Well, we're at mid-September and we still haven't gotten very much rain at all, at least not by tropical rain forest standards. Our friends here rely on this, the so-called rainy season, to grow some of their most important foods needed to get them through the rest of the year, namely rice and plantains. Rice, especially, takes a lot of water. Planting and harvesting it is back breaking work, all done by hand. Families pull kids out of school to help with the in and out - it's that important.
They usually plant rice in May or early June, but we had virtually no rain in either of those months. Or July. And just a little in August. Folks waited as long as they could before planting, hoping the rain would start. Here we are in September and we've had some good downpours but not nearly enough for the crops. This region is in the third year of drought conditions. We're told this has been the worst year yet. This article from July talks more about just how bad things are getting here.
People in our village grow rice that is meant to last them for a good part of the year. Many other crops are in short supply, too. For example, beans are a primary source of protein for many folks and are currently in extremely short supply. Much of the bean harvest was lost due to a lack of rain. None of the pulperias have beans, not does the 'WalMart'. We are fortunate to have some very dear friends who have hooked us up with a pound here and a pound there, but even those sources have not been able to help us out, which is perfectly understandable. We're close friends with many people, yes, but when it gets down to it, families need to eat and us gringos will make due with whatever we can find.
Food security is so lacking right now that the government recently issued a statement suggesting that people could start raising iguanas for food and for their skins. We have friends here who hunt and eat iguana - they said it taste like - yes - chicken. Except sweeter.
We're keeping our fingers crossed for our friends, that they get the harvest they need to see them through. (And that out 'pet' iguanas can keep dodging the slingshots wielded by the locals on their night hunts.)
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Dear Diary -
We had a very fun day today! Two of our adult beginner students, Heydy and Marbeli, came to the house to teach us how to make tortillas! Haha! We usually buy tortillas from Heydy. For 20 cordobas (.80US), she delivers ten fresh, still warm circles of perfection right to the house. She agreed to teach us how to make them but only if we promised to still buy them from her occasionally.
It was a great time and I think they both enjoyed being the profesores for a change. Marbeli and Heydy had some good laughs watching us work, believe me!
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| Although you can't see her face, you can tell that Heydy has a huge smile on her face! |
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| It's all in the wrist… I think. |
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| Amoeba is a shape! |
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| Hey, is that Sean Connery's face in my tortilla? |
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| This was one of mine, I bet. No? Maybe. Still no? Okay, it's likely one of Heydy's. |
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| Marbeli, tending the stove. |
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| One for Bex!, one for me, one for Heydy, one for me, one for Marbeli, one for me... |
After we made and cooked all the tortillas, our teachers diced up tomatoes, onions, peppers for a sofrito, the veggies sautéed and cooked down into a paste. We reheated some frijoles we had prepared, then we all sat down out on the porch for a most excellent feast with our instructors. We were joined by Heydy's niece, Mayerly, who conveniently showed up after the work and just in time to eat. Just like a high schooler in the states.
After food… it was corn hole time. Marbeli, Mayerly, and Heydy caught on right away and quickly issued a challenge - Nicaragua vs. USA. Game on! I think we beat them - home court advantage, probably. We switched up teams and played for quite a while. They had fun and even got into trash talking a little! It was a great afternoon!
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Dear Diary -
Making tortillas is hard! We've made them a few times since Heydy and Marbeli showed us how. It's tough to get the masa mixed just right and the technique to get them round is just something that we'll have to continue to practice. Bex! has the sofrito down and it's wonderful. And I will say that fresh tortillas are still delicious, even if they're shaped like a pear or a football. Or Africa or Antarctica. Or Kansas.
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Dear Diary -
Remember in the previous blog post, I wrote about how we've been having some attendance issues in a couple of classes? Well, one class has actually seen attendance double!! I've shared before that we teach a class at our friend's house, just a few hundred meters north of us. The Lorio's are a wonderful family and have been so kind to us, sharing mangos, avocados, and fish with us. Recently, they shared their bounty of corn on the cob, boiled and wrapped in banana leaves!! Luis's wife, Rosibela, also gave us some wirila (pronounced 'wee-ree-la') which is best described as a cross between cornbread and pound cake.
Luis comes to the class, along with his daughter Maria. His two sons, Noldan and Yasir, attend our classes as well. Noldan is the most consistent attendee at our intermediate level class and Yasir is always at our high school sessions. The class we hold at Case de Lorio's has been holding steady at 5-6 students. In addition to Luis and Maria, we have a handful of kids, ages 8 to 11. But in the past couple of weeks, we've welcomed 5-6 newbies. It's awesome and such a fun group to teach. Yes, it can be challenging, integrating brand new students into a mix of people we've been teaching for seven months. But the 'vets' have been really good about helping the new kids get up to speed. They help them during class and with the frequent homework assignments we hand out.
Here are a bunch of pics of this great class!
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| Our good friend, Luis! |
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| Luis built this table and the benches, just so we could hold classes here. The table top is one piece, hand cut from a single very large tree. |
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| Oldemar (w/ his baby sister) and Sheyla. In the back is Luis' youngest, Ariana |
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| Maria (Luis' daughter) and Edwin |
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| Anjelo and Edrian |
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| Tres Mosqueteros! Deymar, Ricardo y Donaldo (Note: Donaldo must be part Volke, what with the bunny ears and all) |
Dear diary -
Very sad day on the island. A young boy was killed when he fell from the back of a truck. El Presidente had declared a special day to celebrate education and schools. There were events in all the major towns. The government provided funds to each village/town to bus kids and families to the nearest event for the speeches, music, etc. On Ometepe, the event was held in Altagracia. Because the road on most of the Maderas end of our island is so bad, they couldn't get a bus to the village of Tichana (south of Merida, where we live). Instead, they had big flatbed trucks to transport the folks.
The driver had trouble getting up a hill, the truck lurched and the young man, only 13 years old, fell out. The truck then rolled backward over him, as the driver was trying to grab a gear or hit the brakes or who knows. We were told the teenager was a shining star in the village, one of the brightest students in the school.
Very sad. Hug your loved ones.
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Dear Diary -
We needed some basic supplies (printer paper, wine, peanut butter, a few spices, rice, etc.) so decided to make a day trip to Moyogalpa on a Saturday. We got up super early and caught the 5:30 AM bus. And this time we actually made sure we were out on the road on time! LOL! We had contacted our taxi driver friend, Miguel, to arrange a ride back, a taxi being much easier than the bus since we would be laden with bags o' stuff. We told him we would be ready to come back around 1 PM.
The early bus is a little different than the 8:30 run. The 5:30 bus only goes to Altagracia, so we got there about 6:45-ish and chilled out in the parque central, watching the produce vendors set up their stalls for the days trade. We were pleasantly surprised when Wilfredo, one of our new students in the Working English class, walked up to us and said 'Good morning!'. He was in Altagracia for a class - takes the early bus every Saturday to attend school from 8 to noon. Very dedicated guy.
After a short wait, the bus headed for Moyogalpa rolled up and we were on our way. As much as we've written about 'Nica time' and how people don't have the obsession with time that we do, we've always managed to have pretty damn good connections on our travels.
Knock. On. Wood.
We've mentioned The Cornerhouse MANY times in this blog - it's our favorite place to eat in Moyogalpa, mostly because of the fresh-baked bread. To be fair, we struck gold with this place right away and haven't tried any other restaurants!! Shame on us, right, Diary?! Today was extra cool because we were in town early for breakfast at The Cornerhouse. And you know I love me some breakfast! I had a wonderful fluffy omelette with tomatoes, peppers and cheese. It was served with potatoes and toast. Coffee and a calala juice rounded out the meal. Fantastic! I think Bex! had an omelette, too, but I was distracted by my food.
After breakfast, we ran our errands - ATM for cordobas; pharmacy for anti-itch bug bite cream; liberia for printer paper and whiteboard markers; and the Mini-Super for groceries we can't find in Merida. All of these places are within a few blocks of each other, so we found ourselves finished with our shopping much earlier than anticipated. Bex! called Miguel and he was, thankfully, able to pick us up early to bring us home. In fact, we were unloading on our porch before noon!! Awesome!
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Dear Diary -
I took this picture on our trip to Moyogalpa:
It says 'Without mosquitos there is no dengue or chikungunya. Destroy breeding
grounds. Live healthy. Live clean. Live nice. Live well.'
Remember, Diary, last year around this time, dengue fever was rampant. In fact, when we arrived in Nicaragua at the start of this crazy adventure in late October 2013, the hospitals were full of people with dengue. Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and parts of Costa Rica had declared an epidemic.
Dengue fever is also called 'break bone fever' because it makes your joints feel like they are broken. Fever, a measles-like rash and headache are included in this mosquito-spread viral package deal! The new-to-this-part-of-the-world fever, chikungunya, is also spread by day-time biting mosquitos. Chikungunya translates roughly to 'that which bends up', a reference to how it makes the joints hurt so bad that curling up in the fetal position is somewhat more comfortable. The symptoms are similar to dengue, except the severe joint pain can last for months or even years. No bueno.
Wish us luck!
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Dear Diary -
Hooray for Oregon! For the 8th year in a row, a group of veterinarian students from Oregon State University arrived to spend 10 days in the community, offering free checkups and care for the animals in the village. It's been a great program! The group of 23 advisors and students perform minor surgeries in the makeshift clinic, which is actually the hotel's shop and maintenance shed transformed into a M*A*S*H unit for animals. The people we talked with said it was a unique, challenging and rewarding experience, working in these primitive conditions - but they all had a blast. In fact, many of them have made the trip in years past.
D'oh! They had six bags confiscated at customs in Managua. The bags contained a variety of medicines, one of their microscopes as well as other vet related supplies and some personal stuff belonging to members of the group. A constant stream of phone calls to the customs officials got nowhere, so arrangements were made that if the bags are EVER released, the items will be donated to local veterinarians here in Nicaragua.
The group of vets offered people free advice and information, as well as coloring sheets and crayons for the kids. It was great having visitors from our home state! We met a lot of amazing, caring people and they were wonderful to everyone, animals and humans. Although they didn't neuter any humans, so maybe they were better to the latter group. Haha!
Go, Beavs!!
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Dear Diary -
My wife is so great! We did a lesson with the OBS first graders on clothing. So, we brought in some of our own clothes to show as examples. Plus we had a cool coloring worksheet for the kids. The best part for the kids - and me - was watching Bex! put on ALL the clothes as I wrote them on the board!!! Ha!
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| She is wearing: a scarf, a t-shirt, a button up long sleeve shirt, a hat, a skirt, shorts, a jacket - and still had a pair of pants to put on. These went on over her regular clothes AND we live in the tropics, remember!! |
The most entertaining part, though, was when Bex! walked (waddled?) around the class to check on the kids' worksheets! They couldn't stop giggling at her! Before she melted away, she removed the clothes. We had the kids call out the name of each piece of clothing before she removed it!
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| Jasmina and Daren |
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| Kenneth!! |
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| Itzel, Adrian and Gretel |
Dear Diary -
Yikes! We got word that our friend, Alvaro, was in a really bad car accident near Managua today. He is the owner of Hacienda Merida and, together with his wife, Esther, started the Ometepe Bilingual School. He was with a lady who had been helping him write a proposal for a sustainability award for the school. They were on their way back to Managua when they got t-boned by a semi-truck!! News here is hard to get but what we've heard thus far is that Alvaro has a messed up hip and leg, as well as being beat up and bruised. He had surgery on the hip and leg (not sure if he had broken bones or what, exactly). The lady was not as 'lucky'. She will live but it took an hour and a half to cut her out of the car and she lost her leg in the process.
Alvaro is recuperating at a friends house near Granada and we're told he will be back in Merida sometime next week to continue his rehab. We're very happy that he will be okay!!! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
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Dear Diary -
We welcomed two new volunteers to the island! Jamie and Nicole are from Toronto, Canada and will be with us for four weeks! Horatio came to the house to let us know they had arrived so we walked over to meet them and give them the tour of the school and the facilities. We spent Monday with them, introducing them to the kindergartner and first grade kids. In the kindergarten class, we did a weaving project, teaching the kids colors and the words 'over' and 'under'.
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| Our volunteer, Nicole. Esneider is obviously not yet sure what he thinks of her. |
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| Volunteer Jamie helping out! |
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| Profesora Rebecca staples finished weavings! |
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| Jaqueline and Cristel |
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| A very proud Jonathon |
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| Weslin, showing off his work |
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| Jaqueline! |
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| Franklin and K2 (Kindergarten Kenneth) |
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| Moises! |
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| The kid who must eat batteries because he has endless energy - Saul! |
PS - Dear Diary -
Reminder to ask Nicole and Jamie if they've ever partied with this guy!
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Dear Diary -
The second round of mango came and went. We are being gifted mangos from many people in the village! This variety is called mango de rosa and a little sweeter than the others. They are dee-lish, Diary! Of all the mango trees on our property, only a couple of them are of this variety. Just like before, the cows love them, even when they are not ripe. In fact, they like them so much, they even stick their heads through barbed wire for hand feeding!
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| Mooooo-re mangos, please! |
Dear Diary -
I am sooo stoo-pid! We biked south along the crappy road to go to Finca Mistica for lunch. They bake bread there and have really good food, so even though it's a little ways away, it's worth it!! But like almost every other time I get on a bike on a bad road, I fall off and get hurt!
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| Yoinks. |
Diary, I should just stay indoors, huh? LOL!
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Dear Diary -
We run into our students all over this small village, naturally. And I've written and posted pics of them hanging out at Margarita's bar to watch cartoons. Well, we were having lunch at Margarita's and these three OBS first graders were there, goofing around!
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| Kenneth, Jesner, Dilan |
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Dear Diary -
Well, that is everything up to… right… NOW! Consider our diary entries all caught up!!!
