Melissa's Travels

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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