Melissa's Travels

hi

there has been a request for things I need from the wish list:

More important
English language books: especially ones on Nicaragua by Noam Chomsky and ? Kinzer, a New York Times correspondent during the war

Yogi Tea brand tea: Cocoa Spice

Less important
Taste of India instant indian food- my mom sent some and I love them!!!
Chocolate good milk chocolate
Anything from Trader joes
trail mixes especially with dried fruit or chocolate, or cranberries, gloabl viillage nut mix. cinnamon dried apples
sweetened dried cranberries- my family LOVES them
bras and underwear (email me for details if you really want to send these)
(VS cotten bralette 36B or Large. Signature cotton series full coverage 36B. VS Pink collection bikinis size small. Champion sports bras from target, medium. Very soft and all one piece, with no seams that chafe))
pictures of people I like, real or digital
CDs

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Hi

First and foremost, I miss you all and wish I could have been at the wedding. I suppose it was lovely and fun

I have not written in awhile because I have been working, which is a good thing. Work things are going pretty well, so I wont bore you with the details .Instead I will bore you with other details…like mice. I have mice in my room. They found my food box, and decided to take a little nibble of a number of different things, like they just really didn’t care for Chele food. The weirdest part was is that they got into a soy snack bar, and somehow managed to scrape all the yogurt coating off and left the rest. Guess they don’t like hippie food either. Anyhow, I have secured the box, but they rustle around and forage all night, which keeps me up, because I hate for them to get into work stuff, and the other day I walked into my room with them on my bed. Mice pooooop on my bed! And now I have trouble sleeping because I freak out about them running over me while I sleep. But almost every night I take an antihistimine to keep me from itching in my sleep, which may not work, because I still have awful scabs), and so that knocks me out pretty good….. However, the mice are a result of no longer having a cat, which means I have much fewer flea bites, which drive me crazy, so I guess I’ll take the mice. At least they’re not rats ( knock on wood).

There had been internittenet civil unrest ( calm down) in Managua the last few wekks. There has been a general strike and demonstrations by students, which consist of preventing traffic from passing, which is teerbily inconvenient to all the regular people who ned to get to work and home via bus, and cannot resolve the problems, only suffer more because of the strikes I actually went to Managua one of these days, because I didn’t know if it was serious or not ( the students always seem to be striking), and it turns out that day they burned three buses and everyone was worried about me. We had some god awful delays in the heat, but I chatted with this nice girl on the bus, and all was fine. The strike even reached Esteli, and there were some transportation strikes, and rumors that the bus to Sontule might not run. It took a bunch of producers down to a rally, but decided to keep running as usual, which is good. The strike is over the rising cost of goods and petrol.

Turns out Letvia’s name is Lesbia. I just got that one, I am a little slow. I love their son Brian, he is absolutely bonkers and a big clown and I love his uniqueness and individuality, which is probably because he wants attention because the only other kid around all the time is Isabel’s son Kevin, who hits a lot. But if he was my kid he’d drive me crazy because he is always dirty, whines a lot, and just doesn’t listen.

Last week MARENA ( ministry of the environment) asked me on Monday to do a presentation on my work (15 min in SPANISH), on Thrusday, only prob was I was going back to Miraflor, so I had to do it all in the 3 hours of laptop battery life I had left. Went brilliantly in the end, and everyone at least seemed to understand me, and asked me questions and seemed interested. I also talked to them about the problems with the uleraleros (boys with uleras, or slingshots, that like to kill birds) I know they have killed birds with rings, and if their counts are accurate, they kill between 1-30 birds each every day they hunt. If on average 100 birds a week, than we have over 30000 birds a year killed by bored kids with slingshots. The MARENA park guard is going to come to the area and talk to the cooperative, and I am plannin, with Marlon and Nelson( see people guide from last year) to have a Saturday party with a pinata and goodies and then activities about environmental stuff. Who knows if it will work, but it is something. Chico Javier wants to have a weekly class or session things, and he is going to try and arrange that himself, because eI told him I do not have enough time to do it well, and in my experience, if class type things are not done well, they can actually be counteractive. He maintains it would e mostly activities, but I don’t see it happening. I had to talk with him, because I feel that since he works with me, everything he does, from planning this, to taking the uleras from kids, to talking to parents, reflects on me, since he works for me, and people will naturally think I am of the same mind as him. But he can be confrontational when he speaks, and sometimes bullying or boorish, and so I am fearful that a misstep on his part could hurt my relationship with the community. He is not from the community either, and people, especially kids, I feel are more likely to listen to a community member, so I always talk with Marlon and Nelson and have them talk with me or on joint ideas at the cooperative meetings. He is an outsider too, although he fancies himself a part of the community. He is always so stubborn, it can be a problem.

However, he is also very helpful, and is helping me set up my solar panel so I can use my computer in Sontule.

Went to a killer despedida for an English teacher in Sontule, Hilary last Saturday, danced and rdrank the night away, and was hung over the next morning, waiting with Nelson and CJ to catch a ride to Sontule at the Texaco Starmart, departure site for Miraflor (esarmart). Lucky thing I did not work Sunday. Surprised I had the energy to dance after working all day Saturday, and then making the 2hr walk (hike), to the Pan American highway to get a bus to Esteli

The brit field assistant Rowan arrives tomorrow…..

Things are good and I am happy, if a little tired and bloatedJ

Love missy

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The beauracracy of the ministry of the environment, a lack of trail marking supplies, and student strikes have conspired to make me miss two days of work and leave me somewhat stranded in Managua. I will try to get a 3:45 bus back today, but the normal 2 hour journey took mroe than three hours to get here, so who knows. So I might not be able to get back to Miraflor tonight, which I would like to do because my boys (as I now call them, but not to them, just in this blog), have been working alone for two days, which is fine and dandy and I trust them, but we had not planned for beyond two days

On top of this, MARENA (ministry of the environment and natural resources) in Esteli has just asked me yesterday at 4pm to prepare a 15 minute powerpoint presentation in spanish about my work. Oh, no big deal they say, just the mayor and other local important people and reps from local NGO{s and a few other people giving presentations about their work in a three hour meeting. You know, the kind of thing I would like to have time to prepare for. It can take me weeks to prepare a presentation in English, let alone Spanish!!!! and I dont know how to say some of the technical things so I am tempted to stay in Esteli tonight anyway, but then that means losing more days of work...hmmmm.... and Only I told this woman who brings students from Centro Mundial in Managua to stay with families in Sontule as part of semester abroad progrmas where they learn about history, economics, social issues and environmental issues in Mesoamerica that I would bring some students out with me tomorrow morning.

Anyway working is going along, a little slow, but good

Here are the major news stories:

LOCAL GRINGRA DRINKS WATER AND DOES NOT GET SICK!!!
On one of the recent extremely hot days, the camelback bag Melissa Mark, local biologist uses for transporting water was not sealed properly, and spills all two liters of her water at 10am.
Distruaght and dehydrated at 2pm, Ms. Mark decides to risk it and drinks approx. 1L of water from a tube that diverts spring water from higher up to a pila. She decides to tempt fate and rely on the stash of anti-diarrhea meds and antibiotics she has stowed away. She awaits the impending doom....which never arrives. Which now leaves the question: was it pure luck, and the fates smiled kindly on the overheated girl? Or has her intestinal gut fauna evolved?.....

NELSON GAMES, FRANCISCO ACUNA, AND FRANCISCO JAVIER SOVALBARRO DOING EXCELLENT JOB ON LOCAL BIRD PROJECT
These boys (men really, but the nicaraguan tendency to joke and ñaugh about everything, and to giggle at funny jokes and smile enthusiasticaly when something goes well, and smile shyly when asking a question betrays their true ages) are doing a great job, and study at night form the pamphlets and books I give the. They want so much to doa good job, and are always helpful, and ffer to do the hardest parts of work, and always want to carry things for me and such. Fran tries so hard to improve imself, and is so quick and picks up on everythign so fast ( and lives practically in the same house, he is isabels son), that he is my defact second. Nelson since last year has taught himself a great deal about birds from a guide i left him, and has spent hours observing the focal species on his own, and is very knowledgable in their behavior. He always wants to learn more and is the budding biologist in the group. These charactersitics make up for his difficulties with filling out data sheets. I suspect he is only semi-literate and memorizes them. He takes notes all the time, but when it comes time to enter them, he reads them to me and asks me to write them down. Chico Javier can be bothersome, sometimes jokes too much and has a hard time with the boss-friend relationship, but is a very hard worker, very fast and efficient. He also studies quite a lot.

LOCAL SONTULE FAMILY MAKE CHANNA MASALA
La Casita, a restaurant, botanical garden, and farm outside of Esteli, famous for their whole wheat bread and brie cheese, have been spotted selling the mixture of spices used in Indian cuisine called Garam Masala. Ms. MArk was lucky enough to find this nectar of the gods one afternoon, and Saturday night she taught Isabel and Letvia how to make Channa Masala, a chick pea dish from northern India. It was a resounding success. All members claimed they liked it, and ate it, so it must be true. This is part of Melissa´s campaign to end the seige of fried food that makes her fat and bloated here. So far, its been better, but some days she chokes down food out of politness. She is currently formulating a plan to tell Dona Isable that she would not like to eat anything fried more than 2-3 times a week. DOna Isabel leaves for a intercambio in Wisconsin on Thursday and her duaghter Anna, who more often boils the food, will be taking care of me....I will try and have more cooking lessons, but until then, I think I will just tell them to boil everything,and I will doctor it with the supply of spices I have purchased in Managua. too bad I dont live here, you can get so many things.. Mom sent me powdered coconut milk, so we will try and make curry sometime this week. And I found aji amarillo paste, so we will try and make the Nicaragua version of papas a la huacaina.

So, time to go, lots of love

Missy

hi

Good things:

My family loves me and I love them and we were all happy to see each other
I have been getting a lot of work done
Nelson, Fran (dona isables son), and CJ are great to wrok with
I found two good grocery stores inManagua where I can get some hippie food, and believe it or not, aji amarillo paste and aji rocoto paste, along with all sorts of american food
I have a new girlfirend, Ana, Isables daughter, who is great and we are going out dancing tonight
They all have been trying to not feed me so much fried stuff, and Ana has gastritis and the doctor told her less oil and salt and dairy and no meat. I teased her that now we can have the same diet
I am going to teach ana and Letvia (Fran´s wife, mother of Brian, daughter in law of dona Isabel) to make chickpea masala, and hummus, and papas a la huacaina
I think I am getting skinner, but eveyrone here thinks I am fatter than when I left. SO not true. Just ask Annie. Maybe they just remember me skinny, which is nice
Did I mention how much my family loves me and I love them?
My solar shower works great, and so the water is not freezing cold so hopefully I will not get sick
Met some new English teahcers here, Anita, Hillary, and Giorhan, and they are cool
Met up with my friend Puen again, the soil engineer who works on organic agriculture from Switzerland. He pretty much lives here now
My room is now much bigger, with a spearate part for me to sleep, and another part to serve as lab/equipment storage

Bad things
Hvae not been able to visit with people as much as I would like
In spite of 100% DEET, I have picked more than 100 ticks off my body and have at least twice that many bites
Two and a half weeks later and equipment I need has not yet arrived
Went all the way to Managua today only to find out my permits arent ready
Why cant they tell me these things over the phone?
Things are going a little slower with work than I would like
Did not get a grant
Have to pay my guys less, and take on fewer students, I will go into debt, but oh well

As you can see, much more good than bad...and here is a funny joke

Dona Lucia, the mother of MArlon, who worked with me last year and president of the Sontule cooperative, gave me tamal to eat. I do not like the tamales here so much, so I ate very litte. She asked me if I liked it, and I said, not really, no

so she said ¨Bueno, por eso, no esta bueno, esta mal¨ get it? if not, ask a spanish speaking friend

ha-ha

love
melissa
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