Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Lippouts and animals
Cool animals stuff so far...Went out and camped overnight with Chico Javier to look for mamamls, and it was great fun, it was a good clear night with no rain and not too cold, and saw two mexican porcupines, a kinkajou, and a skunk. There should be more mammals here, but there arent because the habitat is so fragmented there are no nearby big tracts of forsts to serve as sources, and too much edge, and human interference.
Two separate days I have been to a lek of long tailed manakins! Small black birds with a bright blue cape, red heads, and long scissor like tail feathers that group together and dance and sing to attract the ladies. They duet these crazy songs and then stand on a brach a few inches from each other and take turns flying up about 1-2 feet and flipping around in the air with their birght orange legs, and duetting this funny To-le-do sounding song. way cool, but hard to describe
And I finally saw a quetzal, but only the female.
on another note...
Peole here do not point with their hands, they point with their lips. Weird, And they can do it while talking. And they also have a crazy amount o and signals that I am just starting to understand and that some peace Corp volunteers have expained to me.
And the use swear words here on a daily basis, that dont means anything bad.
Like chinga means jeez, or jesus christ, or other exclamation when something not so great happens
And pinche means cheap
And some more good names
Lenin, Bismark, LadiMarssiel, Ladidi (as in Lady Di, princess of wales, only pronounced Ladeedee), Sida (pronounced seedar).
Two separate days I have been to a lek of long tailed manakins! Small black birds with a bright blue cape, red heads, and long scissor like tail feathers that group together and dance and sing to attract the ladies. They duet these crazy songs and then stand on a brach a few inches from each other and take turns flying up about 1-2 feet and flipping around in the air with their birght orange legs, and duetting this funny To-le-do sounding song. way cool, but hard to describe
And I finally saw a quetzal, but only the female.
on another note...
Peole here do not point with their hands, they point with their lips. Weird, And they can do it while talking. And they also have a crazy amount o and signals that I am just starting to understand and that some peace Corp volunteers have expained to me.
And the use swear words here on a daily basis, that dont means anything bad.
Like chinga means jeez, or jesus christ, or other exclamation when something not so great happens
And pinche means cheap
And some more good names
Lenin, Bismark, LadiMarssiel, Ladidi (as in Lady Di, princess of wales, only pronounced Ladeedee), Sida (pronounced seedar).
Wedding party and stuff in Esteli
So after I got back from Costa rica, I hung out with the english teahcers, Martin, Jane (Juanita), and Margareta. They told me about cool things in Esteli, like the cuban restaurant and the yoga center, and the museum, and we went to La Casita, a great restaurant/garden outside of town that has fanstatic homeade bread and yogurt and fruit, etc.
So that Saturday (613) there was abig wedding reception in Cebollal for a previous teacher and his Nica wife, and so we went and it was great fun. On the bus to Miraflor from Esteli, I sat on top for the first time, and it was so much nicer than hot and stuffy all below, but juanita and I were the only women, and when we first got up there, they all just stared. Ariel, a guide offered to take s to volcancitos to look for quetzales on Sunday before the party, but then the Miraflor baseball team won and was in the playoffs, and hes on the team so couldn´t go.
I get along great with Juanita, and the party was great fun, but almost no women there, just tons of young guys, so we were very popular, but they all got pretty drunk, but no one was obnoxious. Later at the house, Juanita, a visitor Tanya, guides Ariel, Henry, and Chico Javier sat arounda fire and hung out until one of the boys started flirting with me too muchand I got tired and went to bed. I todld him I had a boyfirend, but he was like, your not maried, and you dont have and kids.But then he said he respected my commitment. Crazy double standards. Seems like everyone here has kids without getting married o andan con otras mujeres, or whatever
It was fun, and then I felt guilty for having fun.
I have met lots of Peace Corps volunteers here and they tell me great stories, and this place and all the goings on just get more and more interesting. Too mucht oo write.
Love
melissa
So that Saturday (613) there was abig wedding reception in Cebollal for a previous teacher and his Nica wife, and so we went and it was great fun. On the bus to Miraflor from Esteli, I sat on top for the first time, and it was so much nicer than hot and stuffy all below, but juanita and I were the only women, and when we first got up there, they all just stared. Ariel, a guide offered to take s to volcancitos to look for quetzales on Sunday before the party, but then the Miraflor baseball team won and was in the playoffs, and hes on the team so couldn´t go.
I get along great with Juanita, and the party was great fun, but almost no women there, just tons of young guys, so we were very popular, but they all got pretty drunk, but no one was obnoxious. Later at the house, Juanita, a visitor Tanya, guides Ariel, Henry, and Chico Javier sat arounda fire and hung out until one of the boys started flirting with me too muchand I got tired and went to bed. I todld him I had a boyfirend, but he was like, your not maried, and you dont have and kids.But then he said he respected my commitment. Crazy double standards. Seems like everyone here has kids without getting married o andan con otras mujeres, or whatever
It was fun, and then I felt guilty for having fun.
I have met lots of Peace Corps volunteers here and they tell me great stories, and this place and all the goings on just get more and more interesting. Too mucht oo write.
Love
melissa
Work progress
Hi all,
all my last posts have been anecdotal stories that may cause you to think I am not working. well, never fear, I am, just not as much as I would like to. Things continue to progress slowly, the latest kink in the works being the woman I am supposed to work with, the one who knows how to run nets, will not be here until Monday. And she is bringing the poles. So I have identified the community I will be working in, it is called Sontule, and at some later point I will describe its long and varied history, but not now because i have other stories. So I have left the house of Corina, and will be staying in a slightly moe isolated spot, with less bus access, but closer to an English teacher, Jane, that I have become quite fond of.
I have identified my patches, and Marlon, asometimes guide for UCA, and acting president of the Oro Verde cooperative in Sontule has aranged for me to have free access to almost all the areas I want. Hes great and enthusiastic, and loves to go birding, as does his friend and brother in law Nelson, and I like many people in this community. Almost everyone is related, and there are many cooperatives, and at somepoint when this is all well explained to me I will post it here.
So i am really just waiting to start with the nets, after 5 weeks, almost 6!
I was sad to leave Corina´s house because I get along so great with her, and she is an awesome cook, and its a bit more lively, with people always apssing through, and the guides around. But maybe for the better, because the guides are great, but they are rather like a group of teenage guys always looking to one up each other, and at times seem quite cocky, so I am trying to develop other relationships. Like with Marlon, and Nelson, who ask me tons of questions, and Nelson brings a notebook with him to write down things, and they have started memorizing the scientific names of the birds, so I better get cracking before they know more that I do.
And jane, who is great, and Daniela, the sister of Nelson, and wife of Ivan, who is Marlons brother.
I am going to post some stories now separately, so take a look!
all my last posts have been anecdotal stories that may cause you to think I am not working. well, never fear, I am, just not as much as I would like to. Things continue to progress slowly, the latest kink in the works being the woman I am supposed to work with, the one who knows how to run nets, will not be here until Monday. And she is bringing the poles. So I have identified the community I will be working in, it is called Sontule, and at some later point I will describe its long and varied history, but not now because i have other stories. So I have left the house of Corina, and will be staying in a slightly moe isolated spot, with less bus access, but closer to an English teacher, Jane, that I have become quite fond of.
I have identified my patches, and Marlon, asometimes guide for UCA, and acting president of the Oro Verde cooperative in Sontule has aranged for me to have free access to almost all the areas I want. Hes great and enthusiastic, and loves to go birding, as does his friend and brother in law Nelson, and I like many people in this community. Almost everyone is related, and there are many cooperatives, and at somepoint when this is all well explained to me I will post it here.
So i am really just waiting to start with the nets, after 5 weeks, almost 6!
I was sad to leave Corina´s house because I get along so great with her, and she is an awesome cook, and its a bit more lively, with people always apssing through, and the guides around. But maybe for the better, because the guides are great, but they are rather like a group of teenage guys always looking to one up each other, and at times seem quite cocky, so I am trying to develop other relationships. Like with Marlon, and Nelson, who ask me tons of questions, and Nelson brings a notebook with him to write down things, and they have started memorizing the scientific names of the birds, so I better get cracking before they know more that I do.
And jane, who is great, and Daniela, the sister of Nelson, and wife of Ivan, who is Marlons brother.
I am going to post some stories now separately, so take a look!
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Costa Rica
Hey all
Im in costa rica now and met up with annie and she brought all of my things, except I am still having this damned problem with the bird sounds CD. I'll probably never get it to work on a CD player, since I tried on a CD player with MP3 format, and it still didn't work. oh well
I got here and annie wasnt at the hotel, so i went to the chee chee restaurant in this chee chee riche neighborhood where the OTS kids are staying, and there was this other gringa byherself, and she asks me to sit with her, and we get talking, and she is in the OTS course, and worked at COcha Cashu and knew AMy Porter (refresher, in 2000, I was supposed to work with Francis Bossouyt who was killed by a caiman, and Amy Porter had been working with him for months when that happened)
Anyhow, I hung out with her and Annie and another OTS guy Varun last night and today and it was fun, and I got some necessary shopping done. I picked up quite a few books at this awesome bookstore in San Jose, and got some warmer clothes.
Im so happy to see annie and hang out with some other people for a bit. I love my field site, but I do get a litle lonely sometimes.
Annie is the best, she brought all this stuff for me. You should all be friends with Annie. And she is fun
Best part, was coming down here on TIcaBus, they play movies, and they played a preview for the movie Lethal Ninja, ahich was the story of a blond female american sciecntist, who discovers a plot by an evil old british man in i kid you not a white suite, panama hat, and a monocle to take over the unamed african country where she works. And then she is captured by ninjas. Yes, ninjas sent by a bristish man in africa. But they didnt count on her husband, a martial arts expert form the us, who travels to find her. One scene was in the middle of a roller rink lit by eerie disco lighting and fog and our hero is being circled by 15 ninjas. on roller skates. ninjas on rollerskates. and then little blades pop out of their skates. You can imagine how disappointed i was when it was Agent Cody Banks that was played instead of Lethal Ninja. If anyone can find it, I would love for you to send me a copy.
I head back to Managua tomorrow, and am stressed because the status of the poles Salvadora is supposed to lend me is still unknown. So I might not have poles. Cant run nets without poles. geez.
Thats all for now
Melissa
Im in costa rica now and met up with annie and she brought all of my things, except I am still having this damned problem with the bird sounds CD. I'll probably never get it to work on a CD player, since I tried on a CD player with MP3 format, and it still didn't work. oh well
I got here and annie wasnt at the hotel, so i went to the chee chee restaurant in this chee chee riche neighborhood where the OTS kids are staying, and there was this other gringa byherself, and she asks me to sit with her, and we get talking, and she is in the OTS course, and worked at COcha Cashu and knew AMy Porter (refresher, in 2000, I was supposed to work with Francis Bossouyt who was killed by a caiman, and Amy Porter had been working with him for months when that happened)
Anyhow, I hung out with her and Annie and another OTS guy Varun last night and today and it was fun, and I got some necessary shopping done. I picked up quite a few books at this awesome bookstore in San Jose, and got some warmer clothes.
Im so happy to see annie and hang out with some other people for a bit. I love my field site, but I do get a litle lonely sometimes.
Annie is the best, she brought all this stuff for me. You should all be friends with Annie. And she is fun
Best part, was coming down here on TIcaBus, they play movies, and they played a preview for the movie Lethal Ninja, ahich was the story of a blond female american sciecntist, who discovers a plot by an evil old british man in i kid you not a white suite, panama hat, and a monocle to take over the unamed african country where she works. And then she is captured by ninjas. Yes, ninjas sent by a bristish man in africa. But they didnt count on her husband, a martial arts expert form the us, who travels to find her. One scene was in the middle of a roller rink lit by eerie disco lighting and fog and our hero is being circled by 15 ninjas. on roller skates. ninjas on rollerskates. and then little blades pop out of their skates. You can imagine how disappointed i was when it was Agent Cody Banks that was played instead of Lethal Ninja. If anyone can find it, I would love for you to send me a copy.
I head back to Managua tomorrow, and am stressed because the status of the poles Salvadora is supposed to lend me is still unknown. So I might not have poles. Cant run nets without poles. geez.
Thats all for now
Melissa
