Democracia

Yet again the US is being accused of tampering in the elections being held in El Salvador, accusing the Salvadorans of such high crimes as having friendly relations with Venezuela as well as an alleged connection with the FARC in Columbia. This is something to watch over the next few months.

If you can understand Spanish, or just want to watch some very good footage of the developments in Nicaragua, these two links are very helpful.

Sergio Ramierz is the former VP of Nicaragua under the first FSLN administration during the revlutionary years. He has since broken with his former party accusing President Daniel Ortega, 1979-1990 and again since 2006, of abandoning the revoltution.

http://www.elboomeran.com/blog/7/sergio-ramirez/

This is a weekly news webcast that has excellent footage of the situation on the ground today, worth a look even without Spanish skills.

http://www.estasemana.tv/


Still trying to figure out where the US is on this one; they certainly have not been a fan of Ortega in the past, but he has become somewhat tollerable it seems in his current presidency. One might be inclinced to think that the US wants the FSLN out, and State Department meetings with the man accusing the FSLN of voter fraud, Eduardo Montealegre furthers the suspicion that they are supporting the opposition. This combined with an incease in Iranian business in Nicaragua strenthens the idea that the US wants Ortega's party to lose stature.

It is with great hope that the US begins to act in a responsible manner and allow the Nicarguans to control their own fate; they have proven more than capable in the past...

Developments

Hey All,

Sorry to drop off like that without a whence or a whither, but I have decided to pick it back up, albeit without much travel for some time.

Heavy developments in Nicaragua the last few days, with the FSLN and opposition groups clashing in Managua and Leon. I plan to return again in June, it could be a very different place by then; we'll have to wait and see.

Oh and the last photo on the blog is from a football match between Flamego and Athletico PR at Maracana Stadium in Rio - Flamego 1 - Athletico 0. Awesome.

That was intense

I got what I came for

Sitting in the Bariloche airport today as I wait for my flight to Buenos Aires, in the heart of the Patagonian winter. It is a pretty good wintry mix storm raging outside and I have to say that I have enjoyed my two and a half weeks of winter this summer. It wasn’t harsh by any real standards; rather the weather felt much more like the build up to winter we get in November or early December many years; cold, often rainy, crisp mornings with relatively mild days.

A good storm rolled in on Friday and deposited a fresh foot of snow that I benefited from yesterday at Cerro Catedral. The snow was of a quality that was unexpected given the lack of major snow in the preceding two weeks and the views are unsurpassed in my skiing experience. Thoughts of the resorts around Lake Tahoe kept coming to the surface as I stood on top of the treeless peaks. In one view the huge sprawling steppe stretched as far as the eye could see. One hundred eighty degrees the opposite sat massive imposing peaks covered in flutes of snow as they jutted out in between the low (high) clouds they reached as they rose out of Lake Nauhl Huapi.

Bariloche was a nice place to live for the time I spent there – a bit touristy and a tad expensive but welcoming altogether. My Spanish has improved a great deal, and I had my first dream in Spanish the other night; a sure sign that the language is taking hold, and quite an odd experience that left me awake for some time after. My host family was truly wonderful and there was a very home-like dynamic that developed between the two Dutch girls, Ana and myself. I returned to the house last night to drop off some music for Ana, Nantha and Marique had just returned from Chile, and we all talked like a big family, laughing, saying goodbye; it was very nice. Staying there was almost like a second class; Ana spoke no English and I had to do a lot of translating for the Dutch girls initially and still on some things even to the end. In coming down here I certainly never expected to be a translator for anyone.

A small feeling of nostalgia has already begun to rise up occasionally as I wrap up this amazing time; soon I’ll be back to life in the States and this will all be a wonderful memory. I’ve seen some real poverty and wealth, been in situations that were fairly nerve-wracking and others that were as comfortable as can be, and I loved them all. One thing I had wanted to pay special attention to was similarities between the many different worlds I was privy to over the last month plus. Funny little things like both Nicarguans and Thais using plastic sandwich bags as the general carrying apparatus for liquids from soda to soup. There was certainly never a conversation between the two peoples, but somehow they just figured out the same solution to their carrying issue. Pace is another similarity that the Thais and Nicas share, the easy going “we’re not in a hurry to get there because well, eventually we just will,” was an lifestyle that I very much appreciated.

My connection to Argentina has been on the whole rather different. In Nicaragua and Thailand I found myself more connected to the people, traveling alone without hearing English at all in Managua and staying at the school with Roy were very, very different than living with two Dutch girls and hanging out with travelers from all over the world in Bariloche. The connection felt much more like tourism than cultural immersion; there just weren’t really opportunities to do that in Bariloche. Granted I lived with an Argentine and in that respect I surely developed an impression of the people as much as any one person could be expected to represent. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting; the first two worlds are so wholly different than the third in terms of general wealth. As an overall impression, there is one running theme that I believe you can find all over the world: people want to be cared for; they want to express their appreciation and enjoyment of others; all people want to enjoy themselves and share that with others.

These next two cities are going to be pretty intense, Buenos Aires is a city of 13 million – New York City: 8.5 million. The city has something like 7 or 8 neighborhoods of varying character. I’ll be staying in Palermo, great nightlife, cool places to eat and lots of partying until the next day - it can barely be called the same night when the party ends at 8 am. There are a few people from Bariloche that will be there at the same time, so I’ll meet up with them and we’ll see what BA has to offer. One other stop for certain will be La Boca, a very cool artist community on the far western side of the city as it stretches out along the Rio de la Plata. I’m too consumed by Buenos Aires at the moment to think too far ahead to Rio de Janeiro, but there are some general touristy things that I’ll do there on my first trip, with hopefully more to come in the future.

Alright, just began the decent into Buenos Aires…oh I almost forgot, I got my shoes back the next night in Thailand just in time to toss them off before jumping in the pool at 7 am that morning. Lucky.

Finalemente!!!

After nearly two full weeks in one of the premier ski towns in Latin America, it finally snowed today!! The forecast is for snow the next few days, hopefully this will drastically improve conditions on the hill - a lot is needed for that to happen apparently.

Its fairly odd to be standing in falling snow on the first of August; it will be even more so when I sit on the beach in Rio in a weeks time as well and then returning home to the high 80's summer heat. Needless to say, I am loving this.

Estuve Enfermo

After a long weekend and a beautiful run on Sunday afternoon, I woke Monday morning with a pretty good fever and a really achy body. I think with the full on one week rage in Thailand combined with the trek down south to the winter climate combined with non-stop action once I arrived (that I hadn’t planned for) my body finally told me that I needed a rest. So a rest I took, to the tune of 14 straight hours of sleep. Much needed, I feel great today and am ready for what is quickly feeling like the last leg of my trip. From here I have about another week in Bariloche and then onto Buenos Aires and Rio. All signs point to Buenos Aires being a pretty great time and Rio, well, its Rio.

This has been a really nice trip so far and I feel very distant from my first days in Managua. In some ways it has been hard to grasp all that has occurred this summer and all that I have experienced. From kicking around Managua with myself to getting chased by a man with a machete in Chaing Mai to cooking huge lunches with new (and old) friends in Bariloche; this has been all that I bargained for and more in many ways.

The addition of an old friend has suddenly placed Bariloche in a much different context; almost instantly more familiar. Mikel Bova and I met on separate ladders on the side of a house one day and I would say we have been friends since that day. We ended up living together in Colorado and had some real fun skiing together from late October powder days in Wolf Creek to late June avalanches in the Colorado backcountry. Now the possibility exists to hit up a few runs south of the equator in late July; something I would say has somewhat caught both of us by surprise, I think all we are missing is the month of August and we’ll have it all racked up, luckily that’s right around the corner.

Today we cooked a monster feast at our friend Kim’s house – a man with a positive attitude almost as big as his appetite. It was a great thing in itself to sit and have a fantastic meal with people from all over the US and the world yet made even better by the fact that Mikel was there to join.

A storm has finally rolled in that appears promising as I write this; I might even skip a day of school if it is true. I moved up to a new level this week and it is proving to be a little tougher, but not much. I would say that my Spanish has improved a decent amount, but even after just a few hours of constant English speaking I feel myself losing a little bit of my speaking abilities. I suspect that this is what will go first when I return, but hopefully I will retain my ability to read and write in Spanish.

Time has seemingly picked up speed and I am in the “enjoy every moment you’ll be in Connecticut soon” mode. I look forward to my return and even to the daily routine of life. I needed an extended break from that for many reasons and I am confident that I will return to CT stronger and more content that when I left.

P.S. It rained all day today on the mountain and to top it off a cable broke on one of the main lifts, so its completely closed for the next few days. Old equipment and Latin America don't make for a high degree of efficiency. Oh well...

Villa la Angostura

Had a bit of a long night to my day yesterday. Made it home by 4 am only to rise a few hours later, still a bit on the better side of drunk, to go to school and take my exam to pass onto the next level. Fought off throwing up on my test on three separate occasions and managed to pass with flying colors. Now, if I could only speak Spanish…

The school organized a trip to the historical museum in Bariloche that covers both natural and cultural histories of Patagonia. Totally engrossed in it all when Ann arrived to retrieve me for the big road trip we had apparently planned last night during our night – which started at about 4 pm.

Dom (Brit), Ann (American), and Kim (Swiss) are three really great people that I have been spending most of my days with. Yesterday Kim and I cooked a really great meal at his guest house; it was fantastic to cook and not have to eat at a restaurant again – its now become a plan for a few days next week as well. Anyways, they are all three very cool people and generally enjoy having fun together. So the plan for the day was to rent a car and drive north along the lake to the town of Villa la Angostura, about 1 hour from Bariloche and just about 30 kilometers from the Chilean border.This was easily one of the most beautiful, and fun, drives I have ever been on. The mountains here are jagged like I have never seen before, not all of them are this way, but there are many that are quite beautiful like that. We drove and stopped and drove and stopped all along the way. Grabbed a parradilla (a grilled assortment of meats) and then kicked around the town and lake for a bit before heading back.

It has snowed a bit on the mountains and there is more in the forecast, but the Chilean volcano has blown again, so that could completely change the weather pattern and leave us wet, but with temps too high for the needed snow accumulation. Mikel Bova Esq. is due to arrive at the middle or so of next week, hopefully he’ll bring Url along with him.

Bariloche, Che, Che, Che…

I thought that I hit the ground running in Thailand, but this has been an altogether different story! After 36 hours of travel to arrive here, I got in at about 10:30 Sunday night – which accounting for the jet lag, was actually Monday night for me, but who’s counting? Aerolinas Argentinas is the culprit for my extraneous travel time, they just seem to cancel or delay at a moments notice. Today was the first time I found myself alone and able to process my thoughts – certainly a welcome opportunity.

It’s a fairly odd experience to go from the tropics during the rainy season to the Southern hemisphere’s winter within a few days of each other. I can’t say it is Chicago February cold here, but there is certainly a deep chill in the air. The colors of summer have disappeared from my sight, instead replaced by the grays and browns of winter. Luckily there is the bluest lake I have ever seen set in front of an amazing range of snow capped peaks. There has not been much snow to date, in fact more rain than anything else, but today a pretty decent snowstorm rolled in and dropped a fresh blanket. Good things to come for sure!

The city of Bariloche is set against the lake with the mountains forming the other half of the border. Tons of Brazilians and Argentines are here on their winter/spring (?) break, so its fairly crowded most of the day. Three or four main streets form the center and there are myriad places to eat and drink as well as buy chocolate. It’s a cool town that feels like it would be even more inviting in the summer when it’s less crowded and the fishing season is open.

My host has been great. She is in her 50’s and has two daughters that live elsewhere so she takes in students from the two main Spanish schools in town for company. She is really sweet and a pretty good cook too. I’ve got a separate room and there are two girls from Holland that are here now as well. It’s a nice quiet break from all the rush outside, I’m glad I made this choice to do a home-stay as opposed to a big dorm type stay.

Class is cool and I feel like I am improving my Spanish fairly well, even after just a few days. We meet from 9 until 1 and then it has been off to the pub until dinner the past few days. Can’t keep that up, and I was feeling like I hadn’t done enough since being here, so I escaped the crowd today and went with a few people to Cerro Leones (Lion Mountain).

Cerro Leones is a really old volcano situated 8 or 9 kilometers outside of Bariloche and the views from the trail are the best I have experienced to date. A small group of us were led around by Guillermo, who was constantly called “che” by his amigos, in and out of small caverns and caves. The last cave involved us crawling through a very small passageway, too small for me and my pack at the same time and for some of the bigger people along with us. The passage led to much bigger opening with an amazingly clear lake down below.

So far that has been the best activity of this trip, but the good news is that more snow is in the forecast and that has got me extremely excited for things to come. There have been lots of reports of rocks and ice all over the mountain, so with a few more days of snow things should be just right. I really like this picture from the mouth of one of the caves, looking out into Lake Nahuel Huapi:
A quick note about the Argentinian lifestyle: it is ridiculous. Rarely would I say that some culture is wrong or crazy with some aspect of how they live, but this is just too hard for me to grasp, or maybe I am jealous of their ability to accomplish this particular element. No one is in the bars until 4 or sometimes 5 in the morning. Let me rephrase that in case it does not seem incredulous enough: people don’t even leave their homes to go out with everyone else until 4 or 5 in the morning, and they are out until 8 or even 9 am and then they go to work! Why does everyone wait so long? I have not been able to make it happen yet; I am going to need a running start for this one.

Ok, chow para ahora! (This is what I woke to this morning, tough to beat)

Last day in MHS

Slept at Friend House, got coffee morning and then headed to the market for some hot noodle soup breakfast. Noodles, basil, lemon, bean sprouts and a sweet and salty tomato chicken broth, add some dried chillies and it’s a great start to the morning. Everything gets moving from there on out.

The plan was to ride out to a waterfall and then head to Roc Tai village. Roc Tai is a Chinese village that has many delicious teas, and I guess I will have to get there next time through Thailand. The waterfall on the other hand was amazing; pretty big and flowing at a good pace. There is a big pool in the foreground that is filled with a type of carp, or maybe koi. We broke some rules and headed in for a little rock jumping into the pools below the falls. It was a fantastic time after a little hesitance on my part; really glad to end my time here like that, back to nature.

When I was in Managua I had walked past a cock fighting ring and had mentioned this to Emmett a few days ago; so what do we do? Pull into village and walk up to some old women, who were certainly laughing at us a bit, and asked if they would have their roosters spar a bit. No roosters were injured in the filming of this movie.

Emmett, Koz and I stopped for a lunch and beer and then I was off to grab my ride to the airport. Lunch was really good, Kaw soi, curried bean curd northern style, and curried chicken of the same ilk. Awesome flavors were always at hand throughout this trip, it was really what I was hoping for and I leave fulfilled in that department.

This was a really short trip, too short by everyone’s estimation, but I have got to be movin' on. Awesome to get to hang out with Max, Jason and Morgan for a few days and then with Roy and Koz for the last couple of days. Thailand is a very cool place, the people are as friendly as I have ever encountered and extremely welcoming. I was continually blow away by the respect and thoughtfulness of the students at Nai Soi, they really know how to show their appreciation for their teachers.

Roy-man, keep up the good work, its nothing but positive.

Coffee and Foot Baths

When in Thailand…get foot baths and coffee enemas right? Ok, maybe not right, but that’s what happened anyways. Our second day in Chaing Mai Jason mentioned that last time he was in town he got an iodine foot bath and a few other things at a health spa nearby. The foot bath supposedly pulls many of the toxins and heavy metals out of your body, mainly from the kidneys, liver and your joints.

The women at the spa were really funny, and remembered Jason well from his last visit. So Roy and I sat down and were hooked up to an electrode machine by way of two heat belts that wrapped around our abdomens and sent weak electric signals into our organs. Our feet were placed into two bowls along with two ionizers; the water was totally clear to start, this was just a few minutes in:

In about 30 minutes it looked like this:

Supposedly, the bubbly stuff in the middle is the heavy metals like mercury that are caused by pollution or from things like eating lots of fish such as tuna. Other things "pulled out" were yeast, and things that give high cholesterol. I don't know how the feet can expell all that but thats what happened; both of ours generally looked the same, so I don't know. They say you are supposed to continue the treatment for 14 foot baths to fully remove everything, but I have to wonder if thats a good idea or not. The body develops some sort of balance, right? So would removing all the toxins be a good thing or would it cause some sort of imbalance?

We were chatting about all the other services that are offered at the spa and they mentioned the coffee enema they give. Disclaimer: I have always been interested in the purging of bad toxins and chemicals from the body, and had previously read about the effects that a coffee enema have on the intestines, so I knew a little before agreeing to do this.

The woman who was going to administer it to me told me that she would be “my first boyfriend: and then made jokes at how big the tube was; ha ha very funny. I won’t go into to many more details here, but I am sure I’ll be asked about it in person by a few people, I’ll tell you all about it. 1 Liter of coffee held for fifteen minutes, its not easy, but in the end I think it was worth it. I felt a little off afterwards, but the next few days my joints did feel better, cracking my knuckles was much harder to do, and my back had very little pain – which it often does; so maybe this stuff worked or maybe Roy and I just got worked.

Hi teacher, how are you?

Now that things have settled a bit, a more detailed recap is in order, there are a few things of special note that I wasn't able to give the right attention.

A bit more about Nai Soi. There are three levels of classes given here for a school year that runs from May to April. Class sizes are a very manageable 10 to 15 and they are given in English, Thai, Japanese and for the next few days Morgan has developed a HIV/AIDS health class. The students come from all over the area, some are refugees and others are "undepriviledged" in the words of the director of the school, Joe.

Here are Emmett and Jason giving some Burmese History and English lessons, respectively:

The school has three main classrooms that are built of mud bricks and tin roofs, and there is electricity and internet from a satellite dish. Bathrooms have manual flush toilets, where you pour water into them for the flush and the showers are buckets. Fill up the bucket and dump it on yourself. The bathroom is just a wet room that is sloped towards a drain. Its an interesting experience the first time, and definitely a little cold in the morning, but it does the trick and uses very little water.

Bucket on the left:

The first night we stayed in Mae Hong Son, which is about a 30 minute motorbike ride from Nai Soi. There are many, many Wots in the towns that we have been too. They're really beautiful and ornate, this is the main one in Mae Hong Son:

We got up in the morning and headed to the central market, which was awesome. The markets are always the best way to see what is going on in a town, its the lifeblood and heart of any society and I love to see what is going on there:

In their standard awesomeness the school decided to have a party for Jason, Max and Morgan as they were all leaving within the next week. There was dancing, singing, a great shoe giveaway and tons of laughter and smiles:

We went on a great hike up the ridge of a mountain after the party with 20 or so of the students. Like I said before, this was probably one of the most fun hikes I have ever been on; it was beautiful scenery and the students continued to amaze me with their compassion and happiness.

Dinner at the directors house followed our game of teachers vs. students volleyball game. Korean style BBQ, a first for me, was really fun. We were all pretty beat after the fun filled day, so it was an early night.

Special Buckets

Its been a whirlwind tour since arrving. A motobike pic-up from Mea Hong Son Airport, a quick Burmese history lesson, a judge's football game, dinner at Judge Rays house, a hard night out in MHS, a party for Jason, Morgan and Max, a hike up the mountain in the rain, teachers vs. students volleyball, korean bar-b-que, bucket showers, judging the regional English speaking contest 2008, a 5 hour bus ride to Chaing Mai, bucket drinks on arrival, losing Max only to find out that he fell in the river and was found by Niels (who was responsible for the bucket drinks inthe first place), someone stole my shoes, and now motobikes in Chaing Mai.

Thailand is pretty damn awesome! Obviously is has been a lot of fun so far, I am lamenting how sort my time is, but it has been packed with fun.

Nai Soi school is in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is surrounded by rice paddies and misty mountains. The kids are beautiful and full of smiles and laughter. They are all very warm and welcoming; it doesn't take long to feel like you are part of their lives. The hike up the mountain was with 25 of them and it was one of the most fun hikes I have ever been on. Everyone was singing and laughing, slipping and sliding. It started to rain and with hardly a thought they had made hats out of the huge leaves that are everywhere. Its an amazing connection to nature that so many of us have lost, or rather maybe never had in the first place.

Mea Hong Son is a very cool little town with a couple of Wots (Buddhist Temples). Emmett is something like a celebrity, saying hello to nearly everyone we pass, I can see why this place would be so hard to ever leave. Chaing Mai is cool, its the second largest city in Thailand after Bangkok, and there are lots of Americans and Europeans (no doubt the reason my shoes were stolen - there are just some things that you don't do, and if the custom is to take your shoes off in buildings, THEN YOU DON'T STEAL SOMEONES SHOES!!!!!!). Its fun, but the authenticity is lost somewhere in all that madness.

So much has happened in such a short time that its hard to remember and process it all, but I've been taking notes and when I get a better opportunity, there will be more details about all the stuff above.

I think we are going to go get iodine foot baths that pull all the toxins out of your body - should be interesting to see what comes out.

“If it ain’t King James, it ain’t no Bible.”

A parting bumper sticker gift from some overly zealous, or possibly hilariously ironic, Chicago-land driver on my way to the airport Monday; I would say yesterday, but I am still in transit and its actually Wednesday. For some of you, this will be a look into the future. It will be a little hot and muggy for you tomorrow, with some clouds and intermittent rain. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; take an umbrella.

Wow, that was a serious leg of travel. I left Chicago at 1 pm on Monday and landed in Tokyo at 4 pm on Tuesday, then flew to Bangkok by 10:30 Tuesday and now I am sitting in the Chaing Mai airport after my 8 am flight this morning as I wait for the last plane of the in journey at 12:50 to Mae Hong Son. I’ll be picked up there by a friend of Emmett’s and led to a motobike rental station for the last leg to Nai Soi. I’m tired from just writing all that.

My strategy was to stay awake the whole time to Japan and then crash on the way to Thailand. It worked I think, I am dealing well with the all time changing and back to the futuring.

This is a very different feeling trip overall. A huge part of it is that I’ll be seeing Roy, Jason, Morgan, Kozue and more which I am very excited for. Another big part is that I know so very little about Thailand so I don’t approach it with the same level of curiosity and inquiry as I do in Latin America; that’s not to say I am disinterested, just less so that in LA. I feel much more like a tourist here, and less as a participant in some sort of venture. Language might be part of it; I don’t understand a word here, not a one.

I had some sushi in Japan and some very delicious Pho in Thailand this morning for breakfast. That combined with some good espresso has me very charged for this final stretch. There is some sort of English judging that Roy and I will do, lots of laughing for sure, drinking of Singhas and eating of hot foods. All that combined with finally realizing our moto-bike riding ambitions; Emmett and I had once planned to ride from Holland to Belgium on moto-bikes to eat Belgian Waffles, but I think something distracted us. Not this time!

This is a big month on travel, the most I have ever done in any length of time. Here until the 17th, then to Arlington Race track outside Chicago on the 18th and then 4 planes down to Bariloche, Argentina for two weeks, followed by Buenos Aires and Rio before heading back to the states mid- August. I feel exponentially more comfortable traveling alone now than I did just a few weeks ago. Nicaragua was pretty tough at first, but as it went I became more and more comfortable. It feels very natural now, and by the end, well I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Re-entry

Got into Chicago midday on the 3rd and headed to Skokie to get a car and then down to Wrigleyville to get Lucy. Stopped off and had a beer and dinner with cousin Tom and his girlfriend Krista and watched up to the 7th inning of the Cubs Giants game. Grabbed the dog, had a shot of Flor de Cana and hit the road. Compared to the weather in Leon, Chicago felt like they had the air-conditioner on. Maybe Mayor Daley has a deal with some air conditioning magnet to keep Chicago attractive in the summertime; you never know with that dude.

I have to admit I was a little nervous at how I would feel coming home, thinking of the reverse culture shock I would encounter. This country is sooo clean, or at least Chicago is exceptionally so. Some facet of newness always strikes me on the return, be it the ridiculous newness of cars or buildings, it always seems to be something of the ability of us all to live in such cleanliness and freshness. The clean streets and lawns of Chicago were a long stretch from the dirt and shacks of Goyena. It all feels a bit silly sometimes.

It was a nice time in Galena with my parents and Lucy. Did some fishing, played golf and ate some good food. My body is pretty unsure of what is being digested these days, but it will just have to deal. Almost shot in the 80’s on a very hard course, so I was pretty happy with the golf game; more to come in August after I get back from Brazil. It felt a little hypocritical to be living in such convenience and luxury after Nicaragua; I don’t quite know how to handle that all yet.

Nicaragua was a great experience as it begins to settle in my mind. It seems overly distant as I sit in a Thai café at the Chaing Mai airport waiting for my next flight to Mae Hong Son (more on this in the next entry). I want to go back many times and for longer stretches for sure. It was just beginning to grow on me, and I look forward with great anticipation to my next jaunt there.

Goyena

Today was a really wonderful and thought provoking way to close out my time in Nicaragua. Goyena is a collection of small villages to the west of Leon and I had an opportunity to visit one of them for a few hours this afternoon; I´ve been trying to debrief ever since.

I got a ride out in a four door pick-up that at various times had between 2 and 12 people in or on it as we made our way through the campo. Cows were at various times blocking the road, horse drawn carts took their turns as well. The passengers were campesinos (farm workers), Leon street vendors, kids coming with to the afterschool program and a few of the teachers that would conduct the classes.

The children are beautiful and innocent and full of love, and almost equally curious about the pretty sweaty white guy who got out of the truck. I hung out with the school program for an hour or so and was struck by how so very similar that classroom was to my own in terms of student behavior and needs. The program runs from 3 to 5 each day; today was working on words that start with capital and lowercase D.

The school house has beautiful murals on the outside walls, one side gives the rights of children like right to edcuation, health, family, food. This one is a wonderful depcition of life in the community.
The flash went off with this one after I had very quitely and nonchalantly snuck into the doorway so as not to disturb the lesson. Unsuccessful. I´ll be paid back for that during a lesson of my own someday soon.

A large majority of the campesinos work for the San Antonio sugar mill which mainly produces Flor de Cana, a deliciouly sweet rum. For many years a great deal of workers from this mill and many other associated with sugar production have developed Chronic Renal Failure. Its an extremely serious, but difficult to pin down, issue for the community. There is progress being made, but this is an issue tied all the way to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. And, as I was told today, no hay mucho trabajo cerca de aquí.

I spoke with a brilliant 19 year old woman that is in charge of the next phase of Goyena´s Literacy Campaign from 1980 under then and now President Ortega. It was a national crusade in 1980 with nearly 500,000 brigadistas sent out into the country to irradicate illiteracy. Today the program is a shell of its former self, but the effort is being made and with people like the woman I spoke with behind it, some that cannot will surely be able to read and write soon.

I took a walk after our talk before a storm rolled in and we would have to leave. Dirt, pigs, chickens, horses, no shoes, tin shacks, milky white water everywhere and more smiles that I have encountered anywhere I have been in Nicaragua. The animals roam free unless their owners are wealthy enough to be able to feed them and then they stay in the fenced yard. Status takes on a very different meaning in this setting, a fence, a door, a car, none of these are taken for granted because not all can afford these seeminlgy simple conveneinces.

The poverty was serious and impressive in the sense that everywhere one looks there is something that is striking. A large sow walked out of the house in the first picture as I made my way back to the schoolhouse before the storm. The boys in the second pic were playing what seemed to be volleyball out there in that field. And as can be seen from the last pic, the road had more footprints in it that shoeprints.

Everyone smiles. How? For what? It all begs the question of why people would live there in these conditions, but its so obvious that no one lives this way out of choice. It is directly lack of choices that results in these conditions. It makes so abundantly clear why a community such as this, and to be sure there are more than one often cares to think about, is so ripe when the conditions for revolution come about. I have great hope that these beautiful people can muster the strength for another and that one day corporations and governments realize the grandiose notions they all pretend to subscribe to.

Ghana, the answer is always Ghana

Finally figured out how to get pictures up, these mangroves were pretty sick:

They are right along the Pacific and are only seperated from the relentless ocean by a small island.
You get one guess which boat was going to be for me
It was a hollowed out tree that was just wide enough to sit in, and the coolest boat I´ve been in yet. The mangroves were filled with all sorts of cool noises and birds flying all over. The sound of the motor scared most off before we could ever get close enough to get a picture of them. The swamp was teeming with life, fish were darting everywhere in front of the boat, crabs were all over the trees and there were a few iguanas perched on trees in the distance.
When we got out of the boat these crabs were in the bushes and running away very quickly, this dude was the most photogenic of them all.

The other side of the island:

This is a really beautiful country with a beautiful people. The land is spotted with volcanoes, some very new, but all beautiful. Before the building of the Panama Canal, the plan was to cut one through Nicaragua, using Lake Managua as the major passageway. Some American business interests had designs on Panama though, and they orchestrated a campaign to disuade the building of it in Nicaragua. Their major public relations campaign used these volcanoes as a scare tactic, and well Jimmy Carter ...Played trivia last night with a bunch of travelers at a bar; always choose Ghana.

This is not my beautiful house!!!!

Leon is fantastic! So much more my speed and rhythm than Managua, which all here agree is pretty much the pits. I have to say it was really hard to be there alone and unsure of what to do with myself, but the future is bright these days...

I spent the day after my night with the Texans checking the city out and generally enjoying myself as much as possible; very relaxing overall, eating mangoes and drinking the occassional Toña. Met my friend Syd who works for the New Haven/Leon Sister City Project last night for some drinks and food in a bag. She is running things from this angle and connecting with the project in New Haven from here. Generally they work with high school and college delegations that want to come and experience Nicaragua, as well as making and maintaining contacts and projects in the area. She´s great, we did a little work against the war when we were seniors and it has been very cool to maintain loose contact as we both proceed in the world.

I´ve been told that eating from street vendors is not recommended, but there is no way I am going anywhere without tasting all that I can. Like I said the woman used no utensils when she served me, but apparently there is also no way to know when that meat was purchased, if it was ever refrigerated and how long it had been sitting out in the sun. If the Nicaraguans eat it, I am going to as well. So last night we grabbed some street vendor food. I think I had an enchillada with rice and chicken covered in some hot sauce and served in a sandwhich bag. It was alright. By the time I am through with this summer I think I´ll have a gut of steele, between the Nicaraguan street food, Thai whatever, and Argentine meats, not much is going to phase me after this one is over.

Last night Syd recommened that I take a bus to Barco de Oro and hire a fisherman to take me through a mangrove swamp. It was really really amazing. Cool passageways through the mangroves, beautifully colored crabs, iguanas, egrets and the coolest boat I have ever been in made for an excellent experience. Sorry that I can´t post picutures right now, but I´ll get them up in a few days. Joey I got a few surf pictures for you, it was low tide, but a few decent breaks were still coming in. Another thing I need to take pictures of are the buses here, they are full of religion and tassels and awesome.

Homeboy that was waiting tables tonight thought I said chicken wings when I asked for fajitas, but whatever, I never send back food and especially in another country, so wings it was. Oh well. One more day/night here and then back to Managua for a flight to Chicago on Thursday morning. I´ll head to Goyena tomorrow to check out an afterschool program and talk with someone who is working on the current phase of the Literacy Campaign. Goyena has a few issues that I hope to become more acquainted with after tomorrow, so I´ll include that in the next one.

I am just starting to get the pace here, and it is lovely. It took a little while, but today´s trip did the trick. I´ll be back for sure, hopefully to work in conjunction with the Cuban literacy campaign on which Nicaragua modeled its own. These are two places that I could very much get used to.

Once in a lifetime.

Intermezzo

I am about to head to a mangrove swamp where I´ll hire a fisherman to tour me through. In the meantime, this is the current situation and the reason for the popular discontent seen in the streets the last few weeks.

Iron like Lion

Yesterday mid afternoon I decided that I had enough of Mangua, so I got a bus to Leon, or rather I got in a really long line for a bus to Leon. There was an America in line who was cool enough, until he started bragging about all the places he has been...Don´t make me pull out Cuba man. Its pretty much the ultimate trump card when someone starts down that line. He wouldn´t stop, so I had to say it and that ended that. He made a really big deal of knowing all about where he was going and what he was doing and then he got out of the bus 3 km from Leon acting like he was exactly where he wanted to be. I had to smile a little as we drove off and he was surrounded by taxi drivers that he would eventually succumb to for the remainder of his trip into the city. I saw him earlier today, he made it just fine.

This is the main church in Leon, with the tomb of famous Nicaraguan poet and eventual madman, Ruben Dario:

Leon is beautiful. Its a little bigger than Granada, I think. Its similar though in that it has retained its colonial heritage. I am staying at a pretty cool hostel called Lazybones; its nice, bunk beds, a pool, relaxing places to read and talk with the other guests. I ended up going out last night with some Texans who were making their way south hitting every country in Central America except Belize and El Salvador. We grabbed some food and then headed to a night club. Pretty typical for me, hanging out with Texans and going to night clubs. It was a good time though with an open bar and plenty of dancing.

There are some really beautiful murals in the town depicting various events and realities of Nicaraguan life. Leon has retained its revolutionary culture more so than many places in the country like Grenada where I did not see any murals. The conservatives have historically been in Grenada, while the liberals maintain a presence in Leon.

You can see the letters CIA on the snake in this one:

This one depicts an actual shooting that took place in this square:

A cool wall with lots of revolutionary history:

Woke up this morning to fire works right on the street in front of Lazybones; not the best, but not the worst alarm either. Jumped in the pool and had some breakfast before I took a little tour of the city (pictures to follow). Made it to a sports bar to watch the Euro final and luckily saw the only goal of the match before the feed cut and we lost the game. Esapana!!!!

I wandered out after that and wanted to grab some food. Walked over to the main market area and found a street stall where the woman used nothing but her hands to put everything on my plate; rice, cabbage, meat, tortilla. It was spectacular, maybe the best meal I have had yet especially for $2.50.
I am meeting Syd Frey in a few hours and I am really excited to see what she is up to here, hopefully there will be something I can jump into for the next few days. Things are going well overall, this country is starting to grow on me.