BB Nicaragua Adventure 2009

Final Thoughts

2009-09-25T14:34:00.003-04:00

Well...I'm home! I have been for just over a month now. I arrived back home, safe and sound on August 13th. The flights went beautifully, everything was on time (early even!) and we had no problems whatsoever. My one week at home was BUSY - a wedding to attend, preparation for back to school, floor decorations (buying and prep work) for SJ Residence, haircut, dentist, shopping....AHHH! It was so nice being home though and even though I was busy I still managed to see my friends and enjoy myself.

Some concluding remarks: This summer was amazing. I had this fantastic opportunity to travel, learn a new language,experience poverty, discover an entirely new world, and overall remove myself from everything that is familiar. I have my CT scans from my little 'incident' this summer posted on my window in my room; everyone that visits me sees it and asks me about it so I get to tell them about my summer (great conversation starter). I don't regret or wish different anything about this summer because in some way I learned from each experience. Even the sickness part. The independence is one aspect that I can't get over...the fact that we were literally on our own, under the supervision and care of no one, getting to travel throughout the country - relying only on our abilities and small knowledge of the language. If we got lost, we got lost; if we were on the wrong bus, well then we went somewhere else. It's almost overwhelming to me to think about that aspect of the summer, mostly because I'm not used to that type of freedom. It was thrillingly scary and exciting.

In terms of reintegrating back into the North American lifestyle, I honestly didn't have much difficulty. I don't think I experienced the "shock" of coming back. This worries me a little because I feel like it means that I didn't experience my summer correctly...that I wasn't remote enough or subject to enough poverty or there wasn't enough change. It could just mean that I handle things well...I don't know. Someone was telling me about their time reintegrating - they said that they were at a festival and suddenly started crying because they weren't used to seeing people having money to spend. This made me realize something: A lot of what people say they realize upon their return is stuff that I already knew or was trying to do. I've never been one to just spend my money on anything (except ice cream) - I've always saved it and put it in the bank. I would like to think of myself as a minimal consumer, not influenced much by consumerism and the need to have everything glitzy, shiny and new. I recycle and try to compost where possible; I am concerned for our environment and the way in which it is abused and destroyed. I'm a vegetarian so I know that produce is more sustainable for the impoverished than trying to raise animals for food. I agree with fair trade. Mostly, I try to be down to earth and aware of these types of factors that are affecting everyone. In my mind, I was already living the way I want to be living - so it was like I was just coming back to it with renewed vigor, if anything, for my beliefs.

One aspect of this summer is that I want to become more politically aware, of both international and at home politics. The fact that I was so close to the Honduran coup and resulting 'revolution' this summer really drove home this desire. I realized I really know nothing about Canadian and international politics and this ignorance on my part must be overcome.

I want to thank everyone for coming on this journey with me this summer and supporting me with your comments and thoughts. I really appreciated it and I hope that you were able to learn and experience along side me.

Nicaragua gave me a truly remarkable time that I will never forget.

Heading South

2009-08-04T15:32:00.002-04:00

So here I am, finally heading south to San Juan Del Sur. We left Esteli on Monday (yesterday) and picked up Brad, Megan´s boyfriend, at the airport last night. We were only supposed to stay in Managua overnight but ended up having to stay today, Tuesday, as well because Brad´s luggage never made it to Managua. Apparently, someone was too lazy in the TORONTO AIRPORT, to drive his one bag from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 because it was the only bag going to Managua. How crappy is that?? Anyway, hopefull we can get it tonight and we can be off to SJDS tomorrow, bright and early.

It was a teary goodbye on Sunday and Monday (for everyone else...I just don´t cry for those types of things). We wrote our little blurb on Edna´s wall (ours was by far the best ones there because ours were chunks of writing vs. one or two sentences). We gave Edna her gift we had brought down from Canada when Brittany and Becca came. It was a tote bad with sugar maple leaves on the outside; inside there was a Canadian towel, another reusable bag with the Canadian flag, a dish towel, some Moose Droppings (or as I translated it, the feces of this animal and I pointed to the moose), maple syrup and maple candies. We may have gone a touch overboard on the Canada apparel but oh well. Don´t you know we love our country, eh?? She also loved the little crystal dolphin and nail polish my parents bought her as their thank you for taking such good care of me, through my whole adventure there. Its weird to say goodbye to people and places you´ve seen or lived with the past 3 months. What will the house be like without us there?? We´ve been there to greet so many new people....will the family status we achieved continue? And Cafe Luz...who will keep it in business if we´re not there, almost every night hanging out?? I wonder sometimes how this world survives. Hahaha. If I can, I would love to come back to visit everyone who has come to mean something special to me over the last 3 months. It would be exciting and like coming home in a weird and twisted sense. But until then...Canada in 10 days!!

Once again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who followed my blog and participated in this adventure with me. Your support and comments always made me so happy and I thought about everyone when feeling down. Thank you. When I´m home or have some free time, I´ll try to post some more photos, so stay tuned!!

Some Nicaraguan Cuisine

2009-08-03T17:00:00.007-04:00

Here is a look at some of the delicious food I have gotten to try this summer.

Tostones: like huge plantain chips. Really good dipped in refried beans.

Fried mature plantains: they´re sort of sweet and I loved them at first but now they make me gag.

Gallo pinto (rice and beans) with some ¨salad¨ (which is usually just cabbage), and plantain chips.

Corn tortillas to scoop everything up in. So much better than the flour tortillas, and made solely with water and corn flour.

Queso, or cheese. Its very hard, crumbly and salty with a relatively sharp bite to it. Its so good. There is also another cheese thats the same just softer - less water is taken out during the cooking process. Its called cuajaba; its also very tasty.

Big, beautiful and ripe avocados.

Rosquillas: corn based cookies with honey and sugar sprinkled on top to add a sweet crunch to the otherwise bland cookie. But they´re really good and apparently people enjoy them dipped in coffee. Somoto is the town known for the rosquillas.

Amazing, always ripe and juicy mangoes.

Bananas. Obviously.

Pineapple. Only down here, the inside is white and its not as strong a taste.

An interesting fruit called a guyaba - there are small seeds inside that you eat and they´re actually the sweet part of the fruit. The outside, non-seeded part is a bit more bitter and sour but together the combination is fantastic.

A nacatamale - cooked in a banana leaf, its a corn based pocket filled with meat and vegetables. I didn´t try one but they are apparently very good.

This is a tamale, which is what I would get instead. Its almost the exact same except there´s nothing inside. Its just corn. And its made with ¨mais neuvo¨ or ¨new corn¨ so its sweet and very corny.

Elotes - new corn that is picked before it has turned yellow and cooked, usually steamed or barbecued. Its much harder to eat and not sweet but again, fantastic corn flavor.

Indio Viejo, or Old Indian, is made from plantains, tortilla and meat shredded into a thick soupish/ stew consistency. Very popular.

Can´t forget the refriend beans.

Then of course there are all of the fresh juices like mango, pineapple, watermelon, guayabe, lemonade, pitaya. Other interesting drinks include avena con leche (oatmeal with milk or water and sugar. It tastes like really liquidy oatmeal), pozol (milk mixed with ground cooked corn and sugar. At the bottom of the drink, all the corn and sugar sinks so you´re left with this delicious, think sediment. Mmmm) and coffee, which is really good as well.

That´s all I can think of at the moment. Hopefully you enjoyed this little tour of some of the interesting foods I´ve been eating (or seeing) this summer. Some are really easy to make at home, so if you feel like experiementing go for it!!

The Pitaya Fruit

2009-07-31T15:50:00.001-04:00

Here´s a picture of the pitaya fruit (although the ones here in Nicaragua are bright purple inside like the bottom picture). Its really tasty.

Last Day at FUNARTE

2009-07-31T15:08:00.002-04:00

Today is my last day at FUNARTE which is both amazing and saddening. It´s amazing because it means that I have actually been here for 3 months and the fact that I´m starting to wrap everything up is...incredible to me. To think that 14 week ago I was in Canada and now I´m here, in Nicaragua, getting ready to return to Canada....crazy!! But at the same time its saddening because I´ve only just become comfortable working here and getting to know my co-workers. On the one hand, I would love to stay longer to further cultivate and expand my friend network and activities at FUNARTE; but on the other hand, while I´ve enjoyed my time here in Nicaragua, I am fully ready to come home and see my family, friends and all that is familiar!!

But yesterday...OH MY GOD. What a frustrating day.

Remember when I told you about the mural I might get to paint at the school La Thompson?? One of my housemates, Jon, suggested to the director there that he knew someone who could do it, and I said I´d try and la la la...that one. ANYWAYS. I finally, after 6 weeks of trying to talk to my director about doing the mural, managed to ¨convince¨ her to let me do the name of the school. So yesterday morning, all morning, I worked on designing the outline, doing it on the computer, projecting it so that I could trace it, cutting out the letters to make a stencil, etc. Then it all went to the shitter. Excuse the language but seriously. At 1pm, the guy I was going with (Yaber I think his name was) was supposed to meet me back at FUNARTE. I personally had been ready to go at 11am but he had to go home and eat. So at 1pm he was right on time. The driver however was not. He was 40 min. late. And as each minute passed that he was late, the sky grew ominously dark, black and cloudy. So by the time he shows up, its raining and looks as though it will be a storm. At this point I was so extremely frustrated for many reasons: (a) I hate people who are late, so having to wait 40 min. for someone is ridiculous to me (b) I felt like by us not showing up on time I was letting down the people of GVI even though I basically volunteered to do it. I know there was no real pressure for me to be there and the director of the school is so completely chill, telling me not to worry about it when I called him to say I´d be late/ might not even come until the next day, but still. Do you understand where I am coming from?? (c) I had been really excited to do the mural yesterday. I had planned it all out, told everyone I was doing it and then to not have it happen is so disappointing. I became so upset and overwhelmed that I had a little cry in the bathroom. I just couldn´t hold it in anymore. All I wanted was for ONE THING...just one thing...to go to plan and not even the simplest 2hour max mural could happen smoothly.

But back to the story: because it was raining and seemed like a storm was imminent, I thought it would be best to do it the next morning; so I told Yaber and the driver to come Friday morning at 8am. Of course, like 20 min. later the sky clears up and all is beautiful. At this point its around 2pm. Ophelia, the lady helping me organize this, comes back from lunch and asks why I´m not at the school. I explain to her the situation and then asks me if I want to try calling them back. So I say yes; Yaber comes back around 2:30pm. The driver however, doesn´t come until 3:30pm. All my afternoon was spent waiting for people. At 3:30pm we pack up the truck and make our way over to the school. I thought the driver knew where it was; I´d only been there once but I had a rough idea of where it was. We drove past it and I kept telling the driver to go back, we had passed the entrace; instead he drives further the wrong way and doesn´t listen to me. I had to ring my friend at the school to come meet us at the entrance. By 4pm we are starting work on the school name. Tracing the letters onto the wall, centering everything. The only set back there was that we packed oil paint for the letters instead of acrylic so it was very sticky and gloopy and thick paint to work with. It wasn´t the smoothest finish on the letters but it looked good in the end. We didn´t finish until 6pm. While I am thankful that Yaber and the driver helped me accomplish this I was at this point in not the greatest mood. I had been supposed to go to the movies that night with some co-workers but didn´t get back to FUNARTE until 6:30pm and the movie was at 6pm. I am glad and proud that I got to paint this mural but it became so much more of a hassle than it should of been. AND I forgot my camera so I couldn´t even take a picture. But it is done; I am happy and its kind of cool that I can say I left a littl mark in Nicaragua by designing and painting the name of a school.

While I realize that the Nicaraguan culture does not posses the same meaning of being on time and whatnot, it is so frustrating for me (like I said) when people are late. Especially because (and I think this is why is was so aggravating for me) it was something I wanted to do. Normally, if we´re late going to a community or a meeting doesn´t start on time it bothers me but doesn´t get to me nearly as much as yesterday did; but when it applies to me and I feel as though I´m wasting my time and the time of others I get so annoyed. Maybe its selfish but I´m sorry. Its the way I feel. The fact that I have to rely on people to get things done here, that I can´t do anything myself---ahh!! I am a control freak I realize and its been a tough lesson to learn to let go. As yesterday has shown me.

But last nights dinner did make me happy (just in case you were wondering) - rice, soy meat, lightly breaded and fried eggplant and..the cherry on top... steamed broccoli. With pureed avocado on the eggplant. It was delicious. And a tortilla and pitaya´fruit juice (this bright purple, radioactive fruit drink that looks like a dragon fruit but isn´t). So good. I wanted ice cream at Cafe Luz because there they serve vanilla ice cream with honey and crushed Oreo cookies but they didn´t have any so I couldn´t even eat my feelings yesterday. Hahaha. I know its bad but don´t judge me.

Anyways...I guess I had go out with a bang. Begin and end with frustration. So far today I´ve been projecting and tracing new mantas and getting everyone at FUNARTE to sign their names on the back of my shirt. I think they may be planning a little leaving party for us because I saw them making a piñata with a Canadian flag on it. I love the staff at FUNARTE and the work that I do so I am going to miss it very much. Like I said: I´d stay longer to work at FUNARTE but otherwise...Canada here I come!!

Later :)

The Importance of Communication

2009-07-30T14:31:00.002-04:00

Another important lessson I´ve learned this summer is the necessity of communication in our lives. You don´t realize how much we rely and take for granted the ability to communicate.

Being placed in a country where you don´t speak the language is very challenging. In the beginning its stressful and frustrating because you can´t just say what you want or convey anything. I walked around for the first month always carrying my Spanish dictionary, phrase book and notebook from my Spanish class. It was often when all I wanted was to say the simplest things and couldn´t that I would lose it. It´s overwhelming to constantly hear the language but to me its saddening when I can´t say anything. As time progresses, you begin to learn, remember and use more of the language everyday until 3 months comes and ¨tu puedes hablar bastante español¨. But up to that point, and even still I rely on using my hands, sherades and looking for other ways to explain a word if I don´t know it in Spanish (using only the Spanish vocab I know). And if the Spanish culture didn´t gesticulate as much as it does, my comprehension of stories and conversations would be much worse.

Back home in Canada we have multiple methods of communication. TV, email, phones at home, cellphones with messaging and texting, newspapers, faxes, sign language, brail, mail and of course person to person. Here is so different. Mail is used and most people in the city have phones (home or cell). But for those living in communities outside the city, such as Miraflor, who generally don´t have electricity or phone lines, its much different. A lady I know was trying to get in touch with a guy in Miraflor. The only way to do that was to write a note, give it to the bus driver of the bus going to Miraflor that day (with a cash payment of course) and hope it gets there and to the right person. Its almost like stepping back in time when people used messengers on horses to send messages long distance. Her meeting never happened because its so unreliable. But its all there is, besides travelling the 2 hour ride to get there. I´ve been very lucky being placed somewhere where I do have easy access to phone, internet and electricity. It´s been here that I realized how much we take it for granted the availability of communication back home. One of my new housemates said he brought his laptop thinking wireless be would available. The idea that we can always be connected is engrained into our culture.

Having developed my skills of sherades and gesticulating this summer (I am now ready for the ultimate test - the Italian culture) I certainly can´t wait to go back to Canada where everyone understands me. So that if I lose my luggage for instance, at least the airport will be able to comprehend me and what I tell them (like where I live and what I´m looking for) instead of trying to interpret tears and the few descriptive words in Spanish I know like blue and big. (FYI: azul and grande)

:)

Travelling: The Key to Self-Realization

2009-07-30T13:59:00.002-04:00

If you want to learn about yourself - leave your comfort zone. Travelling is the best for that; volunteering abroad and living in the country for 3 months will also do the trick. It´s the most objective way to find out the good, the bad and the ugly about yourself (and others for that matter). Physically, emotionaly, and mentally you are tested. I certainly have made some realizations about myself over the course of this Nicaraguan experience, some strengthening what I already knew and a couple small surprises as well.

My friend once told me: ¨You become very aware of your bowels when you travel¨and my goodness is that true. I have never been so sick as I have been on this trip: diarrhea, constipation, parasites, bacteria, vomiting, crzy drug side effects and to top it off, a CT scan. Despite all this, I never became this paranoid traveller, monitoring everything I do or put in my mouth. I eat the sald washed and grown in the water, drink the juices with ice and have eaten mangoes picked right off the tree. I don´t want to limit myself, and to me getting sick is a right of passage to travelling. I knew I would get sick (though admittedly not as bad) and I tried my best to embrace it and get better (it did become very frustrating at times). To fully experience the culture you need to not be overly concerned with such things. It´s important to be cautious bit not paranoid. I´ve also learned that its tough to be a travelling vegan so I became vegetarian and do my best to avoid meat. I eat the eggs and milk here because I know that they are in no way produced the same as back home and I also need a source of protein. As much as I love beans I cannot eat them 24/7. I´ve come to see that I´m pretty adventurous and open minded with trying new foods and experiencing the cultural practices and always try to emerse my self fully in the country. As my teacher said: ¨You haven´t travelled properly until you´re as sick as a dog, sleeping the night on the bathroom floor.¨Though I didn´t spen a night hugging a toilet, I do feel I´ve travelled properly (using that train of thought) this summer.

Embracing new cultures is so fantastic, exciting and different. I love doing it and learning about these other ways of life. It can be extremely frustrating, overwhleming, confusing and tear spilling but it teaches you about your adaptibility, communication skills, language abilities and much more. From this summer, I have learned to let go of a lot - planning, organization, constant productivity, etc. and tried to become more flexible and laid back to match the culture. IT´S HARD!! I am a plan making, order seeking person so this Nicaraguan culture has been tough for me in that sense. I´d like to think that I´m adaptable though and was always open-minded to new people, places, food and experiences. You must be open-minded and adaptable to travel otherwise you miss out on so much of the experience. I hate people who travel and refuse to try new food, go new places...why travel then??!!

Before this summer, I never realized how much my family means to me and how much I would miss them and home. The safety and security you feel there. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I´ve felt on constant vigilence and never like I was completely safe, always having that little voice saying ¨Just keep your eyes open...¨. Travelling certainly challenges you comfort levels and places you in many foreign, not always good, situations. But it shows you if you can handle it and cope with whatever is thrown your way. I´ve struggled frequently this summer with homesickness and its been very hard to not just give up and go home. For a first time abroad and for an extended period of time, 3 months is a decent chunk. It was difficult but ultimately rewarding because I made it through a stronger and better person. I now have more appreciation and love for my family than ever before just because I now know whats its like to be away from there for so long.

When it comes down to it, you discover ¨Is travelling for you?¨ because it does teach you a lot about yourself and the ways of the world. I would travel again and possibly do more living abroad but it certainly wouldn´t be easy. I´ve realized now just how anxious a person I can become an what can and can´t make me cry, angry or happy. But I´ve also enjoyed learning the positives about myself and seeing how I can shine even when things are bad. Comfort zones were blasted this summer and while I know I won´t be the same person as before (with everything I´ve seen and learned this summer) I look forward to cultivating and expanding these new attitudes, perspectives, values, ideas and ways of living. For instance, seeing the garbage strewn everywhere makes me want to recycle and be even more environmentally aware than ever. Also, being more aware of consumption - of food, energy, resources - and trying to diminish my ecological footprint (and wasteful habits), all the while sharing my knowledge and experiences with others. Reading world news, taking an interest in politics at home and abroad, continuing my veganism - all exciting adventures I can´t wait to embark on and leanr more about!

Volunteering: Abroad vs. Home

2009-07-28T17:08:00.002-04:00

Having now experienced volunteering at home on the local level and abroad on the international level, I feel I can better describe and comment on my experience with both.

Volunteering at home - great for ¨beginner¨ volunteers new to the volunteering scene and its always great to start making changes in your own backyard. People think that volunteering abroad is more important and effective for ¨changing the world¨ but they fail to realize the help needed in their own hometown. Oftentimes, volunteering back home is much more organized, productive and friendly - they appreciate the help and let you know it, which in turn makes you feel great. I´m so glad I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Working Centre in Kitchener/Waterloo; if I could, I would gladly continue working there next year. The people were so friendly; it was a laid-back yet organized atmosphere and I loved what I was doing. It´s important to enjoy what you´re doing (which is something I struggled with at times this summer) and to feel needed, which staff at the WC always did for me. It´s amazing to me to discover all these opportunities in your hometown; it increases your community awareness and committment, allows you to meet new people outside of your ´bubble´and you know that you´re dedicating your time for a good reason and to a good cause. It also opens your eyes to the world of volunteering and what exactly it entails...which can spark the desire to try volunteering abroad.

Volunteering abroad is an entirely different ball game. It´s more intense, more challenging, more....everything. It´s important to me in the sense that it opens your eyes to the problems that exist internationally; you hear about them but to actually be there and experience it are two separate things. Volunteering at this level can be extremely frustrating - not always (or ever) organized; you don´t often feel needed, useful or like you´re doing any good (another issue I struggled with this summer). It´s even harder if you don´t speak the language. But it teaches you so much about the world, the culture, and yourself. I feel so proud of myself for this summer because I challenged myself in everyway possible, leaving my comfort zone all together, and I managed through it all. Not only does volunteering abroad reveal to you (or it did to me atleast) your naivety of the world and its true workings, but it shows you new aspects of yourself. It tests and increases your adaptability, communication abilities and your strength physically, emotionally and mentally. Also, though it may not feel or seem like it, you can be proud of the mark you leave behind no matter how small. I certainly can´t imagine doing a placement abroad for my first volunteering experience. I think if I had I would have been discouraged from doing it again because it is so different from volunteering back home. But by preparing yourself at home first you can have some expectations and idea of whats to come abroad (even if most of them get crushed!!)

In the end, both types of volunteering are great and I enjoy doing both. It certainly depends on what you´re looking forward and the amount you´re willing to challenge yourself. I love volunteering back home but I would certainly go abroad again to experience volunteering in a new place. Its so fulfilling no matter where you go and its a great new learning experience everytime.

Returning to my comments about some of my struggles this summer. In the beginning I certainly struggled with the lack of feeling useful and needed. It was so unorganized to me and I often was saddedned by my lack of satisfaction with my time in FUNARTE. Once I began to establish more of a routine and get to know people better I started to feel more appreciated. I know that I made no significant changes or am leaving behind any great mark (though I do have those mantas to be proud of!!) but I do finally feel that FUNARTE is appreciative of what I´ve helped with this summer and I too am thankful for what I learned from working here. I learned the power of communicating through art and what strength can stand behind a mural. I learned what poverty looks like and what importance organizations like FUNARTE hold for the children and parents of these communities, teaching their children life lessons that the parents themselves may not be able to teach. At times I did feel like a failure, like I hadn´t learned anything from this summer and that I wasn´t committed enough to the organization. But in reality, its because we´re confused and too hard on ourselves; a human error. After reading Ruby Ku´s blog, I realized that others have felt this way too, and I feel that Ruby articulated nicely my sentiments and the knowledge that we should take away from this experience.To quote the blog of Ruby Ku, who has shown me the true meaning behind what we have done this summer:

¨I was reminded that social transformations are not about heroic actions by one person. Instead, it's a system intertwined with complex relationships. During my time here, I saw what needed to be done, and I did what I could do at the moment. I made the interactions I needed to make. The lessons learned, the friendship built, the understanding created...were all part of what I was meant to do here. Whether or not the system has shifted because of my actions, I don't think that can be easily measured by a simple formula. What matters was, I was part of that system.

"Prepared to learn means, to be disappointed, to be energized, to be up and down, and most of all, to allow for imperfections. The universe gives us extra chances. Every person, contributing what he can, can make a difference, but no one can claim resposibility." - Getting to Maybe¨

Thank you Ruby.

Starting to Wrap Up

2009-07-25T16:07:00.003-04:00

So its come to one week left in Esteli, Nicaragua. I can`t believe that I´ve made it through. Not because I doubted myself but because of everything we as a group have experienced in our time here. I´m very proud of my accomplishment - I´ve learned Spanish enough to become a sort of translator for my house; I´m starting to see people in the streets that I know and can say hi to; at work, I´m better friends with my co-workers, joking and laughing with them. Its amazing what I´ve developed here in 13 weeks. Most of my stay here was spent getting used to everything and wishing I could be back home in Canada. I can see why people say 3 months not enough, thats its only the beginning of good times to come. While I´m still super excited to go home, I can´t help but realize that I will miss FUNARTE staff and my host mom, and all the great people I´ve met during my trip. I didn´t think I would but now...

This has been an incredible experience and I´m so glad that I decided to do it and stay when times got rough. I think as a person I´ve grown so much and experienced so many new and exciting things, broadening my worldview and opening my eyes to different things about the world. For instance, poverty and what it really looks and feels like; living in a third world country; putting yourself in the situation where you don´t speak a word in the language. Challenging and pushing myself through all that has made me a more worldly person and I´m very thankful for that.

This past week, on Thursday, I got to go to Managua with FUNARTE to experience a day there and to see what they do. From 5am to 9:30pm we were there, working hard the entire day with kids from the streets at different workshop locations. Painting, cleaning, talking, teaching....oh my. The kids were so unlike the kids in Esteli - they were louder, dirtier, more demanding and overall more work. But they also come from different situations than the kids in Esteli; most of the kids in Managua that we work with are street kids. It was a tiring day but I enjoyed it, mostly because it was new and I got to spend time with people from work. Driving home at night, all sitting crammed into the bus, it felt like we were friends that had gone for a camping trip and were driving through the desert at night. I loved it and I will miss it.

In funnier news: today I was SUPPOSED to go to Miraflor with the girls for our final weekend in Miraflor. Siobhan and I were going to take the 3pm bus and meet Jess and Megan there. Instead, at 8:15am, Siobhan calls me and says: ``I have lice, I need help washing my hair and getting rid of it.`` So all morning, Edna and I were cleaning her hair. While we´re pretty sure we got most of it, we didn´t want to take the chance of it re-appearing the next morning or spreading to others. So we opted out of Miraflor and are having a sleepover instead. Its not Miraflor but hey...its still fun. Hopefully I don´t get lice though. Ew.

Hasta luego!

Prejudice

2009-07-19T15:51:00.002-04:00

Even though I´ve been here for 2.5 months already, I still feel as though I´m treated as a newcomer. People in Esteli have seen me walking around the street I´m sure, yet everyday (maybe by the same guys) its catcalling and disrespect all the time. Taxi drivers, shop owners all try and rip us off; we get yelled at and cursed and have things thrown at us. Story: I was walking home the other day and out of a moving bus I got a mamone pit (a type of fruit) chucked at me. It hit me on my leg. It didn´t hurt me physically, but emotionally and mentally I was really offended. The reason I´ve come to this country is to help as best I can and to learn from their culture, yet I´m treated like I´m a bad person. I know that the people wouldn´t know why I´m in Nicaragua, but instead of treating with any decency, even to be ignored, we get disrespected and put down. I was really insulted and it was the biggest put down I´ve received yet.

Before coming here, I had never experienced this type of prejudice before. I never would have either back in Canada. But it took coming to a third world country, with a history of being treated poorly by North Americans, to experience it. Its not something I wish on anybody and it gives me a new perspective on the type of discrimination and emotions experienced by other races, such as African Americans, immigrants from India and Asia, etc. I know that I can never say I understand how they feel, at least not in any way to the same degree, but let me tell you, it is very degrading and demoralizing. I truly admire those people who suffered through it to fight against it and make a better life for future generations. It takes a lot of strength and courage to deal with such prejudice and though I´ve only experienced a very minor form of it, it was enough for me to get a new understanding.

So with renewed admiration for those currently dealing with prejudice and stuggling through it, I hope they can stay strong. And for everyone else...don´t be prejudiced! It hurts more than you know. Even if you don´t mean to or aren´t aware of your actions. Be kind to strangers and foreigners because it takes a lot of guts to come to a new country and start a life there.

But...I try to not let it get me down and approach everyone equally, trying not to believe that they will treat me badly just because I´m a foreigner. Because not everyone does...some are very kind and helpful. I say to myself ¨Just keep swimming¨and go about my business :)

Photos of Granada and the Isla de Ometepe

2009-07-19T15:18:00.020-04:00

Here are some photos from our trip to Granada and the Isla de Ometepe...enjoy!

The streets of Granada, with the volcano Mombacho in the background.

Mi neuvos amigos...Sara, Austin, Siobhan and Jess.

Lake Cocibolca, with the Isla de Ometepe in the background.

More colorful streets of Granada. As you can see, they are so well maintained and clean, very appealing to tourists. But beautiful nonetheless.

View from the tower we climbed on our horse carriage tour. With me in the way.

Sketchy ferry to Isla de Ometepe. Awesome right?? Just remember the chicken defrosting in the bottom.

Map of Ometepe.

El Ojo de Agua. You can just the clear blue water and the green trees surrounding it...with me in the way again (I want to show you guys I´m having a good time and am alive!)

Playa Santa Domingo. It was such a gorgeous hot and sunny day. In the background in Volcan Maderas, the one I TRIED to climb.

View from the deck at our hostel in Merida.

Monkey Island. I don´t know if you can see any monkeys or not, but they are there. I swear.

Sunset.

View from half way up Volcan Maderas. Its really pretty... I can only imagine what the view from the top would be like.

One more volcano shot...its just so pretty.

Proudly displaying my hair wrap in Granada, which I got upon our return to Granada.

Granada at night. This is a photo from our table at Nectar, the restaurant which we ate dinner at our last night. There was a warm breeze and everyone was happy.

Our dinner party. Like a mini family for one night.

That is the briefest of summaries in photos of my 5 day trip. It doesn´t do it justice but right now its the best I can do! So hopefully you can feel the magic and beauty and excitement that I felt.

La Revolucion

2009-07-15T18:04:00.002-04:00

So I have some exciting news: tomorrow is the 30th Anniversary of Esteli´s independence as a result of the Sandinista revolution. There is supposed to be a huge day of celebration; Daniel Ortega is coming to Esteli in the morning and then there are activities in the park in the afternoon and in the evening thats when the fun begins - lots of music, dancing, entertainment and of course people drinking. Not that I´m going to be one of those people...thats not how I ¨roll¨. Anyways, I´m very much looking forward to this because its a significant event in Esteli´s history and I get to help celebrate this milestone accomplishment. I hope its fantastic!

On Sunday, July 19th, its the 30th Anniversary of the Sandinistas seizing power and ultimately coming into power. This too will be an exciting day, though I believe most of the celebrations will be happening in Managua.

In other notes, I feel that through everything, complaints, journeys, and experiences, we´ve recently (and finally) come to call Esteli home. Whenever we´re travelling and its hot or we have a bad hostel, we say we can´t wait to get home....where home is Esteli. Its nice to think that we´ve settled into some routines and that the I atleast have reached new levels in terms of my relationships with people. For instance, at work, I´m joking and laughing with my co-workers so mcuh more because I feel more comfortable with them and my Spanish is better as well. In a sense, we´ve created our own little lives here and I think I may understand how its difficult to leave that behind: its a routine and its something that you created all by yourself. Its evidence of your independence and the ¨situation¨ you put yourself in this summer. I´ve built a sort of family here (my host mom, my international housemates, friends we´ve made while travelling), I have a job, I know the city really well; I´m still learning the language but that would get better with more time here. In the end, I think I will miss Esteli and Nicaragua...most of it anyway. Will NOT miss the cat calling and constantly being a foreigner and deceitful taxi drivers, etc. but I will miss the people I´ve come to call friends and family (especially Edna) as well as work and the culture. Its all so different to back home. However, I am still so excited to return to Canada and see everyone! Only 4 more weeks. I´m pumped. In these last weeks, we´re tried to plan things to do and embrace work full force so that we´re happily but seemingly quickly finishing our placements.

That´s all for now. Thanks for reading!

Amazing Vacation: Granada and Isla de Ometepe

2009-07-10T16:24:00.003-04:00

OK...so I had the best week of vacation. It was just what I needed to boost my spirits and make me happy for the next three weeks (side note: I only have three more weeks of work left - isn´t that crazy!!?? Then San Juan Del Sur for a week and after home sweet home!) Let me break it down for you because we all had a fantastic time! There were 5 of us in total - me, Jess, Siobhan and two new people, Sara and Austin. Sara is the girlfriend of Jorge, who we know here in Nicaragua and Austin is her friend. They´re here for 6 and 2 months respectively. And they´re really nice.

Sunday

We left for Granada early Sunday morning and arrived, after 2 buses, a taxi ride,and 4 hours or so of travelling, in the early afternoon in Granada. It is gorgeous. The buildings are all so well maintained and everything is so colorful and clean. It is a more touristy part of Nicaragua but I wouldn´t say it was swarming with tourists. You could tell that a lot of work was put into maintaining a good image. We checked into our hostel, managing to score a private bedroom for 5 people, and went about walking throughout the city. We ate lunch at this little cafe (grilled vegetable and hummus panini with pitaya fruit drink...delish!) and walked down to the Lake Colcibolca to check out the largest fresh water lake. It was awesome because you can see across the lake to Ometepe where we were going the next day. When we got back to the central park we took a carriage ride around the city to see all the historical parts of Granada. We got to see some of the oldest churches in Granada and the house of the guy who own Tona, Victoria and Flor de Cana (all the alcohols in Nicaragua). It was really interesting and we even got to go inside a fort and up a tower to get a gorgeous view of the city. On our way back we randomly met up with two friends of Sara´s who had been backpacking through Central America since May. They stayed at the same hostel as us and came to Ometepe with us as well. They are very...interesting. They both basically run on no sleep and somehow cram in a million things to one day. Don´t know how. But we went to dinner that night at the Bearded Monkey, another hostel right beside ours. Got a huge bean burrito that was really filling. Slept early because (a) we were wiped from travelling and (b) we were getting up early to go to Ometepe.

Monday

Catch a really early bus to Rivas, and from there we caught this sketchy little ferry boat over to the Island. The ferry was really small and downstairs where we sat there were bags of defrosting chicken on the floor, piled ontop of one another, leaking juices. So sanitary. But it was a short 1 hour ferry ride and before we knew it we were on Ometepe! The two guys who we met the day before, Juan and Justin, somehow met this guy named William who told us to stay at his hotel in Altagracia. This was not our original plan (we wanted to go to Playa Santo Domingo) but we went with the flow and took another bus to Altagracia where we checked into Hotel Castillo for the night. It wasn´t really the best hotel - the food wasn´t great but expensive and the town had no life. Our beds were hard and Siobhan´s had bed bugs. But we did manage to visit the Ojo de Agua, the Eye of the Water, while there. Its this beautiful natural spring of water that is so clear you can see the bottom perfectly. We swam in there for a couple hours and then caught a bus back to the hotel, showered and went for a small night time tour of Altagracia. We walked around and saw the museum (though closed) and walked through a cemetery at night. Verys cary but we did it! Then dinner and bed. Eventful day again.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was hot, bright and sunny! We checked out of the hotel after enjoying a wonderful breakfast that we bought of peanut butter, bread, bananas and juice. We took a bus to Playa Santo Domingo and spent the entire morning there, swimming and lying on the beach. I´m proud to say I got my first bikini tan/ burn ever! We did get a bit burned, though in really weird places i.e. a strip across my stomach but no where else; dido for Jess but it was on her back. Whatever. We got sun! We ate lunch at the beach and then took another bus to Merida. It was actually 2 buses we had to take and while waiting for the second bus we met other backpackers, from Montreal and Holland. They were going to the same place as us and so we ended up eating dinner together the next couple of nights and hanging out. It was really nice...I love the people you meet while travelling! When we get to the hostel its this really lovely oasis. A bit more expensive than the other hostels but well worth it. We got a room and then rented kayaks to go visit Monkey Island. There are two islands about 20 min from our hotel that you kayak to. One has Capuchin monkeys and the other Spider monkeys. Apparently these monkeys were rescued from being chained up and were freed onto this island. It was really neat to see them walking around and coming to the shores. When we returned we went swimming and cooled off. We wanted to watch the sunset and drink milkshakes but unfortunately our milkshakes took too long to make so we missed the actual sunset but still went out onto the dock of the hotel until it was dark. So lovely. You have a clear view of the Volcano Conception from the dock and it was surrounded by clouds but with a background of the setting sun. The sky was blue and yellow and purple and...fantastic. I can´t describe it. Nice breeze, just relaxing and drinking our milkshakes. We then ate dinner with our new friends (a good hearty dinner of pastas and bread because...) in preparation for the volcano hike we had booked for the next day. The plan was to hike the second volcano on the islan, Volcano Maderas. That was the plan anyway.

Wednesday

So when the early time of 5:30am came around the next day, we were getting up to go hike a volcano. However, after breakfast, Sara and Jess kind of backed out because the day before they had burt their feet on a rock hidden in the water at the beach (I tripped over it many times as well). They didn´t think hiking the volcano would be a good idea so they told the guides they wanted to see the Cascada Ramon instead. Unfortunately the guides interpreted this as we all wanted to see the cascada instead of the volcano and so took us the 3km hike to the entrance of the cascada just to find out that no, 2 people wanted to do the volcano. So Austin and I trekked back the 3 km to the entrance of the volcano which was right beside our hotel, and then began our hike. At this point, our guide was pissed at us because he didn´t want to hike it, we were 2 hours late starting, and so he said he would only take us half way up. Volcano Maderas is about 1,400m high. We wanted to go to the top. So then that meant we had to hurry to make it back to the hotel before dark because the average time up in 4 hours, 4 hours down. The guide starts RUNNING basically up the path to the volcano. There is probably a good 3 km path to the base of the volcano which you walk before even starting the volcano climb. Its uphill as well. So I´m already tired after the first 6km, then the next 3km uphill. The climb up the volcano is INSANE: it is so steep; at points I was climbing up 3 ft. high steps of dirt and roots and over fallen trees..OMG. I thought I was in shape but I died a little on that climb. I couldn´t make it to the top. I barely made it half way but I pushed myself to get there. It took us two hours to make it to the halfway point and I was spent. My thighs were jelly and I was so sore. I felt really bad because I was the one who pushed for the top but I just could not make it. If our guide hadn´t been going so fast and we had those extra 2 hours then I think I could have done it. But we were basically running up the volcano. So we rested and then climbed back down, which was just as dangerous as climbing up. Its muddy and slippery and I slipped so many times that at points I was clinging off trees for support. I did a matrix back bend at one point because I slipped and tried to right myself. But were made it back by 12:30pm, about the same time as the three girls got back from hiking the cascada. All of us so sweaty, literally dripping, we change into our bathing suits and jump into the lake. I was so muddy and sweaty and tired; treading water was difficult. We lay in the hammocks the rest of the afternoon and ate coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce as a reward while watching sunset (unfortunately it was cloudy but it was still lovely and breezy). Dinner was fantastic - 3 bean enchiladas pile high with fresh vegetables and avocado slices on the side. GREAT! As you can guess, we were in bed early because we were so tired and were getting up early again to catch a bus off the island. Super day though, a nice ending to the Isla de Ometepe.

Thursday

Early breakfast, pay and then catch an 8:30 bus to Moyogalpa, the port where we catch the ferry. Thre hours later, we arrive. Take the sketchy ferry home (it was really wavey and the boat rocked so much from side to side) but we made it to Rivas and then tired of buses, paid a taxi $25 to drive us to Granada. He was so scared the entire drive because if the police caught him with 5 people in the car he would get fined. We had to at one point hide Sara as we drove by police. But it was all good and we made it to Granada safe and sound. We arrived in Central Park so we went to this bracelet stand we found the other day and all the girls got a piece of hair wrapped really colorfully. Its really nice and a good memory of our time there. We checked into our last hostel and met this really nice couple, Dan and Audrey who had been travelling for 2.5 years. We ate dinner with them at this nice restaurant called Nectar. We ate outside on this strip set aside for just walking along and enjoyed the cool night air. I got a curried vegetable crepe and fresh lemonade. One last dinner to mark the end of our vacations. It was such a nice night of story telling and making new friends. Dan and Audrey were really cool and had so many stories to tell of their travels. Very nice people. We were in bed by 11pm because guess what...we had an early day the next day!

Friday

Wake up at 5:30am, eat breakfast and catch a 6:45am bus to Managua. We were back in Esteli by 10:30am and have since washed laundry (OMG...our laundry STUNK so bad from sweat and wet clothes...it was digusting. We were all a mess at this point), ate lunch and showered....oh so nice. Tonight we´re going out to celebrate the final night of Priti, a girl living in our house, because she leaves tomorrow.

Our friends from Canada came in today (they had a horrible 1 day delay in the Miami airport) and so we get to see them tonight! I´m so excited to see them and have a bit of home. Only 3 more weeks until San Juan Del Sur and then I´m home! So excited and I know that I will give these last three weeks my all..they´ll go by so fast.

That´s all for now. Its a lot of information. Its not even that detailed. If you can, google the places I went to see the wonderful pictures. I´ll try and upload photos soon.

Hasta luego!

Long Time No Talk

2009-07-03T18:31:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. So its been a while since my last blog. Not much has happened in my life to be honest. If you want a laugh about my Sunday, read Jess DB´s blog about it...very funny and oh so accurate.

But my first week back was horribly boring, which is so unfortunate. Because of this influenza scare going around all workshops with kids were cancelled this week at FUNARTE (there was apparently a case of flu at one of the schools we work with). So instead I spent every day, 7 hours a day working on a manta WHICH I found out today that I was not supposed to do because the projection was bad. Of course. I like doing mantas, I do, but every day all the time is really long and I more enjoy working and playing with the kids. My last three weeks will have to be spent soaking up all the wonderfulness of the children and their painting.

For some reason, Siobhan, Jess and I have a week off...something like its our organizations vacation times or something. I feel kind of bad getting this vacation seeing as I was off last week sick, worked one week and then get another one off. But we´ve decided to take advantage of this time and go visit Granada and Isla de Ometepe from Sunday to Thursday/Friday. A couple nights in Granada and a couple on Ometepe. We´re super excited...carriage rides in Granada, a tour of las Isletas; then onto Ometepe for some sun and fun at Playa Santo Domingo and a visit to a nature reserve called Charco Verde. Hopefully everything goes relatively smoothly but I will DEFINITELY update you on our travels when I get back.

In other news, I´ve done a complete turnaround in terms of health. I feel SO great and its almost like I was never sick. Its fantastic! On Canada Day we all went out to celebrate and I had, for the first time in weeks! two double mojitos. I know I know...but its Canada Day and we need to celebrate somehow! It was so much fun and it was nice to be out for the first time in so long and actually be able to enjoy myself.

Don´t interpret this as a countdown because through everything I´m mostly enjoying this experience, for it certainly is one. But as of yesterday we have exactly 6 weeks until we leave:

1. Finish this week.
2. Next week is Granada/ Isla de Ometepe; Brittany and Becca arrive on Thurdays
3. 3 more weeks of work - can´t wait because this means we get to do more workshops and maybe one or two more mantas
4. 1 week San Juan Del Sur
5. Then home!

However: I have recently been feeling very sad for some reason and finding myself really wishing I could home. I´m so conflicted about this because everyone tells me that at this point in my journey I should be wanting to stay here. But I don´t feel this way at all. It seems almost that I´ve done everything backwards; I was fine for the first 2-3 weeks and then I got sick, when its usually sick right away then fine; I was enjoying my time here in the beginning and being really positive but now, though I´m still being positive, I find myself very sad somedays and wishing I could be home. I don´t understand and I feel really bad and confused about this because I want to get so much out of this experience and if I feel this way, am I taking anything away from it?? Any advice or comments on this matter would be so helpful. I feel kind of like I´m failing and not appreciating this in someway. PLEASE HELP!

Uuummm....not much else to say until next week. Although, we have so many people in our house leaving us soon; Priti leaves next week (it feels like she just got here but its been 4 weeks already), then Rebecca and Margarite leave the week after and then possibly Tim. Its so sad because there will be none of our friends here for our goodbye party because we´ll have wished them farewell already! One thing I love about this trip though is how many great and fascinating people I´ve met and come to really be close with; that is one thing I will miss about Nicaragua, my house more specifically because its been through living with Edna that I´ve met almost all of these great people! I really hope that we can keep in touch or have become close enough that in a couple years time I can email them and say ¨Hey! I´m coming to see you!¨ Its weird how quickly you bond with people in these situations because everyone is equal and in the same boat. Great times have been had with new friends and I will miss this!

Ok. That´s all for now! Hasta luego and take care everyone - until next week!

Health Scare

2009-06-27T16:17:00.002-04:00

I was debating whether or not to blog about this but I thought I might as well, seeing as most of you will find out eventually.

As you know, I´ve been sick on and off for about 4-5 weeks, with intermittent nausea and diarrhea, coming and going, making me think I was better then I´d get worse again. I went and got tests done and it turned out I had a parasite and a bacterial infection or a GI infection. So I took some medication for it and it seemed to be a bit better. However, after I went to La Chureca last week I got really sick. On Friday, I threw up 3 times and went to see the doctor who thought it was an ¨ intoxication¨ from the dump, some germ or bacteria I breathed in while there. She gave me a shot for anti-nausea and told me to take it easy, no work.

Ok, fine I said. I spent all weekend feeling nauseous, basically living off of dry toast, jam and bananas. No milk, no fried food, nothing but basic food. I can do that for a few days. But by Tuesday, I was still feeling nauseous all the time and obviously that´s not good. It should have cleared up by then. So I went back to the doctor who agreed with me, saying it should have gone away and that I may still be feeling nauseous because the bacterial infection never cleared up. So she prescribed me some anti-biotics for the infection, some anti-nausea pills, Metachlopromin or something, and somethng else to calm my stomach because the antibiotics can upset your stomach as a side effect. So I was to take the anti-nausea pills 20 min. before eating, three times a day. I did this for 2 days before I started having side effects. It started with my entire body feeling restless, like I had drank too much coffee and had caffeine just racing through my body. I´d had it before with Gravol (its one of the side effects) but never this strong. Then Wednesday night, after dinner around 8pm my eyes started to go weird. I could only look up, as far as my eyes could go, and to the left. I looked like a deer in the head lights, my eyes open wide and always looking up. My face was screwed up in a grimace to accompany my weird eyes. I clearly wasn´t OK, because I also had double vision if I tried to look elsewhere and if I closed my eyes, my eyes were moving under my lids like in REM sleep. So we told Edna, because all my friends were freaked out, and she took me to the doctor.

She tested all my reflexes which were fine, and I could identify things, I just couldn´t see right. So she ended up calling someone at a clinic and I was taken over there at like 9pm or later. They had to open the clinic just for me. I ended up getting a CT scan done of my head, with contrast being pumped into my arm. My eyes were so messed up I couldn´t even look at the guy who was putting in the IV. I was so scared. They were looking for signs of a lesion, or stroke or something to explain my eyes. Nothing. Everything was clean. Which is good. I´m too young to have a stroke thank you very much.

Basically, they told me to try and sleep and see how tomorrow was because no one could explain it. I had an appointment the next day to see a neurologist so maybe he could tell me something. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep - I don´t know how because when I tried to close my eyes, I couldn´t really and it was so dark in our room I couldn´t tell if my eyes were fully closed. Somehow I slept though and the next morning, my eyes were fine. A little sore but fine. I was scared to look up though because I didn´t want them to get stuck there like the night before.

I went and visited the neurologist who did a couple simple reflex tests but concluded everything was fine. He thinks, as does the other doctor, that the anti-nausea drug was overstimulating my optic nerve. Apparently, this same situation happend to someone the doctor knew, like a nephew or something, although it is not a common side effect. Its not even listed as a side effect I don´t think. Anyways, I stopped taking that drug, and stopped taking the anti-biotics because for all I know that could be causing something as well. Not taking any more foreign medication. The doctor told me to just drink lots of water and flush it out of my system. So I did, and I think for the most part I´m better.

I haven´t had any nausea until today and I´ve been eating more real food which is a nice change. My parents are obviosuly freaked out though and there is a small chance that if I get sick again I might go home. I can´t do sickness here anymore. I can´t be sick for school and I´m most likely going to need to sort this all out and make sure I´m healthy before I go for Don Training. I don´t want to have to go home but health is important too. I really hope that I will start to get better and be able to return to work, since I´ve been not working for a week. It´s so frustrating and hard because I´m a rollercoaster of symptoms; sometimes I´ll feel fine, but then I might eat something and feel so sick after. I just never know.

I will try to let you know what happens and see where I´m at in a few days. I really hope though I get better because I´ve come so far on my adventure that I would feel like a bit of a failure to go home.

In other news, Jon Daley, our English housemate left today for back home. It was very sad because he´s been there about the same amount of time as me and was kind of like a brother. Very sad. Tomorrow morning though he will be enjoying his full English breakfast which he´s been looking forward to for so long. We will keep in touch.

Hasta luego!

Some Photos

2009-06-26T15:10:00.011-04:00

Ok so I´ve finally been able to upload some photos. They will be a mismatch of Leon mixed with others. Just a few photos to let you all see where I´m at! Enjoy!

This is Krista and Jess at our hostel Via Via in Leon. Enjoying a great breakfast of pancakes with chocolate sauce or fruit with yogurt and granola. Yummy!!

This is Playa Roca, the little beach paradise we found about an hour outside of Leon. Beautiful isn´t it?? It wasn´t nearly as dark and cloudy as the picture makes it look though. It was sunny and warm and fantastic!

Cerro Negro at the beginning of our hike. The morning sun rising behind it, making it look beautiful and easy. It was beautiful but a heck of a climb.

Me with Cerro Negro in the background, slowly getting closer. Cerro Negro actually means ¨Black Hill¨ which is obvious as to why they chose that name.

Holding my hand over a warm sulfur spot on the volcano. Toasty!

A view from the top. It was so gorgeous, you could see for miles, as clear from this photo.

This picture is of the crater created by one of the volcanic eruptions of Cerro Negro. This is from the very top of the volcano looking down. We climbed down into one of the craters to take the picture above.

Victory shot at the top!! Whoot!

And finally! A picture of my manta that I worked so hard on. I´m very proud of it. I´ve done another one but those photos are on my other memory card, which I forgot. Oops. Anyways, this is my manta, the one that will be displayed in the 20th Anniversary Fiesta in September.

Literally, Hell on Earth

2009-06-19T18:41:00.002-04:00

Let me begin by saying that I hate Managua - it´s hot, filthy, and full of scum. We got completely ripped off by our taxi drivers both at the beginning and end of the day. In the morning, the taxis drivers refused to use two cars to transport 7 people and tried to squeeze us all into a regular 4 door car and wanted to charge us 50 cords or more a person, which is really expensive. We finally found 2 cabs that would take us for 30 cords a person. On the way home, back to the bus terminal, the two taxis that we had used all day (not the ones from the morning), that charged us low rates for a drive to La Chureca, that came back to get us at La Chureca, ripped us off big time. We were in 2 different cabs and my cab driver refused to answer our question about how much the ride would cost. Mistake number 1. Then when we get to the terminal, he wants to wait for the other cab driver to discuss the price. In the end he wanted 50 cords a person! The other cab driver had driven the others almost to the terminal, then pulled over to a gas station and demanded they pay him there or he wouldnt´t drive them to the terminal. He wanted 300 cord in total for 4 people! It was ridiculous and we were all so pissed.

But La Chureca. Oh my...what a heartbreaker. Driving through the ¨gates¨you can see gangs of men doing drugs outside the dump and inside is considered safer. The smell of burning garbage and other things on top of the smell of garbage was horribly overwhelming. Garbage mounds everywhere. We had to watch out for hypodermic needles when walking. People passed us lugging bags of garbage they found that is sellable, walking in bare feet through the mud. The ¨houses¨were made of old cardboard boxes or metal they had found; some had vending machine covers as walls. We met a young girl who this organization called Cuenta Conmigo is trying to remove from her family because her step father is raping her and her mom is doing nothing to stop it. So sad. We walked through the dump and visited the makeshift school with a bath for the children to bathe in. We met some of the kids and gave them candy. Further on, we climbed some of the mounds of garbage and saw where the freshly dumped garbage was because people were picking through it, jabbing it with spears to see what they could find. Others were riding the garbage trucks already sifting through it. If we had gone on, Jeanett said we would have seen animal bodies piled up, more spontaneous fires and an even worse smell of garbage. After 2 hours there we were all ready to leave.

It certainly was a very powerful experience and while I´m glad I went to see it, it was very difficult to witness. I honestly thought it looked like a post-apocalytpic wasteland, with vultures flying in the sky and mounds of chaos and destruction everywhere with people scaveging for what they can. The two ladies who went with us from Managua are trying to start up a non-profit organization to work with the youth of the dump to try and show them that there are options for them outside this life. They were going yesterday for a meeting with the congressman in an effort to gain charitable status. They´re going to email us more information so that maybe we can do some fundraising for them back home. They´re vision is for a better Nicaragua and while its going to be a difficult journey, I think what they´re doing is admirable. I wish them luck on their endeavors.

That was my day yesterday. Difficult, hot, and frustrating but a lesson learned. I´m so thankful for how wonderful Canada is and I miss it very much right now.

Hasta luego.

Miraflor Take Two

2009-06-15T18:24:00.003-04:00

So this weekend was amazing. WE LOVE MIRAFLOR. Best girls weekend get away of life!!
Friday night we went out for dinner to celebrate Siobhan´s 20th Birthday and after that we went to Cafe Mochanana for a live concert event. That was really relaxing and her host family came with a chocolate cake...and the musician playing that night sung her Happy Birthday as well. Great celebration for a birthday.

Saturday morning, bright and early we caught the bus to Miraflor. We arrived around 8:30am and after hiking the 2km to Lindos Ojos and checking in, we had some organic MIraflor grown coffee and lazed around until lunch at 12:30pm. Our cabin was gorgeous - it had 2 double beds, a bathroom and shower, and a porch...which we moved chairs out onto to sit and Gene, the German owner of Lindos Ojos and our new BFF, put up a hammock for us as well. Lunch consisted of a bean/potato/soy meat chili with corn tortillas and fresh lemonade. After lunch, feeling more energized we hiked 5km to this little waterfall for a nice refreshing swim. As we were hiking back it rained slightly but nothing serious. At the waterfall, we hiked in a different way from last time so we found ourselves prevented from getting to the waterfall by a barbed wire fence. This however, did not stop us and we crawled under the fence to get to the water. Very classy.

On our way back to Lindos Ojos, we made a slight detour to the local tienda or variety shop and proceeded to buy it out of its food - 12 bags of chips, 10 mini chocolate bars and 4 500mL bottles of Coke to go with our already existing supply of cookies, chips (that were eaten by this point) and giant bottle of rum...I mean water. Cough cough. Back at our cabin we showered, WITH slightly warm water, and commenced the drinking of the...water. With coke. Delicious. After some serious bonding with personal stories and a cry fest here and there...come on people, this is a girls weekend, it was dinner and man were we hungry. Cold air really brings out an appetite. That was another thing: I was actually cold for the first time ever. Like, wearing a sweater bundled in a blanket cold. It was great. Dinner was a pasta bake with bread, salad and peppermint tea (made BTW by boiling dried peppermint leaves in water..amazing). We each ate 3-4 helpings each. The food is so good there.
And then we were in bed by 9:30pm. Lame right?? But it was dark, with a lot of fresh air and bugs were swarming us.

Morning. We were awakened by cows mooing. At 6:30am. So by 7:0am we were all outside on the porch enjoying the fresh morning air and the beautiful green scenery. Miraflor was a lot greener this time than before so it was even more fantastic. Breakfast was at 8:30am - organic coffee, little buns with homemade jam and brie cheese and fried, crispy pancakes. OMG: I know I talk about the food but seriously. Delicious. We of course did not want to leave but begrugdingly caught the 11:30am bus back to Esteli and were back in the hot city by 1pm. It was however, like I said, an amazing weekend. We´re going to go back in July for one last visit and to stock up on some coffee to take back home. Miraflor is our paradice.

Otherwise, not much new has happened. We´re in our 7th week here, meaning there is only 6 weeks of work left and then 1 week of vacay. It´s pretty exciting and as much fun as I´m having here I still miss home and can´t wait to get back. Work is still going well and I have an exciting opportunity presented to me: the school that people from GVI work at want someone to paint the sides of the school with colorful murals and one of my friends who works there, Jon, volunteered me to do it!! It would be an amazing experience and I just need to ask FUNARTE for supplies. I will keep you updated on that.

Hasta luego for now but another post will be coming soon I hope.
Adios!!

Random Updates

2009-06-11T14:38:00.002-04:00

1. Remember how I was saying I was sick, then I´d get better and then sick again, etc. etc.??? Well...its turns out I had a parasite and bacterial infection in my body and I had to go to the doctor on Monday because it was so bad. But I´m glad to say that after a litre or so of electrolytes (salty coconut flavor...delicious), some anti-nauseants and antibiotics I´m feeling better though not completely healed. The doctor said I probably got bacteria from the water and the parasite I could have picked up anywhere. She says that all foreigners get sick...all the time. So it´s not just me! Yay.

2. I finished my manta which is really exciting!! I took some photos and am just waiting to upload them which hopefully will be soon.

3. We have a room booked in Miraflor this weekend so we´re heading up there for a good old fashioned girls weekend and in celebration of Siobhan´s 20th Birthday which is tomorrow. Rustic food and living, chocolate instead of cake, hiking and cooler temperatures. Lovely.

4. We met this really great woman named Jeanette McDermott. She is an American journalist and spending time abroad working. She´s quite an activist for liberty, women´s rights and standing up for yourself which is great; we all really admire her spirit and dedication to what she believes and what she does. She has a website/blog which is really interesting. If you get a chance check it out and make sure to look at anything related to La Chureca, the largest dump in the world located in Managua. People actually live in there, build houses out of garbage and spend their days sifting through everything for food. The sign above the entrance to the dump says ¨Gates of Hell¨. It´s terrible and completely unthinkable the living conditions that these people exist in and the government is doing nothing to help them. If these people leave the dump, they get stoned by people from Managua. Garbage truck drivers, before unloading stuff in the dump, take out all usable and unopened food. It´s unimaginably horrible and total human rights violations in every sense. It is so unknown, so tucked away in the depths of Nicaragua, and so we´re trying to spread awareness.

www.jeanettemcdermott.org -> La Chureca (its a flicker photo stream and the photos of the dump are about half way in)

That´s all for now.
Thanks for reading!!

Other Challenges

2009-06-09T17:09:00.002-04:00

I didn´t know how to work this into my other line of thought, so I started a new one. And for all you Starbuckers out there, I hope you caught onto my title (David, maybe if you drank Starbucks you´d get it...hahaha). This one is about cultural differences; what I´ve foud to be the most significant for me. I´ve adapted well I think to the general culture - food, habits, norms, attitudes (i.e. those possessed by men). But there are three areas I have yet to come to terms with and I don´t think I´ll be able to in my time here.

One is the intrinsic foreigness of being white. Let´s face it: I stick out like a sore thumb; I´m the pink elephant in the room. Even in Canada, I´m considered deathly pale. Obviously I can´t do anything about it...although I am proud to say I´ve achieved a bit of a tan, which is an accomplishment for me, thank you very much. But what get´s me os the way foreigners are treated. Think of Canada - we don´t take a second look at someone who is ethnic or ¨foreign¨. For all we know, they were born and raised in Canada. But we also strive for multiculturalism and appreciating other cultures and what they have to offer. But here, you get stared at, insulted with cat-calls and harrased. Some people are nice to you but that´s only about half; the other half hate you. One friend here was verbally assaulted the other day by one of her neighbours, someone she had seen before and been bothered by before. She was walking home when he started yelling all these things at her like ¨What are you still doing here you stupid American b***h!¨ or ¨Go back home!¨etc. She was so scared because he was walking right towards her, yelling. And there were other guys on the street just laughing at her. I understand not the entire culture is this way, but its hard to be a foreigner. This leads to my second point.

The constant uneasiness and worry for safety. Will I be safe walking home? Should I watch my bag? How late can I stay out before its dangerous to be on the streets? Is this taxi OK to take? We feel so trapped sometimes because we´re scared to go out, be in certain places or be far from home. For instance, Saturday night we were walking from Siobhan´s house after visiting with her to go to a house party, literally 3 blocks away. While walking a group of 4-5 guys, most likely drunk and being loud, were walking right towards us. The first thing anyone says is: ¨We´re going to get robbed.¨ I was actually scared. It was late and we were foreigners. So we turned around and went back to Siobhans house. The guys passed but we felt they were waiting around the corner, as some guys head would appear occasionally. So Jess and I decided to go home...running half the way. In Canada, you still have to be careful but not nearly to the same extent. You´re constantly on guard, second guessing everthing, mentally evaluating how safe it will be. Which sucks but what can I do?? Again, I realize, its part of life here, maybe more so for foreigners. The only thing I can do is try to be safe but not live my life in fear. Take small, not reckless, risks and try to enjoy myself. But the reality is always with you.

The third thing is having to ignore all the wrongs and injustices you see. It´s really difficult because you see so many and again, what can I do?? It´s the culture, the way of life. They would laugh at you if you said anything. The most prominent example I have is of a 2 year old neighbour boy. He´s basically a prisoner in his house and has no freedom. He´s still showing a unique and curious personality but he´s slowly being trained to not use it. Every day he is put in the same spot in front of the TV and told to not move. If he moves, a smack follows. The mother is like a slave in the house, working 14 hour days; when not working she watches 3 hours of soaps instead of playing with him. His creativity and personality are being squahed out of him. The 2 foreigners who live there, Cherry and Genet, took him out one day to the park. When he stepped outside his house he didn´t move...to scared to be smacked. He just looked around as his world widened before his eyes. At the park he had no idea how to swing or slide and watched the children playing before trying it himself, again still cautious to move. Later, the 2 ladies took him for ice cream; didn´t know how to eat it. So they just kind of shoved it to his mouth and got it all over his lips. He tried it and loved it, this big smile forming on his face wanting more. That was his taste of freedom. The other day, Cherry and Jenet were telling us about how he sucks his thumb, his only mechanism of escape. The mother started dipping it in hot sauce to stop him. He was crying and rubbing his eyes, making things worse and the mother just laughed when she told Cherry and Jenet what she was doing. They thought he was hurt. At this rate, that boy will have no spirit in a year. The ladies say that everyday they see a little light leave his eyes. This breaks mine and their hearts because there is nothing we can do about it. Then there are street kids, violent communities that are know about and accepted. Places like FUNARTE try and work with the kids to be some sort of positive influence but what they really need is a new chance at life. But here, that doesn´t exist.

So yes...those are my cultural observations and they´re all tough. So say hello to your neighbour, and be thankful Canada is so safe and secure. And give your kid a hig and tell them you love them. We need to keep the love alive!! And maybe send some this way for all the kids and people who need it.

On a happier note, thanks for all the positive comments...it lets me know you´re still reading!! Miss everyone and thanks for all your support. It means the world to me.

xo

The Way I See It #1

2009-06-09T16:46:00.002-04:00

¨Did I do anything??¨ The question most often asked by volunteers. The answer most likely is nothing as big as you want it to be. As a volunteer its not what you want to hear, ever. You want to feel as though you´ve made a contribution, some lasting change; that you´ve inspired goodness and righted wrongs. In some places and in some jobs, yes - maybe you do accomplish these things. But how long did you work on it? To make any sort of impact, most likely years. But for us, 3 months is nothing. Not enough time to feel what you want to feel - like you´ve changed the world. I think, as new volunteers on a global scale, we come into programs like this with high expectations; not stemming from ignorance or obnoxiousness but from naivety and inexperience with worldly dabblings. We think that when we leave, we´ll leave behind a legacy of sorts with major changes accomplished and a feeling that we´ve done something great. It´s unfortunate because these hopes and dreams get destroyed; we come to feel like our placements aren´t necessary, like what we´re doing doesn´t matter, like we can´t seem to right ANY wrongs, even small ones. Its discouraging, no doubt. And so negativity and frustration emerge, along with the thinking that ¨Maybe if I change my placement, things will be better. Go somewhere that matters. Then I´ll feel better.¨It´s not always the wrong attitude; it may acutally solve your problems. But then again it might not.

Volunteering in a sense is sort of a selfish act (not in a bad way though) - on one hand you´re trying to make the world a better place, one injustice or inequality at a time. But on the other hand, unless you get some sort of satisfactions or feeling of being a help / doing something important, you hate it. Which is kind of bad, but difficult to stop. You want to like what you´re doing because then you´re motivated to go on and pursue it further. Totally understandable. But if you don´t like it, you´re still volunteering and making small changes. Which is the main reason you volunteer. You want changes in the world for the better. Unhappiness then, partly stemming from dislike of a position, may also stem largely from when you don´t think you´re making a difference. We want measurable changes. We want to know we´re being proactive and accomplishing change. When we don´t see any difference, we think its our job - this position isn´t really necessary, there´s nothing worthwhile to do here, etc. We feel overwhelmed with a sense of...helplessness and being lost, because we´re not doing what we came here to do. It´s true that there are some placements that really are pointless; it can´t be avoided. But in general, most spots that ask for or have volunteers, NEED them for some reason. Even if you don´t see the purpose for being there. Because its the small things that matter - equal to, if not more, than the big obvious changes. Small changes are often overlooked as being insignificant, but that small change could plant the seed for future greatness. Teaching one person how to recycle and re-use materials could result in it becoming a community wide campaign; giving a positive comment and smile to a child on their artwork could be the high point of their day and encourage them to keep pursuing art and further learning. So while sitting with kids, or gardening, or putting tape all day on the back of pictures isn´t ¨glamorous¨ like we pictured, they´re small changes. Small, little, good deeds we´ve done for the day. I don´t think its wrong to want to feel like you´ve done something good or noteworthy - its in our nature and you need satisfaction and motivation to continue. But to completely ignore the tedious, boring work and look only for the fulfilling work is to overlook what volunteering is. So many great leaders in history - Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela - dedicated their lives to change. And even then, it sometimes took longer than their lives for it to be achieved. Scott Kline said it was ignorant for us to assume that we can come here and change the world, make a huge everlasting difference in our time here. But we can make small changes, that one day may accumulate to a big change. I am glad to be a volunteer. Yes its frustrating and difficult and sometimes really unfulfilling - but I know that I am doing good somehow, some way. So smile! and know that what you do matters to someone. That´s what´s important.

Cultural Weekend

2009-06-08T10:58:00.002-04:00

This past weekend has been a bit of a Nica culture experience for me. Friday night we went out for dinner to our favourite little spot, Cafe Luz. I mistakenly, however, got these delicious Papa Fritas (which are big wedge potato fries with Cuban spices and so salty...so good) which left me feeling gross and disgusting all weekend. Did not sit well with me so I´m avoiding all fried food for a while. Or at least trying to. But anyways, after dinner we went to another cafe called Mocha Nana which was having a small live concert. It was really lively and good music. We went with a bunch of friends, from our program and people we´ve met here, so we were surrounded by good company and good music. Such a nice time. The musicians were great for being a live band and they sung upbeat, jazzy songs with some slower more romantic ones thrown in every once in a while. They were all new songs to me but I think they were just singing popular Spanish songs from Nicaragua. Whatever...Nica culture!!

Saturday, I worked my first workshop at FUNARTE with a bunch of kids. It was not nearly as big as I was told (there were only about 35-50 kids there, not anywhere near the 400 I was previously told about). It was sort of a special day still because filming was continuing for the documentary, but the kids just went about their normal antics as though nothing was new. I made a new friend, a 10 year old girl named Lourdes, who tried to teach me how to spin a hoola-hoop around my waist. Epic fail on my part. I cannot move my body that way and I have no hips to spin anything on so the hoop woudl go around me a couple times then slide off. I made a fool of myself but who cares?? I had fun, they had fun watching me. During other games and the discussions with the FUNARTE staff, she was holding my hand and reserving spots for me beside her on the floor. I was more of a student that day than a volunteer so I sat beside her and listened to the teachers talk about the day and the themes and stuff like that. The painting technique for the day was blue, white and black and the theme was human rights i.e. what do you think we as people are entitle too, like equality and freedom, etc. Lots of great artworks were created that day and we ended around 11:30am. The afternoon was spent lazily reading because it was really hot that day.

Saturday night we ended up going to Semaforo, a dance club, around 11pm. We initially were not going to do dancing and went to visit Siobhan who had just gotten back from Canada after going home for a week (family emergency). Then there was this house party that one of our Nica friends was going to and he was ¨Come on, it will be fun, etc.¨so we started walking there from Siobhans house. But then, there were 4-5 guys walking down the street towards us, most likely drunk because it was around 9:30pm - 10pm at this point, and Jess was ¨We´re going to get robbed, we´re walking right into this...¨so we turned around and went back to Siobhans house. We waited for them to pass but then we felt as though they were waiting for us around the corner (some of then kept poking their heads around to see where we were) so Jess and I decided to go/ run back home where it was safe and dry (it also started raining). But when we got home, Edna, her boyfriend of sorts Julio, Julie, Hans and another Nica friend Grelyin were ¨Let´s go to Semaforo¨and how could we say no to Edna?? So we went, 7 of us piled into a taxi (there were people on other peoples laps) and we arrived at Semaforo. It was great! There was a band playing music and the layout was dance floor surrounded by tables so you could sit or dance, whichever you wanted. We got us a table but there was dancing as well. Jess and I did some crazy ¨we don´t know how to dance, so we´ll dance how we want¨moves and then Edna got up and started dancing with us so we tried to follow her lead and copy some moves. Some Nica guys asked us to dance (oooohhhh!!) so we tried to dance Nica-ish with them but we were horrible. All my dance classes here were completely forgotten!! One guy kept trying to teach me something so simple but I think I was so bad that he gave up! Hahaha. Anyways, we stayed until 2am ish and were sleeping by 3am. Slept into 9am, which is retrospect, should have been later. Totally could have kept sleeping but I thought I should get up.

Sunday, we didn´t really do anything special. Went for a walk after lunch but otherwise...nada. Tamara, our University coordinator here in Esteli, visited us at 7pm last night to check in on us, so we let her know how we were doing and stuff like that.

Many people here don´t feel like their placements are necessary/ not making a difference. As a result, many people are thinking of ¨rebelling¨of sorts and trying to find new placements in Esteli. I sometimes wonder if they´ve gone in with the right attitudes or expectations but also I don´t work at their placements so I don´t know what goes on there. I have a few more thoughts on this but I have to formulate them a bit better before presenting them on my blog.

Otherwise...that´s about it. In my 6th week now and my 3rd week at work. Yes it is sometimes very boring and I don´t feel like I´m doing anything,which consequently caused me to get a bit caught up in the whole ¨lets change placements¨thing. But after talking to my parents, I am going to stay at FUNARTE. As they said, its the small changes, the smile here and there, the positive comment on a child´s artwork, that matters. And even though its not measurable changes (which I think is where a lot of the problem is stemming from for others...they don´t see measurable changes) I can hope at least that maybe I was a positive influence for a child that day. Its nice to hope. I know I´m not going to change the world and right all injustices while here. That would take months ;) hahaha.

So with renewed motivation for dance classes, I enter a new week. Like I said, more thoughts to come, slightly philosophical I think, once I´ve formulated them.

Hasta luego!

P.S. Spell check doesn´t work on this blog so sorry for mistakes!!

FUNARTE

2009-06-05T14:25:00.006-04:00

Last night, there was an art exposition at FUNARTE which displayed children´s artwork from various workshops, themes and communities in and around Esteli. We spent all day getting it ready - people were literally painting walls until 3:00pm (the exposition started at 4:00pm). The themes of the paintings included self-esteem, legends of Nicaragua, gender equality, values and self-image. One of my house mates, Jon, accompanied me and he really enjoyed it as well. It was really neat to see the children´s artwork displayed and appreciated by the visitors. Visitors included mothers and fathers of the children, the children themselves, and important people like officials, police and I think someone equivalent to the mayor of the city. Not sure, but it was a big deal nonetheless. I have some photos, not of last night (those are on my camera) but of other work FUNARTE has done.

I also learned some more about FUNARTE last night, from a Powerpoint Presentation being given. I want to get a copy of it to upload so that you can also learn more about it. What I learned was that FUNARTE does all its workshops in the various communities for free and supplies all the materials necessary. The themes that it aims to address in its teachings are childrens rights, peace, respect, and solidarity among other things. It also tries to teach creative and artistic exploration of the self and of life, and provide an innovative means of education.

Beneficiaries of the program in the last 20 years include:

- 8,500 pre-school and primary school boys and girls
- 15,000 boys, girls, and adolescents of different neighbourhoods in Esteli
- 100 adolescents and youth in the Esteli jail
- 200 boys, girls and adolescents with various disabilities (from Los Pipitos)
- 2,000 mothers and fathers
- 20 community leaders

Hope you enjoy the pictures and learning a bit more about my placement.

I would like, as a side note, to say sorry for all the spelling mistakes I´ve been making throughout my blog. In my defense, the keys stick and its a Spanish formatted keyboard. But I will try to be better from now on. OH. And my mistake. Radio Shack is spelt normally; it actually does have a ´C´. I was just delirious when I looked at the sign.

Something exciting. Last night, I got to ride on the back of a motor bike!! It was so much fun. One of our friends down here in Nica has a motor bike and he took me around for like a 10 min. drive. I was so tense at first and holding on for dear life but once he showed me where to put my feet (they were just dangling until half way through the drive) and told me to relax and put my hands on my lap, it was less scary and more fun. Vroom vroom! Next, he´s going to teach me how to drive it...hehehe.

That´s all for now. It was an educational blog. With a small twist on the end.
Peace.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-06-03T14:24:00.002-04:00

Today, I would like to celebrate my 1 month anniversary here in Nicaragua! That´s pretty exciting, or so I´d like to think. Currently, we are in our 5th week, leaving only 8 weeks or so of work left and 1 week of vacay. It´s kind of crazy to think about. I mean, at the beginning, time seemed to drag on forever...each day feeling so long. But now, with work and events happening, it seems to be progressing at a steadier pace.

Remember when I went to Miraflor my first weekend here?? Well at that time, the girls all said how much we loved it there and we were going to plan a trip back there mid-June to celebrate Siobhan´s 20th birthday. It´s now next weekend (June 13-14th). Thats crazy!! By then it will be our half way point. Like I said, crazy.

As for FUNARTE, I´m definitely feeling more welcomed and needed. This year, FUNARTE is celebrating their 20th anniversary and so there is a lot of preparation work for the big fiesta being held in September in honor of this great achievement. That´s where I sort of come in. Earlier, I wrote about a manta I was working on and that I really felt I was doing a poor job and that others thought I was too, etc. But now that its 2/3s of the way done, its looking much better and is starting to come together. I actually think it looks really good. There´s still work to be done on it (I think that´s what I´m working on tomorrow and Friday) but I am feeling better about it which is a good sign. AND I even got a compliment on it from one of the other painters. It kind of gives me a warm-fuzzy feeling knowing that a manta I did will be displayed in the big 20th anniversary festival. Exciting!! I will also try to take a photo of it to upload and show you all my hard work.

Also, because of this anniversary, there is someone coming in from Mexico on Thusday to make a film documentary about FUNARTE. There are so many preparations being done - lots of cleaning and organization for sure. I wasn´t sure if I would be working on the days of filming, seeing as I´m not really a permanent member, but I think I´m sort of being stashed away in the art studio to work on my manta. Not because they don´t want me to be seen (although its understandable...lol) its more that they will have all their staff working at the same time, so another volunteer isn´t really needed. I´ll basically be working where ever I´m needed.

So ya...work is better and I´m really happy here. Finally. I know you all put up with some complaining (I tried to keep it to a minimum) but I finally feel relatively integrated into the way of life and culture. I love my house - all the great people you meet there. Another guy has been added to our international family - Hans from Belgium. He´s here working for a year. And then there´s John who Jess and I have become pretty good friends with; he´s pretty funny and mumbles a lot and we make fun of each other all the time. And Julie and Natacha as well...but unfortunately they are both leaving soon; Natacha in 2 weeks and Julie, as well as John, leave end of June. Its kind of sad...our family is breaking up :(

One thing that has recently come to bother me, though it dind´t really initially, is the complete direspect of women here. Before, all the cat-calling and ¨Hey chilita...hey bonita¨ didn´t really bug me as much as it did the others girls because I recognized it as part of the culture. But the other day, some guy was riding by on his bike when I was walking to work, riding really slowly and creepily smiling at me and saying all these things in Spanish. I kind of reacted by giving hime the middle finger and felt a little better after. But then...and please don´t worry, I´m fine...when I was walking back home, 2 guys riding on bikes were behind me. I was bracing myself for the usual statements made but instead one reached down as he was passing and slapped my butt. I was so stunned that I didn´t even yell at him; I knew that was what he was wanting, a reaction. He just rode off, giggling madly with his friend. I was more angry than upset...technically thats assault I think...but what could I do about it?? Nothing. In Canada, obviously you would yell and cuss at them, but usually that type of thing doesn´t even happen back home because its taken way more seriously. Until then, I could have brushed off the comments but now I´m even wearier of people on bikes.

I think thats all for now. OH! Wait. In July (this is great news) 2 of my friends, Becca (who did the placement at FUNARTE the summer before) and Brittany (who did BEyond Borders in Africa last summer as well) are coming to visit for 2 weeks!! I don´t know if I´ve already written about this, so sorry if I have. I´m just so excited. I think we´re going to try and do a weekend trip to Grenada.

Keep on reading! I love the support and knowing that people are following along with my journey. Miss and love you all!

Hasta luego.

Leon, Chica Blanca and Cerro Negro

2009-06-01T16:24:00.002-04:00

This weekend was fantastic! Krista, Jess and I had so much fun in Leon. Let me break it down for you.

We left bright and early Saturday morning, waking up a ridiculous hour of 4:30am to catch a 5:45am bus to Leon. We rode in style on an actual tour bus. We arrived around 8:30am and got slightly lost when looking for our hostel Via Via. We found it after many directions from the locals and checked in. The hostel was beautiful; there was a restaurant in the front and apparently there are lots of events that happen there during the week. Sunday night, for $12.00 we could watch a cock fight and enjoy an open bar. If we were so inclined. But inside, past the restaurant, there was a huge open courtyard with flowers and plants and hammocks hanging between posts. Really clean and friendly. Jess and I shared a double bed in our own room. There was only one bed in the common dorm because there had been a party there the night before and everyone was super hung over and therefore still sleeping when we got there. AND--- our room had a fan. And its own bathroom. Already off to a great start.

While waiting for our rooms we ate breakfast and then toured around the city. Besides the churches there isn´t really much to see in Leon. But we checked out the different churches and visited what is apparently the tallest church in Central America. I personally didn´t find it that big. Maybe its just me. We also went to Quetzal Trekkers and booked our hike for Cerro Negro on Sunday. We didn´t end up doing the two day one I told you about earlier because Krista and Jess had to work Monday. So the Cerro Negro Tour, for $20.00 included two meals, bus fare, the tour guides and 10 hours in total of ¨trip¨. When we initially paid, one of the tour guides Justin accidently overcharged us, saying we had to pay 800 cordobas (which is really $40.00) and I didn´t realize we had overpayed until like 1:00am when I was awake and thinking about our trip. The next morning however he realized his mistake and gave us all back 400 cord. Clearly none of us are good at math if we didn´t catch that right away.

Saturday afternoon we went to the beach - Playa Roca to be more precise. We took the bus there and we sat on the bus, in the terminal for 30 min. before it left as they were trying to jam more people into an already crowded bus and it was super hot. We were all sweating buckets. But the beach was beautiful. Playa Roca had this laid-back drink and food feel. The water was really salty (Pacific Ocean everyone) and nice temperature; not cold but not warm, just refreshing. Sandy beaches, big crashing waves. Heaven. We got a drink and went down to the beach. After swimming for a while we laid on the sand to try and get some color. This is the chica blanca part. These kids were walking along the beach trying to sell tourists stuff and they came up to us and were saying hello and pointing at me saying ¨You´re white¨ and comparing me to them. It was so funny because clearly I know I´m as pale as death. They were like ¨Do you know you´re white?¨and I replied ¨Clearly, thats why I´m lying in the sun!¨It was just so funny to be told what I already am completely aware of. Hahaha. We returned to the hostel around 6pm, showered and ate dinner. Gallo pinto, fried eggs and tortilla for me, washed down with a huge glass of fresh pineapple juice. Delicious. We hit the hay early, around 8:30am in preparation for the next day.

Sunday. Began at 3:30am for us. We met the guides at Quetzal Trekkers office at 4:15am for breakfast. Bananas, melon, whole wheat bread, peanut butter and jelly and coffee. Simple but amazing. We left around 5 and were at the starting point around 6am. We hiked 1.5 hours to the Rangers Station where we saw iguanas and snakes. Apparently they breed iguanas to be eaten and sold at the market. Mmmm. Our hike was through a bit of forest but mostly over black rock/ash combination. All of our socks and ankles were filthy and black and our shoes were filled with rocks. We started the hike up the volcano around 9am. It was rocky, challenging but completely worth all the pain and rocks. The day was bright and cloud-free, warm but with a nice breeze. We applied sunscreen but all we did was sweat it off. The climb took about an hour. Cerro Negro is 728m high and active, so we got to visit a couple craters created by the last eruptions. There were spots where sulfur was being released and you could hold your hand over a hot spot in the sand and feel the heat of the volcano. We hiked along the rigde of the volcano at the top to the highest point and the spot where we would be running down the volcano. Yes, running down. You can also sled or snowboard down but that is a little too scary for me. The view was amazing and you could see forever. I definitely have a few victory shots.

Running down was tricky. It was insanely steep and it was mostly loose rock mixed with some patches of smooth, hardened rock that were slippery. The trick was to dig your heels into the volcano and just go. I slipped and fell a few times, suffered minor scratches but I ran most of the way down. I was so scared at one point because I couldn´t stop slipping down the side. About half way down we stopped and sat to wait for the others to catch up. Then I ran the rest of the way, down to the bottom. Adrenaline rush to the max. Jess, slightly more scared than I was, went down on her butt and ripped her pants and had a huge butt scab now. Its kind of funny but I try to be sympathetic. When we were all down, we emptied our very full shoes (I had ash/rock in my sock up to my toes) and then found a nice shady spot for lunch. Bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese and refried beans squeezed from a pack. Oh ya. We hiked back to the bus stop now on the other side of Cerro Negro, about another hour, and were all rewarded with a nice cool drink. Coca Cola of course por moi. We were back in Leon city by 2pm. Jess, Krista and I then caught a bus to San Roquero where we had to transfer to another bus to Esteli. Less fabulous bus ride home and we were all extremely dirty, tired and sunburned. Really sunburned. Edna applied yogurt to me at dinner and it felt so good.

But like I said, fantastic weekend. I can now say I´ve climbed and run down an active volcano. Our guides were great and I think thats half the experience. Both guys were from Cananda: Justin was from Halifax, 19, and Jack from Kingston, also 19. AND Jack knew what and where Port Credit was. I was so impressed. But great experience and we all came away from that weekend happy and content, though burned. I might go back and do it again later with Megan. So rewarding.

Now in my 5th week here and looking forward to the time to come. Hopefully work picks up a little more. Some people in my house are leaving soon and they will be missed but new internationals will come to our international family.

Hasta luego for now. I will try to upload some photos when I can. I lost my second memory card so have to buy another one here. Should be fun but there is a Radio Shak in Esteli so fingers crossed. And I heard about the weather in Canada. Winter jackets and mits...really?? I feel sorry for you guys. If I could, I would send some heat your way.

Take care!!

P.S. After Thoughts

2009-05-28T14:52:00.000-04:00

Little after thoughts, plus something I found so funny.

Yesterday, I got asked what a ´titty twister´was. I had to try and explain it in Spanish. I was then asked was a ´titty´ was too. It was so funny. I rarely hear that expression in Canada, so it was kind of random to hear it here.

Anyways, I thought it was funny.

My dad also told me to relay to you that those 7 photos I uploaded took 1.5 hours to get up. Yes thats right. 1.5 hours. For 7 photos. I think I´ve said before, I will never complain about Internet speed at home again.

Hahaha. Thats all for real now. OH! And I´m happy to say that I´m understanding more Spanish and learning new words everyday. Or atleast I´d like to think I am.

One more thing: apparently this morning, there was a small earthquake at like 2:30 am. I didn´t feel it but apparently Nicaragua has earthquakes. Esteli not so much because its more north, but Managua gets them. A little scary, not going to lie.

Now thats all. Really. Until my next post!

Life As I Know It

2009-05-28T14:23:00.002-04:00

As I sit, munching on my lunch, I decided to do some more blogging. I know - you´re estatic right?? Hahaha. Joking!

I realized in my last post or two, I forgot some details, some happenings, that occured in Esteli. On Sunday, there was a soccer game between Esteli and some other place. In short, Esteli won...whoot! So that night, there was a concert festival in the park and we went to check it out. The group was Las Minas and is the only female group in Nicaragua. I thought they were pretty good and especially since it was live; usually people never sound as good live but they were great. I obviously didn´t understand anything they were singing about - that is until they started singing ´´I will Survive´´. The sucky thing about that evening was that there were many drunk guys, dancing, trying to get us Canadian girls to come dance. A simple ´no´ does not suffice, nor does laughing at them, pushing them or telling them to leave you alone. It was slightly annoying, and a tad creepy, so it made the experience a bit less enjoyable. However, I try not to let those things bother me...stay positive!

As I said, Tuesday I started work; Wednesday, today and tomorrow, I continue. Hahaha. Today Katy, one of the managers, asked me how I was at painting. I said I´ve taken classes in highschool and outside of school, but I said I wasn´t sure if I was up to their standards. I wasn´t. She said I could practice on some paper, just use my imagination. That led me to paint a spectrum of the colors to practice blending and combining colors and I painted a corn cob. I didn´t think it was that bad, but clearly Katy did. So she said I could paint the white letters on the ´mantas´ or pieces of art we´re working on. It was a little discouraging, but what can I do?

This weekend I don´t have to work Saturday because its Mothers Day here and its quite a big event, seeing as there are so many single mothers in Nicaragua. So, I was planning on going to Leon with this other girl I met - Krista from Virginia. She found this really neat 2 day hike-tour of different volcanoes in Leon. Here´s the website: http://www.quetzaltrekkers.com/nictelica.html. Its looks great! And all proceeds go towards helping street children in Leon. Here´s a description just for easy reading:

In the morning we pack our backpacks and have breakfast in the Quetzaltrekkers office. Then we go by public transport to a small rural village close to the volcanoes Telica and Santa Clara where our trail starts. Our trail winds towards the agitated western slope of the volcano, offering great opportunities to see the Nicaraguan national bird Guardabarranca perching high on majestic Guanacaste trees. Walking on through fields and forest for about 5 hours, we head up to the impressive active crater of Volcán Telica. The steep walls of the 150 m wide crater drop down more than a hundred meters, providing a view that will make your head spin. From the top you have great views of the volcanoes San Cristobal, Cerro Negro and Momotombo and it is the ideal place to see the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

Our campsite, just 15 minutes down from the active crater and nested within an older inactive crater, looks like a garden of Eden. When it is dark we go back to the crater for the best possible views of the glowing lava. Next morning we rise early to climb a ridge where we can see the sunrise. After breakfast we clear the camping area and go down the steep southern slope, walking through a beautiful dry forest. Crossing the corn and bean fields between the volcanoes Telica and Santa Clara, we walk towards the small town of San Jacinto where we visit the famous Hervideros - bubbling mud pools caused by a subterranean lava flow of Volcán Telica. After having lunch in a local comedor, we get on the bus back to León.

Uummmm...I think that about does it. I´m feeling a little less homesick than in the beginning. I still can´t wait to come home but its more because I miss people than because I hate it here. I think I´ve said this already. Oh well. Other people in my group are doing ok..some complain alot about it here which bugs me when i´m trying to stay positive. I try not to complain too much, and I don´t think I have. But its exciting to think that I´ve been here for 4 weeks and am starting my 5th week - that means only 9 weeks remaining, 8 at work! I know I know, it seems like I´m counting down, but please don´t think of it negatively. I am enjoying this experience, honest. I´m excited to be here but I´ll be happy to go home.

Thats it for now. I´ll hopefully be able to blog later about my weekend in Leon, maybe upload some pics. Hasta luego for now!!

Take care and of course...miss you all!

First Day of Work

2009-05-26T18:03:00.002-04:00

Today was my first day of work at FUNARTE. I worked in the morning in the studio with children from Los Pipitos, a sister organization that does work with children who hav disabilities. I wasn´t quite sure what to do so I helped where I could and then sort of stood around/watched the kids painting. There was a theme for the day but I forget what it was, unfortunately. After the kids left, we talked about the positives and negatives of the morning. In total, there were 6 people working - Jafar, Manuel, Tania, Siobhan, myself and another guy and and girl. My very inital impression was that I didn´t like it there. I think it was more brought on though by feelings of being unwanted. It seemed like we weren´t wanted or needed there. While Jafar and Tania were nice to us, the unnamed guy didn´t once talk to me or smile. It looked like we were bothering him by being there. Manuel was nice and was talking to us about home and what we were doing for the summer. There is another woman who we´re going to be working with, Katy, who also seems perturbed that she has to work with us. Maybe she just takes some time to get to know but it doesn´t help the uneasiness and sense of not belonging on your first day of work.

After Los Pipitos, we had ¨lunch¨ from 11am to about 11:30am - we really just sat around and waited for the afternoon activities. It turns out, BTW, that I do work Tuesday afternoons. This is the part where I start to like FUNARTE. We went to a small little community about 30 min. outside of Esteli, at the top of the hills surrounding the city, called La Montanita. In total, there was Siobhan, myself, RAFA(who is really nice and friendly towards us) Carlos, Tania and one other girl. La Montanita is a very poor community with a school, very small community centre (where the art work takes place with FUNARTE) and a small hospital and police station. Rafa said that most of the kids who came today live about an hours walk from the community centre. He also said that there is a lot of domestic violence in the community; something to do with the fathers. The kids of course pick it up from home and so it continues to get passed down. As I was being told this, tears came to my eyes; to be honest, I don´t really know why. It´s not like I wasn´t expecting this type of work. But it saddens me to thing of the number of injustices and inequalities that have collected in this one little community. The children, the girls especially, were so shy and barely talked when asked about their drawings. Before the pastel work began, the group was divided into girls and boys and the theme was ¨Contra la violencia¨ - an appropriate theme, obviously. Even then, the children barely responded to questions or prompts. But their artwork but fantastic. It was so colorful, the varying pastel colors so vibrant against balck paper, and the drawings contained flowers and trees, animals and people, all looking happy. They captured the theme I felt and each picture just radiated their innocence and youth - the simultaneously simplicity and toughness of their lives. That´s when I changed my mind about FUNARTE because this is the type of work I came here to do. This once a week trip to a community, to teach children about important social issues. I left looking forward to tomorrow.

In other news, I think I´m starting to feel better after a week and half or more of feeling nauseaous and sick all the time. It would come in waves, but I never felt 100% right. Fingers crossed. I think its probably just my body adjusting to the food and water...I hope its nothing more serious. I don´t think it is...but still. Fingers crossed.

I´m in my fourth week now which is pretty good. The end seems not as far - not that I want the end because I hate it here, I just miss home and friends and family. Thinking I might try to visit Leon this weekend with Siobhan and a girl I met from Virginia, named Krista. She found a neat 2 day volcano tour where you camp up in the volcanos and can swim in lava warmed pools or something. Waiting for more info. but it sounds really neat and would only cost like $40.00.

That´s all for now, but of course I´ll keep you updated. You´re my fan base, my support group!

Hasta luego!
:)

Estelian Life

2009-05-25T12:03:00.004-04:00

These photos below are of Esteli. Uploading photos here takes forever, so there´s only three photos plus the video for now. I want to upload in the future a post dedicated to Miraflor, to Masaya, to FUNARTE (where I´m working) and to the cascada at Estanzuela. Life updates to come tomorrow or Wednesday, after I´ve had a couple days at work and have some (possible) stories to tell you.

And for your entertainment, here´s a video of Jess and I driving in the back of a pickup truck on the way to Masaya. It´s lame, but amusing. (I don´t know if it will work, but I´ll give it a try. If not, I´ll try again later)

Las Fotos de Mi Casa

2009-05-25T11:26:00.006-04:00

Here are some photos of my house.

My host mom, Edna Valenzuela, and I. She´s so great. Like a temp. mom.

My room, which currently now houses two beds because of Jess moving in. But its still a huge room and comfortable.

As you can see, my house is connected to the outdoors. I don´t really know what to call it but when it rains, it comes in the house. But its really neat how the inside is connected to the outside. Mangoes fall all the time from our tree in the backyard, right onto our tin roof. Imagine the bang.

Just another look at mi casa.

In Other News...

2009-05-23T15:24:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know. The photos below are exciting. I was pretty happy that I could upload them. I´ll try to keep uploading them as I can, slowly but surely. It takes a long time here to upload just one. Be patient :)

On Thursday, Siobhan and I hiked 5 km to the cascada of Estanzuela. We were bored and wanted some exercise, so we said ¨Hey, lets do this!¨ It was uphill all the way there. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. We were tired, hot and slightly cranky but when we saw the waterfall, it was totally worth it. Lovely cool water, calm peaceful setting. The waterfall itself was probably a few stories high. Green trees and bushes all around it. We were the only ones there so we changed into our swim gear and waded in. We swam underneath, through and behind the falls. It was soooo nice after that walk. We were there for maybe half an hour then packed up, changed and started home. Since the walk was mostly downhill, we did the returning5 km in half an hour. We left at 8 that morning and were back home by 11ish. Note the first photo with the thumbs up.

I start work on Tuesday which is pretty exciting. I got my tentative schedule which looks something like this:

* Note- every day is 8am - 12pm, then lunch, then 2pm - 5pm. Roughly *

Tuesday: 8am - 12pm @ Los Pipitos. Not sure if I´m working in the afternoon.

Wednesday: all day in some community called Tunoza

Thursday: every other Thursday we go to Managua. If not in Managua, then I´m working at FUNARTE doing murals for the big festival being held in September to celebrate FUNARTE´s 21st anniversary.

Friday: working at FUNARTE all day, at least for now.

Saturday: 8am - 12pm working at FUNARTE with over 200 street kids, painting and drawing.

Seems like a decent work schedule. Get a 2 1/2 day weekend. Siobhan and I plan to do some travelling in those days around Nicaragua.

Otherwise, nothing much else is happening. Taking the weekend off to just chill and laze around Esteli. Its really hot here so during the day we kind of just read and get tired.

We went out for dinner last night and had a great time. Tried a Pina Colada - it was fantastic. We were out until 11pm, and we met up with some Nica friends at Cafe Luz around 9pm and stayed there until closing. Fun times. The Nica friends want to come travelling with us which will be helpful I think.

Anywhoo, time is running out. Keep on reading and I´ll keep on trying to upload photos. Like always, love and miss you all! Thanks for the support.

Hasta Luego!

Some Photos...Whoot!

2009-05-23T15:07:00.010-04:00

Here are a collection of some of the photos I´ve taken so far. By no means is this all of them. This is just a taste. I included some of me smiling so that you can see that I´m happy.

Us at the end of our 10 km hike. Congratulations to us!

This is the waterfall, or Cascada, at Estanzuela. Siobhan and I hiked there the other day because we were so bored. It was a 5 km hike there, mostly uphill, so when we got there we went swimming. It was gorgeous and very refreshing. We then were cool enough to hike the 5 km back.

The colorful markets in Masaya. Picture rows and rows of these, selling the same things in each one. It´s nice but overwhelming too.

This is Jess and I smiling as we ride in the back of a pick up truck on our way to Masaya. Very windy, as you can tell by our hoods pulled over our heads. But fun :)

This is me climbing into a parasitic tree in Miraflor.

This is part of the colorful breakfast we enjoyed in Miraflor. Mango, rice, fresh beans, organic coffee and fresh milk. Yummy!

This is a view of the rows of vegetables I was talking about earlier in Miraflor. I thought it was beautiful, the hills just rolling with produce. Its foggy and fresh. So peaceful.

Some Nicaraguan scenery from Esteli. Lots of hills surround us - which makes me think we`re in some sort of valley.

A picture of my house that I´m living in. Its lovely and as you can see open to the outdoors. I´ll try to upload a picture of my room eventually. But it is a lovely home.

Currently, Just Chilling

2009-05-20T15:59:00.002-04:00

Well Spanish classes are now finished. Graduated from what is probably equivalent to Gr. 3 or 4 Spanish. But whatevs...I graduated man! Unfortunately my work hasn´t started yet so I´m kind of just passing the time, reading and practicing Spanish. I´m supposed to be going on Friday at 10am to create my work schedule. It would be great to start work on Tuesday, seeing as almost everyone else I know has already begun.

We´re hoping to do another little day trip this weekend. Maybe to Matagalpa or Ocotal or Somoto, just to pass the time and see some more of Nicaragua. I feel guilty sometimes that at the moment all I really want to do is travel but I think that its because I haven´t started work yet and therefore only have travelling to look forward to.

My house has certainly become an international place. We have a guy here from York, England, a woman from Panama City, Panama, another woman doing her Masters Thesis from France and then me, Jess and Benny from Canada. It´s fantastic meeting all these people and hearing about all the travelling and experiences they´ve had. It´s helpful too because it lets me find out what works and what doesn´t, what organizations to use, etc. John, from England, taught English in Japan for 2 years through JET which I considered possibly doing after University. You get a great experience and can make some good money (help with those student debts). Natacha, from Panama, backpacked throughout Europe for 2 months and told me about all the places she went, what she liked, etc. Makes me want to just jump on a plane right now!! Anyways, meeting these individuals is great. International friends.

Otherwise, not much going on here. It´s hot, as per usual, and we had a terrible rain storm the other day. Rained for almost 12 hours. It was insane. Anyways, until later my friends!! Thanks for reading :)

Lessons Learned and Thanks

2009-05-17T11:27:00.002-04:00

MASAYA, NICARAGUA. That is where we travelled to yesterday - our first independent journey to another part of Nicaragua. Not going to lie, it was a slight failure but we didn´t really go into it with high expectations of success. We left at 6 am in the morning and got a drive from Edna´s (my host mom) son, Marcel. Jess and I rode in the back of his truck which was very windy but very fun and Siobhan and Benny rode in the backseat of the truck, inside. We arrived in Tipitapa around 8 am and proceed to catch a 45 min. bus to Masaya. Very crowded and hot but we made it. Arrive in a bus terminal that literally looked like a garbage landfill. There was garbage strewn everywhere and there were small tin roofed markets selling the sketchiest meat I´d ever seen. Just sizzling away on open flames. Ew. We walked through the New Market (aka the sketchy market where you have to really watch your bags) and made our way towards to the Old Market or the Artesanian Market, the supposed tourist attraction. It was a nice market but every store in there was the same. By 10-30am we were ready to leave, it felt like the day had been dragging on forever. The market itself is built within the remains of an old castle that was destroyed by a fire. It´s very colorful and full of fantastic souvenirs that I wish I had money to buy. I did by a bracelt and a nice painting for the fam-jam to frame and hang on the wall. Benny and Siobhan decided to go visit a museum, while Jess and I stupidly said we´d stay behind to look at the market some more. Bad idea. We got SOOOO bored and it was SOOOO hot yesterday that we basically ended up walking around the town, found a park and bought some ice cream. In retrospect we should have gone with the other two because they ended up visiting a Sandinista prison and seeing the volcano from a distance. We thought they were going to a museum. Lesson one learned - always do something, no matter what. Jess and I tried to go see the volcano which we were told was only 5 km away, but no taxi would take us there for less than 60 cordobas each which is a rip BTW: we shouldn´t have to pay more than 30 cord. each. We didn´t have enough time to walk to it but we had to much time to just sit there and wait. We were trapped. So we caught an early bus back to Tipitapa and just waited for the others. Lesson two learned - always bring your guide book and make a plan before going. So overall it was a slightly failed first experience although some good did come out of it. I bought some nice souvenirs, practiced Spanish AND bartered a paiting down from 200 cordobas to 160 cordobas, which I was pretty proud of. And we made it back alive. We now know for future trips to remember our time in Masaya and learn from it. Hopefully though not all of our trips will be ´lesson learned´ trips.

One thing I have come to appreciate is how expensive things are back home. Yesterday, I spent about 220 cordobas (about $13.00 Canadian) and felt like I had broken the bank. But if you think about it, $13.00 would have bought me a movie ticket, and I would then proceed to get a drink or some food, easily spending $20.00 or more. So $13.00 for two bus tickets, a bracelet, a painting, cold water and ice cream is not bad. But it really made me think about all the spending we do back home. I have to constantly remind myself that no, you are not spending $210 dollars. Its cordobas. But still. I think its good that I´ve come to this realization because maybe I´ll be a bit more thoughtful when I buy things(not that I spent my money willy-nilly at home).

I start volunteering work soon. Hopefully. This Friday, the 22nd, Siobhan and I are going to FUNARTE to make our schedule for our work period. Hopefully that works out well. We´ll see shall we.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to everyone for their comments. I wish I could respond to each one of them individually. I really appreciate the love and the fact that you are taking the time to read my blog. It makes me happy and feel like I still have a connection to people back home. I actually got misty when I read them. Please keep them coming and just know that I love and thank you all for leaving them!! Big hugs to everyone. You are helping keep my spirits up.

Lots of love to everyone and miss you all!
Until next post.
Hasta luego :)

? Que Tal ?

2009-05-14T18:46:00.002-04:00

Hey All,

So since my post Sunday things have gotten a bit better. Still friggin hot down here - pretty sure I have sweat out every inpurity that was ever in my body.

Monday I started taking Spanish dance classes which are so much fun. It´s an hour or so of aerobics/dancing and some ab work or leg work. Its fun, gets rid of pent up energy and teaches me some Spanish dancing. Edna, my host mom, said that pending I can speak Spanish by June, I can go dancing in a club and put what I´ve learned to use.

Tuesday was a nothing sort of day. Got very frustrated again when I was told that I would be picked up at 2pm to visit my placement. No one showed until 4pm and that was to pick up the other guy living in my house. So annoying. Thats one thing that I don´t think I´ll ever get used to. I HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE LATE!!! Biggest culture shock so far I´d say. That and the language. And heat.

Wednesday I visited my placement at FUNARTE. It looks like its really going to be a great place to work at. I´ll be working Tuesday to Friday, 8-12 and then 2-5pm. On Saturday mornings, I´ll be working from 8-12, helping 400 children...yes thats right 400...with their painting, in preparation for some festival being held in September. I heard 40 the first time and had just learned numbers bigger than 100 that morning so it took me a couple seconds to clue in. The other days I´m told will be spent working in the community. Not sure exactly what that means.

Today, Thursday, we visited la fabrica de puros (aka a cigar factory). Basically it was a sweat shop`, where the workers are paid by the pounds they make, not by hour. It was hot, very strong smell of tobacco and ammonia I think. We couldn´t stop coughing. But the process itself is very interesting. We saw dried leaves that were a year old and we saw people rolling them, packaging them, the whole works. It was neat, even if it was exploitation. That part none of us really liked but its unfortunately a reality.

We´re hoping to visit Masaya this weekend, which is supposed to have an amazing market place and a nice town. It also has a volcano. Should be fun. A nice day trip on Saturday. Let you know how that goes.

For now, like I said, things are better. Like a 7 out of 10. Still working through the obvious kinks like the language but I feel like I´m starting to integrate my self a bit more. I now have my friend Jess as a roomate because her host brother was being really creepy towards her and hitting on her and stuff. So clearly she couldn´t stay there anymore. So we are living together now and it should be good. We can do more stuff together now. Yay!

Like Mr. B said, have a rum which I think would be nice. The FLOR DE CAÑA is really good here. And my host mom is so nice which makes it easier for me to learn and live.

Adios amigos! Until next time.
Miss you all!!

Awe and Frustration

2009-05-10T18:43:00.002-04:00

The last days of my first week were spent learning more Spanish and getting to know Esteli a bit better. It´s been so hot here recently that I think I´ve sweat out every bodily fluid I own. I have NEVER drank so much water.

Saturday we went to Miraflor, Nicaragua (type in Miraflor to Google or try http://vianica.com/sp/activity/27/reserva-natural-miraflor). This is the awe part. It was aboslutely amazing. We left Esteli on a 6 am bus and arrived at Miraflor about 8 am. We were greete with a misty, rolling fog that followed us as we climbed a steep hill to begin our day there. It was cool but refreshing. As we walked, all around us was green - trees, leaves, grass, shrubs. It was beautiful. Further along we came across the farming part of Miraflor. Brief background - Miraflor is a farming commune in which people own property of a larger commune. Every dollar earned goes towards a share fund. Everything is organically grown and brought into Managua and other cities and sold. It is a very simple, rustic way of life. The farming portion was breaktaking. Picture a giant hill, really high, lined with different rows of vegetables, plants, trees, etc. There was a huge field dedicated just for cabbage. We stopped for breakfast at Lindos Ojos, literally cute eyes or little eyes, which is owned and operated by a German-Spanish couple Gene and Katarina. They fed us a meal of fresh beans, rice, fresh mango and pineapple in addition to some of their organically grown coffee. Like I said before, it is a very rustic and simple way of life. There isn´t running water for toilets and thier house is surrounded by horses, coffee trees, banana trees and green foilage from the forests on the hillside. We spent 4 hours horseback riding around Miraflor, visiting an orchid farm, seeing what a coffee tree looks like. We even got to a see a giant parasite that had killed off a tree and literally left a shell behind that looks like a giant hollow tree. The locals climb to a certain point in the tree and look out a hole. We also visited a waterfall and got rained on a few times over the course of our adventure. We returned to a meal of potatoe and vegetable soup with some organic bread from a place called La Casita. In total, it cost us $13.00. Not bad for a day of fun and wonder. The girls and I plan on returning to Miraflor later in our trip to hike the trails and spend a girls weekend together.

Now the frustration. Today was especially hot and we were supposed to meet Sobay, a local Spanish woman, for Spanish classes at 1pm. Then it was 2pm. No one knew what time and my host mother told me 1pm. So from 10-30am I was out of my house. I was under the impression that class was at 1pm and I would be home for 2pm lunch. Boy was I wrong. Turns out class was at 2pm and I was supposed to be home for lunch at 12pm. Complete miscommunication. So I went into this lesson hot, tired and very hungry. Lunckily Jess brought me a protein bar and I gobbled that down in addition to my 3rd Nalgene bottle of water for the day. The lesson was ok but our teacher was frustrating and the other people in my group, aside from Jess and Megan can get so annoying. Adding that onto my already fantastic (not) mood was just the cherry on the cake. I left the lesson at 4-30pm after 2 hours of listening to debates over when to use a certain accent or pronoun vs. verb from two other BB students. Soooo annoying. So now I type my frustration. It doesn´t help either that I´m dying of heat.

One more week of Spanish lessons and then I begin my placement at Funarte. Hopefully it goes well. I would love to tell you more but I´m running out of time on my computer in the cybernet cafe.

Hasta luego for now muchachos.

¡Hola! de Nicaragua

2009-05-06T17:54:00.000-04:00

Well...I´m here. I left on May 4th @ 2:40pm and arrived here in Nicaragua around 9pm (11pm in Canada). We then drove to Esteli, another 2 hour bus ride from Managua. My host family, or mother, is very nice and tries so hard to help me with my extremely poor Spanish. It´s been raining since I got here and I just found out that we´ve arrived during the rainy season so it seems like its going to be raining every day. I´ve already had a small breakdown - the language barrier is unbelievably difficult and it all became so overwhelming that I cracked. I managed to buy a cellphone with the help of my host mom, and tearfully called home to say I´m alive. I´m very slowly (very slowly) learning my way around and I know its going to take a lot of time but for the mean time I´m still a little fragile and often on the verge of another breakdown. But I know it will get better and though 13 weeks seems like a long time now, I know it will fly by.
Tomorrow, we begin our Spanish lessons at Los Pipitos and its quite a journey in itself to get there...I have to figure out how to work the ¨bus system´which is basically just a school bus that takes 3 cordobas as fare. Its..interesting at the moment.

For now, just know that I am alive and doing OK. Slowly adjusting to everything so yes, this post may seem slightly complainy. But hopefully it will get better.

Hasta luego per ahora!

Correction

2009-04-15T14:11:00.001-04:00

Actually, my flight was rescheduled for May 4th still at 2:20pm. Flight details remain the same though.

Whoot! 19 days

:)

Departure Information!

2009-04-14T18:17:00.002-04:00

I FINALLY know when I'm leaving...drumroll please..... May 5th @ 2:20 pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is the flight info:

FOR: TAGGART/MARISSAJEAN MS

05 MAY 09 - TUESDAY
AIR AMERICAN AIRLINES FLT:719 ECONOMY FOOD FOR PURCHASE
LV TORONTO ON 220P EQP: BOEING 737-800
DEPART: TERMINAL 3 03HR 10MIN
AR MIAMI INTERNTNL 530P NON-STOP

AIR AMERICAN AIRLINES FLT:985 ECONOMY FOOD FOR PURCHASE
LV MIAMI INTERNTNL 615P EQP: BOEING 737-800
02HR 35MIN
AR MANAGUA 650P NON-STOP

13 AUG 09 - THURSDAY
AIR AMERICAN AIRLINES FLT:986 ECONOMY FOOD FOR PURCHASE
LV MANAGUA 710A EQP: BOEING 737-800
02HR 35MIN
AR MIAMI INTERNTNL 1145A NON-STOP

AIR AMERICAN AIRLINES FLT:1562 ECONOMY FOOD FOR PURCHASE
LV MIAMI INTERNTNL 405P EQP: BOEING 737-800
03HR 10MIN
AR TORONTO ON 715P NON-STOP
ARRIVE: TERMINAL 3

It's so exciting!! And I just found out, though I'm not sure how I didn't know this before, that Nicaragua is 2 hours behind us. But whoot! whoot! This is so much better now that I know when I'm leaving...I feel like I can finally start planning for it. And like I said before, I will try try try to post over the summer but I can't guarantee anything 100%.

But take care everyone and have a fantastic summer!!!
:)
:)

My Epiphany

2009-03-28T14:01:00.003-04:00

I was sitting in RS 383 class (Justice, Peace and Development) the other day, listening to the presentations being given by my fellow Beyond Bordians and I had a minor revelation. Maybe it was just me being really slow to catch on (that's most likely it, so forgive me if I'm pointing out what should of have been obvious) or maybe I stumbled across something unbeknownst to others! (probably not)

I realized that both of our RS classes and our Beyond Borders preparation was employing Freire's concept of interacting teaching (pedagogical learning). According to Freire, there are two forms of teaching: one we are currently experiencing and the one that we should strive for. The one currently being used by every school system is the banking method. It's basically what it sounds like. The students are objects into which knowledge is "deposited" by the teachers, the subjects. The objects are acted upon and have no say in the course material, the way it is taught, or the way class is conducted. Teachers expect students to learn and memorize what the teachers believe is material students should know, and then regurgitate it back to them - somehow this demonstrates that the students have learned and come to understand the material. The other method, the one that schools and teachers should be employing is one of interaction (lets call interaction learning). This type of teaching/learning is when teachers and students are equal. There are questions posed by both parties and discussions about the material in which everyone contributes to other's learning. There is no set schedule, no memorization involved - its learning through talking and problem solving, question posing and taking a hands on approach.

This form of teaching was present in RS 283, is present in RS 383 and throughout all Intercordia Seminars. Scott Kline had classes revolve around discussion of the books we had read for class, allowing us to take notes as we needed and pose questions about material we hadn't understood or needed clarification on. There was no "Here is the material - memorize it". Most students are not used to this form of learning - we often find it intimidating and unproductive to have discussions in class. The same idea applies to RS 383. Not once has Joanne told us to memorize something or tested us on our knowledge. We have learned about our countries through presentations about economics, politics, history, developmental needs, etc. about each country, taking a more personal and in depth look at our future summer placements. We volunteered at the Working Centre to literally experience service learning and its importance. This entire Beyond Borders experience has taken such as direct and hands-on approach to all material and information and in a way I think it has made it that much more exciting. We are subtly preparing ourselves for the summer - doing volunteer work, not having any structure in class like we are accustomed to, learning by interacting with others, etc. We all know that life in our countries is going to be drastically different from Canada and this preparation has begun to just give us a taste of what we will experience.

I know that when I first found out there was no real syllabus, no real structure to our classes - even marking schemes were subjective - I was nervous and didn't feel like I would enjoy the classes. I usually hate class discussions and unstructured environments. But as the terms progressed I came to learn what was expected of us and the direction we were gradually going in. I now realize this was all in prep for the summer. Maybe indirectly, maybe on purpose. I don't know. But if it was on purpose, if it truly was meant to prepare us for the summer then well done Scott and Joanne! You guys are brilliant. If it was by accident, well....its a good thing.

That's my epiphany. Like I said, maybe its really late, maybe I'm just slow to catch on. But the point is that I did come to understand the method to the madness. If anything, I think its important because it demonstrates that I learned something from our discussions and have come to apply it in everyday setting. The interactive teaching method does work. That's got to count for something.

Later days
:)

Update About Life

2009-03-25T20:05:00.001-04:00

Hello All!

Just some quicky updates about the trip and preparations for it.

I am please to announce that I am finished fundraising!! Whoot. I came in at $2745.00 as a grand total. I would like to thank the following people for making this happen:

- Jean K. Chaplin (my aunt)
- Jean I. Chaplin (my nanna)
- Peter and Virginia Chaplin
- Peter and Elke Kareckas
- Carol and Emily Downing
- Mike, Tami, Annika, and Jasmine Oudendijk
- Roman and Marianne Garncarz
- Moira Loudoun
- Renato and Belinda Bernardo
- Gilbert & Nightingale Company
- Star Academy, Senior Class

Thank you everyone for making this possible. I really truly appreciate everything you have done for me and I hope that I can describe my experience to you this summer as best as I can!

Also, the guy who books the tickets contacted me to verify my information. He said that once he books the tickets, we will receive our e-ticket to inform us of our departure date. I'm so excited! It's finally becoming insanely real. About 5 weeks away.

Today was my last day at the Working Centre, volunteering in Maurita's Kitchen. I had a fantastic time working there and I learned so much and met so many wonderful people. I strongly encourage people to get out in their community and volunteer, just for a couple hours a week. Its a very fulfilling time and you'll be surprised at how much you learn about yourself, others and the world.

That's all for now folks!
Later days :)

Fundraising Update

2009-03-15T19:57:00.003-04:00

I am now at $1715.00 raised! Whoot. That leaves $285.00 to be raised, however I am still awaiting our individual profits from the Pancake Fundraiser Breakfast as well as a donation from a family friend so hopefully I'm looking at least another $100.00, bringing me to a grand total of $1815.00 (ish)!

I would again like to give a big THANK YOU! to the Senior Class of Star Academy. Through their hardwork and creative fundraising efforts, the raised over $500.00 to be put towards Beyond Borders. I am so very thankful and proud of everyone involved! Please give yourselves a round of applause and big pat on the back. Below are pictures of the Senior Class and the Fundraising Thermometer they put up to keep track of the funds raised. Well done!

Why Does Service Learning Matter?

2009-03-15T19:15:00.002-04:00

As the days tick away until the end of classes, the beginning of exams and our forever-seemingly distant departure dates (which BTW, I still do not know when I'm leaving) this entry marks my 13th blog. Our teacher, Joanne Rennick asked us to begin thinking about the question: "Why does service learning matter?" in order to mark our concluding blogs of the term (I will try and post blogs over the summer however)

Before I try and answer the question, I would like to post links to two articles that we read in preparation for a meeting at The Working Centre. I found both these articles, especially the one by Ivan Illich on tools, to be very intriguing and applicable to today's modern society. I would recommend reading them before proceeding with my entry.

"Using Tools for the Common Good" by Ivan Illich
http://www.theworkingcentre.org/wscd/ideas/articles/article2.html

"Building Relationships: Community Tools and Producing at Home"
http://www.theworkingcentre.org/wscd/ideas/articles/article7.html

Illich describes how far society as come from its roots - the alienation that it has experienced from the heritage from which it came. Illich identifies two clear examples of alienation which most accurately demonstrate this disconnect: alienation from tools and paradoxical counterproductivity. We are no longer connected to the earth, the soil, the products of our labor. We look to society and institutions to save us and provide comfort and direction. As Illich says: “The present world is divided into those who do not have enough and those who have more than enough, those who are pushed off the road by cars and those who drive them.The have-nots are miserable and the rich anxious to get more.” What Illich advocates for, instead, are community tools which help people live full and productive lives, engaging themselves in cooperation and a common goal. It creates a common good.

The second article discusses the benefits associated with employing community tools and producing at home. It discusses the economic, environmental, physical and emotional benefits of straying from mainstream consumerism and learning to independently grow and produce for yourselves. Its the ideal life most would like to live - the question is more are we willing to give up the ease and comfort that society has offered us and that we have become accustomed to?

Back to the question "Why does service learning matter?" It matters because it challenges us. It matters because its different, outside the norm. It matters because it immerses us into a new perspective, a new way of seeing life. There is learning about a concept and then there is applying it. Service learning allows us to apply what we've learned in classes, from family. It reveals where our values and morals truly stand, what our real beliefs on topics are. We can advocate helping others but if we don't do it ourselves, we're being hypocritical. Service learning lets us lead by example, to break down, even if just a little bit, the barriers and prejudices that still divide society. Helping others is the way society should operate and service learning does exactly that - it helps others with no materialistic gain for those helping. Its pro-bono, volunteer work, donated time.

But in my opinion, its totally worth it. If I'm volunteering somewhere I like, doing something I enjoy, then to me its not volunteer work. Its me doing something I love, at my own pace, helping others while I do it. You can't be forced into volunteer work because then it seems mundane and a chore. But to willingly do service learning, its makes the experience all the more memorable and beneficial. Service learning lets you learn new skills, meet new people and helps you realize the way society should operate - what values should be taught in the world. It helps you embrace new perspectives and unique ways of thinking and learn about life in ways you didn't think were real or possible. It changes you and the people around you, whether you see it or not. The people you meet, the values you learn and the help you leave behind leaves their mark on you which may take days, or years, to emerge. But overall, you will be affected. Just wait and see.

That's why service learning matters. Its exciting, new and benevolent. It shouldn't be considered out of the norm because everyone should do it. But for the time being, you are rising above society and thinking about others and teaching great values to those watching. That's why service learning matters.

So go out and volunteer! Be the examples, the change society needs! There is no time like the present. So get out there and be involved! Go the extra mile. :)

Thoughts

2009-03-07T07:50:00.002-05:00

Last night I attended a lecture hosted by St.Jerome's that talked about the life and work of Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche Community (some fellow Beyond Bordians are working with the L'Arche organization this summer). Listening to Jean's life really got to me - he'd had such an amazing and impactful life, leaving behind a legacy that will hopefully continue on for some time to come. Compared to him, I felt so inadequate, like I had accomplished nothing in my life even though I know that's not true. I have had a great life to date; it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows but its been challenging and rewarding enough that I like to think its made me who I am. However, when I think of people like Jean Vanier I can' help but compare myself to them - such as by the time Jean was "X"age he'd already done this, whereas I had done nothing even remotely as exciting. I guess it just kind of makes me worry for this summer. Worried not for possibly getting sick or interacting in a completely new culture. It's like John said: we're supposed to have life changing experiences this summer. What if I don't? What if I remain the same? This is what worries me and has since the beginning. We hype up that aspect of the program, making it almost like one of its selling points: "Join Beyond Borders and change your life forever! Have new and enlightening revelations!" I fear that we've built this up so much that no experience I have will meet my imaginary criteria of what a life changing experience constitutes. I want to be inspired, to gain some worldly wisdom. I would consider myself slightly ignorant of all the happenings in the world and while I'm not exactly proud to admit that, for some reason I just can't bring myself to read the newspaper or watch the news and take something away from it. If I can't do that with a newspaper, how am I supposed to take something away from my summer? I think I'll be really saddened and disappointed if I don't feel I experienced what I was looking for this summer. What's more is that when I come back, it won't really communicate what happened over the summer. People will think that just the fact I went there and lived in Nicaragua for 3 months is exciting and profound enough to affect you. But how do I possibly tell them "No - it wasn't. I don't feel I found the inspiration I was looking for"? That is what really worries me.

I greatly admire Jean Vanier and the work that he's done. I can only wish to follow in his footsteps and leave my mark on this world. My generation is the breaking point of the future I believe and its up to us to start the wave of change for generations after us to continue. That's one of the reasons I joined Beyond Borders. I don't expect to make a change while I'm there; as Scott Kline said that's ignorant of us to believe we can do that. I just hope to learn through doing, much like how Freire described his approach to learning - through discussion and interaction and shared experience; I want to remember, even feel, the changes that need to be made and what we can do to bring about those changes even if it doesn't happen in our lifetime. Again, however, it relates back to my worries about not taking anything away from this experience. I guess all I can do is hope that if I don't, someone else will and I will join them on their quest for making a better world.

A Possible Pedagogical Example

2009-02-25T14:37:00.004-05:00

First - I have come to the realization that we are departing for our separate placements in (more or less) about 10 weeks. 10 weeks. Dix. Dieci. Ten. That is mind blowing to me. It seems like only yesterday we were accepted into the program. Then we found out where we were going, started fundraising and BAM! we're here at this point in time. Amazing. Looking at my calendar and thinking about it day by day, it seems like such a long time. But to say 10 weeks or compare it/think about in terms of school results in the fact that school is finished in 5 weeks, my final exam is in 7 weeks and then we leave - it makes it seem like such a short time. As a side note, my immunization appointment is next week, March 4th (Jess if you're reading this, remember that's your appointment too!) so that will be so (not) fun and I am so (not) looking forward to it! We also have our last Beyond Borders Seminar March 7th. Further preperatory details for the summer.

Also - I have had fundraising success which makes me extremely happy. Based on my last post, I am still standing at $950.00 that I have given to Elyse Redden. However, I believe that I may receiving a very generous donation from some close family friends (thank you Renato and Belinda Bernardo!) as well as the money raised by Star Academy. I'd like to give a little shout out to the Senior Class and let you know what they're doing to raise money for me:

The Senior Class has already raised about $68.00 from hosting a Valentine's Day themed dress down day (they normally wear uniforms). They have also planned, completely by themselves (and this is a class of gr.7 and 8's) a combined Game Day and Movie Day on Friday March 6th. There will be various games that the students can play such as Guitar Hero and then there will be a showing of 4 movies in different classrooms that students can pay admission to and buy snacks and such to eat during the movie. In a school of over 100 students, that is such impressive co-ordination and should be very successful! I am so proud and extremely fortunate that they have taken such an interest and drive in fundraising for me. I can't even begin to express my gratitude. THANK YOU SENIOR CLASS OF STAR ACADEMY! YOU ARE AMAZING! What's also neat is that I was mentioned in the February newsletter sent out by Star Academy. Check it out! It was just something I thought was cool.
http://www.staracademy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/feb-09-newsletter.pdf

Now to my possible Pedagogical example that I came across. There was an article in the Nicaraguan Post that I thought demonstrated Freire's beliefs about pedagogical teaching/problem-posing education. It's titled "Nicaraguans Like Housing Program" and reads:

Managua, Feb 18 (Prensa Latina) Social organizations and the general public approved of the A Better House program by the government of Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega. This plan is inclusive and aims to offer construction materials to low income families to repair and build their homes, pointed out German Ordonez, coordinator of the community movement on a departmental level. The official explained that their work in coordination with the government has benefited more than 2,500 families in Managua alone. This is a program that we consider open, clear and not exclusive or sectarian. It is for the community, he added.

The pedagogical approach, as explained by Freire, was a way of teaching that was student centred and aimed to free the oppressed poor from the oppressive rich. One topic highly emphasized by Freire was the notion of the teacher-student relationship. In the past, the relationship has consisted of the teacher imposing knowledge on the student in a banking method - where the student is forced to just listen to the teacher, learn what ever it is being taught, and memorize/repeat the information. This method does not allow the student to engage themselves in the learning process. The teacher acts as a subject and the students are the object, being acted upon by the teacher. What this article conveys to me is the problem-posing method in which the "students" (in this case, the low-income families) are actively engaged in their learning, discussing and posing problems about the material. This is a harder and more expensive method but it is providing a service to the students. The idea that the government is providing the families with the building supplies to do it themselves and learn along the way is a much more effective way of doing it than forcing the families to either reside in crumbling homes or a shared house with other families. Not only does it teach the families essential skills but it is not exclusive/class-dependent and is beneficial to the families involved. I'm reminded of the proverb "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life" Give someone the materials and the skills to do it for themselves and they will be better off in the long run than if someone does it for them. I hope that it works out well for everyone involved.

Later days!

Source: The Nicaraguan Post " Nicaraguans Like Housing Program". This article details the government effort to provide low income families with building supplies to repair and build their homes.
http://www.nicaraguanpost.com/nicaragua/nicaraguans-like-housing-program

Long Time, No Talk

2009-02-13T16:45:00.002-05:00

Hello! It's been a while since my last blog...a week really but that's a long time! The reason is that my computer recently crashed and so I was busy dealing with all that drama and trying frantically to recover EVERYTHING that I had lost on my hard drive. But it looks like all is going to work out fine but we'll keep our fingers crossed until I get my laptop back.

I am pleased to say that I received another $100.00 donation from my Aunt which brings me within inches of $1,000.00 raised! (I'm currently at $950.00 which is really good, I think). I have sent out over a dozen letters to various Tim Horton's and Starbucks, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club of Port Credit and other organizations in the neighbourhood. I'm really hoping that people will be feeling generous and donate. As a Beyond Borders group we have decided to try and host a Pancake Breakfast on the morning of March 8th, right after morning mass. Even though I doubt it will be overly profitable to any one individual I am excited about it as it is a good group bonding activity. As we work through the plans and details, I will post more info. as it comes.

My second time at the Working Centre was this past Wednesday. I was again welcomed in with open arms and am pleased to say that I met some new people who volunteer in the kitchen. They were a diverse group of individuals - a student from Waterloo, a lady who barely spoke any English yet did a fabulous job plating lasagna to take over to the cafe, a two other ladies both who were unique in their own ways. I was also given the esteemed responsibility of making Curried Carrot Soup which let me with a feeling of success and satisfaction, along with orange-yellow stained hands and the smell of curry and onion which stayed with me for 2 days (even with a shower!) But I really enjoy my time there and love seeing and experiencing this side of life. It is truly an eye opener. Whereas I come in and stay for 2-3 hours each week, free to come and go as I please, I realize that there are people who depend on this kitchen, and the Working Centre, for basic life necessities, as well as learning skills that I had the privilege to learn growing up (such as cooking). It makes you appreciate what you have a little more and I always leave with a smile on my face :)

On a closing note I wanted to share a pedagogical experience that I had, in which I was the one doing the learning: I was recently talking to someone at the Working Centre about my placement in Nicaragua. They had asked me why I was volunteering and I told them that it was part of the hands on aspect of our preparation for our placement. When asked where I was going, I said: "Nicaragua". The next question sort of caught me off guard. If it had been one of my friends asking me, I would have looked at them strangely and joked with them about it. But this person was quite serious. They said: "Nicaragua - oh is that in Africa?" While its a legitimate question and I am not trying to sound condemning or judgemental, it just surprised me. I had a naive idea that everyone kind of knew where Nicaragua was. I of course answered: "Oh no, it's in Central America, just south-east of Honduras" and we went on with our conversation. It made me kind of realize, just a little more, the differences in so many aspects that exist in this world. I thought about that conversation all the way back to residence. It was by far the most interesting part of my day.

Later days

Los videos (y los artículos) de Nicaragua

2009-02-04T14:57:00.004-05:00

I've posted some interesting videos, varying on subject, relating to Nicaragua. Warning: Some are in Spanish but are slightly interpretable. If you can't, just pay attention to the images. They are a story in themselves.

Eligiendo Democracia - "Choosing Democracy"

"In November, Nicaraguans will participate in their fourth Presidential election. The campaign is hot, the issues vital. What is the best way to combat poverty? What role will Nicaragua have in the global marketplace? What kind of country will the children of Nicaragua inherit? Nothing less than the future of the nation is at stake, and everybody has an opinion. Seasoned politicians Daniel Ortega and Jose Rizo face formidable opposition from first time candidates Eduardo Montealegre, Edmundo Jarq"
Note: the video appears unavailable but the link should work

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/Default.aspx

Tour of Nicargua

"This is one of Phil Buccellato's short travel videos he put together before "The Experience." It is a quick tour of some of Nicaragua's most beautiful locations. " What you get to see are some of the cultural aspects of Nicaragua, almost like it was you walking down the streets.

Source: http://www.travelistic.com/video/show/568/Tour-of-Nicaragua

Travel Nicaragua - Video Postcard

A brief, commercialized view of Nicaragua however it does offer some neat information and photos of the country.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/

Finally, I will leave you with some more links to newspaper articles about Nicaragua. For more stories and information, please visit http://topics.cnn.com/topics/nicaragua#aCurrentPage.

Nicaragua's Great Leap Forward

"The country's ex-Marxist president says that the economic basket case can become the bread basket of Latin America, precisely because its farms are so backward"

Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1738460,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics

Nicaragua Breaks Diplomatic Relations with Colombia

"Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said Thursday that the nation is breaking relations with Colombia "in solidarity with the Ecuadoran people."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/06/nic.colombia/index.html#cnnSTCText

I'm Basically the Next Wolfgang Puck

2009-02-04T14:39:00.003-05:00

Funny right?? OK so maybe I'm not that skilled in the kitchen but I can still cook pretty well! I'll keep practicing.

Today was my first day at the Working Centre, volunteering in Maurita's Kitchen. It was fantastically awesome! I loved it so much - I don't even know where to begin describing my three hours there.

People: I met Mark who is sort of the Master Baker type person. Very nice. He made delicious looking muffins, scones and these oatmeal cookies with jam in the middle. And just as I was leaving, brownies came out of the oven to cool. I had him promise me we'd make those next week. I also met Tracy who is almost as new as I am and she was lovely...very nice and bubbly. I met Justin and Carla who seemed like long-time workers of the Working Centre. But they were nice too. And I met Judea, a unique character but very friendly nonetheless. We both share a passion for the Food Network and she is working in the kitchen to improve her skills so that she can move on to work at a "gourmet restaurant". A great goal to work towards!

What I learned: I spent my morning making vegetarian pizza's, rolling out 24 balls of dough to make pizza crusts for the next day, and made bruchetta (which I got to see as a final product, all cooked and yum-o did they look good). Not that I had never rolled out pizza dough before but Mark showed me some neat tricks for rolling it out so that you don't get air bubbles and I also just watched others cooks, taking it all in! Mark was working on the brownies, Carla and Tracy and Judea were making soups and burritos and hummus wraps and so much. It was all so cool.

Overall Evaluation: A legendary way to begin my volunteering experience. I can't wait to go back next week. Everyone's attitude is so positive and laid-back. Everyone teaches each other and I even recommended some recipes that I know! Maybe we'll get to make some.

On another note, I sent out some more fundraising letters to various businesses in my area back home, so fingers crossed they get there and people are feeling generous! Come on Tim Hortons, you've never let me down! Don't start now!

:)

Later days!

Panico!

2009-01-31T16:36:00.002-05:00

I'm going to be honest here - I'm starting to freak out about my fundraising. I know I played it off before like I wasn't but I lied. I have no idea how I'm going to raise the rest of the money and that scares me a lot. I know a few people are already done or so close to done they can see the finish line. I have yet to cross the half-way marker. I know that my family has contributed significantly and I am so appreciative of that (so Thank you, again, if you are reading this!). But the reality is that I'm still $1,150.00 short. Le gasp! If anyone reading this has any suggestions I am all ears. Or if you think you're work my be feeling generous, remember to tell them that it is tax receitable.

The fundraising aspect of Beyond Borders has got to be the hardest or at least the second hardest part of this program (the hardest probably being the actual going away all summer). I realize that it is a good learning opportunity for you, in terms of learning how to fundraise and being resourceful but seriously. It frustrates me that I'm stuck and I don't know where to go or how to get out of it. I'm really hoping that something great will happen to point me in the right direction. I wanted to include a copy of my PowerPoint Presentation that I presented to the students of Star Academy. You'll find it attached below.

Beyond Borders Presentation Star Academy2

View more presentations from Marissa09.

On another topic, I also wanted to share with you some links I found to newspapers from Nicaragua and articles relating to Nicaragua.

This article was published by the New York Times in 2007 and it talks about the growth in the Nicaragua tourist industry, detailing some noteworthy places to visit and the exotic culture that awaits you! http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/travel/14nextstop.html?fta=y

This article was published by BBC News in 2005 and reveals the somber reality of the culture of home abuse that is present in Nicaragua and its prevalence in the beautiful country. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4468396.stm

Finally, this link will take you to the Nicaraguan Post, the online version of the country's newspaper. There is a diverse set of topics available here to read about. One interesting article is titled "Being A Kid in a Third World Country" - it really makes you think about the luxurious life we lead here in Canada. http://www.nicaraguanpost.com/

I hope you enjoy the articles and the posted presentation!! Please spread the word about my fundraising efforts and if you think you can help let me know!

Later days :)

The Ball is Rolling....

2009-01-27T19:28:00.002-05:00

Things are finally starting to come together. I recently received an email from Rebecca Mancini who told me that I can volunteer in Maurita's Kitchen on Wednesdays sometime between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm. I am definitely super excited about this - MK was my #1 choice for volunteering. I won't be able to start until next week though so I will have to wait until then but I know that I will enjoy my time there when I am able to start.

On Friday, January 23rd, I gave my fundraising presentation to the Senior Class of Star Academy. They seemed very interested in the trip and were already coming up with creative fundraising ideas as soon as I was done my presentation. Some of their ideas included a bake sale (yum!) and a dress down day (the school wears uniforms). Like I told them, any events that happen on a Friday I will try to come to in order to show my support for their endeavours.

I also received another $150.00 this weekend, bringing my grand fundraising total to $850.00 of $2,000.00. Certainly not a bad place to be, but I obviously still need to raise another $1,150.00 - a whopping sum at this point. Fundraising is quite stressful and I'm starting to feel as though I'm running out of time and places to ask. I realize I have until April however...

On the brighter side, the days are slowly dwindling until I leave for Esteli! Day by day it diminishes. As of this point its about 100 days or so until departure - scary and exciting, far away but fast approaching all at the same time.

But for now, in the words of my fellow Nicaraguian traveller, Jess

"Peace"

Nica Related News

2009-01-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

Hello, hello!

Since my last post I have met with Rebecca Mancini and discussed possible placements for me within the Working Centre. Although nothing is official yet (I won't find out until Friday) I know that I will be working with either St. John's Kitchen, Worth A Second Look (WASL), Maurita's Kitchen or the Arts Space. They all sound so neat, each offering a different experience - maybe I'll get to volunteer at all of them! Details to come when I get "the email'.

In terms of other Beyond Bordian related news, fundraising is progressing, however slowly. I am making my presentation to Star Academy on Friday to a Gr. 8 class and am excited to see how they will react to what I'm doing and my plea for their help in fundraising. Hopefully, they will be interested and come up with some really creative ideas!! I definitely look forward to hearing some suggestions.

I also met with Lisa Jarvis, from Intercordia, on Monday and she helped clear up some questions that I, as well as others, had about our placements. I now know that (a) I will get a visa for Nicaragua when I arrive and that I have to cross the border to Honduras every 90 days and re-enter the country because it expires (that should be interesting) (b) I will be leaving sometime within the first week of May and returning within the first week of August (3 months exactly) (c) other little issues that were on my mind (immunizations, fundraising, etc.) have been addressed. It's certainly an exciting, yet stressful time as our departure dates slowly approach and we are still struggling to get everything done (ok, yes we still have like 3 months but time WILL fly)

Finally, I've been reading some news articles from Nicaragua and have posted a link below to a political article that talks about the conviction (or lack thereof) of a former president of Nicaragua who supposedly milked the country out of millions of dollars. It is quite a hot topic right now and many people are opposed to the outcome. Check it out: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/857882.html

Anyways, I shall leave you with a beautiful picture of Nicaragua to add some good-old fashioned happiness to the post. Later days!

This is a picture of a beach located in the south of Nicaragua. It is very famous internationally, known for its excellent surfing waves. People come from all over the world to surf here. Enjoy a picture of San Juan del Sur.

Source: http://www.aurorabeachfront.com/nicaragua_pictures/San_Juan_del_Sur_aerial.jpg

The Working Centre

2009-01-15T19:57:00.001-05:00

So my initial impression of the Working Centre is that its AWESOME! It really is an interesting setup and the philosophy behind it (that I gathered) is very unique and novel.

The buildings themselves are funky and old and have that renovated old-building feel and look to it (because that's exactly what it is). All the rooms somehow interconnect and its like 3 floors of maze and craziness for first time users. But I think that once you get used to it it will be fine.

The volunteering opportunities within it are so amazing and creative. I'll list some of the areas available:

- St. John's Kitchen: distributing food to the homeless and those at risk

- Maurita's Kitchen: preparing the food for the Queen Street Commons Cafe

- Queen Street Commons Cafe: a place of gathering that offers music, art, affordable food (which is delicious and all vegetarian)

- Speak English Cafe: practice conversational English with New Canadians

- Computer Training: courses that teach the basics of computers to certificate courses

- Second Floor Arts Space: you can weave, quilt, make your own paper, sow, herbal crafts

- Computer Recycling: gives computers a second life (repair them)

- Recycle Cycles: repair and/or restore bikes while learning the skills for future use

- Computer Support

- GROW Herbal Gardens

I am so excited to start there. I'm hoping, like I said earlier, to work in the kitchen or the Cafe and also the Arts Space (I would LOVE to learn how to quilt and also make these cool rugs). The philosophy behind it is tools for living (as reflected in the picture below) - you can learn while also contributing what you know. Its an interactive system of reciprocating relationships. It gives everyone an equal chance to learn new skills and better themselves. It was initially created to respond to unemployment and poverty, developing social action and engaging in creative action (1).

I will keep you updated once I actually start volunteering there. I'm meeting with Rebecca M. there on Wednesday to discuss my options at the Centre and can start volunteering soon after. Whoot! I may even continue volunteering there after completing my hours...if I love it and have the time. But I hope I do.

Later days

Source: The Working Centre Website which details its many projects and community contributions as well as opportunities available in terms of donations, volunteering and services offered

http://www.theworkingcentre.org/aboutus/aboutus.html

Photo Source: http://www.theworkingcentre.org/wscd/revitalizations/58q/images/58Queen.jpg

Where You At?

2009-01-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

So...I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to write and its come to this: So far this week I've been really busy with school and haven't had time to prepare a really neat fact sheet on my country which I definitely want to do. Tomorrow I visit the Working Centre for the first time and have to say I am actually quite excited! Check out the website and you'll see why: http://www.theworkingcentre.org/ct/ct_main.html. I'm hoping I can get a volunteering position in the kitchen or at the Queen Street Commons cafe. Those are my top choices. Others include the handmade paper station and quilting - I have no idea how to quilt but wouldn't it be cool to learn? How awesome would it be to learn how to quilt and then when I come back make a quilt about my time in Esteli...maybe include some pictures and different fabrics I feel represent the country.

I also wanted to say that I'm kind of stressing about fundraising. I've raised $700.00 so far which isn't bad BUT it is mid-January and compared to some other Beyond Bordians I'm lagging behind. I've already writtent to the fam-jam aspect and many thanks to them for donating what they did. I also wrote in to Rogers head office where I worked over the summer...still unsure yet of the result. My former boss told me Rogers only officially supports the United Way so I don't know if they'll be able to donate anything, even though I know they would want to help out. I'm giving a presentation next week to my former Grade School (Star Academy - check it out: http://www.staracademy.ca/) The Senior class (gr.7-8) is possibly going to help me fundraise here's a thanks in advance if you do! Anywhoooo...all I'm saying is that if anyone has suggestions as to what I should do that would be great.

I also booked my appointment for my immunizations (March. 4 - the day o' death). Scary thought that in one appointment I'll be getting like 5 shots or something. Scary. But I will be accompanied by my good friend Jess DB so we will be suffering together (hahaha). It's not for a while anyways so I have lots of time to think about it *sarcastic sigh*

Just wanted to let you all know where I'm at and I will start work on my Nica. fact sheet for future posts...I love weird little facts. Details to come about the working centre.
Later days
:)

The Map

2009-01-12T11:05:00.000-05:00

I posted this map just to give you guys an idea of where it is I'm going. I hope to post some actual information and presentations I've created for fundraising purposes later.

Source: http://www.un.org/works/OLD/maps/nicaragua.jpg

Let The Adventure Begin!

2009-01-09T15:20:00.000-05:00

Hello All!

My name is Marissa T. and this is my first blogging experience ever! I am in second year University majoring in Honours Psychology and lovin' every minute of it (except of course, the homework). I've created this blog to enable others to share with me in my preparation for and eventual travel to, Esteli,Nicaragua.

I'm travelling to Esteli by way of the University program Beyond Borders - an international program that aims to allow University students to put their education towards making the world more just and peaceful. In Esteli, I will be working with a program called Funarte, a community art program that teaches children about important social issues. I'll do some investigatory research into my placement and include some more info. on it in future posts.

Leading up to my trip in May, I am taking a few courses offered by my University to prepare me for what I will experience in my host country. In Fall Term I took a course titled "Current Ethical Issues" which taught us about the inequality and differing perspectives on life existing in other countries (not that I was unaware of them before that course). This term (Winter 2009) I am taking another course called " Justice, Peace and Development". This is less of a standard "class" course and more of a participatory class. We only have 5 classes in a span of 13 weeks. The other 8 classes will be spent volunteering at The Working Centre - details to follow in later posts, once I find out more info. about it.

I'm so excited for this opportunity and I hope you'll share with me in my mental, physical and emotional preparations for this trip, including my experience at the Working Centre, in class and fundraising, as well as anything else relating to this trip. I'll try to post some links or pictures as I go along, relating to the country, myself and possibly my actual trip.

Later days!