Melissa's Travels

ok
So I have been very remiss in my blogs, but here is some email news to
get you through


Have you ever been awoken at 4am by a mariachi band outside your
house? No? well, I HAVE!! Arent you jealous. they were singing
Mañanitas, which is a trad birthday saong, and I was like, its not my
birthday! But when I peeked outside the window, they were serenading
the house across the street! Well, I guess i will have to wait for my
chance to pretend I am in a Vicente Fernandez flick ( my fave es
Muerte de un Gallero- Death of a Cockfighter)


And guess what!!!!!!! We are redoing my room!!! otoniel and Henrry
have put up new panks for the walls, so the wind doesnt blow through,
and taken down all the nasty 4 year old newpaper which mice love to
eat and is the hiding place for chinces and spiders!!! And a new
plywood division between my room and the lab so I have some more
space. and best of all...(drumroll) CEMENT FLOORS!!!!!! Im telling you
folks, lap of freaking luxury! i can do yoga!
So when my mom comes to visit, she will be like, what have you been
bitching about Missy, this is beautiful! And then she will visit the
rotting letrining with rusted walls, a door that doesnt close, and
half burned used toilet paper outside. Lovely. and she will take it back. Still working on that
one. Yeah, and trying to get Kevin to NOT drink water straight out of the
water filter. I mean, he puts his mouth right over the tap. Kids are
germ factories. I love them, but there are two sacred rules in
nicaragua...Never touch the dogs, and if you touch the kids, wash your
hands as soon as possible.

I have been hangning out a bunch with a swiss girl named Beatrice who
has been working on a project for some months, and stays at Danelias
house when in Sontule. She is doing interviews in the community. she
and me and Oto and Leo and Juanita went to the river to go swimming
one day at a beautiful little spot, with a rock bed in the river where
we sat and a lovely deep part to go swimming. She Lots of fun and sweet, and she went
out dancing with me and Oto and Leo and Juanita after the river
picnic and got her cell phone stolen. I swear, I have seen more things stolen here in Esteli.......

I went to Maggie jos despedida (head of English project). It was at
Erickas house, where I used to live. Oh, it was fun, we danced till
late, so I didnt even mind missing Guradabarranco which were playing at Rincon LEgal.. I am going to be
famous now bc MJ put me on the English recordings to go with the new
teahcing manual. I guess my pronunciation was good enough that she
even forgave my horrible American accent. Must be all the theater
training.

I then wen the next day with her and Maxine and Mike (Australian
english teachers in coyolitos who now do community projects and are
going to buy a farm!) and people from the UCA to visit another UCA
with an ecotourism project in the south, near Granada (UCAs are
cooperatives formed after the revolution and during the land reform).
It was great fun, and we went swimming in pools of soft warm volcanic
water.

I have been reminiscing my trip with Peleus, and as in all things, I
will put little vignettes. What I was thinking about today was playing
soccer with kids on the beach and making sand turtles. They were obviously experst at making sand turtles, bc they even used their hands to make the little trail turtles leave when coming up onto the beach. and more correctly, Peleus played soccer, I didnt do to lousy foot eye coordination.And how me and
Peleus walked down the beach to a forest of dead standing trees rising
right out of the sand. It was really beautiful in this part of Nicaragua. The lake in the crater was blue blue blue greeny pretty. Supposedly your could climb down a trail into the crater, but since we could see and hear rocks falling down the walls while walking around the top, it did not seem advisable. We followed that up with a trip to Padre Ramos and Jiquilillo, a GORGEOUS beach and beautiful estero, where I looked at more birds, saw traditional fisherman, saw the destruction of industrial shrimp farms (BOYCOTT SHRIMP!), found a dead baby hammerhead shark and tons of sand dollars, saw beautiful sunsets right into the water (just like California!!!), and ate so much fish, I couldnt have been happier. We stayed at this Rancho crun by this guy Nato, who works on community projects. One night when we were there, his friends came to visit for his birthday. There was also at the time a cool old German socialist (seriously, lived in bolivia for years publishing a workers magazine, like hard core radical socialist!)who was thinking about moving to nicaragua, his girlfriends, another German guy with complete lack of control over his 5 year old kid who destoyed things and picked food off your plate.( he was also the one who gave me the really bad cold!) one other American and one nicaraguan,one Japanese guys also working on social projects. So we drank rum, Nato did a cool Fire dance display, we danced a ton( Shion the Japanese-american, and Julio, the nica taught me some great Merengue moves which I have since forgotten-no one dances Merengue here in Esteli..boohoo all reggaeton, so I dont have lovely dance partners!)And to top it off, went swiming in the ocean under an almost full moon!

We also spent a few days getting the city vibe in Leon, where I played tour guide and visited churches and even caught a film, which was nice, in a real movie theater with air conditioning ( I just recently missed Babel here in Esteli, bummer bc I really want to see it. We got to eat good food (my god, I had a salad!) and hung around chatting with Peleus and taing in the sites. Very cool.

To see his pictures, here is the link. I have yet to post mine.
only on
Internet Explorer: http://www.peleus.net/Nicaragua_files/frame.htm

Oh, but so you dont think its all fun and games, things progress with
the education project, we are organizing a big community wide activity
for Earth Day. And I have started field work. It will only be more
work from here on out....twice as much with half the staff!! fun!!

chau
melissa!


Link

hi all
Just got back from travelling with my friend Peleus, and a long lovely blog is overdue about moonlight ocean swims, almost dying climbing a volcano (ok, figurative statement, its just excessive heat and an internal parasite, made me FEEL like I was going to die), playing soccer on the beach and in the ocean with little nica kids, bonding time with Peleus, plus eating falafel and hummus!, looking at pretty churches, me playing tour guide. But right now I am working on my taxes and downloading bird songs off the internet, so not much time. And recovering from the worst cold ever.

So my friend Annie told me that when I feel bored with esteli, to remember that from a newbies eyes, its lovely and interesting, so I took her advice and was cheered by three recent facts.

I can buy bananas, individual pieces of gum or candy or cigarrettes(which I dont bc I quit!-its good to have a cold), or newspapers at any time of day or night until 10pm from a little cart in the park.

At this same venta, buying bananas for next morning pancakes, five mariachi band memebers rode by....on their bicycles..... each clutching a different instrument. smile inside

I went to a new karaoke bar in Esteli with friends to celebrate Otoniels birthday...there were two big screens, and three smaller TVs. Best two improvements over US karaoke bars is that they bring the microphone to your table, so you dont have to sing in front of everyone (and you can drink and sing at the same time). And if it a popular song, everyone else sings along and drowns the main singer out. Especially fun are the rancheras, where there is lots of ayyyyiiiiing and ahhaaaaing and arrrrriiing.

My house in Esteli



I like my house. Its pricey for here, but its right in the center of town, so banks, internet, post office, markets, and restaurants are right here. It can be noisy sometimes because on the corner is Gallo Mas Gallo, and appliance store that uses loud music emanating from enormous speakers on the weekends to attract customers. I assume the goal is to overwhelm the sensory capacities of passerbys, so that they become disoriented and inadvertently veer into the shop, where shop employees congregate en mass "Como le sirve?" until finally, exhausted, the victim buys a new stove, exercise bike, and blender on a pay as you go plan which will have them making payments until 2010.



Anyway, my house is a small house, with three rooms right in a row: living room kitchen/bedroom/bathroom. The best thing is that the roof is covered, so it doesn't get as dusty as my old room, and that the floors are all tile. I have ac actual closet in my bedroom, and the bathroom has theoretical hot water, but the electric hot water heater keeps breaking. I think my landlord after the second time thinks it is my fault and has not sent someone around to fix it. I think it just needs to be replaced. Better than my old room with squealing pigs next door. Seriously, always check the nieghbors houses for signs that say Se Vende Cerdo...... before renting to avoid problems

In the yard are two fierce dogs named Princesa and Muneca. They are very barky but they have grown used to me. They seem to hate all dark-skinned men though, and so they are tied up during the day, and let loose at night to dissuade burglars. Of course, if Otoniel comes over and wants to put his bike in the yard, he has to be careful.

I like my not so landlady, Antonia. She is not the landlady, but the woman who cares for the house next door where my landlord is. He is old, and nice and friendly, but a bit of a drunk, and so she insists I give the rent money to her. She is in many ways typical of a certain kind of older Nica woman. Straight forward, doesn't mince words, a harsh sounding voice, well versed in the polite niceties of nica culture (saying hello on the street, greeting good morning), but just as easily yells to the workers in the yard, or just as easily scolds her boss. When I first moved her, ooh, the look she gave when I asked if she was his wife. But when I said I just thought that to be the case because of the way she scolded him, she laughed. So she has a sense of humor. A somewhat caustic one. And she loves her animals. When the dogs bark, she will shout "jodida, callate, que perra mas necia!", but then at lunch she will bring them food, and chide them if they do not eat. She has a sweet orange tabby who is bien jugatona, who plays with the dogs, and they pounce on her. She is fearless, like her owner, and will come in my house if I leave the door open. She tells me of how she raised all of them from being small., and tells stories about them; she obviously loves them very much. I suspect she may have no children, but I don't want to ask. She never mentions them. She was sad when two of the doves outside dies because she normally feeds them bits of tortillas in the morning. So for all her rough edges, she is soft inside. She in a way, reminds me of my grandmother. She is very considerate. The yard between the houses is used as a garage for cars, so if I have laundry hanging out, she will move it so it doesn't get dirty. Likewise, when the cars move out again, she will move my laundry so it gets the most sun. We have water shortages in Esteli, so she will fill up the pila in the lavendero to make sure I will have water for washing or cleaning if I need it (a lavendero is a big cement tables with raised edges divided into two sides. One side is a large sink, pila, to hold water, and the other is used for washing and so is inclined, has ridges for scrubbing, and a drainage hole).

MEMORIES OF HONDURAS
As I have not taken any trips lately, I was thinking about the dive trip I tookj to Honduras with Sadie...so here is one story


I have arrived with Sadie on a desert island. Our only companion, Renegade Ron, an unlikely adventurist, who seems solely driven to do things precisely because someone told him not to. A man who never sleeps, preferring to down tropical alcoholic drinks. Who chain smokes cigarettes until he straps on his scuba tanks and dives into the water. A man who arrives to scuba class in the morning hung over, eats cheesy chocolaty pastry while the boat slams across the water at 40 MPH, a man who vomits TWICE over the side of the boat, and STILL goes on to dive. Hes a trooper, Ron. We have decided to take a break form aforementioned scuba class to visit a cay island that is supposed to be the bounty island form the TV commercial. Which, it is, but after the production crew left ad before the cleanup crew got there. So if you ignore piles of trash, yes, it was beautiful. We managed to find a shady spot free of debris, when a small girl appeared out of nowhere. She was soaking wet, in a shirt and shorts clinging to her thin angular adolescent body. Big blue eyes, some freckles and straggly blond hair. Considering we could see no boat of any kind, we concluded that she must be a mermaid. When she asked us to pay the fee for using the island, well, that seemed fair enough. I must assume that overfishing has affected local mermaid economies, by reducing the workforce. She introduced herself as Ariel. To be honest, I cant remember what her name was, but Ariel seems fitting enough. She claims to have boated herself over form the very nearby cay with the house on it. A ruse to prevent mermaid enthusiast from swamping the island and creating a more dire litter problem.

After taking our money, she disappears. Sadie then decided she wants to eat coconut, despite signs warning that this is forbidden. But Sadie will not be stopped. She has coconut lust. So the coconuts on our island are too high to reach. Luckily, there is another island closeby, that we can swim, walk to. It has a boarded up house with a lovely pink shell on the porch, which I almost steal, but decide its bad karma. And it might be some sort of trap……

We find good brown coconuts, with water swiching around, like in the movies, and cart them back to our island. Lacking machetes, Sadie attempts to bash it open on the rocks. I remember the Discovery Channel videos of chimps opening hard shelled seeds, and tell her she should find a sharp rock and a flat rock and chisel a hole. She sits, crouched on her haunches, a face a serious concentration, not too unlike the chimps from the television. She beats and beats and is making little progress when the mermaid reappears. Speaking in her pigeon English (some claim it is a Creole developed form the early residents of these islands, being French, Dutch, English, Irish, and other sailor pirate type-but I know its because it is her second language, MER being her first)



¨"Tats forbidden, ya know. ´sides, dat coconuts too old. I ken get ya some green ones if ya want"



And she then grabs hold of a leaning coconut tree, and climbs up, walking up the trucnk on her feet while her skinny arms propel her up. She brings us two coconuts, which Sadie (who has by now perfected her rock awl and chisel technique) deftly opens, Sadie screams for joy, and we drink coconut water and eat fresh coconut meat. Just like in the bounty commercial. And the mermaid stays with us for a good part of the day, telling us stories of her mother, her mothers boyfriend, life on the populated island, her drunk father who one time gave her money for school clothes. Her little brother who has got a different dad…..