicaragua)

And our swim time is refreshing and wonderful, even more so with a Toña in hand!

Hasta Pronto!!

Crazy Hectic Week

But then - how is that any different from all the other weeks?!

Living out of a hotel is fine for a while, but having our own place would make us feel like we were home.  Knowing the house was ready was exciting beyond words.  This was kind of a big day in that we really felt like part of the community and the commitment we'd made to stay for the full year seemed achievable.  As social and extroverted as I am, I enjoy my privacy and quiet time - neither of which is possible at the hotel.  Our own home would allow us time to unwind, time for us to be ourselves and not have to always be 'on'.  

Our first round of shopping for the house now complete, it was only a matter of waiting for the phone call that we could move in.  We had things pretty much ready to go, except for our clothes and personal items.  Heck, we had time to get that stuff packed later that afternoon, right?  (foreshadowing…)  

Hamilton said he could arrange for a truck to come to the hacienda to load us up and deliver directly to our new home.  This turned out to be money well spent.  All we knew is that the move was happening Monday (10 Feb) and that it would happen late afternoon.  So imagine our surprise when Hamilton, the truck and five guys showed up around ten AM!  Ah, Nica's and this thing we call 'time'.  No matter - we scrambled to get our crap shoved into suitcases and backpacks, made sure the Super Volunteers could cover classes for the afternoon then fire-lined our belongings onto the back of the flatbed truck.  From the time they showed up to the time we drove away from the hotel took maybe five minutes.

Load 'em up...

… head 'em out!

And maybe five minutes after that, we were parked in front of our house!  The crew unloaded our stuff in a matter of minutes and - poof! - drove away.  Amazing thing, too, considering that there really isn't an actual road that runs to our house.  It's more of a wide-enough-in-most-spots trail that the driver was able to pick his way through to get to our front yard.  Our official address is 'near the evangelical church, 100 meters toward the lake'.  So if you wanted to send us home-baked cookies, a nice lasagna, some Alaskan salmon or Chico's pizza…

Volcán Maderas in the background

Our office

The owner of our place, Cindi,  lives in New Mexico, USA.  She has a property manager who lives in Moyogalpa and he met us at the house.  Adolpho is a great guy and we have some cool pics of the 'key exchange', when we moved in and received the keys.  We wanted to send them to Cindi so she could enjoy the moment from afar.  

No novelty size key was available.

Our house…  In the middle of the jungle… Our house...

The house came furnished with a new queen bed, a hand-made wood table with four chairs, a CTCU (Cerveza Temperature Control Unit or 'refrigerator') and a two-burner, propane cookstove.  Home sweet home!  First thing we did was move the bed to the front bedroom on the lake side of the house because it has two windows, air circulation being a key to survival in this climate.  Plus we like looking out the window and seeing the water.

I scrounged up enough bricks on the property to build a cute little fire pit and a small bench…

For roasting marshmallows… or iguanas

Or meditating about marshmallow stuffed iguanas.

We got our 'unpack and organize' game going, which was a lot of fun.  And when I say 'organize', I mean that in the loosest sense of the word because, you see, homes here aren't big on closets or shelves or cabinets.  Our place?  Two small shelves and a fair amount of counter space in the kitchen.  And that's it.  So when I say we got organized, I really mean we unpacked and created assorted piles of stuff on the floors, the table and the counter.

[Note:  Since moving in, we have commissioned and received a medicine cabinet for the bathroom (a beautiful, handmade piece with a mirrored door) and a very large shelf unit, which contains most everything - clothes, suitcases, musical instruments, etc.  Most of the floor is now clear!!]

Now that we had our own place, it was also time to go grocery shopping.  if you know us, you know that this always puts a smile on our faces.  We love to cook and, even though our kitchen was somewhat basic, we were ecstatic to be able to cook for ourselves.  There are limited options here - several pulperias (small convenience stores), usually run out of a home; the 'WalMart', which is essentially a large pulperia, that also carries some clothing and shoes - lots and lots of shoes; Fruitlandia - a roadside produce stand run by Doña Clara and her family; Margarita's, run by Tia Margarita, where we purchase our beer and rum.

We hit the stores, bought what we could find and stocked the fridge and the shelves as best we could.   Since we walk around the village almost every day, we typically buy stuff each time we're out.  The stores here get deliveries, yes, but once they're sold out of something, it's gone til the next truck makes it here.  Check out what Bex! has to say about our food shopping experiences in her terrific blog post here.  Or, you know, back there a few words on the clickable part.

Profesora on her way to teach, first walk up the path from our house

The rest of the week went well - we taught our classes, we marveled at the wonderful volunteers we were blessed to have and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to watch sunsets from our porch, sleep in our own home, shower in our own bathroom and cook meals in our own kitchen.  Since we were now in our new house, we figured we'd make it official and have a housewarming party!!  This was mostly inspired by The Swiss, who are all 19 years old (mas 0 menos), enjoy a great party and kept asking when the housewarming party was going to be.  Plus, Liz and Kelly mentioned it a few times.  And, hell, we like a good gathering, too.  So - boom! - party time.  There are good parties but the sign of a great party is when uninvited guests show up.

"The cows brought milk to the party.  What did YOU bring, Horse??"

We bought beer and some snacks, a couple of bottles of Flor de Caña appeared, friends from the community as well as our fellow volunteers came and we had a grand old time.  It was during the party that Bex! spotted a cockroach in our kitchen!!  We figure he was just checking out the new occupants.  We 'evicted' him, if you know what I mean.  Haven't seen any since.  While it was great to have our friends here, with drinks and music and dancing and games, it was a gift from Liz and Evan that was really special.  If you recall, Liz and Evan are from Aurora, Oregon so they're practically neighbors of ours.  And they gifted us with some Oregon hazelnuts!!  A taste of home, to be sure, and one we cherished each time we enjoyed them.

The party was awesome and everyone had a good time.  Sunday was spent recovering from the frivolity, of course.  Usual chores, planning for the week, requisite swim in the lake.  Sunday evening we were invited over to a friend's house for dinner.  Nora works at Hacienda Merida and her son, Franklin, is in the OBS kindergarten class.  This was our first invitation to a locals home for a meal, so we didn't really know what to expect.  We got there, met Nora's family and sat around a big table in their front yard.  Like many places in the world, families often live in close proximity to one another.  Nora's brother lived next door, other relatives lives across the path.  Her mother and father even showed up to dine with us, even though they are no longer married.  This was quite an honor, really.  

Well, weren't these self-described foodies shocked as the food came out!  Perfectly baked thin crust pizza, a delicious vegetable lasagna, delicately breaded and fried chicken.  What an amazing spread!  Don't get me wrong - we knew the food would be incredible but we were expecting plato tipico - traditional Nicaraguan fare.  This meal had a somewhat Italian slant to it, which caught us off guard just a wee bit.  Then we met Nora's brother.    The same Nora's brother who married an Italian girl and lived in Italy and was visiting the island for a few weeks.  Ah!  This explained the menu!  What a special treat!  The food was amazing, we had a blast conversing with Nora and her family.  Her brother speaks English so, with Bex!, they were able to help both sides along in conversation.  It was a fantastic evening, made even better when a bottle of vin santo appeared on the table, straight from Italy and was served in the appropriate style - with cantucci, a biscotti-type cookie which you dunk in the chilled vin santo and eat.

We've had vin santo and cantucci before, back home.  Bex! brought it back from her trip to Italy a few years ago.  But never in our wildest imaginations did we expect to experience such a feast and such a dessert on our jungle island in Nicaragua. 

Buenas noches de la casa de professores.