Nicaragua next week

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 departure is now less than a week away. It's strange to think that one day I'll be at Park Elementary, and the next day I'll be trying to navigate a Managua bus station. I have no idea what it's going to be like, but that's OK. That's part of the beauty of traveling: not having everything planned out exactly, and not having too many expectations or assumptions about how it's going to be.

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From the cab of a John Deere 8410

Ready for another day of field work Spending long days in the cab of a John Deere 8410 belted tractor gives me a lot of alone time. When I'm not staring at the sheaths of earth left tossed up by the powerful steel disks in tow behind the tractor, I watch the rice trucks on Highway 99, which runs next to the field, or I observe the chickens, cranes and the crows as they feast on insects unearthed by cultivation. And I wonder how of all things I ended up driving a tractor on a farm in South Sutter County. It is because I spent these recent days alone on the tractor--and because Fall is the season for remembering and for contemplation of life and death-- that I have resurrected up this blog yet again. Sutter County Mornings I could go back years, trying to figure out how I ended up where I am, but a good starting point would be the Summer of 2009, when I began my fourth year as the Nutrition Education Site Coordinator, aka 'Garden Teacher' at Park Elementary...

Support the Lagartillo School Garden Initiative

As I spend a quiet Saturday reading, writing and cooking beans, my mind drifts back to the month I spent in Nicaragua. I've lost track of how much time it's been since I returned from Central America, but I know I've been back for well over a month. At work, people are counting down the weeks before our spring break--four more to go. I am thinking ahead of projects to do in the school garden where I work once spring arrives, which here in the Bay Area will be soon. I am also thinking of another school garden project--the one in Lagartillo, the community in Nicaragua where I spent a month studying Spanish this past winter vacation. When I was in Lagartillo, some of the community elders spoke of starting a garden project at the school. A nonprofit organization that supports initiatives for women and children in Nicaragua, Project Sonrisas (http://www.projectsonrisas.org/) is working with the community in Lagartillo to help make the project a reality. To quote the Pro...

Return from a Rugged Land

Ok so it's been a while since I've done any blogging. But I am on the move and have much to write about, so here I go again. About a month ago, back in February, I left my job teaching Nutrition and Garden at Park Elementary in Hayward, CA. It was a sad farewell, and I will miss many students, parents and staff there, but I was ready to move on and experience new challenges, adventures and opportunities to grow, learn and have fun. I packed up my stuff in boxes, loaded my car with supplies and headed east for the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, specifically the contested partition lands of Black Mesa. The history of the Hopi-Navajo land dispute and it's relationship to the coal interests is a complicated one. At the center of it lies Black Mesa, a rolling plateau of sagebrush and pinon and juniper forests, the traditional home of many Dine (Navajo) sheepherding families. Under their lands lie some of the largest coal deposits in the U.S. For decades, the coal in...

When the Almond Tree Blooms

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