July 22

SO much has happened since my last entry! And this entry will need to be short as well. Tomorrow I set sail for the states. I am so sad to be leaving this beautiful country and my Nica family, but I am also very excited to see my family at home.
July 19th was a really intersting time here in our world. It was the 28th anniversary of the Revolution. So we all gathered up and went into Managua for the big event at the Plaza de Fe. It was a sea of black and red.

We were standing, no joke, about 50 ft from Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez. Then we found out the other two guys up there were the presidents of Honduras and Panama! Crazy!
The last few days have been fun. We have had a few parties in my honor (always lots of fun) and lots of pictures. Tomorrow I land in DC, the next day I go to STL, and then Wednesday I will be in Baltimore to start a family vacation.
I will try to keep updating as much as I can. Of course Sarah is still here, so the adventure continues.

The day in between...

So yesterday was Día de Alegria and tomorrow is the Día de la Revolución. Yesterday was the day that Somoza resigned and fled the country. And tomorrow is the day the Sandinistas took over. So tomorrow is a national holiday, no work and lots of fiestas. This morning Pablito, Sarita and I went over to the clinic and got a lot taken care of. Pablito and Sarah helped out in the pharmacy.

The Dr. Perez, the bone doctor, comes in on Wednesday mornings and Daniela always needs lots of help. So Sarita and Pablito were the back up.

I was busy making sure everything was getting put together in the green pharmacy and the garden for my grand departure. There is some concern about the garden when I leave, and because now is the time to grow things, the Foundation wanted me to make sure the garden was full of medicinal plants. (Right now it is about 3/4 full). So I went to Doña Conchita, my medicina verde guru. Doña Conchita and I went out to the garden to look at some of the weed groups I left growing the last time I weeded in hopes that something would be useful. As we walked around she would point and say "Riñones" "Corazon" "Sangre" Everything had medicinal properties! I quickly began transplanting my "weeds" into manicured rows and made sure to write down the names as well. Now the garden is just about completely full and Doña Conchita will take care of the rest on Sunday.

Una semana mas...

I am sure this is a theme that will be repeated a lot this last week that I am in Nicaragua... I leave next Monday! I am working really hard this week to get everything done (at work and at play) before I take off. I have already had to stop making tinctures and soap, as they take two weeks to a month to prepare. I have finished writing the Green Pharmacy Manual (a whopping 30 pages!) and am working on translating it to Spanish.

Barley soap

Achiote soap
This past weekend we (Sarah and I) went with Paul (known as Pablito) and Steve (two new volunteers, Emily, Josue, and Yader up to Pochomíl for a little beach time. It rained, but it was still very nice. On the way down Steve and Pablito got a genuine Nica bus ride experience as the bus was PACKED with people and horribly long. But the day was full of relaxing and sipping on rum and playing cards.
Pablito the card trickster
Sunday I came into work to get some progress made on my manual (nerd, I know). Pablito is a big Red Hot Chili Pepper fan as well I found out, and was kind enough to lend me Stadium Arcadium for the weekend. Sarah was also feeling kind and lent me her CD player. This all adds up to me listening to the new album (that I so stubbornly refused to buy) alllll day on Sunday. Deyring was protesting my hermitude by blasting reggaeton in the next room, but nothing could come between me and RHCP.
Unfortunately my CD listening days are over as the new schedule for electricity cuts was announced this morning. All week we will be without power from 5p-10p. That is really frustrating, because it definitely means a lot of downtime at the venta. Or hanging out in the cab of the big truck listening to Calle 13 with Erving...

Friday the 13th

THis week went by incredibly too fast. The group of engineer's from Cal Poly got the job complete at the clinic on Wednesday and then left on Thursday. There are two new longer-term volunteers here, Steve and Paul. Other than that, the days are going by fast!
This weekend we are going to the beach once again. Next week is my last week here in Nicaragua and it is full of fun. Thursday is Revolution Day, Friday is my despidia (going away party)with the trabajadors and Saturday is my despidia with JHC.
AND THEN I LEAVE! It has gone by so quickly!

Quinceañera

Another weekend in the barrio down, Sarah and I have become the MASTERS of boredom. This weekend wasn't too too bad, but I was busy cleaning, packing and doing laundry. On Saturday Sarah and I went in to Managua and bought the final items I will be taking home from Huembes Mercado. When we got back around 3p the barrio was all a flustered as Katherine was getting ready to attend a quinceañera (as a Dama, no less.) Recently, I have decided to take my camera around with me and snap every possible photo available and this was the perfect time to start going picture crazy. The kids know how to work my camera as well, so I really like handing it over to them and letting them take whatever pictures they want. (This is all possible thanks to Dan, who got me a 2gb memory card which seems to be limitless in my camera).
The camera first went to Deyring, who arranged Katherine in various poses.


In the midst of the fiesta preparations, a group of guys selling candied apples walked by and the chevalos went crazy. So they all got a candied apple and were so happy.
Deyring had to get back to making tortillas, so she handed the camera back to me and the kids posed with their apples.

Everyone shared theirs because they couldn't possibly eat an entire candied apple. Everyone, that is, except Lineth.

Katherine was ready pretty early it seemed and was left to wait on her mom Yadira, pops Tio Jimmy, and Doña Yeny. It was now Dianis turn with the camera. Even though she has a hard time getting the picture she wanted, they sometimes turn out pretty and kinda arty.

Finally Yadira was ready, and after yelling at Katherine for sitting down in her dress they posed for a picture together. (I suggested this because I would want a picture of my momma and me looking spiffy to commemorate the occassion.)

Then it was Jimmito's turn with the camera and he decided to shoot everything but Katherine (who is his sister). And then he decided to shoot pictures of only Katherine as she slouched in the chair again.


By the time everyone was ready to leave we were all tired of taking pictures. But you can imagine, they all looked really great in their best clothes and full makeup.
Later I was sitting down to dinner when Deyring ran up talking a mile a minute. Evidently Carlos Mejía Godoy, a popular Nicaraguense singer (and Sandinista) was giving a free concert in the Plaza of Ciudad Sandino. We all ate our dinners quickly (even faster than usual) and ran (well, walked rather quickly) to the Plaza. Sure enough, there he was singing and dancing and yelling "VIVA CIUDAD SANDINO! VIVA NICARAGUA!" It was pretty awesome to sing Nicaragua, Nicaraguita with him and most of Ciudad Sandino.

Darth vs. Papito

Okay, this might be a stretch but if you understand this, it is hilarious! It is about the power outages in Nicaragua. And the guy battling Darth Vader looks just like Papito! And the street looks like my street!

The Fourth: Nica Style

Last night we had a little Fourth of July here in Nicaragua. At the foundation we had a dinner of hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips and brownies. Beer was flowing as well. After dinner we enjoyed fire works in a different way. We did have some sparklers and a few Roman candles, but the main attraction was... FIRE JUGGLING. Paul is a juggler (and payaso) at heart, and has been working with some kids up in his vecino on the skill of fire juggling. They have had a few shows and are really proud of their work. Last night was the first time I have made it to a show.



When we returned back to the barrio everyone asked why we had a party. Talking about the United States brought on the topic of our government, and then the war on Iraq. It was really interesting to hear Alex talk about this, seeing how he never really watches the News and occassionally reads the paper. But he knew a lot and had a lot of opinions. I was especially proud of the fact that I understood!

HOME!

We have made it back to Ciudad Sandino and have launched right into a new delegation and lots of work. Costa Rica served its purpose well. My passport has a brand new stamp in it allowing me to stay in Nicaragua for 90 more days. Too bad I can only stay for 20. The bus ride was not too bad and got us there in record time.
Costa Rica reminded us how much we love Nicaragua and our volunteerships in Managua. We stayed in an international hostel (a really nice place in my books) in San José called Hostel Pangea. The place had a nice pool, an upstairs bar and resturant (with good CHEAP food), free internet and laundry service.
The hostel allowed us to meet lots of gringo travelers. It was really funny how quickly people become "experts" on another country - myself included. And it was also strange to see how our viewpoint has changed since moving to Nicaragua. San José is a nice city, although many would say differently.

We were walking around San José gushing about how safe and secure we felt. We (two American girls) could walk around at night and not feel the least bit threatened. Then we would talk to other travelers and they would almost die knowing that we were out and about! We tried to explain how it was in Nicaragua, but I am sure we came off as a broken record. "In Nicaragua..." whoops. To save money we stayed in a dorm style room that the hostel kept to capacity. At all times all 6 beds were occupied. It was a great way to meet people and suggest travel itineraries in Nicaragua! We definitely convinced two people to come to Nicaragua with us. If I didn't know any better, I would hope for some commission from the Nicaragua Tourism Office.
The Costa Rica trip and fellow travelers also reminded us how much we appreciate traveling together. Whenever we go to a city we like to take it in casually. In other words, we are lazy. But in San José it was clear that with our newfound buddies, we would go around and see things. Which was also awesome because I got to see a museum! We went to the Museo de Jade and saw BEAUTIFUL pre-columbian artifacts.
So all in all, I am glad I got out to another country (even though i have been before...) and am legally back in Nicaragua. My last three weeks are going to go by ridicully fast. Next week is my last full week of work as July 19th is Nica's Independence Day (speaking of... Happy 4th!)