Their recent letter to me four months after asking for a pro deal discount, which is still possible on their website:

Dear Matthew Lyttle, Thank you for your interest in the Chaco Pro Deal program. Unfortunately we cannot extend special pricing to you at this time. Retailers are our livelihood, so we limit the program to select outdoor industry professionals and employees of Chaco retailers. A list of retail partners can be found on http://www.chaco.com/.

Thank you for your understanding. We wish you the best with your outdoor endeavors.

Yours truly,

The Chaco Team

And, my response:

Dear Chaco Team,

Thank you for responding to my request, albeit 4 months later. I am disappointed to hear Chaco no longer feels that Peace Corps volunteers are a valued group of customers and, more importantly, promoters. The 8000+ Peace Corps volunteers wear your products all over the world and offer invaluable exposure in otherwise impenetrable markets. In fact, the main reason I am looking to purchase a pair of Chaco sandals is the ardent praise I hear from my fellow volunteers.

Many of your outdoor gear competitors including Marmot, The North Face, Keen, Merrell, and Teva recognize the value of Peace Corps Volunteers' product support and offer significant discounts as a sign of that recognition. Please note that I will now be purchasing from one of these companies as opposed to Chaco.

I hope your team finds the time to update the various websites that promote a Peace Corps discount when purchasing Chaco footwear. For your reference, those sites include http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Volunteer_discounts, http://www.43things.com/entries/view/1930455, trip,buttermouth.com, and even your own http://www.chacoprodeal.com/. That particular site still includes Peace Corps as a "User Type." I have already updated my networks to this change.

Thank you for your attention and please note that Peace Corps volunteers in dozens of countries around the world will readily welcome Chaco's renewed support.

Sincerely,

Matt Lyttle

So, to make the transition home a little easier, our friends Becca, Richard, Alli and Adam decided to come down and spend a week touring around Nicaragua with us. We started off by visiting Granada, where we did a tour of the cloud forest on volcano Mombacho and went sight-seeing in the town, the oldest colonial city in the Americas. Walking around on Mombacho, the volcano overlooking GranadaA barn at a coffee farm on MombachoFrom there, we headed to Managua to take a plane to Big Corn Island off the Eastern Coast of Nicaragua. It was the first time that matt and I had the pleasure to visit the east coast and it was a phenomenal experience (aside from the stomach issues experienced by nearly all). The island was a picture of what Carribean islands must have been before cruise ships and five store resorts made their way ashore. Funnily enough, Nicaragua had one last present in store for us on this trip, and it was a good one for a change. Our hotel plans fell through completely (it was holy week and so I had made reservations; however, the word reservation is a lot less firm in Nicaragua than in the US and when we arrived the rooms were not the ones we had wanted and were not suitable for staying in unless you were of the rodent family). Oddly enough, we had met an American in Grananda who happened to have a house on Corn Island. He was renting it to a group of Italians who were on the island helping to film the Italian version of the TV show Survivor, but they had bailed at the last minute. A quick phone call to him, a cab ride and one local tour guide later, we had ourselves a beachfront house for an amazing price. Not a bad way to see ourselves out of the country. Our crew, in front of the plane that took us from Managua to Big Corn IslandCorn Island as we were approaching to landThe boys trying to figure out how to string up our hammockThe view from the front porch of our rental house...breathtakingRichard and Matt...manly as ever

Waiting for the bus to SomotoChatting in SomotoWe returned to mainland Nicaragua with our friends and headed up to Somoto to show them the place that we had spent two years of our lives. A few last meals, a goodnight’s sleep and a free truckride later, we were on our way out of town to the airport to make arrangements for them, our animals and ourselves on our way back to the US of A.

One last picture with Ena Sofia, Adriana and Akhnatito...

The last few weeks in Somoto were tough. Matt and I spent a lot of time saying our goodbye’s – to our host family, our neighbors, our colleagues and other Peace Corps Volunteers. As much as we had tried to make sure that all of our projects were done, we ended up working down to the end. It felt weird to be in Somoto and not go to work, so that’s what we did. Taeko (Japaneses health volunteer with whom I worked), Rubenia (my primary colleague), me and Noehmi (head of nursing)I finally finished up my Partnership project, spending hours and hours on end working with teachers who volunteered their time to review my books and painstakingly explain the finer points of Spanish grammar to me. The books are at the printer as we speak and will be helping Nicaragua secondary students in the coming academic year. Thank you again to all of you who contributed financially and emotionally to making the project a reality.Matt spent the last few weeks making sure that the transition of projects would go well for the volunteer that will be replacing him at the health center when we leave. This involved a week showing her the ropes and a week coordinating on the coming year’s project with the Irish University group that visits Somoto annually. For those of you who read the blog regularly and know of Los Quinchos, you will be happy to hear that they have decided to make themselves a more sustainable center and are going to be setting up their own garden and chicken shed to help cover the costs of feeding their students. The Irish group will be helping them to build these things in July and the new Peace Corps volunteer will help them coordinate with local contractors.A picture with Enrique at a 15 year-old's party that we were invited to in our last weekStaff from the health center where Matt worked after they threw us a going away party The last meal that we made for our host family - an American-style breakfast to say thanks before going away.So our work wrapped up, Matt and I set to packing up two years of our lives for a transition back to the states. But after our time in Somoto, of going through really tough times and really special times, it was harder than we thought to pack up and leave. In the end, we didn’t actually pack much. We left the vast majority of our Nicaraguan possessions to other Peace Corps volunteers, to local schools, libraries and neighbors, including English/Spanish dictionaries, children’s books, clothes, shoes, the futon that we had built by hand, the eggplant and chile tire gardens, the bed and fridge, sheets and plates. All of it was left to someone to be put to good use. We packed a suitcase a piece, two guitars a dog and a cat. Our last two days in town, we had a number of despedidas or going away parties. The health center and health department where I worked gave us both certificates and appreciation and said heartfelt words. Tears were shed, hugs given and email addresses exchanged with promises of staying in touch forever. It was hard. But it made us realize that we had impacted people and we knew that they had impacted us.

Matt and Aknatito saying goodbye (in their own special way) With things packed and ready to go we set off to bridge our two worlds, spending our last week in Nicaraguan showing it off to great friends from home. Ringing the bell, a Peace Corps Nicaragua tradition for all volunteers who have officially finished their service

As our service continues to wind down, I imagine these last few posts will be mostly in list format with just a sprinkling of narrative. There is so much we are trying to mentally process on our own that it is difficult at times to think of material that all of you will find interesting and relevant to your own lives.

In order to remedy this I've decided to post a list of 15 common Nicaraguan beliefs along the vein of "everything I ever learned about life a kindergartner taught me." Some of these apply 100% to life in the US of A. Others might seem quirky, unreasonable, or down right wrong. You, the reader, also might find some totally irrelevant or not the least bit interesting due to lack of context. For that I apologize. For better or for worse, however, many Nicaraguans spend their entire lives in a world where these beliefs hold true.

- When meeting the girl of your dreams, it is always better to confess your love immediately and as wholeheartedly as possible. If you save it for later, you'll have to explain your previous lack of enthusiam.

- On a hot day it is more refreshing to drink a hot cup of coffee than a cold glass of water.

- Pregnant women and old people always go first. Always.

- You should always look your best, even when digging a latrine.

- All food, no matter the ingredients, should only be described as either "rich" (rico) or "ugly" (feo).

- There is always time for chatting on the porch.

- Going fast is very fun.

- CocaCola from a glass bottle tastes way better than CocaCola from a plastic bottle.

- When riding on a school bus, a seat over the wheel is better than no seat at all.

- Cell phones are overrated. So is electricity.

- Children need to be educated. They are the future of tomorrow. (note: this is written on a very large sign near our town. We're still trying to work it out. It's kind of like looking between two mirrors.)

- Horror movies are the highest form of art known to man. Horror movies and the accordian.

- When walking long distances it is better to get the whole thing over with before the sun comes up. Therefore, 4am is frequently "a late start."

- Toilet paper is a luxury, not a priviledge.

- Politics are for rich people.

LAST WEEK´S POST

Yes, yes, we realize the apparent mistake in this blog’s title. However, when in Nicaragua it’s remarkable how some of the wildest situations imaginable make up a normal week of our lives.

Jess was in Managua these past Thursday and Friday nights, so that left me alone in the house with the animals. Ian, who you may remember from such exciting blog posts as “A trip to Los Limones” and “Making a Tire Garden,” came down from his mountain roost to keep me company Friday night. We went out for a hefty dinner of bistec con salsa jalapeña at a new spot on the highway. Afterwards, we headed to a local pool hall to shoot a few games. Pool halls are an interesting place in Nicaragua. It’s very taboo to see women at a pool hall, but most men are there at least one night a week. Nicaraguans normally bet 2 or 3 córdobas per game and come up with all sorts of crazy rules that I can’t even begin to explain. The most popular game is a form of 9-ball, but instead of racking the balls for an opening break, one of the players gathers up all the balls in his arms and pushes the whole lot across the table. The other player starts from wherever the cueball stops.

Ian and I just played good old stripes and solids, which confused the Nicaraguan spectators as much as their games confuse us. Overall, it was a good evening out. On Astro’s final walk of the evening Yoda decided to follow us out the door. While I was trying to herd Yoda back into the house (not a very simple task) Astro managed to live up to his name and step through some time portal into another universe. Or, at least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with. It was the middle of the night and nobody was out and he just up and disappeared. I jumped on my bike and started riding larger and larger circuits through the streets around our house, but to no avail. Sometime around 2:30 am I decided to call it quits. I slept on the floor right next to the open front door in case Astro came back. He didn´t, so I set an alarm for every 45 minutes and, each time it went off, got on my bike for a ride through Somoto. Finally, on my 6:15 bike ride, I found Astro in front of his dad’s house 6 blocks away and absolutely covered in mud. I was mad, but also very relieved and exhausted, so I went to sleep (in my bed this time) until Jess got home at noon. The rest of Saturday was spent housecleaning and such.

Sunday, we made our way to Ocotal for the annual Peace Corps Super Bowl Party at La Yunta, a fairly decent restaurant with satellite TV. As fun as it was to be with many of our fellow volunteers, the restaurant only got the game with Spanish speaking sportscasters and Mexican commercials. It was still a good time, though. There happened to be a bunch of American and Canadian doctors also at the restaurant. The group was in Nicaragua for about 2 weeks doing pro bono medical check-ups and basic surgery. We run into a lot of groups like that up here, and it’s always great to have the opportunity to fill them in on local customs and culture.

Now, on to the cow hide. As several of you know, Jess and I have been bringing some very nice leather products back to the States each time we make a trip. We met a great guy in Condega, a nearby town, who has 20 years of experience working with leather. He does baseball gloves, belts, wallets, bags, briefcases, and pretty much anything else you can think of that can be sewn from leather. Francisco, “the bag man,” as I call him; lives very simply and has never really had a chance to get wild with his trade. Jess and I are trying to promote his products amongst volunteers here and friends at home. Below you’ll find a few pictures of a big leather tote he does.

So, Tuesday morning I went with Francisco to Estelí to see how he gets his leather. We met at 7:30am to await a bus arriving from León. León is cattle country, so it makes sense that a lot of leather tanning is done around the city. Francisco always buys his leather straight off the bus from León because it’s cheaper and you get to pick the colors and qualities you want. So, there we were catching 50 pound rolls of leather as they were tossed off the top of a school bus. Things stayed pretty civil until the rolls were untied. Then it became a free-for-all between everyone looking for the best leather. Each piece is the size of half a cow, about 9 feet long and between 2 to 4 feet wide and varies in weight, depending on the thickness of the leather. The colors I saw ranged from really bright yellow, like a baseball glove, to shiny blacks and maroons, perfect for boots. Each cowhide is tanned one solid color, but it was still easy to see brands and other marks from the skin’s previous life.

Francisco and I bared our teeth and dove into the fray in search of 3 perfect pieces with which he makes his bags. We came out with 2 yellowish pieces and one matte black piece. The two yellows were 21 and 18 feet square. The black piece was 25 feet square. I had my eye on a lovely peanut butter brown hide, but some jerk with a bushy mustache snatched it from my grip.

So, how much is a leather hide of this size, you ask? Since Francisco bought the hides right off the bus, they were 15 córdobas, or about 75 cents per square foot. All of our hides came in at just under $50 dollars.

After paying the man in charge (I´m not sure of what he was in charge of, to be honest) we made our way to the buses heading back to Somoto. I was at work by 10:30, despite the morning’s adventure. As Francisco makes his next set of bags we’ll try and get some photos of him in his workshop.

Thanks for reading!

Today, we would like to announce the opening of a brand new restaurant in Somoto: Cafetín la Milpa. During our two years here we´ve seen several restaurants come and go, most of which only offer the classic Nica fare, but this little spot deserves special recognition. The reason we´re so excited about Cafetín La Milpa is that they have somehow managed to create a diverse menu even though every single dish´s base is corn. A “milpa” in Spanish is field of corn ready to be harvested, so it makes sense. Not only does the cafetín have the old standbys like enchiladas and tacos. They´ve branched out into some foods that we´ve never even seen in a restaurant before. That doesn´t mean we haven´t seen them, though. You see, there are several different categories of foods in Nicaragua. Food can be broken down into food cooked at home, food purchased at a restaurant, and food purchased on a bus or in the street. Home foods are simpler, one pot dishes usually based on veggies. Restaurant fare is a little more complicated and almost always includes meat. Bus and street food includes everything outside and in between those two categories and is usually fried. I suppose the same applies in the US of A: I wouldn´t buy meatloaf at a ball game and I wouldn´t normally cook shrimp scampi at home on a Tuesday. So, back to Cafetín La Milpa. The food that they have introduced to Somoto that was previously only available on a bus is called Güirila. Phonetically it sounds something like this: Gwee-REE-la. If you want to get it absolutely right you need to roll the “r” a little bit. Now, I suppose you are asking, what is this lovely dish that has so captured the attention of Somoto´s resident gringos? The truth might surprise you. Güirila has one ingredient and only one ingredient: sweet corn. It’s pretty much a big corn pancake, but when prepared right it is fantastic. Here´s the steps: Cut up a banana leaf and wet one side.Scoop about a ½ cup of puréed sweet corn kernels onto the wet banana leaf.Spread out the mush so that it´s between ½ and ¼ inch thick.Cover with another wet banana leaf.Place the whole banana leaf/corn mush sandwich on a hot griddle.After about 5 minutes, remove the top banana leaf, flip the Güirila, and remove the now crispy bottom banana leaf.Cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, or until the pancake is nicely browned. You have to throw out the crispy banana leaf after each pancake, so you´ll need quite a few leaves to make güirila in quantity. Since the güirila is a pretty healthy snack, feel free to eat with salty, fatty stuff to make sure you get the full experience. We recommend eating it with avocado, sour cream, or a crumbly cheese like Feta. Here in Nicaragua we eat our Güirila with cuajada, which is a soft homemade cheese. We also use cuajada cheese for stuffed shells and lasagna. Jess and I actually saw it for sale at a latino supermarket when we were home over Christmas. If you are looking for a truly authentic Güirila con cuajada you can find the cheese at Twin City Supermarket in Finderne, NJ.We'd love to get some feedback from all of you out there. Is anyone brave enough to give this recipe a shot? If so, how'd it go? Also, if you like hearing about the food, we can try and put up some similar posts in the coming weeks...Looking forward to hearing from you!

Our host sister Ena Sofia builing with her first LEGO blocks.

One of our New Year´s resolutions is to be sure that this blog is updated fairly regularly over the next 3 months, so here it goes! It´s been a fairly busy week for both Jess and I. She´s working on her partnership project, which we´ve written about a few times on this blog. Things are really coming together and I think she´s going to have a very functional, professional-looking final product. I finally put my calculus class from last semester to bed. I needed to college credit as a prerequisite for the graduate program I am starting in the fall, so I tried online classes from RVCC (New Jersey) in the Fall. For the most part the coursework was very straightforward and easy to follow online. I did run into some problems at testing time, because both professors wanted the exams to be monitored by a university. That took a bit of coordination, but, as of yesterday, it went off without a hitch. We´ve also been spending a lot of time looking for jobs we´d be interested in and we´ve even started sending in applications as of a couple of weeks ago. I actually got a bite, believe it or not. I had a phone interview and everything, but in the end they decided to go with someone else. It was good to find some interest, though. I think over the rest of our posts you´ll find that we´re focusing more on getting home and starting back up in the US of A. It´s interesting, because we still have more than two months in Nicaragua, but it seems like all conversations, not only with Americans but also with Nicaraguan friends, always focus on our trip home. Clearly, there´s planning that needs to be done and all that, but I for one feel a little guilty about it. It´s pretty much 100% certain we´ll never find ourselves living in a Spanish speaking country again, let alone a third world country, but it´s tough to keep focused on the day to day. I think one of the reasons why is because Nicaragua feels so normal to us. Standing on a bus for 2 hours pressed between 30 other people is easy. Cold showers are a daily occurrence. Even speaking Spanish 8 – 12 hours a day is second nature. When we got back to Nicaragua from our vacation over Christmas we fell right back into our routines without any of the grumbles or gripes we had upon returning from our trip in June. The interesting part is that our time home over Christmas also felt everyday and regular as well. To drive your own car, to eat out, to wear winter clothes was a part of our entire lives before Nicaragua, so it wasn´t too surprising to fall right back into it. I have to admit, I was still completely blown away by Wegman´s Marketplace and I hope I will be every time I go for the rest of my life. All those cheeses! I think that when we get back we´ll be able to find a happy medium between the comforts of life pre/post Nicaragua and the simplicity of Peace Corps life. Hopefully that means a better appreciation of things that are in short supply in Nicaragua. Just to name a few: family, stable government, seasons, safe food, general prosperity. I think we´ll also work to maintain the discipline we´ve developed here around household chores, exercise, sleep, and inexpensive healthy cooking. I, for one, am looking forward to the next step. Wherever and whatever is will be the closest Jess and I have come to permanency since college. After HWS we felt like we were always skipping between internships, schools, jobs, and answers to that all important question, “So what do you do?” So, without getting too philosophical, we hope that this blog will allow all the readers left to see into our lives and thoughts as we transition out of Nicaragua and into the wilderness of the US… Here are a few pictures to be sure this blog stays interesting:Here´s the cat reading E.O. Wilson´s Consilience. Go figure.

Go Hobart!

The latest puppies from Astro´s old family. They are 50 days old. This one is Benji.

This is Astrito, or Little Astro.

Astro meeting the mini Astros.

Astro practicing for his trip home.

Yoda bothering Astro while he´s locked up.

First of all, apologies for such a long gap in posting. Matt and I have had a very busy month and a half. That said, I thought I would do a quick post to bring you all up to date and let you know what happened in December. As Matt mentioned in the previous post, we had a huge event in Somoto for World AIDS Day (December 1st). Working together with my sitemate, we applied for money from a program known as VAST. VAST funds are funds made available to Peace Corps volunteers through the United States PEPFAR program, or the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief. The “largest commitment by any country to combat a single disease in history,” PEPFAR was enacted in 2003 during the Bush Administration and provides funding internationally to HIV/AIDS prevention programs worldwide. Me, working on the banner.

Using funding from VAST and local organizations, we helped to organize a World AIDS Day Concert in Somoto with a well-known Nicaraguan artist, Perrozompopo. The band agreed to donate their time for the event and we set to work organizing a health fair the likes of which had never been seen in Somoto, including games like dart and ring tosses, informational health booths, cultural acts and our own, home-made condom mascot suit. We had roughly 300 adolescents attend the concert and health fair, and were able to measure before and after results, finding that they actually did learn from the event. It was the first time that local organizations had seen an event like this, the first time they had ever thought to evaluate to see if it actually work, and most importantly the first time that they realized the benefits of multiple organizations working together. All in all, a great success.

The start of a long weekend....it eventually becomes a large, man-sized condom suit.

And here it, looking more like a crayon than anything else...

But in the end, he turned out pretty well! The health fair was a success.

And the concert also went over well (with our banner in the background!)Just after that, Matt and I headed down to the beach for our Close of Service Conference. It was three days chock full of information about the logistics of leaving Peace Corps and how to deal with the inevitable of returning to the States and finding jobs. While the conference was very useful and the setting beautiful, I unfortunately spent most of it in bed with the worst chest cold of my life. I managed to lose my voice completely for the first time in my life the day before our final language interviews (where they evaluate our progress over two years). Needless to say, I had to postpone mine. We did however get to see some adorable baby sea turtles hatch at a hatchery right in front of our room and head out to sea! And in the end, Matt and I both ended up with a Spanish level of “Advanced-Mid”. Two levels down from native speaker, so not too shabby.Look at how tiny the turtle is!

Another guy just trying to make his way to the sea.

Finally, at the end of December we headed home for the holidays to spend some much needed time away with family and friend in the states. It was a whirlwind trip, chock-full of movies, bowling, chatting and lots of food. (Matt managed to gain 10 pounds over the course of 10 days. Still not in the positive though – he lost 25 when he first got to Nicaragua!). Thanks to our families for a wonderful trip home (and to Mrs. Lyttle’s class for letting us come and share our experiences with them for a morning).

Professional bowlers at work...But we know who the real professional is....Some New Year's Eve fun.

So, December was a good month. We’ve now settled back in to things in Somoto and are frantically trying to finish up projects and begin to make plans for the readjustment back home. It will be harder than it sounds. Two years is a long time to spend in one place and I think that we are both starting to realize how much it feels like home. We’ll see what the next three months bring us. Probably a lot of hard work and a lot of mixed emotions.

It´s been a wild couple of weeks here in Nicaragua and the hits just keep on coming. We apologize for not updating the blog recently,o but maybe after reading this post you´ll understand why. Last week Jess and I went to Managua to participate in the 2009 All Volunteer Conference. This is a time when every single Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua gets together to learn about other projects going on in country. On Tuesday morning over 170 volunteers arrived at Las Mercedes Hotel in Managua. The conference only lasted until Thursday morning, but it was several months in planning, as Jess can attest to. She was on the steering committee that organized the whole show.At AVC we had a chance to catch up with friends, meet newer volunteers, and plan for future projects. Our group, Health 46, is now the longest serving group in Nicaragua, which means we´re the next to head home. Also at AVC was a group that swore in as volunteers just a day before the conference started. So, we really ran the whole gamut of time in country. Also, every sector was represented at AVC. We´ve mentioned before that there are 5 different types of volunteers in Nicaragua:

- Health (us)

- Environment

- Agriculture

- Small Business

- Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Jess and I were able to walk around and see the kind of work these sectors are doing and imagine how their projects could be incorporated into the work of the health volunteers. For us, some of the most exciting projects are being done by the Agriculture sector, where improved stoves and ovens, biodigesters, and drip irrigation are all the rage. If anyone is interested in those ideas, let us know and we´ll put up a separate post. The theme of AVC was “Food Security in Nicaragua.” Therefore, we were trying to tie in each sector’s work with the idea of improved food security. Jess led a session on cooking with soy, where she make all sorts of different veggie burgers. Another volunteer in the same session showed us how to make butter and buttermilk from scratch! Another big piece of AVC was professional development. We had visitors from all walks of life who talked about their careers and the possibilities that lie ahead for returned Peace Corps volunteers. As you can imagine, that was particularly interesting for our group, as we´re all starting to polish up our resumes for March. After AVC all volunteers had the option to spend Thanksgiving with an American family that works at the US Embassy. Jess and I, and about 15 other volunteers, ended up at the house of Richard Sanders, the Deputy Chief of the US Embassy in Managua. While the US ambassador is in charge of relations with the host country, Mr. Sanders is basically in charge of all embassy operations. He has an incredible house on a hill in Managua from where you can easily spot several volcanoes and one enormous lake. It was beautiful. Since we´re all so far from friends and family it was very nice to be able to spend some time speaking English and enjoying American traditions. And the food! We had a monster buffet that included all of the following:- Turkey - Mashed Potatoes - Stuffing - Gravy - REAL cranberry sauce - Eggplant Parmesan - Meatloaf - Vegetables - Pumpkin Pie - Lemon Meringue - Brownies - Ice Cream - Cookies - And more that I can´t remember but can still taste… Friday morning Jess and I got up super early (4am) to get back to Somoto in time for work. We also had a lot of house cleaning to do. Saturday was Somoto´s famous Carnaval and we wanted to make the most of it. We invited a bunch of volunteers to our house for the weekend. Saturday morning we all went to the Canyon, and for the first time ever Jess and I made it through all 7km of hiking and swimming. It took about 7.5 hours in total. After the Canyon we all took a rest and got ready for Carnaval, which is a very famous Somoto tradition. Every November Somoto invites some of Nicaragua´s most famous bands to an all night music fest. 6 city blocks are fenced off and 8 separate stages are set up for the bands. The music started at 8 and didn’t end until somewhere near 6am. Jess and I only made it to 3 in the morning, but that was better than last year. Here are some pictures of the day:

These are the signs that were recently put up at the different canyon entrances. Hopefully they are the start of better protection of the area.

This is our Gringo Train just starting to enter the canyon. We walk for about 2.5 hours before finally cooling off in the river.

Here's Jess and our sitemate, Katie. Looking good, ladies!

This is fellow Nica 46er and married man, Kory, contemplating the route ahead.

You have to scurry your way back and forth across the river. A lot of fun, but it gets tiring!

This is our Peace Corps group, Nica 46, minus 3 people. We came into the country with 19 and now we're 14. With four months left, it's safe to say we'll all make it!

Here's a video from inside the canyon. This is the last part of the hike and the first part of the swim. You can see we had the option of lifevests or innertubes. The little boats were just for bags. Pretty exciting!

After a long day in the canyon, here's the group getting ready for carnaval. You can see the white blur of Astro, who was upset he didn't get to do the canyon. No doggie lifevests here...Good friends were made at Carnaval, here's Kory and I with a couple of Nicaraguan friends.

So, as you can see, we´ve been very busy. Tuesday was a huge day for Jess. It was World AIDS Day (all over the world, surprisingly) so she organized a concert here in town. Jess was able to get a fairly famous Nicaraguan group to agree to come to Somoto and give a concert for free. We had an informational fair focused on HIV and then a concert from 5 to 7. Overall, we had an attendance of about 400 people. Look for more on this event and pictures later in the week! Here´s some more photos for the Astro and Yoda book:

To all of our loyal readers,

Lately we have been receiving a lot of requests for photos of Yoda and Astro. So, here are a few of our two furry friends that will make you all go "awe..."

More interesting blog posts to come!

-Matt and Jess

Here's Astro pouting because he doesn't want to brush his teeth. Every night it's a struggle, but his breath can get really bad...

Yoda is truly a tropical cat. He loves bananas and all sorts of other fruits. Here he is getting fed an entire banana by a friend of ours.

After a long Saturday of doing laundry, it's good to relax for a while.

This is Yoda pondering his future, and his next escape out the front door.

A nightly tradition in our house. Astro gets brushed and the cat tries to help. Somehow the Yoda always ends up devouring the hairballs we pull off of Astro. We think it is a form of revenge for all of the times that Astro has plowed Yoda out of the way to get to the food bowl.

Ahh, to be inside the mind of a cat...

I think it's almost dead now...

The beast has been slain. We can all go about our lives without fear of being attacked by dust bunnies.

Me, partaking in some authentic Central American Cuisine.....

Last week, Matt and I took a little vacation. We had been talking for a while about taking some time off from work and Matt had been talking to some people at the Regional Office for Disaster Assistance in San Jose about a possible informational interview. So, we decided to go to Costa Rica.

The trip started in Managua, where we caught a bus at 5:00 am for Costa Rica. The ride wasn’t that bad, only about 7 hours to a town a bit over the border called Liberia. It would have been a bit shorter if the driver had actually stopped and told us we were in Liberia – instead he just drove through. When we decided to ask how much further it was, he informed us that we had already passed it. Lucky for us, he just so happened to have a friend driving a bus in the other direction that let us get on and go back for free.

From Liberia, we made our way to Playa Tamarindo, one of Costa Rica’s more developed beaches. And when I say more developed, it is a different world in comparison to Nicaragua. There were a number of hotels, condominiums, grocery stores, surf shops and pizza places. We stayed at an adorable little hotel run by a retired Italian woman, and had an amazing room complete with its own little kitchenette.

Our Room at Los Flores, Playa Tamarindo

As many of you may know, Nicaragua and much of Central America has been suffering this year from a virtual lack of rainy season. It normally rains all of September, October and November, but for the months of September and October, there was no rain at all. As our luck would have it, the rain decided to return the week that Matt and I choose to go to the beach. So, while our hotel was great, we didn’t really get to take advantage of the ocean or pool because it was raining so much. But we did get to spend a lot of time watching TV and nursing upset stomachs after a bad piece of cheese cake.The Pool at Los Flores, which we didn't use that much because of rain.

Our wonderful meal of bread, cheese, peperoni, black olive paste and yes....they do have Arbor Mist in Costa Rica.

From Playa Tamarindo, we decided to make our way to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We were completely astonished. We are both used to Managua, a dirty, ridiculously hot, evidently third-world city. San Jose felt like New York after almost two years of frequenting the capital of Nicaragua. It was much more developed, there were people walking everywhere, and you felt safe walking almost downtown. We filled our two days in San Jose with visiting museums and other attractions, and eating really, really good food.

An amazing Argentinian Restaurant in San Jose. To give you an idea - my meal was homemade pasta, filled with ricotta cheese and smoked halibut in a broccoli, pistachio, garlic pesto. Again, amazing.

This was a reposteria/panaderia that we found. Also amazing.

This guy was our favorite at the San Jose Zoo - a dwarf Jaguar that was rescued from the wild!

Matt did his best to blend in and make friends, but I'm not sure that it worked all that well.

The Museo de Oro in San Jose (Gold Museum)

The next stop on the trip was La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal. La Fortuna is a tiny town about 4 hours north of San Jose, situated directly below the enormous and very clearly active Volcan Arenal. We stayed in a cabin just outside of town and filled the two days with hikes, visits to one of the local hot spring resorts (with 25 different pools of varying temperatures, sizes and themes) and a lovely evening trip up to the observation deck for the volcano. While the rain made it a bit difficult to see the characteristic red lava flowing down the side of the mountain, we were able to spend the evening chatting with a nice older couple from Oregon who accompanied us on the trip.

Matt and I on our way up the mountain in La Fortuna.

A lone Bromeliad, blocking the view of the volcano.

Volcan Arenal emerging from the mist.

After two days of outdoor adventures, we left La Fortuna at the crack of dawn to be able to make it back down to San Jose so that Matt could spend some time talking with the Director of the Regional Office of Disaster Assistance. For those who may not know, this office is a branch of USAID, the US Agency for International Development and it mostly does what its name implies – it provides international assistance in the event of disasters in Central America and the Caribbean. Disasters can include anything from hurricanes, to earthquakes and volcanoes to political coups. Mat is really interested in Disaster Preparedness and Response and spent a morning learning a lot about what the organization and its director do. That was about it for the vacation. We came home to find Astro and Yoda happy to see us and just as energetic as ever.

Hello again to all of our family and friends. Jess and I just got finished with a spectacular project, so we´d like to take this blog post to fill you all in on our recent activities.

A few years back President Bush created the “President´s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief,” more lovingly known as PEPFAR. The program makes funds available throughout the developing world to fight the spread of HIV. Here in Nicaragua, Peace Corps was given the charge of managing these funds and tasked its volunteers to spending the money on HIV prevention. So, in July of these year our group of health volunteers were asked by our program director, Pilar, to put together a few PEPFAR workshops around the country. Jess and I were grouped with the volunteers in the northern departments of Jinotega, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, and Madríz (ours). That made a total of 9 volunteers working on this one workshop.

As a group we decided on the date, time, location, content, and participants. Probably the easiest decision of all of these was the content, as we knew we needed to focus in HIV. As for participants, we were told there was a budget for a total of 50, but that was just the beginning. Should we work with men? Should we work with midwives? Should we work with nurses? Finally, we agreed that we would each invite 4 youths between the ages of 15 and 20 to participate. We went back and forth on the date because, believe it or not, any closer to November and we would lose a lot of participants to the coffee harvest. Any earlier and we would have trouble meshing with the bean planting season. We were able to find a compromise during the week of October 6th. The location was up in the air for weeks to come as volunteers scoured for locales that could accommodate 50 people with lodging, food, and meeting space, all for under $15 a day per person. We settled on a hotel in Estelí for it´s central location, charming atmosphere, and rock bottom prices.

So now, that the particulars were sorted out, we went back to the content, which is of course the whole reason we´re having the workshop. We have all worked on HIV prevention in our site, so it was clear from the start that our participants would already be familiar with the theme. We had to come up with something different and exciting that would really help the message stick with our youth. Jess and I thought it would be great to do an all night “lock-in” event with tons of sugar and activities to keep people awake and excited. We lobbied hard for the idea and the whole group got on board. Since the workshop would be three days, we decided to hold the lock in the first night, let the kids sleep well the following night so we could send them back to their parents more or less recovered.

A few other volunteers thought an all night event was a ridiculous idea since half of these kids don´t stay up past 7:30pm due to no electricity in the house. In retrospect, they were probably right, but we settled on 7 hours of activity between 8pm and 3am. Jess and I were put in charge of the planning and we came up with 5 hour long activities with 20 minute side activities buffering each main session. We designed each session around HIV-AIDS, to be sure the kids understood the information. Our sessions had the following themes:

Casino Night

Olympics

Jeopardy

Fashion Show

Channel X

In Casino Night, the Peace Corps volunteers dressed the room up like a classy casino, down to us in white shirts and bowties. We had 4 different casino games focused on HIV. I ran the roulette table where participants could win or lose chips based on their actions. For instance, the wheel had a spot for abstinence, which paid out 4 times the bet. Another spot, “sex with a prostitute” left the player without any of his chips. I put the game together without every actually having played roulette and my table was paying out loads, but the other tables had the house winning, so it all evened out in the end.

At another table we had a craps style game, where students rolled the dice to find out how safe the behaviors were. Low rolls meant abstinence, fidelity, and always using protection. High rolls meant promiscuity, not using protection, and risk of getting HIV.

We also had a card game and a board game going. The Casino Night was a big success and will probably be expanded in time and tables in the future. We´ll see.

In the Olympics we had in the sack races (your normal sack race) and condom tosses (like water balloon toss, except with condoms). The participants paired off and competed in each activity. In the end we had gold tuna cans for medals. It was all very competitive.

The Jeopardy session was exactly as it sounds, only with questions about HIV as opposed to random trivia. We split 10 volunteers into two groups and they competed in front of the “live studio audience” of the other participants. Kory, a volunteer from Matagalpa, even built little bells out of bamboo and old telephone ringers to that the kids would have something to smack when they thought of the answer. We were all surprised and impressed with the amount of knowledge these kids already had. Perhaps we´ll post some of the questions up here and see how all of you do…

In the fashion show activity we gave 5 different groups a bunch of old second hand clothes. They had to create three distinct outfits (men´s formalwear, women´s formalwear, and casualwear). Next we held a fashion show with dance music and spotlights (flashlights) and three judges. Neither Jess´s nor my group won the fashion show, but that´s life.

For the last activity of the night, Channel X, we had the students create 30 second TV commercials about HIV. We borrowed a video camera and actually recorded them, too. Here´s one of the better ones:

Throughout the night we had different side activities going as well, which included the painting of a mural, which went to the highest scoring community and a photo booth. Our Peace Corps buddies Heather and Kory made some awesome backgrounds for the photo booth, and Jess and I brought different dress up props. The photos ended up pretty funny. Here's a few, the first is Jess with two of the girls she brought.

Besides the lock-in we covered the information in more traditional ways throughout the 3 days. We were also lucky enough to have an HIV positive Nicaraguan participate for the whole workshop. Frank worked with the kids for two full days as “an HIV expert” and didn´t reveal he was HIV positive until the 2nd evening. His story is very powerful and had a profound effect on the kids. Frank has known he has HIV for 7 years now and only found out when his wife died of tuberculosis brought on by AIDS. He has always been heterosexual and never taken any intravenous drugs. Basically, he was unfaithful with his wife and most likely brought HIV into his family. Since the death of his wife he travels around Nicaragua telling his story to groups like ours. When he´s not speaking he is raising his two kids, who still don´t know he is HIV positive or how their mother died…

So, that was our PEPFAR workshop in a nutshell. Personally, I was not that interested in HIV prevention before Peace Corps, but it really is important – even in the U.S. If anyone would like to hear more about specific activities or has specific HIV related questions, please leave a comment and we´ll do our best to answer.

Again, thanks for reading!

As many of you are aware, Matt and I love to eat. It’s one of our favorite pastimes. And cooking, it turns out, goes hand in hand with eating, as does gardening. We’ve had a month full of activities and, not surprisingly, many of them have involved food and plants. I thought that a quick narrative of these recent activities would give you a glimpse at some of the culinary and agricultural skills that we’ve acquired and shed some light on some of the other things that we do!

Peace Corps volunteers rarely work regular hours and rarely focus on one kind of activity. So, even though Matt and I are primarily health volunteers, we also do all kinds of other things in our community. In my case, this involves one-on-one English classes. One of my students, the daughter of a former colleague, has been very adept at learning English, a result of the fact that she is part German and part Nicaraguan and has grown up speaking the languages of both her parents. The fluency in both German and Spanish has given her an enormous advantage in learning English. Because she is so advanced, I’ve taken the opportunity to involve her in as many non-traditional learning opportunities as possible to expose her to more conversational skills. As part of a recent class I decided to share a favorite food with her – bagels. Matt and I shared our recipe, walked her through the process and chatted the whole time. The family loved the bagels and I think that we used some new vocab!

Matt and Sophie cooking bagels:

And they were delicious!

In addition to cooking, Matt and I have been slowly but surely been expanding our little patio garden. Many frequent readers will remember that we started a few months ago with a tire garden. Well, it turns out that Astro learned how to use the tire garden as a stepping stool, allowing him to jump through a hole in the fence, escape through construction next door and party with friend in the street while we were out of town. As one can imagine, these are not the most appropriate conditions in which to grow anything. So, after many reconstruction efforts and elevation of the tire, the garden has been reincarnated, and we have made the addition of two more tires. We’ve also built a small garden for mesculin greens out of old wood and an old sack. We’ve found that things grow best when elevated because at ground level they are susceptible to attack from zampopos or leaf-cutter ants that destroy anything in their path. After adjustments for the Astro factor and the plagues of ants, our plants (pepper, basil, parsely, cucumber, dill, lettuce) have been doing well, but only time will tell if we get another plaga of some sort.

Matt working on the elevated garden for the mescalin greens:

Working on the tire garden:

Some of our pepper plants growing in old yogurt containers, styrofoam cups, plastic bottles...

Lettuce! Lemon-Piccata eggplant with creamy rice and greens from our patio - ricco! (delicious!)

Many of you will also remember from previous posts that Matt and I lived with a Nicaraguan family for about 6 weeks when we first arrived in Somoto, and that we visit them every Thursday to eat, watch a movie, spend time with the girls and catch up. This week, we decided to show Ena Sofia and Adrianna (our two host sisters) how to make pizza. Matt made enough dough in advance to have pizza for the four family members and the two of us. He also made the sauce from scratch (its delicious!) and we used quesillo, a local cheese which melts and tastes very much like mozzarella, and a bologna-like product made from chicken. The results: deliciosa!

Adrianna rolling out pizza dough:

Sophie, with one of the finished pizzas:

Akhnatito, while he is adorable is really not of much help in the kitchen:

I also had the opportunity this week to share some of my culinary zeal with teachers from a local organization. Peace Corps has recently been very interested in the idea of food security. The term conjures up a number of ideas and images, but basically the gist is to help local people rely on available technologies and resources to aid them in creating local, sustainable food systems. The costs of food globally are difficult for already impoverished families. And, many countries, including Nicaragua grow food locally, export it for profit and then turn around and buy food for consumption. The sustainable food movement suggest that this seems a bit preposterous and that it makes more sense to simply eat locally grown foods. Many of you know that I am personally in agreement with this and a huge advocate (bordering on fanatic) of local food systems. So I was thrilled when I approached a local school founded by the Fabretto Children’s foundation (a catholic organization with its origins in Padre Fabretto, an Italian priest who spent many years working in Nicaragua) about a small school/family garden project. It turned out that they were already thinking about expanding their existing garden and invited me to help with a workshop about nutrition and huertos escolares (school gardens).

A teacher explaining what she learned about una dieta completa (a complete diet

The workshop was a huge success. I taught teachers about basic nutrition – carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals – shared some creative activities in which to involve students and then we practiced. We cooked! I showed them very simple ways to incorporate local vegetables and green leaves into everyday dishes, and they loved it. The second day of the workshop, the teacher responsible for the gardens showed them how to prepare soil, how to plant, etc.. We’re now in the process of planning how to follow-up on the activity and possibly make the school more reliant on its own garden system, saving it money.

Some of the teachers cooking in the school kitchen:

One of the recipes that the teachers made - chili (made with bought beans, and tomatoes, oregano and sweet potato leaves from the garden) with corncakes that have dried soy in them:

Gallo Pinto ("Painted Rooster" - beans and rice) with carrots cooked with butter and dulce (pure sugar cane product that resembles brown sugar with more molasses):

Teachers working on preparing soil for a garden:

So, all in all, its been a month full of great food and fun activities! For those who would also like an update on Astro and Yoda, the following series of photos says it all – they get along well, they have taken over our house (the following attack sequence happns in our bed) and they are just as cute and lovable as ever.

Everything's fine...every one is cute....

Until someone makes the first move...

A little paw swat is nothing....

Until it turns into a bigger paw swat...

A rebutal....

And finally a full-on attack - take that dog!....

Dear family and friends,

We’re sorry it has taken us so long to get some new material up on the blog. August was an interesting month for us, with lots of ups and downs, and we haven’t had much time for anything outside the realm of work, household chores, and sleep. So, here’s a quick few thoughts we’ve been having lately. We would love to see some comments from all of you about this post so please give us a shout!

Jess spent this past Thursday in Managua where she had the opportunity to meet with the new world wide director of Peace Corps. His name is Aaron Williams and he was sworn in about a week ago. Director Williams has worked for USAID, a private development research agency called RTI, and a few other interesting places along the way. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 60’s. Sadly, he is only one of two or three directors who have ever actually been a Peace Corps volunteer, so it is exciting to know that he will improve Peace Corps from the mindset of an administrator but also of a volunteer. Jess will write a bit later on about her meeting with Director Williams, but let’s talk a little more about where Peace Corps is and what the future holds.

Peace Corps has about 8,000 volunteers worldwide right now, and surprisingly, that is not its highest enrollment. Earlier, I believe in the 60’s and 70’s, there were more volunteers than there are now. One of the big pushes in Washington D.C. is to expand Peace Corps to double its current size. You might actually remember hearing this from President Obama, who mentioned he would like to see Peace Corps doubled by 2012. Nobody really thinks that’s possible, but the spirit of it all is good.

There are others, including returned Peace Corps volunteers, who actually believe the number of volunteers should be lowered. They believe that by shrinking the size of the agency we can attract more experienced professionals and have a better impact in the places that really need (and want) our help. It’s tough to say what would be best of the agency overall. The last director pushed to increase the number of married couples and retired volunteers. Who knows, maybe that’s why we got a spot in the highly competitive Latin America region. The idea is clear: married couples offer twice the volunteer in the same community and retired volunteers have a career’s worth of knowledge that they can apply to their work. Those two categories, however still make up less that 20% of volunteers, with the majority being single recent college graduates.

For me, it comes down to what we expect from the U.S. Peace Corps. We have had the same three main goals since JFK set up the agency:

1. To offer technical experience in the form of American professionals to developing countries who ask for help.

2. To promote a better understanding of the U.S. and American culture in other countries around the world.

3. To promote a better understanding of other countries and cultures to Americans.

The goals, while maybe surprising to some of you first time readers, aren’t very specific in their purpose. There’s no Peace Corps goal that says, “Volunteers with effectively lower the transmission of HIV / AIDS between sex trade workers and those who solicit services from the sex trade.” In my opinion that’s a relief.

With such a non-specific mandate, however, we do need to set up some guidelines about priorities and resources. Is the goal of Peace Corps to put as many Americans on the ground as possible, trained long hours of sitting on a neighbor’s patio and chatting? Is the main goal to have a select group of development professionals working in the highest levels of program design to improve the way a country is run? Do we want volunteers to have to scrounge for funding (i.e. Jess’s Partnership Project) or do we want to give recent college grads American tax dollars to help third world countries at the volunteers’ discretion?

There are lots of questions above and beyond all this that get to the heart of what Peace Corps is. Somewhere buried behind the health care headlines (geeze louise, people!) you can find the stories about American image around the globe. While wars and industry usually are responsible for our global image there is the potential for Peace Corps, USAID, and other agencies to play a larger role. The bottom line is that someone needs to decide where and how. Maybe our new director is just the guy for the job. We’ll see…

Any thoughts from all of you?

By the way, there will be plenty of cute cat and dog photos in the next post. It's just around the corner, too!

Well, I suppose we´ve hidden his existence long enough. Jess and I think it´s time to introduce you all to the newest inhabitant of our house. Friends and family, meet Yoda: We know, we know. You all are thinking how silly it is to end up with another pet when we only have 8 months left in Nicaragua. Believe me when I say that we, as well, are having those same thoughts. For now, he´s just a foster cat with a very slim chance of actually immigrating to the U.S. More likely he´ll stay as a house warming gift for the Peace Corps volunteer(s) that follows us up. Either way, we know some of you would be interested in hearing about him, so here it is. Jess and I both work at the Casa Materna outside of town on a regular basis. I think we´ve explained the Casa Materna in past blogs, but for those who are new here´s a brief description. Nicaragua has always had a fairly high infant and maternal mortality rate, mainly because it has always been the custom to give birth in the house. There is a network of very well trained women here called parteras who serve as midwives at the birth. While most communities trust their partera more than anyone else in the area, the knowledge of these women does fall short when it comes to complications during and after the birth. Therefore, the government made a big push a decade ago to encourage institutionalized births, where a birth with complications could get proper medical attention and save the life of the woman and the baby. The Ministry of Health has been asking women from rural communities to come in to the hospital to give birth, which is all well and good, except for one little hiccup: most of these women live hours away by foot, and starting to walk in when your water breaks (which, I assure you, is a very Nicaraguan thing to do) probably isn´t a great idea. To the rescue is the Casa Materna! A bunch of Nicaraguan women came up with the idea to have very low cost lodging available within a short distance of hospitals, where rural women could go a week or two before their delivery date to basically wait. The Somoto Casa Materna is one of the area´s best, as the lodging and food are completely free. The actual building is also located about a 2 minute drive from the hospital, so as soon as a woman goes into labor an ambulance is sent to bring her right in. Also, as our Casa Materna is managed by the Ministry of Health, there is a nurse at the CM 24 hours a day. Overall, it´s a great idea. The CM also is a great place for Peace Corps volunteers, where we can go to speak to several women at once about maternal health, child nutrition, and the importance of family planning in the future. We have a lot of women come through the Casa Materna, but unfortunately, plenty still give birth in the home. Their reasons vary, but unfortunately the two most prominent are a general distrust in government services and a machismo attitude by the fathers and husbands. Jess and I have actually had conversations with men who say, “I don´t want some doctor looking at my wife´s private parts. Those are for me only.” So, you can see that we still have a long way to go. What does this have to do with Yoda, our new housemate? Well, apparently the benefits of the Casa Materna are evident across species. Yoda´s mom came to the Casa Materna sometime in May and not being able to use the services at the hospital, understandably, chose to give birth to her litter of kittens right there on the Casa Materna grounds. We´re not sure how many were born or how many are still alive, but we first met Yoda when he must have been only a few weeks old. Jess and I were at the Casa Materna dropping off a mural when Astro pointed us to a wooden shack on the property. Inside the shack was Yoda, all by himself, and not at all interested in playing with “the white giant” drooling in front of him. We went home alone that day and prepared for our visit to the States. As Jess was making her rounds post-vacation, she came across Yoda again, not much bigger than the first time we saw him and covered in fleas. EVEN THEN, she was able to restrain herself another week and let him be at the Casa Materna. The next week, however, when Jess made it back to the Casa Materna, the nurses informed her that they had to do something with the cat because it was too dirty and annoying to keep around. That´s never a good sign in Nicaragua and usually involves a shovel. So, that day, Yoda came home. Jess cleaned him up using Astro´s anti-flea shampoo: By the way, his name comes from this photo, if you can't see the resemblance.

And he settled right in: Here he is next to a pineapple, for size comparison. We weighed him a couple of days later and he came in just under 1.5 pounds. So, now we´ve had him for about a month, and while he´s grown, it isn´t much. Every day he gets a little more bold, exploring our backyard and the property next door. Astro has been great about sharing his food and his family, and they are just getting to point where you could call their interaction “playful.” Here is a photo montage of Astro's opinion of his new foster brother:

Welcoming a new family member to the house that is of a different species and 1/50th your size....confusing.

Sharing your food and water...unsettling.

Realizing that you have a common bond of abnormally large appetites...

Priceless. So, that´s our new friend. More interesting things to come soon!

Hello friends and neighbors. Below is our first attempt to upload a video to the blog. It looks like it worked. This is a video we just got a hold of that is being used as an introduction to Somoto for tourist groups. The song is about Somoto, as well. We'll try and translate the lyrics later. For now, enjoy!

-Matt and Jess

Yesterday we said goodbye to this years UCD Volunteers Overseas. They were only here a month, but accomplished incredible amounts in just 4 weeks. Below are a bunch of photos that show the progress of their work, all the way to the finished product. Expect more this week, but for now, enjoy!

The Multi-Use Court:

The Tree House:

The World Map:

Thank you for a great month!

Thanks for the comments on the civil unrest in Honduras. As many know, Jess and I live only a few kilometers from the Honduran Border. According to the people in our Health Center, who manage the border for Porcine Flu, Honduran officials aren't allowing anyone in or out of the country. We've heard that there are tractor trailers backed up on either side of the border. Somoto hasn't seen much out of the ordinary, although the prices of some foods have risen significantly. In Managua we've heard of "Solidarity Demonstrations," as the Sandinistas are good buddies with the Zelaya government.

We'll send you more updates as we hear, so far it's totally normal here in Nicaragua...on that front.

We are dealing with our own mini-political crisis, however. The newly elected mayor of Managua died today. We went through a bunch of political turmoil in November throughout the election, and now it all might get stirred up again. We'll see....

Here's an article on the story:

Mayor of Nicaraguan Capital Found Dead

Mural of Somoto on the Wall of the Market

Well, we are now back in Somoto after two very short weeks at home. The time was well spent with family and friends and despite driving all over New York and New Jersey, we managed to see almost everybody we hoped to meet up with. Getting back to Nicaragua wasn’t too bad. We arrived at the Augosto C. Sandino Airport in Managua around 11:30 Wednesday to a bunch of airport staff in gloves and masks – Swine Flue had finally reached Nicaragua during our time in the States. Before we ever got to customs we had to stand in front of a camera that reads your body temperature to see if you’ve got a fever. Fortunately, Jess and I made it out OK. We were on a bus to Somoto by 1:15 and home by 5 o’clock. Katie, our fellow volunteer in Somoto, was waiting for us at the house with Astro, who didn’t seem to have forgotten us. Thursday was back to work and back to afternoon thunderstorms. Astro also got back into his routine of sleeping in the mornings and visiting communities in the afternoon. We made it to two youth groups before the week ended. Jess went back to SILAIS to find that the director of the Madríz health department was being replaced. So, while her specific office isn’t affected, most programming has been put on hold as the new director gets acclimated to the job. She’s hoping to start back up next week with some of the workshops she was doing before we skipped town.

In the many plains, cars, and buses it took to get home Jess and I tried to brainstorm some blog topics that you all might find interesting. We’d love to hear some more questions that we can possibly develop into full blog posts, so please leave your comments! The feedback from our Soy and Tire Garden blog was great, and we’ll be sure to answer the questions asked in the near future. Today, however, we’d like to introduce you all to the Municipal Market here in Somoto. This building we put up about 3 years ago to replace a tangled mess of stalls on the other side of town. Since the market serves close to 50,000 (the entire municipality of Madríz) you can imagine how disorienting and unsafe a market like this can get. In the town we used to live in we were constantly on the lookout for pickpockets as we navigated our way through the dirty market. Here in Somoto, this new building provides a safe, clean space where people can come to do their shopping. Because the building is so simple and open in its design, most agree that it has been a huge success. We’re also hearing of other communities that are looking to build similar markets. Basically, the market is like a big airport hangar with a few partitions that go up about 10 feet high. The space is divided into 5 separate areas: Produce, Meats, Dry Goods, Clothing and Shoes, and Eateries. Vendors can rent an 8 foot wide and 10 foot deep stall and sell there every day of the week. About half of the stalls are lockable, so things can be stored overnight. Maybe about a quarter of the stalls have electric outlets, so vendors can have fridges, freezers, DVD players, etc. We’ve got a picture for each section, and we’ll explain a little about each area with the pictures below. The produce section is by far the biggest piece of the market. On the weekend there are probably 20 different vendors in this area. Everything comes from (relatively) nearby and prices are just about the same no matter who you go to. The quality can change quite a bit though, so Jess and I always walk through the whole area to find who has the best produce that day. We also try and buy from as many vendors as we can to spread the money around. While a lot of the produce is the same as you would find in the supermarket in the States, the biggest difference is in the seasonal changes. A lot of staple fruits and veggies are only around for a month or so each year. Some produce can be found in every stall one weekend, and then it´s not seen again for a whole year. Jess and I have to get creative about our menu when it comes to these seasonal items. We could go into detail about what kinds of fruits and veggies change through the seasons, but we could write a whole post just on the varieties that can´t be found in the States. Maybe we will! The meat section is…well, different to what we’re used to in the States. It is very smelly, full of flies, and there really aren’t any measure taken to make sure the meat stays clean. The Health Department (my co-workers) try to get by every day to check the meat for worms, parasites, and other niceties, but they usually only get there once a week. So, Jess and I don’t buy meat there. If you were interested in buying meat in the market, you’d be able to find any cut of beef or pork you’d like, including testicles, hooves and intestine tracks! In the dry goods area they sell by the pound coffee, corn, sorghum, corn flour, wheat flour, red beans, white beans, black beans, cocoa, dog food, cat food, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and anything else that can be dried and sold in bulk. Jess and I will get dog food here every once in a while for about 50 cents a pound. Jess will also come here if she wants to do some culinary experiments. Some of her most recent purchases include soy beans (see last post) and “dulce,” the unrefined product that comes from sugar cane. This is also one of the few places we can find baking powder and soda, which we go through pretty quickly in our cooking and smelly shoes. In the clothing area one can find a bootleg version of any movie, and a knock-off version of any clothing or shoe brand. We’ve got it all: Abercrombie, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, and Hollister, but I tend to stick with brands more my style, such as Tom Cruise dress shirts and Nickel shoes. The eatery area is home to 4 or 5 Doñas that prepare breakfast and lunch for the low low cost of a $1.50. These are good meals too, with each breakfast featuring one fried egg, a mountain of rice and beans, cheese, cream, two tortillas, half an avocado, and one cup of very strong coffee. The only disadvantage is that the eatery area is right next to the meat stalls, so the smells and flies tend to float your way. Jess and I will still eat there about once a month, and both of our parents have enjoyed a meal from the Doñas during their visits to Somoto. So, that is the Somoto Municipal Market. We hope you enjoyed your tour. Now that we’re back in action things are starting to pick up again. Please stay tuned for blogs about the visit from the Irish, Hurricane Season 2009, and some of those crazy fruits mentioned above. Thanks again for reading!

Well, as most of our family and friends know, we have been spending the past month wrapping up a few projects in order to prepare ourselves for a 2 week trip home. In fact, by the time you all read this we will already be in the States. We had (have) free internet the night before the trip, so we thought we’d stick up one more blog before we get back.

We’ll be home for two weeks visiting friends and family in NJ and NY, but feel free to call either one of our parents’ houses if you’d like to stay hello. As for those of you concerned for Astro’s wellbeing, we can assure that he is in good hands with a few of our friends in Somoto. He’ll have to wait until 2010 to see the US.

So, what has been going on in our lives? As many know, Jess is a huge fan of gardening. We’ve undertaken several projects in our patio in Somoto (grass, bananas, orchids, etc) and we have a pretty good success rate despite Astro’s omnivore tendencies and the pesky leave cutter ant colony that lives back there. Jess’s biggest problem is bad soil and a lack of safe, dry space to grow stuff. Luckily, Peace Corps has taught us a win win solution to grow veggies, conserve soil, and help get rid of some very pesky garbage. Old Tires!

A tire garden is, very simply, an old tire turned inside out and used as a planter. In Nicaragua, worn out tires are left all over, so it is very easy to come by a suitable tire. An ideal tire has little or no tread, no punctures, and flimsy side walls, which is pretty much as useless as tires get. We visited a guy who owns a few trucks and taxis, and he was able to dig out a tire for us for free. We have read that if you, in the States, are interested in finding old tires you can find them at junk yards and gas stations for anywhere from free to a couple of bucks.

So, we found our tire and rolled it home, which Astro attempted to herd the entire way. He wasn’t very successful, but I’m sure he had fun. The tire went into our back yard, because that’s our only place to do dirty work, but the tire is just as moveable once is has been transformed, so if we were in the States we’d probably have done the next few steps in a garage or driveway.

To get the tire ready for use, you have to cut out one of the walls, leaving about 2 inches of the wall.

Cutting the tire was very difficult for us, but we got it done with a non-serrated knife. It would have been way easier with a reciprocating saw, but hey, you make do with what you got, ya know? With better tools, you can even do fancy designs like scalloped edges and stuff. Anyway, we cut out our side wall in the simplest shape possible: The donut. Next, we enlisted the service of Ian, our neighborly Peace Corps volunteer. Actually, helping Matt flip the tire was Ian’s payment for spending the night at our place before heading back to his site. Since he’s 7 hours from Managua by bus, it is almost impossible to do in a day. So, Ian and Matt ( and, of course, Astro) got to work inverting the tire. You want to invert the tire because it virtually doubles the space you have to plant in. Also, the shape helps with water drainage, keeping the soil damp, but not too wet. Inverting the tire was kind of difficult. You want to start at one point pulling the side you’ve cut out back over the tread and to the side wall you haven’t cut. Then, with someone holding that in place, somebody else needs to work that cut sidewall around the tire, until the whole thing pops into it’s inverted form. This is where the flimsy-ness and old-ness of the tire really come into play. We had a good tire for size, but we couldn’t get it inverted without Jess sitting on the first inverted point and then Ian and Matt wrestling the rest of the tire into place. It was quite an effort. We would recommend that anyone who wants to try one of these should start with a smaller, flimsier ATV tire or riding lawn mower tire. Anyway, here’s our inverted tire:

Next, we laid an old burlap rice sack over the hole and places rocks in the tire to hold the burlap in place. We shoveled about 3 inches of sand on top of the burlap, to help with drainage. Next came about 3 inches of compost that we’ve been making out of our banana peels and other organic waste. Last came 3 inches of good top soil, which we were able to buy at a local nursery. Astro took care of the tire pieces we cut out.

Jess planted some green pepper seeds, some squash seedlings, and some hot chili pepper seeds. Matt stuck a few grape fruit seeds in there too, but who knows if they will go anywhere. Here’s a picture of the tire and some of the growth we’ve had. Despite the heavy rains, the squash is doing well and the peppers are coming along as well. This is about 3 weeks after planting. We’ll see how it looks when we get back from the States. The great part is that the daily thunderstorms will keep it all well watered.

Peace Corps is always working to better the situation of people in the countries it serves. However, the main goal of Peace Corps is to do this in a sustainable way, so that a community won’t always need a volunteer present to ensure a high quality of life. Sustainable Development, as it’s called, is very difficult to achieve and it takes a lot of training, planning, and patience. It is NOT just delivering a sack of rice to a family every single month. It’s also not just giving a family a rice patty in which they can grow there own rice. Sustainable development should be not only good for humans, but also good for the environment. So, that doesn’t leave a lot of options. Fortunately, there are some very good ones out there. That is why Peace Corps sends its volunteers, along with a Nicaraguan co-worker to trainings every 6 months to talk about new ideas in sustainable development. Jess and I are just getting back to Somoto after a 3 day training in Matagalpa.

We stayed at a very nice hotel. And when we say nice, we mean that this place actually had two dials the shower: one for hot and one for cold!! Some of the counterparts that came with other volunteers have never seen anything like that in their lives. One counterpart had never stayed in a hotel before this experience.

These trainings are held in different parts of the country so that volunteers (and Nicaraguans) have a chance to learn a little more about the country they live in. Our training was in Matagalpa, which some of you will remember from our visit to Kory and Heather earlier this year. Matagalpa is almost into rainforest territory, so it is very different from the dry, cactus filled mountains of Madríz, where Jess and I live. On our first full day our group was greeted by an animal that none of us had EVER seen in the wild. Say hello to the 2 toed sloth of Matagalpa!

Here is Jess posing with this guy, although he seemed to be more interested in the leaves of this tree than looking good for my picture. Oh well. The volunteers snapped a few pictures and this guy just kept moseying his way up the power lines and into the mountain jungle.

That evening, to get back to sustainable development, we participated in a presentation by the Nicaraguan non-profit SoyNica.

SoyNica, which is supported by the Presbyterian Church USA, offers trainings on the benefits of soy beans. We received a very informative talk about the nutritional benefits of soy foods, and then watch a cooking demonstration on some of the various ways to prepare soy. We made soy milk, soy cakes, soy sausages, and soy fried rice. Although soy beans are readily available here in Nicaragua, most of our Nicaraguan co-workers had never tasted a dish that used soy, let alone cook with soy in their own house.

Here are a few pictures of our Nica buddies analyzing, taste testing, and talking about what they would prepare when they got back to their homes.

This is Jess’s counterpart (Rubenia, woman on the right) who has been looking for healthier options that she can cook in her house. Several family members have hypertension and high blood pressure, so healthier cooking, which means less frying and less meats and more veggies, is a necessity. Rubenia enjoyed a lot of the dishes and took copious notes on how to prepare them. Hopefully we’ll get to sample some of her creations back in Somoto.

My counterpart, Rosa Elena in the white shirt, is helping to make soy cakes, which were then fried in soy oil. Uh oh! Fried?! Well, soy oil contains no cholesterol, which means it’s a healthier option for frying food.

Here is a picture of Pilar, on the left, and another volunteer. Pilar is actually our Nicaraguan boss. She is a Nicaraguan who works for Peace Corps and is the Director of the Health program. She speaks great English and lived in Toronto, Canada for 4 years. She is actually going to the States in June to visit Washington DC and participate in an activity with Peace Corps. She’s very excited, as she’s only been to Miami and never further North.

So, to wrap it up, a lot of Peace Corps is looking for easy solutions to complicated problems. We love to solve two problems with one idea, and tire gardens and soy cooking both fall into that category.

Tire gardens offer a constructive way to get rid of a waste product that is normally burned, which harms the environment. The tires are built to last forever, so the tire gardens we build today can still be used two or three generations from now.

It also offers a great way to plant and grow vegetables out of the ground, which helps avoid putting pollutants in the form of fertilizer in the soil, as well as ensure that your veggies won’t get washed away by a big storm. Nicaraguans normally only grow corn, beans, and coffee so that they can sell the harvest to pay for other necessities. Tire gardens are an easy way to grow household veggies to ensure better nutrition. Good idea? We say yes!

Speaking of agriculture, too much corn growth is bad for the earth, because it sucks all of the nutrients out of the soil. Nicaraguans, who need to harvest every year, just cut down more forest to plant their corn while the worn out land recovers. Soy beans, when planted in rotation with corn, actually put the nutrients needed to grow corn back in the soil. Because soy is a legume, the plants roots push nitrogen back into the earth, Corn, on the other hand, needs nitrogen to grow. It’s almost as if planting soy and corn in rotation is like a human breathing in and out – and it works pretty darn good. But what to do with the soy beans? Well, it turns out that soy beans offer incredible amounts of protein, good fats, and folic acid. The bean can also be very easily processed to be used as milk, cheese (tofu), meat, and even flour. By adding soy to the Nicaraguan diet we can begin to eliminate some very serious nutrition deficiencies without even changing the taste of a traditional dish. All this, while helping agriculture and helping prevent soil damage and deforestation. Good idea? Thumbs up!

If anyone is interested in hearing more about tire gardens or soy, please feel free to ask. These solutions don’t only work in the third world. By incorporating these ideas and others, the US can strengthen itself as well as better the health of it’s citizens.

If we get good feedback from this post we will try and put a few more Peace Corps project ideas up over the next few months. In the meantime, please look for a post from the States about the wild and crazy world of the USA.

As always, thanks for reading!

Astro reading up on Sustainable Development.

Hello faithful readers.

As many of you have known for quite some time, Jess is a very talented writer. I believe her to be so talented, in fact, that I hope she will one day write a very successful book series and we will get rich...and I won't have to work.

Today she is one step closer to her goal. About 3 months ago Jess wrote an article for a competition that Peace Corps and National Geographic were having. It was supposed to be about Food Security and how that issue relates to our Peace Corps service.

Well, we just heard that while her story won't be published in National Geographic Magazine, she was chosen as a top 10 finalist! Congrats to her.

If you would like to read the article, as well as others written for the contest, please visit the following link:

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatvol.foodsecurity.volstories

Also, we're thinking about you, Mom!

Early on in my service, I was looking for a place where I could work with youth on a fairly regular basis. It just so happened that our host family knew someone who was looking looking for a person tod work with youth. Sylvia’s (our host ‘mom’) sister Glenda is the director of an educational center called Los Quinchos, located in Somoto. And so my relationship with Los Quinchos was born.

Adolescents playing a Trivial-Pursuit-esque game that Matt and I made up. It has questions about health, random facts and how to translate words to English.

The Center basically functions like an afterschool/before school program for underprivileged kids. Nicaraguan students have school either in the morning or afternoon. The students at Los Quinchos who have class in the afternoon attend Los Quinchos in the morning and vice versa. Students are selected from families that are severely impoverished, or where there has been a history of abuse or violence. Children ages 10 – 18 may attend Los Quinchos, where they receive a free meal, help with their homework and attend one of a variety of technical classes. Young children learn what Nicaraguans call ‘ Manualidades’, basically, what we call ‘Crafts’ – knitting, cross-stitching, piñata-making, etc .. Adolescent girls attend sewing class and adolescent boys learn carpentry.

Some of my younger students in front of the mural that they designed and made about nutricious foods!

Kickball Time!

My work with Los Quinchos has evolved over the last year or so, but now I work with both the young children and adolscents. Once a week, I arrive in the morning, and work for a half an hour with the children, teaching them the basics of hygiene, nutrition, self-esteem, etc..I then move on to the adolescent, where we work on various projects and have classes about sexual and reproductive health. I stay for lunch and repeat the rotation in the afternoon with the new group of students that arrive after lunch. This past week, I had my first session with the students parents. Over 30 parents came and we held a participatory session on Family Violence, its effects, consecuences and how to detect and avoid it in the home. We structured the session in such a way that we, the facilitators, did very little lecturing, but instead left it up to the parents to share their existing knowledge with their peers. It was a huge success.

Kids eating the small meal that Los Quinchos provides them with. It usually consists of rice, beans and a tortilla. Sometimes there is chicken or beef, and lately there has been a lot of soup-like foods with yellow split peas in them because the World Food Program donated a mountain of yellow peas!

Matt is about to also be involved with Los Quinchos. The Irish student group that he worked with to build the El Cairo health post last year is coming to Somoto again this year, this time to work with Los Quinchos. They are planning on improving the water/latrine system, building a stove, a basketball court and (I hope!) a treehouse for the kids. So we will be spending a lot of time at Los Quinchos in July.

This weekend, Jess and I took a visiting friend to the city of Estelí, which regular blog readers have heard about in the past. Estelí is a decent sized city that is known as “El Diamante de Las Segovias,” or, The Diamond of the Segovias (the mountain chain through northern Nicaragua and Honduras). It’s on the way to Managua, and it’s also the city where we go to do banking, shop for special foods, and exchange books at the small satellite Peace Corps office. We have spent a little time in Estelí with virtually all of our visitors, so with Dana, visiting med school student and former roommate of Jess’s, we wanted to do something different. We left Somoto around 7:45 and took an expreso bus that arrived in Estelí at 9. Our first stop was a late breakfast at La Casita, a organic farm that also sells light food, plants, and other nifty things. Here’s a picture of the food we got.

In the picture you’ll see whole wheat bread with brie and swiss cheeses, mango yogurt, pineapple yogurt, coffee, hot chocolate, and a Nicaraguan treat, arroz con leche, or rice pudding. It was a great meal, and the grand total at the end was 159 córdobas, or just about $8.

The sun sets on Los Limones.

It’s been a few weeks since we last posted on the blog, and for that we apologize. We’ve been doing a lot, although very little has been work. We had a week of vacation with Jess’s college friends Becca and Richard, and then Holy Week, Nicaragua’s biggest holiday season. We also went to a fantastic brunch at Nicaragua’s nicest hotel to celebrate 1 year in Somoto. All of those things were fantastic and deserve separate blog posts, so expect a flurry of posts over the next weeks, starting with the Matagalpa post from this weekend, and now this one. We also owe Mrs. Lyttle’s class a blogpost with answers to their interview questions, as well as answers to their questions for us. Right now, however, I’d like to tell you about my visit to a fellow volunteer’s site.

Here's Ian just making sure that everything is in order with his horse.Ian came in with Jess and I and was actually in the same training town as Jess. He’s from Chattanooga, Tennessee, but travelled all over the world with his parents, who are teachers at international schools. Ian was placed at a community called San Jose de Cusmapa, which is a mountain community of about 3,500 people. It is located in the department of Madriz about 25 miles south west of Somoto. Ian has to take a bus from Somoto to get to his site, so we see him more than most volunteers. The bus ride takes about 3 and a half hours (to go the 25 miles) and climbs up some of the steepest slopes you can imagine. Plus, the busses normally are waaaaay over capacity (when I went to see Ian there were at least 50 people in the school bus, and another 25 on top) so they really do crawl up the mountains. In fact, it rarely stops for passengers. Instead, people have to run alongside the bus and jump on board, so that the bus won’t lose it’s momentum. So, let’s just summarize by saying that getting to Cusmapa is an adventure.

Ian works the same way I do, visiting rural communities to give talks on various health themes. He had a visit planned for a community called Los Limones and I decided to join him to see how his Peace Corps experience differs from mine.

Here´s Ian giving a charla in Los Limones

Los Limones is one of those communities that we, as Americans, can only really imagine in our mind’s eye. It is a 6 and a half hour horseback ride from Cusmapa and sits at the top of the world. There are around 200 people living there, and from everyone’s porch you can see the Pacific Ocean, Honduras, and half way to Managua. There is no electricity, no running water, no latrines and no roads accessible by vehicle. The villagers are virtually self-sufficient, growing all their own corn, beans, and some of the best fruit you can imagine.

This local dog guards the fruit trees. In this picture there are avocados, oranges, mamones, and mangos. When the lights are on (meaning the sun) it’s a paradise. When the sun goes down it becomes a misty mountain top, where you’d expect to see ghosts and fairy-tale mountain dwellers strolling down through the orchards. True to its image, Los Limones is actually home to some real life Nicaraguan legends.

This community was a strong-hold of Contra fighters during the 1980’s. Most of the village men currently over 40 spent that decade running through the mountains, causing havoc in the Sandinista army. They received their training and weapons from Honduras and the US and would skip back and forth across the border much like the Al-Queda fighters we now hear about in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Contras were always outnumbered, poorly organized, and didn’t have a chance of actually defeating the Sandinista army, which could put 250,000 soldiers in the field if needed. Hanging out with these guys in Los Limones, it became clear to me how dangerous a few mountain men with guns can be. A few of these pictures were taken just outside of the community at a scenic overlook. Ian and I had to jog just to keep up with these guys as they weaved in and out of the brush always “knowing” the way, despite my skepticism. They just went striding along, only wearing flimsy plastic shower sandals on their feet but never getting caught in the bushes and thorns that kept slowing Ian and I down.

Ian and the Locals.Nicaraguans are also some of the most hospitable people you can meet. Even though Los Limones is extremely poor, the doors of every home were wide open for us. We were offered several local dishes, lots of fresh fruit and a special Semana Santa traditional dish, Fish Soup. By the time we got to the house with the soup, the sun was long gone from the sky. We couldn’t see what we were eating, so we relied on this picture to avoid the fish bones and other unpleasantries that ended up in the soup. Let’s just say it was a good experience that I won’t be experiencing again.Cooking is, of course, a big piece of Nicaraguan life. The picture below is of one of the matriarchs of Los Limones. She is 78 years old and spends every morning grinding corn for tortillas. She starts by running dried corn kernels through a hand grinder. Next, the ground corn flour is put on a curved rock and further mashed by a stone that looks like a rolling pin. It’s very physical work, and very tiring, but she still does it for 4 or 5 hours a day. They were really good tortillas, too!

The next morning we made our way back to Cusmapa, taking a little extra time to take in the scenery. When we finally made it back (about 4:00pm) we said goodbye to our trusty steeds and headed back to Ian’s house. There we enjoyed an ice-cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle and celebrated our return to civilization…relatively speaking.

This is my trusty steed: a mule...a very lazy mule.

Cowboys gotta have fun!

A few weekends ago, we went to visit the other married couple in our group, Kory and Heather. They live in a mountain community called la Dalia, which is in the Department of Matagalpa, right in the middle of Nicaraguan coffee country. Matt and I have been meaning to visit more volunteers in their sites, to see how their daily life and work compares to what we experience in Somoto. Visiting Kory and Heather provided us with an interesting window into the lives of two other volunteers. Heather and Kory are both artists – Heather is a photographer (though she also has a Masters in Social Work) and Kory is an amazing watercolor painter/poet/creator of interesting things. We had a great time visiting them because you can see their creative spirits in everything that they do. Our first day in la Dalia, we got to see the town and the house where Kory and Heather live, along with all of the cool personal projects that they have done during their first year in country. To start off with, we got to experience the pulley-based fan system that Kory has rigged up to keep the two of them cool while they are sitting in their hammocks. As you swing, the motion of the hammock pulls a rope over a set of pulleys, which moves a fan made out of bamboo and cloth. It’s pretty cool.

We also saw the solar food dryer that they made from Peace Corps plans, and their tire gardens in the back of their house, where they grow all kinds of vegetables. And, best of all, Matt got a lesson in chocolate-making from Kory. On the second day, we took a trip about an hour up the mountain to a Park called las Penas Blanca (The White Cliffs). It’s a beautiful set of high cliffs and, apparently, waterfalls. However, we didn’t realize that word had gotten out about the beauty of the cliffs and that the local community is now charging $20 for entrance and a tour. With our cheap Peace Corps mentality, we decided that the price was too high for the short hike that we were looking for and instead just went for a walk down the road. So, we didn’t see the waterfalls firsthand, but we are thinking about a camping trip sometime in the future for the full experience. On the way back into town, we stopped off at the Casa Materna in La Dahlia. Casas Maternas exist in a number of Municipalities in Nicaragua. They are houses in larger towns or cities, where pregnant women from the country can come and stay as their due date gets close. That way, they are close to the Health Center or Hospital, in the case of an emergency, which makes attending them much easier than it would be if they were still in a remote community. The national network of Casas Maternas is an effort to cut down on maternal and infant mortality. Heather does a lot of work in her Casa Materna, and we got to see where she spends her days and the women that she works with. In addition, we were able to see a beautiful mural that the two painted last December, and to see the big project that they have been working on. Some time in their first year, Heather and Kory became frustrated with the lack of permanent educational materials in the Health Center and Casa Materna. Everything is usually written on large poster paper and then discarded after the class or talk is done. So, in an effort to create something lasting and sustainable, the two have worked to put together an advisory committee of doctors and health professionals that is helping them to design a series of large posters which will be printed and hung in every Casa Materna in the country. Each poster has a theme, and they range from things like contraception to breast feeding, to the stages of pregnancy. The idea is that the posters will have information on them that anyone can use to explain health themes to the women who come to the casa maternal. And, given the artistic ability and vision of the two volunteers, the posters they have completed to date are absolutely beautiful. So, we enjoyed our visit and learned a little bit more about how other volunteers spend their days. If you want to learn anymore about what Kory and Heather are up to, you can visit their blog at:http://theadventuresofheatherandkory.blogspot.com/

On Sunday morning Jess and I hosted a brunch to say goodbye to the three health volunteers that are leaving Madríz. Kadesha, Lisa, and Leanne have all finished their two years in Nicaragua and are heading home. They are the volunteers that have shown us the ropes to Peace Corps living, and Madríz, and our guest bedroom, will seem a little more empty without them.

There are some perks to saying goodbye, however. Because none of their sites are being replaced by the new group of volunteers they have a plethora of stuff to give away. We like to keep things in the Peace Corps family as much as possible, as the settling in allowance really isn´t enough to settle in with, so things like tables and chairs, pots and pans, blankets, books, and stoves are all up for grabs. Jess and I now have a bunch of new furniture, a great new 4 burner stove and a few extra pots! We´re also storing a bunch of stuff for other volunteers in Madríz, current and future. Needless to say, the house is a little crowded right now, but we´ll get over it.

Chatting over brunch.

Our first attempt at home-made bagels. Not much to look at, but they tasted great!

Spinach quiche!

Happy times in Somoto.

After a long morning of cooking and eating, we decided to just get a bite to eat from a fritanga, which is street food. It's almost like Nicaraguan fast-food, but with a much higher chance of getting amoebas. Tasty! Grilled chicken, enchiladas, gallo pinto, fried plantain, tacos, and who knows what else...

And we're off for no more than a few bucks!

Monday morning we had our first good rain since November. It rained on and off for about an hour. The ground got just muddy enough to remind us what a hassle it is to have a dog who likes to run in and out of the house like it’s his job. It’s still early for the official rainy season, so this was probably just a fluke. We won’t see daily rains until May, but this was a nice change of pace.

Last Tuesday we helped our Nicaraguan host family move houses. Akhnaton and Silvia finally realized their dream and finished building their very own house. It’s not big at all by American standards, but it is about as nice as they get in Nicaragua. We learned quite a bit about the moving process in Nicaragua, and you’ll be interested to hear it is a little different than the way we do it in the States.

Nicaraguans are shameless about asking for things. As Americans, we’ve been trained not to give a dollar to the guy begging on the corner, and we find it socially acceptable to walk right by the Salvation Army guys in the wintertime. In Nicaragua, however, your average person might give out a cordoba to four or five people just on their way home from the grocery store. If an older person walks into a restaurant and asks for a little bit of money, a lot of Nicaraguans will get out of their seat, dig around in their pockets for a few cents, walk over and hand it to the person asking, and thank them for the opportunity to help. So, because the rate of success is so high for people begging, a lot of Nicaraguans go ahead and ask for anything and everything. Here´s a list of some of the things Jess and I have been asked for over the past year:

- money

- food

- water

- alcohol

- backpacks

- shoes

- Astro

- our computer

- Jess’s hand in marriage

- our passports

That list is almost in order of importance, but not quite. Anyway, back to moving, you can imagine the scene outside a Nicaraguan home as a well-to-do family pulls item after item out of their house and onto the moving truck. So, I ask you, how do you avoid the mobs? How do you avoid the awkward refusals to give your stuff away? Easy! You move houses in the middle of the night when no one else is awake!

That´s right, Jess and I helped Akhnaton and Silvia move house from 8pm on Tuesday night until 3am on Wednesday morning. Akhnaton kept on going until 10am! As crazy as it sounds the strategy worked. We weren´t asked for a single item, and we dealt with a lot less traffic as we bounced down the road with waaaaaaayyyyy to much stuff in the pick-up truck. Luckily, it was only a move of six or seven blocks, and the only thing we lost out of the back of the truck was a smiley-face magnet from the fridge.

It took us a few days to fully recover, but I have to admit, the late night move definitely has its perks.

The next group of photos are from a recent hike we took toward the town of Cacauli. This is Astro in his desert motif.

Astro helping the local cowboys.

Here's a building that recently went up in the country-side. They are built with adobe bricks, which means people mix straw and much in a mold and then let it dry in the sun. The same mud is used as mortar to hold the whole thing together. They don't last nearly as long as bricks or cement blocks, but this one is built very skillfully and will probably last 15 years. It needs a final coat of mud to protect the adobe bricks, but then it should be fairly durable.Nicaraguans drink soda and juice out of a plastic bag. Here's Jess demonstrating proper technique. You bite a hole in the corner of the bag and then you have to squeeze the soda out.

That´s all for now. Jess and I have a busy week planned, and then a weekend trip to visit a few other volunteers in Matagalpa, which is a totally different part of the country. Look for details next week!

So, in addition to the regular projects that volunteers work on with any host agencies or counterparts in their communities, Peace Corps has set up a number of ways that volunteers can recieve funding for additional projects that they think are of importance to their community. One of these ways is a program called the Peace Corps Partnership Program.

With the Partnership Program, volunteers have the opportunity to develop a proposal and post it online. Once online, donors from the states have the ability to directly contribute to Peace Corps-implemented projects around the world.

Recently, I went through the process of developing a proposal, along with the help of employees at the Departments of Health and Education in Madriz (Somoto, where we live, is the capital of the department of Madriz). Speaking with the indivdiuals from both agencies, we decided that, given the significantly high rate of adolescent pregnancy in Madriz (30% of births are to mothers under 19 years of age) and the rising risk of HIV/AIDS, that information regarding thest topics could be an important addition to the existing curriculum in the secondary schools. So, we developed a modest proposal and plan to use the money to make materials and resources for secondary teachers to talk about these and other health topics in the context of their math, spanish, civics and biology courses.

If anyone is interested in reading about my specific project, or in donating, the link is:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=524-069

To learn more about the Partnership Program in general, and/or to look for other projects, you can read up on opportunities at:

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors&&

A few weeks ago we received a great package from Mrs. Lyttle´s class. Inside was a birthday card for Astro, as well as a tuani bandana. Tuani means cool in Nica Spanish. Anyways, here are a few pics of Astro sporting his new look. Sorry they are sideways, but this cyber won´t let me twist them. oh well...

Thanks again, Mrs. Lyttle´s students!

The potential tree house tree at Los Quinchos

Last week, as our trainees departed back to their host families, I welcomed another group to Somoto. Two members of the steering committee of University College of Dublin Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO) arrived in Somoto to plan their 2009 project. UCDVO is a non-profit organization based in Dublin, Ireland. Every year, UCDVO sends University College of Dublin college students to various countries around the world to help strengthen local efforts to improve the lives of those living in developing countries. They are currently working in 4 countries: Haiti, India, Tanzania, and, of course, Nicaragua. If you were reading our blog last year you’ll remember their 6 weeks in Somoto, when 23 students built a health center from the foundations up. In other countries the UCDVO projects aren’t focused so heavily in construction, so this year’s Nicaragua delegation spent last week organizing projects of a slightly different nature.

Some of our blog postings have mentioned Los Quinchos, an educational center where Jess spends a lot of her time. Los Quinchos is a place where at-risk students can go when they aren’t in school to receive a little extra attention. Most of the students come from families with abuse, very poor living situations, and very low financial means. All of that adds up to a difficult situation in which to live, so Los Quinchos gets them out of the house and into a healthier environment for a few extra hours a day. While at Los Quinchos the students receive homework help, skills training in areas such as sewing, woodworking, and piñata building; and a little time with a psychologist. They also receive a meal, and for some students that might be the only time they eat each day. Despite the difficult situation, the children at Los Quinchos are extremely well behaved, energetic, and eager to learn from anybody that comes through the door. Jess and I chalk up the great vibe to the wonderful staff at Los Quinchos, as they really make the most of aging buildings and a very inadequate budget.

It’s for all these reasons and more that we introduced the UCDVO team to the director of Los Quinchos, Glenda. UCDVO was looking for a substantial project and Los Quinchos was looking for a helping hand. Together, the two groups found a few projects that would fulfill the goals of UCDVO and help Los Quinchos better attend its students. This summer, 23 UCDVO students and one advisor will be working at Los Quinchos on three separate projects:

1. The construction of an all-purpose recreational court at the school. The court will have basketball hoops, mini soccer goals, and lines for a bunch of more informal games. Right now the students just play in a field, but the Los Quinchos staff feel that a more organized environment, including real basketball and volleyball teams, will really help the children develop in a more healthy manner and help them get over some of the difficult family situations they experience.

2. The connection of existing bathrooms to the city sewage system. When Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998, it wiped out a lot of the advances Nicaragua had made since the Sandinistas left power in 1990. Specifically at Los Quinchos, the massive amount of water blew out their septic tank, allowing waste to seep into the surrounding area. The bathrooms, which remain in working condition haven’t been used since the storm. Students and staff have reverted back to the use of a makeshift latrine that has been in service for the past 25 years. By connecting the sewage to the newer city system UCDVO can ensure that waste is properly disposed of and treated, as opposed to flowing into the stream that runs beside Los Quinchos.

3. The construction of a tree house in the Los Quinchos courtyard. Building on the idea that the more play space kids have the better, UCDVO, and Los Quinchos felt that a tree house will add to the overall good feeling you get at Los Quinchos. A lot of people argue that the money could be better spent of food, clothes, or books for the kids, but it’s impossible to really quantify the value of a space where kids can just be kids. Our goal is to build a safe, fun, and engaging tree house where kids can use their imaginations. We have a basic plan and design, but based on UCDVO’s budget, the goal is to add on to the tree house as much as money will allow. We’re hoping to “accessorize” with things like a fireman’s pole, a tire-swing, and a slide, but it all comes down to cost. We’ll keep you updated.

On top of the construction work, the UCDVO students will also be participating in the regular Los Quinchos classes and hopefully running daily literacy and art activities on their own. Of course language will be a barrier, but if anyone can really make a difference, it’s the students from UCDVO. After seeing them work last year on the El Kairo health center, I’m 100% confident that this year’s project will be a big success.

As for some of the concerns about Astro in the last blog, Jess and I were very glad to hear Mrs. Lyttle’s class is so interested in Astro’s well-being. We’re almost positive that Astro has some Labrador or Golden Retriever in him, and those dogs are known for their natural ability in the water. Astro started swimming when he was about 5 months old (look back to the May 2008 blog post where we carried him into the canyon). He was a little uneasy in the water at first, but he gets more and more comfortable every time he swims. Now, when we got the canyon, Astro chooses to swim up the river, as opposed to scamper over the rocks. His paws are webbed, like a lot of Labradors, so he can actually swim as fast as Jess or I. He can also paddle around in the water for at least 10 minutes without a break. So, as long as we are close to him when he’s swimming, we really aren’t concerned. Hopefully you’ll get to meet him when we move back to the States in April of 2010! Here we are at the canyon last week:

More to come…

This past weekend Jess, Astro, and I all went to the Canyon on what we like to call “the Gringo Train.” We had along with us three Peace Corps trainees, two travel writers, two Grand Canyon river guides, and two other volunteers. It’s volunteer visit weekend, which explains the trainees and the volunteers. The two travel writers are re-writing a book about Northern Nicaragua and the canyon river guides met the travel writers at a hotel in Somoto and both had their hearts set on visiting the Canyon. Being that I knew the travel writers and we were already planning on visiting the Canyon with our trainees, our group quickly doubled in size, with also cut our taxi costs in half. Therefore, we were all happy. Off we went on Sunday afternoon.

Jess and I made egg salad, tuna salad, and PB&J sandwiches for the Peace Corps side of the group, and the others brought ham and cheese sandwiches that they picked up at Palí, the Somoto grocery store. We also brought some cut up veggies, cheese puffs, and Ranchitas, the Nicaraguan version of Doritos. One of our fellow volunteers was kind enough to share a gigantic bar of chocolate that she had recently received in a package from the States. On top of all that we carried about 10 liters of water. We didn’t eat until we made it to the boat launch, which is about a 40 minute walk from where the taxis let us off. You can imagine the feast we had – the chocolate hadn’t even melted!

From the boat launch it’s either a 5 minute boat ride or a 20 minute scramble across the canyon walls. While the majority of us went for the scramble, Leanne, another Peace Corps Volunteer, chose the boat ride. As you can see in the picture, she had her own private float up the river with a very handsome Nicaraguan boatman. At the other boat launch further up stream the scramblers waded back across the river. Leanne, of course, was able to stay dry the entire visit. The rest of us, weren’t as lucky, but went for the swimming. After the second boat launch it’s either more rock scrambling or a leisurely swim. At this point everybody went off on their own to find their own little piece of the canyon.

We made our way back about 4 o’clock and huffed our way out of the canyon by 4:30. Our goal was to get the two travel writers and the two river guides on the 5 o’clock bus out of Somoto. We pulled up to our house at 5:02, and the four travelers ran in, grabbed their bags, and jumped in a taxi. Even though the bus had already left, their taxi driver agreed to speed his way down the Panamerican Highway to catch the bus. We ran into the driver the next day, and sure enough, they caught the bus about 10 minutes further down the road.

Those of us who ended up in Somoto for the evening celebrated a successful canyon visit with tacos and Spanish rice. Delicious.

This being Volunteer Visit Week, Jess and I are being visited by Hannah and Jessie, two Peace Corps Trainees currently living in Carazo, where we lived last year at this time. We’re just supposed to show them a slice of our life, but it’s turning into a very busy week – so they might be getting more than they bargained for. Jess and I are both neck deep in several projects, which is also why we haven’t been blogging nearly as frequently as normal. We will get it back by to once a week soon, though.

Another exciting note, last week some Peace Corps volunteers came across The Travel Channels Andrew Zimmern filming in Nicaragua. They were invited to help out with the show and ended up joining Andrew and his crew for a feast of grilled boa constrictor and armadillo. Look for the show airing on The Travel Channel in June!

More to come, soon!

Here we are on our way into the Canyon. Gringo Parade!

Leanne taking the "easy" way into the canyon. How romantic!

First timers to the canyon.

Wading across the river.

Matt and Astro after a swim.

Here's Jess explaining the finer geological intricacies of the canyon.

On our way back.

Astro took the easy way as we left.

Back up the river.

Home in time for a beautiful sunset.

On Thursday of last week Peace Corps Nicaragua received its next wave of volunteers. 21 people came in from Miami to begin their training as Health Volunteers. They will be training in the same towns that Jess and I were in for our first three months in Nicaragua. In April, they will swear in as volunteers and be sent all over the country to do the same work that Jess and I are doing. We´re hoping to get at least a couple in our Department of Madriz.

On the other hand, NICA 43 is preparing to head back to the States. This is the group that came in January of 2007 (a year before us). They will be finishing up their 2 years of service at the end of March and will be heading their separate ways. Jess and I live near 4 NICA 43ers right now, and we´ll be sad to see them go!

We, of course, are almost exactly at the middle point of our service in Nicaragua. We´ve got one more full year in Somoto before we are replaced by…who? If you guessed NICA 52, then you are correct!

Now, you might be asking yourself, “what happened to NICA 47 and 48?” You might also be asking, “who decides what sites these volunteers will live in?” Lastly, you might be asking, “What kind of interaction is there between Peace Corps volunteers during their service?” Luckily for you, this is the blog post that answers them all! Jess and I haven´t really talked about the structure of Peace Corps, and I think now is as good a time as any.

So, let’s start with country numbers. As trainees come into each Peace Corps country, their group is assigned a number. Here in Nicaragua we’re into the 40’s right now. In Honduras, they are only in the teens. Peace Corps has been in Honduras just as long as it’s been in Nicaragua, but their training style is different than ours, hence the big difference in numbers. In Honduras, all of the new volunteers are brought in once a year. They live together in a camp-like compound for their first three months. It is there that they have language and technical training. They don’t finally live with a Honduran family until they are sworn in as volunteers three months later.

Here in Nicaragua trainees are brought in every four months. We are divided into sectors, which determines when we come into the country. For instance, Health volunteers come in to Nicaragua every January and finish their service every March. Agriculture and Environment volunteers come in every August and finish their service every November. Small Business and English come in together at some other point during the year. Therefore, in a normal year three different groups come into Nicaragua and each of the three groups is assigned the next available number. In Honduras, there is only one new group number per year. And that explains the difference.

Another difference is in the training style. Our training is “community based,” which means we actually learn Spanish and technical skills while living with Nicaraguan families. I obviously can’t say our system is better than the Honduran one, but it was perfect for Jess and I. Nicaragua is also considered one of the best countries to train in. Pretty great, huh?

Now, on to site placement. Right now the two main people in charge of Health in Nicaragua are travelling around the country taking care of a process called “site development.” Every site that would like to have a Peace Corps volunteer must submit an application. Next, the Safety and Security Coordinator makes a visit to be sure the location fits Peace Corp’s standards for…well…safety and security. Once that’s been cleared, the Health staff make a visit to meet with the colleagues with whom the volunteers will be working for two years. If everything is in order, that community gets put on a list of potential sites. Because they staff know in advance how many trainees are coming into the country, they develop that amount of sites, and a few extra just in case. Therefore, every volunteer has a community and every community has a volunteer. A few weeks before the trainee becomes a volunteer, they are assigned a site based on their personal needs and interests. They are able to visit the site and meet their colleagues before officially moving there, which ensures a smooth start. A lot of thoughtful planning goes into site development and very few volunteers are disappointed in the site they are assigned.

Now, volunteer interaction. As you’ve seen throughout this blog, Jess and I are constantly seeing other Peace Corps volunteers. We are lucky enough to live in a central city that is a stopping point for many volunteers travelling to more rural sites. That being the case, we’re constantly having people over for lunch and dinner, and a few overnight stays as well. Those more rural volunteers, however, rarely see another gringo, as they tend to live at the last community at the end of a dirt road. Volunteers are encouraged to stay in their site as much as possible, but most leave for a weekend every once and a while to hang out with other Americans. This month’s meeting revolved around the Superbowl. It was a great game, but the commercials shown were all in Spanish, and none of the new ones highlighted in the States made it down here. That’s the part of the game I love the most, too! Oh well.

Sorry for the delay in blogs - we’ll try to get back up to weekly postings in the near future. Please keep reading!

Here's Astro on his first birthday. This is the little store in front of our house. He's been moonlighting as a security guard over there on the weekends...

Jess and I have had an incredible week. We’ve now received virtually all the packages we’ve been waiting on since Thanksgiving, including two from my mom. Finally, we can hang up Christmas lights and eat Stove Top stuffing with our turkey! It might be a little late, but the Christmas music was still fun to listen to.

There was a game included in the package called Bananagrams, where players make their own crossword puzzles with a bunch of letter tiles. It’s kind of like free-form Scrabble. Even though I used more letters, Jess still won. Here are our crosswords.

Matt´s:

Jess´s:

This week was the first of the new year where we really worked our butts off. I had an activity to run virtually every morning and afternoon and Jess juggled finishing up a grant proposal with some workshops for the health department. I worked 3 days this week with brigadistas, who are Nicaraguans who volunteer to help with the health department. We have about 300 brigadistas in the Municipality of Somoto, most of whom live very rurally. People from these communities have to walk 2 or 3 hours just to get to a health post. Health posts have a nurse most weekdays, but only have doctors 2 days a week. Clearly, there is a big deficit in the care that’s needed and the amount of coverage available. Therefore, it’s the brigadistas’ responsibility to diagnose an illness or injury and decide whether that injury warrants a trip to the health center. If the brigadista feels it’s serious enough, they give a referral to the person and send them on their way to the health center. Anyone can just show up at a health center, but a referral from a brigadista gets priority, so people in the communities turn to the brigadistas first, before making the trek. The system can only work if the brigadistas are well trained in basic medical care and know the signs for more serious illnesses. To make sure that’s the case PLAN Nicaragua, an international non-profit, offers monthly trainings to the brigadistas in 23 principal communities (about a third of all the brigadistas). This month’s training covered illnesses in infants and child nutrition. Because it’s the first of the year, we also talked about the logistics of reporting to the health center in Somoto.

To review the information we learned, I introduced a new game to the brigadistas: Jeopardy. We had 2 teams of 5 participants each, as well as a “studio audience” of about 30. It took a while for everyone to understand the rules, but once we got going, it worked out quite well. We didn’t make them answer in question form, but other than that it worked them same. The best part about the review was that we had virtually no wrong answers, which means the brigadistas were paying attention and were well trained. Overall, a success!

Saturday morning Jess, Astro and I climbed a little mountain peak on the outskirts of Somoto called La Montaña de la Cruz. Going up took about an hour, but once we made it we had a bird’s eye view of our city and the surrounding countryside. The whole trip only took about 3 hours, but it was great excerise. One of our New Year’s resolutions was to visit all the pretty sights to see around Somoto. Slowly, but surely, we’re scratching them off the list! Here are the pictures from our trip to the Cross.

The view from downtown Somoto. Can you make out the cross at the peak?

Halfway up the mountain at about 7:00 AM.

Taking a break on the way up.

Looking down at Somoto from the peak.

Our house is somewhere down there!

Cactus flower.

Sometimes you have to climb a few fences to get where you want to go!

Looking South-East from the peak.

And in other news, our good friends Akhnaton and Silvia welcomed their third child into the world on the 13th! Their first boy (blog readers might remember Adriana and her sister Ena Sophia from previous posts), he’s named Akhnatontito (little Akhnaton) Corrales Espinoza. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz, and wakes up every 30 minutes crying to be fed. How exciting!

Peace Corps Volunteer Matt Keenan at a recently completely well project in his site, El Volcán.

This Friday I made a trip up to the site of another Peace Corps volunteer with a visiting group of MPH students. Matt (the other volunteer) is in the agriculture sector, and therefore works with small producers farms. Basically, AG volunteers are trying to improve the farming class’s way of life, be it more money or easier work, without doing more harm to the environment than farming already causes. Because most farming is done outside of cities, AG volunteers tend to live in the smallest communities assigned to Peace Corps volunteers. Usually, that means no electricity, running water, internet, cell phone service and all the other niceties that us “city folk” take for granted. When you think of the Peace Corps way of life you’re probably thinking of Agriculture volunteers.

Matt’s site, called El Volcan, is situated on the mountain to the south of Somoto. To get there he has to take a 20 minute taxi to the bottom of the mountain and then walk 40 minutes straight up. Everything he’s got up there was either brought up in a backpack or in a hired 4X4 pickup truck. 11 Public Health students and I made the trip on Friday to take a look at two of Matt’s main projects: coffee farming and stove building.

Because the community is so high (3000 feet above sea level), the weather is much cooler than down in Managua (450 feet above sea level) or even Somoto. Plants like coffee are perfect in this temperature and really thrive in the constant fog that sits on the mountain every morning. The 23 families that live in Matt’s community have formed a cooperative which pools their harvest to get a better price. They also invest together in the equipment and facilities needed to maximize their farming and minimize their effect on the mountain. In terms of price, the coffee in El Volcan is almost as high a grade as it can get. It’s sold in Wegman’s under the brand “Las Segovias.” Because of their co-op status and the various benchmarks they’ve met (it’s all organic!) the families of El Volcan receive a fair market price for their coffee, which ranges between 200 to 250 dollars for 100 pounds. The community produces 20,000 pounds annually, which divided between 23 families is 3,000 córdobas a month per family: a very good salary in the country. Here are some baby coffee plants in a nursery.

Matt introduced us to a local producer who was kind enough to show us his operation. The pictures below highlight the process from start to finish. We started off looking at the baby coffee plants. These sit in a nursery for 2 years before they are planted on the mountain. Because the mountain has been so heavily deforested by previous generations and because coffee loves to grow in shade the farmers don’t have to do any clearing of the landscape to make room for the coffee. They simply plant it underneath the trees that are still around. The coffee plant then grows another year or so before it starts giving off little red fruits which contain the coffee beans. The plants can grow up to 10 feet tall and live up to 15 years, as long as they aren’t attacked by the many plagues and blights that happen in the cool climate.

Twice a year the entire village leaves all other work aside and heads up the mountain to pick coffee. Everyone is responsible for working, including the children. Unfortunately, said our tour guide, the children aren’t as careful as the adults when picking the coffee bean and damage a lot plants to the point where they can’t produce nearly as much After the coffee is harvested, the fruit is run through a machine that grinds off the fruity outside and separates the bean inside. This is the only part of the process that uses any kind of machine. Then the beans are washed various times and set out to dry. The fruity pulp is left to decompose and then is scattered among the coffee plants as a form of fertilizer. As the beans dry in the sun, workers pick through each batch and remove any shells or deformed beans. What’s left is bagged, put on mules, and taken down the mountain to be sold in Estelí. The coffee won’t get roasted until it makes it to its final destination, so at this stage it’s still very yellow, and the Nicas call it “café oro” or gold coffee.

After visiting the coffee plantation the group built an improved stove for a local family. Virtually all families in the countryside use wood stoves that are built from adobe bricks. The stoves aren’t very efficient and are horrible at moving smoke away from the house. Respiratory illnesses are almost epidemic in Nicaragua, so, while the improved stoves project is normally left up to Agriculture volunteers, we Health volunteers have a lot of interest in seeing them built.

This photo shows the group (and Matt) buiding the metal frame that will act as a skeleton inside the adobe mud that’s used to keep the stove warm. We used Matt’s model to make measurements and then cut pieces of metal and tied everything in place. Next we carried the materials to the house that received the new stove. To make it all work you need the frame, 17 bricks, 1 wooden board, and a whole bunch of mud.

After getting to the house we demolished the older, less efficient stove. We framed in the new stove with the bricks, used the mud as mortar and finally placed the metal frame on top of the bricks. Then the metal frame is coated with mud. The wooden board is used to keep the mud from falling and therefore closing the whole where the fire burns. Once the mud has dried for a week the board can be removed and the oven is ready for use. You may be asking, “what makes this stove any better?” Good question!

This stove has a ramp inside of it, which forces the heat from the fire up to each burner without actually having to burn a fire directly underneath the burner. In the old stoves, you have to have a 3 foot long fire, which means a heck of a lot of firewood. In this stove, you only need a 1 foot fire, which means one third the amount of firewood is needed. Also, the ramp forces the smoke all the way to the end of the stove and out the stovepipe that’s placed there. In the older model, smoke is leaving from all 3 of the burners, which means it stays in the kitchen with the people cooking.

So, just like that, you’ve fought deforestation and cut down on respiratory illnesses. Brilliant! The best part is each stove only costs $20 to rebuild. Matt has been raising money in his hometown in Maryland to construct stoves in the homes that need them most in El Volcán. So far he’s finished 16. Way to go, Matt!

Here are some other recent pictures from our life in Nicaragua. Enjoy! Jess took this picture on a recent hike.

Jess and I make pizza a couple times a month from scratch. We are lucky enough to have a mozzarella in the grocery store in town, although it tastes nothing like cheese in the states. We use tomatoes and pretend they are pepperoni. No pepperoni here!

Pizza going into our Easy-Bake Oven. It takes about 30 mins to cook, but it comes out pretty darn tasty.

Astro is upset because he´s not getting pizza for dinner, just a little leftover bread with his normal dog food. He´s really got nothing to complain about, though. see below.

The way most dogs look in Nicaragua. People might let them sleep near the house, but they are left to fend for themselves when it comes to food. Very sad...

Jess and I would like to wish everybody a fantastic 2009! We have some new year´s resolutions to share with you all, but first we´d like to describe the festivities that took place in Somoto.

As we explained earlier, the holiday season in Nicaragua stretches from the 7th of December, with the celebration of Purísima, until the 1st of January with the New Year. Other than church activities the 24th and the 25th were very low-key, which is unusual for any Nicaraguan holiday. The New Year, however, was nothing of the sort.

We had thought about leaving town and spending New Year´s with other Peace Corps volunteers, but with all of the traveling with Jess´s parents, we decided to stay in Somoto and spend time with our ex-host family. We met them at another relative´s house in Somoto about 8ish. Silvia is getting ready for their 3rd child, who is due on the 16th of January. She was at her sisters with the two girls, Adriana (10) and Ena Sofia (5). The new baby is a boy and will be named Akhnatontito, or little Akhnaton, after his father. Big Akhnaton did get to the party until later. The family just received a big loan to start building a house. They´ve had a plot of land in Somoto for a while now, but with building costs so high, they were waiting until the right time. Since gas prices have dropped a bit down here, they jumped on the opportunity to get started. Akhnaton, who is one of the most orderly Nicaraguans we know, has been ordering all of the materials from Managua, where it is cheaper to buy them in bulk and ship them to Somoto than it would be to buy locally. New Year´s Eve he was waiting for a truck loaded with 120 100 lb. bags of cement. Since they don´t use wood to build here (it rots to easily in the heat and rain) the main building materials are concrete, concrete blocks, and iron to tie the whole thing together. I don´t know if it make the building go faster, but it sure seems like it. Now that the building materials are here Akhnaton´s contractor is going to finish the 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in 2 months. We´ll see about that…

Anyway, Silvia and the girls were at her sister´s house with the rest of their family. Jess and I have had the opportunity to get to know most of the extended family, and even work with a few in a professional setting, so we´re very comfortable with the family. Visiting at the house were relatives from all over Nicaragua as well as Donald and Alison who now live in Boston, MA. Alison was the Peace Corps volunteer in Somoto before Jess and I. She met Donald, a Nicaraguan, during her service and they got married about 6 months before leaving. So, Donald has had only a few months less than us to learn English (when we were learning Spanish) and he´s doing great. His favorite thing about living in the States is the variety of food. He really likes Chinese food. The thing he hates most is the cold weather. I think Boston got hit pretty hard with ice and cold in the past few weeks, so it´s justified.

At Silvia´s sister´s house we were served Relleno (pronounced Ray-yay-no), which literally means ¨stuffed¨. So, it´s kind of like our stuffing that we use to fill a turkey on Thanksgiving. This stuffing is make of pulled pork and shredded chicken. Next they had a bread and milk pulp to give it a little body. Then come the spices and veggies, which include potatoes, carrots, olives, capers, raisins, and prunes.

Then the whole thing is cooked down and served over rice with bread. It´s tough to compare the taste to anything we have back home, except for maybe a pulled pork sandwich without the barbecue sauce. It was very rich, to say the least.

There was a piñata in the street about 10:00 and all the local kids took a swing. The poor guy got pretty well beat up, but that´s just the way the cookie crumbles in Nicaragua.

We stayed at Silvia´s sister´s house until about 11, when we walked back to Akhnaton´s house to put Ena Sofia to bed. Most of the family stayed at the other house, but a few of us walked over to watch the festivities more towards the center of town. There isn´t a particular television program that people watch to know when it´s midnight, but you just kind of know it´s the new year when all of the fireworks start going off. Out in the streets, anybody and everybody was lighting things that flew, things that sparked, things that blew up, etc. Old people, kids who couldn´t have been more than 6, and everyone in between. Chaos would be a nice way to describe it. Then came the viejos. A few families on each block donate old clothes and dress up a scarecrow like figure. The figure sits outside the house for the day, usually with a bottle of alcohol in his hand to express the festive spirit. Then, just before midnight he is stuffed with fireworks and moved into the street. Once he´s there, he gets doused in alcohol or gas and he waits. After the clock strikes 12 he gets lit on fire. Pretty soon, the fire works catch and man…it was quite a sight. Hopefully these pictures will demonstrate the event. Perhaps we should add piñatas and viejos to our list of afflicted peoples in Nicaragua.

Jess saying goodbye to a viejo who lived down the street from us. By the time we walked home at 3:00 he was just a pile of ashes...

A viejo being lit near Akhnaton and Silvia´s house.

1 minute after ignition.

2 minutes after ignition.

3 minutes after ignition....so sad.

Unlike the States, the party doesn´t end at 12:30 or so. Our Nicaraguan hosts told us that we weren´t allowed to go home until 5 in the morning, or we´d risk bad luck all year long. We made it to about 3, and then decided to take the risk. It turned out they were just pulling our leg and as soon as we left the party shut down. Everyone else was asleep by 3:30. We woke up around 7 the next morning to take Astro for a walk, and I´ve never seen Somoto quieter. Today is the 3rd and it seems like people are still recovering. Monday, however, things are back in business and we are back to work, with hopefully a bunch of fun adventures to come in 2009.

The New Year´s cake: Sopa Borracha, which actually means drunken soup. But it´s a cake...go figure.

Kids in the street with their sparklers.

Astro hanging out with some friends. He stayed home for the night.

Astro stayed home, but the fireworks kept him up. This is the morning after (10am), still recovering.

Jess´s New Year´s Resolutions:

1. Write more.

2. Work on my Spanish

Matt´s New Year´s Resolutions:

1. Keep in touch with friends from home.

2. Play more guitar.

Combined resolutions:

1. Exercise more.

2. Read more in Spanish.

Matt and I want to say a big thank you to my mom, dad and sisters, Tine and Jen. They all made the trek down to Nicaragua for Christmas, and despite a number of travel difficulties, they have since all made it back to the states in one piece.

The fam arrived the Saturday before Christmas, late at night, so we jumped across the highway and spent the night at Las Mercedes hotel before getting up bright and early. We headed to Somoto in the 16-passenger van that we had rented (the next smallest vehicle supposedly held 8 passengers and 2 pieces of luggage. But with all of the bags in tow and a promise to Matt that we wouldn’t abandon the dog for the week, we needed a bit more room, so a ‘microbus’ it was).We made a quick stop at the famous la Casita for lunch and then we arrived in Somoto on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Mom, Dad, Tine and Jen checked into the Hotel Colonial in town and came over to meet Astro and see the house. We followed it up with a fabulous dinner at our host-family’s house, prepared by Akhnaton. The meal was absolutely over the top – salad followed by a steak topped with two traditional Nicaragua sauces, locally-made sausage, baked potato stuffed with queso and butter, and a desert of jello and ice cream. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures so we don’t have any evidence of the meal, except perhaps a few extra pounds.After a night in Somoto, we made our way down one of the worst roads in Nicaragua to the beach at Leon, las peñitas. We spent a relaxing two nights there, getting to know the local beach, food and dogs (yes, Astro went with us).  Then we headed to the famous Ometepe, where we spent Christmas. We went horse-back riding (the planned 3-hour trip rapidly devolved into an hour once we realized that few of us were actually cut out to sit on a horse’s back for any substantial length of time) we saw petroglyphs, monkeys and just relaxed. We planned to spend our last day exploring Masaya and the Masaya volcano, but due to some travel difficulties leaving the island, our departure was delayed 7 hours and we just made it to get the van back 5 minutes before the 8-oclock deadline.All in all, I think that it was a good trip. We don’t have a lot of photos, because most were taken with my mom’s camera. Maybe she’ll write a post and we can see my family’s opinions of Nicaragua and some of the pictures that they have!

For the past 5 months or so, Matt and I have been spending most of our ‘sitting time’ in two plastic chairs that were gifted to us by the previous volunteer in Somoto. While we were quite grateful to have been given the chairs, my bum was getting tired of sitting on hard plastic when I wanted to read, hang out or watch a DVD on the laptop. So, in the typical manner in which things get accomplished in our relationship, I told Matt that I wanted to build a futon and he, instead of telling me I was crazy, calmly looked at the photos I had downloaded from the internet, said ‘OK’ and began figuring out how to do it.

The process began last weekend with a hunt around town to find a suitable mattress (‘mattress’ is a pretty loose term here; imagine a sac of material stuffed with foam, cardboard, paper – whatever is around and leftover). After a morning of hunting, haggling and chasing after Astro, we finally settled on a delightful pattern of Pooh (Winnie that is), accompanied by honey pots and bees. Quite classy.

The next step was to hunt down some wood. So we walked across town to the ‘Venta de Madera’ (the wood store) and bought enough to build our futon. Two gentlemen hanging around out front were nice enough to drive the wood to our house for the bargain price of $C60 (three dollars).

After visiting the only hardware shop open on Saturday afternoons, we were ready with all our materials – mattress, wood, nails, saw and hammer. We spent the better part of a day building the thing, but now we have a comfy place to sit!

Matt, cutting the wood on the back patio.

Astro...hard at work.

Me, measuring wood inside the house (in Nicaraguan fashion, it started to rain heavily after we started the project and we had to move it inside)

Astro and the giraffe...still hard at work. Matt nailing.Matt and Astro enjoying the fashionable futon :).

September 15th is Nicaragua’s National Independence Day. It marks the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto when 150 Nicaraguans fought off a force of 150 Americans under the leadership of William Walker, “The Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny,” as he named himself. Walker was invited down by one of the warring factions during Nicaragua’s decades of civil war to once and all rout the enemy into submission. Walker and his crew of American Filibusters completed their task with such success that they continued on their way, defeating the army of the party that had hired them! With no armies left in Nicaragua besides his own, Walker made himself president (after a free and fair election, of course) in 1856, made English the official language of Nicaragua, and turned Granada into his own personal playground. He only lasted a few years before the Nicaraguans mustered enough force to run him out of Dodge. Walker left his mark along the way, however, burning Granada to the ground. The big battle happened at San Jacinto, between Managua and Leon. The Nicaraguans were holed up in a ranch and Walker’s forces had the entire place surround. Running low on ammunition, Andrés Castro, now a Nicaraguan legend, picked up a rock, a killed in an American attacker by throwing the rock at his face. Apparently, his men followed suit and they had just enough rocks to stall the Americans until another force arrived to attack the Americans from behind. The Nicaraguans won and Walker fled to the States. He made his way back down a few years later to reclaim his thrown, but was swiftly captured and hung in Honduras, before ever making it back to Nicaragua. OK, so that’s why Jess and I had Monday, the 15th, off from work. While Somoto filled it streets with the lovely sounds of 15 bandas de guerra, or marching bands, Jess and I decided to head out for the quiet tranquility of the mountains. We made our way to Miraflor, a 120 square mile protected area outside of Estelí. Miraflor is special not just for its ecology, which is very different than its surroundings, but also for the way of life of its residents. Mirafloreños are agriculturalists, but they do it in a very sustainable way. They are big into any technology that will lower their impact on the land, such as solar panels and natural fertilizers. They’ve also realized the tourist potential of Miraflor and have worked to make it a popular destination for those interested in nature. We stayed at a little cabin without electricity surrounded by coffee and banana plants (which grow very well together). Our cabin was on the edge of a cloud forest, which feels a lot like a rain forest, just colder. Basically, every night the drastic chance in temperature creates a mist that covers the entire landscape and doesn’t go away until the sun burns it off around 10:30 in the morning. For the plants, it’s like getting rained on every single night, so the forest is really damp and jungly, while still only getting to 75-80 degrees everyday. Jess, Astro and I passed our time hiking and exploring, not to mention just relaxing. Astro was able to get in touch with his roots and try his hand at herding. It didn’t go so well, however. The cows and horses weren’t very afraid, the chickens weren’t cooperative, and sheep actually tried to herd him. Jess and I enjoyed the food, cooked by a local family, as well as the downright frigid nights. It was the first time we’ve felt cold since leaving the States. We were sleeping in long sleeves and pants under a very heavy comforter. Commuting to and from Miraflor was also quite an adventure. The busses were packed and Astro had to spend the majority of the time tucked under a seat. Going out to Miraflor was a 1 hour ride from Somoto to Estelí and then a 2 hour ride from Estelí to Miraflor. On the way home we managed to hitch a ride, which had us bumping down the hill at a fast enough pace to get us back to Estelí in about 40 minutes. So, that’s how we spent our Nicaraguan Independence Day. We’re spending Tuesday just cleaning the house and preparing for the week. Hopefully things will be settling down for the two of us and we’ll be able to write more blog posts again. If you are still reading, thanks for doing so! Here are some more pictures of our adventure to give you a better idea of a cloud forest.

Jess climbing into a hollow tree.

I love this sign because of all the hidden jokes. First of all, Nicaraguans have a big problem when it comes to the difference between B and V, because they both sound the same when speaking. Therefore, when writing, they constantly mix them up. Occasionally you get hilarious signs like this one, which is supposed to say, ¨Don´t throw garbage.¨ as in don´t throw garbage in the street. It actually reads, however, ¨Don´t vote garbage.¨ Which is also a very important thing not to do. Therefore, we encourage all of you, not to throw garbage in the street and also not to vote garbage...

Dr. Werder, I presume?

Be sure to stay on the path...the plants are watching you!!

Every dog has his dreams... (those are cows out there in the field)

Bananas growing over coffee plants and next to pine trees. Who would have thunk it?!

Coolest tree house ever.

OK... I had a whole post written up on my flash drive, but it appears to have left. So, the abridged version is that Jess and I went to the canyon again this weekend to look for cool rocks. Then we went to a 90th birthday party for a neighbor´s mom. Lastly, Astro got hit by a car and lost a toenail, but he´s alright!

OK, more to come!

Jess and the birthday girl, Rosa Mariela.

Rosa Mariela and her 5 kids who live in Somoto, Managua, Costa Rica, and Canada.

Dancing with her son from Canada who was forced to leave when the Sandanistas took power. He´s been living abroad more that 25 years, but manages to visit his mom every year or so.

This party was a big deal, with a monster cake and everything. Almost 100 people showed up!

A picture from the mouth of the Somoto Cañon. Jess took this one.

Here´s Astro scrambling among the rocks. It´s almost impossible to get him to sit still long enough to take a picture. We´ve also finally come up with Astro´s breed. He´s really a mutt, but we have to say something to everyone that asks. Therefore, he is officially a Nicaraguan Highland Retriever. It´s not a very well known breed because they live in the isolated mountanous communities of Nicaragua. Their primary uses are cattle, sheep, goat, and bee herding, but have also known to be used by rescue teams during crisis situations to find lost people and food. An official census shows that the breed is down to only about 200 in the world.

Jess and Astro harnessing their chi at the river shore.

That´s all for now, sorry for the delay. We´d love to hear your ideas for a breed for Astro, so post them on the blog!

As you’ve been hearing over the past two months, virtually all of my work-time during the month of July was devoted to working with a group of Irish volunteers from the University College of Dublin (www.ucdvo.org). Spending time with this group was one of the most enriching experiences of my Peace Corps service so far for several reasons:

1. I met a lot of great Somoteñans who helped me connect to the true pulse of Somoto. I know now where to go to rent a bus, get a good take out meal, and buy 30 bags of cement at discount prices.

2. I met a lot of great Irish folk who were able to accomplish an enormous task in only 6 weeks. Let’s just say it was nice to work at a faster pace than “Nica-time.”

3. I was able to help in a way that only a Peace Corps volunteer could and in a way that I believe can really help the developing world.

To expand on the third point, the project really needed someone who could translate for the group, but also had knowledge of the area and the various institutions involved. They also needed someone who could step outside of regular responsibilities and devote a significant amount of time to the project before, during, and after the actual construction. Luckily, as a Peace Corps volunteer, my role with the Health Department allowed me to do exactly that, and still stay inside my normal job description.

Secondly, we talk a lot in Peace Corps about sustainable development, which means that the projects we start should be sustainable long after we’re gone. In order to have sustainable development, you have to have community engagement to keep up interest in a project. You also need to have committed volunteers or contributors that can take over a managing kind of role when the program reaches a certain stage of stability. Lastly, most importantly, and perhaps sadly, there needs to be a steady stream of funds to maintain the financial costs and obligations of a project. Step 1 and 2 are fairly easy to accomplish, as long as the project really is for the benefit of the community. However, that last step really is a doozy. If long term funding can’t be guaranteed, the community incentive to even start a project is almost zero, and for good reason.

The volunteers from UCDVO take the time to research a community and it’s needs before committing to a project, but once it’s assured that a real benefit can be provided, they come in and take care of step 3. In this case, the real expense of a health center is the construction and medical equipment. If the Health Department can manage paying for qualified staff (1 nurse 5 days a week and 1 doctor 2 days a week) and building maintenance, then you’ve got yourself a sustainable project!

OK, well, if this kind of boring stuff interests anyone out there, let us know and we’ll write a little more about the theory behind being a Peace Corps volunteer. Until then, take a look at these pictures that show the progression of the project, and finally the inauguration ceremony on Thursday.

The project should be finished by the middle of September, so look for final pictures then!

Before I write about our adventures I want to thank Matt for putting up with me for the majority of two weeks. This was the best vacation I have ever had, which doesn’t say much since I have never gone on a real, legitimate vacation. If I had, however, I’m sure this one would have been better…

I have never been out of the country. I don’t count Canada because…well, I just don’t. I was excited and scared out of my mind at the thought of traveling to Central America. To me, this was a place I only saw on maps and maybe memorized names and capitals in sixth grade. To be honest, I had to check where Nicaragua was just so I could orient myself to where I was going to be spending my two weeks.

I wrote to Matt probably a month before I actually left and told him, half jokingly, that I was going to come and visit him, that I had tons of vacation time accumulated, and that I was coming as soon as I could. A week later I purchased my first passport, expedited of course, and, thank you Orbitz, a round trip ticket to Nicaragua.

With pretzels as a gift from the States, I met Matt and Jess at the airport in Managua, and stepped onto soil other than U.S. soil.

The first few days were acclimation days, and did I ever acclimate. “I put my toilet paper in what?” “Hey Matt, where is the hot water knob in the shower?” “Hola waiter, do you have anything else besides rice and beans? Tostones? Sounds great!”

From Managua we traveled by bus to Estelí and then hitchhiked on the back of a pickup truck to Somoto. We spent the evening walking around town and had dinner at a local restaurant. Matt, or should I say Matteo, is pretty much a celebrity in Somoto. Everyone waves at him and shouts his name like he’s a rock star. Speaking of rockstars, I was introduced to an amazing Nicaraguan band called PerroZompopo. It was a relief to hear something else besides reggaeton in this country.

The next day we met up with the Irish, a group I’m sure Matt has “blogged” about many times. From their health center construction site, Matt and I saddled some horses, Bob and Frank, and rode off into Honduras, snapping pictures at petroglyphs along the way. On the way back, yes, I did get clotheslined in the face and fell off my horse. I would just like to add that for the duration of the ride my horse (actual name: Maria de los Pobres) was simply amazing and I felt like a regular John Wayne. Matt’s horse (actual name: Pony) on the other hand, would stop for no reason and stare at a tree or rock. I think Matt just needed to work on his horse taming-skills a little better.

The following day brought hopes of swimming and exploring more of the countryside via Somoto Canyon. This would turn out to be one of the scariest and most exciting adventures of my two weeks. For the sake of not wanting Matt kicked out of the Peace Corps, I will make this the abridged version. Astro fell in, and into one of the worst parts of the river too. Escaping near death from rapids and the clenches of fire ant mandibula, we bouldered up the canyon and into a cow farm where we thought we would have to spend the night. Thankfully Matt found some ant covered tortillas, tomatoes, and a well worn path that turned out to only be a few kilometers from the Pan-American Highway.

Back to Somoto for dinner and Toña, my personal favorite.

I had far fetched plans to travel on my own for a few days, and I did. I took a bus to the city of León. Here I stayed at a very nice hostel, did my souvenir shopping, and swam in the Pacific Ocean. Seeing the Pacific was the best part of my trip. Maybe it’s because I was on my own, or that I was in a foreign country, possibly even both. But like they say, “Words will never fully describe it.” And since my camera got wet in the river, I will hold that experience in my mind.

Matt met me in León the following Wednesday. We went out that evening for pizza, Chinese, and beer. I have never had amoebas, and never want to, but after that dinner I feel I have some idea what it feels like to have them. On Thursday we took an early bus to Granada and enjoyed desayuno at Kathy’s Waffle House. From there we traveled to a place called Laguna de Apoyo, a gorgeous crater lake in the center of an ancient dormant volcano, and swam all day. Getting up early again to catch a bus, we traveled to Masaya to meet up with Jess, who just got back from the States, and to take a ride to see an active volcano. Volcán Nindirí showed some activity a week prior, so there was some sulfur smoke rising from her depths when we showed up. After being asphyxiated by smoke, we ventured into the bat caves of Volcán Masaya.

The next few days were basically relaxation and reflection days. I said goodbye to Matt and Jess and stayed in Laguna de Apoyo one more time. The next day I traveled to Managua where I stayed in a hostel and saw Batman “The Dark Knight” at a local theater for 50 córdobas, or $2.50 in U.S. dollars.

My flight out of the country left at 6:30 the following morning. I was sad to leave. My first time out of the U.S. was better than I expected. Where else, and with whom else for that matter, can you almost die in a river, get eaten by fire ants, swim in Pacific waters, see an active volcano, and do it all for really cheap? Leaving is part of the experience, I believe. It’s your chance to bring stories and a new perspective back with you for use in your hectic daily life.

Aside from all the things I did and the experiences I had while I was there, I also got to see the benefits of Matt and Jess’s work in the Peace Corps. Their volunteer work in health education, particularly in HIV/AIDS awareness, is life-changing for the people of Nicaragua and inspiring for those of us back here in the States.

Thank you Matt and Jess for taking the time to show me around and for almost killing me. I’ll never forget it.

Friends, Family and Amoebas

First of all: Apologies. We have not posted in a while, mostly because we have both been busy traveling across large geographical distances and haven’t paused to write about our adventures. Matt will write about his travels, but as for me, I just returned last week from an absolutely wonderful trip to New York/New Jersey, in which I managed to combine visits with my friends and family (Matt’s family included J).

The impetus for the trip was the wedding of Jolene and Zach Bennett, and I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity to be part of the wedding and to see so many people that I love, all in one space! My mom and dad also deserve thanks, for two things – for bringing together so much family, and for organizing an amazing picnic, the highlight of my entire trip. And thanks must, of course, be given to Matt’s parents, Dave and Cathy who carted me all the way from Newark to Syracuse, and later from Honeoye back .

Despite what Dave may think, I actually enjoyed the roughly 11-hour car ride with my in-laws nearly as much as the food (though the food clearly comes in first place – I’m sorry).

The Newlyweds!

While my trip home was amazing, timely and filling, my return trip to Nicaragua quickly reminded me that Nicaragua and New York are clearly different places. First of all, the humidity of Western New York in July pales in comparison to the suffocating heat of Managua that greats you when you leave the plane. And, next to the 11-hour, nicely air-conditioned trip in the cute convertible PT cruiser of my in-laws, the 3 hour bus to Ocotal seems to take a century.

Reaching home Tuesday morning, after roughly 24 hours of traveling, all that I wanted to do was shower. But of course, there was no water in Somoto, and it didn’t return until about 8pm. To top it all off, I was acutely reminded that I live in a third-world, tropical country on Thursday, when I awoke with massive stomach pains, vomiting and the need to visit the bathroom several times throughout the morning. Apparently the amoebas that seem to have taken up residence in my stomach were thrilled that I had chosen to return to their country of origin. Thank god for pharmaceuticals.

After readjusting to Nicaragua (Matt and I are still having serious discussions about the reverse culture shock of visiting the states and the adjustment needed to come back, but that seems too serious of a conversation for the blog right now), medicating myself heavily and sleeping for nearly 24-hours, I decided to join Matt and Aeron in Masaya and Granada for the weekend. I was still feeling a bit exhausted, but not too much for some bat-cave adventures at Volcan Masaya. Pretty cool stuff, especially with our great bilingual tourguide, Luis. I also scored an absolutely beautiful amber necklace and ring set, handmade by a Chilean women. Matt bought it as a gift for me in Granada – I consider myself very lucky to have a thoughtful husband, who also has a great eye for jewelry.

All in all, life continues as always in Somoto. We work, we eat and we play with the dog….

Amoebas Today, Gone Tomorrow

Jess and I both are recovering from amoebas, but I’ve had mine waaaay longer than her. I almost feel bad killing them off, I feel like we’ve bonded over the past month. However, waking up with morning sickness is just not something I ever want to experience again.

The Irish group and their health center are coming along nicely, although over the past two weeks I haven’t had much of an opportunity to participate in the building. Most of my time (when not out of Somoto) has been spent negotiating with contractors, lunch ladies, and solar panel salesmen. I really enjoy the role I fill with this group, but it leaves me exhausted at the end of the day. They are looking to finish up the 8th of August, which means our time is quickly winding down. Consequently, I am really poking and prodding Nicaraguan business folk who are used to a slower pace of life.

Our boss from Managua came to visit us last Monday and Tuesday to check in on our work and living situations. All volunteers are required to have some sort of activity ready to show them what it is we do on a daily basis. I took our Assistant Peace Corps Director for Health and the Project Specialist for Health to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting around the corner from my house. It’s a group of about 40 recovered alcoholics, all men, who meet every single night (7 days a week) from 7-9 to discuss and fraternize. Some of these guys haven’t had a drink in a decade, but they still go every single night. So, we spiced it up a bit with an HIV talk. I really enjoy working with men in this capacity, so it was easy for me. We talked about the virus, how it’s transmitted, its effects and how it can be prevented. We even did a condom demonstration with a variety of vegetables. Specifically, we put condoms on a cucumber, a yucca root, a carrot, an ear of corn, a banana, and a platano verde. Clearly, we had a ripsnortin’ time and learned quite a bit as well. Peace Corps was happy.

After the visit I met up with Aeron in Nicaragua’s second colonial city, León. León isn’t nearly as touristy as Granada (Nicaragua’s and the New World’s first colonial city). We had a great time and stayed at a great hostel that was cheap, clean, and relaxing. We went on from there to Granada, then Laguna de Apoyo, and finally to Masaya to meet up with Jess. I won’t go too into detail about our adventures, as Aeron is going to be a guest blogger and elaborate on our journeys.

One of my favorite parts of his visit was our horseback ride into the mountains bordering Honduras. We headed out from the Irish’s up and coming health center and headed toward a town called “Las Pintadas,” or, the painted [rocks]. The community says they have several pre-columbian petroglyphs scatter around, but we only encountered one. Either way, it was pretty cool. From there we continued on past the community. Aeron’s horse was named Maria de los Pobres and mine was called Pony. Astro came along, but he didn’t get his own horse. He just chose to ride mine when we was tired, and/or lazy, depending on your opinion. Basically, Aeron and I just aimed for the highest peak on the horizon and rode towards it. A few hours later we were at the top with a beautiful of both Nicaraguan and Honduran countryside. We rode back almost completely in a full gallop, with Astro keeping pace next to Pony (who I chose to call Frank because Pony sounds too wimpy). We arrived back at the worksite, a couple of true American cowboys, with our cattle-ranchin’ dog in tow. Everyone was awed by our equestrian mastery. That is until Aeron was clotheslined by a wire connecting a couple of fence posts. He fell right off of Maria de los Pobres (who he was calling Bob, despite the gender contradiction), but luckily she was a small horse. His fall did nothing more than hurt his pride and dispel the respect of the Irish. They are a harsh group, what can I say.

I’m also beginning to study for the GRE’s. They are being offered in Managua in October and November and I want to take them with plenty of time to re-test if I go belly up. That being said, please take note of my expanded vocabulary in this post and those in the future. Thank you.

More to come!

Laguna de Apoyo at sunrise. Nuthin´better!

Aeron Hurley: Today, world explorer and cancer research pioneer. Tomorrow, Greek god.

Here we are about to climb into the bowels of the sulfur spewing volcano you see behind us. Hi, Mom!

I survived the Volcán Masaya Lava Tunnels and all I got was this stinking bat guano on my legs...

The Cathedral of Granada.

Optimism and Innovation, the two keys to hitch-hiking.

Kathy´s Waffle House, Granada. American Diner food never tasted so good.

The Cathedral in León, still awaiting a facelift like it´s cousin in Granada.

The condiments found on the table of a local Chinese restaurant in León. Okay, okay, we brought the beers....

Welcome to the Canyon!

Me, Astro, and Pony, also known as Frank, contemplating the universe and our pack out lunches.

Aeron, Maria de los Pobres, also known as Bob, somehwere near the Honduran Frontier.

Aeron and Astro, best friends who found each other through Emo music.

Jess and Aeron found this incredible specimen sunning himself by the pool of our Managuan hostel. Croikey!

The Island of Omotepe!

Hello to all you faithful readers out there. First of all, our apologies for not posting in quite a while. Since we last wrote, Jess has spent a week in Carazo (our old training site) and I have begun working with a group of Irish volunteers who are building a health center near Somoto in just under 6 weeks.El Volcán Concepción

We also spent the 4th of July on the Island of Omotepe. It´s located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It´s actually the largest fresh-water island in the world with two huge volcanoes, one which is active. The volcano Concepción last erupted in 2007, so let´s just say it´s really active. The island offers all sorts of nature outings, but Jess and I chose to have a relaxing weekend and spent most of our time napping in hammocks or eating. We did go on a hike to see some pre-Columbian petroglyphs. They were carved in volcanic rocks a few miles from the hostel we were staying at. There was a bunch of pretty flowers and wildlife as well. Fairly interesting stuff!

The trip was really more of a reunion for our Peace Corps training group. We celebrated 3 birthdays (mine included) and just caught up on our experiences over the past the months. The birthday boys got cookies and a piñata full of chocolate. Nicaraguans have giant piñatas like in Mexico, but the way they are destroyed varies. In Nicaragua the person hitting the piñata isn´t blindfolded, but the challenge is much greater. The person hitting has to dance while they swing the bat, and another person is pulling the piñata up and down on a string. Very difficult.

The hotel that we stayed at was like a beefed up tree house with hammocks and lawnchairs and rooms hidden all over the place. Unfortunately, the don´t accept credit cards, so Jess and I were stuck camping at the lake´s edge. We had brought our tent, however, so it really wasn´t that bad. We also saved a bunch of money!

On the way back across the lake we found ourselves on a much smaller ferry than on our trip across. What we rode couldn´t really be called anything more than a tugboat. There was only the main deck, which was already loaded with produce before the ¨human¨ cargo even made it on board. While the ride was very beautiful, we all were a little nervous we´d hit a giant wake and find ourselves swimming amongst pineapples and potatoes.

The week has been fairly regular, with Jess once again in Somoto. I´ve been working on the construction site of the Health Center every day, which has been great. Astro has been joining us occasionally, but has had to stay home lately because we´re pouring concrete. He did get to take a run with his dad the other day, though. I don´t know if we´ve explained this in the past, but Astro lived with his biological father and his family for the 4 months of his life before we got him. Every time we go by their house, it´s always a battle to keep Astro from running in the door. We bring him by for visits, but only when he´s just had a bath. We don´t want them to judge. Sometimes when we´re out and about we find Astro´s dad just sitting outside his house. His dad still remembers his son, like any good father, and always likes to run with around with us as we walk. The two look almost identical, so a lot of our acquaintences around town are constantly laughing and pointing at our white dog parade. It´s ok, though. We like the attention.Can you guess which one is our dog?

So, that´s all for now. Jess heads back to the States next week and Aeron Hurley is coming to visit for a couple weeks. We´ll have plenty of adventures to share as well as pictures of the construction site. Thanks for reading and we´ll be sure to post more soon!

Today is my 24th birthday. Nothing too excitingis happening, but we did have a spectacular weekend and I’m looking forward to a great dinner!

The weekend:

Jess, Astro, and I visited Salto Estanzuelo, a 45 foot waterfall just outside of Estelí. It was quite an ordeal getting there, but definitely worth the trip. Astro made his first trip on an inter-city bus and got to spend time in the Peace Corps office in Estelí. It’s not much, but Peace Corps maintains a little space with a bathroom and shower, small library and two computers with computer and internet. It’s available to any volunteer (you just go to the store next door and ask for the key) but really only gets used by volunteers in our area. We went to the office so I could research my future. I’m thinking about going to grad school when we get back, so we took a few hours to research programs and figure out how to take the GRE’s in Nicaragua. We made it back to Somoto by 7ish and were completely beat.

Sunday both Jess and I were sore and stiff from our travels. Astro wasn’t. We spent the day cleaning and relaxing. We also hung out with our host family and watched the Spain-Italy Eurocup game. Being the huge sports fans we are, we left during overtime. I wonder who won?

The dinner:

Jess is going to make me the following:

Cold chicken fajitas on flour tortillas with refried beans, guacamole, salsa, lettuce and cheese.

A twice baked potato

Lemon Bars

It should be great. I’m especially looking forward to the Lemon Bars. We’ll see if she pulls it off…

This week is going to be one of my busiest. First of all, the Health Center announced last week that we are in a little bit of a health crisis. In the past week, the Health Center tested three more people positive for HIV. That brings this years total to 6. There were only 7 in all of 2007. The health center recently started pushing the HIV rapid test, which is completely voluntary, confidential, and only takes 20 minutes. 98% of the women that have come into our maternity clinic in the past 2 months have elected to get tested. That’s a really good thing. The bad thing is that some of our worst fears are now being realized. Nicaragua has one of the lowest rates on HIV in Central America…lowest recorded rates, that is. It also has one of the lowest testing rates, which means could be a bunch of people out there with HIV who just don’t know (and neither do we). With these 3 new cases in just 1 week, it looks as if that’s the truth. What are we going to do about it? We started a massive outreach campaign promoting the test and alerting people to the gravity of the situation. On Friday alone we spoke with a union of taxi drivers and two radio programs. Monday is a talk with the Police. Tuesday, university students and Wednesday, the firemen. We’ll be bringing the rapid test and a few nurses to each stop, which means anyone who wants to can go ahead and get tested right there. We’ll post updates on how we do.

Another big thing on my plate is a group of 20 Irish volunteers who are coming to build a health center in an outlying community. They are arriving on the 27th. Last year, the ame group built a health center in another community and the previous Peace Corps volunteer handled all of the translating and logistics. I will be filling that role this year. The group is here for 6 weeks, only the first of which I’ll devote entirely to them. Afterwards it will be on a needs basis. I’m looking forward to teaching the group a crash course in Nicaraguan Spanish and Culture. I also can’t wait to pick up a shovel and get my hands dirty. I think I expected a lot more hands on labor in Peace Corps. Who knew it’d be so much office work?

Jess and I are also gearing up for July, which is shaping up to be a very busy month. She’s going back to Carazo for a week of Language Training (I can’t because of the Irish). We’re planning on joining a group of volunteers in Omotepe for the 4th of July. Then Jess is heading back to the States from the 17th to the 21st. She’ll be missing out on Somoto’s Fiestas Patronales (July 17th and 18th) and Nicaragua’s “Independence Day” of July 19th. I put Independence Day in quotes, because they really didn’t gain Independence from a foreign power. They gained it from a Nicaraguan dictator and put in place Sandinista leaders who some would argue actually made the country worse. More on that as we get closer.

Thanks for reading!

Also, thank you to Aunt Ellen for the delicious doggie treat hamburgers! Astro really enjoys them! Everyone also got a big laugh out of the dog receiving a package, including the mail workers (the name Astro isn´t listed as one of the tenants of our mailbox).

After 5 days of hard work drawing, cutting and pasting, my mural on Breastfeeding is complete! Today I hung it up in the Casa Materna, and kind of group home where women in their last days of pregnancy wait for the big day. The Casa Materna has a nurse on duty day and night, and has a direct line to the hospital, which sends an ambulance as soon as a woman goes into labor. It´s a great option for women living in the country who otherwise would be giving birth in their homes. The women can stay at the house for as long as they need to (normally 15 to 25 days). Their food and lodging is free, paid for by a Nicaraguan non-profit. The women also receive daily talks about nutrition, hygeine, and other things like breastfeeding.

I know my mom and her scrapbooking club would be very proud of this accomplishment. In fact, I´m dedicating this mural to her upcoming scrapbooking marathon. Go get em!

Astro, reaching his 5 month birthday on the 30th of May, has also begun improving his personal hygeine. Following in the style of Jess´ parents´ pets, Astro is now brushing his teeth nightly...all by himself. I, for one, have always believed that the Werders have a special way with animals, and it seems as though Jess also shares this incredible talent.

Today…the impossible…has been realized. In an incredible feat of international diplomacy, trans-atlantic crosswinds, and pure luck I hold in my hand the letters from Mrs. Lyttle’s class. Somehow the U.S. Postal Service and (even more incredibly) Correo Nacional de Nicaragua delivered their package to our mailbox in 4 days. 4 days! In honor of this momentous occasion we will now attempt to respond to your letters in record time, as well.

Anyway, it’s great to hear that the parent dinner was such a success. We were sad to miss it, especially the Goldfish! Someone asked what my theme was for the parent dinner. Sadly, I was never in Mrs. Lyttle’s class to choose a theme. I did, however, get to attend pretty much all of the previous 19. Jess even made it to a couple! OK, on to the questions:

After swimming in the Río Coco, did your Spanish get better?

The Río Coco is the spiritual center of the indigenous cultures of Nicaragua. Therefore, after swimming in the Río Coco, one should emerge speaking one of the Native American tribal languages, like Miskito. Nicaragua was one of the first places to be colonized in the New World. Christopher Columbus first reached mainland in Nicaragua, at a point he named “Gracias a Dios,” or, “Thank God [we made it]!” I added the “we made it” part, be really the phrase “Gracias a Dios” is pretty much only used in situations like that. However, Columbus came up with it 600 years ago, so something might have been lost in the proceeding centuries. Nicaragua is also home to the first Colonial city in the Americas: Granada.

Anyway, the point of all that background was to say that we think of Spanish as the native language down here because it’s been here a really long time, and pretty much all of the real native languages have been wiped out.

And no, we can’t speak Miskito.

Adriana likes to listen to American Music. Where does she buy her CD’s?

Most Nicaraguans buy their CD’s from black-market vendors who download the real CD and just burn copies on their computer. That’s also how they get their movies. Each disc usually costs 20 córdobas (about 1 dollar), but quality can really range the entire spectrum. The rest of the Nicaraguans download music online and save it on generic versions of Ipods or on their cellphones.

Americans think buying music like this (pirating music) is a bad thing, as the artists and companies involved in producing the music and movies don’t get their share of the profits. It’s also virtually impossible to find these pirated copies in the States. Down here, though, I don’t think we’ve seen a single legitimate vender who sells CDs or DVDs in their original, licensed form. Therefore, Nicaraguans get their music the only way available: the black market. Oh, and the black market also happens to be mixed in with all of the perfectly legal products on the legal market, so who can really know the difference?! There are black market meat stalls right next to stalls with meat checked daily by the health department. It’s also very common in Nicaragua to pay for anything using solely cash. That way you don’t have to pay taxes and neither does the vendor!

By the way, Jess and I don’t condone this activity and neither does the Peace Corps, the US Government, or the Nicaraguan government, but that’s just the way it is down here.

What’s it like living with Astro?

Astro is great! We love hanging out with him and he likes it, too. A couple times a week we go running in the mornings. The other mornings we go to a local playground where we teach him tricks. So far he goes down the spiral slide and the straight one all by himself. We’re going to start working on the see-saws.

Astro also goes to work with me if I’m going out in the countryside. He sits in the back of the pick-up truck while we make the trip and then explores whatever school or farm we’re at while I give talks. He’s very quickly becoming the Health Center Mascot.

Astro was 4 months old when we got him, so he was already house-trained and pretty well accustomed to people. He’s a very well behaved dog, never really barks, and doesn’t cause trouble when he’s in the house alone. He does, however, like to dig, steal socks and sandals, and jump on people. We’re working on those…

Has Adriana heard of lemonade?

Adriana’s backyard has two lemon trees. They are enormous and put out about 200 lemons a week. Her family drinks lemonade about 5 times a week, and gives away the rest of the lemons to friends and family. I’m not kidding…

How are you two feeling about living in Nicaragua? Do you want to live there permanently? What are you going to do for New Years: our tradition or theirs?

Jess and I are very much enjoying our lives in Nicaragua. Just like life in the States there are things that could be better (like less rain), but overall life is more relaxed than it was. Things that one would imagine taking all your time (like washing all your clothes and dishes by hand) still leave you with plenty of time to read or play with the dog. We also cook huge breakfasts virtually every morning and still make it to work on time. It’s almost like you get more minutes in every hour somehow.

We miss a lot of stuff about the States, especially our families. We have also come to appreciate life “up north.” Not in the manner of unlimited cell phone plans and dishwashers, but things like people’s respect for others and the sense of personal responsibility and ownership. Not that Nicaraguans don’t have these qualities, it’s just a different culture.

New Year’s?! We’re still planning 4th of July! We think we’re going to meet some other volunteers from our group on the volcanic island of Ometepe. We’ll see…

Why do Nicaraguans have half days of school?

Nicaraguan classrooms average about 50 students to a class. Sometimes more. Some students are lucky to have around 30. Only in 2006 was it mandated that all Nicaraguan children have the right to a free education. The system is still trying to manage the influx of students. Therefore, the day is cut in half to accommodate twice as many students.

How many departments are in Nicaragua?

Nicaragua has 15 departments and 2 autonomous regions. Most departments are conveniently named after their capital cities (Managua is in the department of Managua, Estelí in Estelí, the same for Granada, León, Masaya, Jinotega, Matagalpa, etc.). Somoto, Madriz is an exception to the rule.

How to Nicaraguans celebrate birthdays?

Nicaraguans celebrate them much like we do. Those who can afford to have parties with cake, just like us. It’s also very common to have a piñata. Someone is in charge of shaking the piñata up and down and the kids have to dance around as they swing at it. Naturally, this is much more difficult, so nobody is blindfolded. Most Nicaraguans also know the English “Happy Birthday” song, which they sing along with another birthday song in Spanish. All in all, their parties are a pretty good time, even without the pizza.

OK, thanks again, Mrs. Lyttle’s class. Please feel free to keep in touch on your own once the summer begins!

[Pictures are back! Woohoo!! More to come shortly... And why hasn´t anyone left a comment in more than 3 weeks?! We´re starting to get lonely.]

Jess and I took Astro for his first swim this weekend. We made our way out to the Canyon on the first clear day after 3 rainy ones. The trees and fields in Somoto are all starting to turn green. Although we are officially entering the “winter” season, this past week has been the closest to the spring we experience in the States. Hopefully you can see how green the mountain south of our house is getting. I decided to post two pictures: The first is the mountain right after a few hours of rain. The next is the same mountain the following afternoon. Pretty beautiful, huh?

So, we made our way to the Canyon, which includes 2 crossings of the Rio Coco (Coconut River). The Rio Coco is the driving force creating the Somoto Canyon. It continues on from here to become the official border between Nicaragua and Honduras for about 450 kilometers and finally drains into the Carribean Sea. The Rio Coco is the spiritual focus of Nicaragua’s indigenous cultures. It’s said to have mystic powers: any one who swims in it leaves the river fluently speaking the native tongue! Here´s the Rio Coco after the canyon.

On our previous trips to the Canyon the Rio Coco was a quiet meandering stream, still about 50 feet across, but easily crossable with convenient stepping stones. This time, it was a whole other story. Several campesinos (country folk) warned us the river was impassable due to the rains, but we were egged on by the more adventurous cattle drivers. We figured if they could drive a couple mules, 3 cows, and baby calf across the river, we could surely make it with two people and a dog. So, we began.

The water was muddy and the current strong, so every step was careful and slow. We had a couple of false starts, but managed to follow the path taken by a couple fishermen. By the time we were halfway across, we had water up to our stomachs and were taking a half step down stream for every step across. I held Astro out of the water (the current was too strong for the first timer) and Jess carried our backpack with lunch and water.

We made it across the first bend in the river without incident, and the second bend was easier, although a little deeper. Finally, about 45 minutes after leaving the highway, we made it to the boat launch into the canyon. We congratulated ourselves with refried beans and honey rolled in pancakes (delicious) and granola. Despite the roughness down river, the canyon entrance was calm and without much current in the pools along the shore.

To get Astro accustomed to the water (he was a little shook up from the previous episodes) we threw sticks further and further away from shore. Slowly, but surely, he started to come around, and after an hour his initial fears were a thing of the past. Instead of heading further into the canyon like we normally do we decided to just relax at the boat launch for the morning.

Around noonish we made our way back across the river, which seemed just as strong as earlier in the day, and caught a cab to Somoto. It was a good days workout for everyone, and we’re pretty sure Astro hasn’t gotten that much exercise in a single day during his whole 5 month life.

Earlier that weekend we made our way to Ocotal, a local department capital, to do some banking as well as explore the town. We found a beautiful grocery store that boasted foods we have seen since the States. I know a grocery store doesn’t sound that exciting, but we spend a good hour there. First of all, they were giving away free samples. You can’t pass that up. Then we found peanut butter, a very rare thing in Nicaragua. Jess and I bought 2 jars and that constituted one of our biggest expenses this month: 155 córdobas, or about $8.00. We also came across real chocolate milk. We didn’t even make it out of the store before finishing off the carton. This place also had an incredible variety of soups, which come dried in a bag, not in a can. We didn’t buy any, but made plenty of mental notes about future meals we can prepare. All and all a very successful trip!

Matt,

Just wanted to let you know I'm as fascinated by your answers to the kids' questions as I'm sure they are. It's a great way to learn about a country most of us will never have the opportunity to visit. Keep up the good work. A couple of questions from me- What's a typical work day like for you? What's a typical day like for a 10 yr. old child?

-Alice Galvin

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Hi Alice! Thanks for the email!

My work day starts at about 8. I get to the health center in the center of town and we organize the day for about half an hour. Before 9 we have a vehicle available that drives us to one of the rural communities outside of Somoto. Some take 20 mins to reach, others 1.5 hours! All of it on dirt roads that you could never even ride a bike on. In the mornings we give health talks to pregnant mothers and brigadistas (volunteer health promotors in every community). In the afternoon we give a different talk to youth groups of about 20 to 30 teenagers. We usually get back to Somoto by 4:30. Jess teaches English 3 or 4 nights a week, so I´m usually at home cooking dinner. At night we sit on the porch and talk to neighbors, watch a movie at the house of a family we know, or go for a walk with Astro.

For a 10 year old in the city, the day starts around 6:00 with breakfast. School starts at 7:00. They have class until about 11:30 and then they head home for lunch. A different group of students use the classrooms in the afternoon. Students get a choice of the morning or the afternoon, but the morning is way more popular. The afternoons are usually spent at home or in the street doing the same things kids in the states do. Some are lucky enough to have TV´s and others go to the video game houses mentioned in the blog.

This schedule can be very different for rural families, where kids might have to walk 2 hours to and from school everyday, as well as take care of younger brothers and sisters.

Adriana (10) on the left and her sister, Ena Sophia (5) on the right.

Do you listen to American Music?

Yes. I like the Black Eyed Peas.

Have you heard of Harry Potter?

Yes. I have seen all the movies, but haven´t read the books.

What types of books do you like to read?

I like to read Adventure books.

Do your teachers give you homework?

Yes.

Do you like doing homework?

Eh, mas o menos. (more or less).

What is your favorite subject in school?

Natural Sciences

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to play computer games. I also have a Nintendo GameCube. Matt and I play Mario Sunshine.

What do you eat in a normal day?

Breakfast: Corn tortillas, eggs, refried beans, coffee with milk

Lunch: Grilled Steak or chicken, white rice, fried plantains, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit juice

Dinner: Ham sandwich and water

Do you eat fruits, vegetables, or candy?

Yes, but I like fruit the best. We have a mango tree and lemon tree in our backyard. We also have an avocado tree.

What are your chores?

Feed the dog, go out to buy milk or cheese, take care of my sister.

What is your favorite holiday and why?

December 31st. I like when we explode the ¨Año viejo,¨ or old year. In this tradition every block in the city dresses up a doll like an old man. The dolls are about the size of a grown person. They dress him up in a sombrero and put him on a stick. He is filled with explosives. At exactly 12 o´clock PM we light the fuse and he explodes. It´s like saying goodbye to the old year and hello to the new one.

Jess and I are finally starting to develop somewhat of a concrete weekly schedule, so look for a detailed account of our current work activities sometime soon. Also, I know Mrs. Lyttle’s class is patiently waiting a response from their interviewee. It’s on it’s way!

Today I thought I’d recount the spectacular weekend we had. On Saturday Jess and I went with a local nature guide and friend, Edith, to a beautiful farm on the top of a mountain. This farm raises cattle for a cooperative of farmers and agriculturalists in the area. The mayor of Somoto is the current administrator of the farm, so he goes up the mountain every Saturday to make sure everything is in order. This week’s trip also involved a yearly vaccine for all of the cattle.

We left at 8:30, traveling in a pick up truck. Peace Corps actually prohibits us from riding in the backs of trucks, do to the obvious safety concerns. However, it’s nearly impossible to go anywhere or accomplish anything outside of the community without breaking this rule. So, we choose our battles, use discretion, and cross our fingers that our bosses won’t find out. Probably not that smart of an idea to write that on a blog that anyone in the world can read, but oh well…

The farm would only be about 45 minutes from Somoto if the road were paved. Even less if it were flat. However, neither are the case in this situation and we found ourselves traveling for a good hour and a half to get to the top of the mountain. I don’t think we’ve described the majority of the roads here, but let’s just say you’d never be able to pass in anything less than a 4 wheel drive, extremely high truck. The most popular vehicles here are Toyotas, with the Land Cruiser and Helix in the 1 and 2 spots. The Helix is a beautiful extended cab pick up truck that really is as mean as it looks. They don’t sell them in the States, but there’s probably more than 100 just in Somoto, alone.

Anyway, upon reaching the farm, the Mayor and the local workers began the vaccination process. You’ll see some pictures of that below. Jess, Edith, and I saddled up and explored the farm. Yes, we saddled up. It was my first time on a horse in at least 10 years, about the same for Jess. However, we’d both seen enough Western movies (just watched Silverado last week) to look authentic. I even got mine up to a gallop a couple of times. That was scary.

Edith told us all about the ecology of the area. We think of Nicaragua and Central America as a land of tropical rain forests (of which there are plenty), but once you get high enough in the mountains the foliage looks a lot like it does in New York or New Jersey. There are pine trees, oak trees, and your basic run of the mill grasses. There are also some strange plants, like this cactus that grows all over the rocks.

Or this stuff that looks like a fern. It’s called “Barba de Viejo,” or, “Old Man’s Beard.” It’s very soft and could almost work in a Santa costume during Christmas.

Anyway, we had a few hours to explore before the vaccination was done. We saw some beautiful views, that’s for sure. It was a little sad that Astro couldn’t come, but we had no idea what it would be like so we erred on the side of caution. Don’t worry, though. He’ll be getting up there as soon as we have a free Saturday.

Sunday we experienced our first downpours of the rainy season. The rain was deafening, the streets were flooded, and the lightening was huge. The next day our coworkers described it as a “refreshing spring shower.” Hmm…. I guess we’ll see if it gets worse.

We passed the day at home cleaning and organizing. Astro appreciated the attention.