To wit:
A] R & R
We got our hammocks installed, finally! It took quite a lot of time and searching to find the hardware we needed. As I've written before, our porch isn't set up to just tie off hammocks with rope. We needed eye bolts, nuts and washers, as well as 'S' hooks for hanging them. We had looked at every ferreteria (hardware store) we had encountered on the island and in Rivas, to no avail. Finally, we turned this over to Pedro Pablo, our friend/taxi driver on the mainland. He couldn't find them, either, but he did the next best thing - in fact, a better thing: he had them made for us. Beautiful, simple iron work, painted black and perfect for what we needed.
Shortly after returning home with the goods, Hamilton and his son came over and installed the hardware for us. This required drilling through the concrete/cinderblock walls and posts on the porch. Needless to say, they did great work and we thoroughly enjoy our hammock time whenever our busy schedule permits.
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| Hard at work? Or hardly working? |
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| Psst! Guys! Will you tell my wife that if I don't nap in the hammock at least one hour every day it will damage the hammock? |
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| Relaxation Zone #1 |
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| Relaxation Zone #2 |
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| If the table on the porch is our office, this must be the break-room. |
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| Chillaxin' |
B] Random iguana picture!
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| One of three that reside in a mango tree right near our porch |
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| Another of the three. Or the same one. I can't tell. |
C] A Unique Problem
(ring ring, ring ring, ring ri..)
"Good afternoon! Thank you for calling Hewlett Packard customer service. How may I help you?"
"Hi, I have an issue with one of your printers I'm hoping you can help me with."
"Okay, ma'am. Can you please provide the model so I can pull up the manual? Thank you."
"It's the Ink Advantage 2515, combination copier/printer/scanner."
"Ah, one of our most popular models. What seems to be the problem with the 2515?"
"Well, um, it seems we have ants inside it."
"Excuse me, ma'am, did you say your aunt is using your printer?"
"No, no - we have ants that have gotten into our printer. We're not sure how but you can see them through the glass under the lid."
"Okay, so your aunt put something in your printer. Did she put it in through the paper feed or underneath where the printed documents feed out?"
"Uh, no. Okay, let's back up. Hmmm… Ah, I got it. You know how when you're on a picnic and you have the blanket all spread out and you open the potato salad and the fried chicken and the baked beans…"
"Oh, that sounds lovely, ma'am. And the sun is shining and there's a nice gentle breeze blowing, right? That's how a picnic should be."
"Well, er, yeah, okay - sunny, windy…"
"Yes, but not too windy!"
"Okay, not too windy. So we have that pictured, right?"
"Oh, my! Yes! I'll have to plan a picnic with my Harold."
"You do that. Okay, now, everything is perfect except all of a sudden you notice ants. Everywhere! Crawling on your blanket and heading for your food."
"Oh no! Harold hates ants!"
"Yes, ants - the insects! Perfect! See, that is what we have inside our printer! The bugs - ANTS!"
"Oh! I see! I think I can help you."
"Thank goodness!"
"First, let me ask a question to help me find the right solution for you."
"Yes, yes! Anything."
"Why did you take your printer with you on a picnic?"
Oy.
D] Random unusual lizard picture!
Came across this guy in the dark. The headlamp caught something moving in front of us. He was nice enough to hold still for the photo op.
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| Central American striped-back gecko, about 6" long |
Back home we did a lot of our shopping at farmer's markets. We learned to enjoy certain foods seasonally, when they were available and learned to cook with very fresh, raw fruits, veggies, and meats. In fact, Bex! wrote this post about our food experience thus far and how we've realized that when you see something fresh, buy it up because ya don't know when you'll see it again. While this is still true, we've also noticed that when it's harvest season, there is plenty of everything, it seems!
Plátanos (plantains), mangos, huge aguacate (avocado), sandia (watermelon), piña (pineapple) all in abundance for a few months in March, April, May. Our fridge was overloaded at times, which is a wonderful feeling. Ah, food security!
While we purchase a lot of food from local vendors, we were blessed by the locals many many times with gifts of produce. There were many nights when we would come back from teaching classes, loaded down with produce gifted to us by our friends. Several times, one of us would be walking home in the dark and hear 'Profesor! Profesor!', to find a friend who had been waiting for us to pass through the village (like we do each evening) so they could hand us a bag full of fruits and vegetables.
The people are so kind and gracious. Speaking of…
F] Fish on!
One family in particular has been exceptionally gracious to us - the Lorio's. We teach an evening class at their house three days a week, the session attended by Luis and his daughters as well as all the neighbor kids. It's a fun crew and the setting couldn't be more spectacular. Luis and his wife, Rosabella, have given us more produce than we can remember! One day, we got a special and unique visit at the house.
Luis wears many hats, as do a lot of people here. He works several jobs, taking it as it comes. One thing he does, and very well, is fishes. We see him all the time out in his hand made boat with his boys and/or friends, dropping their nets and hauling them in. One afternoon, we were sitting on our porch working on lessons and Luis rowed by in his dugout canoe. He waved and called to us, then started making his way to shore. So I waded out to meet him. He opened up a large burlap bag that was full of fish! He presented me with two large, still alive tilapia he had just caught! Wow!
I cleaned them and we had them for dinner that night. I cooked them Nica style - slit the sides and dusted them with seasoned flour, squeezed naranja agria (sour orange) over them and inserted slices into the cavity, then fried them in a little oil turning them once. They were flaky and juicy and wonderful!
G] Random gecko picture!
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| Bad skin day. "I like the color but do you maybe have something in a larger size?" |
The lakeshore in front of our house is lined with huge mango trees. There are a few other trees, as well. One in particular caught our attention a) because it's directly in front of our porch between us and the lake, providing nice shade as the sweltering sun goes down directly west of us and b) we noticed it had a small green round fruit on it. Curious, we asked one of our friends what this fruit was and he told us it was an olive tree! Who knew! We tasted some and they were a mix of sweet and grape-like with the kind of bitter that sucks all the moisture out of your mouth.
Some quick research on the innerwebs suggested brining them, so we harvested a bunch of olives, slit them on one side and stuffed them into a jar. We let them sit in the fridge for a few weeks, taste testing periodically. Sad to say that the original bitterness never improved, so the experiment was a failure. The tree is done fruiting for now but if it comes round again, we'll probably try a different approach with a different brine. We'll keep you posted!
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| Hand harvesting without a ladder. |
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| They started falling off in good number when they turned black, so we decided black meant ripe. |
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| Yeah, I was playing with Lightroom... |
In the 'it's a small world' category, Bex! received word from her folks back home in Juneau that some family friends of theirs were coming to Nicaragua and would be visiting Ometepe! And not just the island, but they were actually going to be in our village - Merida! We walked up the hill to La Omaja and had dinner with Claire and her family. It was a great evening and fun to listen to Bex! enjoy some conversation with friends from her home town. Plus they bought us volunteer English teachers dinner, which was very kind of them.
K] Clase de francés
Way back in February, we had four awesome volunteers from Switzerland. Two of them, Chris and Théo, taught a French class for some of the intermediate adult English students while they were here. I even took the class when time permitted. After they left, Bex! decided to carry on the torch. She found a great resource online, planned her lessons and now teaches a class one evening a week at our house. After an initial interest, attendance as been sparse, so this one is on life support. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, it's fun!
Muzzy!
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| Wait, that's Spanish. Uh, French, French. Hmmm. |
L] Speaking of France
We met an absolutely wonderful couple from the Burgundy region of France, who live in a small town near Dijon. They were traveling through Nicaragua and stayed several days at Hacienda Merida. How we met them is a bit of a story. We were at home and Ericks stopped by. He's one of our high school students and the son of one of our friends, Nora. He told us that Nora needed Bex! to come to the hacienda right away to help translate for a French couple that had some sort of emergency. No problem - we locked up and hustled over there to see how we could help. And by 'we' I mean Bex!, the French speaker.
When we arrived we were introduced to Dominique and Bernadette. We instantly liked the couple very much and the feeling seemed mutual. My official role was to keep the table in beer while the French speakers conversed. The emergency was this: Dominique and Bernadette had gone kayaking out to Monkey Island. The hacienda has kayaks available for guests, so they grabbed one and went out on the lake. Unfortunately, the kayak they took out was defective and was taking on water, unbeknownst to the paddlers. They got out a fair ways and the craft floundered, dumping them in the lake. During this, one of Dominique's crutches sank to the bottom. Dominique has a health issue which requires him to use crutches to get around.
This near tragedy was completely avoidable, of course, had there been a program in place to check and maintain the kayaks on a regular basis. There is none that we're aware of. This particular kayak was checked out after the accident and found to have a separation along one of the seams. Be that as it may, the issue now was the missing crutch. Some of the staff went out and searched for it, diving down and scouring the lakebed. No luck. The only possible location a replacement would be found is in Managua. Rather than screw up the rest of their trip, they hired Kevin, an employee of the hacienda, to travel to Managua to pick up a new crutch. This is where Bex! came in. She translated from French to Spanish so that Kevin understood exactly what to look for. And the next day he went and was successful.
We so enjoyed visiting with Bernadette and Dominique that we invited them over the next day for lunch. We gave them directions and they showed up right on time. We enjoyed fresh pineapple and iced tea. Then Bex! made 'gallopinto Americana', her spin on the traditional Nica dish. Served with huevos revueltos (scrambled eggs) we had a leisurely meal and a wonderful visit.
Now, you might be thinking - how did I fit in with this group, our guests speaking only French, along with my wife. First of all, I'm naturally charming, so get along with people in any language. Secondly, I can pick up enough words to keep pace of the conversation, asking the wife an occasional question to clarify what was being discussed. But mostly I cleaned up and did dishes while the three of them visited. Stick to our strengths, right?
The next evening, we were all invited to Nora's house for dinner. If you recall, we had dinner at Nora's one time before when her brother was visiting from Italy. This time we again enjoyed a wonderful Nica dinner and more good conversation, with my amazing wife translating back and forth between Spanish and French. It was a lot of fun and very gracious of Nora to have us over. I think she felt bad for what happened to Dominique and Bernadette.
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| (l-r) Lionel (Nora's father), Bex!, Bernadette, Dominique, Nora, moi |
We've made a lot of friends down here and now have a standing invitation to visit Bernadette and Dominique at their home in France, which we will likely do at some point in the near-ish future. It is in Burgundy, after all.
M] Random giant flower picture!
N] Jam session
Bex! was walking home one evening after teaching classes at the hotel. As she walked by 'Fruitlandia', the small produce stand run by Doña Clara and her family, she heard wonderful music being played. She stopped and looked around, then heard 'Profesora!', so she walked behind the stand and found Jehu and Chema playing mariachi and Nica music. Jehu is Clara's husband; they are the parents of Edar, one of our high school students. Chema is Maykel's dad, where we helped butcher the pig. She stayed to listen to a couple of songs, then came home.
As it turned out, their impromptu 'audition' would come into play in the near future.
Oooh, foreshadowing.
O] Random chicken in the classroom picture!
P] A magical Friday afternoon
We have so many special moments throughout each and every day, it's hard to remember them all. One of our young students running up to give hugs, an adult student conversing with us in their newly learned English, the wave from a friend who sees us walking through the village. All very amazing stuff. But one Friday was extra special.
It started out with a most excellent first grade class session at Ometepe Bilingual School. The kids were great - energetic, focused, into what we were doing. It was a tremendous class!
As is our Friday routine, after class we took the shortcut up to Margarita's for celebratory beers. We were hanging out enjoying an ice cold Toña when some of our first graders showed up. It's not unusual, of course, for kids to be here. It's an open-air bar run out of Tia Margarita's home and many of the children are related to her in some way. We had fun playing with them, getting a little extra time outside the classroom.
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| First grader Dayana took this pic with my camera; me & Jasmina |
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| Jasmina, Profesora Rebecca, Dayana and Jesner |
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| Jesner is watching Curious George; Bex! is watching the Flor de Caña |
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| After a hard day of learning ABC's and playing tag, a kid's just gotta unwind |
Because we love nacatamales, we asked if we could buy some. Tia was more than happy to hook us up. If you remember from a couple of posts back, nacatamales have to cook for ~3 hours or so. No worries. She had someone deliver them to our house! Maybe soon we'll be able to call for a pizza.
Our extra-cool day wasn't over yet, though. We went home and hit the lake for a swim. The kids enjoy it when they see us anywhere in the village and today a handful of them were swimming near our house. As soon as they saw us, they swam right over to join us! Two of the young girls, Genessy and Gemela (not students but we know them), wanted to learn some English, so we did colors and numbers and basic nouns, all while splashing around in a tropical lake! A pretty surreal day!
And we had nacatamales delivered to our door and enjoyed them for dinner that very evening.
Yep - magical.
Q] Random impromptu English class at a bar picture!
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| Bex! with a very happy Juriel who learned how to form questions and yes/no answers |
R] More on nacatamales
Another Friday afternoon, more end-of-week brewskis at Margarita's. This time we overheard Tia asking some guy to make sure he brought the banana leaves the next morning. Banana leaves mean only one thing: nacatamale deliciousness. Hearing this, our ears perked up and we immediately asked Tia if we could again buy some. Of course, she said yes and again she had them delivered to us. Now we are on the home delivery system, the Domino's of Merida! Tia Margarita makes nacatamales almost every weekend. If we don't happen to stop in for a beer and place our order, she sends someone to the house to find out how many we want! How cool is that!?
S] Teaching the beer guys
The Toña truck makes deliveries most every Monday and Friday. We've run into the crew several times at Margarita's. We talk beer and think it's pretty cool that we both worked at a brewery in the states. In getting to know them, they expressed a desire to learn English. They live in Moyogalpa, where the ferry comes in. They asked the same question everyone else from there asks us: Can you come to Moyogalpa and teach. We were surprised to learn that there isn't anyone there teaching English. It's one of the two 'big' towns on the island and the main port. Tourism has been on the rise in the last few years, so this opportunity is perfect for someone. But, as we always have to answer, we're committed to Merida for the year.
We have sat with them and covered some basics, and even given them some worksheets to do as well as lists of vocabulary, words in English with Spanish translations that will hopefully help them out. When we do run into them, there is almost always some teaching, even if it's just 10 minutes or so. They have questions and we do our best to help them out.
T] Random chicken in the yard picture!
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| Stop waking me up at 4:30 in the morning!!! |
***** ***** ***** *****
I think that's it for now! Tata!
***** ***** ***** *****
Oh, wait a sec…
U] Random 2,000 lb. bull in the path that will probably make us late for class picture!
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| "You'll get to class when I say you get to class." |
All the way to U with this collection! Thanks for posting the stories and pictures. I'm impressed with the iguana and gecko pictures.
ReplyDeleteOnly five more letters for a full alphabet.
DeleteGreat smorgasbord, and I'll be hovering to hear more about la musica.
ReplyDeleteComing up soon. Probably in the next post.
Delete