We have immigrated"

After a long day on a bus, with only an hour stop at Peñas Blancas for the frontera stuff, we are finally in a remarkably nice hostel. So far I am impressed, although at first i was ready to kill Hostel Pangea for moving locations and not providing directions to the new place. We finally did find it, and the coffee is free , the internet is free and we can make one 10 minute phone call each day we are here! In our dorm style room there are three other travelers. Summer is here from Washington for a few weeks, Chip is here and then he is going to San Juan swl Sur for a few months. More later!

And we're off!

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Tomorrow we set sail for Costa Rica. We take off mediadia (noon) and hopefully will be in our lovely hostel before medianoche (midnight). If all goes as planned, and the border isn't too long of a wait, we will be there by 8p. Our hostel is cheap, but evidently the famous San José party hostel, so that will be interesting. I am very excited about the number of museums San José has, including two natural history museums! There is also a Jade Museum, which could be very very pretty.
San José (and Costa Rica in general) is very different from anywhere in Nicaragua. I am kinda feeling guilty that I am looking forward to a city that might be a little bit more like home.
Is that a tall building? What?

CA-4?

So back in March I renewed my Nica visa and got 100 days more. The other night I realized these 100 days would not get me to July 23 which is when I leave the country. So I need to leave the country before I leave for good. SO I had it all planned out (okay not ALL planned out, but I had a good idea) of taking a bus up to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. From there I would go west to the Maya ruins of Copán. From Copán I would continue west into Guatemala where I would catch another bus back to Managua (hitting El Salvador on the way). BUT THEN I find the hitch to my plan. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras are a part of the CA-4 Border Agreement (or something like that). Meaning that you can travel freely among the 4 countries (yippee!) but dropping into the country will not renew your visa. Crap! So it looks like I either go ALL THE WAY UP to Belize or Mexico, or spend some time in Costa Rica (where I have already been). So... what would you do?

La Problemita

"Respeto a Nicaragua y a la lucha sandinista..." -Calle 13

I am going to blame my recent lack of blog entries on the problemita Nicaragua experienced last week where a fiber cable was between Venezuela was cut and our internet went out. If that is really why the internet went out, I have no clue. That was the rumor. I would believe that we get internet directly from Venezuela seeing how we get most of our services directly from Chavez.
So anyway, internet is back! Woo! And the power is still going out daily. But the water is doing a good job staying on. The other night the power was being just ridiculous. It was Friday night and we were all hanging out between Doña Yeny (which is actually Doña Jenny) and the venta. The power went out. Out come the candles and we go on, no problem. Ten minutes later the power returns. We blow out the candles. Five minutes later the power is gone again. “Grrrr,” says Deyring “Marcela y Virgil estabamos hablando sobre Jessica y David esta en el hospitalito!” She was watching Clase 406, our favorite telenovela. Dianis quickly lit another candle.
At this point I began handing out the wind-up flashlights my parents and Sarah’s parents sent out with Sarah in May. Sarah and I wrote the kids name on each flashlight so there were no disputes. The chevalos went CRAZY. They love using the flashlights Sarah and I have and now that they have their own, which they carried around with pride. The parents came over one by one and thanked us for the great flashlights.
The power continued to go off and on (about 5 times more) and the flashlights were charged and ready to go each time. Now, if I only had a wind up CD player so I can listen to Calle 13 allllll the time.

Weekend Update

San Juan del Sur turned out to be everything a hopping beach party town should be. We stayed up late in the night dancing dancing and the next morning we were back on the beach. Returning to Ciudad Sandino was a bit tough as we had to take buses to buses to buses to buses. We were so exhausted and I immediately collapsed into a deep slumber.
Since then life has returned to normal. We are experiencing daily power outages and limited water. And that has become normal.
I am entering into my last month here in Nicaragua and approaching it with mixed feelings. I am really excited to see my family and be close to everyone I love again. My parents have moved out of my childhood home and started a really cool adventure in alpalca ranching, and I am excited to see how that is. My sister and brother-in-law have returned to Saint Louis and have a new house (with a room for me!). I have decided to return to Saint Louis as well, hopefully working in community/urban gardening or education in some capacity. I am, however, sad to be leaving Nicaragua. I know that I will be back at some point (hopefully sooner than later). I have grown to love the Nica lifestyle and am scared to return to the hustle and bustle of the US. I have friends and a family here, and I will miss them as well.
But the time is not yet here for me to say goodbye. I realized last night that I need one more Visa renewal before my departure July 23. I could just go to the immigration office and pay $11, or I could venture outside of Nicaragua and see some more of Central America. Within the next two weeks I plan to go up to Honduras and see some Mayan ruinas, slide over to Guatemala and then come back down through El Salvador. At least, that is what I hope to do.

Hotel Beach House Fun!

This weekend Sarah and I are breaking free from the barrio and headed south to the very popular San Juan Del Sur. This weekend begins the weeklong fiesta patronales (patron saint parties!) for San Juan so hopefully it will be action packed. I hope the sun at least comes out for the festivities.

Cuchillo?

Last night at dinner (I had gallo pinto, a tomato, and beef) I looked up to see Alex staring at me with the most bewildered look on his face. This is normal as Alex thinks I do and say the most ridiculous things at times... As I paused to examine what it was I was doing that would confuse Alex so much, he just started laughing. "Cuchillo! Como usa el cuchillo!?" I realized that Alex was so confused because I was using my knife to cut the meat. "No, no no Alipali. In Nicaragua, you just bite it off!" Claro.
After dinner I introduced the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bella Cruz. Deyring hated it immediately calling it feo and going to turn it off when Alex yells "It's Alipali's music! leave it on! She listens to your reggaeton crap!" Jimmito liked it because he could play air guitar to it. Erving was also a fan because he could gyrate his hips to it. Everth was into it, but thought every song sounded the same because it had the same beat. We did yoga to the sounds of One Hot Minute and afterwards I relaxed to Anthony while one of the construction workers chatted with Alex.

Agua Negra

We returned to Bella Cruz last night to a strange sight. The entire street was being excavated by a work crew of about 20 guys.

Ciudad Sandino does not have a working sewage system. How this works, I honestly have no clue. My house has a flushing toilet, but whenever I do flush it (which can only happen when there is water) I notice my shower gurgles. ANYWAY, the European Union (I believe) is funding a project to install pipes in Ciudad Sandino. However, the first pipes they put in were too small and burst. Therefore they are back to take those pipes out and put new pipes in. This is all done by manual labor.
Here is Sarah, Maria and Jimmito in front of the holes.

P.S. Happy Birthday Matt Corrado! And Congrats Ellen and Kevin!

Six weeks left! Gah!

Yesterday Bucknell's three week class left Nicaragua to head back to the States. Today we all cleaned and organized and got together everything that was left behind because a new delegation comes in today. Actually, they should arrive at any moment. It was kinda fun cleaning out the dorm after Bucknell, I imagine it was a lot like preparing cabins for summer camp. JHC always encourages the delegations to leave behind anything for donations. This Bucknell group did exactly that. They left EVERYTHING (including calzones sucios) and as poor volunteers, we get first pick. Now, we also know that anything we don't take gets donated to the community, so we usually keep our take small. But all of my shirts have practically fallen apart (or are so covered in soap scum...) that I went ahead and picked up three brand new vneck shirts and some Asics. Like Christmas.
In other news, the amazing Rogelio Construction Team finished my oil/tincture press the other day. I am still working on sewing up some organic cotton bags to go on the inside, but let me tell you, it is BEAUTIFUL!
Oil/Tincture Press:

Curtis from Wind River Herbs (where I interned for the summer of 2004) sent me picks of the press he used and we modeled it off of that. This press is sweeeeeeeeet.
The rains have come and that means my garden is HAPPY. And so am i because I don't have to stress about regaring the plants when there is no water in Nueva Vida!
Aloe Vera

Cuban Oregano

Basil

Beautiful!

ouch

So, I have made it through 5 months without malaria or dengue fever. But now that it is winter, this will be a challenge. I am going to have cover myself in bug spray 24/7 because the mosquitoes are ferocious! I am getting bit through my clothing. They are swarming! And what is even worse are the flies! Gah!

Contrast

The good thing about delegations coming through and staying with the JHC is that Sarah and I get to go along on their adventures. Yesterday the delegation had a cita with Ambassador Trivelli, the US Ambassador here in Nicaragua. Seeing how I never want to have to go to the US Embassy on official business, I thought this would be a good chance to check it out. As you might expect, the US Embassy is a hassle. We gave them our passports, were screened and checked and led down a corridor and into a room. Trivelli would be joining us shortly. Bucknell had aleady planned questions and whatnot so Sarah, Emily and I sat in the back to observe. Once Trivelli came in (you stand when an Ambassador enters the room) the show went downhill. I imagine both sides (because somehow there were sides) left the meeting feeling proud to stand for what they believed in and frustrated with the other group. I think there were some really good questions asked of Ambassador Trivelli (like what does he think about the Ortega-Chavez relationship) and some really off questions as well. I think the meeting could have been a little more productive if the respective guards would have been let down a little.
TODAY we took a glorious trip to the city dump. En serio. Managua's dump is ridiculously huge and I was shocked to find out that there are 1500 people living in the dump, often in the "green areas" surounding the dump. We heard heartbreaking stories of sleeping babies being crushed by the dump trucks while their mothers are scavenging for food. We spoke to the boys of Los Quinchos about their struggle with street life and glue sniffing. It was seriously absolutely heart breaking.

That went fast...

This weekend was pretty good but went by really fast. Friday night was tranquilo, I led the barrio kids in a yoga session and I think they are hooked. I have a standing date every night at 7:30p with Jimmito, Deyring, Diani, Everth, and Erving to do yoga. Saturday Sarah and I got into Managua early and bummed around until about 4p. Then we headed over to Emily's house to get ready to go see SEAN PAUL. Here we are leaving the casita on our way to the concert!

Even though Sean Paul didn't appear until 10p and the sound was horrible, I had a really good time. We bought cheap cheap tickets so we were in the very back but when the fence came tumbling down I ran to the front of the crowd. So the last part of the concert I could see and hear really well. It was a lot of fun to go out and dance like mad!
Sunday we (Sarah, Emily and I) headed up to Paul and Becca's house for a relaxing afternoon in the campo. We played with their new puppy and talked. Now that the rainy season has started, it is absolutely beautiful in the hills of Ciudad Sandino.
Today we are going to the US Embassy to meet Ambassador Trivelli. That should be interesting...

Estoy emocionada

Tomorrow night Sarah and I are going to go see Sean Paul in concert.
Woot!