Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Of student strikes and missing permits
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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
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
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I love you and miss you so much! I want to come see you and your family. I will see what I can work out. Oh...did you hear the news? John proposed to Erin two days ago. Needless to say, she is crazy excited!
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