Hi Folks.
I´m back in Leon, where I am hoping to spend my last full day in Nicaragua at the beach, enjoying the warm weather before I head back to that ice box of a house where I live in Oakland tomorrow night. It´s plenty hot here so I need to enjoy the sun and sweat while I can.
I left Lagartillo yesterday afternoon. It was not easy to leave. I had a wonderful week relaxing, working and exploring. On Monday, I returned to Lagartillo from Leon, the bus was empty compared with the day before, and I made sure to appreciate the spectacular mountain scenery along the way. On Monday afternoon, I went with Willa (the long term student who has been in Lagartillo for three months, I think), her professora Lizbeth, Lizbeth´s husband and their little boy Gaby to watch the sunset. We went to a large rock with a breathtaking view of the surrounding countryside and the volcanoes in the distance to the west. After having spent a few weeks in Lagartillo, I´ve become more familiar with the lay of the land around the community, and with that familiarity I´ve really come to appreciate the beauty of the area. I´ll post photos later...
The next couple of days I spent doing a little work in the campo, mostly harvesting corn, which is much easier than harvesting beans. Once the sun came up the heat set in hard, so I didn´t last long out there. I also bought some pancake mix in Esteli which we tried making one morning. I mistakenly tried using the clay comal (a large circular pan used for cooking tortillos) to make pancakes, and ended up messing it up a little bit. We switched to an iron pot which wasn´t ideal but worked much better. Luckily, later that day Jahaira managed to get the oil and burned pancake mix off the comal so we could make some tortillas.
Lagartillo has a pretty good water system. On the 31st, I started drinking the local water unfiltered and haven´t had any ill effects. Unfortunately, there is a crack in the pila, the community water tank, and so there is some concern that the community will run out of water before the rainy season begins in April. On Tuesday, there was a talk about water, especially aimed at the kids, who haven´t experienced the difficulties with water that the community experienced in the past when the water system wasn´t as good as it is today. As is typical with most meetings in Lagatillo, we sat in a crowded hot room in the afternoon while people shared their feelings and toddlers ran around. The other reason for the event was to give out some gifts to the kids that the Department of Leon (in which Lagartillo is located) donated, and also to do a pinata. The kids had a lot of fun with the pìnata, and each kid recieved a gift. Unfortunately, many of the kids recieved squirt guns, which wasn´t the ideal choice given the nature of the meeting. For the next few days, water wars ensued, not exactly in keeping with the idea of water conservation in the community. It was fun, though, and I can´t say that I didn´t enjoy running around having a water fight with a bunch of kids. I got pretty soaked, which wasn´t bad since we had some hot weather this week.
Friday was supposed to be my last day in Lagartillo, and we planned a trip with my family and some friends to the waterfall at Las Brisas. Jahaira prepared an excellent picnic lunch of rice, beans, sardines salad, platanos and cabbage salad, which we brought along on the hike and ate at the waterfall. The owner has become a little irritable because some young guys from one of the community damaged his water hose that supplies his house when they were playing around at the water fall, so we had to ask his permission. We sent the two prettiest, chavalas (como muchachas) along with some bananas and cookies, and fortunately, he let us pass. We had about 15 people in our group, including our wonderful neighbor Deysi and her thre children Carolina, Eneyda and Mario, who hadn´t been to the waterfall before, along with the usual suspects Maria Jose (Monchitos aunt) and Fernando who seems to come along on every trip that involves swimming. I brought my therm a rest pad and took monchito on a tour of the pool while he layed on top of the pad (he can´t swim very well). I spent a little too long in the water though and managed to get a little cold, since the mountan water is pretty chilly. After our swim, we went to a relative´s house nearby in the beautiful ravine for coffee and arroz con leche before hiking back to Lagartillo.
That night, to my suprise, my family, some of the language school teachers and some friends organized a despedida (farewell party) for me. It was really touching that they did this for me, and a bunch of folks from Lagartillo came to our house to enjoy tajadas de guineo (fried banana strips), refried beans and tomato salad. Eddy and Chango (from the local group Rusticos del Norte) played guitar and people sang. Later, Marcellino, one of the community´s elder´s, stopped by and played too (he´s the one who taught the others how to play guitar). The music in Lagartillo includes revolutionary themes and also themes from the misa campesina (liberation theology) and some songs about the area and about love and friendship. People also shared their feelings about having me in the community. I felt really appreciated and it nearly brings tears to my eyes writing about this. Even though I was only in Lagartillo for a month, I made some great friends and felt very comfortable with many of the people. The routines of daily life, such as grinding corn, looking for wood and bathing from the bucket became normal for me. During my last week, I felt as if I´d been in Lagartillo for much longer because I felt as though I´d known many of the people for years. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to spend some time there and really get to know the people, their lives, their stories, their food and their work. When many of the distractions of consumer culture and the anxieties of the industrialized world fade away, I find that the more real elements of life come to the fore-friendship, work, appreciation of simple pleasures, tranquility and the relationship with nature. Even though the lifestyle is much different from that in Oakland and even that in Leon or other Nica cities, I felt I shared much with the people of Lagartillo and it was never difficult to find common ground. On the other hand, it also felt comfortable just to sit somewhere alone or with others-silence didn´t seem awkward in the least in the campesino culture. At the despedida, Don Fermin (father of Juan Ramon and many other friends in Lagartillo), said I would make a good campesino, which is the best compiment I´ve ever recieved (even though, realistically, I can only be a good campesino for a couple hours in the morning before it gets hot). The party ended around 9-30 or so (late for Lagartillo) and we said our farewells as people went home for the night.
Saturday morning I planned to leave on the 9 oclock bus for Achuapa and El Sauce (to the west), where I would continue on to Leon and eventually the nearby Pacific beach of Las Penitas. But for the first time since I had arrived in Lagartillo, the bus did not make the trip to the village bus stop (which is right next to our house), and so I missed the bus. I wasn´t sure what to do, but to my good fortune, a pick up truck from Leon had come to Lagartillo for a meeting and I was able to secure a ride in the back of the truck. I was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday from too much time spent swimming, so I spent the morning resting. This weekend is the big festival of the year in the nearby town of Achuapa (6 km along a terrible road), so many people from Lagartillo weren´t around. I felt like a ghost (since I had already said many farewells and I don´t like goodbyes so I didn´t feel like saying them again) in a ghost town, and felt the need to leave. I really didn´t want to leave Lagatillo (I would stay for months if I could) but I need to return to my work and my life in the states. The camionetta (truck) left around 230, and I crowded into the small tina (truck bed) along with some other folks going to the festival. We stopped in Achuapa and planned to spend an hour at the festival, which, thanks to a few beers and a plate of baho (beef stew), turned into two hours. We eventually left Achuapa around 5. I rode in the back along with two chavalas headed to Leon. The first part of the ride was along a dirt road-I loved the scenery and the cool evening breeze but not the choking dust which ended up coating pretty much everything in the truck bed. We stopped briefly in el sauce and then drove the remaining 1 and a half hours in darkness along a paved road. It was a magical trip. The girls slept while I huddled in the back of the truck, trying to keep the wind from blowing off my glasses while I watched the full moon on the landscape. Houses, pulperias, motorcycles, bicycles, the occasional trash fire, fields, trees and eventually the volcanoes of Leon passed by. Around 8 we entered Leon, dropped people off, and I eventually made it to Hostal La Clinica, where I had stayed a month ago before heading to Lagartillo. It feels strange being away from Lagartillo, but it´s good for me to be in a city for a couple of days so I can get used to the urban life before heading back to Oakland.
I head back to Oakland with mixed feelings. All things considered, I´ve had a wonderful experience in Nicaragua, which doesn´t always make leaving easy, but I´d rather have it this way. If I had only spent two weeks here, I wouln´t have an appreciation of the campesino life or had the opportunity to really get to know people or get in depth with my Spanish. I would have left with a much different experience and perspective than I have now. I am not looking forward to exchanging the peace and tranquility of Lagartillo with the stress and car alarms of Oakland. I am looking forward to seeing all of you back in the states (Oakland people sooner, other people later) and getting back to work this week. Being abroad has given me a different perspective on life and the direction that I may go in the future. Although a month in Nicaragua has given me great Spanish practice and the opportunity to get to know a community and it´s people, I would really like to spend more time down here. I am especially interested in learning more about tropical farming, and the agricultural economy in general.
As my time here winds down, there is a lot more I could say about what this experience in Nicaragua has meant to me. When I return to the states, I will post some more photos.
Thanks to everyone who has been following this trip. I miss all of you and look forward to hearing from you and seeing you all soon.
I´m back in Leon, where I am hoping to spend my last full day in Nicaragua at the beach, enjoying the warm weather before I head back to that ice box of a house where I live in Oakland tomorrow night. It´s plenty hot here so I need to enjoy the sun and sweat while I can.
I left Lagartillo yesterday afternoon. It was not easy to leave. I had a wonderful week relaxing, working and exploring. On Monday, I returned to Lagartillo from Leon, the bus was empty compared with the day before, and I made sure to appreciate the spectacular mountain scenery along the way. On Monday afternoon, I went with Willa (the long term student who has been in Lagartillo for three months, I think), her professora Lizbeth, Lizbeth´s husband and their little boy Gaby to watch the sunset. We went to a large rock with a breathtaking view of the surrounding countryside and the volcanoes in the distance to the west. After having spent a few weeks in Lagartillo, I´ve become more familiar with the lay of the land around the community, and with that familiarity I´ve really come to appreciate the beauty of the area. I´ll post photos later...
The next couple of days I spent doing a little work in the campo, mostly harvesting corn, which is much easier than harvesting beans. Once the sun came up the heat set in hard, so I didn´t last long out there. I also bought some pancake mix in Esteli which we tried making one morning. I mistakenly tried using the clay comal (a large circular pan used for cooking tortillos) to make pancakes, and ended up messing it up a little bit. We switched to an iron pot which wasn´t ideal but worked much better. Luckily, later that day Jahaira managed to get the oil and burned pancake mix off the comal so we could make some tortillas.
Lagartillo has a pretty good water system. On the 31st, I started drinking the local water unfiltered and haven´t had any ill effects. Unfortunately, there is a crack in the pila, the community water tank, and so there is some concern that the community will run out of water before the rainy season begins in April. On Tuesday, there was a talk about water, especially aimed at the kids, who haven´t experienced the difficulties with water that the community experienced in the past when the water system wasn´t as good as it is today. As is typical with most meetings in Lagatillo, we sat in a crowded hot room in the afternoon while people shared their feelings and toddlers ran around. The other reason for the event was to give out some gifts to the kids that the Department of Leon (in which Lagartillo is located) donated, and also to do a pinata. The kids had a lot of fun with the pìnata, and each kid recieved a gift. Unfortunately, many of the kids recieved squirt guns, which wasn´t the ideal choice given the nature of the meeting. For the next few days, water wars ensued, not exactly in keeping with the idea of water conservation in the community. It was fun, though, and I can´t say that I didn´t enjoy running around having a water fight with a bunch of kids. I got pretty soaked, which wasn´t bad since we had some hot weather this week.
Friday was supposed to be my last day in Lagartillo, and we planned a trip with my family and some friends to the waterfall at Las Brisas. Jahaira prepared an excellent picnic lunch of rice, beans, sardines salad, platanos and cabbage salad, which we brought along on the hike and ate at the waterfall. The owner has become a little irritable because some young guys from one of the community damaged his water hose that supplies his house when they were playing around at the water fall, so we had to ask his permission. We sent the two prettiest, chavalas (como muchachas) along with some bananas and cookies, and fortunately, he let us pass. We had about 15 people in our group, including our wonderful neighbor Deysi and her thre children Carolina, Eneyda and Mario, who hadn´t been to the waterfall before, along with the usual suspects Maria Jose (Monchitos aunt) and Fernando who seems to come along on every trip that involves swimming. I brought my therm a rest pad and took monchito on a tour of the pool while he layed on top of the pad (he can´t swim very well). I spent a little too long in the water though and managed to get a little cold, since the mountan water is pretty chilly. After our swim, we went to a relative´s house nearby in the beautiful ravine for coffee and arroz con leche before hiking back to Lagartillo.
That night, to my suprise, my family, some of the language school teachers and some friends organized a despedida (farewell party) for me. It was really touching that they did this for me, and a bunch of folks from Lagartillo came to our house to enjoy tajadas de guineo (fried banana strips), refried beans and tomato salad. Eddy and Chango (from the local group Rusticos del Norte) played guitar and people sang. Later, Marcellino, one of the community´s elder´s, stopped by and played too (he´s the one who taught the others how to play guitar). The music in Lagartillo includes revolutionary themes and also themes from the misa campesina (liberation theology) and some songs about the area and about love and friendship. People also shared their feelings about having me in the community. I felt really appreciated and it nearly brings tears to my eyes writing about this. Even though I was only in Lagartillo for a month, I made some great friends and felt very comfortable with many of the people. The routines of daily life, such as grinding corn, looking for wood and bathing from the bucket became normal for me. During my last week, I felt as if I´d been in Lagartillo for much longer because I felt as though I´d known many of the people for years. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to spend some time there and really get to know the people, their lives, their stories, their food and their work. When many of the distractions of consumer culture and the anxieties of the industrialized world fade away, I find that the more real elements of life come to the fore-friendship, work, appreciation of simple pleasures, tranquility and the relationship with nature. Even though the lifestyle is much different from that in Oakland and even that in Leon or other Nica cities, I felt I shared much with the people of Lagartillo and it was never difficult to find common ground. On the other hand, it also felt comfortable just to sit somewhere alone or with others-silence didn´t seem awkward in the least in the campesino culture. At the despedida, Don Fermin (father of Juan Ramon and many other friends in Lagartillo), said I would make a good campesino, which is the best compiment I´ve ever recieved (even though, realistically, I can only be a good campesino for a couple hours in the morning before it gets hot). The party ended around 9-30 or so (late for Lagartillo) and we said our farewells as people went home for the night.
Saturday morning I planned to leave on the 9 oclock bus for Achuapa and El Sauce (to the west), where I would continue on to Leon and eventually the nearby Pacific beach of Las Penitas. But for the first time since I had arrived in Lagartillo, the bus did not make the trip to the village bus stop (which is right next to our house), and so I missed the bus. I wasn´t sure what to do, but to my good fortune, a pick up truck from Leon had come to Lagartillo for a meeting and I was able to secure a ride in the back of the truck. I was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday from too much time spent swimming, so I spent the morning resting. This weekend is the big festival of the year in the nearby town of Achuapa (6 km along a terrible road), so many people from Lagartillo weren´t around. I felt like a ghost (since I had already said many farewells and I don´t like goodbyes so I didn´t feel like saying them again) in a ghost town, and felt the need to leave. I really didn´t want to leave Lagatillo (I would stay for months if I could) but I need to return to my work and my life in the states. The camionetta (truck) left around 230, and I crowded into the small tina (truck bed) along with some other folks going to the festival. We stopped in Achuapa and planned to spend an hour at the festival, which, thanks to a few beers and a plate of baho (beef stew), turned into two hours. We eventually left Achuapa around 5. I rode in the back along with two chavalas headed to Leon. The first part of the ride was along a dirt road-I loved the scenery and the cool evening breeze but not the choking dust which ended up coating pretty much everything in the truck bed. We stopped briefly in el sauce and then drove the remaining 1 and a half hours in darkness along a paved road. It was a magical trip. The girls slept while I huddled in the back of the truck, trying to keep the wind from blowing off my glasses while I watched the full moon on the landscape. Houses, pulperias, motorcycles, bicycles, the occasional trash fire, fields, trees and eventually the volcanoes of Leon passed by. Around 8 we entered Leon, dropped people off, and I eventually made it to Hostal La Clinica, where I had stayed a month ago before heading to Lagartillo. It feels strange being away from Lagartillo, but it´s good for me to be in a city for a couple of days so I can get used to the urban life before heading back to Oakland.
I head back to Oakland with mixed feelings. All things considered, I´ve had a wonderful experience in Nicaragua, which doesn´t always make leaving easy, but I´d rather have it this way. If I had only spent two weeks here, I wouln´t have an appreciation of the campesino life or had the opportunity to really get to know people or get in depth with my Spanish. I would have left with a much different experience and perspective than I have now. I am not looking forward to exchanging the peace and tranquility of Lagartillo with the stress and car alarms of Oakland. I am looking forward to seeing all of you back in the states (Oakland people sooner, other people later) and getting back to work this week. Being abroad has given me a different perspective on life and the direction that I may go in the future. Although a month in Nicaragua has given me great Spanish practice and the opportunity to get to know a community and it´s people, I would really like to spend more time down here. I am especially interested in learning more about tropical farming, and the agricultural economy in general.
As my time here winds down, there is a lot more I could say about what this experience in Nicaragua has meant to me. When I return to the states, I will post some more photos.
Thanks to everyone who has been following this trip. I miss all of you and look forward to hearing from you and seeing you all soon.
Comments
Acabo de leer su commento por la primera vez. Que interesante que usted conoce a mucho gente en lagarillo. Yo conozco tambien el lugar donde vivía usted en Achuapa cerca del estadio. Todo la gente allá como Alcides, Marcelino estan en El Lagartillo todavia. Como pasa la vida para usted en Los Angeles?
Reed