Fun Food Facts

This weekend in San Juan del Sur was a hectic one. It involved the mysterious disappearance of over twelve hundred cordobas, deep-sea fishing, seasickness, a beautiful beach, terrible stinging sea creatures, mating turtles, a terrible hostel manager, a few sneaky sunburns, some heat exhaustion, several long bus rides, food poisoning, many disappointments and not a lot of sleep. While there were some pretty wonderful things – like the swimming – it really took a lot out of me. After a refreshing walk in the rain with The Collective West for company, I decided that I’d rather not blog about what was a stressful couple of days.

Instead, I bring you more food facts! Last time I talked about food, the two qualities I mentioned happened to be alliterative – Nicaraguan food is fresh and fatty. This time, I have two more Fs for you.

F is for Fried

In Nicaragua, the skillet full of oil is practically a kitchen staple. The vast majority of hot Nicaraguan food is fried – fried enchiladas, fried eggs, fried tortillas, fried bananas, fried plantains. In fact, those last two can be done a number of different ways: battered and crunchy, sliced and soft, salted and crispy… Lightly frying bananas halved lengthwise makes a delicious supper, and I actually like plantains in their crispiest form more than potato chips! The weirdest fried concoction I’ve come across so far is fried cheese, which initially seemed to me like the least healthy thing a person could possibly consume. The thought of all the grease involved initially turned me off the idea, but it would appear that the standard Nicaraguan cheese (“queso” is cheese, if you were interested) is actually not that appetizing unless it’s fried. It looks and smells a lot like feta cheese, but we tried using it with a pasta we made a few nights ago and it just doesn’t act like cheese. Fried, though, it’s delicious – especially when stuck on a toothpick with an equally fried plantain, in which case it’s called tostones con queso.

F is also for Familiar

There is a lot of American-style food in Nicaragua, pizza being the most popular by far, as you may have guessed from the plethora of pizza photos in my albums. Off the top of my head, I can think of five pizza places in Jinotepe, which I’m sure is far more pizza per capita than, say, Cold Lake. Pizza aside, though, there’s a lot of familiar fare available even outside of tourist spots; it’s just been Nica-ized a bit. The papas fritas (French fries) look roughly the same, but the potatoes don’t taste quite the same and most places don’t make them as crispy as they are at home. This is why I’d rather have tajadas, although I’ll make an exception for the incredible curly fries at Laiha’s in Jinotepe. The hamburguesas (as if you need that translated) are hit and miss; I’ve seen pretty delicious ones in restaurants before, but it seems that the bread is generally more important than the meat, which winds up engulfed in an enormous cloud of homemade bun. Jason and John have been singing the praises of Quick Burger for weeks, but I have yet to try it. While I doubt it will blow me away, there is one aspect of Nicamerican food that I do love: ketchup. Ketchup here is somehow sweeter, more tomato-ey and a hundred times more delicious. There will most likely be a package of it in my suitcase beside that guava jelly.

In other news, my placement starts for real tomorrow. In the morning, Brianne and I are going to one of the schools to talk about scheduling our health lessons, which we started planning this evening. In the afternoon, I’ll be working in the clinic. I can’t wait!

Halfway There

Two weeks ago when I was having a hard time thinking of what to write, I started making a list of things I already missed from home, countering it with a list of things I already knew I’d miss from here when I go. When I thought about it, it seemed like more of a halfway point post; it seemed soooo far away at the time, but the halfway point is today! I can’t believe it – Jenny’s going away dinner was last night, she’s leaving today and my placement starts for real on Monday. I’m so excited!

So to tie you over until I’m back from San Juan del Sur this Sunday, here are some lists:

I miss...
Some pretty wonderful people. Duh.

My bed. I usually don’t have any particular attachment to my bed, but I can’t wait to flop back onto the cool sheets of my double bed at home instead of wiggling my way under my mosquito net onto a cramped twin bed that’s still warm and humid from when I got out of it in the morning.

Peanut butter. It’s delicious, and more expensive here than it is at home so I refuse to buy it on principle.

Jeans. I wasn’t expecting to need long pants very often, and I certainly wasn’t about to bring my favourite jeans. It’s true that the weather is usually too hot for pants here, but somehow most if not all Nicaraguans wear long pants all the time! I’ll probably end up buying some in the market anyway because covering up my legs for once would make me feel like less of a tourist – and less of a target for mosquitoes.

Clean air. In Nicaragua, it’s okay to smoke indoors and burn your garbage outdoors. I’m really looking forward to taking a deep breath of Alberta air!
Straight hair. I'm getting pretty sick of the Pippy Longstocking look, but the only other options are the Hermione Granger frizz and the sad librarian bun, so I'm kind of stuck no matter what.

Greek salad. And salad in general. Though Inès does make the occasional salad – with avocados in it, even – I feel like I’m going to eat nothing but vegetables for a few days when I get home. I could also go for some salad rolls from Sweet Mango.

Making my own meals. I like cooking! I love waking up in the morning and having breakfast on the table, but I also really like coming up with an especially delicious lunch.

11 PM prairie sunsets. Then sun sets around six here, which is nice because it means that we’re usually in bed pretty early. It can get kind of annoying, though, when we want to go do something but it’s after dark and safety becomes an issue. I miss walking around at night when it isn’t actually night yet.

I know I'm going to miss...

Some pretty wonderful people. How could I not?

Fresh pineapple. And bananas. And avocados. And cantaloupe.

Guava jelly. There will definitely be at least one container of this amazing stuff in my bag when I come home.

Music all the time. It’s hard not to be in a good mood when there’s familiar American music and catchy latin tunes playing in every shop, restaurant and vehicle. I’m going to come home with a great music collection – we’re even learning the words to some of the songs.

Walking through the market. It’s full of unpleasant smells and you really have to watch your step, but I could wander around there for hours without seeing everything.

Rum and Fresca. It’s the most refreshing drink ever, beating out even Coke - which is like a completely different drink when it's actually hot out. In fact, here's the best way to describe just how wonderful Coke is when it's hot and humid.

Breathtaking views. There isn't much to say about them - that's kind of the point.

Speaking Spanish. I’m getting better! The other girls laugh at my French accent, but there’s no way sixteen years of French are going to give way to four weeks of Spanish without a fight so I’m embracing it. I’m so proud of myself for being able to communicate a little bit, albeit not eloquently.

Sandals all day errday. Rae tells me her toes get claustrophobic in socks. While I haven't really thought about it before, my toes are definitely enjoying the freedom of being in my Birks so often that I've developed a sandal tan and said Birks are cracked all the way across.
The back seat of the minibus. Jenny, Brianne, John and I take up the back seat of a minibus perfectly. It's nice to set out on our journeys the same way every time - and to only have to share sweat with people you already know!
Discovering something new every day. There are new tiendas I didn’t know were so close to BaseCamp (the rum cake place), new things from home I never expected them to have here (Canada Dry ginger ale), new customs, new words… I’m learning and it’s pretty great.

In other news, I finally added photos to the Ometepe Island post and the Week IV album is up to date.

Los Voluntarios

I had a lot of thinking time today because I was sick for most of it - slept the day away, sometimes on the bathroom floor kind of sick. I didn't have much energy for any studying, so I decided to write a blog post in my head about the other volunteers I'm here with.

Jenny was the first volunteer I met, and she greeted me with a smile so bright I couldn't help but feel welcome. Now I know that said smile is on Jenny's face every waking minute, but still. She's a perpetual optimist studying Health Sciences in Calgary, where she's lived for the past ten years or so. She's originally from Korea, and she brought a trunk full of delicious Korean food that she's been sharing with us on nights when dinner pickings are especially slim. She's leaving this Friday and we're all going to miss her - she has an uncanny way of making things lighthearted no matter how grumpy, tired or frustrated we are.

The next volunteer I met was Jason, the firefighter-paramedic from Florida. He's older than us and has done a lot more living; in fact, his story is interesting enough for a feature film, so I'm planning a whole blog post about it. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some classic Jason catchphrasesm which are way more fun in his Southern drawl: "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" "OUTstanding!" "Y'all better tighten up 'round here." "Simmerrrr!" He's also rather big on nicknames: Johnny Be Good is an obvious classic, but Crinklepuff, Britney Spears and Pippy Longstocking also favourites.

In case you couldn't guess, Johnny Be Good is John. Despite his conveniently versatile looks, John is not Nicaraguan. He's from Saskatoon but his family is Middle Eastern, which means that he appeared Greek in Greece, Costa Rican in Costa Rica, etc. Our Spanish isn't quite good enough for us to actually pass him off as Nica here, though. He's in the same year as me, though he's in a cool Physiology and Pharmacology program at the U of S. It must suck for him a little to be the only guy amongst the younger volunteers, but he's remarkably patient when we shop and willingly participates in impromptu singalongs. He makes fun of me for being a nerd, but he wants to talk about pathways and fun science facts as much as I do.

Speaking of fun facts: John and Brianne, the last volunteer I met, already knew each other before coming to Nicaragua! Brianne's also in Physiology and Pharmacology at the U of S and, like the rest of us, wants to be a doctor. She's a pole vaulter on the team at school and is therefore a great motivator when it's six-thirty in the morning and I'd rather not get out of bed to run. Brianne is the youngest of all of us, but it doesn't seem that way to me; though we're all the oldest siblings in our family, I think having three younger sisters makes a big difference! She's always full of great ideas, too. The banana flambé was her brainchild, as were the health classes that I'm so looking forward to.

 All in all, I love the people I'm here with. I'd say I lucked out!

Go Make a Difference

When I talked to Meagan this spring about her trip, one of the most important things she said to me was that I would gain a lot more from the people I worked with than I would contribute to them. While I understood the idea at the time - I had no real medical training and I'd heard nothing but inspirational stories about Nicaraguan people - I still hoped that I could make some kind of contribution. That's what volunteers are supposed to do!

It's tricky, though, because unlike Jason, I don't have extensive training that I can use to teach dozens of recruits how to save lives! I can micropipette, sure, but it's not as if the other women in the lab wouldn't get by without me. Brianne said that she was feeling the same way last week, so we set out to find a way to actually make a difference while we're here. She said that while she was in the clinic recently, a woman asked how she got a vaginal infection. (This might be gross, skip to the next paragraph if you're squeamish. Or a boy.) The women here have never been taught to wipe front to back! Whaaaaat?

It became clear to Brianne that we had an opportunity to make a difference while mixing my two great loves: health science and education! She suggested that we go into schools a few times a week to teach workshops to the students about health and nutrition. It will mostly be about preventing sicknesses, I think, but tailored to the age group: we'll teach the younger children about washing their hands, for example, and the older ones about STIs. We won't be teaching firefighters to shock hearts, but we'll be saving lives all the same.

So today, when we went to the private school with Jason to teach basic hands-on CPR to a group of 15-year-olds, we also asked the sub-director if we could come teach our health class a few days a week. We were worried that there would be a bit of a struggle given that there are nuns working in the school and we wanted to talk about STIs, but we lucked out and the lady said yes right away! I'm really excited to get into the schools and start interacting with the students; although our Spanish leaves a lot to be desired, we could tell that they're interested.

Even without the Spanish, we can connect at some level! While we were waiting at the school (they invited us to come at ten but it was recess until ten-thirty; Nica time at its finest) there was a girl with Down Syndrome sitting outside the gate. It was great to see her in school because José says that most children with Down Syndrome or autism end up shut up at home because nobody has the patience to teach them. She seemed a little upset, though, so Brianne went to sit beside her and rub her back. Within five minutes, there was giggling and hugging and a lot of smiles. It was probably one of the highlights of my day - the others being the amazing banana flambé we made together this evening, and having the firefighters open the hood of the ambulance in the middle of an exam because they were writing on the hood and dropped a pen inside!

All in all, I have to say that despite being frustrated with Spanish and feeling like I'm just sitting around until my placement starts, things are looking up. I think I'll be able to make a difference after all.

Léon, the Travel Bug Trigger

Months ago, I decided that I had caught that itchy travel bug and needed to start seeing the world; I started planning this trip and the bug shut up for a while, satisfied with the promise of two months of completely uncharacteristic adventure. After flying by the seats of our pants in Ometepe, horseback riding in Catarina and hitchhiking in the pouring rain, I was beginning to feel as if I was going to get enough excitement to last me a long time – like maybe forever. I could already tell that I’d come home more relaxed and spontaneous, but I didn’t think I’d want to try anything too crazy for a good while.

However, as a wise friend once told me, that itchy travel bug never goes away. The second we walked into the Hostel Sonati in Léon this weekend, I suddenly realized that there’s a whole world to travel and a whole world of people with whom to do so. More surprisingly, I realized that I want to do that! (This is a big step considering how convinced I was that people like me simply couldn’t do things like stay in hostels and have no plans.)

It’s no wonder I discovered this startling desire to explore the world and meet its people in Léon; our main motivation for visiting Nicaragua’s old capital was the fact that it’s supposed to be full of students and internationals. It didn’t disappoint! We spent less than 24 hours in the city, but in that period of time we met people from the US, Israel, Germany, France, Australia and Honduras – not to mention a fair few Nicaraguans and a Québécoise! It was so cool to engage in conversations in all three of my languages in the same night, and even with the same person. In the end, we were really happy that we’d picked the dorm in the hostel because otherwise we may not have connected at all.

The visitors to Léon are really special, but the city itself is also quite incredible. While we were there, it was impossibly hot but there was also a gorgeous blue sky that made every photo of the enormous churches just that much better. We were impressed with how clean the city was, how easy it was to get around and how soon after arriving we’d already decided that it would be really cool to come back. There is so much history in the churches, museums and murals. They even have a Legends and Traditions Museums that I will definitely visit if I return – and I plan to.

Before I came here, a few friends asked me if I was planning to travel around the country after my placement but I had hardly considered it – I thought I’d have nothing to do but work hard at my placement and take the occasional day trip. Now, I understand that a person really could spend months discovering the beauty of Nicaragua! When we were in the minibus from Léon to Managua today, Brianne asked which volcano we could see out our window. We couldn’t remember, but the point is that we were just driving along when a steep, dark, smoking, active volcano casually appeared on the horizon and we thought nothing of it. It’s a volcano! It’s so cool and they’re everywhere! There is so much natural beauty here and it’s just waiting for us to appreciate it. (This led to a discussion of Canada’s natural beauty. What do you think is the coolest or most beautiful aspect of Canadian nature?)

Nicaragua’s geology, flora and fauna can be fascinating, but so are the people. When we were sharing plantain chips with the guys from Israel before heading out, we mentioned the continuous fiesta going on in Jinotepe. Roy was laughing when he said, “In Nicaragua, they are celebrating every day that they are alive!” He’s right, though. Shouldn’t we all?

We Like to Party

A while ago when I asked for writing ideas, Chad asked, "How is their approach to life different than Canadians'?" Since then, I've been trying to keep my eyes peeled for good examples that can demonstrate the way things are here. It's a little tricky on the one hand because everything is different, but also because there's a certain vibe here that's hard to describe.

One thing in particular had been on my mind for a few days and our week night guard, Juan, summed it up nicely last night: "¡En Nicaragua, hay siempre fiesta!" (In Nicaragua, there's always a party.) This was in response to my dumbfounded look when he explained that in Jinotepe, July and August are dedicated to the festival Santiago. Two months of parties! No wonder we keep hearing firecrackers and marching bands.

It's not necessarily that there's a specific special even going on every day, though there are a lot of those - like the soccer tournament outside our house last week. It's more that people are in the mood to celebrate! It's hard not to be, given the ubiquitous music and the fact that here, people actually use their front steps to sit on. They're always chatting with people sitting across the street and saying hi to people walking down it, which makes for a sense of comraderie or something that's pretty special. When I walk through the central park when it's particularly bustling, I really admire Nicaraguans; it would so easy to discouraged by the poverty and political problems, but they can always find something to celebrate!

Last night, dear Santiago was celebrated with - of course - dancing! John saw the stage on his way back from the gym so sauntered up to the central park to check things out. We followed the sound to the north-east corner of the park and found an crowd in the street surrounded by snacks and cotton candy. (Now that I think of it, I didn't notice any Toña banners. These things usually involve a little beer.) I wish I had some pictures, but the beauty of it is that there will be many more opportunities!

In any case, there was dancing. It wasn't just dancing, though. The groups of twenty-somethings who got up there one after another made the four of us stand in awed silence until I finally said, "We have no dancing skills whatsoever." It was amazing! I think it's so cool that, like I said when I went to the aerobics class, that catchy latin groove is so standard here. At home, that kind of butt-shaking and hep-swiveling would not have been part of an 8 PM all-ages show (it's dark here by then, by the way) but it's an integral part of the culture here! The problem for us is that everybody here, guys included, seems to have been born able to dance. If nobody taught them, who's going to teach us?

El Volcán Masaya

It seems that every day in Nicaragua is an eventful one, and today was no exception.

We went to visit Masaya volcano today. It’s the closest active volcano to where we’re staying and it’s actually active, not just “technically” so. In 2001, it tossed volcanic rock all over the area and caused some fires near Masaya and in 2008, there was an explosion of volcanic ash. There hasn’t been any exciting activity since then, but it’s still shrouded in toxic sulfur gas and the view from the crater is breathtaking.

When the volcano has erupted in the past, the lava has flowed down over the crater and cooled in really interesting ways, forming caves and tunnels that make excellent homes for bats – fruit, insect and otherwise. We went climbing into one of the caves and wound up getting hauled out of it in stretchers.

Just kidding! Do you remember me saying that Jason’s a firefighter/paramedic? Well, a few weeks ago, the mayor of Jinotepe asked him if he would set up a training exercise that would get a few of the departments in the area together to learn something new; because he’d just been up to visit the volcano recently, he decided that he’d teach them how to pull injured patients out of the caves. Brianne and I volunteered to be the patients!

We were up at four in the morning and at the fire station by five because we needed to run the entire drill before the Masaya Volcano National Park opened at nine. Brianne was going to be an unconscious patient with femur and arm fractures, whereas I got to play a conscious victim with head, neck and back pain. I even wore makeup to mimic the battle signs of a skull fracture! The firefighters in Jinotepe (and in most of Nicaragua, from what I’ve heard) have almost no medical training. They knew how to take vitals, but Jason only taught them recently how to properly set up patients up on spine boards and build haul systems to get them out of sticky situations. They did an excellent job of the haul system and the communication between the two departments was impressive, but their patient care wasn’t super. It’s understandable, given that they don’t really understand the importance of stabilizing the neck and spine. All told, though, I made it out with nothing but a bruised sternum. (They didn’t think to fake their sternum rubs because I was actually awake and only pretending to pass out because they were taking too long with my oxygen.) Check the sidebar for photos!

The rescue finished right on time, so two park rangers took us on a little tour of the caves and up to the top of the volcano. We walked 180 m one of the caves, which was 25 m underground and, according to carbon dating, was formed about 500 years ago. Apparently, aboriginal Nicaraguans used to distill alcohol in the caves, and use them to sacrifice virgins. The volcano held special significance in their religion, which is why it’s sad that when Catholics came to Central America, they decided that the volcano was actually a gate to hell. They built a giant cross at the top in hopes of exorcising things.

After our tour, we made a quick stop at Masaya market and then went to Papa John’s pizza. The pizza was delicious and all, but I was most excited about the salad. A real salad! With lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers and a vinaigrette! It was incredible, as was the ride home. Oscar, one of the firefighters, drove us home in/on his truck and he had some great tunes. As we sped down the highway, wind in our hair and sunglasses on, I couldn’t help but think that I’m really, really happy here.

What's For Dinner

People have been asking me about the food here for some time now, but I’d been finding that I didn’t really have much to say about it yet because I hadn’t experienced much of it. Food is a frustratingly hot topic in the BaseCamp house, so I also found that we were spending so much energy discussing what we should eat, when we should eat, what we had to buy, what we’d already paid for, who owed for what meal, etc. that when it came time to blog, food was the last thing I wanted to talk about! I’ve been paying attention that what I’ve been eating the past week or so, though, and I’ve noticed a few things worth sharing. I don’t want to spend all night blogging, though, so I’ll leave you with two for now.

1. Fresh food makes a huge difference.

I’d heard stories of people who said they’d eaten pineapple in Hawaii and couldn’t eat it at home anymore because the stuff in our grocery stores was like a completely different fruit that disappointed them every time. I don’t think I ate pineapple in Hawaii, but I didn’t really believe that it made that much of a difference. I was wrong! Fresh pineapple for breakfast was my first favourite thing in Nicaragua for a good reason: it’s fan-freaking-tastic. After it appeared on the table for the first time, I was so inspired by its tastiness that I went into the kitchen and said, “¡Me encata la piña fresaca! Es blanco aqui, pero en Canada, es amarillo.” It took me a lot longer to say it than it took you to read it, but the point is that the pineapple is amazing. We have it in juice form sometimes and it’s equally good.

Another fruit that tastes completely different here, as I’ve mentioned, is the humble banana. At home, bananas are a useful staple; I mush them up for banana bread, slice them up for PB & banana sandwiches or blend them into smoothies, but I rarely eat them plain because they’re kind of boring. Not here! Here, they aren’t much to look at but they’re incredibly sweet. This sweetness is what makes them so amazing when they’re fried, too. (That’s right, fried bananas. Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it because they’re sinfully delicious.)

Today, I discovered that the wonder of fresh food doesn’t only apply to fruit, but also to eggs! Because today is a national holiday, Inès had the day off and we had to fend for ourselves for breakfast. Brianne scrambled up a bunch of eggs and I took the time to actually taste them properly. They were super rich (in part thanks to the butter, I’m sure) and, like all the other fresh food I’ve tried here, just tasted more..

We get lots of fresh bread, too, but that belongs in the next section.

2. The Atkin’s diet would have failed miserably here.

Mr Bernardo, our weekend guard, makes incredible bread. He makes triangular loaves of fluffy white sweet bread  (pan dulce) with sugar in the middle, he makes big loaves of fluffy white bread without sugar in the middle and he makes small loaves of fluffy white bread without sugar in the middle. He makes a lot of bread, so we eat a lot of bread – like with every meal and for snacks.

Inès, our cook, makes a lot of rice. She makes rice with beans and onions (gallo pinto), she makes rice with chopped up peppers and she makes rice that she stuffs into empanadas. She makes a lot of rice, so we eat a lot of rice – like with every meal and for snacks.

In Eat Pray Love, the protagonist’s friend jokingly says that she’s on a “no carb left behind” journey. It would appear that we really are because despite all the bread and rice we eat, we still find ourselves at the internet café down the street buying delicious rum cake and brownies! They’re delicious, but I’m already craving crunchy, leafy greens. (Of course, even if I can find such a thing, I’m not supposed to be eating things that haven’t been cooked or peeled; lettuce doesn’t exactly lend itself to that kind of treatment.)

Breaking a Sweat - On Purpose

I fully intended to blog about the terrible thunderstorm that disturbed our sleep last night, or the weather in general, or the way that the discovery of oreo frappucinos in Jinotepe completely turned around my wrong-side-of-the bed day or our delicious dinner at a restaurant around the corner... but then we went to an aerobics class! You'll definitely be hearing about the amazing frapp and the weather, but not tonight.

Eve invited us to go my first week here and said she'd pick us up at six-thirty on Tuesday, but Nica time took over; the gym was closed for no apparent reason. We've managed to busy ourselves with all kinds of other things since then, but we made plans last Thursday to actually go for real tonight. Eve even showed up on time! We walked to the gym together so that we can get there on our own if we ever need to. Like pretty much everything we need to get to in Jinotepe, it's not even ten minutes away. I can't say I would have found it myself, though, because it's in a shopping mall beside some kind of arcade. In any case, we got there and only sat around for about ten minutes before it started. Apparently we were quite the sight because one guy who happened to be in the mall actually pulled out his camera and took a picture of Brianne, Eve, Jenny and me when he thought we weren't looking. I always make sure I check with people here before I take their photo and I'm glad I do because I felt like I was in a zoo!

The class began as most do, with a bunch of girls milling around awkwardly while the instructor set up. Unlike other classes I've been to, there's was no introductory spiel; instead, the guy leading the class sauntered into the front, started the music and jumped right into things! I don't know how he managed to lead a women's aerobics class and look so gangster doing it, but he did. We huffed and puffed to the beat of 80's remixes for a good forty minutes (with weights, even!) until we thought we might die and Jenny desperately announced "I'd rather be faaaaaaat" Things almost got worse after that and our complaints turned to "I can't daaaaance" when our instructor started some kind of complicated foot-shuffling, hip-wiggling, salsa-stepping routine! Again, he looked much cooler than we did - it was strange because at home, the instructor would have taken a lot more time to build up to more complicated steps, but here it's expected that you just know how to salsa. Still, we had a great time and we think we'll go back on the days when our morning run gets rained out.

When we got back to BaseCamp, there were a few little girls (aged ten, nine and two, they told us) playing in the doorway beside ours. Struck with an idea, Brianne asked them to wait just uno momento so she could go grab the bag of glowsticks her sister had sent for exactly this kind of occasion. It was really nice to see how excited they were about their glow-in-the-dark bracelets; the two-year-old's patience when Brianne was putting on her her glowstick necklace was even more priceless.

So despite waking up on entirely the wrong side of the bed (seriously, worst sleep ever), my day definitely turned around and I feel like we wound up having some pretty cool cultural experiences in some unexpected places!

Another Adventure - Granada & Mombacho

We took it pretty easy yesterday because of the toll Friday’s adventures took on our feet and energy levels – smoothies, naps, a quick visit to the fire station and a lot of lazing around. Although the day was pretty uneventful, I did take quite a few photos that you can see here.

Because we spent yesterday recuperating, we were up bright and early this morning for our day trip to Granada. Jason’s firefighting recruits had their final exams today so he couldn’t come with us but he did join us for breakfast at Terry’s Diner. The owner – Terry, in case you couldn’t guess – is a man from California who’s made it his personal mission to provide American-style food in Jinotepe to those who are missing it. His menu has chicken wings, burgers, homestyle potatoes and two pages of breakfasts, which is why we were really there. Jenny had the strawberry waffles that could have come directly out of the kitchen at Smitty’s, but I decided on the banana pancakes because the bananas here are incredibly sweet and delicious. Who knew bananas had so much flavour?! The short stack was amazing, though impossible to finish.

After our hearty breakfast, we set out to Granada on the minibus. It was our first adventure without José or Margui but I think we did okay! Granada is supposed to be the oldest [continuously inhabited] city in the [new] world [that’s still in its original location]. It was founded in 1524 used to be one of the wealthiest cities in the Americas because it’s connected to the Atlantic via its enormous lake (Lago de Nicaragua) and the Rio San Juan. Apparently, this also made it attractive to pirates, who pillaged it several times in the 1600s. Because of the pirates, nationalist uprisings in the 1800s and fights between Granada and Léon, the city has been rebuilt a few times. It’s known for its beautiful colonial-style buildings, lively atmosphere and majestic churches, though Léon is the city that’s really famous for those.

We didn’t start in Granada, though; we asked the minibus to drop us off near Mombacho Volcano. There are two volcanos in our area and Mombacho is the inactive one, so we didn’t want to spend our money hiking all over it when we’re going to be seeing lava at Masaya Volcano soon. Instead, we were there to go flying through the jungle on ziplines! I forget to get a brochure from the place we went to, but they had something like eleven ziplines in their canopy tour, the highest one of which was something like 150 meters up. Our guides were super friendly and all of the equipment was in really good shape, so we got to relax and focus on being “Superchicas”!

After the canopy tour, we were determined to find Café Luna, which – according to Jason – is on an organic coffee farm where we could get free samples. After asking a few times at the canopy tour place, we finally discovered that Jason had mixed his names up and we actually wanted to go two kilometers up the road to Café Las flores.

Two kilometers, my foot. We walked straight up the steepest cobblestone road I’ve ever seen for at least half an hour in the scorching heat because we wanted some of the outstanding coffee and we figured it had to be just around the corner… When it started misting, we were appreciative at first because it made the hike more bearable; when the torrential downpour began and a pickup came up behind us, we didn’t think twice about jumping in the back! We’re pretty sure we never would have made it to the coffee place on our own steam because we rode for at least ten minutes in the back of that truck, and the incline was enough to make the engine whine all the way up.

We did eventually get to the top, albeit completely drenched. The coffee was everything we thought it would be and there were tons of flowers for me to take pictures of. (I actually made a whole album of plant photos, which you can check out here.) We met some people from Texas there who said that they’d gone on a boat tour on the lake (known as el Mar Dulce, the freshwater sea) and seen a whole bunch of monkeys! One of the guys showed us a video on his iPhone where one of the monkeys actually hopped into the boat and sat on a woman’s lap, which was jarring because there was a monkey hanging out with people but also because I haven’t even seen an iPhone in weeks. I kind of miss mine…

Some incredibly kind Spaniards let us hitch a ride back down the hill in the back of their pickup and we arrived at the main road just as a school bus headed to Granada pulled up. All in all, the trip between Jinotepe and Granada cost just us over a dollar.

Once in Granada, we mostly just wandered and took a whole bunch of photos. The city really is gorgeous; those Spanish Conquistadors really knew how to build things. The churches, though a little run down, are breathtaking and the people were also really friendly. One of the things I love most about Jinotepe is how colourful the buildings are, but they’re truly incredible in Granada! I love the way that the entire block is actually one block of buildings, stuck together and painted in the wildest colours. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to see the city properly in the time we had if we walked, so we went on a little carriage ride. Our guide, who said he’s studying history, was really wonderful. He told us about some of the churches, the 1991 earthquake that destroyed the hospital and even the soap factory owned by relatives of the people who founded the Conservative Party. He even dropped us off at the minibus station so we could catch one back to Jinotepe in time to make some of Jenny’s Korean rice concoctions for supper! 

Break From Reality

Last night, José took us out to Managua, the capital city, so that we could see the last Harry Potter movie and go out dancing. It was quite the outing! We borrowed some clothes from Eve and spent a few hours getting ready together. We cabbed to the minibus, minibused to Managua and cabbed to the mall for a total of about $2.50 each.

It was cool to see Managua again two weeks after arriving at the airport. In some ways, we felt like we were back in a city at home because Jinotepe doesn’t have roads as wide or a hotel as tall or nearly as many lights; that being said, it was hard to ignore the tin-roof houses and dilapidated shacks amongst the Western-style buildings. In Jinotepe, most people buy their clothes in the market or from small stores with a only a few sizes where things are cheap both in price and in quality. (I bought a pair of pumps for about seven dollars yesterday afternoon.) I was surprised to see that at the mall in Managua, they had a Guess store! It was like walking into a completely different world where people could afford to dress up and go shopping on a Friday evening. While it was fun to gawk, it shook me up to see that some percentage of Nicaraguans have so much money to spend on shopping when others have so little to spend on living.

When we walked into the movie theatre, we may as well have been in Edmonton. They had air conditioning, for one thing, which isn’t very common in Jinotepe, and the prices for the food were in US dollars. I got a “frozen cacao” to perk me up after the long minibus ride in the dark and it was probably the most delicious frozen drink I’ve ever had, like a chocolatey chai chiller.

Anyway, we showed up fifteen minutes before the movie and paid four dollars to get into it, so there to my friends who had no sympathy for me when I was worried that I wouldn’t get to see it! Watching the movie – which was amazing and sad, of course – was an entirely different experience, though. People spoke and laughed and played with their cell phones and smoked throughout the whole thing! It got pretty frustrating because although most people were probably reading the subtitles, we wanted to listen. Still – we got to see the final Harry Potter movie in Nicaragua the day it came out. We’re pretty lucky!

The whole night was full of reminders of how privileged we are as well as how privileged some Nicaraguans are. The place we went to dance, Moods, was a really big club not unlike the ones at home except that the nine-dollar cover included drinks all night, the music had a much more exciting latin groove to it and – just like in the theater – there were people smoking everywhere. I remember Brianne talking to her family last week and saying, “A lot of people here can’t really afford to be good-looking,” which makes a lot of sense. When you’re struggling to make ends meet, you have to have your priorities straight. Looking at the people in Moods, it was clear that making ends meet was not an issue; in fact, most would have fit in at home. We spoke to a few people who spoke really great English, too, which José said isn’t uncommon because the people who have more money can afford to learn; one guy I spoke to even said he went to an American school here in Nica. Apparently the majority of the people who go out to places like Moods on a regular basis can afford to do so because their parents have money, but some work, too.

The night out was kind of a break from reality – before we left the dark movie theater, we actually paused to relish the familiarity before “going back to Nicaragua” – but one night was enough. Even though things were a lot like home, it felt more luxurious because the divide between rich and poor was terribly apparent. I’d rather be in Jinotepe:)

"It's actually pretty normal here."

The evening of my first Saturday in Jinotepe, I was feeling a little freaked out. I was running on almost no sleep and I was struggling with a little claustrophobia; I hadn’t been able to go outside much because I couldn’t find my way around or talk to anyone, but what I had seen was overwhelming and scary, especially because of the festival. The lights in the house were too dim, my Internet wasn’t working, it was pouring rain and I was worried that I was going to feel trapped and scared for two months. Culture shock at its finest! But José came to tell us that his best friend was and best friend’s American wife (she’s our age) were going out to a restaurant/pub to see some live music and we were welcome to join. When we walked into Café Negro with Eve and Gabriel, I immediately felt better. I had been scared, honestly, that I would feel dirty for two months, that I’d be questioning food safety for two months, that I would see nothing but heartbreaking poverty for two months. While Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Haiti), there are still plenty of buildings that are in good shape and restaurants where it’s safe to eat - I just hadn’t seen them yet. Now I get it, but then, when I explained how I felt to Jenny at the end of the night, it was a big deal to hear her say “Yeah, it’s actually pretty normal here.”

I think that’s why I’ve been having some trouble with writer’s block this week – things are pretty normal! I feel like I’ve settled in and we’ve got a good routine going, so I can’t think of any wild and exciting stories to tell. That, or my brain is so exhausted from all the learning I’ve been doing that I can’t come up with anything worthwhile. There are adventures planned for tomorrow and Sunday, but for those days when I can’t think of anything, I’m requesting your input: What do you want to hear about? 

At Least I Can Pipette!

There wasn't much to do in emerge yesterday, so Jenny pretty much dropped me off at the lab and left me in the capable hands of Ivania. She brought me over to the microscope and asked (I think) if I knew any histology. She started pointing things out under the microscope and although things looked familiar, I had no idea what she was saying. After a few minutes, when my head was actually hurting from trying to pick up on any familiar words, I had to say "Lo siento, pero no entiendo mucho... Yo voy a regresar cuando hablo mas español." (I wanted to say "Sorry, I really don't understand. I'll come back when I speak more Spanish," but who knows how it actually came out.) Ivania, who is clearly a remarkable patient woman, just said something to the effect of, "No, no - we'll try something else!"

We went to another section of the lab with a tray of blood samples and a spectrophotometer. She stuck a micropipette in my hand, showed me the lab reqs (test and patient names written on signed scraps of paper) and we were off! I learned how to do tests for blood glucose, creatinine, bilirubin and TGO/TGP, whatever those are. It was hard at first to understand what she wanted because she spoke quickly and there are still plenty of useful verbs I don't know - like ask, change, know, put, take, etc. - but we got it together without major incident. I wrote myself some good notes about which reagents are needed for each test and what to press on the machine, so I think I can be of good use tomorrow.

The Spanish, though! In some ways, I've improved so much in the past ten days (only ten days?) but I didn't even know how to say, "Yes, I know Meagan! She's the one who told me about the program." (Instead it was, "¿Meagan? ¡Si! Estamos amigas en Canada...") Even so, the ladies in the lab were really patient and we were even able to joke around a bit - although I'm sure half of the laughter was really at my pathetic attempts to build sentences and everyone's general confusion. I don't know how much time I'll spend there once my Spanish is better because I'd really like to try peds or maternity, but I think the lab is a great place to start because I can actually contribute something and practice my Spanish at the same time.

PS - Sorry, I don't have any photos from the lab yesterday. You can always check out this week's album here, though!

Keener

I may have learned more things today than any other day of my life.

Today started at 5:45 when I opted to shower instead of running with Brianne and Jason. For breakfast, I had a muffin I bought at a bakery last night because Jason, Jenny and I had to leave before Inès made our eggs. (This is important.) Just before seven, we made our way down to the hospital to watch surgeries! My placement hasn't officially started, but I'm going to hang out at the hospital a bit anyway. Jason and Jenny had already been but it was my first time, so I was more than a little nervous - I've heard so many stories of people passing out in ORs and I didn't want to be one of them. Most people in the hospital bring their own white uniforms, but scrubs are supplied for surgeries, so we were handed the most well-worn scrubs I have ever encountered. They were practically see-through but they did the trick, so we got decked out in scrub pants and shirts, hair nets (Jenny actually got a cap) and cloth botas.

Once we were ready, we spent a lot of time peeking into the ORs to see if anybody else was - they weren't.  My Spanish is still pretty rudimentary, so all I could really say was ¿Puedo ayudar? (Can I help?) and hope that they understood. One nurse let Jason and me move boxes of IV bags, but other than that we didn't have much to do - until they actually started rolling patients in, that is. There are three ORs at Santiago hospital and we stepped into the first one to help. I'm really grateful that Jason was there; since he's a firefighter/paramedic and the staff at the hospital know him, he could just jump in and show me what to do. We help the patient onto the bed and I learned how to put the leads on! (White on right, smoke over fire, etc.) Except that afterward, we discovered that one of the leads was in the way of a planned incision (oops). The surgeon introduced himself and then asked if I was a med student. He said that since Jenny and I aren't in med yet, we had to leave. I don't really blame him since it was 28C by eight this morning and there were a lot of people in that room, which is one of the few with AC but it's still pretty touch-and-go. Good thing there were two other surgeries!

I went into another OR with Jason and Jenny went across the hall. In this room, we weren't sure what the surgery was going to be but since I'd just helped Jason in the other room, I got the leads ready and handed them to the anaesthesiologist so that he could put them where he wanted them. My contribution was very small - I put the pulse oximeter on the patient and helped hold his head forward while they fished around his back with a needle full of anaesthetic - but I think that if I keep doing these little useful things, the doctors will start to trust me to be helpful.

Once the cholecystectomy had begun, it was actually pretty hard to see. (I'm going to talk about guts now, so skip to the next paragraph if you're not okay with that.) I could hear and smell the cauterization, but the most interesting thing I could really see was how elastic the human body is! They don't stretch people like that in Grey's Anatomy, that's for sure. After a while, though - just as things were getting interesting - the heat and my less-than-substantial breakfast started to get to me. I didn't feel squeamish about what I was seeing, but my field of vision was definitely getting smaller and I felt faint. I wanted to keep watching, but I also didn't want to become "That gringa who passed out in the OR" so I stepped out. I'm pretty disappointed in myself, but I'll have eggs before going next time and hopefully things will go better.

So after learning how to set up leads, get the pulse oximeter ready and ask the doctors if I could help, I learned a whole pile of verbs, the rules for determining the gender of a noun and a few new words! My Spanish class was one-on-one today because the other two volunteers (John and Brianne) were at their placement. They came back today and said that they need more Spanish to be helpful, so they'll be joining me in the mornings again this week.

I felt the same way about the Spanish when I was in emerge this afternoon. When I volunteered in Edmonton, half of my job was making small talk with the patients and checking up on them to see if they were comfortable. Here, I can't do that! Even though I can ask, "¿Como estas?" I can't understand an answer that's more than two words long. When the doctor was trying to get the needle in the elderly man's back this morning, he was obviously in pain - but I don't know the words for "It's okay" or "You're doing great" or "Deep breaths" so all I could do was hold his hand. I tried the same thing with a pregnant woman who came in nauseated but smiling this afternoon, but when she started crying after we had the IV in, I didn't know how to ask her if there was anything I could do.

So the Spanish is definitely a priority so that I can at least bring comfort to the patients when I can't do anything medical. That being said, I learned lots of medical things today! Jason showed me how to take blood pressures, so Jenny and I practiced a little bit. He says that often the nurses will hand him a blank square of paper and a BP cuff, which means "Please take this patient's vitals and write them on this." (He doesn't speak much Spanish at all.) Unfortunately, there wasn't a cuff available in triage today - only one in the consult rooms and one in Shock, so we didn't do any vitals. We set up a lot of IVs, though! By the end of my three hours in emerge, I had learned how to pick the right bag (the nurses ask for Ringer, Salino or Dextrose), hang it with the infusion kit, rip the right tape for the nurses, catch some blood in a vial for the lab, get meds ready in syringes for the IV (even mixed ones!) and put the meds in!

It was a big day. I'm going to learn so much in the next seven weeks, and I think since estoy lista para trabajo duro para aprender, it won't be long before I'm genuinely helpful.

Ometepe Island

Today was the Best Day Ever, then the worst, then the best again – several times. It was a pretty busy day, so settle in; this post is going to be a long one.

We started out for Omotepe Island early this morning because we wanted to catch the minibus at seven and the ferry at nine. We waited for the minibus forever and the ride was actually pretty cushy for a minibus, but I’ve got plans for a whole series of posts about the different ways to get around in Nicaragua, so I’ll save the details of the minibus experience for another time. All you need to know is that it took two hours to get from BaseCamp to the port in San Jorge.

The excitement really began when, after a fair bit of confusion about different ports, ferries and fares, we saw the boat we’d decided to take. It was rickety to say the very least, but that goes for most transportation around here. It’s hard to describe exactly what the setup was, but imagine a couple of benches stuck on an open deck with a few railings and you’ve pretty much got it. There are a bunch of photos in the album for this week (here), but the one I was most excited about getting was this one of an adorable Nica boy and his family. Making faces at him distracted me for most of the trip – which is probably a good thing, because I was going to do enough worrying later on in the day anyway.

We arrived on the island and made a beeline for the Aly Hotel, which was mentioned in one of our guidebooks for its delicious breakfasts. Since we’d already been holding off on breakfast for four hours, they probably could have served us anything! As it were, the food was delicious, but disaster struck while we were waiting. I have these handy little combination locks for both the zippers on my daypack because I was pretty sure I would lose a key and you can reset the combination! 

Unfortunately, Jason and I must have done just that when we were struggling to lock one of them on our way to the ferry because it wouldn’t open. At all. We’d somehow managed to lock ourselves out of my backpack, which had rather important things like sunscreen, bathing suits, water and most of my cash for the day: Worst Day Ever. Jason went off in search of something to cut it off with while I resigned myself to systematically trying combinations: 1-0-0, 2-0-0, 3-0-0… When I grew tired of that, I set it back to the original combination and gave the numbers a spin.  It opened. I had happened upon the new combination we’d set by accident and it was officially the Best Day Ever!

Unfortunately, that title didn’t stick for long. After a lot more confusion about where things were on the island, how far away the active volcano was (which is not the same as asking how long it takes to climb all the way to the top of said volcano) and what kind of cost we were looking at for a tour, we headed over to a place where we knew someone spoke English. In fact, the guy there (we nicknamed him Mr. Miyagi for reasons that remain mysterious to most of us) said that we could rent scooters from him and take them around the island to see what we wanted to see! The problem was that he said this to Jason while he was hunting for tools; by the time we’d finished our breakfast and come looking for him, he was gone.

Enter the people across the street. They also had scooters and would give us a deal! (Ha.) First we had to sort out what we could actually do – could we get to the Ojo de agua (Eye of Water swimming hole) on the scooters? Could we get to the volcano? Could we get to both? – and then how we were going to do it. As it turns out, it can be hard to rent scooters for a day with no ID, no licenses and no credit card. I’m kidding – they were actually pretty willing to give them to us, even with a deposit totaling roughly $27. 

Things got tricky when we actually got the scooters. There was, in fact, only one scooter, which Brianne would ride with me behind her. The other two were more like dirtbikes, which John and Jason would ride. Chaos ensued when John answered the questions “Have you ever ridden an ATV?” and “Do you know how to drive standard?” with a disconcertingly relaxed, “Nope!” The owners of the scooter/dirtbike company were not thrilled – and neither was Mr. Miyagi, who had come back at some point to join the confused collection of tourists, bikes and Nicas in the middle of the street. (We had to move over every once in a while for the occasional bus, car or dirtbike.)

Jason stalled about six times before he got going. (Did I mention the bikes were parked on a hill?) Brianne and I stood in the beating sun, wondering if the worry we were feeling was still at “This is scary but it will be an adventure” or if it had progressed to “This is the worst idea we’ve ever had.” When helmets were shoved into our hands and I watched John look inquisitively at the controls on his bike, my thought process was more like, “My parents are going to kill me for doing this. I better wear this helmet. I don’t want my skull cracked open, buuuuut I don’t want lice. I wonder if there’s a hospital on this island?” (In case you can’t feel the fear, frustration and heat exhaustion through the screen, the day was back to Worst Day Ever by this point. It might be a good time to take a break from reading, too – there’s a ways to go.)

Just as Jason was giving his word to Mr. Miyagi that we would be very careful with the bikes despite John’s lack of experience, John revved the engine ever so slightly and dropped the bike in surprise. Things were not looking good. And yet, we didn’t stop. Though the threats of death, injury, bankruptcy and itchy scalps grew more and more apparent, we stuck to our plan because we wanted to go to this swimming hole and we wanted to do it on the scooters, okay?! The four of us – John and Jason on their own bikes, me clutching desperately at Brianne’s waist – made our way slowly up the hill (cobblestone street, of course) and turned into the gas station. I can’t imagine what the person working there thought, because we then proceeded to do about a dozen veeeeeery slow laps around the gas pumps, trying to convince ourselves that maybe we could do this after all without dying.

Yeah, we couldn’t. I’d been saying for a while that maybe this wasn’t the best idea and finally said that actually, it was probably the worst idea ever. We’d spent an hour trying to get these bikes sorted out and it was clearly not in anybody’s best interest.

So we trudged back down the hill to ask for our money back and asked Mr. Miyagi if there was another option. There was! In fact, he would take us to the swimming hole, wait for us there, bring us back and tell us stories in the car for only forty bucks! It was a steal even before we’d set eyes on the swimming hole. On the way there, squished happily into the back of his vehicle, we listened to stories about Chico Largo, a witch who turns people into animals if they go back on their agreements with her. We also learned that we shouldn’t take red fish from the lagoon  (we’ll be struck with a desire to live on Omotepe forever) or pick white flowers on the Island (we’ll never find our way back home.) In the midst of all this storytelling, we a) got a few great shots of Concepcion, the active volcano and b) realized that we would have gotten about three minutes down the road, then pulled over to fight, crashed while trying to pull over and had the bikes stolen while we fought. We’d made a good decision.

When we got to the swimming hole, we realized that we’d made a really good decision! If you ever happen to be in Nicaragua and want to go to Omotepe Island in Lake Nicaragua, spend some time at the Ojo de Agua. It’s a pool with crystal clear water, a few cool little streams, beautiful foliage and a Tarzan rope. What more could you ask for? (If you said piña coladas, they had those too.) After spending close to two incredibly hectic hours trying to make our scooter plan work, it was absolutely wonderful to spend some time swimming around and playing with my camera’s underwater capabilities. We were back to the Best Day Ever.

Then we got a ride back to the ferry, noticed some sunburns, hitched a ride in the back of the pickup, took the minibus home and finished the Best Day Ever off with the Best Shower Ever.

The End.

PS: I'm not going to frolic around like this for the whole eight weeks - there are still three weeks of Spanish classes left before my placement starts, but I'm going to start watching surgeries and helping out this week anyway.

Week One Wrap-Up

(I'm having some issues with the html editor and formatting the photos. Please excuse the awkward paragraph breaks if there are any.)

So much has happened recently that I can’t decide what to write about, but I don’t want to get behind so today’s post won’t be as structured as I would have hoped.

First, some fun facts: Me encanta la piña fresca con la desayuno! Fresh pineapple is my new favourite thing about Nicaragua. Apparently the volcanic soil makes them especially delicious. That marching band never really stops. And I love going into grocery stores in new places! 

Yesterday, as part of the “cultural do’s and don’ts” orientation, we took a couple of minibuses (more on those later) to a beach called La Boquita where there were very few tourists. In fact, there are very few tourists in most of the area – when we were at the Masaya Market, Brianne actually exclaimed “Hey, white people!” Anyway, the beach wasn’t very busy so we had a nice little area to ourselves where we could relax in hammocks, order drinks (Brianne and I split a Nicaraguan beer) and leave our things. I’m not very used to the ocean and I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to salt in my eyes, but it was fun to jump around in the waves. The girls and I built – and smushed – a sandcastle and we were all home in time to get Eskimo ice cream before it closed.

Today was the last day of orientation, so we were given an Amazing Race challenge. After Brianne and John went on their walking tour, José gave us a list of tasks to accomplish within an hour – buy a papaya, mail a postcard, ride in a tuk-tuk, go to Diriamba, take a picture with a national police officer… We took a long time trying to find the alboroto that we’re now convinced doesn’t actually exist, so we were only able to finish about half of the tasks. I’ve been feeling more and more confident in my Spanish after this week’s lessons, but I was suddenly unable to come up with any useful sentences when we were talking to people on the street. I’ll practice hard this weekend and see what Monday brings. In any case, we failed miserably and think we might try again next week just to prove to ourselves that we’re competent.

Tomorrow, we’re going to go to Ometepe Island for our first weekend trip. We have plans to enjoy a delicious breakfast at a hostel, hike around, hang out on a beach and hear some stories about the area. Expect pictures – and in the meantime, check out the album from my first week here!  

Not-So-Ancient History

Yesterday morning, Margui (la profesora) took us through the house and pointed out a zill- okay, that's an exaggeration. But I had over 200 nouns tossed at me yesterday! I'm already improving my Spanish, I know - I even held my own in the market on Tuesday and got a bar of Nicaraguan chocolate for 35 cordobas instead of 45 - but getting all these words into my head is going to be quite the challenge. Still, that's part of why I'm here and I'm looking forward to it. ¡Estoy lista!

Después del almuerzo, we went out to the Coyotepe fortress as part of the culture and history component of our orientation. During the cab ride there, José (Did I mention that he runs orientation and the house?) explained some of Nicaragua's history, beginning with Christopher Columbus. It seems to me that Nicaragua's history is one of incredible perseverance despite the destructive volatility of the both the political and natural environments. Political wars have been interspersed with earthquakes, fires and hurricanes, destroying pretty much everything people have worked to rebuild after the last disaster. There have been several civil wars in the past hundred years as power swung between one party and the other; the last war ended in 1990.

All this to say that in this part of the world, history isn't as old as we'd like it to be. Because the prisoners were only released from Coyotepe Fortress in 1983, the Scout who led us around the prison has actually heard the stories he told us from people who lived them. Essentially, the prison was built as a fortress on a hill designed to protect the city of Masaya (I think), but it has tunnels underneath that secretly housed hundreds of political prisoners. There was no water or electricity, so they had nothing but tiny windows covered with bars to see by. Our guide said that there used to be snakes, scorpions, rats, bats and cockroaches all over the place; now there are a lot of bats and the occasional enormous spider. Many of the gates and bars were stolen by vandals in the nineties and now the whole place is covered in graffiti.

Seeing all the bats was really cool, but it was eerie and sad to see the rooms where only thirty years ago, people were tortured, isolated or hanged because they didn't agree with the party in power at the time. Politics in Nicaragua are - obviously - much more intense than at home. I see graffiti all over the place for "Daniel" and I wish I knew more than the fact that he's running for re-election. (Maybe if Savannah's forgiven me for mentioning bats, she'll give me a crash course in Latin American politics. My understanding is that she knows all there is to know about such things.) In any case, I want to read up; the current party is celebrating "¡31 años de triunfos!" and I'd like to know what all the fuss is about.

PS - If you want to see more photos from this week, have a look at the photos tab at the top of this page to get the link for the album.