First rains and San Isidro

May 17^th, 2012

Winter has officially begun in Pantasma, and with a bang!  Nicaraguans say that winter (and the rains) starts mid-May like clockwork, and they weren't kidding.  On the evening of the 15^th we had a huge rainstorm pass through, starting around 3pm and ending sometime into the night.  The torrential downpour was so sudden and so exciting!  My zinc metal roof was pounding so loudly with the noise of millions of fat rain drops that I could barely hear myself think, then it would let up a little, then start pouring down again.  It went through that pattern until well after dark, making the air cool and chilly for once.  I heated water for bathing for the first time since January, and it felt amazing.  I'd gotten used to the cool (sometimes cold) water bucket baths throughout this whole summer heat wave because it always felt so good and refreshing after a hot sweaty day.  But now the rains are finally here and I can once again treat myself to warm water baths. 

May 15^th is actually the day that Nicaraguans celebrate the patron saint of agriculture, Saint Isidro.  I attended a procession of San Isidro that morning, which started in a nearby community and traveled back along the road towards the Catholic church in Las Praderas for Mass.  We took a bus to Las Praderas, then walked about 45 minutes to the church where the procession started, just to walk all the way back again.  We all know I'm not the religious type, but I don't pass up opportunities to see cultural and religious events that are commonly practiced in my community (however I skipped on the Mass this time since I had errands to do in town).  So I went to see what all the excitement was about.  I'd say over two hundred people had gathered at the smaller church to start the procession, and waiting to join in were four teams of oxen pulling wooden carts that were adorned with various fruits, vegetables, whole banana trees and palm fronds, representing various harvests.  One had white and yellow balloons all over it as well.  There were four bright orange tractors too, and numerous caballeros on horseback.  Those not hitching rides on horses, tractors, or ox-pulled carts walked behind a pick-up truck equipped with a guy and his computer and huge speakers blasting music toward the marchers behind, who carried a platform with a statue of San Isidro above their shoulders.  The procession marched along the main dirt road for about an hour, collecting various neighbors along the way and growing in size, until it reached the Catholic church in Las Praderas.  My back was aching from walking along that rocky dirt road there and back again, and I was sweating as if I'd never taken a hike in my life, making my nice blue button up shirt stained with dark splotches all over my back and under my arms.  It was at that point that I decided not to attend the Mass in my filthy state, and so I headed into town to do my errands.  While in town I stopped by the ciber (internet place) and found out that they're back up and running again (yay!), checked and answered a few e-mails, and then headed out to buy some needed veggies. 

Since that eventful May 15^th evening, the rain hasn't been around as much as I was hoping.  It's sprinkled here and there in the afternoons, but nothing like that first big rain.  It's like the weather's saying “I put on that show so you guys know that winter has officially started, but I'm still gonna keep you guessing”.  As is usual with big rains, the water system gets filthy dirty for a day or so afterward.  The water source way up on the mountainside gets flooded with dirt and so does the pila, or the water basin in each lavandero where we all wash clothes and dishes.  Luckily the two water barrels in my house had plenty of water and didn't need to be filled from the spigot during those few dirty days.  I did have to wash dishes with it in the meantime, however.  Yesterday morning the power went out and didn't come back on until today around 3pm.  I felt totally fine in my dark house alone with just my headlamp as a guide.  My computer still had some charge so I watched some 30 Rock episodes before going to bed.  But my fridge thawed completely during this time, and so I decided today to start eating the food items that would be most damaged if the power didn't come back on for another day or so (from my experience in site so far, the power hasn't gone out for more than a day or so at a time, so I wasn't too concerned).  The cheeses that I'd bought in Jinotega (cheddar and mozzarella) and the milk were my main concerns, so I made mac 'n' cheese for dinner last night and also for lunch and dinner today.  That used up all the milk and most all of the cheese.  Then the power came back on and now everything's back to normal.  At least until the next big rainstorm.  

If you like the photos I post on this blog but want to see more, just a reminder to check out other photos I post at SarahInNica.shutterfly.com

~Sarah~  

One Year in Country!!!!!

May 11, 2012

Hey all.  Time to update the blog!  I feel like there's not much to update you with, since I don't feel like I've been terribly active lately.  I came to the realization that because I was watching a movie or TV show episode every night on my computer before bed, that I wasn't reading anymore and that was making me feel really guilty.  So after a trip to the Peace Corps office in Managua I brought back about 10 new books to get started on (I already had about 20 sitting on my desk at home, but hey, when a whole group of volunteers finishes their service and drops off tons of new books at the library, one must take advantage).  So in the past two weeks or so I've finished 4 books, mostly spending my days hanging around in my new hammock and just enjoying some well-needed reading time.  However, that in turn made me feel guilty for not leaving the house and visiting with the community.  We're still in summer here right now so it's super hot everyday, making it hard to drag my lazy ass out of the house to go work in the sun.  I hope that once the rains start up again that I'll be more motivated to get out and stay moving. 

As for what I have been doing besides sleeping in and reading in my hammock, I've finished 9 out the 10 ovens in my project.  The last one is the one at my own house.  I'm still waiting for the owner to deliver the bricks and get the table built so I can do the oven.   

The irrigation project has pretty much stopped.  The heat had gotten to all the tomatoes we planted, and even though we had great plans of buying a hose to attach to the system to water all day long from the river, it just never happened.  We did however replant some tomato seeds to start fresh, and just yesterday we transplanted those back in the garden.  But this time we won't try to water them with the irrigation system.  We're hoping the rains start soon so we don't have to hand water everyday.  We've started harvesting the few squash that we planted back in February, but it's not enough to sell and make money on the project, so we're dividing the squash amongst the group to take home and eat.  I've made two soups out of one of the squashes, and it was really good!  If the tomatoes don't do well this time then we're planning on just planting squashes next time since they did pretty well in the heat.  The school garden project is super frustrating, and I've kind of bailed on that one yet again.  The tomatoes we planted got a disease and the kids weren't watering them frequently enough so they all dried up.  The few cucumber plants that made it are just now providing some cucumbers, but they're really small and there are so few of them I don't think it will positively affect the school meals much.  But even though there aren't a lot I can still give them to the parents that make the meals and just tell them to do what they can with them.  It's really hard to motivate the kids and teachers to work and keep watering and the weeding when they really just don't seem to want to. 

At the end of the month I'm taking a trip with some other volunteers to Bluefields, which is on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.  They say it's a whole different world over there considering the population is mostly of Afro-Caribbean/Creole decent.  Most speak English, but it's a creole English with a thick accent.  And of course they speak Spanish, so I wonder what I'll be speaking more while I'm there.  The reason we're going to visit during the Palo de Mayo (May Poll) celebration, which is huge over there.  I don't know it's origins or real cultural influence, but there's always a big parade with lots of dancing and various partying throughout the week.  I hope to eat lots of yummy seafood and coconut dishes and see some great costumes and fun dancing.  It should be fun!  Perhaps my next post will include pictures from that trip.

Love and miss you all,

~Sarita~