When the Almond Tree Blooms

Hi People! This Friday evening finds me again in the city of Esteli, where I arrived to check email and do some other things I can't do in the village of Lagartillo. Let's see, it goes without saying that a lot has happened since last week. I returned to Lagatillo in the school bus and arrived sometime on Saturday. I was worn out since I over-did it my first week and needed a little more down time in Esteli. I was also confused about the promotion (graduation) that happened on Sunday. Turned out it wasn't Jahaira's (my host-mother, as they say) graduation, but the preschool graduation. She is the pre-school teacher, so it's a big deal, and one of her sisters has a son in preschool, so they came to stay with us, along with Jahaira's mother and brother. The house was a little crowded and full of activity, all kinds of cooking going on, especially on Sunday. The promotion was a bit long, but OK, it's good to have events like that because they motivate

Hi Folks, So it's been a while since I updated. I've been in Nicaragua a week. I spent last Friday and Saturday in Leon, an interesting but very hot city in NW Nicaragua. I did a few errands and got used to being in the country. Then, on Sunday, I took a minibus to a smaller town near the mountains called El Sauce (and no, that doesn't mean 'the sauce' in Spanish), and caught a bus that took me two hours into the mountains along a dirt road to Lagartillo. The buses in Nicaragua are old school buses from the USA that are outfitted to carry all kinds of stuff and are the lifeline for rural communities, bringing in goods from the outside and taking out products from the campo (countryside). When I arrived in Lagartillo, I went to the small store near the bus stop, which happens to be the place where I'm staying. I'm living with a wonderful family, a young couple Juan Ramon and Jahaira, and their 6 year old son that we call Monchito (short for Juan Ramo

Well, I am here in Leon, Nicaragua. I left SFO last night at 12:30 AM and took a flight to San Salvador. I had gotten myself a first-class ticket for not much more than the regular price when I bought the flight, so I traveled in style. We arrived in San Salvador in the morning, then I transferred to another flight to Managua, which was only 30 mins. I got to Managua, got my bearings, then took a taxi through town to a bus station. There, I hopped in a crowded van that drove us to Leon, a smaller city about an hour and a half north of Managua. Managua didn´t seem all too appealing to me, but Leon has been great so far. On a friend´s recommendation, I found a great inexpensive little hostel that´s family run not far from the center of town. I had lunch in Leon´s central market, which is full of all kinds of little stands selling delicious food like beans, rice, stews, soups, tortillas. I´m a little worn out from traveling, and it´s a little overwhelming here--a lot to take in.

It's been a while since I've written anything on this blog, but I figure it might be a good way to keep people posted on what I'm doing while I'm traveling in Nicaragua. I'm leaving this Thursday night to spend a month in that Central American country; I plan to be at a language school for three weeks or so, then travel around the country a little bit. Before leaving, I've been trying to avoid eating a lot of beans and rice, but have found it difficult given that I live in Fruitvale and work in Hayward. But, Mexican food is much different from Nica food... I'm sure I'll have much more to say about food and many other aspects of life in Nicaragua soon enough... This trip has been a long time in the planning. I've thought about going to Latin America to study Spanish for a few years now, but didn't have the money to do it until more recently. I've been planning this particular excursion for almost a year, and am thrilled that my departu

Clothes on the line, my backyward The plum tree Plums! In my earlier post, I was lamenting the fact that I was in Oakland instead of out on a wilderness trail. Now, a few weeks later, I am still sitting here in Oakland, this time listening to the various firecrackers and other incendiary devices the neighbors are igniting in preparation for July 4th. I am getting ready to leave on a camping trip tomorrow morning. I am excited to get out of town, but overall, have been very content to be in the Bay Area during what amounts to a five week pseudo-vacation from the elementary children. In the past few weeks, I've been working at the Park Elementary garden in Hayward two to three times a week, usually for four to six hours. I've also helped out with the high school program as well at Tennyson in Hayward. On my sometimes lengthy lunch breaks, I've been savoring the tastes of Hayward: Mexican hoagies, and burritos and aguas frescas from Chavez Market. On my other days,

This time last year, instead of sitting here in Oakland listening to car alarms and subwoofers, I was savoring the high country of Kings Canyon National Park. My friend and co-adventurer Tom and I set off for a week long loop trip through the Rae Lakes Basin, a 40 mile trip with a 7,000 foot elevation game. The backpacking odyssey took us up one river valley, over a 12,000 foot pass (the highest altitude I've ever reached), then down into the Rae Lakes Basin: a string of beautiful mountain lakes surrounded by craggy peaks and full of mosquitoes. We enjoyed our time at the lakes immensely, but were relieved to find a bug-free campsite on our last night by the Kings River. An experience as this is best seen through the pictures, which of course can't really do justice to the magnificence of the mountain wilderness I had the good fortune to pass through. The photos are arranged in chronological order, so the viewer can get a sense of the progress of the journey. One part of the

Fog and Seastack, Olympic National Park, Washington Coast Pelicans near mouth of Hoh River, Oil City, Washington Rounding a headland north of Oil City Recently, I read an excellent book, Ivan Doig's "The Sea Runners". It's a sort of historical fiction, following four indentured servants who escape from the Russian outpost of New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) in a canoe and travel down the coast towards Astoria, Oregon. Doig tells the story wonderfully, making it difficult to put the book down, and bringing the perils that the four men face to life. The book also invokes the Pacific coastline of the northwest, a place I love and know well. For most of my childhood, we went camping out on the beach on the Washington Coast in Olympic National Park. We played on the sand, roasted hot dogs and tried to keep raccoons and bears away from our food. We also endured hailstorms in July, caught a glimpse a rare gray whale breaching right off a rocky point, and dodged wav

Central Park At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not the aquarium H and H Bagels, Manhattan Under the 7 Line, Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights View from Morningside Park across Harlem towards midtown. Last week was my first time in New York City. The place overwhelmed me with its' towering buildings, masses of people and richness of cultural attractions. As the arguable center of capitalism, the NYC is full of the contradictions of globalization. In Manhattan, some of the richest people in the world live in some of the most expensively priced real estate and shop at some of the most expensive stores, while service workers toil away at minimum wage jobs. If they are lucky, the working class in NYC can receive some sort of subsidized housing or rent control, if not, I have no idea how anyone on anything less than a moderate income ($50,000 or s0) can afford housing there. The widening gap between rich and poor seems to be one of global capitalism's most dismal failures. But

One of the nice perks about working at a school is that I get a spring break--two weeks, in fact, since I am at a year-round school. I had the good fortune to get invited along to a farm in the Hoopa Valley of Northern California for most of last week with a group of friends and fellow garden teachers. The experience was wonderful and rewarding: working the land and enjoying farm fresh meals in great company. The life felt very wholesome and rewarding, and I felt refreshed and re-energized after only a couple of days away. The previous three months of work and life had really worn me down for a variety of reasons, and being on the farm and traveling with friends really did the trick. Although I have spent nearly all of my life in cities, rural life has a strong pull on me: the idea of living close to the land, growing food, being attuned to the rhythms of nature and the seasons. It's hard, back-breaking work at time, and I wonder if I'm up for it. Only a few days lat

These are some pictures from New Orleans, LA, where I spent a week two years ago doing relief work through Common Ground relief. Though the intent was there, due to the busyness of my life, my involvement with New Orleans gradually fell away. I have not returned to the Crescent City, and I remain shamefully unware on current conditions there. My memories from a week there remain strong--it was certainly the most intense experience I've had in the past few years, full of hope amidst an overwhelmingly tragic situation. Well, I got this forward through color of change. It's an action letter about the Angola 3, victims of an incredibly unjust 'correctional' system in Louisiana. Read and take action if you decide so... Dear Friend, For 35 years, Jim Crow justice in Louisiana has kept Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox locked in solitary confinement for a crime everyone knows they didn't commit. Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, the "Angola

Photo: A rare Bay Area thundercloud, sour orange tree in my backyard in the foreground. Sometimes, when I become engrossed in a particular work of fiction, I feel as though my reality is somehow merging with the fantasy world being presented on film, paper or television. This has become the case with the HBO television series, The Wire . Recommended to me by a friend and former co-worker, The Wire came highly regarded, a must-watch. And so it has become for me, as I near the end of Season 4. Recently, The Wire concluded its final episode of Season 5; since I don't have HBO, I wasn't able to watch Season 5 as it aired on television. This may have been for the best, since I haven't made it through Season 4, and The Wire is certainly not the show where you can skip seasons or even episodes. I've watched every episode, from Season 1, in order. When I seek entertainment, like many other people, I am often looking for an escape, to leave my reality and enter into

I realize it's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd fill in those of you who read this on some snippets from my life of late... Books: I just finished a fantastic book called Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-born author who now resides in Oakland (and from his description of the neighborhood, probably not far from me). I'm not really in the game of writing literary reviews, but I would say the book is an excellent, though at times, difficult read. The story is set in a fictional South American country that bears many similarities with Peru: a dry coastal capital city, a mountain region and a jungle area. The book delves into the violence and disappearances that tore the country apart during a civil war. Of note, the author does an incredible job weaving recollections into the storyline. I highly recommend reading in; in fact, I bought the book, so if you're in the area, you're welcome to borrow it. Hikes: I've spent some t

This weekend, we've had a rain storm, so I've taken the opportunity to rest up after another long week. Unfortunately, that means there will be no chance to take pictures, though. I was lucky last week to have my friend Chris visit from Boston. About three years ago, Chris, Anthony and I did some exploring in Oakland. I had just moved here from the Peninsula, and didn't know the city well. For some reason, we ended up heading east on International Blvd. looking for a place to eat. The only one open at that time in the evening (it wasn't really late, maybe around 7:30 PM) was a restaurant called "7 Courses of Beef", which was the only English phrase on the sign, at least. Not the most fortunate finding, since the three of us were nominal beef eaters and each ended up ordering the only item not containing beef on the menu, which if I remember right, was Pho with chicken. The food was fine, the restaurant was an experience of decor, plants and fish tank

The fatigue of moving and too much going on at work has worn me down. Luckily, it's a three-day weekend, and I have tomorrow off. During the last three-day weekend, our school garden was badly vandalized; it was especially painful that a few of the fruit trees we planted in November were destroyed or very badly damaged. This--combined with getting used to a new living situation--made last week the most challenging of my working life. Fortunately, some of the staff members and many of the students provided needed support, and by Friday, I felt better than I had in weeks. The new living situation has had its' ups and downs, but seems like it will work out. I've had respiratory problems--already bad because of the cat at my old place--probably from the new carpet. The 'off-gassing' I have learned from internet searches, is the release of nasty chemicals from a new carpet. How wonderful. Luckily, the smell fades, I've put in a lot of work cleaning the house,

This may be my last post for a few days. Since moving to my current house, I've been plagued with allergy symptoms from the resident cat(s). Treatment has been ineffective, so I've chosen to move to a new locale. I found a room in a house on 27th Avenue, not far from the Fruitvale District of Oakland. One of the features of the new place is its' fine backyard garden, which includes a trellis covered with now withered chayote vines. This has provided the inspiration for the title of this blog: Under the Chayote Vines. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things to write about in the new neighborhood...as soon as I get the internet hooked up.

Due to a lack of sleep as well as many other factors, I took a sick day today and am not at Park School today, which gives me the chance to do a little writing while I rest. After a suspenseful Tuesday evening, I've managed to gather some thoughts about the election, especially in regards to immigration, an issue I care deeply about. I'm pleased that Barack Obama did well, but disappointed that he wasn't as successful as I'd hoped in my 'home' state of California. It seems strange that Latinos--who heavily supported Clinton--voted for her, given that Obama's stance on immigration is more progressive (he supports driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants--a position I agree with). Immigration is one of the issues that matters to me most this election year, though my position differs greatly from the supposedly all powerful 'deport the illegals' camp. I work in Hayward, a community with many immigrants--some of whom certainly are undocumen

February 4, 2008: Nervous about Super Tuesday, but hopeful that Obama can pull it off and eventually get the nomination. Slightly pleased that the somewhat more respectable McCain is leading over the deplorable Romney (even though I don't have much love for Republicans). Current Book: "China Road", Rob Gifford Current Song: "SF Anthem" Traxamillion and San Quinn First in an installment. I hope to explore East Bay neighborhoods and take pictures. I'm not attempting to interview people to get the pulse of an area, but rather capture the images that strike me and hopefully create a visual sense of the community. I plan to do this a couple times of month. Let me know what you think. This being one of the few sunny, rainless days we've had of late, I decided to spend part of my day off walking through some Oakland neighborhoods instead of doing housework or studying. I live near High Street and 580, in Maxwell Park. I headed west, along Brookdal