Hello all! I just got done lunching on a
challa (squash-like substance, pronounced “chai-ya!”) with egg and cheese
cooked inside, a salad of chopped up cabbage, onions, and tomatoes with fresh
squeezed lime juice (remind me to use lime juice on everything, it’s delicious)
and of course, a side of rice and beans. Greetings five months into my site.
Some things are different -we’ve had a few dog births, as well as a few deaths-
while others remain the same, I’ve still got a small child army at my command
if I choose to take over San Fernando.
On a global update: The Schafer family
has landed, conquered, and returned to their nesting grounds. July was the
first month I was officially able to take vacation, so of course, my wonderful
family came down July 20 to spend a few weeks with me. Dean was able to come
from Turkey since he had summer vacation from school, so I got to see my big
brother for the since we went out to Istanbul to visit him a year ago, the
timing worked out perfectly. It really
meant the world to me that my whole family was coming down to visit, so I
obsessively investigated, inquired, and reserved a solid two weeks of “planned
fun” (shout-out to Caroline Deck with that one) for them. If anyone would like
to see the itinerary of the trip, I would be glad to show them the “Folder of
Fun” in which I kept all the reservation and excursion information. (True
Story.) All of the planning paid off! Besides our car breaking down on the
highway, no one besides me speaking Spanish, and an upset tummy or two,
everything went fantastically.
For a country so small
(geographically it’s the size of New York and has about 5 million people) there
is so much to see. The clan got the full glimpse of that when they came down, I
was determined to show them as much of this country as I could. As much as I
would have loved to see my tall brothers and dad squeezing their bodies into
the conglomerate mass that is the Nicaraguan bus system, I decided the best
choice would be the Schafer-rent-a-car option. I highly recommend renting your
own vehicle (with four wheel drive, aka “cuatro por cuatro”) if you want to
make your own schedule and conquer the most remote beauties- such as the
Maderas side of Ometepe, or make the horrible decision to take the “carretera
vieja” to Leon. We were able to explore all aspects of the country, such as the
touristy Granada, but then hopping on a ferry to the twin-peaked volcanic
island Ometepe. My family being the adventurous bunch that they are did
kayaking, natural reserves, but saved the last day for a hike up the Volcano
Maderas, the volcano that is permanently shrouded in a cloud forest. ) We
visited the city of Leon, an amazing city with it’s university atmosphere and
as historical significance. Leon also has an active volcano, Cerro Negro, that
you can hike up, them skyrocket down in a blaze of fire and glory. I like the
test the limits of the people that say they love me, so I signed us up. They
passed the test. Bringing them to San Fernando was a change from the well-
beaten trail we had been tacking, my family went from visiting well known
tourist spots to becoming the tourist attraction of the town. My town was
amazed at these white giants parading through the streets, and I’ve never been
been asked more in my little “Porque su pelo no es crespo” (“why isn’t you’re
hair curly?”) and “como es tan chaparral?” (“how are you so short?”). I brought
my family in my English class, they even became the subject matter. I am proud
to say that a few words were exchanged between my students and my family, look
at me, bridging the language gap! It was amazing having my family here at my
new home. Now I know, that wherever they are, they will not longer picture
their daughter/sister in some foreign, savage wasteland, but instead can see me
where I actually am- in a good ol’ coffee farm town, surrounded by sweet kids
with muddy clothes, mountain woman with gold and silver plated teeth, and me,
handwashing my clothes in a water pila I just threw a cockroach out of, in my room with my mosquito net with a poncho
over it to act as a second roof cause my roof leaks….See Mom and Dad? It’s not
so bad.
So when my family left after two
glorious weeks, I underwent a minor depression. I went into fetal position
without my mother, lost and unsure of what to do, so I bought a guitar. I kept
my business local and went with a man in Ocotal (the capital of Nueva Segovia)
that custom builds guitars, and enlisted his services for a Nicaraguan
handcrafted guitar… and I am pleased. I took lessons for three months before
leavings for PC, so I picked up the four chords I’d learned before leaving, and
man Lynrd Skynrrd’s “Free Bird” never sounded so good. I’ve also started
practicing with a nun at the church, and she encourages me to listen to
practice with songs that I know the chords for. I don’t think I’ll tell her that
the only song I have the chords for that I also have on my Itunes is Tom
Petty’s “Last Dance with Mary Jane.”
I signed up for a 25 k this February on
the island of Ometepe, which involved the racers scaling one of the volcanoes
La Concepcion or Maderas. After hiking Maderas (the “less tall” of the two
volcanoes, which took us 4 hours up and 3.5 hours to get back down), I realized
that I need to be getting myself in gear. San Fernando has some beauitul
mountain trails I like to run, as well as a soccer/baseball field if I don’t
feel like scaling mountains that day. One little problem, however, is that when
a run in the stadium, there is a little boy that looks out for me, and when he
sees me out there running, he sneaks up on me and smacks my butt. Hard. Every
time this happens, this fit of rage comes over me and I was to chase him and
snack him back, only I can’t because this boy is mentally handicapped.
Although, I’ve still come close. Maybe he’s just trying to motivate me to pick
up the pace a little.
I took a trip to the Atlantic Coast last
week to be in Corn Islands for the Crab Soup Festival. This is the festival
that celebrates the emancipation of slavery in the Carribean, I believe there
were 99 slaves out on the Atlantic Coast when this emancipation happened. It is
the crab soup festival because when the slaves were emancipated, everyone
wanted to have a feast and cooked a giant soup of whatever was available, which
was crab. To get out to the Corn Islands (there are two, Big Corn and Little
Corn), one can take a 5 hour bus from Managua to El Rama, then take a lancha
for a few hours to Bluefields, a town on the coast, then from Bluefields one
takes a boat out into the Caribbean for 5 hours and they arrive on paradise.
Or, one can take a one hour flight from Managua to arrive at paradise much more
quickly. Boating is definitely more hardcoare. The Atlantic Coast is a
neglected part of Nicaragua in the minds of many people, and the majority of
PCV and locals do not make it over there, which makes sense because it is in
its own world. The locals there speak Creole, which is like English, only
cooler and sometimes I couldn’t understand. (Ex.”We are coming in Creole” is
“We be reachin”). There is seafood galore, Renee, the PCV from Bluefrields, has
warned us that “the only thing not more expensive on Corn Islands is the
seafood.” One can get a two-tailed lobster dinner for $10 and some of the
freshest, most delicious fish in the world. Even between the two islands, there
are different feels to both. Big Corn Island, although caters to tourists,
still has a very strong indigenous presence. Little Corn Island is only 3 km
around, has no cars and mainly caters to the most determined travellers that
have managed to make it out there. There is snorkeling and diving (if you are
PADI or SSI certified and you don’t have your card, they can look you up, but
bring your certification!) in extravagantly colored coral reefs. I’m not sure
if I ran into some fire coral or something when I was snorkeling, but I now
have a darker spot on my pinkie-knuckle on my left hand. Can anyone tell me
what weird things there are in the ocean that stain your hands? (Note to
audience: Nicaragua does NOT do wonderfuls for you skin. The “dewy” look I’ve
got going on it actually just grease. Don’t even get me started on After a glorious trip with good friends (and
now we’ve got some new ones), I am safely home, tucked into the mountains of
Nicaragua. Corn Islands was beautiful and the crab soup was delicious, but I
thank God that I went last week and am not there right now, I’m not sure those
little islands would be very fun in an earthquake-induced tsunami.
Thanks for you time and participation,
this is a thank you all that have been part of my life these past few months
and been helping me with my trials and tribulations of living in and finding my
place as a community health worker (and many other roles) in Nicaragua. I love
sharing my experiences in Nicaragua with you, so keep up the good work of
telling me what’s going on! Is anyone getting married? Are you having a baby?
Did he finally get arrested? Rutherfordton got a real shopping mall?!?! Wait,
is there an election coming up?
<3 Helen
No comments:
Post a Comment