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.

Gracia para nada

I would be remiss if I didn't spend a little time talking/thinking about the poverty here. Its pretty tough, actually the second hardest in the Western Hemisphere next to Haiti. Haiti and Nicaragua are numbers 1 and 2 respectively in terms of being recipients of the most US military interventions in the world. Make no mistake, there is a direct coorrelation between that and the oppressive poverty that people live in day to day in both countries.
The 1979 Sandinista revolution came to power with the goal of reversing the policies of the previous century and charting a more egalitarian and just future for all Nicaraguans. The US violently, and criminally fought against this sovereign country in their pursuit and was even convicted of international terrorism by the World Court- the only country to ever receive such an honor - which Reagan, a war criminal in this regard, promptly ignored.
After 10 years of all out war, elections were held and the sufficiently terrorized population chose self-preservation in the form of Violeta de Chamorro, thus ending the Sandinista revolution much to the empire's satisfaction. Chamorro, Bolanos, Aleman, and now Daniel Ortega once again have not been able to do much to deal with this situation either. There have been some big demonstrations against the Ortega administration in the days that I have been here, led in part by Sandinistas like former VP Sergio Ramirez and writer Gioncanda Belli; maybe something will change. With the US bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan along with the power that Chavez has in the region, it would be an opportune time to act.
Its aggravating and pretty embarrassing to know that my government has done this to a people. To walk around here and see how people live and know that we in the US live at their cost it pretty disgusting. The Nicaraguans were not allowed to determine their own fate because they needed to keep producing sugar, coffee, cotton and other export goods at the desired price of the capitalist market to the north. That sounds like a great reason to make someone live in a one room tin shack their whole life.

Granada! Granada! Granada!!

Yesterday my research well dried up, I think. I have to request all the materials I want to look at and when I turned in the batch that I had already worked through and requested more, I was told I couldn't. Not really sure what happened. So I guess its time to explore a little.

I grabbed a bus from the bus area (can't really call it a station) and headed to Granada

The buses don't ever really stop, there is a dude that yells out the window the destination and then if people need that one they run up to the door as the bus slows down and they hop on. It was pretty funny when the driver would speed away and people weren't in their seats yet.

I got a quick shot of the Masaya Volcano (center right) as we were speeding by, it was smoking pretty good though its hard to see with all the other clouds in the sky. It has rained a little everyday, not hard usually, but a pretty constant spitting of rain comes down; today was no exception.

Granada was a welcome change from Managua; its a much brighter city, almost Mediterranean in the colors of its buildings. I jumped off the bus in a crowded street market, hoping to find a painting or something cool to bring back, but all that was for sale was underwear, shirts, shoes and music. Its an old Spanish colonial city and some of that it still very clear, like La Iglesia de Guadelupe:

and this newer church that I couldn't find the name of:

This kid and I had a good conversation about baseball, he agreed that the Cubs were the best team in the world; smart kid:

I grabbed something to eat and then headed back to Managua. There is a corner where some people sell cashews and mangoes everyday; the mangoes are awesome, today was the first I had one. As I was walking over there I saw this sick stencil of Sandino. There seems to be a lot of protest against President Ortega today, I'm not sure what its all about, but its pretty clear that he is no longer the Sandinista he once was.

Movin, you know, doin it...

Worked my ass off today trying to translate texts and figure out what the hell was going on during the Literacy Crusade. I think the pattern for the next few days will be work from 9 until 2 or 3 and then come back to my room, rest, and then grab some dinner before coming home to a few glasses of rum and a relaxing night reading something. Yea, it sounds a little boring, but there is not a whole lot to do in this city, and I am a little weary of heading out at night on my own. So I will stick to this pattern and come to love it.

This is my office for the next few days


Came back after finding some really good stuff and rested for about an hour and then decided I would try to get in some of the revolution monuments. I grabbed a cab and said something to the effect of "la casa predesente" which the driver took to mean the FSLN party headquarters. We pulled up in a quiet neighborhood with lots of men and guns standing at a brightly colored gate and I though that this was probably not the place I was trying to go. After much bad Spanish and confusion he understood what the dumb gringo in his cab wanted and we drove off.

Ended up here:

The old National Cathedral, where some dudes were putting up the flag at just the right time:

The grave of Carlos Fonseca, founder of the FSLN and venerated revolutionary:
Any revolution would be remiss without having a hulking proletariat statue:

Or their other venerated figure (Augusto Cesar Sandino) lurking from above the trees:


And just up the street the toughest living conditions I have seen so far anywhere:

I walked for a bit afterwards looking for a place to eat. Lots of small roadside type things with food that looked like empenadas, but I wanted something more substantial than that since my only other food today was a banana, a piece of pineapple and cantaloupe at breakfast. So I ended up eating with this parrot. I think this place was near the OEA (Organization of American States) offices or something like it because there were a decent amount of white people around there and I saw a Toyota with an OEA sticker on its door.

This place was great for $4.50 - Grilled Chicken, Rice and Beans a Salad and a 40 oz. of Tona:


I am really starting to enjoy this routine, it was a little tough at first just because I didn't know what was going on really. But now I know where I am and where some necessities are and I think this is going to feel very natural tomorrow or the next day. The plan is to head out to Leon after Sunday and see what Syd Frey is up to at the New Haven/Leon Sister City Project. I've been told Leon is gorgeous so I am excited to go, but first things first, I have some beers and rum to drink...

Sandinismo si! Danielismo no!

Arrived last night about 7 to La Casa San Juan. Its in a pretty nice neighborhood from what I can gather, and its just about a block and a half from the Universidad de Centroamericana. Its one of the many Jesuit schools throughout Latin America and just like in Cuba it educated a fair amount of revolutionaries that ended up in the upper echelons of the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional), more on that later.

Coming into Managua last night at dusk was cool and a little nerve wracking, I would have liked to come in during the day just to get an idea of my surroundings. I was standing in line to be checked by customs when a woman approached and asked if I needed a taxi, I said yes, and she led me all the way to the front. I was half expecting a typical New York line of complaints from all the people I passed, but nothing was said that I heard and I was quickly led to a taxi. 20 minutes later and I arrived at Casa San Juan, where, to repeat, no one speaks English.

I really tired the woman out that was behind the front desk between my asking for a place to eat and trying to figure out how long I was staying. She opened up the phone book and started taking to someone it sounded like she knew; at one point I heard her say "Eduardo no hablas espanol..." and then she laughed a bit. Funny. An hour and a half later some fried chicken and beans showed up which she supplemented with rice and a really nice medley of carrots, celery, peppers and onions. The vegetables were easily the best part. I drank a few beers, did some work and then went to sleep, knowing that I had no alarm clock to wake me up for my 8:30 meeting the next morning.

I have a nice two bedroom at the back of the courtyard on the right side. One window, AC, a huge shower and some cool birds that make lots of noise. Works for me, and there is a nice patio right outside to work at.

Today, Tuesday, was my meeting at the Instituto Historica de Nicaragua y Centroamericana. Really pretty unsure about this one, I wasn't too confident that there would be anything for me to use since I knew that the tapes I wanted to listen to were not available. BUT...The Director was awesome! She very much understood what I was looking for and we had a good conversation back and forth in English and Spanish. One thing I love about Latin America is that coffee is served at every meeting I have ever been at, and it is always fantastic. Small cup, little bit of sugar, perfecto.

Its definitely a challenge not having a firm command of the spoken language, I can read and listen just fine, but my talking ability is limited. I generally get the jist of what everyone is trying to tell me, and then I do a lot of smiling and nodding. If you don't do it a lot, I recommend giving it a try, it goes a long way.

Took a long walk after doing work until about 2 to grab something to eat and ended up at a cool grill type place that had some really awesome beef, chicken and pork grilled up with fantastic tortillas and pretty good rice and beans. Grabbed a bottle of Flor de Cana (maybe the best rum in the world) and I am heading out into my courtyard to do some reading and enjoy the rum into a relaxing Nicaraguan evening....although a pretty good thunderstorm just rolled in.

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

I’m off. After a 9 o’clock wake up for my 11 am flight I am airborne over Evansville, Indiana. How do I know this you ask?, because the pilot felt the need to tell us all this very mundane detail. Look man, we all know we are going to Miami, it says so on the ticket, no one cares what cities we are flying over. If you’re heading over the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China ok; but were crossing Appalachia, not much doing in the hollers and corners from this altitude.

I’m nervous. I’m out on my own heading to a country that I can modestly speak the language of and not all that sure what is going to happen. At the same time I could not be more excited. I have no idea what is going to happen, and that is a great feeling sometimes. It’s in these moments that life is most clearly palpable; with my past and my future precisely divided.

These experiences are things that I have always needed, to chart off into the unknown and figure it all out as you go. It forces one to be present in the moment; you don’t really have the luxury of being concerned with the future because the present is so demanding of your constant attention. “Keep your eyes wide open” I’ve been told. We (US citizens) have so much to learn from other cultures that often are mistakenly labeled as backward or underdeveloped, as in when they are labeled “Third World.” To be clear, the term “Third World” was a self-imposed term that came about during the period of non-alignment after the end of the Second World War in opposition to the socio-economic situation present on the 1st World (capitalist nations) and 2nd World (aligned with the Soviet Union). It is used today in an almost derogatory way, and it often blinds us to the beauty and simplicity present in these societies.

A different way of being is what I expect to encounter and incorporate some aspect of into my own way of being. To go into the world without bringing some part home with you is a wasted trip. It’s the reason we all share the common language of laughter, hope, fear and love. Our language may be different, but all of us can experience and sense these emotions no matter where we are and whom we are with. I’m setting out on a course that many have taken throughout history, the journey both into the world and into one’s own soul or mind, whatever you want to call it. It’s the path that people have chosen in search of answers, freedom, adventure or fulfillment whatever the reason it feels like I am connected in some way to that spirit. The gaze out into the unknown with all of life out on front is the one that I am sharing with millions of others throughout all of time.

I’m hitting the ground running. I land at 6:30 pm and then I gotta figure out how to get to El Casa San Juan. I called yesterday, “Hola. Hay una persona que hablas ingles?” “No.” “Entonces,…” So, I think I have a room for ten days, but I could be wrong. I’ve got a meeting with the Director of the Historical Archives Institute in the morning to find out what exactly I can access to do my research. I had wanted to listen to tape recordings from the Sandinista Literacy Campaign of 1980 but was told I cannot because they are too fragile. So, now that my main source of information is not available to me, I really have no idea what I am going to be able to figure out and who I will be able to speak with.

That’s where it stands as of 2 o’clock Monday afternoon mid-flight, Tuesday this time could yield a very different situation; let’s hope for the best.

Drink some Gatorade, put some dirt on it, he'll be fine...

Awesome launch into the summer – a Cubs sweep of the cross-town scumbags and their low class road show!! Being at the final game of a three game sweep is a beautiful thing in general, but when those brooms are pointed at the south-siders in their lovely grey and black attire, it is all the more satisfying.


Cousin Jamie came to meet me for the game and we got in just in time to see the first pitch of Ryan Dempster’s (suddenly frequent) gem of a game. I mistakenly lead us to really nice seats right on the first row of the right field upper deck, naturally drawn towards Fukudome as I am. During the Red’s series back in April I made my first t-shirt jersey purchase, due to the fact that I had caught the Fukudome fever. The guy is a right-hander that bats lefty for the sole reason that it is closer to first base from the left batters box – so fundamentally sound!

When we sat down the couple next to us asked where we got the tickets, I said we bought them, and they seemed puzzled. Apparently they and their friends have these as season tickets – which struck me as odd because the dude had a White Sox hat on. He also had a Disco Biscuits shirt on, which left me very, very confused – as if I saw George Bush helping up an old woman who had fallen down – I’d want to throw a tomato at him, but I might wait just a minute…Eventually their friends showed up and we were moved back to our intended seats.

Our new row mates were a cool couple, even though the woman had a PINK Cubs hat on, she knew her shit and had some great things to say, the title of this entry being the beaut of the night – said after Fukudome was hit on the back of the elbow with a pitch. Without recapping the whole game, there were some clutch walks, a few homeruns, two very successful hit and runs, some stolen bases and generally a clinic on how to win a baseball game (maybe Ozzie learned something?) This team is good, really good, the best I have seen in my time as a Cubs fan (which happens to coincide with exactly how old I am). We are going to win the World Series, not without caveat, but it will happen this year.
Alright, flight to Miami is about to take off, here I go……

The Deal

1st Stop: Nicaragua, June 23-July 3.








Really excited to kick my summer off with this trip. My last day of school/work is June 20 and then I am off to Chicago to drop the dog and head south. I'll be spending most of my time trying to translate audio tapes of the Sandinista Literacy Campaign. State formation is the issue I am attempting to uncover. How does power meet with the consent of the governed and form a state? The overwhelming majority of states in the world operate on social contract theory - essentially the state only exists at the will of the people and in this case my questions will be directed at discovering what sort of society the Sandinistas were attempting to create and simultaneously what the Nicaraguan people thought they were receiving. Obviously there will be lots of wandering around checking out cool things in a new culture as well. A few days in Leon, a beautiful colonial city, and then back to the states to hop on a plane to.....


2nd stop: Mae Hong Son, Thailand - July 7-17

ROY!!!! Alright, this is going to be a fun one. Hopefully there will be some motobikes ridden, hot food eaten, thai beer drank and many, many laughs had.
Takes 2 days to get there and negative 1 to get back - time traveling for sure. This will be the one trip that won't be long enough, I blame it on my job making me work too far into the summer.





3rd stop: Bariloche, Argentina - July 20-August 5

I've wanted to get to Patagonia for as long as I can remember and now I'll be living there for two weeks with an Argentine family, studying Spanish, eating delicious gaucho meats. Classes from 9-1 M-F for two weeks, skiing on the weekends and generally living it up the whole time. Mikel Bova Esq. of Colorado/Utah fame will be joining me for some skiing at some point.
There are few things that are better for me than mountains and snow, but one of them is being in a new culture that I get to explore and experience. This one gives me both, pretty damn awesome. Its also my first trip into the southern hemisphere - toilets go the opposite direction I hear...

4th stop: Buenos Aires - August 5-8

That dude is obviously the man, and even though he is not wearing a mustache in the picture, you can be sure there was on on that lip at some point in his life.
A quick trip to a city that I would be remiss for not visiting while in the country. We'll see what this one brings. I've been told of neighborhoods that have completely dropped capitalism and run strictly on the barter system - definitely more on this to come...







5th and final.......August 8-10

Alright, check back in next week and I'll get this thing moving. Good luck out there.