One more thing

And as the days burn off and I get closer to July 23, I grow more anxious. I want to keep this chapter of my life open and not just something that I did for seven months back when I was 23. As an educated member of the First World I feel it is my priviledge to take action.
Saavy?

Here, here!

It is hard to believe that this is the last day of May and I only have 8 weeks left here in Nicaragua. Some days I am so excited to go home, see my family and become once again enveloped in the comforts of the first world. And then there are days that I can’t even fathom returning to normal life in the States.
I have struggled (at times not very gracefully) with the process of understanding poverty and politics during my time in Nicaragua. And at times I was pretty sure I had answers that satisfied some of the nagging pains I felt. And sometimes I was just so confused and lost, I had no idea what I was even looking for anymore.
I came to Nicaragua for selfish reasons masked by good intentions. While studying ethnobotany at WashU I was so jealous that people got to go into the field and learn firsthand from witch doctors. I had no real idea what I was getting into when I came to Nicaragua. A decision to live with a family came from the desire to learn Spanish quicker and to get off the compound of the JHC. I didn’t really think about the fact that I would be living within a family struggling with their own problems, anxieties and unemployment.
I have been upset with the fact that I have gained weight here. It isn’t safe to go for a run in the streets, the swimming pool that I actually have access to is alarmingly small and no stores carry weights. The food that I am served is the foundation of a basic diet, a complete protein of rice and beans with calories coming from sugar. Cheap, basic and plain so it is usually spiced up with another cheap method of cooking – it is all fried. It frustrates me to no end that my panza is growing and growing. I eat two meals a day with Dona Yeny, and I eat what she can afford. I of course can go to the store and invest in Special K bars (which I have) and yogurt. I can afford to do that. But the kids across the street drink sugary packets of red dye and eat bags of chips, both only costing C$1, all the time. Going to the store and spending C$90 on cereal is not an option for the Silvas.
A delegation from Bucknell University is with us right now for 3 weeks. It is always interesting to see their reactions to things I have come accustomed to in Nicaragua. It is always shocking to see what they chose to bring with them and what they will leave behind.

I got schooled

Yesterday I got a lesson in medicina verde Nicaraguense from Doña Goya, a lady from Nueva Vida. We made the general health syrup known as Miel de Jicaro (jicaro is a calabas) which included the pulp of 4 jicaros, oregano, dulce negro (sugar cane/molasses type sweetner), lemon grass, cinnamon and rum. It smelled delicious. And it tastes delicious.

Doña Goya cracks the jicaro and gets all the pulpy goodness out.

Everything goes into the pot and we stir a lot.

While the Miel de Jicaro was cooking, we also made Miel de Carao. This is good for anemia, the lungs, general upper respiratory health as well. Carao is the bean pod of the Cassia grandis tree. In this remedio we put the pulp of the bean pod in a glass jar along with sugar and rum. Today I have to go and add some cinnamon because we ran out. At this point Doña Goya made fun of me because I didn't buy enough cinnamon, but more than plenty rum. Well... oh well.

Doña Goya serves up the rum.
This concoction will set for 6 days, and then it is ready to serve. To use this stuff just warm a bit of milk up, pour in a little of the happy juice and eat a bit of the pulp. Sounds great.
Once the other remedio was complete, Doña Goya poured it into our giant glass vessel and it is ready to go! Tasty.

Llantén

Another weekend living it up in the barrio se acabó. I spent Saturday and Sunday washing clothes, sweeping my floor, making bracelets out of string with the kids, and saying “Whew, its hot.” That is just about all I did this weekend.
Friday I had an interesting adventure. The other day the guys and I went to a nearby hacienda and shoveled up the tierra in the cowpen, which as you might guess, was pure manure. Perfect abono organico. And when I say the guys and I shoveled it up, I mean I stood watch while they did the work because they weren’t going to let me shovel. So I have a huge mound of caca de vaca over at the garden and really want to get some more plants to sembrar. And what I REALLY want is some llantén, a dandelion type plant that has great medicinal value. I say this to Margarita, one of the ladies that cooks and cleans the JHC facilities.
“Vamanos!” she says.
“Donde vamos?” I venture.
“Vamos a buscar llantén! SAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUL!” She says
Saul is the resident landscaper, garden crew and sometimes he wears a shirt like Charlie Brown. Today he was weaing that shirt. Saul and Margarita talk a bit and Saul grabs his machete and I grab a box and we hit the streets.
We walk up and down the streets of Villa Soberana looking in the gardens, the curbside and the composts for llantén. Margarita goes up to a guy she knows, “Hay llantén?” No llantén here, but they do have juanislama (verbena) and albahaca (basil). Saul machetes up the verbena and machetes down some basil seeds. We add them to the box and the guy points to a house telling us they ALWAYS have llantén.
So we go walking to that house and “MIRA! ALI ALI! HAY LLANTEN!” And there was LOTS of llantén, huge patches of it. So we inquire within and the abuelita was so excited that we wanted to cut her llanten she was beaming. When we told her why we wanted the llantén she got even more excited. So Saul gets to work with the machete and giant clumps of llantén land in my box. As Margarita and I talk to the little lady Saul starts weeding the garden and the lady is very very excited about this. She was really hoping Saul could trim her rose bush, but Saul wants to use his other (sharper) machete for that job, and so he promises to return on Tuesday for that job.
So tomorrow Saul will return to trim her hedges and I am going to send over some jarabe natural for the cough she had. I would go with him, but tomorrow I have a date with Doña Goya to learn how to make jicaro wine and carao honey.

Zona Francas

If you were to drive from the CDCA through Managua, past the Huembes Mercado past the Universidad de CentralAmerica, past MetroCentro, just to the other side of Augusto C Sandino Airport, you would get to Las Mercedes. If you were to do this at a time of day when there was a shift change you would encounter swarms of people and a ton of buses. And if out of sheer interest you decide to stop and watch what happens next you would see these all of these people, mostly young girls, squeezing and hanging off the buses similar to a clown car but without the intended comedy. Las Mercedes is a Free Trade Zone.
If you were to drive from the CDCA in the exact opposite direction, on the way to Nueva Vida past Rancho de Pancho y no mas, you would come to an enormous slab of concrete. So huge, you can’t see where it ends. If you do this everyday as I do on my way to the clinic, you would see the ant sized men constructing a box on this foundation. This is the new Free Trade Zone, and this sweatshop will be the largest in Nicaragua for sure, and quite possibly Central America.

Now, if you were to walk from the CDCA office where I am right now, to the backyard you would come to a small building with a garden in front. The doors are open, the generator is in full swing, and you can hear the buzz of sewing machines. This is yet another Free Trade Zone. But this one is also a Fair Trade Zone and a worker owned cooperative known as COMMANUVI. The clothing manufactured in the backyard is made of organic cotton, soon to be grown by COPROEXNIC farmers cooperative and spun by the Genesis Cooperative (that is currently forming and building on further back in the backyard).

And thats a little bit of what it is like to be here.

Definitely not picking up what I put down

I will probably be updating a lot this week as Sarah is out of the country (as well as Emily) and I don’t have to fight for computer time. I don’t even have to fight for internet speed because hardly anyone is in the office these days. I am slowly working on getting all my ideas, recipes, and future goals together and into a manual so the Green Pharmacy can live on once I skip out of town.
Yesterday I was feeling particularly scholarly so I went to the back bookshelf in the Foundation’s house. The back bookshelf does not contain your everyday reads. The back bookshelf is full of revolutionary texts from Fonseca, Oscar Romero, Che to name a few as well as many books documenting the struggles of Nicaragua and Latin America. There are also Latin American fiction books on the back bookshelf in Spanish for when I want to make my head explode. So I peruse the back bookshelf, wondering if they had any E.F. Schumacher (they don’t) but they did have “The Revolutionary Writings of Father Camilo Torres” Okay, sounds interesting… who is this? Father Torres was first a priest, then a sociologist, then a guerrilla fighter in Colombia in the 1960s. I take the book home.
Shortly after dinner (which would mean it was about 6p) I sat down at the mesa with the book and my notebook. I begin to write down my thoughts on what I have read so far. Lots to do with urbanization, rural development and (my favorite) agrarian reform. However, sitting at the table at this time of night invites anyone from the neighborhood to come and distract me. Katherine walks by throwing the usual greeting my way. Then she stops, walks over and asks if I can help with her homework, which was just some English-Spanish translation.
It is a lot of fun to help with the homework, as it is good practice for me as well. So we are getting into the words, Katherine repeating them after me (and occasionally Alex in the background singing them as well.)
“Good morning” “Yoo moring” “Yooooo moooooring!”
“furniture store” “furnishure soar” “furrrrrrrrrnijurrrrrr shorr”
“Black berry” “black berrrrrrry” “black berry?”
Alex wants to know what a black berry is and Katherine informs him:

“It’s a cellular phone. There are tons of games, and the internet too. Everyone in her country has one.”
“Es la verdad, Alicia? Tiene un black berry?”
I laughed at Katherine’s idea of a black berry, explaining the Blackberry cell phone and the fruit as well. Our conversation quickly turned to the type of things people buy in the US and how expensive it is as well. Katherine got a kick out of pointing at things I had or was wearing and laughing about how much it costs in the US.
“Your shoes! How much were your shoes?!”
$40
“baaaaaaaahahahahahahahahah!”
“Your shirt! Your shirt!”
$20 (I was wearing my STL-Style "Hey Windy City... BLOW ME" shirt)
“WAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAH”
”And tell me, Alipali, why do all you Americans come down here and give away so many clothes? Always leaving clothes here for us! Then you go home and buy new clothes? Aliali, does nobody buy anything usada in your country?”
I explain to them that yes, there are used clothing stores and there are people who do buy from them. Then I try to explain garage sales and spring cleaning. Alex was so confused.
“You mean I could throw out this table in the front yard and someone would come and take it? Without paying me? Just gracias-adios!”
Yes.
“HUH?”
I tried to explain the whole “one mans garbage is another mans treasure” idea, but he really wasn’t having any of it.
“No way. Not here. You throw out something and no one is going to come pick it up because it is broken and ugly. Or else you wouldn’t be throwing it away! You people are crazy! You take peoples broken things!”However, something tells me that, if he were to get used to the idea, Alex would be a fantastic garage sale shopping partner.

I got skills.. they're multiplying.

I find it startling at times when I can actually impress a Nicaragüense. Its not that they are terribly hard to impress, but I often feel they see me as a gringa and therefore I simply have different skills. Like I can type very fast or I can speak English. I often have to remind myself that I am fluent (for the most part..) in a language and can often communicate efficiently in North America. But it is a really good feeling when common ground is found when I am dealing with a Nica, and on those grounds, I have knowledge.
Take for instance two Saturdays ago. The casita was preparing for Yadira’s rocking birthday party. Everyone was working like clockwork because, of course, they knew exactly what was going on and how do it. It was just me, the awkward gringa, walking circles trying to offer help. And quite obviously, it was most helpful when I just got out of the way, because seriously, I had no clue how to set up the caldron for the Cow Bone soup. But then I spotted little Jimmito doing something I was familiar with. He was sitting in Dona Yeny’s front room with a giant stack of corn. I could definitely shuck some corn.

So I approach little Jimmy who was surrounded by Dona Yeny, Big Jimmy and Deyring.
“Puedo ayudarte” I say to Jimmy
“Conoce el nombre para este?” Says Big Jimmy holding up a cob
“Maiz” I say
“Yay! Alicia sabe!” They cheer.
(This happens often. They forget that I study plants here and anytime they set veggies down in front of me they look at me with hopeful eyes. They really want to trip me up. They say “Do you know what THIS is?” And I try to hold back my pride and resist the urge to tell them all three names I know for that. I hold my tongue from saying
Allium sativum, garlic, ajo
Cucurbita pepo, pumpkin, ayote)
So when I passed the “Name this vegetable” test, they quickly moved aside so I could sit down and help Jimmito. Big Jimmy looks at me again.
“Sabes a hacerlo?”
Yes, I know how to do it. So I demonstrate how I can shuck corn and they look amazed. They wonder, do we have corn in the United States? Do we eat corn in my state? Oh, if they only knew.
Then Jimmito screams.
“Gusano! Gusano!”
He has found a worm in his cob and throws the cob at Deyring who ducks. The cob rolls right in front of me. I reach down to pick it up.
“ALICIA! NO! HAY UN GUSANO!”
I pick the gusano off of the cob and pretend to put it on Jimmito. The poor kid flips out and we all have a good laugh at his expense. Now, anytime anyone finds a worm, I get to take care of it. It is worth it, though, to feel like I can help just a little.

Neem!

Back when I thought I had scabies (that was a rough time for me) I started researching a natural treatment for la sarna (scabies). Scabies is a skin parasite, little tiny bugs that burrow in the skin, especially in between the fingers, on the wrist, back of knees and groin area. Evidently it gets to be a big problem here in Nicaragua during the invierno (which we are approaching right now) and the only treatment the clinic offers is a very harsh chemical soap. So a gentle sarna treatment is what we needed. Through several books, websites and conversations I came to the conclusion that a treatment of neem, tumeric and onion skin would be the perfect solution.
Neem (Azadirachta indica) trees are amazing, and at the center of several intellectual property rights disputes in India. The tree is indigenous to subtropical Asia and has been used for forever in various applications in India as almost every part of the tree can be used. The wood is soft and antimicrobial and therefore the branches are snapped off and en vez de toothbrushes. The leaves can be used as an organic insecticide, which is what I will be doing for the scabies treatment. The neem leaves are gentle enough to use on even the most sensitive skin as both a scabies treatment, mosquito repellant and general skin treatment. The fruit and seed of the tree are often pressed into the luxurious oil which is used in India as a hair beautification treatment.
So in my sarna treatment I am planning on making both a soap and a cream. The cream will go on the body and left to dry, then washed off with the soap. The soap will be made with a neem infused oil (when I made this the neem really infused the oil, and it smells of garlic butter), some neem oil, onion skin tea, and lye. The cream is to be made with crushed neem leaves, tumeric and glycerin (a by product from our biodiesel project!).
I am very excited about this neem treatment as neem is absolutely EVERYWHERE here. I am going to cosechar (harvest) some neem leaves and seeds today and start drying the seeds in my new solar dryer. When I leave the JHC I hope to have enough dried neem seeds to last them until next May!

P.S. I didn't have scabies after all. Just an allergic reaction. It cleared up, I'm fine now.

Nerd Alert!

I have never read so much in my life as I have here in Nicaragua. The foundation has an overflowing (and overwhelming) library with everything from Terry Pratchett to Carlos Fonseca to Barbara Kingsolver. Sarah and I have done some dorking out on our own and if I come back with crazy ideas it can only be because I have been under the influence of reading A LOT. Sarah left for the states today and I am very eager for her to return, if not for her company alone, but because she is bringing back three books I recently ordered. There is a link over to the side of this page of other books I have been eyeing, and people I think you should read too, if you have the time.
Here is a short list of what is making my head explode with ideas of sustainability, appropriate technologies and social/environmental justice.
Must reads that I have read:
*"Diet for a Small Planet" Frances Moore Lappé - really anything by FML, she is amazing
* "Unsettling of America" Wendell Berry - thick and a little religious but very good

Things I am looking forward to:
* "Campesino a campesino: Voices from Latin America's farmer to farmer movement for Sustainable Agriculture" Eric Holt-Gimenez
* "Planting the Future: Developing an Agriculture that Sustains land and community" Elizabeth Ann Bird

Some people you should check out:
* E.F. Schumacher
* Wendell Berry
* Frances Moore Lappé
* Micheal Pollan

And to round this out, a quote from Wendell Berry:
"On eroding, ecologically degraded, increasingly toxic landscapes, worked by failing or subsidy dependent farmers and by the cheap labor of migrants, we have erected the tottering tower of "agribusiness" which prospers and "feeds the world" (incompletely and temporarily) by undermining its own foundations."

whew.

SECADOR SOLAR

SECADOR SOLAR
Originally uploaded by apocalyse.

Here it is! The genius of the construction crew (and their absolute patience working with my caveman drawing of what I wanted) completed the secador solar! Tomorrow it will head to the clinic and we will start drying herbs.
The next project is going to be... a tincture/oil press!

Field Trip

Today we took a little (meaning very long) trip into the campo. The JHC has some land about 15km from the ocean. It was bought in the name of the Foundation for its petrified wood. Very cool place that Sarah and I hope to help make into an organic farm!
Wow, so pretty.

You should come visit our lava beds. I'm sure they are fun in the rainy season.

Only a little desolate...

Uhm, yeah. That will need to be fixed.

Woohoo

Flight City!

So I wanted to post and let any STL folks know that Flight City: St. Louis takes to the air is opening at the Missouri History Museum on June, 3, 2007. As an intern last year at the Missouri Historical Society I helped with this exhibit by listening to hours and hours of interviews with St. Louis aviation folk. The stories were always very very interesting as were the people and the artifacts. These people tell stories of flying planes without breaks, having to land in fields so the crops would slow them to a stop. One guy told an interesting tale of being one of the first control tower operaters, back before radar and communication systems. He seriously just had to pay attention to the sky and watch for an incoming plane! What!? We acquired the tools used to handmake airplanes, like they did back in the day. Seriously, very fascinating things. The exhibit runs June 3 - September 28 and Tuesdays are free. Hmmm Sept. 25 is a Tuesday...

Ojoche?

Aqui estoy! I know it has been a week since my last update – things here have been both slow and hectic. Monday started off with the guys beginning work on my solar dryer. They were pretty excited about the new project and took it very seriously. Tuesday was Labor Day and therefore, no one had to come to work! Sarah and I headed into Managua and went to the Huembes Mercado. I was looking for some herbs at the Mercado, specifically ojoche or the maya nut. It is a breadfruit type seed that can be milled into a flour for tortillas, roasted to taste like a bitter chocolate, boiled to a potato like consistency, brewed to be like coffee… the list goes on and on. The tree stays green and produces fruit even during the dry season and therefore has been used forever during times of famines. The first Nica I asked about ojoche was Rogelio, the construction crew leader. Rogelio pretty much knows everything there is to know. When I needed beeswax (cera de abeja) I simply enquired about it to Rogelio and by lunch time I had two giant chunks of beeswax in my hand. The man works miracles. So anyway, I decided to ask Rogelio about ojoche.

“Rogelio, conoce ojoche?”
“Ojoche? Ojoche, como no? Si yo conozco.”
“Oh, si? Porque yo quiero usar ojoche.”
“Quieres ojoche? Porque? La semilla, si?”
”Si, si. Puedo comprarla al mercadito?”
“Quieres comprar ojoche!? No no no no. Cosechala.”

Okay, so you can’t buy ojoche at the market according to Rogelio, you harvest it. Okay… that makes sense. Before we went to Huembes I asked Dona Mierta and Don Paulo about ojoche again.

“Conoce ojoche?”
“Ojoche! Claro! Como no!”
"Puedo comprarla al mercadito?”
”Ojoche? No no no no. Cosechala.”
“Claro.”
“Cuando era nina, mi madre cosechó ojoche en Julio y hizó tortillas. Mmmmm.”

Well, okay. Maybe I wasn’t going to find ojoche but I decided to look anyway. The Huembes Mercado is huge. Giant. And they sell everything there. EVERYTHING. The herbal section is simply magical. Even if you aren’t into herbal things, you would find something cool in the herb section. The smell, the booths, the people. In the herbal section you can buy anything from clove to chamomile to hibiscus to cinnamon. I love it there. Of course my enquiry about ojoche gave me blank stares and the exact same dialogue. Oh well. At least now I know where to get manzanilla (chamomile) and really beautiful leather bags…