February 12, 2012
Great news, I've finally moved into my house!!! The doors and windows are all installed, the plumbing all works (except when the water's off, which is most of the day), and an electrician came over last week to install wiring for just my little back half of the house where I'm living. I have one light bulb in the main room, one in the bathroom, and one on the back porch, plus one plug for my electronics. After coming back from a small trip out of town for the Super Bowl, I had my host dad help me move the larger furniture over and I did all the rest, taking about 10 trips to bag up my stuff and walk it over two houses down. It was raining that morning, but nothing was going to stop me at that point. Also that same morning the guy who's been doing all the work on the house came over and at my request installed a 2x4 wooden plank behind each of the windows for added security, and also put some cement nails up around the house so I can hang things like pots and pans, mirrors, and the curtain that will serve as my bathroom door. That's right, absolutely NO sound privacy when it comes to business in the bathroom. So yeah, any of you that come visit me be prepared to get comfortable hearing bodily functions during your stay. I have to admit it's awkward when people stay over and hear everything that goes on in there when you're on the toilet, but hey, this is Peace Corps, you gotta get over it at some point.
The weekend of the Super Bowl was a busy one. I spent a few nights staying at other volunteer's houses for potlucks and birthday parties, then spent one night in Esteli in a hostel on the way to Ocotal in Nueva Segovia (way up in the north) for this big Super Bowl party where lots of volunteers gathered to hang out and celebrate this big American sports tradition. I have no interest in football, but there's no way I was going to miss out on the party. It was fun and good to get out and travel a bit and see some new towns and new people. In Esteli I went to this boot workshop and ordered some custom made leather boots from a guy who's known for his work. It's very popular to get handmade leather boots in Esteli; it's part of what the area's known for, so I had to go check it out for myself and ended up putting 50% down on a pair of brown ankle boots with a buckle on the side. I'm not into cowboy boots, which is the most common item made in these leather shops, so I found a pair in a different style that I liked and will pick them up at the end of this month when they're done. They cost about $80 US, which is something I'd never pay in the states for a pair of shoes, honestly. But to have them custom handmade in Nicaragua for that price is a fraction of the cost for the same boots in the States, so I went for it.
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| The sample boots that will be made custom for me |
Before heading into Ocotal for the party, we stopped in Somoto, which is a town in the department of Madriz, just south of Nueva Segovia in the Northwestern part of Nicaragua. There we hiked into Somoto Canyon, which was so beautiful. I wasn't prepared and didn't bring a bathing suit with me, but others did and got to swim in the river upstream quite a ways. There's a part where the trail actually ends and you have to get in the water and swim the rest of the way into the canyon. The water looks deep and green and was cold, but refreshing, from what I could tell by just wading in up to my knees. The whole area is very dry right now at this point in the season (summer has started here), and actually looks very similar to the hilly, scruby chaparral areas of California. I would love to go back and go for a swim next time. It was nice being in a warmer area since it's still raining pretty regularly in Jinotega. My site has been chilly and wet ever since the winter season started last August. We're already technically in summer, but the rains have continued in my area and have been damaging the current crops, like the beans that were planted in Dec/Jan. It's been a tough time for the farmers who rely on that harvest for money. They're all hoping the rains stop soon.
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| Somoto Canyon |
Then this past weekend my Ag group had a drip irrigation workshop where we got to bring two youths from our community with us to Managua to learn. The idea is that each one of us starts a small 100 meter squared garden using this drip irrigation system with a group of youth from our community so that they can learn the technique and hopefully manage a successful garden and sell the harvest. We went to an experimental farm in the department of Granada to learn about different types of drip irrigation systems and how to install and manage our own. It was fun and educational and I'm glad I brought the two youth I did with me. One was one of my host brothers, and the other was his cousin who lives down the street from me. They're 19 and 21 years old, and they both have agriculture experience so they seemed the perfect two to take along with me. They seemed to enjoy it and I'm hoping that when we get back to site that we can motivate some other kids in the community to help with this project to make it successful. My one big worry is that someone will steal the materials once it's installed and we'll be out of luck. Peace Corps provided us with chicken wire to enclose the garden, a shovel and pickaxe to maintain the garden, a sprayer and mask for fertilizers/insecticides, and the irrigation system itself, which includes a 200 liter plastic bag to hold the water and all the plastic tubing to water the plants. That's a lot of stuff that I'm sure many people would love to get their hands on, and since the area of land that we're going to use isn't necessarily close to any of our houses, I'm concerned it will get yanked in the night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out.
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| A chiltoma plant (bell pepper) |
Well, today I'm still in Managua, hanging out for the night in a hotel because I need to pick up some meds from the PC office tomorrow since they're closed on weekends. So I think I'll treat myself to some fast food (perhaps a Subway sandwich this time?) and a movie in an actual theater at the mall before my 5+ hour bus trip back to site tomorrow. I hope my house is still in one piece and all my stuff's still there! More updates soon. . .
~Sarah~
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