Monday, May 31, 2004
Senora?!?!?!
Wor is going SO slow. Scheduling problems, not communication between miraflor and Esteli, so its a two hour bus ride to tell soemone one thing or ask one question!!!! I am not planning things out very well, so in two weeks I have worked about 5 days!!!!!
Partly because I am going off of other people{s suggestions on where to look, and then I reach the end of their list, and I am like now wnhat? Waste two days and get a new list, and then cant find someone to work with me for threee days, things like that...
Will probably stay here an extra few weeks to make up for this stuff
Everyone here keep calling me Senora. Whats up with that? I used to be the muchacha or senorita, and so now I either lok old or serious, or as I prefer to think, in that middle ozone, where people dont want to be disrespectful and call me senorita, or that people here get married so young, they cant help but call me senora, since I MUST be married!
Got a new CD player after mine disappeared, ut it wont play the CD with bird songs someone recorded for me because they are in MP# format. Booger. CD players, the portable kind, are expensive here, some no name brand cost $56.00, while a sony would be $120.
So, mine had MP3 format, but it disappeared. I dont want to accuse anyone, but I knwo when it disappeared, and unless it fell out of my backpack, Iknow who took it. Noone I work with, just some kid whose an ayudante...
Anyway, getting back to work tomorrow and off to Costa Rica on Sunday to get some stuff from my friend Annie who is bringing it down for me.
Love to all
Partly because I am going off of other people{s suggestions on where to look, and then I reach the end of their list, and I am like now wnhat? Waste two days and get a new list, and then cant find someone to work with me for threee days, things like that...
Will probably stay here an extra few weeks to make up for this stuff
Everyone here keep calling me Senora. Whats up with that? I used to be the muchacha or senorita, and so now I either lok old or serious, or as I prefer to think, in that middle ozone, where people dont want to be disrespectful and call me senorita, or that people here get married so young, they cant help but call me senora, since I MUST be married!
Got a new CD player after mine disappeared, ut it wont play the CD with bird songs someone recorded for me because they are in MP# format. Booger. CD players, the portable kind, are expensive here, some no name brand cost $56.00, while a sony would be $120.
So, mine had MP3 format, but it disappeared. I dont want to accuse anyone, but I knwo when it disappeared, and unless it fell out of my backpack, Iknow who took it. Noone I work with, just some kid whose an ayudante...
Anyway, getting back to work tomorrow and off to Costa Rica on Sunday to get some stuff from my friend Annie who is bringing it down for me.
Love to all
Friday, May 28, 2004
Stories from Miraflor
Okay,
So at this point I have worked about as many days as I have not, due to circumstances. I arrived here the 18th in esteli, had a meeting with MARENA (permits and such) people on the 19th, and then went up to Miraflor that night. Staring Wed, I went out with the guides from the UCA-Miraflor office visiting sites suggested by Francisco Munoz (aka Chico Munoz) and was supposed to continue until Sat. But then on Friday I got a bad cold, and by Sat. was violently ill with some combination cold flu stomach nastiness, and couldn't work. Alex, nor Franciso (aka Chico, chico Javier ) could work Sunday or monday, so I had to go to town to see Chico Munoz about guides, and we worked it out to work wed/Thur visiting sites. Now I dont have any time left and have to choose between sites and it is stressing me out!!!!
Plus it is raining here a lot, which would make running nets so hard, and the lower you go in elevation, the lass rain, so now I have three things to think about: presence of my focal species (and some days where bad bird days, so just because I didn't see them doesn't mean then weren't there), distribution of forest fragments, ease of netting in hilly areas, and the amount or rain, because you cant run nets in the rain!
First, a little background on Miraflor. The closest big town is Esteli, which is the capital of the department of Esteli, which means its not very big, but you can get your basic things here. The area of Miraflor was made a reserve in 1996, and UCA miraflor is a cooperative of various communities within the reserve and they have a milk coop, a coffee coop, working on developing organic agriculture and organic pesticides, and also have an office of ecotourism. I have been working with guides from this office, who are all young, guys 19-26 in ages, all very nice, but I have worked the most with Chico Javier and ALex, who are both really fun, but I guess I get along best with Chico Javier because he is so funny, and often stays at the house where I am staying. The guides are : Alex, Chico Javier, Edwin, Edgar, Jon Carlos, Arlen and Henry. They are like a little gang of buddies, who live in Miraflor. Some of them work on all these movimientos socialists here, like programa Escolar, which brings supplies to schools en el campo, and there is a youth radio station and have programs like, having kids from el campo and kids from el ciudad talk to each other. They go back and forth between Miraflor and Esteli alot, but all are from Miraflor, and some have started their own little farms, and come to Esteli to work in the office 1-2 times pre week, and to go out. People here have these great names, like Edwin, and Herbert, and Ivan, and Arlen and I am guessing i}they must come from all the foreigners passing through here over the years.
I am staying at Posada la Sonada, which is run by Corina, who is a fantastic women who took great care of me when I was sick. A girl named Yocasta works there, and she nice too, and pregnant, and no husband as far as I can see, but I'm going to wait to ask about that. Corina is funny and nice, and was a teacher and has lots of stories from the war. Seems just about everyone here lost someone in their family from the war. An English woman a while ago started an English teaching program fro the communities years ago, here, so there are quite a few English teachers in different communities, and I have talked quite a bit with one from Sweden named Magurite (Margarita here), who will be here until the end of August. As such, everyone here is pretty used to foreigners, what with this program, and tourists, and peace corp workers, but the place is far from touristy, much more like a place where people with socialists tendencies congregate. Appropriate, because a lot of fighting took place around here, and people very much support la frente Sandinista, and some people are very
anti-american, but I have not had any problems. Probably because everyone thinks I am German, and I haven{t yet figured out why.
SO many people here are names Francisco and they call them all chico. And people in the country mix in a LOT of slang, and nicaraguan spanish its sometimes hard to understand, and uses Nauhautl words. One thing is that all blonds are called cheles (boys chelos and girls chelas)and instead of muchacho/a they say chevalo/a, but this also signifies sometimes a kind of punk kid, so sometimes Chico Javier will talk about when he was more chevalo, meaning a punk kid running around and getting into trouble, but the Henry called all young people chevalo/a, except foreigners. Only nicas are chevalos.
I have so much to say, but cant think of everything. The best story so far, is last wed, after I had been in Miraflor for one day, there was a party at a school in another community because one of the English teachers was leaving. Her name is Carolina, and she is a 5'11 blond Swedish woman in her 20?s, and it was quite obvious that al the boys were smitten and that she enjoyed the attention. Anyway, Corina asks me if I mind going on horseback, and I say no, I have ridden before, but I am not very good. And so we go .At night. With no lights. And I could not see a single things but the occasional ghostly shadow of the white horse in front of me and the crazy disco club flashing of millions of fireflies. And a frog chorus all around like a giant amphibian party, and it was amazing! And then it was a little scary. And then I got tired after 2hrs on horseback, and more scared, as we went off the road and through the woods, and trees brushing close by and branches passing right over my head, and me not begin able to see them until the last moment and just hoping that the horse knew what he was doing! And then on the way back raining, which was less fun. And in all 4hrs of travel for 2hrs at the party, but it was so cool, and I would do it again. Chico Javier and I took horses to visit another site yesterday, and the ride was so beautiful, but his horse would gallop off, and mine would follow, sometimes too fast for comfort, because I worry about my equipment and the saddles dont have horns, and I have not ridden a horse in so long!
So, all in all, I hope to start nets on the 10th, but we'll see how it goes.On the negative sides, had my first asthma attack in years when I was out yesterday. Chico Javier was all asking me what he should do in case of emergency if that ever happened again, and told me I should have told everyone before, just in case, which is nice because he is being thoughtful and prepared, but I hate admitting that I have any problems that could keep me from doing work, or that make me look any weaker than I already do, I am so out of shape right now, I suck at hiking!
Chico and I have made a pact, and I am going to help him with his English( all the guides have classes, but he speaks better than the others) and he will help me with Spanish. Its funny, I like how he corrects me, like when I called him La Guia, he started all acting like a girl and said he wasn't la guia, he was el guia.
That{s a lot, but I have so much more, so that is all for now!
So at this point I have worked about as many days as I have not, due to circumstances. I arrived here the 18th in esteli, had a meeting with MARENA (permits and such) people on the 19th, and then went up to Miraflor that night. Staring Wed, I went out with the guides from the UCA-Miraflor office visiting sites suggested by Francisco Munoz (aka Chico Munoz) and was supposed to continue until Sat. But then on Friday I got a bad cold, and by Sat. was violently ill with some combination cold flu stomach nastiness, and couldn't work. Alex, nor Franciso (aka Chico, chico Javier ) could work Sunday or monday, so I had to go to town to see Chico Munoz about guides, and we worked it out to work wed/Thur visiting sites. Now I dont have any time left and have to choose between sites and it is stressing me out!!!!
Plus it is raining here a lot, which would make running nets so hard, and the lower you go in elevation, the lass rain, so now I have three things to think about: presence of my focal species (and some days where bad bird days, so just because I didn't see them doesn't mean then weren't there), distribution of forest fragments, ease of netting in hilly areas, and the amount or rain, because you cant run nets in the rain!
First, a little background on Miraflor. The closest big town is Esteli, which is the capital of the department of Esteli, which means its not very big, but you can get your basic things here. The area of Miraflor was made a reserve in 1996, and UCA miraflor is a cooperative of various communities within the reserve and they have a milk coop, a coffee coop, working on developing organic agriculture and organic pesticides, and also have an office of ecotourism. I have been working with guides from this office, who are all young, guys 19-26 in ages, all very nice, but I have worked the most with Chico Javier and ALex, who are both really fun, but I guess I get along best with Chico Javier because he is so funny, and often stays at the house where I am staying. The guides are : Alex, Chico Javier, Edwin, Edgar, Jon Carlos, Arlen and Henry. They are like a little gang of buddies, who live in Miraflor. Some of them work on all these movimientos socialists here, like programa Escolar, which brings supplies to schools en el campo, and there is a youth radio station and have programs like, having kids from el campo and kids from el ciudad talk to each other. They go back and forth between Miraflor and Esteli alot, but all are from Miraflor, and some have started their own little farms, and come to Esteli to work in the office 1-2 times pre week, and to go out. People here have these great names, like Edwin, and Herbert, and Ivan, and Arlen and I am guessing i}they must come from all the foreigners passing through here over the years.
I am staying at Posada la Sonada, which is run by Corina, who is a fantastic women who took great care of me when I was sick. A girl named Yocasta works there, and she nice too, and pregnant, and no husband as far as I can see, but I'm going to wait to ask about that. Corina is funny and nice, and was a teacher and has lots of stories from the war. Seems just about everyone here lost someone in their family from the war. An English woman a while ago started an English teaching program fro the communities years ago, here, so there are quite a few English teachers in different communities, and I have talked quite a bit with one from Sweden named Magurite (Margarita here), who will be here until the end of August. As such, everyone here is pretty used to foreigners, what with this program, and tourists, and peace corp workers, but the place is far from touristy, much more like a place where people with socialists tendencies congregate. Appropriate, because a lot of fighting took place around here, and people very much support la frente Sandinista, and some people are very
anti-american, but I have not had any problems. Probably because everyone thinks I am German, and I haven{t yet figured out why.
SO many people here are names Francisco and they call them all chico. And people in the country mix in a LOT of slang, and nicaraguan spanish its sometimes hard to understand, and uses Nauhautl words. One thing is that all blonds are called cheles (boys chelos and girls chelas)and instead of muchacho/a they say chevalo/a, but this also signifies sometimes a kind of punk kid, so sometimes Chico Javier will talk about when he was more chevalo, meaning a punk kid running around and getting into trouble, but the Henry called all young people chevalo/a, except foreigners. Only nicas are chevalos.
I have so much to say, but cant think of everything. The best story so far, is last wed, after I had been in Miraflor for one day, there was a party at a school in another community because one of the English teachers was leaving. Her name is Carolina, and she is a 5'11 blond Swedish woman in her 20?s, and it was quite obvious that al the boys were smitten and that she enjoyed the attention. Anyway, Corina asks me if I mind going on horseback, and I say no, I have ridden before, but I am not very good. And so we go .At night. With no lights. And I could not see a single things but the occasional ghostly shadow of the white horse in front of me and the crazy disco club flashing of millions of fireflies. And a frog chorus all around like a giant amphibian party, and it was amazing! And then it was a little scary. And then I got tired after 2hrs on horseback, and more scared, as we went off the road and through the woods, and trees brushing close by and branches passing right over my head, and me not begin able to see them until the last moment and just hoping that the horse knew what he was doing! And then on the way back raining, which was less fun. And in all 4hrs of travel for 2hrs at the party, but it was so cool, and I would do it again. Chico Javier and I took horses to visit another site yesterday, and the ride was so beautiful, but his horse would gallop off, and mine would follow, sometimes too fast for comfort, because I worry about my equipment and the saddles dont have horns, and I have not ridden a horse in so long!
So, all in all, I hope to start nets on the 10th, but we'll see how it goes.On the negative sides, had my first asthma attack in years when I was out yesterday. Chico Javier was all asking me what he should do in case of emergency if that ever happened again, and told me I should have told everyone before, just in case, which is nice because he is being thoughtful and prepared, but I hate admitting that I have any problems that could keep me from doing work, or that make me look any weaker than I already do, I am so out of shape right now, I suck at hiking!
Chico and I have made a pact, and I am going to help him with his English( all the guides have classes, but he speaks better than the others) and he will help me with Spanish. Its funny, I like how he corrects me, like when I called him La Guia, he started all acting like a girl and said he wasn't la guia, he was el guia.
That{s a lot, but I have so much more, so that is all for now!
