Countdown...

Already rounding the end of October, and gearing up for a very very busy last month.
Things are well in Somoto, and we´re beginning to prepare our Nicaraguan counterparts for the harsh Canadian winter. We´re currently working on collecting them some warm winter clothes. Although we´re all still enjoying our time in Somoto I know that many of the Canadians, myself included, are very excited for our return to Canada. Yesterday our truck was very very late in picking us up from Machitia. Romain and I spent the good part of an hour discussing all the fantastic meals we´re going to consume upon our return. We went further and talked about our favourite meals to cook, passtime activities, etc. We´re probably not doing ourselves any good discussing these things, but it´s hard to keep your mind off of the diverse foods that are available to us when we´re back home.
Our trip to Montelimar has been postponed until the 7th of November. Apparently the 2nd of November ( The original day of our trip) is the Day of the Dead, and Marta thinks that it would be an important holiday for us to observe. It should be interesting. I have heard of the holiday many times in reference to Latin American countries, but have yet to understand what exactly the day consists of. All I know at this point is that it´s a day for family in which they pay respect to their deceased relatives, friends, etc. I know nothing of the rituals involved. I´ll include some details in my next post.
Our work in Las Cruces has advanced. We have finished the stage of diagnosis, and are working on the finances. I feel good in knowing that the project is progressing as it should. Today we worked on cutting some costs so that it would fit the budget that has been given.
We have some pretty major highlights in the upcoming month. There´s Montelimar, of course; two large festivals/Carnivals on the 11th and the 28th; and a celebration on the 21st in which our group have the opportunity to sing with one of the most famous Nicaraguan musicians, who happens to be a native of Somoto. Not to mention the two excursions that we have planned for some of the larger surrounding communities. There´s no such thing as a dull trip here.
Last Friday we took a truck ride up to the community of La Sabana, wayy wayy up in the mountains. The community hopes to boost its Economic draw through an upcoming advertising campaign. They would like our group to assist them in this advertising. This could include, but might not be limited to, illustrating and painting some of the wooden signs that they´ll be constructing. On our tour of the community we made two stops of significance. One was a coffee producer which grows and roasts their own beans. They hope to be able to set up a cafe where the customer can choose their coffee, have it roasted in front of them, and prepared to drink right there. Sounds like an interesting and unique business idea to me. We got to check out the coffee roaster, and some of the raw coffee beans.
The second stop was farther past the community, ascending even higher into the mountains. The business was a rural hotel, ideal for hitchhikers, or people who just want to enjoy the mountainous Nicaraguan countryside. It was a Western style building and can only room about 7 people, but it doubles as a farm. The owner of the hotel gave us a brief presentation in Spanish
( he appeared to be a simple farmer ) which was translated to us. A Canadian posed a question to him and he broke out in perfect English. By far the best I´ve heard in my stay here. Quite a surprise, and very funny. After he gave us some information about the business we got to check out some of the interesting farm equiptment they had, including a machine that seperates cream and milk ( a demonstration was given ).
Anyway, I´ll post again in the near future, and try not to neglect my postings as I have lately.
Best wishes from Nicaragua!

Somoto Canyon

This past Sunday the group payed a visit to Somoto Canyon. The Canyon is the primary tourist draw for Somoto, and possibly the entire province of Madriz. I can see why, it´s nothing short of beautiful.
We began with one of those bumpy truck-bed rides down a back road, actually driving through a river at one point. We got to the Canyon, where there were boats to rent for 20 cordoba a person. We rented two, and paddled further up the Canyon. After a while we reached a small shoreline where a couple Nicaraguans were renting out inner tubes and acting as guides (for another 40 Cordoba per person, of course). We spent the afternoon splashing and paddling our way up the Canyon. The Further we went, the more narrow and beautiful it got. There were all sorts of interesting bats, birds, and spiders. If you sat back on your inner tube and looked up you got a fantastic view of the forest, growing over the edge of the Canyon.
Fantastic trip. We´re going to attempt to plan another one sometime in the near future.

On Saturday Josue and I had our EAD day, and it went perfectly! Our guest speakers all showed up (although some of them were very late) and gave great presentations. We then took a trip to the water treatment facility (which I actually missed, because I was helping with the food). Followed by the best part, our dinner. While everyone else was off at the water treatment facility Lake and I drank rum & coke´s and helped out with the food. Later in the night it changed from an EAD activity (the purpose was to analyse the effect a meal has on the environment) to a party. Great time. I´m sure my EAD evaluation will go quite well :P

My work situation is ever changing. I have once again shifted communities, this time back to Las Cruces. We´re now working in two groups of counterparts. Ariane, Carmen, Jorges, and me. I hope this is the last switch, as I´m dying to get some real work done within our community.

Nicaragua, Part 2...

Well, we're now officially into the second part of our Nicaraguan phase. Our orientation camp lasted Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. We spent the three days working out some problems that we have within our program, eating good food, reading, and participating in various team building activities.

A productive camp, and a good break from life in Somoto. I went back yesterday re-energized and ready to continue work.

I don't really have any updates, or en

ough time to write a thorough post, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to post a couple more pictures.

I took this picture today. Boiling hot and sunny.

My short short hair. This was taken

at our favourite bar, Don Chu´s.

A view down one of the streets

in Somoto. The mountains in the background surround the entire city.

Another Photo..

I found a another group shot from out Orientation camp that I´d like to post, this one including the Nicaraguans. If you click on the photo you should be able to get a blown up version where you can actually make out the faces.

From top left to right: Thelma, Yanine, Alex, Veronique, Alani, Tanya, Kayla, Carmen, Catherine, Ariane, Michel, Luis-Carlos, Romaine, Enmanuel, Lake, Jorges, Josue, Me, Ruth (our Nicaraguan supervisor).

Mid-session....already???

Sorry that it has been such a long time since my last post, I´ve been sick for the majority of the week, so I haven´t really had the opportunity to get to a computer with internet. But now I´m feelin´great!

An interesting thing that I took note of recently is how Nicaraguans treat personal belongings. Although they love their belongings they treat them far differently than we do in Canada. Instead of thinking along the lines of `What´s mine is mine´, they seem to lean towards `What´s mine is yours´ and vise versa. For example, if you admire something of theirs like a hat or a bracelet, they´re very likely to just take it off and give it to you. This happened earlier during our orientation camp, and all of the Canadians were blown away by it (the `gift´was a very nice hat). I know that several of the Canadians are trying their best to be as generous with the Nicaraguans as they have been to us.

Tomorrow is our mid-session camp. We´ll spend three days in the countryside, working out the kinks in our program. I can hardly believe that our time in Nicaragua is already half over! I´ve figured out a way to post pictures, but it´s going to have to be a couple at a time. I´ll post a group photo of the Canadians today. I´ll try my best to get a good one of the entire group at our camp this week.

This particular picture was taken just after we arrived in Managua from Toronto.

(Sorry for the poor photo quality)

From top left to right: Michel, from Quebec city, Quebec; Lake, from Toronto ,ON; Ariane, from Orleans, ON; Veronique, from Montreal, Quebec, Romaine, from Victoria, BC; Me; Alex, from Tofield, Alberta; Catherine, from Rockland, ON; and Kayla, from Summerside, PEI.

Quick Note..

I think I fixed the comments section of the blog. People seem to be having a lot of trouble posting. Now anyone should be able to, even if you don´t have a Google account.

October...still boiling hot..

I´ll make todays post primarily about my work within the countryside communities.

So, my work situation has changed a little bit. I´ll explain as best I can. I work within two communities: Las Cruces and Machitia. In Las Cruces, as already mentioned, I work with only one other person, Jorges. Machitia is a different situation. Basically INPRHU has split our entire group on half, one going to Machitia and one going to Topochcali.

I was fortunate enough to land in the Machitia group. Machitia is about an hour and a half outside of Somoto, wayyyy up in the mountains. We ride in the bed of a truck as we do with most trips, and the view is fantastic! I´ve taken many pictures, and even took a video out of the back of the truck, but it hardly does the landscape justice.

Not only is the landscape beautiful, but the community seems to be the type which I expected to be working with when I came to Nicaragua. Machitia itself is just a base camp for the activities. It serves as a school for children in the surrounding area. We work with a group of about 90 kids, and so far have made some promising progress (we find that the best method for getting things done is to split the kids into one group of girls and one group of boys)

During our last visit we worked on some basic exercises, analysing the hopes, dreams, and reality of their situation. We had them fill out questionaires, draw pictures, etc. You would be surpised at the simplicity of those dreams. Although a soccer pitch was among them, most were for the simplest of things; for example, electricity, clean drinking water, or proper transportation to outside communities.

During our break we took a hike to the top of the mountain. On the top there is another school, serving the younger children. They were outside playing a game of baseball. When they spotted me and my fellow Canadians they all stopped and stared. I think they rarely see any outsiders, let alone white people. It was a pretty funny situation. We managed to get them to line up for a picture, which I believe they enjoyed.

I think I´ve failed to mention an important detail. Before I left Canada, a donation was made by the Ottawa YMCA, Metro Y. They donated 27 soccer balls for me to bring down to Nicaragua for the children. Very generous. I couldn´t be more happy with the donation. It is probably the most appropriate thing that I could have brought down for the kids here. Our plan is to split them up among the countryside communities, where the kids really do have nothing.

Dont worry, I´ll get lots of pictures :)

The aspect of my work situation which has changed has to do with Las Cruces. One of my fellow Canadian volunteers has had problems with her supervisor saying inappropriate things in her workplace. She requested a switch to another supervisor and community. Jorges and I happened to be the only male pair of work partners with a female work supervisor, so we´re making the switch. I´m perfectly fine with the switch if it will fix the problem, but I´ll be missing another week of work inside of the community. My new community is called Caldera, and they specialize primarily in producing Straw Mats and Fruit. As it stands, I won´t be working there until about October 16th. At least we´re starting to make some good progress in Machitia.

Hmmm... I feel like I´ve missed something that I had been meaning to post. If I think of it I´ll post again!

Best wishes to everyone back home! You´re all in my thoughts!