Monday, April 24, 2006
update
Hi all
I don’t have much time, but I wanted to fill you in on some things. I unfortunately made a bad decision in my purchase of a car, and so I have recently been spending WAY too much time in Esteli, dealing with talking to the guy that sold it to me, taking it to mechanics, etc etc….
I know I should have talked to more people about it before I bought it, but it was a cousin of Isabel, and I trusted someone when I should not have, I guess. And if ONE MORE PEROSN tells me that I shouldnt trust people, or I should have been more careful, or I should have talked to them first I will scream! I know, I know, but whats done is done, and all I can do now is to try and deal with it.
work is going well, but I am having problems with some other things like my car, solar panels, and someone stole shoes and a CD player out of the locked cabinet in the teachers office at the UCA. Either someone knows the combo or someone left it open. I´,m not keeping anything there anymore.
FYI mom, when in Esteli, I am staying at the Olivas house.
I go back up today, and hopefully wont have to come down for awhile, b/c I have missed DAYS of work dealing with the car
To top it off, my assistant showed up, took the wrong bus, but got to Sontule in the end, and it doesnt seem like she brought ANY money for her own costs. She also did not bring clothes to work in, insect repellent, or binoculars, all things I put on the list I sent them. Who doesnt bring insect repellent? Anyway, shes a nice girl, but we need to talk
On a happier note, I have made some new lovely friends who are volunteers here, and my friend Sadie is coming back and we might go scuba diving, if she can convince me to take the time off work. My guys are WONDERFUL, and do such good work, and I am so lucky to have them. CJ is not working this year so I dont have to worry about him moping around
and Lesbia is pregnant! and its due on my birthday, and if ti s a girl, shes naming it after me, and if its a boy, Marcelo, the male version of my name, Cute, huh?
So the plus side is that I got to go dancing last week and this week, and that I met a cute boy ( well not really met, since knew him last year, but I guess you could say we are getting to know each other better). He lives in Esteli mostly so I probably wont get to see him that much, but nice to have a distraction…I will refrain from mentioning his name for now, but don’t worry I promise not to marry him and bring him and his whole family to the states.
But the down side, besides the extra frustration of the car, is that I have lost 3 days last week and two days this week form work, something I am NOT happy about. Also, although I have solar panels, it is frustrating because it was unnecessary for me to buy and additional panel, since Isabel had one installed, I could have just paid her to get a slightly bigger one. BUT, Javier was doing this all for me, and although he claims he didn’t know she was getting one until he had already bought it, everyone says he knew. Well, who knows. We are going to try and sell the one that Isabel bought because it is smaller and then she can pay me the difference between the large and the small panel.
The most frustrating part is that I now have this very expensive panel system and cannot charge my batteries or use my computer because he has not gotten the energy inverter to convert from AC to DC yet. So we have two solar panels and three 12V batteries fully charged to run 3 light bulbs! I am very much annoyed.
But, I am doing well and happy and don’t want you all to think I am not. I do love being her, it does feel very much like a type of a home to me (what is home really, I have so many, and yet not really any). As always, the people are fabulous, and there are too many fun things to do that I end up having to turn down, like going to the beach next weekend
But the good things are that work is going well so far, and the guys are working very hard, and have already started to find some nests. I have changed some things from last year to help with organization, and I rarely have gone out to work in the afternoons, so I can stay at the house and go over their sheets and deal with all the little stuff that used to eat up my nights so I never stopped working. But, going out in the morning still means I get up at four and come back by 11am, so still a pretty good chunk of the day in the field, and then I do planning and slide staining, restocking, organizing, and reviewing data books until the evening. We did not get too much work done over Semana Santa, I didn’t go with the family as the whole church did the stations of the cross on Friday afternoon or the vigil on Saturday night, not really my thing, if ya dig what I’m saying. Everyone was afraid to leave me in the house alone on Saturday night, and were like, “Aren’t you afraid?!?!?” of what, I am not sure, passing bandits, or phantoms, or just strange sounds in the night, which can be a little unnerving. I discovered that night why everyone plays music so loud. It helps dispel the loneliness, and helps keeps you awake when you get up at 4am to chop wood or milk the cows. But what more, it overwhelms that scratch of branches on the roof, the wood creaking form the winds, and the sounds of various animals scuttling about. So yeah, now I understand the love affair with radios in the campo
I do have to fill you all in on who all the new people I have met here who are volunteers or working on other projects, but not a lot of time, so I will get to it later. My friend Martina who is an English teacher was talking about how she sends these fabulous emails about all the crazy things that happen, and I realize it has been a long time since I have done that. I think perhaps it is because I have become more accustomed to being here, the little quirks or odd adventures have become almost normal. But here are a few tidbits anyway.
It is a common universal advertising approach to se bikini girls to advertise projects. In the states this normally includes macho man products like beer, cars, electric tools, etc. But why stop there? You can use bikini girls to sell a range of household items. However, this approach might be more appropriate for some products than others. As I passed a local supermarket, there was loud music blaring from a flatbed truck where 6 lovely ladies in tight white pants and bikini tops were dancing around to cumbia, merengue, salsa, y costeño. As I passed by, I realized that the banner on the truck was for La Sirena Canned Sardines, and the man on the truck was enticing customers over a loudspeaker. Really people, using scantily clad women to sell tinned fish….think about it….not the best choice
I had cut my thumb when I first got here, and Lesbia helped me put a bandage on it in Esteli. She later passed by my hotel room the next day to say she forgot that she wasn’t supposed to look at my thumb because pregnant women shouldn’t look at other people’s wounds….So I asked her what we were supposed to do about it. She told me she needed to either clean it or spit on it. I asked her to clean it.
so thats all for now, folks......da le pues, cuando tengo mas tiempo escribie mas, chau chau
">Link
I don’t have much time, but I wanted to fill you in on some things. I unfortunately made a bad decision in my purchase of a car, and so I have recently been spending WAY too much time in Esteli, dealing with talking to the guy that sold it to me, taking it to mechanics, etc etc….
I know I should have talked to more people about it before I bought it, but it was a cousin of Isabel, and I trusted someone when I should not have, I guess. And if ONE MORE PEROSN tells me that I shouldnt trust people, or I should have been more careful, or I should have talked to them first I will scream! I know, I know, but whats done is done, and all I can do now is to try and deal with it.
work is going well, but I am having problems with some other things like my car, solar panels, and someone stole shoes and a CD player out of the locked cabinet in the teachers office at the UCA. Either someone knows the combo or someone left it open. I´,m not keeping anything there anymore.
FYI mom, when in Esteli, I am staying at the Olivas house.
I go back up today, and hopefully wont have to come down for awhile, b/c I have missed DAYS of work dealing with the car
To top it off, my assistant showed up, took the wrong bus, but got to Sontule in the end, and it doesnt seem like she brought ANY money for her own costs. She also did not bring clothes to work in, insect repellent, or binoculars, all things I put on the list I sent them. Who doesnt bring insect repellent? Anyway, shes a nice girl, but we need to talk
On a happier note, I have made some new lovely friends who are volunteers here, and my friend Sadie is coming back and we might go scuba diving, if she can convince me to take the time off work. My guys are WONDERFUL, and do such good work, and I am so lucky to have them. CJ is not working this year so I dont have to worry about him moping around
and Lesbia is pregnant! and its due on my birthday, and if ti s a girl, shes naming it after me, and if its a boy, Marcelo, the male version of my name, Cute, huh?
So the plus side is that I got to go dancing last week and this week, and that I met a cute boy ( well not really met, since knew him last year, but I guess you could say we are getting to know each other better). He lives in Esteli mostly so I probably wont get to see him that much, but nice to have a distraction…I will refrain from mentioning his name for now, but don’t worry I promise not to marry him and bring him and his whole family to the states.
But the down side, besides the extra frustration of the car, is that I have lost 3 days last week and two days this week form work, something I am NOT happy about. Also, although I have solar panels, it is frustrating because it was unnecessary for me to buy and additional panel, since Isabel had one installed, I could have just paid her to get a slightly bigger one. BUT, Javier was doing this all for me, and although he claims he didn’t know she was getting one until he had already bought it, everyone says he knew. Well, who knows. We are going to try and sell the one that Isabel bought because it is smaller and then she can pay me the difference between the large and the small panel.
The most frustrating part is that I now have this very expensive panel system and cannot charge my batteries or use my computer because he has not gotten the energy inverter to convert from AC to DC yet. So we have two solar panels and three 12V batteries fully charged to run 3 light bulbs! I am very much annoyed.
But, I am doing well and happy and don’t want you all to think I am not. I do love being her, it does feel very much like a type of a home to me (what is home really, I have so many, and yet not really any). As always, the people are fabulous, and there are too many fun things to do that I end up having to turn down, like going to the beach next weekend
But the good things are that work is going well so far, and the guys are working very hard, and have already started to find some nests. I have changed some things from last year to help with organization, and I rarely have gone out to work in the afternoons, so I can stay at the house and go over their sheets and deal with all the little stuff that used to eat up my nights so I never stopped working. But, going out in the morning still means I get up at four and come back by 11am, so still a pretty good chunk of the day in the field, and then I do planning and slide staining, restocking, organizing, and reviewing data books until the evening. We did not get too much work done over Semana Santa, I didn’t go with the family as the whole church did the stations of the cross on Friday afternoon or the vigil on Saturday night, not really my thing, if ya dig what I’m saying. Everyone was afraid to leave me in the house alone on Saturday night, and were like, “Aren’t you afraid?!?!?” of what, I am not sure, passing bandits, or phantoms, or just strange sounds in the night, which can be a little unnerving. I discovered that night why everyone plays music so loud. It helps dispel the loneliness, and helps keeps you awake when you get up at 4am to chop wood or milk the cows. But what more, it overwhelms that scratch of branches on the roof, the wood creaking form the winds, and the sounds of various animals scuttling about. So yeah, now I understand the love affair with radios in the campo
I do have to fill you all in on who all the new people I have met here who are volunteers or working on other projects, but not a lot of time, so I will get to it later. My friend Martina who is an English teacher was talking about how she sends these fabulous emails about all the crazy things that happen, and I realize it has been a long time since I have done that. I think perhaps it is because I have become more accustomed to being here, the little quirks or odd adventures have become almost normal. But here are a few tidbits anyway.
It is a common universal advertising approach to se bikini girls to advertise projects. In the states this normally includes macho man products like beer, cars, electric tools, etc. But why stop there? You can use bikini girls to sell a range of household items. However, this approach might be more appropriate for some products than others. As I passed a local supermarket, there was loud music blaring from a flatbed truck where 6 lovely ladies in tight white pants and bikini tops were dancing around to cumbia, merengue, salsa, y costeño. As I passed by, I realized that the banner on the truck was for La Sirena Canned Sardines, and the man on the truck was enticing customers over a loudspeaker. Really people, using scantily clad women to sell tinned fish….think about it….not the best choice
I had cut my thumb when I first got here, and Lesbia helped me put a bandage on it in Esteli. She later passed by my hotel room the next day to say she forgot that she wasn’t supposed to look at my thumb because pregnant women shouldn’t look at other people’s wounds….So I asked her what we were supposed to do about it. She told me she needed to either clean it or spit on it. I asked her to clean it.
so thats all for now, folks......da le pues, cuando tengo mas tiempo escribie mas, chau chau
">Link
Monday, April 03, 2006
My first days back again
Hi all
So I have arrived, and have been doing the most important thing one can do in Latin America…visiting friends and family. Well, my Nica family that is. I arrived Wednesday and spent a day in Managua, met with my Nicaraguan counterpart agency, got to Esteli, met with Chico Muñoz of the UCA miraflor, visited the kids in my Famil who live in esteli, and Isabel was here, and Lesbia and Fran came to get me at the bustop. I was so happy and we hugged and kissed, and I went to the house that night and we had Eskimo, which is nica for ice cream, and dance din the living room, great fun! On Thursday I went out dancing, and then up to Sontule on Friday.
In the meantime, I helped a sort of friend take her seriously underweight baby to the hospital, and since it is quite obvious she does not take care of him, I have talked to one of her cousins to see if someone else in the family can take care of him. In fact she offered to me that I could adopt him, but I turned her down. Once he gets out of hospital Javier will take care of this. I have been looking for cars, since I sold mine in NY to buy one here, and think I might have found one. It is being sold by a cousin of my family, who is also a lawyer who can help me with the paperwork…kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
I have been EVER so happy to see everyone again, and Kevin and Brian, the two kids at my house, are so excited and follow me around everywhere. And here is for the big news….we have ELECTRICITY. Compliments of one solar panel that I purchased and another Isabel purchased and so I have light in the formerly cave-like laboratory, and in the living room, I can run my computer, and we can charge batteries, and of course Isabel is excited to get a TV. Oh, and everyone else is excited we can have parties. Priorities you know. I have my lovely furniture purchased from last year, so all the equipment is well guarded, and they got me a new bed!!! Although it is hard, everything is completely different, and beautiful, they take such good care of me! Oh, and they put a door to the outside in the laboratory (which is connected to my bedroom), so I can come and go as I please, and we can open the door to get light! Although now my room is much colder, not that I am about to complain about anything.
At the UCA things are the same, someone stole some equipment for insect identification that I had let Rogelio and Javier in charge of. I am going to have to charge them and feel bad for that, but I TOLD them it was their responsibility. Doña Albertina in the UCA is a doll, and brings me food, and gave me a necklace one of the boys were making for an artesania project, and soaked my finger that I cut in tea de manzanilla y limon agria (chamomile and lemon leaves).
I have met the new prof of English in Sontule. American named Ethan with a very dry Midwestern humor, very funny. I also met the very funny but cynical and devilishly witty Martine who is a Brit English teacher in Cebollal, and a well intentioned, ever so earnest, but a bit too serious hippie couple who are volunteers (they are married, but they refer to their pair as their partner. When I first spoke to him, this made me assume he was gay….)
I have also been sharing a hotel room with a French Canadian girl named Genveive who everyone calls Jenni and she will be here for 7 weeks working with the UCA, also very nice
I met with my guys, and I have three of the same, Pancho (aka Fran), Nelson, Beto, and a new one, Santos, brother of my good friend Lesbia. We talked and hopefully we can make do with less people this year, because I have less money. And although I am buying a car, I hate to spend the money from my sold car on the study. At least I can try and sell this car later, or drive it back to the states or whatnot. Very shortly a volunteer should arrive, named Kimberly, who will live and work with me in Sontule. I visited with Marlon in Sontule, a great fiend, and his wife Mayra, also a doll, but have not yet seen two other good friends Danelia and Ivan. Oh, and we roasted marshmallows over the stove. We are going to make s´mores and have an easter egg hunt on semana santa, because I brought plastic eggs! They all have these beautiful new eco-stoves compliments of a project Kristy and now Ethan is directing and Lesbia my friend has a BEAUTIFUL garden, also part of the Kristy-Ethan project, and if all goes well, I will have peas and eggplant and okra to eat, oh happy day!!!! But as usual, dinner was beans fried with rice (gallo pinto), deep fried potato tortes, and a deep fried egg, cuajada (cheese) in a tortilla also deep fried. Yum…oil and starch. Everyone tells me I got thinner, but that wont last for long!!!!
Funny things so far:
Girl with a T-shirt that said UNCORK THIS across the chest
Sider the professor on the school in Sontule hates me because Javier, who is not working this year, is in love with me and she likes him. VERY junior high.
Campesino stories
A woman named Berta was sick and they took her to hospital, and Isabel proceeded to tell me how she has killed at least 4, and most likely seven of her children by strangling them after giving birth and then burying them. She even went to jail for a year for killing one. And the son she has now was almost killed, but the neighbors intervened. Good thing they gave him back to her to raise?! Anyway, who knows how much is part gossip and part real, but I tried explaining that its an actual psychological sickness, and it happens to many women.
Well, I am sure there is more, but that is all I can think of for now
I miss many people, but I feel very comfortable and happy here. It really is like second home (although I am not sure what my first home is)
">Link
So I have arrived, and have been doing the most important thing one can do in Latin America…visiting friends and family. Well, my Nica family that is. I arrived Wednesday and spent a day in Managua, met with my Nicaraguan counterpart agency, got to Esteli, met with Chico Muñoz of the UCA miraflor, visited the kids in my Famil who live in esteli, and Isabel was here, and Lesbia and Fran came to get me at the bustop. I was so happy and we hugged and kissed, and I went to the house that night and we had Eskimo, which is nica for ice cream, and dance din the living room, great fun! On Thursday I went out dancing, and then up to Sontule on Friday.
In the meantime, I helped a sort of friend take her seriously underweight baby to the hospital, and since it is quite obvious she does not take care of him, I have talked to one of her cousins to see if someone else in the family can take care of him. In fact she offered to me that I could adopt him, but I turned her down. Once he gets out of hospital Javier will take care of this. I have been looking for cars, since I sold mine in NY to buy one here, and think I might have found one. It is being sold by a cousin of my family, who is also a lawyer who can help me with the paperwork…kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
I have been EVER so happy to see everyone again, and Kevin and Brian, the two kids at my house, are so excited and follow me around everywhere. And here is for the big news….we have ELECTRICITY. Compliments of one solar panel that I purchased and another Isabel purchased and so I have light in the formerly cave-like laboratory, and in the living room, I can run my computer, and we can charge batteries, and of course Isabel is excited to get a TV. Oh, and everyone else is excited we can have parties. Priorities you know. I have my lovely furniture purchased from last year, so all the equipment is well guarded, and they got me a new bed!!! Although it is hard, everything is completely different, and beautiful, they take such good care of me! Oh, and they put a door to the outside in the laboratory (which is connected to my bedroom), so I can come and go as I please, and we can open the door to get light! Although now my room is much colder, not that I am about to complain about anything.
At the UCA things are the same, someone stole some equipment for insect identification that I had let Rogelio and Javier in charge of. I am going to have to charge them and feel bad for that, but I TOLD them it was their responsibility. Doña Albertina in the UCA is a doll, and brings me food, and gave me a necklace one of the boys were making for an artesania project, and soaked my finger that I cut in tea de manzanilla y limon agria (chamomile and lemon leaves).
I have met the new prof of English in Sontule. American named Ethan with a very dry Midwestern humor, very funny. I also met the very funny but cynical and devilishly witty Martine who is a Brit English teacher in Cebollal, and a well intentioned, ever so earnest, but a bit too serious hippie couple who are volunteers (they are married, but they refer to their pair as their partner. When I first spoke to him, this made me assume he was gay….)
I have also been sharing a hotel room with a French Canadian girl named Genveive who everyone calls Jenni and she will be here for 7 weeks working with the UCA, also very nice
I met with my guys, and I have three of the same, Pancho (aka Fran), Nelson, Beto, and a new one, Santos, brother of my good friend Lesbia. We talked and hopefully we can make do with less people this year, because I have less money. And although I am buying a car, I hate to spend the money from my sold car on the study. At least I can try and sell this car later, or drive it back to the states or whatnot. Very shortly a volunteer should arrive, named Kimberly, who will live and work with me in Sontule. I visited with Marlon in Sontule, a great fiend, and his wife Mayra, also a doll, but have not yet seen two other good friends Danelia and Ivan. Oh, and we roasted marshmallows over the stove. We are going to make s´mores and have an easter egg hunt on semana santa, because I brought plastic eggs! They all have these beautiful new eco-stoves compliments of a project Kristy and now Ethan is directing and Lesbia my friend has a BEAUTIFUL garden, also part of the Kristy-Ethan project, and if all goes well, I will have peas and eggplant and okra to eat, oh happy day!!!! But as usual, dinner was beans fried with rice (gallo pinto), deep fried potato tortes, and a deep fried egg, cuajada (cheese) in a tortilla also deep fried. Yum…oil and starch. Everyone tells me I got thinner, but that wont last for long!!!!
Funny things so far:
Girl with a T-shirt that said UNCORK THIS across the chest
Sider the professor on the school in Sontule hates me because Javier, who is not working this year, is in love with me and she likes him. VERY junior high.
Campesino stories
A woman named Berta was sick and they took her to hospital, and Isabel proceeded to tell me how she has killed at least 4, and most likely seven of her children by strangling them after giving birth and then burying them. She even went to jail for a year for killing one. And the son she has now was almost killed, but the neighbors intervened. Good thing they gave him back to her to raise?! Anyway, who knows how much is part gossip and part real, but I tried explaining that its an actual psychological sickness, and it happens to many women.
Well, I am sure there is more, but that is all I can think of for now
I miss many people, but I feel very comfortable and happy here. It really is like second home (although I am not sure what my first home is)
">Link
