A Walk on the Caribbean Side

Hey guys, I know it's been a while. Time is so strange here, like it works in a different realm. The days go by slow, but then I look at my calendar and BAMB - "Mayo" has arrived. Tomorrow I will be celebrating my one-year anniversary in country, and on August 1st I will be celebrating my one-year as an official volunteer. So whoever you are, whereever you are, or however you are, buy a drink and raise it for me, and then we'll be celebrating together.

How bout' a work update?: 1) In a few weeks, I'll be working with the local cooperative in town helping give agrobusiness charlas (lectures) to local farmers. 2) I have joined forces with a truly awesome environment volunteer, who lives a few kilometers up the highway, and we will be giving charlas to youth groups about recycling materials and using them to make new products (ex. jewerlry out of glass bottle caps and nail polish). 3) I am still teaching Entrepreneurship on a daily basis to the senior classes of 3 high schools, and the subjects are starting to get a little more complex. Wish me luck. 4) I am teaching English to a few groups (age range 8-50), and this proves to be a more promising venture than trying to teach whole classes at once. My props to the English volunteers, you guys are my heroes. 5) I realized that the community bank that the PCV before me started is still running, so that's good! I will be working with them a little more directly from here on out. 6) I am sleeping in my hammock for at least 30 minutes everyday; you should buy one, seriously. 7) I have killed 5 scorpions to date, and haven't been stung by one yet. Although I have been stung by 2 bees... Okay okay, enough with the boring stuff...

I present to you wonderful people, although the majority could possibly be living in my head, a re-cap of my vacation on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua...

In the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week), I set off with 2 travel buddies to explore the east coast at roughly 9:00 pm. There was some slight confusion about the bus we were taking due to a poorly-operating roman numeral system, but eventually we made it to El Rama at 4:00 am. After a 2 hour wait, we were on a small boat with about 20 others and their luggage to go to Bluefields, where we waited for another hour, and caught the final boat to our distination Pearl Lagoon (Applause). Our friend Nga greeted our grungy, oily-haired, sleep-deprived faces with a camera and butt-out hugs. At this point, it was around 11:30 am, and sleep was the only thing on our minds... well, and a bucket bath. We got both. During the night we met her boyfriend, who will be referred to as Cool Runnings from here on out, and some other guys in town. After dinner, we were all besties.
After a night of relaxing and gossiping about what girls gossip about, we woke up and decided that that day would be a beach day. And how could it not? Walking through rows of coconut trees, grass (not astroturf), and reggae music, we had entered an atmosphere entirely unlike what we had been accustomed to the last year. We were in paradise. It turns out there wasn't really a beach, but a hill with tiki huts serving seafood and chicken, and blue water below. But this water was different. This water was paradisiacal water. We were able to sit in the water, sipping on drinks and playing with the coast kids, for hours. You could honestly walk out half a kilometer and the water would only come to your waist. Eight hours later, at the sun's decent, we decided it was best to get walking; we'd be back.

The next day we caught a bus to a town called Rockey Point, and talked to some local farmers. This is an ag site, and walking around felt like walking through a beautiful tropical forest; fortunately, the mosquitos were few and far between. I drank coconut water straight from the source, ate the remains, and tried a variety of other tropical fruits fresh off the tree. After a few hours, we heard the bus horn calling us, and decided it was best to turn back. The dilemma - we were a 20-minute walk from the main road. "Looks like our 20-minute walk turned into a 2-hour walk," we chimed. But we were not deterred! And eventually after 45-minutes of Disney songs sung and 78 bottles of beer taken off the wall, we were picked up and our hitchhiking duties were fulfilled. When we got back, our local boy friends made us the traditional dish of RunDown (a scrumptious mixture of hot coconut milk, starchy veggies, and seafood. We had 3 types of fish, a crab, and a shrimp... the shrimp was for me). Good day.

On our 4th day, a Wednesday, we shopped for veggies so Nga's host-grandma could make a yummy lunch. We ran into some new volunteers, and all had savory fish and steamed vegetables together. It was a relaxing day, and we followed it up by going horseback riding in the Savanna, forest on one side, town on the other, wide open plain in between, for absolutely no money at all. Talk about your Caribbean hospitality, eh? There was one casuality that involved Nga falling into a swamp, and Cool Runnings jumping in after her, but I won't go into that.

Thursday was another beach day, and just as beautiful as the one prior. Aside from a complete stranger-man asking us to take him to our country, it was another blissful experience. That night we got all girlied up and went out with some friends for drinks and chair-dancing (a complicated affair which involves moving different limbs to the beat of music without actually getting up from your chair).

On our final day we "splurged." For sixteen dollars each, we rented a small panga boat and motored our butts an hour away to a set of islands called the Pearl Keys. We chose our island, one that you could walk the length of in under a minute, with only 6 coconut trees and gorgeous white sand, and settled there, a group of less than 10. As an unknown treat, the boat captain grabbed a pointy stick and a pair of goggles, dived into the ocean, and brought up a handful of lobster for us to share. And holy hell, Red Lobster doesn't have anything on this. About an hour later the boys went out fishing, while us girls were playing with starfish the size of our heads and glowing with happiness on our private island. A little while later we all had fried fish and sweet plantains, swallowed down with the national drink of rum and coke; the fact that it was warm didn't sway our delight. It was a near-perfect day.

The next morning we had to leave, not wanting to go in the slightest, and promising to be back next year to relive our experience in paradise.

Just to brag: In 7 days, I spent approximately $115 (Travel, Lodge, Food, Boat ride, Getting pretty, etc...), and it was worth every penny. Can you get that experience for that price anywhere else? I don't think so. Even the mosquitoes couldn't kill my spirit!

So if there's anything you've learned from this story, whether it be to get your ass to Nicaragua on the next plane, or to defend your favorite restaurant Red Lobster, I hope you at the very least enjoyed the tale. Love you all. Aleia.

Pictures of travel buddies, new friends, RunDown ingredients, and good times.

My Life is Awesome, But Not as Awesome as the Highway...

Can you hear that? That glorious sound… that mixture of screaming and laughing that invokes a variety of emotions deep in the pit of your… well, wherever it dwells, the point is that SCHOOL HAS BEGUN! While some of you readers might be groaning over the fact that you have been in school for the last few weeks, gracefully raising a certain hand extension at me, others might be more curious as to why I am so ecstatic, and thus resisting the urge to lift their middle finger (For those of you without a middle finger, I apologize. It was inconsiderate of me to make assumptions. Furthermore, might I suggest lifting the middle finger of your other hand? It’s just as effective). Due to the large amount of my personal work being conducted within the school walls, I have been counting the days, nay, the hours down to see my kiddies. I feel much more confident with my Spanish skills, and thus more competent in the classroom. Of course, the first day of class was actually a mandated fiesta…but that’s beside the point. On the 3rd day of class, it was straight-up, hard-core, knowledge-creating time (The hyphen is underestimated). The three communities I work in are all extremely unique, differing in classroom management to expectations in general. However, this year I hope to bring students from all three schools together, in an attempt to inspire imagination, increase insight, and ignite innovation at the Small Business Competition that I will be conducting. So cross your fingers and don’t spill the salt because this is my ultimate test. Updates will be included in future posts.

In my site, there is a giant construction process occurring, constituting of the seriously-needed repair of the highway. Workers are shredding boulders into pebbles, taking their prey from land above and sea below, in an effort to create suitable material to create a suitable highway. No, not suitable. This highway will be awesome. Other highways might erode upon hearing of the almighty awesomeness of this highway. Construction workers from all over Central America, nay, THE WORLD, will come to Nicaragua to revel at the beauty of the highway, wanting to walk, drive, sleep, and eat on only this highway. In thousands of years, when the sun has become a supernova, this highway will break off from the world, and continue to float in space because not even a giant-growing-about-to-explode-star could take away from the fantastic glory of this highway.

A really sweet second project that has arisen from the highway construction (unintentionally, but who cares?) is the creation of a dam/canal in the widest part of the river. The workers obtained permission from the mayor to take materials from the riverbed (not difficult during the dry season) in order to construct the highway. In an attempt to get permission, they also added that they will build a barrier to the river so that water would not flood habitants during the rainy season; by narrowing and deeperring?deepeffying?..uhm..oh! deepening the river, everybody wins. Or so I’m told. Pictures of these processes are above. Other pictures include my giant mangos, which I am still waiting to ripen... ok, they aren't that giant. Don't judge me. Also, the two banana trees in my backyard are making an impression; one is dying... please come back to life little guy!

Anyway...I’m off to explore. Hope you are having a wonderful day, and as always, smile. =)

Food, Candy, and Other Gift Ideas...

Alright all you care-package senders, after many a conversation with my fellow volunteer-mates in places including but not limited to late night medical stays, out of site hostel stays, 4 hour bus rides, and 2 hour phone conversations (thanks PC!), I have compiled a list of items that we groan, moan, and ache for, simply because it does not exist or is out of our price range in this country. If you want to send a package to a PCV in Nicaragua, follow this list and it will positively put a smile on that hippie you sent it to…
1. Peanut Butter (Don’t deny the magicalness that is PB and whatever)
2. Honey (Holy crap… it’s so good AND it’s a replacement for sugar when cooking)
3. Cooking Spices (Anything to get that fried taste out of our mouths)
4. Snacks (Get Creative. I like Stauffer’s Original Animal Crackers. Other Ideas include cheese-it’s, teddy grahams, candy that won’t melt, mixed nuts, granola bars, and Clif bars…hells yea)
5. Dried fruit (…. Sorry, I just drooled on my computer… I like dried mangos and craisins… *wink*)
6. Mac-n-Cheese (Yea, there’s a reason I’ve eaten this crap since I was a newborn… it’s frigen delicious)
7. Tea (Putting leaves in boiling water since the beginning of fire…)
8. Coffee… correction… good coffee (And if you want to gain crazy bonus points, send your volunteer a French press. I was lucky enough to have a RPCV visit a few weeks ago, and he brought me one, and now I’m going to put his name in my will. Thanks Greg!)
WE’RE TAKING A BREAK FROM FOOD NOW BECAUSE MY STOMACH IS GROWLING AND I THINK IT WOULD BE BEST TO MOVE ON FROM THIS TOPIC FOR HEALTH REASONS.
9. Cooking supplies (Dammit… I’m still on food. But seriously, whisks, ladels, wooden spoons, spatulas, vanilla extract, measuring cups, coffee mugs [sometimes I drink coffee from plastic cups, seriously], you name it and any volunteer would be happy to receive it)
10. School Supplies (Markers, pencils, pens, paper, etc… These things are easy enough to come by, but they get lost, stolen, borrowed indefinitely, and it adds up quick)
11. Books and Magazines (HOWEVER, 1 crossword puzzle book, 1 sudoku book, and/or 1 word search book is enough. I don’t need eleven…. What the hell am I gunna do with eleven word search books?)
12. Underwear, tanktops, flip flops, socks (This climate is brutal. And if the climate doesn’t destroy your crap, the bugs will. And if the bugs don’t destroy your crap, then a jagged piece of metal in the bus seat will. And if you are lucky enough to avoid scrap metal your whole service, then you will be so sick of your clothes that you will just rip them up yourselves)
13. Why is thirteen an unlucky number anyway?
14. Sheets and pillow cases, oh! And Towels!
15. CD’s or any music really and movies (Justin Beiber or Beaber or Beeber… sorry, Nicaragua made me hate your music)
16. Starbucks Instant Coffee (This does in fact deserve a number of its own)
17. Plastic bags (Ziplock, all sizes… throw in some Tupperware while you’re at it)
18. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures (We miss you. We love you. We want to see your pretty face)
19. Where my females at? Tampons (Can I say that on this blog? Well I did. Sorry family members who think I am still a small infant child, and all the men who read this, but this is a VITALLY important part of life and they just don’t have these, shall we say, utensils? in this country. In fact, if you are sending a care package to a female volunteer, just throw a pack in for good measure)

Just in case there are some of you care-package senders out there who think that the above list is bogus and that you would much rather send a gift from the heart or some other muscle, here is a list of What NOT to send… ever:
1. Pet cactus (I don’t even… I don’t even know)
2. Sunscreen, medicine, floss, bug spray (Don’t get me wrong, I love this stuff, but we get it for free from the PC. So if you want to send stuff along the safe and hygienic line, send stuff like tooth paste, deodorant, toothbrushes, and nail polish remover, just as some ideas)
3. Money, electronics, jewelry (Unless you want to see how cool it feels when someone jacks your stuff)
4. Eleven Sudoku/cross word puzzle/word search books (See number 11 above… p.s. that number 11 thing was totally on accident. Ha!)

You’re smart people, you know how to take ideas and roll with them, be creative, but don’t be dumb. If you know a PCV or just want to send a package to gain awesome status (there is an awesome scale by the way, in case you didn’t know), send it to the address on this blog (one of the first posts, labeled “address”) and hopefully it will get to your PCV within 2 to 6 weeks. I hope this information has been as helpful as it has been entertaining. Peace. Aleia.

(Pics:My house, shower area, washing board/dishwashing center, backyard, and a giant yuca which I fried and tastes just like a french fry...mmmm. I still can't really cook, dammit.)

You’re Fatter and Whiter...

I love being in a country where honesty flourishes like the butterflies. I recently took a vacation to Arizona to see my family for Christmas and New Years, and as predicted, I ate everything that was within reach. A warning to the wise, food poisoning is more probable when eating a variety of different foods at large quantity. I think you can imagine what happened. However, it appears that I, the fragile flower, can and will survive any storm. So bring it on life, cuz I’m gunna rock you like a hurricane.
Two weeks later, I got back to Nicaragua, and the first thing I thought was, “F**k it’s hot.” I mean, it was 30 degrees in AZ, THIRTY! Granted I am closer to the equator, and okay... it wasn’t too terribly caliente, but the shock factor was enough to confuse the hell out of my already delicate system. I walked with my 2 backpacks and one duffel suitcase from the airport to the highway, a staggering 50 feet, and waved my hand for a bus. This is the Nica signal for “stop, here I am, pick me up:” Put your right arm straight out in front of you, parallel to the ground (suck on that high school math class, I remember what parallel is, oh and perpendicular too… what’s up!). Lift your arm up so your elbow is near your head, keeping it erect (wink), with your hand extended. Next, wing your arm down to your right leg. Repeat over and over until bus, taxi, truck, mototaxi, tricycle, etc stops. For emergencies, do the arm-flap rapidly, like you’re trying to fly away (Note: Do NOT use 2 arms, you’ll look like a freak). This is what happened:
Bus 1: Finger shake, aka, “No no no little miss gringa.” –DAMN-
Bus 2: Not going to where I want... DAMN
Bus 3: UnFO…. No frigen way am I getting on that thing.
Bus 4: Success!!!
The bus ride was easy enough. I drove for 2 hours and 15 minutes, switched buses, waited for 20 minutes, and finished my journey another 45 minutes until I got to my site.
That night I visited my old host family. I was as content as one could be after leaving a life full of hot showers and Italian food restaurants. And that’s when it happened, when I realized what I had come back to. My host sister announces, “Look, she came back fatter and whiter.” Now, if you ever visit Nicaragua, you must realize beforehand that this is not an insult. Life here is much more black and white. Short or tall. Nice or mean. Bone-ass skinny or Fatty Mcfatfat. I am in the “gordita es bonita” category, and I’m pretty content. I responded, “Yea. I ate a lot there.” =)
So, what’s the moral of the story?  Don’t get food poisoning? The Scorpions is one of the most rockin’ awesomest bands ever!? Curvy is scurvy? How the frick should I know? This isn’t a story, this is my life. I’m signing out, reminding everyone who reads this to smile, laugh, and karate-chop everything that life throws at you. Peace! ~Aleia~
(Pics: Adriana my neighbor helping me paint my mural in my house, me in my artistic frenzy, fun at home with my family and friends, and a toucan made out of a tire which was one of the winning products at the National Business Competition of 2010)