Weekend in the SG

On Friday last, Jim and I caught a bus up to Sabana Grande to visit Dan, Nathan, Erin, Maria, and Maria. The first four are also volunteers from UD, and the second Maria is from Greece. Well, she was born in the US, and has lived there for quite some time, but she speaks Greek, and has an accent when she speaks English, so we call her Greek Maria anyway. Sabana Grande is a little village up in the mountains, in which the women have started a group called “Mujeres Solares” or Solar Women. Over the past few years (with the assistance of Grupo Fenix), they have established a pretty impressive body of work. Down on the main road, outside of the village they have a nice piece of land, on which stands the Centro Solar (solar center). Here, they build solar box ovens and solar dryers, which they sell to anyone interested in buying, as well as use those ovens and dryers to cook snacks, and dry fruit and other foodstuffs which they sell at a roadside stand. For the past few years, groups of UD students have been working at the Centro Solar, developing and testing a solar autoclave for applications in medical instrument sterilization. In the future, the Mujeres Solares hope to expand the Solar Center to include a Solar Restaurant, and Solar Hotel. Their future plans are very exciting, and while I was listening to Dan explain the types of projects that they are working on, all that I wanted to do was dive in and get my hands on a part of it. Maybe sometime in the future.

We relaxed Friday night, and played some Uno, and then on Saturday, we went to Somoto Canyon. At its deepest, the canyon measures 200 meters, with all kinds of plant life, and even trees clinging to its vertical rock walls. At its widest, the canyon is maybe 10 meters wide, and through this narrow channel courses a powerful river. The only way to access these narrow parts of the canyon are to swim against the current, and climb up the canyon walls to circumvent rapids. So we did. For about a dollar per person, a local man guided us on a little adventure that was a mixture of rock climbing, cliff diving, and white water rafting (without a raft). Our first obstacle was a section of waist-deep rapids that we had to cross on foot, because at this point we all still had our dry clothes, and other items that wouldn’t survive a swim. It took us about 20 minutes to cross, because the bottom of the river was composed of perfectly smooth fist-sized stones, whose constant shifting, and concentrated pressure points, coupled with the swiftly flowing water made going very slow. Everyone else wore flip-flops, or other waterproof shoes, and I, being a genius had decided to wear my hiking boots. Since these were the only shoes that I brought to Sabana Grande, I couldn’t exactly get them soaked, so I crossed barefoot, with my boots hanging around my neck by their laces. After a bit of a hike on the other side of the river, we got to the narrow part of the canyon, deposited our dry things, and set off up the gorge. For about the next half-hour we climbed and swam our way up the ravine, and for the first time in the real world, I put all of those hours at the UD rock wall to good use. After a bit, our guide explained that we could go no further, because the current would become too strong. Nothing to do now, but kick out into the middle of the stream, and let the current carry us back to our starting point. Back at the gathering point, there was a ledge about three stories high, that our guide told us was perfectly safe for diving. Dan and I were the only ones willing to try, and had just enough time to get two jumps in each before we had to head back in order to meet our transportation at the allotted time.

Exhausted, and yet energized by what we had just done, we returned to Sabana Grande and napped. Later that evening, after a wonderful dinner from Dona Carmen we all boarded a bus to Ocotal for a night on the town. We went to a bar first, to meet David, the volunteer coordinator in Sabana Grande, and then went to a discoteca (dance club) for the rest of the night. At this point, Jim was not feeling too great, and had a slight fever, so we asked him what he wanted to do, and he said that he’d be ok if we found him a room at an hospedaje (little hotel). I felt kind of bad leaving him there, but he insisted that he was fine. The rest of the night was incredible, and to make a long story short, Nicaraguan girls really know how to dance!

On Sunday, we just relaxed, and then on Monday morning, Jim and I boarded our bus back to Managua.

Don Juan and Family

The other day, an American lady who works with Grupo Fenix was staying at the Suni building overnight, so Jim and I talked to her for a while about different things, one of those being Don Juan. Apparently she stayed with Don Juan some time in the past, and had plenty to say. Apparently, Don Juan is an actual "Don Juan". He has been married several times to several different women, and has had an incredible number of children (he may or may not have sired a good portion of the inhabitants of our street?). I believe that the younger woman who lives in our house (she must be between 20 and 30) is his current wife, and the the baby girl is their daughter. Apparently, Don Juan was once married to a woman, and her daughter... at the same time. I wish I spoke enough spanish to congratulate him on his epic performance.

This really is all I know about the family we live with. As I said before, we are treated more as tenants than part of the family, although we try to talk to them as much as possible. We are also gone a good portion of the time for work, and then in the evenings to avoid going to bed at 7.

On another note, I just rescued a bat from the refrigerator, here in the Suni kitchen. Jim was opening the door to get some water, when into the room flies a little bat, who lands in the fridge, and huddles against a bottle to hide from him. Unwilling to touch the little bugger due to his fear of rabies, Jim served the function of cameraman as I grabbed a piece of cloth, and scooped the little guy out of the door tray. Interestingly enough, he didnt seem to mind being picked up (it was probably a tad chilly in the fridge) and scampered off when i set it down outside. Five minutes later, he swept back into the kitchen, ran around on the floor for a minute, and then flew off into the tree.

Bats are cool! Ants are not.

Weekend Update

Movie night was interesting but odd.  Douglass, Jim, and I went to "Price Smart" (Sam's club) to get snacks, and then went to Charles' house to watch an hour-long artsy film.  It had 3 settings, 2 actors, and was completely in Miskito (a Peruvian native tongue) with Spanish subtitles.  The two actors, an old man and an old woman, either sat in a hammock, or in separate chairs for the entire movie, and talked about their son, who was going off to fight in a war.  He died. This is all I was able to gather at the speed that the subtitles were flashing on the screen.  Actually, the actors didnt speak at all physically.  They simply sat there, while their voiceovers had a conversation.  I guess it would have been meaningful if I had understood more than 10% of what they were saying.

Anyway, we spent yesterday cutting metal again, and I think that's what's on the docket for today, tomorrow and the rest of the week as well.  Once we're done cutting we'll start building the frames that will eventually have concrete poured around them.  Instead of simply talking about cutting metal though, I think I'll start writing up some of the interesting cultural observations that I've made.  Later though, now it's time to work.

A good weekend (so far)

So, following the idle week from hell, Jim and I have luckily had a pretty interesting weekend.  On Saturday, we decided to take a walk to one of the other large malls in Managua, the Plaza Inter.  We looked it up on the map, and headed out, only to get to our supposed destination and find nothing.  Long story short we ended up randomly walking through Managua for about two hours, but it wasn't a complete failure, because we got to see a good bit of the city.  After this, we stopped by the Metrocentro for lunch (Jim needs his McPollo and fries).  I went to the Nicaraguan food booth and got a random pile of delicious, mixed with rice and beans.  

We came back to Suni for a while, and I started finally working on some of the Taekwon-do testing material that I had promised myself that I would practice all summer.

Around 6:00 p.m. we finally resigned ourselves to head back to Don Juan's for the nightly ritual of eating dinner, and going to bed by 7:30.  Don Juan and his family rarely stay up past this time, and Don Juan doesn't seem to like it when we have the light on in our room and he's trying to sleep.  So, Jim and I bought booklights at Radio Shack and spend our evenings reading in our beds, until around nine.  Luckily, Douglass intercepted us on the way out and asked if we had any plans for the evening.  None, we responded, and he asked us if we wanted to go to the mall with him, because he had to go pick up a few things.  Having earlier failed in our attempt to walk to the mall, we eagerly agreed.  We ended up going to "La Galeria", which we found out is in fact the nicest one in Managua.  It's easily two or three times the size of the dayton mall, and much less boring.  Like all the buildings down here, it's integrated with the outdoors.  After Douglass picked up his goggles and swim trunks (he's starting swim lessons today) we headed back out into the mall.  We stopped in the movie theatre to see what was playing, and nearly went to see UP, when instead Douglass pulled out his cell phone.  Instead of seeing the movie, we went over to the sushi restauraunt, "Sushi Itto" where we were met by another Suni employee (from France), Charles, and his girlfriend.  A minute or two later another two guys (and their significant others) arrived, and at first I was excited to see that they looked like Gringos, but they ended up being from Finland.  We had sushi, and hung out there for a while, and truthfully if I hadn't been speaking Spanish, I could have easily confused the whole situation for anywhere in the United States.  After the Sushi place, we hit a few bars (thank God for the permeation of American music into all cultures of the world) and ended up back at Don Juan's around midnight (way past our bedtime!).  The whole evening was a lot of fun, and it was much needed after coming off this past week.  

Douglass informed us that we were invited to go to a movie night at Charles' house this evening, so we're looking forward to that.  I can only hope that the movie is in English with Spanish subtitles!  Or heck, I'd take English subtitles.  As long as I'm not in bed at 7:30 reading by flashlight, it's fine with me.

Week in Managua

When we got back from the last trip, we were told that instead of going out again so soon, Jim and I would be spending the week in Managua, working on preparing materials for another project that Suni is working on in conjunction with the EU.  The project involves installing 42 large solar systems composed of seven panels each for use, I believe by local clinics out towards the Atlantic coast.  This is a rather large undertaking, because according to EU specifications, the arrays have to be mounted on 5 meter tall towers for the sake of security etc...  Jim and I were supposed to be working on the construction of the bases of the towers, i.e. pouring concrete around a rebar framework.  The only problem was that the money had not yet arrived from the EU, so materials could not be purchased, and work could not yet start.  From Monday to Thursday, we sat here in the Suni building, waiting to see whether or not the money would arrive, and thus whether or not there would be anything for us to do.  There wasn't.  A number of factors combined to make this the longest, and arguably most unpleasant week of my life.  Finally, on friday there was work to do, and we spent the entire day cutting hundreds of pieces of re-bar with highly inadequate hacksaws.  At least it made the day go by.

So far on this trip the following has disappeared:

my digital camera

Jim's 2 gb xd camera memory card

my ludicrously expensive sunglasses that it was insisted i have for this trip.

By disappeared, I mean that I suspect they were stolen.  I have no proof of this, and truthfully can't think of how.  Both times, I had visual confirmation of where my items were, by both myself and Jim, but when a day or so later I went to retrieve said items, they were no longer where they had been placed.   I understand that I am a person who is very vulnerable to misplacing things, but I never actually lose them, and after Jim and I thoroughly searched through all of our belongings at least four times, and nothing turned up, I gave up on blaming myself.  I truthfully don't think that Don Juan has anything to do with this, but there are other young men living in the house, whom I have never met, and one who purposefully seems to avoid Jim and I whenever possible (Suspicious?).  We keep our room locked with a padlock (to which I believe only Don Juan, and ourselves have a key), and both times, the items in question have disappeared from closed bags or suitcases, which means they couldn't have just fallen out somewhere, and someone would have had to purposefully go looking for them.  This has me more than a bit angry and confused, but there's not really much I can do about it.

So right now, Jim and I are trying to figure out something interesting to do in Managua for the day, because we're both going to go crazy if we have to sit here all day again.

Frizbee!

Never leave home without it!

Jim and I decided the other night to go outside and throw a frizbee in the street.  At first, the 15 people who were all hanging out outside watched, laughing and clapping whenever we completed a tricky looking catch or throw (I guess they haven’t seen much frizbee?).  During the first few minutes of throwing I noticed about 7 boys all who looked like they were just dying to give it a try.  Truthfully, this was my goal from the beginning, so we invited them out.  I’ve never in all my frizbee throwing days seen a group of kids more instantly proficient at tossing disc.  There were a few bad throws at first, as expected, but within 5 minutes they were all throwing straight, with no wobbles, and with a surprising amount of power.  One of the smallest, I believe his name is Elias, watched me throw a forehand, picked up the disc, and without any hesitation threw a perfect forehand with power, directly to my hands!  American kids must be delaying the development of their motor skills through videogames and laziness and stuff, because these kids were amazing. (Jim also asked them if they had ever seen a frizbee before, and they said no)  Another interesting point is that without being prompted, they instantly established a fair system of sharing the frizbee.  They made sure that everyone got a turn, in order, and that no one was left out.  If one of them would catch the frizbee, and it wasn’t their turn to throw it back, they would hand it to the boy whose turn it was.  No one had to tell them to share, and the one time that one of the more boisterous boys, Dennis, tried to get more than his fair share of turns, he was instantly verbally berated, kicked a few times, and shunned by the others.  He walked off and sulked for a minute or two, but then returned, apologized, and was instantly accepted back into the order.  If we continue to play frizbee every once in a while, which I hope that we will, I’ll try to teach them Ultimate, and then Jim and I both brought extra frizbees, which we can leave with them.  After a little frizbee, they wanted to play football (soccer), so we did that for about a half hour.  They then wanted to play a different game, which ended up being a strange mix of dodgeball and pickle.  Jim and I stood on opposite ends of a partition of the street, and were given a ball.  The kids grouped up in front of me, and then took off running toward Jim, I was instructed to try to peg them with the ball, and that they each had three lives before they were out of the round.  They contintued to run back and forth between us, while we did our best to knock them out.  There didn't seem to be any "bases" or safe zones for them to reach, only to see who lasted the longest running back and forth.  I want to try and explain the game "Pickle" to them, but I'm going to have to look up a few words first.  Hopefully this will give me enough of a game-oriented vocabulary to explain Ultimate.  If so, it will be my greatest accomplishment.

the disc unites

1st Installation Continued

So We Built a Road:

Going from the first village to the second, we continued to take the gully upward.  At one point, the entire right side of the trail was gone, washed down the side of the mountain.  There was no way for us to pass, and I thought we were just going to have to back down the mountain (which would have been a feat in and of itself).  Instead, an old man who had hitched a ride hopped off the truck, said something to Isaac, and then started picking up large stones and placing them in the trench, which was all that remained of the road.  I looked at Isaac, who shrugged, and then we all started chucking in rocks to fill the void.  The old man had a pickaxe, which he used to pull dirt down on top of the rocks to help fill in the gaps, and in only 20 minutes or so we had reconstructed the road enough that the truck could pass.  We eventually got to the next work site, but there was not enough daylight left to do the installation, and we left.  We ended up in Quilali, a town not far from the Honduran border, and ate dinner from a group of street vendors in the town square.  They were actually a group of families, each with a table and a grill.  The meal consisted of gallo pinto, half a grilled chicken, a salad of shredded cabbage with vinegar and onions, and a heaping pile of platanos fritos—plantain chips.

2nd Installation:

At the second church, Isaac let me install the panel completely solo, which I did a bit beyond his standards.  Apparently I didn’t have to measure and mark things so perfectly before drilling the holes.  He explained that it takes too much time to make things perfect, and that the solar panel doesn’t care whether it’s off an inch or two in any direction.  Battery systems are really very simple.  The panel, the battery, and the lights are all connected to a charge controller.  The panel charges the battery during the day, and then at night, when the lights are in use, the controller regulates the battery release to optimize usable lighting time.  I heard from Douglass that in-grid systems are even easier, because they require no batteries, and if they’re already in-grid, people just use the existing lights.  Sadly, there is a regulation in Nicaragua that makes in-grid systems illegal, bt he says that they’re working on that too.  Interestingly enough, there is no real organized electrical utility.  Here in Managua, I think that the government operates some kind of gas turbine or oil fired power plant that provides pretty reliable power to the city.  Outside the city, the vast majority of the country does not have power, and the other towns that do, usually get it from private providers, who set up small power plants outside the town, and provide power as long as they’re getting paid.

So we installed the system in the church, and left via a different road, which was much easier.  We went back to Esteli for the night.  It was early still and Isaac asked us if we wanted to go grab a beer.  Not one to turn down a cold liquid that is safer to drink than the water I assented.  We stopped at a cantina, and had a few beers (don’t worry, Jim had a Coke Lite).  The beer was “Cervesa Tona (with a ~ over the n), as Isaac said, the most popular beer in Nicaragua.  It was a light lager, similar in taste to Yuengling, but a tad lighter in color and flavor.  Most importantly, it was cold, and after two days in the Nicaraguan sun, drinking warm water, cold was heavenly.  Isaac also ordered himself a bowl of soup.  Smiling rather mischievously he asked if we wanted to try it.  When I asked what exactly it was, he responded with, “huevo de toro” (egg of bull).  Now, I looked at him quizzically, and began to explain that bulls do not in fact lay eggs.  Isaac cut me short, laughing and said, “No no no…HUEVOS”, making a cupping gesture with his hands.  This time I got it: bull testicle soup.  So I tried it, and I’m not going to lie, it was pretty darn tasty.  Needless to say, Jim did not.  More interesting than the beer and the bull testes was the conversation.  After the past five days, Jim and I had gotten pretty good at understanding Isaac, and Isaac has picked up a lot of English as well.  We talked about how Jim and I felt about Nicaragua, and about differences in culture that we had noticed.  We all agreed that in Nicaragua, the culture is one that is much more relaxed and open than in the US.  The people are friendly here, and not afraid of constant social interaction.  Isaac asked what we thought about Barack Obama and the war in Iraq.  He was rather surprised when Jim said that he had not voted for Obama, because he’s a conservative.  Isaac explained that everyone in Nicaragua had been rooting for Obama.  No matter what they think of our politics, the young people here still see the U.S. as a place of opportunity, where anything is possible.  The previous administration was not a very good example of this, and for them, Barack Obama’s election brought that back.  The political divisions in Nicaragua are a bit deeper, due to certain amounts of violence perpetrated by each side against the other.  This seems to cause a number of the older Nicaraguans to be slightly wary of Gringos like us, but in general, the young people see the need for cooperation between the two sides.  Another interesting observation that Jim, Isaac, Emilio, and myself all made was that after a beer or three, my Spanish, and Isaac’s English skills easily doubled.  This even seemed to carry into the next day, and I’m sure that we both came out of it much more proficient in the other’s language.  It was a good night.  *Note* The drinking age in Nicaragua is technically 18, but as people like to say, “Money is the drinking age” if you have money, no one asks questions.

After all of this, we came back to Managua, relaxed at Juan’s for a day, and went to Suni in the morning.